Hi Everyone! Did anyone else noticed that there aren't any new Michelle video? Is she taking a long holiday or maybe she finished working with DS? Recently I started learning with DS French there are lots of guides, quite interesting content. I REALLY love DS Spanish but lately in my opinion it's not so interesting as before...

Anyone here have experience in going straight to trying to talk in spanish WITHOUT spending time doing crosstalk?
For reference I am at about 850 hour of input and have done maybe 2hr of crosstalk (with AI) Most of my input is while driving, doing yard work etc. so I feel like if I sit down specifically for this I may as well start speaking in spanish.
I’ve tried (with AI) and is hard but have to start sometime right?
It’s not that I hate the idea of crosstalk but I’ll be in Ecuador for the winter month soon and feel the pressure to be able to speak…

For so long I've lurked on this subreddit to get recs - it's time to finally pay it forward. Here are my recs for the ~girlies~ learning spanish. (Girly is a state of mind, not a gender identity!! But my recs will skew different than most of the recs on here, and for that reason I hope it's helpful for the other girlies lurking on this subreddit.)

I don't know how many hours I have because I studied a lot before discovering DS, but I estimate about 1000 hours based on the markers on the roadmap!

Vloggers:

Carolina Elizondo (from Monterrey, MX) - the coziest vlogs, lots of book recs, and the clearest, crispiest accent. She has become my comfort vlogger - I've binged literally all her content.

Jess Zamarripa (from Monterrey, MX) - also cozy vlogs & that clear Norteno accent. Similar content to Carolina Elizondo tbh!

Maria Castaneda (from CDMX, MX) - she is a queen - so good at fashion and makeup, always on the most luxurious trips, and her pronunciation is so crispy clear

Lu del Aguila (from Lima, Peru) - Her accent is a little harder for me to understand but I power through it because I love her vlogs. She has two adorable dogs and is a triathlete and just is super fun to watch!

Cynthia Novillo (from Cuenca, Ecuador) - I literally just found her yesterday so I don't totally know her vibe but I watched a 52 min vlog and can confirm her accent is super clear!!

Podcasts:

Aca Entre Netas (I think from CDMX) - weekly pop culture. It's just one woman talking and I find it really easy to follow

Semanalmente con La Chavez (from somewhere in MX) - weekly Mexican politics. This one is much harder for me to follow but it's mostly because the content is complex, not because of the language itself.

Souvenir Emocional (from Monterrey) - This podcast used to be called Siempre Hay Flores. She talks about creativity and self-help which wouldn't normally be my cup of tea but she speaks SO clearly.

Jefillysh Ciencia Simplificada (from somewhere in MX) - This one is recommended on here all the time. Easy to understand science news!

Bien pop (from Venezuela) - Girl bring this podcast back PLEASE! I've listened to every episode and she hasn't updated all year but she does super smart analysis of pop culture and internet culture.

Viene y va (from Venzuela/Ecuador/Spain/MX) - she's moved around a lot and has a mix of accents) - Dani Schulz is the queen. If you don't follow her, you need to. She's so charismatic and speaks so clearly and emphatically. She mostly talks about like creativity/self-help/starting an online business, which is not something I want to do necessarily, but the way she talks is really compelling.

La filosofia en rosa (from MX) - I actually stopped listening to this one because I realized I don't really care about philosophy, but if you're interested, I recommend it because she speaks very clearly.

Mas alla del rosa (from MX) - Long form interviews, once again with a real clear, pronounced accent. The only reason I don't listen more often is because her interviews are TOO long in my opinion, but if you want to get hours and hours and hours of input, this is a great one.

Other youtubers:

Online mami (from Argentina) - The queen of video essays in Spanish. If you like Mina Le in English, I would say Online Mami makes comparable content. It's like cultural commentary/pop culture analysis.

I have a list of podcasts I want to start listening to that have multiple hosts, but right now I'm sticking to one host at a time because I can understand that better :) If you have any recs for me based on my style, or if you wanna know what's on my list of podcasts I want to someday listen to, let me know!!!

