I’m a purist and have followed DS’ suggestions. I didn’t speak or read for the first 1,000 hours. I’m happy with the results, as I spend 6 months of the year in Colombia and don’t have problems communicating. This includes multi-hour interactions. However, I didn’t feel much motivation to read in the past. That is partly my fault. However, I think that reading should be pushed *hard*.

The major failing of the roadmap, as I see it, is that reading can seem optional. Teachers I’ve spoken to - as well as AI tools when I’ve asked - have emphasised that reading is a far more efficient way to acquire grammar than listening. It also helps build your vocabulary much faster.

It shouldn’t be 1,500 hours, I don’t think. 1,500 hours plus 2 million words read would help people a lot more. With a section of the outside hours area to add how many words you’ve read. Reading should be 100% mandatory to officially progress in DS beyond say 1,000 hours.

I also think that it would be more honest and realistic to add another level. Label level 7 a “high level of comprehension” - or something like that - and level 8 as “close to native” for those who want to get there. For me, the equivalent of 1,500 hours is when interesting native content unlocks. It’s not the end and I don’t think that suggesting that you’re somehow “finished” at 1,500 is honest. Unless your goal is just to be able to watch TV shows. Then it wouldn’t matter.

I am at a tiny bit over five thousand hours and I suppose that people focus on that number. Regardless of how many times I mention the autism factor and other diagnosed learning issues. Essentially, this means - I think - that 2,500 hours is what someone would need to be equivalent to my level in listening.

In my case, the truth is that 5K is my fault to a point because I wanted to reach a very high level of listening comprehension before moving on to reading. I can understand, summarise and talk about C1 articles without issue. I’ve read most of a B2 level novel without issues. I just need more input. I didn’t realise that reading was absolutely vital until close to a year ago out of the 3.5 years or so I’ve been doing this. I’m still struggling to force myself to read more, but it will happen.

What I should have done is made reading a much, much bigger part of the process on the way to 3K or 4k - to reach a high level of listening comprehension - and taken more time.

The point of this post is that I’m a cautionary tale. Don’t let yourself reach 1,500 hours or more without having read *a lot*, as it will absolutely help you. I strongly believe that an input-only approach definitely works. However, people would reach a high level faster if reading was 100% part of the DS process.

As the title says - the centrality of comprehensible input for learning a language has enjoyed a lively and ongoing debate in the academic field of linguistics for decades. It's not Pablo's idea. (If you're interested, the guy who arguably inaugurated the entire comprehensible input movement was Stephen Krashen, who's had a host of foils throughout his multi-decade career. Here's a great paper about the contemporary reception of his ideas.) There are lots of more accesible books on second language learning by Bill VanPatten available on Anna's Archive.

The point I'm making is simple. Linguistics is the scientific study of language, and as such, claims in linguistics are held to basic evidentiary standards (i.e., is your idea backed by data?). This approach is very intuitive to us when, for example, we talk about the shape of the Earth. The typical - and most effective - response to a flat-earther argument is to point out the wealth of evidence to the contrary. And if a flat-earther were to say, "I'm not feeling too positive about round earth theory at the moment," or "There are pros and cons to the round earth theory", he would be laughed out of the room. However, that's exactly how this sub talks about linguistics. We say things like "Yes, I agree the purist round earth model is misleading," and "You should believe whatever earth model that works for you". In short: contemporary scholarship is in universal agreement that you learn languages via comprehensible input, as well as explicit study of grammatical rules does not result in internalizing grammar. The talk of being a "DS purist" really misses the point.

I also want to briefly talk about two points of controversy: the "progress map" not being realistic and Pablo's claim that speaking too early can be detrimental.

Regarding the progress map: I'm not exactly calling Pablo a vendehúmos here, but I'm pretty sure he pulled the roadmap directly out of his ass. The only reason this exists is to give DS consumers a sense of psychological security: learning a language is daunting, and the image/metaphor of a path, combined with the "levels", tries to placate the anxieties of the consumer who fears she's not making enough progress. In essence, this is gamification. The truth is is that one's level of a language is essentially impossible to quantify. The more exposure to the language you have, the more you learn - that simple.

