u/ladystitchicorn

Hi everyone,

This is my third update in this subreddit, you can find the first and second ones linked here. The first also included a speaking sample.

I gave myself 250 hours just based on having done some Duolingo when I started - optimistic, I know! Hence the two different amounts of hours in the title. But I personally view it as 750 hours and am quite happy with my progress against the roadmap.

In terms of strategy, not much has changed. I'm not a purist whatsoever, started speaking more or less from the start, and am counting reading towards my goal hours now as well (it's a good motivation for me to read more)! I'm finding it a little harder to motivate myself to practice Spanish right now, the summer weather and work are making everything more of a slog! But I still aim for 3 hours a day and hit it most days.

Anyway, here is my speaking sample: https://voca.ro/12LgVGMYvlyo

I'll record another one after 1,000 hours, hopefully before my Spain holiday in November.

Hi everyone,

It's my first progress report, and I'm quite happy with what I've learned so far.

My background:

I grew up in Germany and never learned Spanish in school, I did English and French instead. So German is my native language, English is my main language nowadays (I moved to the UK when I was 18, and am 35 now), and I'd almost rather not talk about my French (it's genuinely terrible).

My only experience learning Spanish prior to Dreaming Spanish was using Duolingo on and off. I got to level 60, which is not quite half way through their course, before attempting to learn Spanish any other way.

January this year I discovered Dreaming Spanish. I gave myself 250 hours as a baseline for all the Duolingo learning I'd done, which I know now isn't really in keeping with the method... but I feel on track with the roadmap, possibly even slightly ahead, so I'm happy to keep my slightly fudged hour count.

My Duolingo practice enabled me to skip Superbeginner almost entirely and move onto Intermediate videos very quickly, probably after around 20 hours I'd say.

I'm absolutely not a purist whatsoever. In March of this year, I started doing iTalki speaking practice (because I was about to visit Barcelona for a couple of days), and have been having 1 hour classes around once a week. I also do a language exchange with a girl from Barcelona who is trying to practice her German - we speak once or twice a week, half an hour in Spanish, half an hour in German.

I also still do half an hour of Duolingo a day, and a little bit of reading as well. I read a translation of Momo which was quite hard for me, so have been focusing on graded readers and non-fiction since.

Now I'm at 500 hours total, 250 since I discovered Dreaming Spanish. I watch and can understand the intermediate videos and the vast majority of advanced content on the platform, and have started consuming some native content such as:

- Un Mundo Imenso on YouTube

- X-Files and Gravity Falls dubbed in Spanish

- Criminopatía podcast (this one is still quite hard for me at times and I often read the transcript while listening).

Speaking - well, it's a little bit of a mixed bag. I feel like I can express quite a lot of my thoughts, but in a very... basic way, without any real nuance. And I make lots and lots of mistakes! But Spanish speakers seem to understand what I'm trying to say, and I seem to be able to understand them more often than not (I've also had some conversations at a language exchange pub meetup in my city).

Anyway, I'm putting myself out there and sharing a speaking sample, even just to give myself something to compare to at the next milestone:

https://voca.ro/1bqtheIIooc0

I'm going to Spain for 2 weeks in November, and want to hit 1,000 hours of comprehensible input by then. My goal is to share an update every 250 hours or so.

Thank you all!