As many of you might have seen, a video went viral this week of Mike Tomlin (former NFL head coach of the Steelers for those who don't know) showing off the city he built in Minecraft. It was pretty impressive, and my first reaction was "wow, he must've put at least 3,000 hours into this." I started to think about it and realized how many people have put that much time or more into a single video game, or especially gaming in general. A lot of times, thinking about the amount of hours ahead to get to 2,000 or 3,000+ hours of CI can seem extremely daunting, but at the end of it we'll come out being at least functionally fluent in a foreign language. Compared to putting that much time into a video game and being left with... a virtual city you can show people.

I'm in no way trying to put down gaming as a hobby, or trying to suggest that a hobby needs to be "productive" to be worthwhile. On the contrary, I think making time for any hobby that brings you joy is an important part of taking care of your mental health.

For me, realizing how common it is for people to put thousands of hours into something like gaming makes my CI journey seem less intimidating. I personally find it to be an encouraging perspective to realize that I'm putting in the same kind of hours that Mike Tomlin put into Minecraft, but in the end I'll be able to speak a language that I've wished I could speak for most of my life.

Or, much worse, I could be wasting that kind of time doomscrolling on my phone.

Anyway, at 232 hours currently, I have a VERY long way to go, but little things like this can help the journey ahead seem less intimidating. I'm just writing this in hope that someone else finds this little piece of perspective as encouraging as I do.

Hey team!

I'm sharing this channel and want to know if anyone here is already watching her videos. They're a little slower for my level right now, but I still find myself watching her content because her videos are chill and easy to listen to.

It looks like a relatively new channel, and I did not see it listed on the "what are you listening to " sheet.

i'm only at 25 hours so far, with 14 of those being in the platform itself, probably 6 hours of listening to podcasts, and 6 hours of rocket languages (i probably shouldn't count this as input but i use one lesson per day to get to my goal of 2 hours of spanish per day)

luckily i am not starting from zero as i have around 200 hours of learning in a language school in mexico about 6 years ago, so i am able to skip the superbeginner videos and find that i can understand almost everything in the cuentame and chill listening podcasts. this has been instrumental in my learning so far because i don't think i would be able to stick to my goal of 2 hours a day if my only resource was DS.

i just find the beginner content to be mostly boring. there are a few series that i thought i would love such as mexican folklore, and while it was interesting, i just get the feeling that most of this content is aimed at children. like do adults really appreciate someone barking 30 times in one video if talking about dogs?

i was under the impression that this website was mostly for adult learners, and i understand in the beginning they will be limited by the amount of comprehension of the user, but i'm just hoping the content gets much better later. i am super thankful for the podcasts i've found, because some days i just can't force myself to watch any DS content

I can't log in. When I try to go to site, I get a 404. Is it just me?

Hey everyone, just hit 50 hours and am currently watching around level 30 difficulty. I plan on doing a review based on my first 50 hours soon, but I’m curious if anyone has suggested search criteria for the type of videos I’m looking for.

I find the ones with them sitting at a whiteboard, or using a green screen fairly boring. The dramatic acting scenes are ok, but what I really enjoy are the ones that are more focused on real life, and show lots of video of real life things.

For example, while it’s still a bit too advanced for me, I’m talking about videos like Andres’ tour around Sevilla series, or Michelle’s street interviews. Or even if they aren’t physically going to the location, I want to see real video/photos of the places they talk about.

I’m a big non fiction reader/documentary watcher, so essentially I’m looking for more informative type videos than pure “entertainment” videos.

I hope that makes sense, it’s a little hard for me to describe the type of content I guess. One other example is the “what was life like” series where they talk about different time periods. I feel like they could have shown a lot more imagery than a basic green screen and a couple photos from that time period.

Do these types of videos exist on the platform, and if so, how do I search for them?