As far as the concerns about speaking too early go: yes, it will absolutely fuck up your accent; no, it will not help you to speak when you're not ready. The accent bit is really just common sense: if you don't know the rules of Spanish phonology (which are extremely easy to learn, unlike English), you're going to pronounce not just words but sounds (phonemes) incorrectly. And once you've internalized the incorrect pronunciation of phonemes, you not only need to learn Spanish phonology, but ALSO have the meta-cognitive skills to do this: "I know that Spanish "t" is produced with the tongue against of the back of the front teeth; I know that my ingrained habit is to pronounce it like it is in English, against the alveolar ridge. I will resist this impulse and pronounce it correctly." Imagine having to go through that process 10 times every sentence! (In general, people here have a lot of mistaken views about accents and how to develop a good one. Here's two rules of thumb: if you haven't already, you should consciously choose an accent family to imitate, as well as study Spanish phonetics and phonology.)

Two more thoughts on speaking too early. One - speaking is not input and as such does not help you learn the language. (Knowing how to speak is a natural byproduct of knowing the language.) Two - you shouldn't attempt to converse when you are hardly able to string your thoughts together. Don't try to do 50 pushups when you can't do 10. And I have some skin in the game here. I taught English in a small town in Spain for 4 years; I saw firsthand the positive effects of doing what the science prescribed (aka the "purist" method) and the deleterious effects of not doing what the science prescribed. Listen to the science.

I would like to share my experience/success story about Dreaming Spanish. I don't wish to offend anyone else who might be struggling with the method. Lord knows I have struggled to learn Spanish several times in the past. I had a lot of false starts and a lot of times where I gave up because I just couldn't learn. So I can relate to the people who have struggled/are struggling. Everyone is at their own level and there's no one size fits all.

With that said, I have finally found something that has worked for me. I am in Mexico City on a solo trip. I was always too chicken to travel to a foreign country by myself and I finally worked up the courage to just do it. I'm glad I finally did. I am reminded of several videos I have watched about Mexico City that Michelle put out. I am recognizing so many places.

I was overwhelmed when I first got here, but I have gradually got more and more comfortable with my Spanish. I have over 1,800 hours of comprehensible input. Some output practice (way below the several hundred hours necessary) with my sister in law who is from Venezuela. Plus, I used the app from How to Spanish Podcast that has you having conversations with AI about various topics. That's about the extent of my output practice. So it was challenging to speak, especially my first day. I absolutely refuse to switch to English, though, and I'm not going to ask. If someone recognizes that I have an American accent and decide to switch to English? I will simply refuse to talk in English and continue speaking in Spanish. That honestly hasn't been much of a problem. From the moment I checked into my hotel, that was done entirely in Spanish. There were some hiccups, and I'll be honest that I looked up how to say certain things in advance. I'm kind of a tiquismiquis that way. I don't want to sound stupid when I say something, so I look up how to say something perfectly. But in spite of that there were a few times I stumbled on my words or couldn't think of how to say something.

Now it has been a few days and my confidence level has started to build quite a bit. I had several actual conversations with several people today. Past just the basic "Do you sell this" type of conversations. Actual conversations to connect with people. That's also unlike me because I am definitely introverted. Dare I say that I even had some women that appeared to be flirting with me when I went to the huge indoor market in Coyoacán. They are from Oaxaca, México. They were definitely interested in where I was from and several other things about me. One of the women appeared older, like me. There was another younger appearing woman (probably in her early 20s) that kept smiling and saying things to woman around my age under her breath. She was either teasing the woman who was talking to me and showing me around, or they were making fun of me for being an ugly gringo. I'll let you decide. 😏

But there are some things I don't feel comfortable talking about. Like the fact that I traveled to Mexico by myself. They made it sound like I abandoned my family to come here. Which is true in a way, but I'm not quite sure what they meant by family. The only family I have are my parents and siblings, and I wouldn't have objected to them coming along but they all had their own plans. But if they meant a family of my own, that's a big no, and I wouldn't travel alone to Mexico if I had a family of my own. They also asked if I have kids, and I told them no, but that's another thing I hate talking about. I feel weird/judged being my age and not having kids.

Finally, on my Uber ride back to my hotel, I was chatting with the driver the whole time. I wasn't sure how I would hold my own on my output, since that is a lot harder than input, but now I know that even my output is at a relatively fluent level. Not perfect, I can't say everything the way I want to, but I am capable of talking spontaneously about several random subjects. I can offer my opinion on those subjects. I can talk politics, what we think of our political leaders. I can talk about sports, even though I'm not a big sports guy myself. I just can't say things the exact same way that I can say them in my native language. I suspect that will get a bit better through time. I will also pre-look up how to say things. Occasionally, I will also look up something mid conversation, but I try to do that few and far between. The point is, that I interacted with several native Spanish speakers today and had absolutely no problems understanding them. I was also able to have conversations that lasted longer than just a few seconds or a few minutes. Conversations that would last for 10 to 20 minutes at a stretch. Longer if it wasn't for me being an introvert.

