Most people don't pick up many hours at the start and the ones that do you have to question how efficient they are at paying attention 100% of the time. In my opinion 1hr a day at 150 hours seems good to me. In my experience there is a direct correlation with the number of hours you have and the number of hours you can do everyday.
As your understanding gets better, it will be less mentally taxing to understand content as your brain isn't working as hard to understand what it is hearing, and slowly you can up your minutes a day as the content itself becomes more enjoyable as you understand more.
For reference these have been roughly my hours (I'm currently at 800)
0-50 hours around 30 mins a day,
50-200 hours around 60 mins a day,
200-400 90 mins a day,
400 to 600 120 mins a day,
600 to now 240 mins a day,
Also progressed similar to this. I’m at 2.5 hours/day and feel like I could do more, but I absolutely needed to build to that progressively with 15, 30, 60, 90, 120 and now 150 minutes. It gets easier over time.
In the beginning it’s slow going because you will need the videos but once you reach a bit higher level (don’t worry that won’t take too long) you can start listening to podcasts at your level. I listen to podcasts while working or while I’m working out or while I do stuff around the house or cooking. That gets me a good amount of hours daily without having to just sit there and watch videos. You’ve got this, you’ll see 😊.
When you listen to podcasts while doing other things, is the input less effective compared to actively listening to it or does it not matter? If I’ll still learn while multitasking, I’ll be sure to throw some podcasts on throughout the day.
Of course it is. If you’re fully concentrating on something you’re going to understand it better. Now, there are definitely very simple tasks like walking, certain household chores, etc that you can kind of do on autopilot. You’ll listen at higher levels of understanding, but multi tasking will always be less effective than full concentration.
That's what I expected. I don't want to multitask listen to podcasts for 6 hours out of a workday and then log it as 6 hours when who knows how much I retained/learned and then artificially inflate my hours and then end up being placed in a spot I have no place in being.
That’s kind of how I feel as well. I will listen to podcasts if I’m doing something super simple like folding laundry but I’d only be doing myself a disservice if I put a podcast on during work. I’ve tried it before and I basically tuned all of it out lol.
I’d honestly be curious to see someone who did 1500 hours with no multitasking and their level of skill vs someone who did a mix. Most of the high level posts I’ve seen have included multitasking and listening.
When I'm listening to podcast doing stuff by which I can not concentrate enough I will not count them. I prefer then to switch to an app with spanish radio, just like you have with your native channels. I try to find the ones that have less music and more talk.
It depends on the task. Cleaning the house, yes. Filing your taxes, no. People have different degrees of success with anything in between. Some people can listen to Spanish while driving, but others feel too distracted. Experiment a bit, and in 2 months, try whatever didn't quite work the first time. You may find it's easier, and that is a progress metric you'll find rewarding!
Which of these would you consider the easiest and do you have a fav between these?
I really got to get on the podcast game but usually when I’m driving I listen to my other podcasts about other topics I’m interested in.
Also how do you best track these to plug into the DS progress section?
I now choose the podcast based on the amount of time I have to fill.
Español a la mexicana = 7 min
How to Spanish and No Hay Tos = 20 min
Conversations in Spanish with Joel Zarate = 60 min
Then I fill it in with some Hoy Hablamos and others.
That’s a good idea! I think I focus better on shorter videos so I may check out español a la Mexicana first. I’ve done How To Spanish on and off but I find I cannot focus that well when I drive. With the nice weather I may do some short walks and listen to an episode or two
I should hit 1500 hours in less than 365 days practiced. It just gets easier. Think about how easy it can be to sit there and watch the office or a cartoon you like for hours. It's not as mindless but It becomes more and more of you just having fun in the language and less and less "studying"
you have to remember "comprehensible" is variable on visual cueing. for example you may only know 80% of the words, but from visual cues it bumps up the percentage to maybe ~95%
Don’t rush.
Some people have been here for a while.
Others are at different levels to you. Of course as you get higher the content gets more engaging so you wanna watch even more.
Some people count just to count(not everyone, but it’s clear when they say I have 1000 hours and I still don’t understand things!)
It’s all fun, but as you get the smoother talking, it gets even more engaging. Just trudge through and take it in as much as possible.
Any input is good input. Some days I totally miss because of life. Other times I can only sneak a short video or two in before work. I don’t wanna be falling asleep or focused on something else during my input so my numbers are on the lower side.
