You are so inspiring. I always triple the optimistic estimates. I'd figure 1800 hours of pure listening to material just within your comprehension level. Keep up your impressive work, you are a model for many.
your doing just fine i started learning spanish 2 plus years ago im now 66 years old i have learned a lot but so much more to go its a life long journey for me and its good for the brain
As a gringo who has studied for 30 years I can tell you that this is a journey, not a destination. You'll keep improving day to day, week to week, month to month but will never get to the level you think you should be at. Keep up the good work.
You love to see it! I am following Dreaming in Spanish as well, and your video popped up in my feed. I'm only at 35h watched, so this video gives me encouragement. I supplement with the bare minimum of Duolingo(one lesson a day) and a specific SRS that has the 1k most common words in Spanish that I only use as another source of input (I don't try to force myself to memorize them). Keep up the great work sir, I look forward to hearing about your next video on your progress!
I came across your vids today and just binged the ones you’ve uploaded so far. Please keep up the fantastic work (vids or not - I’m referring to keeping up with the comprehensible input method more than anything else). Personally, I think Pablo’s estimates may be optimistic. It pained me to hear you first jump to age. 😢 I don’t know if you’ve heard of Steve Kaufman - if not, you should check out is channel here on TH-cam. He’s an older gentleman and he most recently learned Russian - I believe he was in his 60s when he started learning that one. He’ll tell you himself - he doesn’t have any magic powers but he’s a big supporter of the comprehensible input method. I truly believe continuing to challenge yourself will only make things easier over time. Slow and steady. I also truly believe that you will be dreaming in Spanish and speaking more spontaneously in at least a year or so. But I’m no Second Language Acquisition expert, just a long time language learner/lover. 🤷🏾♀️ It’s up to you exactly what your language journey/path will look like, but I hope you can stick with this one because it is by far the best method I’ve used. It completely changed my level of listening and reading comprehension in German first and foremost. The speaking and writing will come with time - it really does. Once you’re able to watch shows and enjoy yourself, you’ll find yourself repeating phrases. And then you can improve/refine those in much the same way you did your native language. I find that’s the best mindset to have. Some of us language nerds who are into this method will wait a year or two before we begin speaking! Most humans spend at least 2 years soaking up a language by simply listening before they start trying to speak in their native language. As adults, we already can listen, speak, read and write at a high level in our native language - we tend to expect to use that to learn languages faster, but I think actually gets in our way. Unfortunately, all my German videos on my channel are from before I started using mass/comprehensible input. I can also recommend Matt vs Japan if you’d like to see another example of someone who reached an incredibly high level with this approach. I believe he has an interview with Steve Kaufman (and/or vice versa), I’d also recommend Steve’s video where he interviews Dr. Stephen Krashen…Matt may have one of those too it’s been a moment since I watched their vids. Anyways - best of luck, from a new subscriber! ❤
You’re doing great! An hour and a half a day is great. My biggest advice would be to not worry if you don’t understand something and just keep listening. That was the biggest thing that helped me learn. It seems like you already understand that concept form what you said in the video. I think it’s awesome that you’re so dedicated to learning. Keep it up!
There’s a noticeable improvement between your output at 500 hours and your output now. You are doing fantastically regardless of where you feel you are currently. Very impressive to see your dedication to this!
Although you aren’t where the roadmap says you should be….I think you have greatly improved. I am at 60 hours of the DS method. I don’t include the classes I’m taking but I do add in my video watching on TH-cam. I’m also an older learner (57). I wish I had had the opportunity to learn with the CI method when I was much younger. Of course we didn’t have that capability back then. I started with a textbook and cassette tapes as that’s all I had back in the 80s and in Western Canada there was hardly any community or resources that I could find anywhere even the libraries. I tried again in the mid 90s but this time there was a little more availability to Spanish materials. Now….there is so much! I am nowhere near my goal of a B2 level but I’m hopefully if I try really hard and put a lot of time in daily, maybe late next year or 2024 I can achieve that goal 👍🏼. In any event, learning a second language is so very good for the brain. Keep going!! 🙌🏼
You're doing really great. It's hard for me to say how many hours would yield what level because I was doing traditional studying for quite some time before finding comprehensible input. I started out spending half my time reading intermediate books, and now I'm reading novels (not particularly advanced ones). I feel like reading really accelerated my progress so that's one way in which I deviate from Pablo's approach. Though recently I've just been enjoying regular spanish content and understanding almost everything, like on netflix, so I've spent less time reading since I've been hooked on some series. One take away I have though is that I definitely agree with Pablo that more comprehensible input will lead to improvement.
