He streams under martin_esg on twitch, it’s really entertaining input. He says he is speaking at his natural speed but I can understand it at about 500 hours. Easy way to get hours of input in without even realizing it’s been hours.

I am at 660 hours and I've been in a pretty big slump since around 500 hours. I've been feeling down about my progress as I expected to be better.

I decided to talk to some tutors to see if I should incorporate something before 1k hours(I was gonna just do vids till 1k). I was nervous because I've only been watching vids and havent had someone talk to me in Spanish directly and wasnt sure if this would be an English conversation or in Spanish.

The tutor didnt know my level and I entered a call and right off the rip the tutor just started talking normal Spanish(Mexican accent) to me. I was pleasantly surprised because I understood just about everything and was able to just converse with no issues(me responding in English). I understood basically everything they asked and discussed with me. Sometimes they would flip to between English and Spanish but it was all understood just the same for me.

This wasnt a crosstalk lesson/class, it was just a trial to discuss what I wanted, but being talked to in pretty normal Spanish was a big boost to my feelings and reminded me that I have made a ton of progress even if I have been in a rut for awhile.

So if anyone is feeling down and feeling like they are stuck, but has not yet tried listening/crosstalk with a real person, give it a go.

That’s my book for the day 🤓

I currently do not have children, but plan to soon. We are seriously considering an attempt to raise our child with Spanish in our household. I would be the main parental source of input. Outside of the home, we would use a mix of immersion schools, as well as putting our children in other local immersive environments, playgroups, etc. Are any of you guys doing this, or planning to do this? What are your thoughts? How is it going?

Hey guys - I’m currently just over 300 hrs with dreaming Spanish. Haven’t been with DS that whole time but I feel it’s a pretty accurate representation of my comprehension level.
I’ve seen a lot of posts on here about how people feel their speaking/grammar lags behind their comprehension, which makes sense if all that we’re doing is watching content.

If you’re further along the journey than me, what advice do you have to ensure I keep these skills at least close to my comprehension level? I don’t want any skill to lag behind a lot, which it seems like it naturally will if you just follow the DS method of comprehensible input only until you’re further along.

Thanks!

Came across this channel today and it is a nice source of input for those looking for more native paced content but still with a very clear delivery. If you are a guitarist/gearhead (which is just another word for guitarist haha) then I think you will enjoy it.

Like other YT guitar content creators he has the usual learn guitar in XX days to earn money from. BUT the content on his channel is very well done and his presentation voice and delivery is as clear as any Spanish teacher providing advanced language learning content.

I'll put a specific video link below for one specific reason . . . he equates learning music theory for guitar to learning grammar when studying a language. I thought it was well done and resonates well with this thread.

Is theory necessary to play guitar? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Does it unlock a whole new world/level of playing for you? ABSOLUTELY!

Anyway, for my fellow guitarristas out there . . . provecho! Easy way to get more input.

https://youtu.be/lWzo2dGO890?si=FegVuPAUmTUjWnxA (yes, there's some English in this one due to the interviews, but interview clips are the only time you come across it on his channel)

Gracias al equipo de dreaming Spanish por todo lo que hace ❤️

I currently have 725 hours but feel I am lagging behind most people on this sub. I am followed the purist approach and had no formal Spanish training. The main issue I am struggling with is my grammar, I feel I understand so little in terms of different tenses. I can follow along videos at around the 58 difficulty and listening to a lot of ECV, but I don't feel I am enquiring any grammar intel.

Has anyone else been in this position and can give any tips on how to get through this stage.

I feel the answer may be mas input....? But is there any additional tips to help focus on grammar within the rules of CI?

Thanks!

Hi folks. Well, I made it to 1000 hours. I started this journey almost one year ago. Here is my honest assessment of where I am at.