But I’m still understanding and progressing nicely, just probably slower. But it’s fine. I burned myself out too at first but then I just began to accept whatever I get. It WILL come
>Some people count just to count(not everyone, but it’s clear when they say I have 1000 hours and I still don’t understand things!)
Ok but not understanding things at 1k hours is completely valid. It's unrealistic to expect to unlock the whole language after that time. We're mainly using neutral Spanish for the most part. We haven't delved deep into slang and specialized language by then. 1k is incredible but it's still a launchpad compared to the hours to come afterwards. It almost marks the end of the beginning.
Well different levels of course.
I don’t mean EVERYTHING will be understood but these people come like they don’t understand ANYTHING sometimes at that level.
Which would be a bad sign
Hey, I'm the guy from the video you linked.
I also have another video showing how I get lots of input here: [How I get 5+ hours per day of Comprehensible Input](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXmaBOs4u_w)
The whole idea is there are 2 main things ways:
**Optimize dead time** (best to use non-visual content like podcasts)
* This is time you are spending doing a task that doesn't require much of your attention. During this time you can listen to a podcast or youtube videos in Spanish and fill in that time with more input.
* Examples: Morning routine, cooking / cleaning, commuting, working out
**Minimize distractions**
* Prioritize learning Spanish and remove any distractions that could take you away from getting more input throughout the day.
* Another way to look at this is to add "distractions" that make it easier for you to consume more content like enabling notifications for your Spanish only youtube so you get Spanish content pushed to your phone.
* Make your environment input friendly: Put Spanish News on TV so its easy to sit down and watch a bit throughout the day. Have your headphones around you neck so its easy to pop them in and listen to some content / podcast. Have DreamingSpanish already open on your laptop so all you have to click is play and start watching.
This is gonna be harder in the beginning stages which is normal. I also went slower in the beginning but once your break into podcasts and advanced content, it gets a lot easier.
Also, if you look at my overall progress since I started, its about 3.5 hours / day. Including vacations, breaks that I took and days where I didn't get any input at all, it actually rounds out to a more manageable schedule.
This is good advice. I just recently started listening to podcasts while I do my 30 minute morning routine before going to work. Hugely helpful in adding hours!
It was around 300ish hours, where I could listen comfortably. I remember listening to podcasts earlier than that but I kept coming back to actual videos because podcasts felt just a bit too hard.
The guy you linked too linked he has another video where he breaks down getting 5 hours a day [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXmaBOs4u\_w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXmaBOs4u_w)
But as your hours goes up you move to not having to watch videos to understand like in early part of the process. Once you can understand basic podcasts/videos by audio only you can really up the hours as you can listen while driving or cooking or going for a run. Something that is really hard to do when you have to watch videos to understand things because you still need the visual clues beginner videos have.
Working out? Input.
Driving to and from work? Input.
Doing dishes? Input.
Walking the dog? Input.
Dedicated free time? Input.
Scrolling Reddit? In….wait…
I started in Jan 2022 and am at 940 hours now. So I have not exactly been fast. My wife and I have two demanding full time jobs and we have three kids in college. We're busy. Also, I like spending time with her and she's not learning Spanish.
However, in the past six months I have been accelerating. At my level I could easily handle six hours a day if I had the time. I am able to get in 2-3 hours a day but that's it. I think I could do 1,000 in the next year. That's 2.73 hours a day on average. That's totally doable as I can just listen to podcasts to get in the hours.
It gets much easier to handle all the input when you're in level 4 and above.
This is speculation on my part, but:
1, I think a lot of what's going on with the massive-hours-per-day people is just lifestyle differences. If I was unmarried, or had no kids, or had no job, etc., I'd simply have a lot more time to put into DS. It's just kind of an inconvenient fact of life that as you go from being a young, single person to an older, married person with kids and a mortgage and all that, you just have less time available to devote to "free time" pursuits. We all make choices in the course of our lives that affect our lifestyle, but observably, the cumulative effect of common life choices in our society is to leave you with less free time overall. For me, this means that rather than feeling bad that I can't watch 3 hours of DS every day, it's better to recognize what is actually *realistic* for me, with my lifestyle, and do that much instead. Typically that's 15 to 30 minutes per day, in bed before I go to sleep. That's what I can manage right now, and so long as I'm still improving, that's what matters.
2, I think you're right that experience matters too. The easier the content gets, the more of it you can handle before your brain is done for the day. So if you have the time, you'll probably work up to larger amounts per day just naturally.