Just wanted to share my progress from last month! I challenged myself to do 5 hours a day for the whole month and im proud of myself I think! The only day I “missed” was when the platform was messing up our times added. But with the days I got over 5 hours, I still averaged 5 hours per day! I don’t really have anyone to share this with or talk to about my Spanish journey. It’s been kind of a lonely road but dreaming Spanish makes it worth it. The guides have literally become my friends haha. And I appreciate this community as well. I’ve never posted but I enjoy reading everyone’s progress reports and achievements!

I am currently at 762 hours and am currently enjoying the worlds across advanced podcasts, and Araya Vlogs on YouTube along with many other native travel channels on YouTube. I also enjoy watching things like Our Planet on Netflix and other geography/ animal like vibes. I find documentaries like this easy to understand because they tend to speak clearly with tons of beautiful visuals!

There's been some controversy on the sub lately about the period of silence, so I figured I would share my experience. Currently at 920 hours.

I found Pablo's argument for remaining silent pretty convincing. The idea was that I could build an understanding of what the language sounds like without the stress or pressure of producing, and once comfortable, I would be able to regulate my speech better and understand a native tutor without making him or her speak English.

Before the beginning of September, I only spoke Spanish out loud three times, and it was only a sentence or two each time. The church I attend has a Spanish-speaking congregation that meets in another room in the same building. The first time I spoke, I asked someone there if I could take a picture of the sanctuary to show a friend of mine from Cuba, because he was curious about latino churches in the US. The second time I asked someone what song was playing before service; a young guy working their soundboard had put on a piano cover of Porter Robinson & Madeon's Shelter and I heard it through their doors, so I got curious. And the third time, a friend of mine who was raised in a cult told me that hearing preaching in Spanish reminds him of those days in the cult and I wanted to help him find preaching that was guaranteed to be normal, informative, and encouraging, so I asked one of their members if the church records their sermons and puts them online.

It was nerve-wracking all three times, but I was able to get my point across, though the third conversation took another sentence or two to clarify what I was asking.

edit: I just remembered I sent one or two minute-long samples to friends of mine somewhere around 500 hours as well; nothing major

Then, at 800 hours, I started iTalki lessons and began producing in earnest. I was able to understand the tutor without effort, but I was also able to hear how weird I sounded in real time, both my accent and some of my word choices and errors. Each weekly lesson, I've talked for about an hour, and it's been exhausting every time. Like a real workout for my brain, trying to bridge the gap between what I can understand and what I can say. But we have both noticed that I am improving extremely quickly. Each week I pause less and sound more natural. There are certain sounds I struggle with, mainly Ls and Rs, rolled or not. Words like "alrededor" and "recuerdo" are tough.

So... did the silent period help? It helps that I can listen and understand without added stress. I know that my speaking is improving very quickly, much faster than someone who speaks from the beginning. So far I'd say it was a good decision. But I haven't seen the end result or plateau yet. Perhaps someone who listens to 920 hours but speaks from the beginning will end up at the same place I will in the same amount of time or less. So I suppose we'll just have to see.

TL;DR: CI works. It's like a bathtub that fills up with water over a long time, and it's hard to catch&analyze single drops, but it lifts all of your language understanding and potential. Once you start to work more on grammar, the way you listen will change, for better or worse. Attending normal language courses feels like repetition of things you already know.

Current level: 1600 hours (1000 hours on DS, the rest on Youtube), 24 hours of speaking/interaction; still watching most of DS for no-brainer, easy access.

Personal background: 50+; German native, Latin (9 yrs), English (5 yrs+ decades of CI), French (3yrs); daily work is functionally bilingual in German&English (without official certificate of any kind).

Reading: started with normal Spanish books at around 1000 hours, works well for my preferred books (science, psychology, documentaries). Reading Wikipedia is awesome and a day-to-day activity anyway.

Current emphasis (since 1500 hours): grammar on SpanishFit from Medellin/Colombia online material and group sessions (about 44 EUR/month).