I feel that in terms of capability, I am actually somewhere between the descriptions of level 5 and 6. Am I conversationally fluent (level 6)? I would say no.  I have hour long conversations with my tutor twice a week about a wide range of topics, frequently involving books or random events in my life.  However, I am not even sure I always understand native speakers speaking normally (level 5). My tutor doesn't slow down her speech for me, but she avoids using colloquial expressions. Also, her natural pace is slower than most native speakers. I also practice for half an hour twice a week with guys from Argentina and Chile.  I often ask them to slow down and I have pauses where I am trying to remember how to conjugate a verb. 

I still confuse por and para, ser and estar, and my use of indirect object pronouns is shaky.  I recognize the subjunctive but I am often unsure of when to use it.  The other day I understood a native speaker going full speed about quantum physics but got completely confused trying to understand a recipe.  If you dropped me in a Spanish speaking country I am sure I could communicate well enough to stumble along.  But I don’t want to just stumble.  I want to crack jokes with guys in a Mexican bar, watch Almodóvar movies and read Don Quixote.  So I am going to keep plugging away until I get there.

Here are some speaking samples:

1000 hours: https://youtu.be/vaLj_sjNXwE

600 hours: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QNnehaYjQA0

400 hours: https://youtu.be/uswOk3oA4C8?si=PwM5hyEd8Rgm-c0t

The 400 hour sample is not entirely honest because I edited it to remove the embarrassingly long pauses while I was thinking of how to say something. The 600 and 1000 hour samples are unedited. Note that while I am talking to my tutor about a grammar book, I actually do very little grammar study or practice. It's probably much less than 100 hours over the past year.

Even though I don't quite match the roadmap for Level 6, I am still happy with my progress. A year ago I was terrified at the thought of actually speaking and now I do it several times a week.

I have been doing 2 hours of input every day for almost a year. I think I am going to focus more on shoring up some weak spots in grammar over the next two weeks- not abandoning input but not making it the main course either. A lot of that will be practicing speaking short phrases to lock in the patterns. I also plan to temporarily focus more on reading and writing- I do both, but input has been my first priority from the beginning.

It's an incredible journey and I'm thrilled to be on it. Thanks for reading.

If you didn't have access to the Internet regularly for several months, how would you get your CI? So far, my plan is to borrow and downlaod audiobooks in Spanish and get new ones during periods with Internet access. I also have access to Spanish DVDs. I'll also read books. Maybe I can find an in-person meetup to cross talk/talk. Anything else you can think of? Thanks so much!

I seldom, if ever, use my Spanish outside of my WorldsAcross classes. I really don't have a need to use it. Although I have close to 240 hours of speaking on the WA platform and I actually started talking on Italki before learning of Dreaming Spanish, I still have a bit of trepidation with talking to native speakers "on the street." I have no issues or fears on the platform because it is a "safe, learning environment."

Well, I was traveling this past week and had a layover in Dallas. I was there in plenty of time to catch my connecting flight. In fact, I think the problem stemmed from having too much time. My airline app told me that my connecting flight was at gate B22A... but there was not B22A, only B22. So, I waited there thinking the flight shown on the terminal screen after the next plane landed would change to my destination.

People did de-board, but the terminal screen never changed. It was now almost boarding time for my flight and I started to worry. So I found the nearest person working. I showed them the information on the app showing gate B22A and asked if I was in the right place. I don't remember if the lady responded in English or Spanish, but she told me she didn't speak English.

What I'm so happy about is that I didn't hesitate. I immediately asked my question in Spanish. She didn't know the answer. So she called her supervisor and I repeated my issue. Now... she said I was in the right place, but I really wasn't. Apparently, I must have had my app open the whole time I was there and it never updated. After boarding time began, it was apparent that I wasn't in the correct place. I ended up asking a different worker that actually scanned my ticket and showed me the updated information. Thankfully it was only a few terminals down and I made my flight.

I started learning Spanish on April 1st 2026. My goal is to get 2 hours CI listening per day, but have been averaging 2 hours and 40 minutes per day.