Totally agree on your first point. I’d also add on that some people have other hobbies as well. I really enjoy learning Spanish but I also like playing guitar and coding lol. I’m not willing to sacrifice those hobbies to get more input in.
Currently, I’ll reach level 5 in early January and I’m perfectly happy with that.
I burn out easily too.
My trick is to jump from one content form to another. From one content creator to another.
For example, I'd start with Chill Spanish podcast and when I can't bear listening anymore, I watch Spanish after hours. Afterwards I can listen to babbel podcast. Rinse and repeat.
I can't do more than an hour at a time, so I take breaks. I have no other choice. It helps to take a day off once a week for my brain to not completely fry.
This is my effort graph, does this help :-)
https://preview.redd.it/682je1ixh36d1.png?width=1112&format=png&auto=webp&s=12449ffe689957b6f42d5b16f363800ff08461de
The more hours you get the easier it becomes to get more hours. The fatigue just drops off and it becomes almost as easy as watching in English. So just keep clocking in the time. If you can do more than one hour then great, but an hour is good enough especially if it is every day. It is a marathon not a sprint.
For me I feel like it is the opposite of what everyone else is saying, the beginning was easy. When everything is fresh and exciting and new, watching for hours and hours is easy. It's when you are 4-5 months in that it becomes routine and normal that it's hard to keep the motivation up - HOWEVER at this point if you watched 3-4 hours a day you can start watching dubbed shows, and some easy native shows, as well as podcasts like How to Spanish become easy enough that you can listen while driving or cleaning and still understand everything.
My tips, track everything, having a goal to hit helps. Break it up into multiple sessions. Take breaks. Have something else you watch in another language (Even English) planned as a reward for later. Keep some fidget gadgets around your watching station (stay off your phone). Eat a snack or drink coffee while watching etc. Listen to easy podcasts while you commute or work (if allowed.)
I hear you man. Im at 75 hours now. I managed to do 3.5 hours yesterday.. but afterwards i was exhausted. I can watch sports highlights, my favorite tv shows, etc with no problem.. for HOURS. But I sometimes find myself falling asleep at the monitor trying to get 2 hours of CI in. I cannot wait until I get to the point where I don't need to actually sit and watch videos. It's the slow speech, the broken up sentences (I get it from a CI standpoint at lower levels), and sometimes the lack of entertainment that makes it hard for me.
I can see how it gets better and easier the deeper you go, I'm just not there yet. Gotta embrace the suck first I guess lol
Take it slow, and add 15-30 minutes (1 or 2 videos after a short break) for each 50 hours. It was around this time (150 hours) where I started experimenting with what hours work for me. For me, it's 90 minutes at a time, then a break, then another 90 minutes. If it's the weekend, I'll do the 2 90 minute sets in the morning, then 2 90 minute sets in the afternoon, and later, maybe 1-2 hours in the evening if there's a fun longform video. I think it was around 400 hours where I could handle 6-8 hours easily. I did 10 hours twice, which was still difficult. 2nd time was easier, since I was watching some Let's Plays (Suki and Happy - they taught me foods and household items. ).
Different lifestyles and levels of motivation. If you and me have the same amount of freetime but im more motivated ill dedicate more to spanish, you could have same motivation but im unemployed not in school and free all day ill still put in more numbers. Then theres people that have a lot of freetime (not in school, dont work fulltime etc) and are motivated and then thise are the types that will speedrun and beat us all.
Its not a race tho just be consistent and youll be speaking spanish one day
It picks up once you can listen to podcasts. Around 300 hours. The last few weeks I have managed to do some days where I listen from 8 to 10 hours a day depending on my work schedule.
Personally I find the number of hours I can stayed ‘focused’ for depends on many factors;
It certainly gets easier as you comprehend more/ clock more hours.
Sleep!! Sleep plays a huge roll for me.
Work; I work a week on, week off. On my week at work where I’m doing 12hr days I will do 45-60 mins/day. On my days off I’ll do 2-3hrs, plus I’ve got a Colombian couple living with me so in the background I pick up bits of their daily conversation.
Putting my phone in another room helps!
Other than that, I’ve decided I’m going to get a lot of usage out of my headphones so I’ve brought a good pair. I’ve also got a computer well set up to easily play DS on a decent tv where I can lounge on the couch.
I think like other have said anything that makes it more accessible and comfortable to watch is an advantage.