It is definitely a process and takes a lot of time, and great for keeping our brains clicking as we get older. I do not have the answers, still figuring this out too. I have been taking a few lessons per week with professors in italki, preply, etc. 60 minute conversations in italki have definitely helped my progress. When to best start doing this though I have no idea.
It absolutely works. I'm closing in on 1500 hours at this point and have had lots of wonderful experiences- watching movies, talking with neighbors, reading books. All around awesome learning method. Absolutely would recommend. @@deecee9479
Te felicito 👏🏻 Has progresado mucho en esas 600 horas. Aprender cualquier idioma extranjero es difícil, requiere tiempo y esfuerzo. Yo no creo que en el aprendizaje de idiomas haya una fórmula mágica que te diga el nivel que vas a tener después de cierta cantidad de tiempo. Todos aprendemos a un ritmo diferente, algunos más lento, otros más rápido. Si no tienes un hablante nativo cerca de ti con el que hablar, nosotros podemos tener una pequeña conversación sobre algún tema sencillo, tengo bastante tiempo libre últimamente. ¡Ánimo!
Ya I'd recommend mixing it up. I'm using dreaming in Spanish, Espanol con Jaun, lingQ an children's cartoons like Peppa the pig on TH-cam. In all of these instances I also use captions or have the transcript in front of me so I can see what is being said while I listen. It's helped me alot with just making sense of the sounds of Spanish. An it's really encouraging when you keep seeing the same words over an over. You really get a sences that this is achievable. Even then some days are just bad lol. But content is king don't limit yourself.
Isle of Tenerife, Spain, Africa. Well done. This gives me hope for my Frisian. But the B and V sounds are completely indistinguishable and interchangeable in Spanish, so it's normal and natural that you're not recognising which is which. I'm surprised you're not aware of this.
I think the roadmap is an estimate, and I too think it may be a bit too optimistic. Everyone is different and we all learn at different paces, so don't compare your progress too literally with the roadmap. I'm 24 and I have autism. Taking my personal challenges into account, it may take me well over twice as long to learn Spanish. It can be frustrating at times, but the ones who give up are the ones who never reach their goals. Good luck!
Te felicito. Tienes un muy buen nivel. Siempre habrá cosas que trabajar cuando uno aprende una lengua extrajera. Soy profesor de español y de francés en el sur de estados unidos. Cualquiera ayuda que necesites para mejorar la pronunciación de vocales,consonantes y de frases en español, estoy a la orden. Keep going!
I have some activities an exercises that can help you improve, basically on how to pronounce consonants ans vowels and the rhythm of Spanish phrases. Just for free.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I have a hunch, I hope you don't mind if I try it: Is it possible that you're avoiding intermediate videos, not because you can't follow along with the story, but because you feel out of your depth with analyzing the words?
Hi. I believe tolerance for ambiguity is a big thing with comprehensible input. I think you need to push yourself into watching more intermediate and advanced. If you understand 85% you can only learn 15% and that 15% may be very difficult. If you understand 50% and the message you have 50% you can learn.
If you want to speak without hesitation learn whole sentences saying them aloud. That was my solution to problems with speaking. You can know many words but it doesn't help much to communicate efectively. Another thing is you probably still translate between both languages and it slows you down. So you also need to start thinking in Spanish to be spontaneous in conversation.
There's nothing to be concerned about at this stage. 600 hours is really nothing when your goal is a genuine level of fluency, particularly if those hours are spread out over many months. If you'd spent those 600 hours doing 8 hours/day of immersion, it'd still only be just over a couple of months, which is nowhere near enough time. So yeah, this roadmap thing doesn't sound accurate at all to me. It sounds like 'intermediate' and 'advanced' are levels they've set for learners. Fluency, or even basic conversational fluency, are levels waaaaaaaaaaay beyond any type of learner level. There are many learner podcasts entitled 'advanced' that honestly aren't even close to material designed for natives. This gives those learners a completely false impression of their own level, which can be quite discouraging in the long term. It's gonna take a LOT more time, and eventually, you'll get to a certain point where you'll realise that you have to almost live your whole day in Spanish (if you want to get genuinely good). There's no other way, despite people _telling_ you there is, all of whom drastically overestimate their own level. The important thing is not to go looking for excuses as a way out. Keep reminding yourself that this can, and has been done at any age. The moment you start believing you're at a disadvantage, that's when you start thinking about stopping altogether.
