450 hours and The Art of Stoicism
The spreadsheet put together by u/Purposeful_Living10 is incredibly useful. I don't have any major updates in the realm of speaking or travelling, so I thought I would just add descriptions of the resources I've relied upon since there is so much to choose from. I've organized the media I consume currently based on the amount of hours the spreadsheet estimates you would need to comprehend the material. I give a brief summation of my thoughts so far at the bottom.
50 hours
- Leo French Teacher - I like when he decides to wax philosophical. He speaks the slowest French I've ever heard in my life.
150 hours
- gas - Extremely solid editing that enhances the comprehensible input experience. Some really cool videos explaining music videos. Useful slang.
- Isis - Solid input. Similar to gas, Gianni
- LearnFrenchWithGianni - Solid input. Similar to Isis, gas
- French With Felix - His weekly podcasts are a staple.
- French Decoded Podcast - Binged all episodes to date. I highly recommend.
- French with Remy - He repeats almost every single sentence twice, and it's extremely helpful. Useful slang.
- French with Benoît - Travel vlogs mostly within france. Day-to-day musing while applying for jobs or other mundane tasks. Ok input. Annoying hard coded captions in French and English.
300 hours
- Français avec Nelly - Mix of vlogs and grammar/phrasing videos. Very comprehensible. Useful Slang.
- French With Panache - First couple episodes were entertaining. Quickly exited my comfort zone of comprehension which I admit may be high, so I had to drop it. Will return to binge at end of lvl 4.
- Intermediate French with Carlito - Hit or miss in terms of comprehension. The channel focuses on french culture and history. Will return to binge at end of lvl 4.
- Oh My French Class - The funniest comprehensible input I get by far only rivaled by Lucas @ French Comprehensible Input.
- French Listening with Tonton Romain - Difficult for me to comprehend sometimes. Speaks at a nice cadence but often uses unfamiliar phrases/vocabulary. 10 min videos podcasts, well paced. He used to edit interactive scenarios (e.g. calling customer support) that are worth checking out.
- Camille - French Stories Intermédiaire - Bite sized stories about her travels in South America. Usually ~6 min videos.
- ListentoSpeak_FR has many accessible videos on familiar topics such as language learning ~20+ min videos. He has a relatively short but very useful playlist of expressions that he breaks down in <10 min videos. He enunciates extremely well.
Listening Comprehension
I feel firmly stuck in the A2-B1 range of listening comprehension. Sometimes that's a little disappointing to accept. I didn't make a 300 hour update b/c of how anticlimactic the milestone felt. I wasn't able to understand as much of the media on the spreadsheet listed under 300 hours as I would have liked. My comprehension at 300 hours was very inconsistent.
At 450 hours, I more consistently understand educational french material on Youtube marked intermediate. I've stuck to about an hour a day so far, and that has really helped stave off any missed days. Sometimes i feel proud of what topics I'm able to comprehend. Sometimes I don't. I do an hour a day regardless. This slow and steady pace ensures I won't burnout. I have a low tolerance for low comprehensible media at this point. I don't like the feeling of wasting time listening to media below 80% comprehension even for dubbed media I've already seen. I hope to increase my daily input to 1.5 hours as I start to incorporate the Passerelles podcast.
Next Steps
I plan to start reading as many graded readers as I possibly can starting at level 5 (600 hours). I would like to reach a million words read before I start speaking. I don't plan on speaking until 1000 hours. I don't have a plan for writing.