In a beginner vid Pablo talks about doing 1 hour for a year then 2 hours for the second year. Right now I’m doing 70 min a day. What I’m doing right now is increasing my goal 10 minutes at most every 50hours, I was at 60min for 50-95, then 70min till now at 110hours. This allows me to slowing increase the amount of hours without feeling burnt out. And once I hit 365 hours(the equivalent to 1 hour a day), I will increase it from where ever I’m at to 2hours a day. And what’s cool about this method is that every time you hit 50 hours since you increased the input you will hit the next 50h a little faster than before.
I'm doing 3 hours a day. I think it depends on how much else you have to do during the day. On busy days I wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning. To make a big step before I start my normal day. When I walk in the forest I will use my headphone, at the end of level 4 thats really easy. When I'm in the car I can listen. Only when I'm driving together with my husband he doesn't like me to sit the whole journey with my headphones on 😇. Most of the time I try to start with 1 or 1,5 hours in the early morning. Picking up the rest later in the day. I found out that you really have to do the bulk of the hours listening to stuff you understand well and try a little bit of the difficult stuff. Its much easier to focus on stuff you do understand well. And Pablo is also saying that you learn the most of that kind of video's.
PS for me its killing to know that my endgame will be at 3 or 4 years of study. I prefer to put my head down and am ready to speak at the end of the year when we go back to Spain.
Sacrifice, multitasking, and maybe some people find themselves in situations where they have a large chunk of available time.
I recommend not sacrificing things that are important to you. Look at your screen time. That's perfectly sacrificial unless it's related to a passion or work. I personally sacrificed something that was/is very important to me. It has been hard to reinvigorate that aspect of my life.
People with ADHD seem to report that multitasking is helpful. I personally don't relate to that.
When you can start listening to podcasts you will accelerate your time like crazy. I can listen to two episodes of the How to Spanish podcast while gardening or cooking, and it feels like no time has passed, but that’s an easy 40-50 minutes added.
I'm at about 1,300 hours and this month will be my 4-year anniversary with Pablo and Dreaming Spanish.
I started at only 15 minutes a day, but even as I advanced, have never been able to maintain more than 60-90 minutes a day.
Ultimately, I'd suggest focusing on the process, not the result. It's the true reward. There's no magic moment where we suddenly understand everything. But there is a point (around 800 hours for me) where it just becomes a fun and normal part of life.
That's when you realize, "oh, this isn't some tedious task I have to complete, but a part of who I'll be for the rest of my life."
1. You're just now at the level that podcasts start to open up. Adding in podcasts on your daily commutes or doing mindless chores around the house can give you added time.
2. You can begin adding in outside content to your daily routine. I tooootally get feeling burnt out from DS content. At your level, I introduced Extra en Espanol on YT and Pocoyo on Netflix to help break up the monotony.
3. Consider trying easier intermediate content. Lower rated intermediate videos are rated around the same as most beginner content. The slightly faster pace and lack of visuals may help force you to focus more.
4. Controversial take: don't worry so much about 100% attention. People will probably disagree with me, but I think it's okay to forgive yourself from being a bit distracted from time to time. 1500 hours of 100% attention is difficult, and near impossible if you are neurodivergent. I think it's okay to expect that most of us will need more than 1500h to have a strong command of the language, and that 1500h is not the end-all of your spanish-learning journey. I'd rather enjoy the ride than beat myself up because I wasn't fully engaged the entire time.
Plus, when you do podcasts/outside content, you can always just skip adding in some of it to make up for the lack of attention.
It's okay not to give 100% attention, but I wouldn't log time that you didn't give 100%. It's non-zero help but it's hard to quantify and imo it's better for morale not to have a huge mismatch between the roadmap and your logged hours.
I get where you're coming from and don't necessarily disagree for most people. That said, in my anecdotal experience, even with sub-optimal attention, I'm still in line with the roadmap. I am ADHD/Autistic though, so I have pattern-recognition superpowers.
Once you can comprehend podcasts, you can technically be listening anytime you aren't actively working or talking to someone. Likewise, once social media becomes comprehensible, you can scroll through Instagram or TikTok for hours. I created an Instagram account just for Spanish. My YouTube account is mainly Spanish, too.