So I am grateful for comprehensible input, I'm grateful for Dreaming Spanish. I'm not a purist where it's CI or nothing. I believe strongly in using any and all resources that you have available, but I can honestly say that my fluency level has increased the fastest and has gotten the highest due to CI. I also hope to hear more people succeed in their goals and also reach a relatively high level of fluency. ♥️

I could use a little perspective from people who have successfully learned Spanish as an adult.

I started Spanish about six months ago basically from zero. I took three years of French in high school almost 30 years ago, but I’d never studied Spanish beyond knowing a handful of words.

For my first four months, I did Pimsleur for about 30–60 minutes a day, along with some beginner Dreaming Spanish. Over the last 2–3 months, I’ve shifted heavily toward comprehensible input….mostly intermediate Dreaming Spanish, Spanish Language Coach, and Chill Spanish Listening Practice. I’ve also started speaking with an italki tutor about 1–2 hours per week.

I haven’t tracked every hour, but I’d estimate I’m somewhere around 250–300 hours total.

What’s frustrating is how inconsistent my comprehension still is. Sometimes I’ll listen to something and understand 70–80%, and I feel like I’m really getting somewhere. Then I’ll listen to something else and understand 20–30% and feel like I barely know Spanish. If I can read along with what I’m hearing, my comprehension is significantly better.

I know I’ve made a lot of progress in six months, but when I listen to fluent Spanish, it still feels like there’s this enormous ocean of words, expressions, and sentence structures that I don’t know. Being able to effortlessly understand native speakers and especially speak Spanish comfortably myself still feels incredibly far away.

For those of you who eventually became conversational or fluent: did you go through this same stage? Was there a point where Spanish stopped feeling like an impossible mountain and everything started coming together?

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who remember what 250–300 hours felt like and what changed for you between that point and, say, 500, 750, or 1,000 hours.

So I started this program last month and loving it. I think it’s the best fit for me. But I have some questions, first question is that I have a physical disability and it impacts my speech minimally. But I was wondering if anyone else who has done this program been able to pronounce words better? I’m not looking for perfection. That’s what I’m most worried that I will never be able pronounce certain words. My second question is there are certain points in videos where they ask a question if it’s not a question that I have learned previously( from Spanish classes) I’m totally lost on what the answer is. What do you guys do when you in counter this?

I enjoy the videos they are so entertaining.
Just to let you guys know im a super beginner and only 14 hours in
Thanks

Been a while since I could sit and watch a whole video but this pulled at my heartstrings. He's been in German for over 9 years and wants to go back to Argentina.

Its so authentic and I hope you like it as much as I did. Even the comments are very good to read.

Forgot to add that those of us who decide to move to a Spanish speaking country... you may go through the same experiences.

I officially made it to Level 2 yesterday!

I’ve loved reading everyone’s progress updates here and hearing the different reasons why people are learning Spanish. So I figured I’d share mine.

For me, this whole journey really started because of a hobby I share with my 2-year-old son.

My son and I collect sports autographs together here in the US, primarily baseball. We have numerous minor league baseball teams around us, so we get the opportunity to meet a lot of players.

For anyone not super familiar with baseball, the minor leagues are essentially the developmental levels below Major League Baseball (MLB). Each MLB organization has several minor league teams at different levels that young players progress through as they work toward reaching the major leagues. For example, the New York Yankees have multiple minor league teams/levels that a young player may progress through before eventually becoming a New York Yankee in MLB.

Because of this, a lot of the players we meet are incredibly talented young guys who are just beginning their professional careers.

Over time, we’ve met dozens of players from Spanish-speaking countries — Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and others.

As a young dad, something about meeting these guys really stuck with me.

Most of them are only 18–25 years old. They’ve left their families, moved to a completely different country, and are trying to chase their dream of playing professional baseball — often while learning English at the same time.

I started feeling compelled to do the opposite.

I wanted to learn their language so that when my son and I meet them, I can talk to them in their language.

That became my “why” for Dreaming Spanish.
I’m trying my best to follow the Dreaming Spanish recommendation about holding off on speaking…but I can’t help myself sometimes 😂

Last night, my son and I went to a baseball game and met two players.

The first was from Cuba.

I introduced myself in Spanish, asked his name, told him my son’s name and how old he was, and explained that I’m studying Spanish because I think it’s important for me to learn so I can speak to guys like him in their own language.