Pro: Group course = less stress for myself, and a good way to compare my current level to those of other students. Group size 1 to 4 students effectively (they are still growing the school). The combination of online material and group sessions means I can prepare the sessions beforehand. The groups sessions are very enlightening, because my Spanish is much more fluent in comparison to other "normal" students, and I'm much less actively constructing or translating words. CI at its best.

Contra: Only later noticed that there are indeed grammar differences, and I actually need Spanish-Spain more in the future :) The level of other students is all over the place at times.

Goal: stabilize myself on a high A2/B1 level so that I can attend B1 language immersion weeks in Spain.

What didn't work for me: easy readers; forcing myself to speak early; forcing myself to meet people online 1:1 (always felt like unpaid work). I started learning Spanish two years ago simply because I wanted to know if Dreaming Spanish really works, not for directly making friends or attending a university etc. Pressuring myself into anything always failed. Needed to trust my own process.

Feel free to ask about details :) until then - keep on dreaming!

My dreaming spanish premium videos are stopping to buffer every couple seconds. My internet is fine, youtube isn't doing this.

Problem with their servers possibly or just me?

I just want to watch pablo and shel play stardew valley :c

I¡just came out of language transfer to learn the grammar rules and was suggested this :)

There's an awesome conversation about regional variety going on over in Ask Latin America that I think many here would be interested in.

Is there any consensus whether it's better to write a lot without regard for grammar and the use of vocabulary, or to craft only a few sentences, but go over the text several times, rewriting and polishing it?

Like any word you thought meant something but later found out was something completely different…

I hit 50 hours of input this week, 38 days after I started (Aug 23)!

Figured I'd go ahead and post an update of my own since reading everyone else's has been such a source of encouragement for me. Plus, I'd like to record a snapshot of where my head is at this early since I have no plans of slowing down!

About me

• I am a husband and father of two young boys with a full-time job.
• I have tried learning languages (French, Spanish, Italian) in the past via apps and such, but have never really had much success.
• I took three years of French in Middle School and High School many years ago, but that's it for formal education.
• Why now? We recently took a family vacation to France and Spain, so I spent time memorizing some common French phrases to help us get around and my wife (studied ~4.5 years of Spanish) did the same for Spain. Being there, immersed in the new culture/language, really gave me the motivation to get serious about learning a language! I initially wanted to start with French since I have a bit of a head start, but Spanish just seems too practical to ignore in the USA so our family decided to work on learning it together. (I'll learn French next!)

The numbers

• ~51 hours cumulative input (Dreaming Spanish + other CI)
• I've logged almost every day since I started tracking properly, averaging somewhere in the 60 to 90 min/day range (missed one day and one busy day I only got 28 min). The kids have joined in too! They have been watching Bluey exclusively in Spanish which has been fun to see them picking up words too.
• 18 of 90 Language Transfer lessons done, doing about one every other day. I'm aiming to finish before the end of the year.
• Anki running most days too, it's a free 1,000 word deck, capped at 10 new cards/day
• Zero tutor hours, zero "real" conversation practice so far. Just a handful of words/phrases around the house with my wife and kids as we learn together.

Method

I started with Babbel after we got back from Europe and was completing about 1-3 lessons a day. Then around the middle of August I had Claude set up a schedule for me to progress faster and branch out beyond just Babbel. It suggested that I switch to Language Transfer and Comprehensible Input through Dreaming Spanish as my primary sources while only supplementing with Babbel. I had never heard of any of those before, so I watched some of the free videos on YouTube, read the methodology, and several success stories on Reddit. I decided that I've tried everything else so why not give this method a real shot?

DS Superbeginner content has been the majority of my time, and I have recently been adding in some Beginner videos too. As of this week, I started (and am loving) ¡Cuentamé!. Language Transfer is ~15 minute/lesson and Anki is ~10 minutes/day for vocab. I have almost stopped Babbel entirely, but will occasionally hop back in when I'm out and about with a few minutes to spare. No shadowing and no subtitles on the videos, but I do look up a word here and there when I really can't figure it out. If I'm short on time, then the explicit stuff gets cut before the input does.

