Disclosure: I made this.

Got tired of manually logging hours and wanted something automatic, so I built a browser extension that auto-detects the language on play and counts minutes in the background (works for Netflix/YouTube/Prime, 38 languages).

What it does so far:

• Auto detect + count
• Tracks streaks
• Can manually add outside hours
• Export to CSV
• 38 languages to select from

It's called Tracking Languages if you want to check it out. It is paid but has 7 days free trial.

Lmk if you like it.

Hi! This is the second progress update of me trying to learn German with ALG. You can read the background information in the 50 hours update.

Notes

Nothing has changed since the last post, except that I had to abandon the rule about watching only one channel at a time, since some channels have so much content that it gets tiring to watch the same thing for 10+ hours. My daily average was 105 minutes, and I only missed 2 days out of 87. Now come the notes --- as always, feel free to skip this part if you are not interested in minute details.

• 50 hours. I'm watching Learn German with Falk's video podcasts, it is more or less comprehensible.
• 57 hours. I feel like this channel is actually a bit above my level. Even though my comprehension is probably at 80%, I still miss phrases regularly, and there are a lot of unknown words.
• 58 hours. I tried to watch an Eleos Corner's video outside of Easy playlist. It was a podcast and it felt about as difficult as Falk's podcasts. Then I watched a "14 >!Minuten!<"'s episode, and I understood almost everything. Funnily enough, back at about 20-30 hours I tried watching it, and it was so difficult to me that I thought it was a native podcast added to the spreadsheet by mistake. However, when I tried to watch the next episode, I quickly realized that I just got lucky, and it is not that simple.
• 62 hours. I think I finally accepted the idea that I should stop caring about words, and the only thing that matters is that I understand at least 80% of meaning. For some reason I keep questioning the method... I guess it's hard to believe that you can improve with audio-only content, since I relied on visual cues before. Anyway, I'm back to Falk's podcasts now. I still understand about 80-90% of meaning there.
• 65 hours. Today I tried listening to >!Deutsch Fluss!< podcast before sleeping, looks like a nice way to get extra 30 minutes per day thanks to my insomnia.
• 69 hours. Tried watching ">!Ein Bisschen Besser!<"'s video about (presumably) Atomic Habits, and wow. Sure, I've read that book, but it was still pretty funny that I could understand about 60% of that video. I hate the fact that even native videos use visual cues, while in lots of beginner content best you can find is translating subtitles. Then I tried watching Easy Breezy German, and it was... easy, quite uncomfortably so. Apparently I got so used to listening to those podcasts that I cannot fully comprehend, that it feels weird to understand everything. I think I will watch it for now, just to change things up, although I don't find that type of content engaging. Or, rather, this channel, just like other beginner content, seems to focus on a narrow range of topics that I'm a little sick of.
• 70 hours. Today I clicked on a random recommended native video just to see if I can follow it at all, and I ended up watching all 31 minutes of it. While I missed a lot of details, it was still pretty comprehensible, and way more engaging than a house cleaning vlog. Not sure what to make out of it... that channel is listed under level 6. The strangest part is that despite the host speaking much faster than I'm used to, I didn't get lost like I did at 50 hours, except for a few parts where she spoke really fast, like in the outro. Also, just to make sure I wasn't going crazy, I watched a similar Japanese video and I didn't understand anything.
• 72 hours. Today I had my first dream in German: I said that I couldn't speak German... in German. I did it in a really forced way and I'm pretty sure the sentence was wrong, so that's pretty sad. That dream aside, it looks like I have watched all Easy Breezy German videos that don't strike me as overly boring (I can't believe that house cleaning vlogs is a real genre that people watch). Now I'm mostly back to watching Falk, along with some Eleos Corner's videos sometimes.
• 80 hours. Today I watched a random video from "NITA | Study German daily", and it was pretty comprehensible, similar to podcasts in terms of difficulty. I guess it's time to accept that I can watch intermediate videos and I have been doing so for quite some time already. Not like there is much of a choice though, I have run out of beginner content by about 50 hours, since Learn German with Falk along with other podcasts are now classified as intermediate. I also wouldn't call Eleos Corner's videos outside of the aforementioned playlist beginner-level, especially the podcasts.
• 92 hours. I haven't written anything about my German perception for quite some time. Well, because subjectively nothing has changed, and at this point consuming CI is a routine for me, so I don't need to motivate myself by seeing my level increase. I think it's getting more effortless, e.g. sometimes my mind wanders a little but I still hear everything. But, other than that, I haven't noticed anything: I still comfortably understand at least 90% of content (Learn German with Falk, Eleos Corner, ">!Deutsch Fluss!<") with an occasional sentence going over my head and some details missing. Oh, and nonnative accents do not even register as German to me, I have to exert effort to maybe catch something. And, just for record, today I learned the words for surprise and reason, they kept jumping at me for a long time.
• 96 hours. Today I finished (well, at the moment, since new episodes are still being produced) listening to ">!Deutsch Fluss!<". I liked it a lot, the language was really simple, which works perfectly for first time pure listening. I guess now I will switch to Learn German with Jen.
• 100 hours. I decided to revisit "N>!atűrlich!< German"'s Rammstein video that I struggled with at 26 hours, and well... I could have probably watched it with my eyes closed, it was really easy. But I can certainly see why it was difficult, there were indeed a lot of not-super-common words without visual cues. Additionally I tried watching the pre-intermediate playlist, and it's pretty comfortable, I guess I'll go through it now. It is basically as comprehensible as the beginner playlist was when I watched it, i.e. somewhere around 90%. Learn German with Falk is amazing, but I have been staring at his beautiful face for about 30 hours already, give me a break.
• 105 hours. Well, I had a really stressful couple of days, so I decided to finally take a break for 2 days. I didn't really notice anything special today, like my comprehension suddenly getting better or something. Pretty sure the din in the head got progressively more silent with each day though. Also I finished "N>!atűrlich!< German"'s pre-intermediate playlist, it is actually less engaging than I expected. Afterwards I watched a random native video for 10 minutes (it was a Harry Potter trailer analysis or something), and I could understand about 80% of the message but not a single word. It was surprisingly interesting to watch, but I still want to reach at least 150 hours before seriously considering native media.
• 125 hours. Finished "N>!atűrlich!< German"'s intermediate playlist, now what? Tried Comprehensible GERMANi's A2/B1 playlist, the first video was about >!prepositions!<. Looks like the teacher used every >!preposition!< in German, and I literally knew all of them. So much for learning functional words at higher levels... Anyway, I don't like these videos because they focus on grammar. Apparently I'm back to Falk.
• 136 hours. I got tired of German with Jen, so I'm switching to "14 >!Minuten!<". Definitely a step-up in difficulty, but not too much. Today I relistened to the episode that I got completely lost in at 58 hours and... I didn't get lost but it wasn't comfortable either. For record, it is about the history of a radical left terrorist faction in Germany, while other episodes are about things like jogging, public transport, apartments, etc. This podcast is an absolute roller coaster in terms of difficulty.
• 148 hours. Looks like I've watched all Learn German with Falk's video podcasts... I'm not a big fan of his older audio-only podcasts, as they seem to rely too much on English translations. Also they just feel different, probably because they are scripted unlike his newer episodes. Well, that only leaves "14 >!Minuten!<" until 150 hours, which is my made-up prerequisite for native and level 4 content.
• 150 hours. Finally I can dive into native content (okay, I did try it before but only a little bit). Surprisingly there are already some shows for kids that are comprehensible enough, like in the 80-90% range. Some episodes are available on YouTube, but most of them are exclusive to mediatheks.
  • >!< is a show that everyone recommends, but I find it too difficult for now.
  • >!< is similar to it, but it seems much easier and actually comprehensible to me. Each episode is a documentary about a random topic with a simple language and lots of visuals.
  • >!< is a program about animals, which naturally means that there are also lots of visuals.
  • logo! is a daily news program for kids with a pretty simple language. Works especially well if you know the news in advance.