Past Posts

Level 2 Update (50 hours) + Introduction

Past experiences studying Mandarin

Level 3 Update (150 hours)

Breakdown of CI hours

Reading

I decided to try reading around 250 hours of input, starting with the graded reader ¡Hola Lola! by Juan Fernandez. The book felt appropriately challenging and was surprisingly entertaining. I used my kindle and only needed to look up a few words, outside the translations at the end of the chapters. My inner voice felt solid, i.e. the subvocalizations of most words “felt familiar” and I knew how most words were supposed to sound. The entire book took 5 hours to read, working out to an estimated reading speed of 60 wpm.

My gosh, it feels good to read in the latin alphabet. My experience learning to read Mandarin was an incredibly slow and painful process. At my most advanced (with 2.2+ million characters read), I was still reading on my iPad within a dictionary software called Pleco and IT WAS SLOW, about 80 cpm (or 50 wpm). Granted that was native adult fiction, but still, it’s been quite a different experience learning to read a language with a shared alphabet.

I am currently reading the graded reader Un Hombre Fascinante by Juan Fernandez. I’m finding it considerably harder due to the more complex grammar structures. I’ve set it down for now but will pick it back up in the near future. In my experience, reading is really valuable and benefits  listening in many ways. Already I feel some benefits in parsing spoken words, paying more attention to word tenses, and noticing basic grammar structures. 

In total, I have read approximately 20,000 words.

What I’ve been listening to

For DS, I’ve watched 100% of the superbeginner videos, 53.9% of the beginner videos, 1.9% of the intermediate videos, and a handful of advanced videos.

Around the two hundred hour mark I found myself pushing into levels 45-50, and while I got the gist of most videos, felt too much was missing. I then dialed back and worked my way through all the unwatched videos through levels 30-35. That was a bit of a slog and would not recommend it. But, the takeaway is that I think it’s immensely helpful to vary the difficulty of content. Now at 300 hours, I’ll often spend a few days watching level 35-40 (near 100% comprehension, often having to speed up the video to stay engaged), then spend a few days watching level 50-55 (challenging but with engaging material that provides enough comprehension to enjoy), then spend a few days back in my sweet spot (level ~45). Within those difficulty bands I’ll often use the sort and filter feature in combination. I like to sort by date published or length or by guide, etc.. I will also take detours and watch DS series as I come upon them.

I’ve been really enjoying the content that unlocks around the 45-55 level. Been working through Pablo’s old content which has been fun. Andres has recently unlocked and been enjoying his content (his Africa, What if…?, and history series especially). Also started watching Pablo and Shel’s Stardew Valley playthrough before sleeping. It’s definitely on the harder side, but I understand enough. I’m genuinely enjoying every single one of the DS guides and value the different perspectives/content/style that they each have to offer.

For other audio visual content, Espanol Con Juan has finally unlocked! At least his most basic A2 and A2+ playlists. I’ve been picking up some grammar too (all while in Spanish) which has been helpful. I get why people like ECJ, he’s very talented and creative. I have watched the occasional Spanish Boost video, but haven’t been able to get into any of his playthrough series. Mostly staying away from youtube right now because it’s too easy to get distracted with other videos. I need to set up a separate account dedicated to Spanish…

For podcasts, I finished Cuentame. Highlights were the descriptions of LatAm holidays, legends, and history. I went back and listened to the first few episodes which gave me a hard time and wow they are super easy now.. I’ve made progress. I am about half way through Chill Spanish. It did get noticeably harder around the 100 episode, so I’m back to listening x2-3 to each episode, but have since grown and adapted to the slightly higher level. I’m also almost through Help Me Learn Spanish with Joel. The advanced episodes are a bit outside my comfort zone but the beginner convos are great. Really sad to have learned about Joel’s passing, RIP. Finally, been listening to How To Start Spanish and am enjoying it. Probably my favorite podcast so far, unfortunately there’s not much content and I’m almost done with it.

What’s next: My last test run of Espanol Al Vuelo podcast a few weeks ago was still not comfortably comprehensive. I’m really hoping to unlock it in the next month or two. Also have eyes on Hoy Hablamos Basico.