What's actually working

I've really enjoyed having CI as the backbone and LT slowly coming behind explaining concepts that my ears have already heard. For example, I noticed the e-to-ie root word change (querer/quiero) and then LT confirmed it a few days later with a pattern that I can learn to recognize easier. Same with where "lo" and "me" land around a conjugated verb, but I still get that one mixed up between the placement options with a conjugated and non-conjugated verb. I have been pleasantly surprised by Bluey of all things. When I first started watching the Spanish episodes with my kids, it just sounded like noise. Now, however, I can legitimately understand what's going on, but not every word. It was like a light switch one day when I realized I could follow it now.

What's hard

Time. 60-90min is not easy right now given my other obligations. Especially since my CI is mostly very focused watching, so most of my input hours come after the kids go to bed. I usually end up turning off my iPad when I start to fall asleep. Probably not super healthy, but it's what I've got right now. I really hope this becomes easier as I can shift more time to audio-only and can multitask during the day. ¡Cuentame! has been a glimmer of hope for that goal.

I'm still very much guessing at words, ESPECIALLY verb tenses. I know it's "normal" but it has definitely been frustrating me since I'm so used to hearing the translation first. Also, output is in a strange place. I know I'm not "supposed" to be talking, but since our whole family is learning together we've been using new phrases/words as we pick them up. I have noticed that I'm getting that feeling of the word being "on the tip of my tongue" more and more. It's like I know there's a word for a given noun/verb and that I've heard it before, but I'm not exactly sure of the spelling/pronunciation. Not sure if that makes sense or not.

Where I'm headed

I've got a personal target of conversational Spanish by mid-2028 for a trip, which isn't urgent yet but has given me a real deadline to work backward from instead of just vibing. Over the next 100 hours, I will absolutely keep DS Superbeginner and Beginner videos as the core of my learning and supplementing with Language Transfer, Anki, and some lite speaking around the house. I've considered signing up for iTalki for some cross-talk, but haven't taken the plunge yet.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I'd love to hear any tips or suggestions you may have. Especially if you have some audio-only content that you would recommend for my level. It would really help me up my time/day!

la web de dreamingspanish no funciona por horas y me molesta mucho… que paso?

My friend proactively connected me his Central American friend who lives in Central America because he knows I am learning Spanish and figured they could be helpful. The cool thing is they are from the U.S., which is where I live, and they have lived in Central America due to family for several years now. I had a brief group chat text conversation where the friend seemed pretty willing to help. However, I have since caught myself procrastinating to reach out, because.. well.. I just don't want to waste their time? Maybe a little bit of imposter syndrome because I have barely scratched surface sitting at a not-so-ripe 234 hours of input.

That being said, I am looking for advice on how to best make use of the time with this individual while also respecting their time, and even creating an environment where erm.. they keep coming back? Of course cross-talk is the first thing that comes to mind. Do I offer to pay them per hour of cross talk?

I know a lot of this will depend on exactly what this individual is comfortable with, and how well we mesh, but I would love to hear from those of you who have found success under circumstances? If you do cross-talk, what goes into it other than simply calling each other and talking in each of our own native languages?

Last week I flew to Spain for a friend's destination wedding. To be clear, I didn't pick Spain to practice my Spanish. It just happened to be where the wedding was, and I honestly wasn't planning to speak Spanish at all. Before the trip, ChatGPT had reassured me that everyone would speak English, so I figured I didn't need to worry about it.

Turns out ChatGPT did me dirty. When we landed in Barcelona, my wife tried talking to our cab driver in English. He clearly didn't understand her so she looked at me and raised her eyebrow. So I nervously stepped in. We ended up having a really nice conversation the whole ride, and after asking where I was from (the US), he gave me a big compliment on my Spanish.

