Level 3 report - reward system hacked with gaming
Previous exposure: Nada (which was literally 30% of my vocabulary) + 15 levels of Duolingo earlier this year.
Language talent: German was the only subject I could never comprehend and after 7 years at school I don't know it at all. My English is C2, started in highschool I was best at school and after 6 months my English overtook 4 years of my German. Im native Polish.
At the start of the year, I decided to learn Spanish. I started with Duolingo, and an AI early on suggested Dreaming Spanish. I watched a superbeginner video, understood maybe 10%, got discouraged, and stuck to Duolingo.
Mid-February, I gave DS another chance. This time, I was getting 60-80% of superbeginner videos, so I started watching more regularly, though I still struggled to get 30-60 mins daily. Quickly, I reduced Duolingo to just 3 mins a day. By the end of April, I finally built a solid habit of 60-80 mins daily, which felt like a titanic achievement.
But then, I dared to start watching the Stardew Valley let's play on DS (where Pablo sucks aggressively ;). It completely sucked me in, despite the difficulty level being a bit too high (0.75x speed at first). I decided on a rule: at least 2h of easier DS videos for every 1h of Stardew. I was worried I was wasting good content that should be saved for later.
Through Reddit comments, I discovered the Spanish Boost Gaming channel (Skyrim and Stardew) and applied the same 2:1 rule. I got absolutely hooked. Now I am devouring content. More and more DS videos feel like a reward in themselves, while the gaming videos are the perfect dessert, but less and less so. Looks like gaming was the perfect gateway drug and I'm happy it seems to be just that.
Yesterday I hit 150h and, while driving, tried podcasts for the first time - Cuéntame and Chill Spanish. It feels like a total bullseye for audio-only. Understanding 99% of it feels amazing.
Currently, my DS sweetspot difficulty is around 45. I focus heavily on Colombian videos, but I've run out of them now and have to rewatch. Shel is the perfect guide for me. I can feel how much staying in the sweet spot gives me, but pushing above it for gaming videos also has massive benefits, even if the input aquisition isn't as "concentrated".
Currently I'm picking up - just form listening - some grammar structures similar to English like: "going to", "have to do", "to be doing" etc. and I enjoy the process, but I want to check on some gammar rules soon.
In short, I hacked my brain's reward system. Now, watching regular TV or other YT videos feels like a waste of time, and I quickly return to Spanish. I have 86 hours this month so far (as of May 21st). I want to keep this speedrun until the end of May. Then hopefully 2h a day until level 4. A month ago, my ambitious goal was to hit 300h by the end of the year. Now, it looks like I will get there before August ends.
I'm planning to start crosstalk very soon and listen to more podcasts. I want to hold off on speaking until at least 500h, and I'm considering a short trip to Spain in September.
Any advice for this next stage?