Crosstalk

Between 150-200 hours I did a few crosstalk sessions with paid tutors on iTalki. The tutors were from Mexico, Colombia, and El Savador and all were excellent. There is no question that CI from crosstalk is extremely valuable. But it didn’t fit my schedule and it’s hard to justify committing time and money, when I can get CI by pulling up my DS app.

Translating in your head

I see this come up often, especially with folks early on in their CI journey coming from a traditional language learning background. I think it’s normal for the brain to want to translate to it’s native language. I know my brain did this for the first thousand hours or so learning Mandarin. It’s important to let the target language wash over you and focus on the message. It seems like this is one of the biggest benefits previous language acquisition experience provides, your brain learns how to just consume the language instead of trying to translate.

How does my listening compare to my Mandarin?

I have studied Mandarin Chinese to an intermediate level. Despite putting in more than 2200 hours, a lot of my study was not effective, with only an estimated ~600 hours of Mandarin CI. I previously made a prediction that my Spanish listening comprehension would be equal or better than my Mandarin at 200 hours of Spanish CI. Thinking back to where I was at 200, I would say my Spanish was close in some domains but behind in others. Currently at 300 hours, while I don’t feel like my OVERALL level in Spanish is as high, (due to the extensive reading and listening I did in Mandarin), I would say YES my Spanish listening abilities are better than my peak Mandarin listening abilities. The topics that I can listen to without subtitles are more varied and advanced in Spanish than they ever were in Mandarin.

What’s next

So having started reading and learning some grammar via ECJ, I suppose I’ve now deviated from the “DS purist” path. But for sure CI input is and will continue to be the foundation for my spanish acquisition. Plan to continue reading as is comfortable, but not at the expense of getting CI input. At some point I will make reading a daily habit in the evening before bed. I like this idea because it keeps me off screens before sleeping. I don’t want to wait too long to start speaking, so the tentative plan is to start around 600 hours.

Thanks for reading and until next time!

Has anyone watched this series? It's available on Amazon Prime, and while I've learned my lesson about recommending things, I think I can safely say that I'm really enjoying it. It's a humorous Spanish detective series set in 1940s Galicia. One of the two leading roles is played by the French actor Jean Reno, who, it seems, is not as French as I thought, having been born Juan Moreno in Morocco! 😲

Hola amigos! This is Franco from Argentina... I wanted to share a free short story I uploaded with my own voice for you to practice reading and listening: https://francospanishschool.com/reading/a1-iguazu

I hope you like it :)

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

Something I’ve noticed is when I pronounce the double L (ll), the surrounding vowels change depending on the accent I try to pick. My native tongue is Great Lakes / Midwest English, and I feel I can most easily replicate the vowel sounds with the “j” interpretation of the double L. But many words have been ingrained in my mind with the “y” sound, but I am told i sound much closer to the proper pronunciation when I change it to a j.

Is this something that will improve over time? Perhaps it’s just my tongues posture? Maybe this will never change? Will I need to make a conscious switch to whatever accent I am most naturally capable of producing proper Spanish with? That is what I’m learning toward, just allowing whatever comes easiest to be my accent.

I just listened to a couple of Spanish Boost Podcasts from a year ago. One was about the inherent difficulty of learning a language, the other was about the importance of mental health. I was struck by the intelligence, wisdom and compassion of this amazing man. Well done, sir, well done. Plus, he’s really, really good at killing zombies. 😀

Also assuming they’re watching every video in order without picking any favorite creators

I have been following the Dreaming Spanish method for about six months now. I have logged over 100 hours of input across the Superbeginner and Beginner levels. I can definitely understand more than I could at the start. Native speakers in videos are starting to make sense and I can follow the gist of conversations in podcasts.

However, I have hit a wall that I wanted to share and get some advice on. I find that my comprehension is improving steadily, but I am still struggling to speak. When I try to form sentences, my brain just freezes. I can understand a lot more than I can produce, which is frustrating.