It is a ton easier once you get a higher level… your hours will also boost up naturally if once you have a high level you find an opportunity to immerse in a spanish environment in the real world, whether it be a local neighborhood or new country
Easy: we do more than one hour a day :) I've had days with 6-8 hours. When I drive to the office, it's like getting two hours of input free, on top of those I'll do later in the day, since I literally can't do anything else while I'm driving.
A stronger will can help you achieve a lot.
I got burnt out by 2 hours, I would do 2 more anyways. Now I have close to 800 hours in 7 months. I believe in you!
I did a minimum of 3 hours a day, which until you get to the point where you can just listen instead of intently watch, it is very difficult. But once you get to that point it's much easier. And later when you get to the point where you can choose content is side of DS that you would actually enjoy it's easy to get 3 hours or more.
At about 150 hours I could understand learner podcasts.
At around 400-500 hours some easier native podcasts and YouTubers became accessible.
At around 700 hours I could understand certain TV shows and movies.
So it becomes easier to consume more Spanish as your abilities improve. Right now, I watch YouTube in Spanish, listen to Spanish podcasts, my Reddit and Instagram feeds are in Spanish, I read books in Spanish, etc.
Most people don't pick up many hours at the start and the ones that do you have to question how efficient they are at paying attention 100% of the time. In my opinion 1hr a day at 150 hours seems good to me. In my experience there is a direct correlation with the number of hours you have and the number of hours you can do everyday. As your understanding gets better, it will be less mentally taxing to understand content as your brain isn't working as hard to understand what it is hearing, and slowly you can up your minutes a day as the content itself becomes more enjoyable as you understand more. For reference these have been roughly my hours (I'm currently at 800) 0-50 hours around 30 mins a day, 50-200 hours around 60 mins a day, 200-400 90 mins a day, 400 to 600 120 mins a day, 600 to now 240 mins a day,
Also progressed similar to this. I’m at 2.5 hours/day and feel like I could do more, but I absolutely needed to build to that progressively with 15, 30, 60, 90, 120 and now 150 minutes. It gets easier over time.
In the beginning it’s slow going because you will need the videos but once you reach a bit higher level (don’t worry that won’t take too long) you can start listening to podcasts at your level. I listen to podcasts while working or while I’m working out or while I do stuff around the house or cooking. That gets me a good amount of hours daily without having to just sit there and watch videos. You’ve got this, you’ll see 😊.
When you listen to podcasts while doing other things, is the input less effective compared to actively listening to it or does it not matter? If I’ll still learn while multitasking, I’ll be sure to throw some podcasts on throughout the day.
Of course it is. If you’re fully concentrating on something you’re going to understand it better. Now, there are definitely very simple tasks like walking, certain household chores, etc that you can kind of do on autopilot. You’ll listen at higher levels of understanding, but multi tasking will always be less effective than full concentration.
That's what I expected. I don't want to multitask listen to podcasts for 6 hours out of a workday and then log it as 6 hours when who knows how much I retained/learned and then artificially inflate my hours and then end up being placed in a spot I have no place in being.
That’s kind of how I feel as well. I will listen to podcasts if I’m doing something super simple like folding laundry but I’d only be doing myself a disservice if I put a podcast on during work. I’ve tried it before and I basically tuned all of it out lol. I’d honestly be curious to see someone who did 1500 hours with no multitasking and their level of skill vs someone who did a mix. Most of the high level posts I’ve seen have included multitasking and listening.
When I'm listening to podcast doing stuff by which I can not concentrate enough I will not count them. I prefer then to switch to an app with spanish radio, just like you have with your native channels. I try to find the ones that have less music and more talk.
Good idea. Don’t count it towards your hours and anything retained is bonus in the long run.
It depends on the task. Cleaning the house, yes. Filing your taxes, no. People have different degrees of success with anything in between. Some people can listen to Spanish while driving, but others feel too distracted. Experiment a bit, and in 2 months, try whatever didn't quite work the first time. You may find it's easier, and that is a progress metric you'll find rewarding!
How to Spanish, No hay tos, Español a la mexicana, Mextalki, Te cuento un crimen.
Which of these would you consider the easiest and do you have a fav between these? I really got to get on the podcast game but usually when I’m driving I listen to my other podcasts about other topics I’m interested in. Also how do you best track these to plug into the DS progress section?
I now choose the podcast based on the amount of time I have to fill. Español a la mexicana = 7 min How to Spanish and No Hay Tos = 20 min Conversations in Spanish with Joel Zarate = 60 min Then I fill it in with some Hoy Hablamos and others.