It is not your age!!! I think it is hard to learn languages I am 24 and am trying to learn spanish and I find it hard also. I am gonna try 800 hours also. Don't give up!
Congratulations on the progress: so much time listening and understanding the audio input. For a native English speaker I think they have a sound halfway b/n the V and B (it is or is almost the same sound, but too hard for me). I'd suggest some textbook exercises or tutor to get you 'getting' some grammar and getting you speaking more confidently. Some mental framework to the audio you already have, to help cement and give structure to the audio.
I'd recommend using other sources of learning alongside dreaming spanish. Perhaps something like a textbook and duolingo, as well as listening to and reading spanish content outside of dreaming spanish. I know Pablo is against using things that require you to memorize, but it has been effective for me, and millions of people have successfully learned languages that way. You have quite a bit more hours of comprehensible input than me, but I am able to do quite well with the intermediate videos due to my other sources of learning. I'd also watch some videos that would help you with your accent a bit, as I feel like you could improve it pretty quickly if you focused on it a little. Good luck.
Keep going your doing great 👍🏻 however, listening will never help you speak the language. I know people personally that grew up with a mexican mother and could understand Spanish fluently but could barely speak it. Listening comprehension is definitely the most important aspect of language learning. Once you start reading, you will quickly start building your vocabulary, and connecting a lot of dots with grammar. Comprehensible input is great, and thats how i learn languages as well, but without reading and gaining a lot of vocabulary, your progress is going to be slow. And it will not help you to speak. Speaking is completely different skill.
Start speaking if you want to improve your speaking It’s not necessary to wait until 1000 hrs to do so I have around 350 hrs of input since January this year and I have long conversations with natives with ease
You are so inspiring. I always triple the optimistic estimates. I'd figure 1800 hours of pure listening to material just within your comprehension level. Keep up your impressive work, you are a model for many.
Thank you for the kind words. I am hoping to get to at least 1600 hours of CI this year.
@@tinynhhouse5467It's like watching an intense movie, can't wait 'til your 1100 hour video.
Sometimes it feels like a slow motion movie to me! 🙂
@@tinynhhouse5467 ❤
I am a native Spanish speaker and i am very impressed for you spanish pronunciation your progress is good.saludos amigo desde mexico 👋
your doing just fine i started learning spanish 2 plus years ago im now 66 years old i have learned a lot but so much more to go its a life long journey for me and its good for the brain
As a gringo who has studied for 30 years I can tell you that this is a journey, not a destination. You'll keep improving day to day, week to week, month to month but will never get to the level you think you should be at. Keep up the good work.
This is exactly right. The ideal we have of the level we want to atttain is never enough because we keep raising the bar.
You love to see it! I am following Dreaming in Spanish as well, and your video popped up in my feed. I'm only at 35h watched, so this video gives me encouragement. I supplement with the bare minimum of Duolingo(one lesson a day) and a specific SRS that has the 1k most common words in Spanish that I only use as another source of input (I don't try to force myself to memorize them).
Keep up the great work sir, I look forward to hearing about your next video on your progress!
I came across your vids today and just binged the ones you’ve uploaded so far. Please keep up the fantastic work (vids or not - I’m referring to keeping up with the comprehensible input method more than anything else).
Personally, I think Pablo’s estimates may be optimistic. It pained me to hear you first jump to age. 😢 I don’t know if you’ve heard of Steve Kaufman - if not, you should check out is channel here on TH-cam. He’s an older gentleman and he most recently learned Russian - I believe he was in his 60s when he started learning that one. He’ll tell you himself - he doesn’t have any magic powers but he’s a big supporter of the comprehensible input method.
I truly believe continuing to challenge yourself will only make things easier over time. Slow and steady. I also truly believe that you will be dreaming in Spanish and speaking more spontaneously in at least a year or so. But I’m no Second Language Acquisition expert, just a long time language learner/lover. 🤷🏾♀️
It’s up to you exactly what your language journey/path will look like, but I hope you can stick with this one because it is by far the best method I’ve used. It completely changed my level of listening and reading comprehension in German first and foremost. The speaking and writing will come with time - it really does. Once you’re able to watch shows and enjoy yourself, you’ll find yourself repeating phrases. And then you can improve/refine those in much the same way you did your native language.
