u/Barbeque_Chicken_

https://voca.ro/1fLyvOJJVUcO

Hola Todos!

Here’s my first speaking sample at 492 hours of CI (no practice or script). I also have read ~ 150k words, all from graded readers up to this point. I also have 9 hours of speaking practice using italki. Two other resources I use is Anki (Refold ES1K deck) and language transfer for grammar.

I want to record my speaking progress between now and whenever I reach 1,500 hours so I will update the community with more speaking samples at 800 and 1200 hours, in addition to my level 5 and level 6 progress reports.

Please let me know what you think! I take all feedback as something that I can learn from and work on. And maybe this speaking sample can be useful to someone around my same number of hours or someone just getting started.

Muchas gracias!

I told myself back in May that I’m going to take advantage of my free time this summer and replace all of my dead time with Spanish and it’s paid off. Since reaching 400 hours, a lot more podcasts such as Español con Juan, and Learn Spanish and Go, have become more accessible for me which has been cool to see because 2 months ago they were both still too difficult for me. It really does get easier to rack up more hours per day once you get to that early intermediate level!

I can't remember the last time I finished a book purely for leisure and enjoyment. Though I always liked the idea of reading and immersing myself in a world of countless stories, it has always been something more theoretical than practical. I've also always wanted to learn Spanish because of how many people speak it around where I live, and how useful it is to know as a second language.

As I've been learning Spanish these last few months, an idea popped in my head: to really improve when learning other languages, you have to read a lot (extensive reading I believe it is called). And reading extensively is something I did not even do in English, let alone in another language. But I thought to myself if I want to get serious about Spanish I'm going have to start reading starting from the basics like graded readers. The only issue is that there was a lot of mental friction for some reason with the idea of buying a ton of physical books.

Then, as I was browsing the internet the other week, I realized that Prime Day was less than a week away and all the Kindle models were going to be on sale! The timing could not have been any more perfect. Though it almost felt like an impulse buy, I realized that an e-reader was exactly what I needed to try and start reading again. I spent a few days doing research leading up to Prime Day and came to the conclusion that the Kindle Paperwhite was the best option for me because of the bigger size screen and the warm light adjustment (for reading at night before bed). Actually, I got the Paperwhite Kids version (same hardware but includes a cover, 2-year warranty, and 6 month amazonkids+ subscription) which seemed like a better deal than the standard Paperwhite alone.

Though it's only been a week, I can confidently say buying a Kindle has been one of the best buys I've made in a long, long time. Being able to have all the books I'm interested in one centralized library combined with the reading experience on the Paperwhite is invaluable. In only one week, I've already read eight A1 graded readers in Spanish, with plans for many many more in the future. The Kindle Paperwhite has made reading not just fun, but effortless for me! It's now something I've been doing for 30 minutes to an hour before going to sleep every night. Instead of spending time on my phone doomscrolling or not being productive, I now look forward to having some quiet time where it's just me and my Kindle without any outside interference (I had the Kindle app on my phone and that was also a bit of friction for me).

I'm just so happy a device so small can already have such a profound impact in my day-day. It's made reading again fun and effortless. I already feel like my comprehsion of Spanish has improved and it's only been a week of me reading simple stories for beginners on my Kindle Paperwhite! I've already made an excel spreadsheet with dozens of books I remember reading when I was a child like Esperanza Rising and The Hunger Games, that I plan to re-read in Spanish in the future once my comprehension improves enough as goals to motivate myself to keep reading.

Alright, off to do some more reading!

I’m curious to know who else has listened to this podcast because I don’t see it mentioned much on here. I think this podcast is really good! The speaker is Mexican, she speaks at a good pace, and episode topics are usually about interesting things about Mexico like history, culture, and fun facts (I'm only 12 episodes in so far).

I think it’s a great podcast for anyone ~ 300 hours or more. I find it slightly more challenging than Español Al Vuelo and similar to Español a la mexicana in comprehensibility for reference. I highly recommend especially for those who are past podcasts like Chill Spanish and Spanish Boost and want to listen to a Mexican accent.

Qué Tal Chicos y Chicas,

It took a long time but I finally hit 300 hours. I posted last month after taking a HUGE break from learning Spanish due to devoting a lot of time towards school for the last six months. Luckily, I'm on summer break until end of August so I have all summer to get back into DS and comprehensible input. I don't want to make this too long so I'll try to summarize how things are going right now.

Starting After a Six Month Break

I was really nervous starting up again last month after going so long without listening to any Spanish. Well, not totally without any Spanish, I counted up how many hours I spent listening to podcasts between December and May and it added up to about 24 hours, which I added to my total before I got back into watching videos. Surprisingly, it only took me about 3-4 days of listening before I was almost back to where I left off. It was a relief to know that all that Spanish I learned for the first 240 hours were still in my head somewhere, I was just rusty. There were lots of words I had forgotten but once I heard them again in context I was able to regain their comprehension.

My Learning Approach

I honestly still very much enjoy getting a lot of my input from DS, right now it's about 248 hours from the platform and 52 hours from podcasts. I've been averaging close to 3 hours a day between watching videos and listening to podcasts. I've been super motivated since starting back up again 5 weeks ago and have not gone a day where I didn't hit my 60 minute goal of getting input. One thing that's been helpful to me is I've been listening to a lot more podcasts recently and do so whenever there is dead time: cooking food, going for a walk, at the gym, driving, etc. but I only count 70% of my listening time into DS to account for moments when I'm not fully focused, which works for me. I also use Anki (refold ES1K Anki deck of 1,000 most commonly used words) which has been a huge boost to the speed at which I can comprehend Spanish and will watch a random YouTube grammar video once in a while whenever a random thing pops in my head. For example, recently I kept hearing the word Quedar used in a bunch of different ways so I just became curious and watched a video on it's uses, just to help me notice it when I hear it again later on.

What I Can Listen to and Watch Right Now

Right now I can watch DS videos level 50-55 pretty comfortably with 85%-90% comprehension, depending on the specific video topic. But I still spend a lot of time watching videos in the 30s and 40s because it helps me pick up some different vocab/grammar stuff along the way and there are just some times like during the end of the day when I'm tired but still want to watch a video in Spanish so I put on a beginner video so I can just enjoy it without taxing my brain. I also listen to podcasts like Espanol Al Vuelo, Languatalk, and Spanish Boost with 85%-90% comprehension on most episodes, but I still listen to Cuéntame! and Chill Spanish because again, there are times where I just want to throw on an easier podcast to listen to and I still end up learning new vocab words when I listen. Every once in a while I'll watch a level 60 video to push myself but I definitely have to be locked in when I watch or I lose some words and sentences.

My Plan for the Rest of the Summer

I've been averaging 3 hours a day of input and I think I can maintain that average for the rest of the summer. My goal is to hit 500 hours by the start of September. I'm hoping that with another 200 hours of input, it will be a lot easier for me to listen to different podcasts and for the ones I'm currently listening to, to be even easier to comprehend. That way when I start school again, I can shift a lot more of my input time to podcasts listening during my 30 minute commute to and from school. And that way even if I get busy again with studying, I can almost guarantee 45 min - 1 hour a day just from listening to podcasts on my drive. I also realize now after a long break from CI that motivation comes and goes and what is more important to reach my goals it to develop and implement daily habits of watching and listening so they just become part of my daily routine versus something I have to talk myself into doing.

I hope this gives others some encouragement to keep pushing, even if you took a long break from CI and DS like I did! We'll all get there eventually with enough time and exposure to the language!

Ciao!