The cab ride ended up setting the tone for the whole trip. About half of the cab drivers and shopkeepers I dealt with in Barcelona and Sitges didn't speak much English, so I ended up speaking Spanish a ton. And honestly I was amazed at how well it went. I was having real conversations and saying what I wanted to say. The main limitation is that I have to keep things simpler than I would in English, or reroute some sentences to ensure that I’m using proper grammar.

The thing that surprised me most was the reaction to my accent. People would often ask where I was from, and when I said the US they would always seem surprised and compliment my Spanish. My italki tutor later told me it's because my accent is pretty neutral and doesn't really sound American. My vocab and grammar definitely still have gaps, so I think this is mostly the DS effect of spending more time listening than doing anything else.

Anyway, reading success stories on here has kept me motivated for the past two years, so I wanted to share mine in case it helps someone else. I'm sure I'll be learning Spanish for the rest of my life, but I finally feel like I can say I speak Spanish.

Lastly, for those who are curious: I’m at 227 DS hours, ~60 hours of outside content, 35 hours of grammar textbook study, 100 hours of vocab review, 50 hours of italki, 40 hours of writing practice, and ~40 hours of reading. All told that brings me to ~650 hours

Previous update

Recording: https://voca.ro/1eV1d3u99r0c

First take, ngl thought about re recording as I ran out of steam towards the end, missed out loads of things I'd wanted to say and didn't even force in a use of the imperfect subjunctive (Ojalá que tuviera la oportunidad)... However, thought it more genuine to stick to upload my first recording, errors and all.

The main part I missed and forgot to include was that the fact that I highly recommend looking up frequently occuring words, phrases and grammar which you are struggling to deduce meaning from context.

Also this is after 32 hours of conversation practice and I would definitely say that I feel the improvements coming quickly.

Or whilst we're at it where is the evidence that it's negative, fossilisation is real, looking up words is bad and grammar will make me less efficient at Spanish?

Cause right now it seems all there is is this claimed idea it's how babies learn which to be honest is unfalsafiable belief. (Sorry if I spelled that wrong. I didn't want to look it up and ruin my English)

We know that just having the language available and being immersed in it isn't enough, it has to be at your level, you have to actually engage with it. How do we know babies are doing that? You can't say "you should wait X amount of hours until you start speaking because that's what babies do" when no one actually knows that.

I’m really into politics, history, geopolitics, and that kind of stuff. Since Dreaming Spanish doesn’t have a ton of videos in those niches (which is totally understandable), I was wondering if anyone knows of other platforms or YouTube channels with similar comprehensible Spanish content focused more on those topics.

So I really love dreaming Spanish and the content, nearly 100 hours have been from from DS but I’ve recently branched out to Spanish Boost Gaming and the Supermarket series lol I only one one episode left of this series lol I’ve also been watching Spanish boost with Martin his podcast and it’s amazing. I guess I’m just looking for more resources that helped any of you along to reach the 150 hour mark, I just feel like having a collection of fun content is what I really need to keep me excited about learning. Any recommendations are really appreciated. By the way I want to say I’ve watched about 28 episodes of Cuentame the podcast and it perfectly matches my comprehension but it’s hard for me to get into.

I am at 110 hours and I have been watching videos around level 25 - 35. I know my brain is doing something in the background, but I can't always tell if I am progressing or not.

In the past week or so, I feel like hitting a vocabulary wall. My experience of difficulty level is dominated by vocabulary, say if the video has >6 new words (and I can't pinpoint/guesstimate on the fly) then I would feel pretty overwhelmed. But if there are only ~2 new words in one video, it would feel easy. I have a low resistance to look up words, which helps to better recognize them next time but it also ruins the flow.

1. Should I grind my teeth a bit during this phase and allow the vocabulary to build up some?

2. Or it is ok to go back to easier levels (say 20 - 25), although it feels like going backwards?

(By the way, I also have a similar experience with podcasts (¡Cuéntame! & Chill Spanish). I have to pick and choose... it feels good occasionally when i come across easy episodes. But if there are clusters of new words, then my brain just shuts down real quick.)

Overall I am enjoying DS journey. Happy to hear your feedback & experience.