I find that’s the best mindset to have. Some of us language nerds who are into this method will wait a year or two before we begin speaking! Most humans spend at least 2 years soaking up a language by simply listening before they start trying to speak in their native language. As adults, we already can listen, speak, read and write at a high level in our native language - we tend to expect to use that to learn languages faster, but I think actually gets in our way.
Unfortunately, all my German videos on my channel are from before I started using mass/comprehensible input. I can also recommend Matt vs Japan if you’d like to see another example of someone who reached an incredibly high level with this approach. I believe he has an interview with Steve Kaufman (and/or vice versa), I’d also recommend Steve’s video where he interviews Dr. Stephen Krashen…Matt may have one of those too it’s been a moment since I watched their vids.
Anyways - best of luck, from a new subscriber! ❤
Great job!!!
You’re doing great! An hour and a half a day is great. My biggest advice would be to not worry if you don’t understand something and just keep listening. That was the biggest thing that helped me learn. It seems like you already understand that concept form what you said in the video. I think it’s awesome that you’re so dedicated to learning. Keep it up!
There’s a noticeable improvement between your output at 500 hours and your output now. You are doing fantastically regardless of where you feel you are currently. Very impressive to see your dedication to this!
this is so awesome! looking forward to future updates
Although you aren’t where the roadmap says you should be….I think you have greatly improved. I am at 60 hours of the DS method. I don’t include the classes I’m taking but I do add in my video watching on TH-cam. I’m also an older learner (57). I wish I had had the opportunity to learn with the CI method when I was much younger. Of course we didn’t have that capability back then. I started with a textbook and cassette tapes as that’s all I had back in the 80s and in Western Canada there was hardly any community or resources that I could find anywhere even the libraries. I tried again in the mid 90s but this time there was a little more availability to Spanish materials. Now….there is so much! I am nowhere near my goal of a B2 level but I’m hopefully if I try really hard and put a lot of time in daily, maybe late next year or 2024 I can achieve that goal 👍🏼. In any event, learning a second language is so very good for the brain. Keep going!! 🙌🏼
We got this!
You're doing really great. It's hard for me to say how many hours would yield what level because I was doing traditional studying for quite some time before finding comprehensible input. I started out spending half my time reading intermediate books, and now I'm reading novels (not particularly advanced ones). I feel like reading really accelerated my progress so that's one way in which I deviate from Pablo's approach. Though recently I've just been enjoying regular spanish content and understanding almost everything, like on netflix, so I've spent less time reading since I've been hooked on some series.
One take away I have though is that I definitely agree with Pablo that more comprehensible input will lead to improvement.
It is definitely a process and takes a lot of time, and great for keeping our brains clicking as we get older. I do not have the answers, still figuring this out too. I have been taking a few lessons per week with professors in italki, preply, etc. 60 minute conversations in italki have definitely helped my progress. When to best start doing this though I have no idea.
Thank you for sharing your progress 🖖
You’re doing awesome!!! Keep it up. I just hit 1100 hours using the same method.
@mitchcohen4870 I’d to hear your review of the CI method since you are advanced. 😊
It absolutely works. I'm closing in on 1500 hours at this point and have had lots of wonderful experiences- watching movies, talking with neighbors, reading books. All around awesome learning method. Absolutely would recommend. @@deecee9479
Te felicito 👏🏻 Has progresado mucho en esas 600 horas. Aprender cualquier idioma extranjero es difícil, requiere tiempo y esfuerzo. Yo no creo que en el aprendizaje de idiomas haya una fórmula mágica que te diga el nivel que vas a tener después de cierta cantidad de tiempo. Todos aprendemos a un ritmo diferente, algunos más lento, otros más rápido. Si no tienes un hablante nativo cerca de ti con el que hablar, nosotros podemos tener una pequeña conversación sobre algún tema sencillo, tengo bastante tiempo libre últimamente. ¡Ánimo!
Ya I'd recommend mixing it up. I'm using dreaming in Spanish, Espanol con Jaun, lingQ an children's cartoons like Peppa the pig on TH-cam. In all of these instances I also use captions or have the transcript in front of me so I can see what is being said while I listen. It's helped me alot with just making sense of the sounds of Spanish. An it's really encouraging when you keep seeing the same words over an over. You really get a sences that this is achievable. Even then some days are just bad lol. But content is king don't limit yourself.
Don’t worry about the time it takes. Just enjoy the journey. Consistency always wins
Isle of Tenerife,
Spain,
Africa.
Well done.
This gives me hope for my Frisian.
But the B and V sounds are completely indistinguishable and interchangeable in Spanish, so it's normal and natural that you're not recognising which is which.