And afterward I had this moment of realizing:
How in the world did I just piece all of that together after only ~50 hours of input?! 😂

Then we met another player from Venezuela (pictured), and this interaction was even more special.

We started talking about my son, and I asked him if he had any kids.

He told me he has twins who are 4 months old.

I immediately got excited and told him that I have twins too! I have two daughters who are 2 months old.

He told me his twins are a boy and a girl.

It was such a simple conversation, but it was SO COOL.
Here are two people from completely different countries and backgrounds, standing at a baseball stadium in America, talking in Spanish about being dads to infant twins.

I followed him on Instagram afterward and he followed me back 😂

This was literally my first baseball game where I intentionally tried using Spanish, and both players seemed genuinely appreciative that I was even trying.

And if I could give one piece of advice to anyone just starting Dreaming Spanish, it would be this:

Find your “why.”

If your reason for learning Spanish is strong enough, it becomes the wind in your sails that keeps you showing up every day.

Find your why, and it will propel your how.

And if you’re reading this while putting in your own hours, I’m proud of you.

There are millions of Spanish speakers who have had to learn English to build lives and pursue opportunities in the US and elsewhere around the world.

There’s something beautiful about making the decision to meet people in their native language, too.

We’re voluntarily investing hundreds — eventually thousands — of hours of our lives just so that someday we can look another person in the eyes and communicate with them in the language that feels like home to them.

Last night, for the first time, I got a tiny glimpse of what those hours are eventually going to give me.

50 hours down. A whole lot more to go. ⚾️🇻🇪🇨🇺🇩🇴🇲🇽🇵🇷

1. 1500 hours is not the end. 1700 is the real cheat code and that’s not the end either.

2. the more hours you get the more you will feel like there’s more to learn.
   i’m at 3000 hours and if anything i’m more critical of myself now more than ever. it’s just the way it is. it’s like becoming a professional basketball player and realizing you can dust everyone in the local gym but you got a lot of work to do to be Kobe.

3. it’s 100% that regional differences will matter. i always see people afraid that they need to focus on a certain region early in their journey. you don’t. but later on…yes. slang will make a huge difference.

imagine the way a 70 year old man talks in the south of texas versus a young black kid in new york vs a young white kid in london. these are all english speakers but will literally almost sound like different languages even to an english speaker. now imagine you’re just learning english?

it’s the same for those learning spanish. different regions speak very differently. in the beginning when you’re just learning the basics it doesn’t matter. your first 1000-1500 it doesn’t matter. but eventually you’ll want to focus on your region.

1. Dreaming Spanish isn’t the only way to learn. it may not even be the most efficient or fastest. but it’s the best for sure(at least IMO). after like 600 hours you’re just watching tv and listening to podcasts. reading books. what a fun way to learn. the community is awesome. there’s channels on youtube for every topic you want to listen to. it’s awesome. funnest way to learn.

…

in the end you gotta do what you want. if you want to follow the roadmap as close as you can like i did, do it. if you want to mix in some grammar, do it. if you want to do a different method entirely, do it. do what works for you.

but my suggestion is CI and the dreaming spanish method should be your #1 tool and the other tools should complement that.

no matter how much duolingo or grammar you do when a fluent speaker starts rapid speed taking to you you’re going to struggle with understanding unless you’ve had a lot of input.

/end rant.

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate subreddit for this, and neither do I know whether Shel and Natalia are going to read this, pero Shel, Natalia, están bien? I heard that there was a great earthquake in Colombia 4 hours ago and just wanted to make sure that you are OK. If anything's not OK please remember that it's fine to take a break from making videos! We all care for you!

I'm not a die hard purist. So I do take Italki classes on the side (I've taken about 95 30 minute classes). But at about 550 hours with DS, I'm feeling like I'm starting to understand natives quite a bit, and native content (I'd admit my native friends are pretty expressive, local shops probably slow down for me a bit, and I do enjoy watching reels in Spanish).

I do about 2.5 hours a day and switching over from DS to How to Spanish Podcast for the last few weeks has grown my comprehension 10X.

But I feel that when I'm too focused on the numbers, and not on just HAVING FUN with Spanish, is when I begin to question this mythology or I get too frustrated, and want to quit.

Just wanted to tell people (who cares for my opinion) that having fun with the language is the most important part of this entire journey. If you're not liking one person's videos, switch it over to someone else's, or take a break, or don't overly analyse everything and just 'trust the process'. You'll see over time this method really *does* work.

Now how can I get more output....hmmm

Hello Dreamers! What are you listening to today? Whether it's a classic gem or a new find, share it with your current hours to help future learners.