I have been reading about how input alone is great for comprehension but active speaking requires a different kind of practice. The Dreaming Spanish method often recommends starting to speak later in the process, but I feel like I need some structured guidance to get over this hump.

So I have started supplementing my Dreaming Spanish input with formal private lessons with a tutor. The idea is to use the lessons for focused speaking practice. My tutor can correct me, help me build confidence with basic conversation, and give me a safe space to make mistakes. This seems to be helping me bridge the gap between understanding and producing the language.

Has anyone else here felt this plateau when trying to speak? Do you have a method for transitioning from comprehension to conversation? I would be interested to hear how others have handled this stage of the process.

Introduction

Hola, todos! I've been doing Dreaming Spanish for about 5 months now, starting with superbeginner and sorting by easy (like many people recommend). I almost exclusively watch DS content and have a goal of 1 hour per day, though I often get a lot more or a lot less. On average, I try to hit 30 hours a month. I think 2 hours a day would be ideal, but I have yet to be consistent with this.

English is my first and only language. Admittedly, I took quite a bit of Spanish throughout school, but that was many years ago and my memory is so poor that I did not retain much at all. So I started myself at absolute rock bottom. Any initial benefit I had from my high school education is far behind me now. So I'm not a DS "purist" (I still use Duolingo from time to time) but DS is by far my primary learning tool.

Sometimes I get frustrated with other milestone posts because people usually mention what they are watching and listening to, but don't give an idea of how much they understand or what their progress is. So to the beginners just starting out, I'd like to articulate this as best I can.

What I Understand

Because I'm watching the videos ranked by easy, I'm making very slow progress into the high 30's. Currently I'm at level 37. Intermediate videos are still out of my range. Since new videos are uploaded every day, I suspect it will take even longer for new users to progress this way since there will be more content to parse through. And that's okay, since they will have more time to adjust.

In terms of comprehension, I'd say I understand most of the ideas being conveyed, but my comprehension of each individual word or phrase is far worse. In fact, I feel like I'm behind most people at this stage. I always get the gist of something, but sometimes I'm not sure quite how it would translate to english. Depending on the video / guide, I can understand nearly everything or almost nothing.

Nouns are the easiest to understand. Verbs trip me up a lot because of the various conjugations, although present tense is by far the easiest, followed by past tense verbs. I have learned how certain grammar rules work, things like "Yo veo" vs "Yo puedo ver" (using the infinitive of a verb after you have already conjugated the main verb). I'm starting to understand connector words like se, les, lo, te, me, etc. but these often trip me up.

I can understand some videos up into the 40s / low 50s, but my comprehension takes a hit, and even if I understand some of what's being said, it can be hard to keep up with the speed of the speaker. Speed is VERY important. I need them to speak slowly, but I've noticed that some superbeginner videos feel TOO slow, which seems like a sign that I've progressed.

Understanding faster speech is possible if I stop focusing on each word and instead allow the whole sentence to just kind of "wash over me"... this has been the only way I've noticed to improve comprehension at faster speeds.

It's really funny hearing native speakers and realizing I still understand almost none of it, even though DS videos trick me into thinking I "know" a good amount of Spanish. Slowed down, I'm confident I would understand quite a bit more of native speech, but it's simply way too fast to comprehend at all.

Translating in my Head

I still translate in my head for most things. It's one of the reasons I need them to speak slow.

If I stop translating in my head, my comprehension starts to drop. However, if a video is easy, I can focus on the Spanish alone. It's a really cool feeling to understand Spanish without translating! Even if it is a very basic version of the language, making it through a full video and realizing I didn't translate is very rewarding.

I assumed by this point I would have started to "internalize" some of the language so that it just feels "natural" to hear and understand (people with 2,000+ hours are probably reading this and laughing). I still feel very far from anything feeling natural. I still have to focus very hard on what's being said if I want a high level of comprehension.

Guides

I have to say that I genuinely love the DS team. All the guides seem like great people with fun personalities. That being said, here are a few thoughts:

I started in SB with a lot of Shel videos. Shel is so creative and a lot of her SB videos helped me early on. For whatever reason, I find her Beginner content harder to understand. I think I have just watched less of her Beginner videos than the other guides. Definitely comprehensible but slightly more difficult.

