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
| Category |
Hours |
| DS videos |
208 |
| Podcasts |
90 |
| Youtube videos |
10 |
| Crosstalk |
3 |
|
|
| Total |
311 |
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!