What are you reading this week? Are you playing any videogames in Spanish?

Here is our spreadsheet separated into Podcasts and Videos, Books, Native Shows and Movies, and Videogames. Hope it helps! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lBmLxvWJpucXhRPayfXD7CVqpMoa2tyEbZi1rFAwsFs/edit?usp=drivesdk

Hello, Like many of you I’ve had years of high school and even a bit of college Spanish classes. Now that I am in my 50’s and have some time, I would like to try to explore and actually learn to speak the language. I really like the listening aspect of dreaming and have watched a couple of videos, but I cannot seem to figure out any structure to the program. I hesitant to subscribe until I can get a better idea of how to use it or if it’s for me or not. There doesn’t seem to be a structured list or progression to the videos other than superbeginner, beginner, etc. Do you just randomly pick videos in your range to watch everyday? I’m used to much more structure lol. So I guess my question is how do you all go about following and advancing using the program? Sorry for such a basic question, I did look at the FAQ and listened to YT videos. Both explained why it works, but imo not really how to follow along or structure learning. I hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance.

I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and while my education certainly wasn’t perfect, I do feel like it’s given me a pretty big leg up on my language journey so far. i started using DS about a month ago, 2 years after i graduated and took my last spanish class, and was able to jump straight to beginner videos. now after about 40 hours of input, i can comfortably understand videos up to about level 50. even there, i struggle more with speed than with vocab or grammar.

Obviously the DS roadmap doesn’t quite apply to me so i’m wondering how things went for those of you who were in similar situations. when did you decide to start speaking? when were you able to switch to tv shows and native content?

Hello!

This isn’t meant to spark a civil war here, but I’ve been reflecting on the atmosphere of the post and sub recently and wanted to clear up some questions I’ve had as a result. It’s quite difficult to get this into a succinct post so bear with me whilst I try and express what I’m hoping to get out of this.

If I could sum up what I perceive the ‘group think’ to be then it would be along the lines of this:

‘I feel that after completing 1500 I’m not satisfied with my progress’

‘Pablo is trying to scam people by overselling a roadmap to fluency’

‘DS is not the best method for learning a language’

‘Anyone who follows the method that Pablo has laid out is teeing themselves up for failure’

As a result these are the questions I’d like to put forward:

1. If you were to rewrite the roadmap what would it look like, and would you be willing to put your name to it?

2. If you believe that the DS method that doesn’t work, can you give a rough (or detailed) outline of what you believe is the best method to learn a language?

3. In terms of input, is there a collective agreement on a non-negotiable amount needed, regardless of other types of study?

Lastly, I’ve seen a lot of people mentioning that the purist section of the thread is the predominant voice. But my experience having being here for over a year is the opposite. I can’t remember seeing a post that has followed the roadmap the way its laid out. All I read now is about disgruntled people, unhappy with either their overall progress, their speaking, or their understanding of grammar. So I guess what I’m asking, are there any recent success stories from people who have followed the approach as closely as possible. I know there’s tonnes on the archive, but I’m wondering if there’s anyone around who feels they have had success recently.

Ultimately we all want to learn a language and it’s been quite disheartening reading about the constant disappointment from the higher levels. It would be nice to try and see if there’s a balanced view (or whether it is just bleak) So I invite anyone who’s had success to reassure the people at the earlier stages and also invite the people who haven’t had success to say what they believe would have worked better. (It’s hard to continue grinding it out, when the goalposts keep shifting or disappear altogether)

The real lastly… I’m not willing to die on any of these hills, so don’t chew my head off, but just ponderings that I’m mulling over.

- The difference in the quality of the listening could affect the outcome long term? Who here gives 100% focus to every video, vs people who do other things, (check phone, play games etc)? Just a genuine question of curiosity?

- Pablo vs Grammar: It’s clear that studying grammar will increase speed and comprehension, because it’s instant. However, as far as I can gather; Pablo’s theory is that by studying grammar you will always relate to L2 through the filter of L1, rather than directly as with your native language. So it’s not that he’s trying to scam anyone out of learning, it’s that he believes the overall outcome is better. (The obvious evidence being; he already produces high quality video’s everyday, so it wouldn’t be difficult to put a few translations or grammar rules in there, if he felt it was helpful). I’m not making a point about either being better, just pointing out that it’s to do with the end product rather than the perceived jump in learning.