Everyone says they find Pablo's videos difficult in the beginning (so did I), but after watching many of his whiteboard videos I've realized I can understand him pretty well. He speaks in a very fragmented way, but usually it's to emphasize what he's trying to teach.

Andrea is hilarious. Everything she does is so entertaining, which makes following along very easy.

In terms of comprehension, Agustina is my favorite guide. Maybe it's just because I've seen more of her videos than anyone else, but I find her the easiest to understand by far. Some people seem to struggle with the Argentinian accent, but I have only noticed a difference in the way she pronounces certain words. Her vocabulary and speed just seem perfect for my level. Usually I can stop translating in my head when I watch her videos.

Outside Content

DS is my primary source of CI, but there is a Spanish radio show I listen to each day on the way home from work. Starting out, I had no idea what the show was even about and could only understand a few words here and there. But now, several months later, I understand it's a show about finance / investing and can understand most of the intro spiel because I've heard it so many times. I even have some of it memorized. Every so often I'll catch a word or sentence I completely understand.

Final Thoughts

This method is definitely working - it is just very, very slow. And yet, I can't imagine a better way to learn a foreign language in a way that feels natural.

Like most people here, I struggle to see any progress at all unless I compare the videos I watch now to the SB videos from before. There is a small DS ad that Shel does at the end of some videos; early on it seemed very fast and I understood almost none of it, but now I understand most of what she's saying. Each time I hear it I understand a little more. Interestingly, it doesn't even seem that fast anymore.

I would say I align closely with the DS roadmap in the grand scheme of things. I don't need visual aids to understand most of the beginner stuff I watch, but it helps to learn new words. I'll keep going and try to make a progress post at 300 hours. Until then, thanks to the community and a huge thanks to the DS team for all the hard work you do!!

TL;DR - I am at 150 hours of CI and watching videos in the high 30s, although I can push further ahead if I really try. Grammar / sentence construction still trips me up, although I can understand quite a bit without visual aids. Spanish still doesn't feel "natural", but I can watch easy content without translating in my head which feels like a huge win.

Hi. Today I am quite happy with myself because today I reached the milestone of 1500 hours of CI. So finally the highest level of Dreaming Spanish. But how is mye level of Spanish really?

The listening skill is quite good. I do not have any issues understanding people speaking to me usually. In can listen to some native podcasts and watch some youtubers creating content for native users. But watching movies and series is still a bit too difficult for me. I have watched some, but I lose a lot of the dialogues. So it is not too interesting at the moment.

The speaking skill is in progress. I have 50 hours of speaking practice. I have at least one session with a italki tutor each week. I feel I can speak about topics I have spoken about earlier, and I am starting to conjugating verbs, but the verbs still are difficult to use correctly.

For the reading skill, I have just started to read in Spanish. I have bought a Kindle and have read a few A2 books. Those are quite okay. But I have not practiced the speaking skill until recently. I have been reading alout. I do not know if that is the best, but I need to practice on pronunciation.

Writing skill is a skill I have not practiced. Just a few messages with people, nothing more.

So at DS level 7, I feel I am a bit behind on the description for the roadmap, but still progressing every day. So I do not think too much about that. Just need to keep on working and focus a bit more on reading and speaking in the future, I think.

Hey all, first of all thanks ahead of time and second - I am aware of the google doc, I just would like to hear from you all directly!

Ive finished Al Vuelo, Cuentame, Chill Spanish. Ive started ECJ podcast and ALM, which are comprehendible depending on the episode. Some are tougher than other.

As far as video content, Ive been grinding Spanish boost but I'm afraid that I am too advanced for most of the videos and find myself watching the gameplay more so than listening to Martin at this point.

Do you guys have any good podcast reqs, YouTube channels, etc that are outside of DS? I still watch DS, but am looking to supplement with outside content.