The results

TL;DR version of the previous section:

• Most of my input came from video podcasts, at 65 hours I supplemented it with pure listening.
• At 70 hours I watched a native video and realized that I no longer had issues listening to people speaking at a normal pace.
• Since 80 hours I have been regularly watching intermediate-level videos.
• At 125 hours I watched a CI video that focused on >!prepositions!<, and I knew all of them despite the roadmap claiming that you learn functional words much later.
• At 148 hours I (almost) ran out of CI, so at 150 hours I started watching native content.

You probably have two questions: how could I possibly run out of CI if there are so many channels and how can I watch native content at 150 hours. Let me explain.

First, the channels. Unfortunately, most channels in levels 3 and 4 simply teach grammar (or words, or idioms) in German, which is a big no for ALG purposes. Then there are a few channels with (most likely) AI-generated dialogue/podcast videos that I'm not watching because I don't want to sound like ChatGPT. What remains is a handful of creators, and I have watched nearly all of their videos at the intermediate level. It also doesn't help that I don't like vlogs which a really popular genre in German CI, so I miss some content too.

Second, the native content. I still can't really watch YouTube videos, for example, but there are lots of shows for 8-something year olds. And even then I can't watch all of them, but only those that have a lot of visuals. My comprehension is by no means high, but it is good enough. These shows also happen to be pretty interesting, so it probably helps a lot as well.

Now to the benchmarks.

• The news episode: not sure if anything has changed at all.
• Peppa Pig: I have watched several episodes already, it's really easy.
• Adventure Time: I have definitely noticed one detail that I didn't see before, but it's still too early.
• My Little Pony: I could certainly get the gist, but that's about it, quite a lot of details went over my head. There were not that many details though, so it is probably usable as a CI on the harder side.
• I also tried to listen to a couple of Rammstein's songs... not sure what I was expecting lol.

And the roadmap. Similarly to the previous post, I can't really relate to it. Level 3 seems to be true except that I feel like I'm used to the sounds. Level 4 seems to be kind of true as well, since it looks like the only difference is being able to listen to podcasts, which I can do. But then again, I don't think I can fully understand a patient native speaker just yet. Basically, except for the number of hours, it is more or less accurate.

Conclusion

Frankly it feels like my German didn't improve at all since the 50 hour mark, although I can certainly point out some new words. Hopefully this is just a subjective feeling, and the magic of language acquisition will do its thing.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them. See you at 300 hours!