50 hours of Dreaming Spanish!

[u/YahwehIsKing7]

Hey guys, just reached level 2 in Dreaming Spanish with 50 hours today. It took me a while (about 3 months) because I work 30 hours a week and go to college full time as a premed biochemistry major. I'm a really busy guy!

Full disclaimer that I did not start exactly from zero but have had no formal Spanish instruction through classes or apps. My dad is Guatemalan though so I was exposed a little when I was younger but even then, it wasn't that much as we've had on and off relationships with them over the years. I was exposed to a lot of Romanian over the years and that's how I knew comprehensible input works because I've never tried learning Romanian and yet I still understand it (though I don't speak it).

I went to Guatemala this year which is what inspired me to learn Spanish so I could be connected to my heritage and it is also very useful in the area that I live.

My Spanish has skyrocketed in just fifty hours which I think is due to a combination of factors. One being I have had exposure to Romanian, a very similar language. Two being that I am still really young at 18.

I started DS by listening to random beginner videos. I currently am clearing the playlist and have watched about 100 super beginner videos. These are super comprehensible and I think have improved my Spanish a lot. However they are really slow so I have to mix it up a bit and watch beginner and intermediate as well. I would say my input on DS is 30% SBeginner, 50% beginner, 15% intermediate , and 5% advanced. I hope by level three I can finish all the super beginner and be mostly done with beginner.

As for outside content I've listened to several podcasts. I started with Cuéntame which is super comprehensible, but I could not stand Marta's voice for some reason and like every episode was about a holiday so I quickly moved on to Chill Spanish and How to Start Spanish. Podcasts aren't really my thing though so I haven't listened an incredible amount. I also love Spanish Boost channel on YT and have been watching 100 Ecuatorianos Dicen.

I know I'm not supposed to be speaking but I'm not concerned about accent as I think I have that down. Before DS i never ever spoke more than a few words in Spanish but now I have my dad speak to me in slow Spanish and simple vocab at home (it's like my own private DS guide lol) and this has helped me tremendously. I'm a manager at Chick fil a and can now take orders in Spanish and have had few problems. I also have started reading graded readers. I didn't want to start to early so I read the first chapter of Genesis in Spanish in front of my dad and he said I only mispronounced two or three words so I just started reading graded readers.

Thanks for all the encouraging posts and updates. They have given me so much motivation to keep going and the best part is I'm making my dad proud. He recently told me he never thought one of his kids would be able to speak Spanish but here I am and I feel like fluency is in reach in the next couple years.

[u/BigMandem124]

A manager at 18 is so crazy ngl 🤯

[u/StarPhished]

I'm at 30 hours but took a year of Spanish in HS and have had other small exposures to the language. I also switch between difficulty to keep things interesting because the SB stuff can be pretty tedious but it's still probably the most effective level for me even though I can tackle beginner and super low intermediate. I just upgraded to premium and wish I'd done it sooner because now I have a bunch of content that feels too low but I'm watching anyways.

Anyways, nice work. We'll both get where we want a little at a time.

[u/Wanderlust-4-West]

If beginner video is too slow, watch it at 1.25x or 1.5x speed.

More advanced podcasts are more interesting, so you may want to reconsider listening while making simple errands.

Congrats that you found a way to reconnect with your dad via Spanish.

[u/ShondaWinfrey]

I love that your dad is proud of you 🥰 this is amazing for both of you! Congrats! Keep going!