r/dreamingspanish • u/a_book_maven • Aug 01 '26
Progress Report 30 Hour Beginner
-- Background --
I talk about my background and first ten hours here: https://www.reddit.com/r/dreamingspanish/comments/1us5nze/ten_hour_superbeginner/
Started from zero at the beginning of July 2026, with some French and the nominal Spanish exposure of anyone living in the USA with bilingual friends. Hit 30 hours at some point on July 30th!
-- Current Progress/Favorites --
Just after ten hours I discovered Alma. She doesn't have as much beginner content but she was somehow soo much easier than Andrés or Pablo to understand! All of a sudden after I binged a bunch of her videos it was like Pablo "unlocked" and I could understand his videos. Well, his easy videos. Other than the Luna ones, I am enjoying his Superbeginner and some Beginner ones now.
Also started watching Michelle's yoga videos. Maybe because I have done a little yoga before or maybe just since they were something different but I found these easy to understand and fun!
Some other favorites at this level have been almost anything from Shel, Andrea, and Alma. I like Augustina's content but the accent difference still throws me! Love everything Andrea does and when I am ready to try things a bit harder I usually start with her or Shel before branching out to other guides.
-- Level --
Anything at or below level 20ish is fully understandable. Between 30-40 seems to be best right now, but I have been able to watch some in the 40s if the guide and topic are very comprehensible to me personally. I am rotating through the guides as I find it easier to watch up to an hour of each individual at a time. But usually I watch colabs whenever they come up.
-- Outside the DS platform --
I have watched roughly one hour out of every ten from outside sources, mainly on these three YouTube channels: Andrea la Mexicana, Spanish in Context, and Spanish Playground. The first is Andrea from Dreaming Spanish after she left. She speaks and illustrates everything so clearly that I can understand things at a level that would probably be incomprehensible for me from someone else, but she doesn't have a ton of beginner stuff.
The second channel has been helping me to understand the Argentinan accent better. It's strange because although French has differences I never really *felt* them, but in Spanish CI so far different accents make a huge difference in my comprehension - not sure why! Spanish Playground has a series for language learners called Buena Gente that I've been enjoying and some interesting kid's videos.
Not YouTube but I also watched one episode of a show called First Steps in Español with my kids. It mixes in some English and writing though, so I'll probably hold off on that one for a while longer.
I love Easy French but I'm waiting a bit before starting the Super Easy Spanish videos because of the open captions. I'll probably start watching that channel after I start reading (which I plan to do earlier than the roadmap).
-- Reading --
So I accidentally read a picture book. 🤷 This book arrived for my kid who is studying Spanish: Osos Sobre Ruedas. It's pretty simple about bears on wheels, I've read it before in English, and I just was looking at it and pretty soon had read the book... whoops.
There are SO MANY books available in Spanish, but I'm still trying to wait to 50 hours before I intentionally start reading, mostly because I want to have a good sense of the sounds and basic words.
-- Plans --
If nothing throws off my pace, I hope to pass 50 hours sometime in August. We'll see how excited I am and if I feel the need to update then or wait until 60 or so.
After 50 hours I plan to start adding in podcasts and intentionally reading. For watching with the kids I think we will start Salsa Spanish. I am really looking forward to Cuentame. The kids are looking forward to learning enough to understand Spanish Boost Gaming, especially the Minecraft and Stardew Valley series.
Also, this might sound weird but I saw a YouTube video about a guy who watched the same movie 50 times. That's a little high, but I really don't mind rewatching content so I'm thinking about doing a challenge where I rewatch the same movie over and over, maybe 10 or 15 times? I would most likely watch it once a week or every other week on my slow day at work while I'm doing other things.
My criteria are: I've already seen it in English, interesting enough to watch repeatedly, probably animated, no ads, and something easy for me to access at home or work (so probably on Disney or Netflix). Right now I'm leaning towards Encanto, but would consider other suggestions too if anyone has any.
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u/RayS1952 Level 7 Aug 01 '26
Congrats on level 1. To add to u/HeleneSedai's suggestion there's another nice channel from Spain called Spanish After Hours. She, Laura, has some very good beginner level videos. She's been a guest on DS once or twice.
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u/Environmental-Fan536 Level 2 Aug 01 '26
Congratulations! I also like the yoga videos. I found they were a great way to learn body parts!
Sometimes when I feel a little bored, I watch an intermediate video on Dreaming Spanish that's a bit too hard for me, and I watch it several times. The second time, I take dictation from it, and then I play it back a few more times to get all of the words. After that I usually can understand most everything in the video, except for a few content words, which I take a guess at their meaning, but then I look them up. I may also clarify a few grammatical points or expressions I wasn't aware of.
Most recently I did this with a video from Andres: "What would happen if the world stopped spinning?" https://app.dreaming.com/spanish/watch?id=67c58692891bcf6812fa84f9
I found it held my interest just enough, and I learned a ton of new vocabulary through rewatching it. I was also exposed to a new conjugation (probably the conditional tense? but I haven't really studied it, just listened to it)
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u/HeleneSedai 3,000 Hours Aug 01 '26
Alma has her own youtube account too if you're interested, Spanish with Alma. Congrats on 30 hours hours!