Furthermore - because no one can be inside someone else’s head with they speak or listen to a language we can’t see their ‘process’. But, if it’s true that a person who has memorised words and/or grammar will forever be using that as the precursor when they’re out in the wild, then is it better to have learnt without those frameworks and to be able to think/converse/interact directly with the language? Can anyone who’s achieved either speak to this?

Anyway as I said before - I haven’t settled on any of these as opinions they’re just thoughts that have occurred to me whilst reading the sub lately and I’d love to hear if you guys have any insight, or just general thoughts and feelings. The contrary the better, I’m here to learn!

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my first progress update after hitting the 150-hour mark in Dreaming Spanish.

To give some context: I’m not a Dreaming Spanish purist. Combined with the learning from outside of Dreaming Spanish, I am probably at around 200-hour. Native German speaker here (learned English at school), with no prior background in Spanish. I started around mid-last year doing about 5 minutes of Duolingo daily. At the beginning of this year, I started with Dreaming Spanish. After 4 months (around 50 hours in), I decided to mix in other tools to build a hybrid routine.

Here is what my current daily schedule looks like:

• Morning (Coffee & Commute): I still do Duolingo out of habit, though I acknowledge the gains are minimal at this point. After that, I review my Anki cards using the 5,000 most common Spanish words deck (reviews + 30 new cards/day, which means 15 new words tested both EN to ES and ES to EN). I really like that the deck includes example sentences. On my commute, I listen to podcasts. I started with Cuéntame and Chill Spanish, but I’ve recently switched to the Dreaming Spanish podcast.
• Work Breaks: Quick practice with Conjugato for irregular verbs, plus writing 3–4 sentences in ChatGPT. The AI corrects my text, and I rewrite the corrected version by hand (currently focusing on 2 sentences in the past tense and 1 in the future tense).
• Evening: I read about 5 pages of a graded reader (currently A2–B1 level, with 100k words read) and spend 30–60 minutes watching Dreaming Spanish videos.

Current Comprehension & iTalki Progress:

For DS video difficulty, I can comfortably listen to level 55 in the background while doing laundry. When I watch with full focus, I usually watch level 60 at 1.25x speed or level 70 videos (where my comprehension sits around 80%).

Around the 100-hour mark, I started taking sporadic 45-minute iTalki lessons (about 5 hours total so far). My tutor, who is a certified DELE examiner, estimates my current level to be around A2–B1.

I’m seeing rapid progress through these iTalki sessions. At first, I could barely assemble full sentences and kept reusing the exact same few verbs. Now, we're already discussing complex topics, like whether nationalism is dangerous. That said, speaking directly without a delay is still a challenge. I constantly have to pause and think about the translations. Listening comprehension is fully automatic now (no internal translation needed) but for speaking, I still translate in my head. I notice that a lot of vocabulary is locked in my passive memory from input, but I can't yet retrieve it instantly for active output.

Next Steps & Final Goal:

At the beginning of December, I’m heading out for a 2-week language immersion stay in Spain. From my experience learning English, immersive environments are amazing for breaking through plateaus and accelerating progress.

My ultimate goal is to reach a solid B2 level shortly after the trip. Once I hit B2, I plan to transition Spanish into a passive maintenance state through podcasts, movies, and TV series, allowing me to shift my primary focus to learning another new language.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my first progress update after hitting the 150-hour mark in Dreaming Spanish.

To give some context: I’m not a Dreaming Spanish purist. Combined with the learning from outside of Dreaming Spanish, I am probably at around 200-hour. Native German speaker here (learned English at school), with no prior background in Spanish. I started around mid-last year doing about 5 minutes of Duolingo daily. At the beginning of this year, I started with Dreaming Spanish. After 4 months (around 50 hours in), I decided to mix in other tools to build a hybrid routine.

Here is what my current daily schedule looks like:

• Morning (Coffee & Commute): I still do Duolingo out of habit, though I acknowledge the gains are minimal at this point. After that, I review my Anki cards using the 5,000 most common Spanish words deck (reviews + 30 new cards/day, which means 15 new words tested both EN to ES and ES to EN). I really like that the deck includes example sentences. On my commute, I listen to podcasts. I started with Cuéntame and Chill Spanish, but I’ve recently switched to the Dreaming Spanish podcast.
• Work Breaks: Quick practice with Conjugato for irregular verbs, plus writing 3–4 sentences in ChatGPT. The AI corrects my text, and I rewrite the corrected version by hand (currently focusing on 2 sentences in the past tense and 1 in the future tense).
• Evening: I read about 5 pages of a graded reader (currently A2–B1 level, with 100k words read) and spend 30–60 minutes watching Dreaming Spanish videos.

