150 Hour Update + DS Grad Questions
I’ve just recently eclipsed the 150 hour mark. I’ve been with dreaming Spanish for around eight weeks, so I am pleased with how the progress is coming along timewise. I am currently watching videos in the 58-59 level range with nearly full comprehension, though anything more and I begin to falter heavily. I try to get to 200 minutes a day, but find there are a lot of days with 100 minutes (never less), and a lot of days with 250+ minutes. Now that I am away from the beginner content, I am able to enjoy and learn from what I listen to, which has been incredibly nice.
I just unlocked the dreaming Spanish podcast, or the episodes in the range I am in at least. This has been huge. Being able to cook, or workout, and listen to entertaining podcasts makes the daily supplementation feel easier.
Around the 120 hour mark I stopped translating in my head all the time, which was so relieving. I am not sure how or why I stopped doing it, but am thankful that I did. It has helped me pay more attention to the use of different words in different situations, and understand the versatility of what goes where a little more.
I still feel like my speaking has not improved at all, which makes sense, I haven’t practiced. But I have immense difficulty calling to mind words that I KNOW I know. When I hear them there isn’t a second thought, but I’ve no hope of recreating that word on my own. Nouns like ceiling, blanket, sheep, and a long list of more.
I have also been trying to microdose reading. I have changed my phone language to Spanish, which is helping me be more immersed in Spanish. I try to read one chapter of the Bible, working through Mark currently, in Spanish after reading it in English (so I have the context). I try to read aloud, focus on pronunciation, and relate what I’m reading to what I know is happening. It has helped me understand sentence structures a tiny bit better.
One last win before I get to some questions I have. Occasionally, I have a thought in Spanish. Always a very quick thought, and something I hear often. “No puede ser” is a good example. Nothing ground breaking, but the fact that it happens sparsely is cool to me.
Some questions
- I am certainly by no means a purist, I just want to speak the language as good as I can and be immersed in it. I also would prefer to be in a fairly concrete spot in the next 2ish years. What is a good place to start for larger scale reading? The Bible chapters are nice, but something that is much much much easier to read, and is much much much longer than a single chapter. If anyone has any recommendations for books to read, I welcome them. A goal is to get to the Harry Potter books by next August (12 months).
- For people who supplemented input early on with grammatical study, or a Duolingo esque application, how did that turn out? Are you regretful for not waiting until much later into CI? or are you pleased with the results of the methods you used (in that case, what did you use, and explain the function please)?
- any thoughts from DS graduates on the best way to introduce speaking and when? This part I am willing to adhere more to the roadmap, because I would like to have a good accent and such.
Thank you for the time you took to read my post, I sincerely appreciate your desire to help.