I'm surprised you're not aware of this.
I think the roadmap is an estimate, and I too think it may be a bit too optimistic. Everyone is different and we all learn at different paces, so don't compare your progress too literally with the roadmap.
I'm 24 and I have autism. Taking my personal challenges into account, it may take me well over twice as long to learn Spanish.
It can be frustrating at times, but the ones who give up are the ones who never reach their goals. Good luck!
Te felicito. Tienes un muy buen nivel. Siempre habrá cosas que trabajar cuando uno aprende una lengua extrajera. Soy profesor de español y de francés en el sur de estados unidos. Cualquiera ayuda que necesites para mejorar la pronunciación de vocales,consonantes y de frases en español, estoy a la orden. Keep going!
I have some activities an exercises that can help you improve, basically on how to pronounce consonants ans vowels and the rhythm of Spanish phrases. Just for free.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I have a hunch, I hope you don't mind if I try it: Is it possible that you're avoiding intermediate videos, not because you can't follow along with the story, but because you feel out of your depth with analyzing the words?
I find myself translating in my head more with intermediate videos. When this happens, Pablo advises listening to easier material.
Hi. I believe tolerance for ambiguity is a big thing with comprehensible input. I think you need to push yourself into watching more intermediate and advanced. If you understand 85% you can only learn 15% and that 15% may be very difficult. If you understand 50% and the message you have 50% you can learn.
If you want to speak without hesitation learn whole sentences saying them aloud. That was my solution to problems with speaking. You can know many words but it doesn't help much to communicate efectively. Another thing is you probably still translate between both languages and it slows you down. So you also need to start thinking in Spanish to be spontaneous in conversation.
Thank you. I agree.
There's nothing to be concerned about at this stage. 600 hours is really nothing when your goal is a genuine level of fluency, particularly if those hours are spread out over many months. If you'd spent those 600 hours doing 8 hours/day of immersion, it'd still only be just over a couple of months, which is nowhere near enough time. So yeah, this roadmap thing doesn't sound accurate at all to me. It sounds like 'intermediate' and 'advanced' are levels they've set for learners. Fluency, or even basic conversational fluency, are levels waaaaaaaaaaay beyond any type of learner level. There are many learner podcasts entitled 'advanced' that honestly aren't even close to material designed for natives. This gives those learners a completely false impression of their own level, which can be quite discouraging in the long term.
It's gonna take a LOT more time, and eventually, you'll get to a certain point where you'll realise that you have to almost live your whole day in Spanish (if you want to get genuinely good). There's no other way, despite people _telling_ you there is, all of whom drastically overestimate their own level. The important thing is not to go looking for excuses as a way out. Keep reminding yourself that this can, and has been done at any age. The moment you start believing you're at a disadvantage, that's when you start thinking about stopping altogether.
It is not your age!!! I think it is hard to learn languages I am 24 and am trying to learn spanish and I find it hard also. I am gonna try 800 hours also. Don't give up!
Congratulations on the progress: so much time listening and understanding the audio input. For a native English speaker I think they have a sound halfway b/n the V and B (it is or is almost the same sound, but too hard for me). I'd suggest some textbook exercises or tutor to get you 'getting' some grammar and getting you speaking more confidently. Some mental framework to the audio you already have, to help cement and give structure to the audio.
I'd recommend using other sources of learning alongside dreaming spanish. Perhaps something like a textbook and duolingo, as well as listening to and reading spanish content outside of dreaming spanish. I know Pablo is against using things that require you to memorize, but it has been effective for me, and millions of people have successfully learned languages that way. You have quite a bit more hours of comprehensible input than me, but I am able to do quite well with the intermediate videos due to my other sources of learning. I'd also watch some videos that would help you with your accent a bit, as I feel like you could improve it pretty quickly if you focused on it a little. Good luck.
Keep going your doing great 👍🏻 however, listening will never help you speak the language. I know people personally that grew up with a mexican mother and could understand Spanish fluently but could barely speak it.
Listening comprehension is definitely the most important aspect of language learning. Once you start reading, you will quickly start building your vocabulary, and connecting a lot of dots with grammar.
Comprehensible input is great, and thats how i learn languages as well, but without reading and gaining a lot of vocabulary, your progress is going to be slow. And it will not help you to speak. Speaking is completely different skill.
Start speaking if you want to improve your speaking
It’s not necessary to wait until 1000 hrs to do so
I have around 350 hrs of input since January this year and I have long conversations with natives with ease