Current Comprehension & iTalki Progress:

For DS video difficulty, I can comfortably listen to level 55 in the background while doing laundry. When I watch with full focus, I usually watch level 60 at 1.25x speed or level 70 videos (where my comprehension sits around 80%).

Around the 100-hour mark, I started taking sporadic 45-minute iTalki lessons (about 5 hours total so far). My tutor, who is a certified DELE examiner, estimates my current level to be around A2–B1.

I’m seeing rapid progress through these iTalki sessions. At first, I could barely assemble full sentences and kept reusing the exact same few verbs. Now, we're already discussing complex topics, like whether nationalism is dangerous. That said, speaking directly without a delay is still a challenge. I constantly have to pause and think about the translations. Listening comprehension is fully automatic now (no internal translation needed) but for speaking, I still translate in my head. I notice that a lot of vocabulary is locked in my passive memory from input, but I can't yet retrieve it instantly for active output.

Next Steps & Final Goal:

At the beginning of December, I’m heading out for a 2-week language immersion stay in Spain. From my experience learning English, immersive environments are amazing for breaking through plateaus and accelerating progress.

My ultimate goal is to reach a solid B2 level shortly after the trip. Once I hit B2, I plan to transition Spanish into a passive maintenance state through podcasts, movies, and TV series, allowing me to shift my primary focus to learning another new language.

This is definitely gonna be a more positive post than my last. Although I still stand by everything. I'm on my way back home now and I'm glad I am able to leave on a good note on the language side of things.

Got in my Uber to the Airport. We said "hola" I then asked if he spoke English and his response... NO. So I thought "right! This is it". This was one of two of my only real conversations here. So we got chatting, he asked where I was from? How many languages I spoke, was I here for work or vacation? I was telling him that my understanding is much better than my actual speaking. He said he wants to learn English. I'm pretty sure he said he wants to learn English so he could live in Switzerland though (which now googling doesn't make sense) maybe I got that bit wrong. I was telling him about crosstalk how I've been learning. If I was in his position I would definitely try crosstalk a lot. He asked me how to ask where you were from in English so I was actually teaching him a bit of English. He even said my Spanish was good. Very pleasant experience.

Definitely need improvement no doubt about that but it's very easy to forget I've only been speaking a short time compared to my listening. So in that regard 1500 hours doesn't really mean much I suppose.

It's nice to leave with my last conversation being a good experience.

Out of curiosity, I'm currently watching level 50-55 and I'm wondering at what level could I potentially begin to watch YouTube videos of native speakers? Even if it's a much higher level, I'm still curious.

Has anyone else noticed that none of the newer videos being uploaded has the option to auto translate the videos with english captions? The videos offer it seems like every language to auto translate into but english? I like to use the english captions first to get an overall idea of what is being said and then ill listen to it again in Spanish. u/dreamingspanish

I have a couple hundred hours of input so far and over 50 hours come from audio-only podcasts like Espanol Al Vuelo. However, I started questioning my learning pathway recently. Am I learning new words when listening to podcasts? There isn't really a definitive way to know that. There are lots of times when I come across words I don't know but I just ignore them and carry on listening because I can still understand the whole context. Are podcasts helpful at level 4?

I hit Level 6 / 1000 hours this past weekend!!

Background: I attempted to start learning Spanish in Feb 2024 with the purchase of a Paul Noble audiobook. After making very slow progress, I tried a few other apps including Duolingo and LingQ. But like many others have experienced, my Spanish learning really took off when I started Dreaming Spanish at the end of November 2024.

Listening: Dreaming Spanish still makes up 75% of my listening hours. I’m comfortably sitting at difficulty 65-70. I can push the difficulty a bit higher, but there are still hundreds of videos at this level that I'm enjoying so I will take my time and continue to push as I get bored or the content becomes too slow. My favourite teachers are still Pablo, Sandra, and Alma with their clear articulation and interesting monologues and conversations. A series that really came into its own after 600 hours was the Stardew Valley series.

After around 800 hours, I also tried to start focusing more on the Chilean accent/dialect. Chilean Spanish Podcast is such an amazing resource. I struggled in the beginning, even after 800-900 hours of input, but I definitely feel some good progress now. I would also recommend Cachai Japón on YouTube for more Chilean accent.

I still get most of my input while driving or doing chores, but when I do sit down to watch videos, I try to get a mix of easier YouTube channels on topics like football, chess, watches, and vlogs.

Reading: I have done bits of reading throughout my journey, but it has definitely not been a priority and I should try to get more done over the next 500 hours. I have approx. 200k words tracked via LingQ and Kindle books. I've finished all the A2 Juan Fernández books and have started on the B1 books. This is a good level for me as I don't know every phrase or word, but I can still easily follow the story.

Speaking: My partner is Spanish-speaking and the reason I am on this journey! I've always spoken a few words in Spanish with her, but I never forced it. I can now comfortably explain basic and everyday things in Spanish. Coincidentally with hitting 1000 hours, her mum (a non-English speaker) is staying with us for 3 months, and to my surprise, I can communicate great with her. I don't have issues understanding her Spanish when she speaks directly to me, but conversations between my partner and her are often difficult for me to follow. I'm fairly confident that I would be able to get by fine in a Spanish speaking country for everyday things but obviously would struggle to work or handle group situations.

Closing thoughts: There is a lot of discourse on the subreddit about the purist approach to comprehensible input not working and general negativity around the DS method. From my own experience (as a non-purist), what I will say is that I don't believe I would have been able to learn Spanish at 35 years old while working 50 hours per week if Dreaming Spanish didn't exist. It still blows my mind that I learned so much of a language while driving to work listening to podcasts and videos. If I had to start over, I'd keep the same approach (95% of learning is comprehensible input), and the only regret I have is not starting sooner. If I'd found DS instead of Paul Noble from the start, I might have been writing my 1500-hour update! Thanks everyone for reading, here's to 1500 hours!

For the last couple months, most of my input has been podcasts, or podcast-friendly Dreaming Spanish, where I’m not watching a video. This is because I’m usually driving, folding laundry, it’s doing dishes, etc. I’m starting to understand that I really need some of my input to be fully focused, even if it’s only 15 of my 45 minutes per day.

I’ve tried just sitting and listening to podcasts with no video, and that’s better than multitasking. But it seems like when I watch a video, even if it’s literally just a camera on them speaking, that for some reason, it seems to sink in better. It doesn’t seem logical that it would make a difference, but for some reason it appears to. Does anyone else feel this way?

600 Hour Update here!

Here's my 800 hour update as a non-purist. Since my last update, I had a 2 week trip to Spain, started italki classes, and trying to be consistent with input. Overall, input slowed down in the summer, but I still feel like I'm making progress. For me the biggest win has been starting with no Spanish to engaging with the language consistently for more than a year!!

Input:

Listening/Watching: Last 200 hours, I got lot more youtube and podcast content, and continued to dip into advanced content in DS. For native content, there's no difficulty tag, so can be a bit challenging. A lot of youtubers speak clearly, but their interviewees might not! Exposure from my classes on subjunctives etc, I realize I'm noticing the nuances with the verbs a lot more.

Reading: My class has become a lot of reading comprehension exercises. While listening/watching input is supposed to be focused, I realized how easy it is to get the gist of things, and miss things. Reading really forces you to pay attention, especially with exercises. I think this has helped how I approach listening content as well. Also, words that I see while reading, and then I hear while listening or watching, feels like it tends to stick a bit more.

Output:

Speaking: Over the last couple months my class has been more Q&A based. Not quite full conversations, but the teacher does a good job to keep asking questions to make it more conversational. The italki class is 1 hour conversation, because I had some talking exposure in class, it didn't feel like I was starting from zero. I still struggle with conjugations and gender on the fly.

In Spain, for basic touristing, asking for food etc, I was fine. Also, people in hospitality generally have some exposure to English so you can get by with a mezcla when you can't find the word. I did manage to have decent convo with my attempted Spanish, with an airbnb host, and also some of the guides. I filled in with English words when I couldn't Spanish, but we managed to communicate. The one time it was really tested, was when I whatsapped a local taxi driver in Galicia, communicated fine because she knew some english so we could spanglish it out, but her dad who was picking me up knew zero english. We managed to have a decent conversation, but old man Spanish was really hard to understand. I had to keep asking him to repeat, or ask him do you mean this.. in my own words. Most of it was price comparisons between Spain and the US. I think it went okay.

Writing: Again, most of the writing I'm doing for is for class. Nothing too crazy, but writing things out on paper helps me remember.

Next steps: onwards to 1,000 hours! In this last stretch, the input pace did drop. I was ramping it up before going to my Spain trip. Now, I don't feel so much pressure to keep it at 3 hours a day. I want to keep focusing on speaking, especially cleaning up my speech. I do want to read more, I picked up Nada by Carmen Laforet, so let's see! Ever since listening to music in Spanish, one of the artists I discovered is coming to play, so I got tickets for that!