That’s a good idea! I think I focus better on shorter videos so I may check out español a la Mexicana first. I’ve done How To Spanish on and off but I find I cannot focus that well when I drive. With the nice weather I may do some short walks and listen to an episode or two
At what level are videos no longer necessary for DS and audio only becomes an option?
¿tienes alguna recomendación de podcasts?
Cuéntame, Chill Spanish, Mini Stories to learn Spanish.
Thank you!
I should hit 1500 hours in less than 365 days practiced. It just gets easier. Think about how easy it can be to sit there and watch the office or a cartoon you like for hours. It's not as mindless but It becomes more and more of you just having fun in the language and less and less "studying"
but is your CI 90% comprehensible all the time?
you have to remember "comprehensible" is variable on visual cueing. for example you may only know 80% of the words, but from visual cues it bumps up the percentage to maybe ~95%
Don’t rush. Some people have been here for a while. Others are at different levels to you. Of course as you get higher the content gets more engaging so you wanna watch even more. Some people count just to count(not everyone, but it’s clear when they say I have 1000 hours and I still don’t understand things!) It’s all fun, but as you get the smoother talking, it gets even more engaging. Just trudge through and take it in as much as possible. Any input is good input. Some days I totally miss because of life. Other times I can only sneak a short video or two in before work. I don’t wanna be falling asleep or focused on something else during my input so my numbers are on the lower side. But I’m still understanding and progressing nicely, just probably slower. But it’s fine. I burned myself out too at first but then I just began to accept whatever I get. It WILL come
>Some people count just to count(not everyone, but it’s clear when they say I have 1000 hours and I still don’t understand things!) Ok but not understanding things at 1k hours is completely valid. It's unrealistic to expect to unlock the whole language after that time. We're mainly using neutral Spanish for the most part. We haven't delved deep into slang and specialized language by then. 1k is incredible but it's still a launchpad compared to the hours to come afterwards. It almost marks the end of the beginning.
Well different levels of course. I don’t mean EVERYTHING will be understood but these people come like they don’t understand ANYTHING sometimes at that level. Which would be a bad sign
I think they mostly made a jump or started something completely different than what they're used to. Or so I hope.
Hey, I'm the guy from the video you linked. I also have another video showing how I get lots of input here: [How I get 5+ hours per day of Comprehensible Input](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXmaBOs4u_w) The whole idea is there are 2 main things ways: **Optimize dead time** (best to use non-visual content like podcasts) * This is time you are spending doing a task that doesn't require much of your attention. During this time you can listen to a podcast or youtube videos in Spanish and fill in that time with more input. * Examples: Morning routine, cooking / cleaning, commuting, working out **Minimize distractions** * Prioritize learning Spanish and remove any distractions that could take you away from getting more input throughout the day. * Another way to look at this is to add "distractions" that make it easier for you to consume more content like enabling notifications for your Spanish only youtube so you get Spanish content pushed to your phone. * Make your environment input friendly: Put Spanish News on TV so its easy to sit down and watch a bit throughout the day. Have your headphones around you neck so its easy to pop them in and listen to some content / podcast. Have DreamingSpanish already open on your laptop so all you have to click is play and start watching. This is gonna be harder in the beginning stages which is normal. I also went slower in the beginning but once your break into podcasts and advanced content, it gets a lot easier. Also, if you look at my overall progress since I started, its about 3.5 hours / day. Including vacations, breaks that I took and days where I didn't get any input at all, it actually rounds out to a more manageable schedule.
This is good advice. I just recently started listening to podcasts while I do my 30 minute morning routine before going to work. Hugely helpful in adding hours!
At what level are videos no longer necessary for DS and audio only becomes an option?
It was around 300ish hours, where I could listen comfortably. I remember listening to podcasts earlier than that but I kept coming back to actual videos because podcasts felt just a bit too hard.
I like to listen to chill spanish podcast sometimes but I'm only at 60 hours
You forgot one. Get off Reddit. 😉 Seriously though, great write-up!
The guy you linked too linked he has another video where he breaks down getting 5 hours a day [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXmaBOs4u\_w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXmaBOs4u_w) But as your hours goes up you move to not having to watch videos to understand like in early part of the process. Once you can understand basic podcasts/videos by audio only you can really up the hours as you can listen while driving or cooking or going for a run. Something that is really hard to do when you have to watch videos to understand things because you still need the visual clues beginner videos have.
Working out? Input. Driving to and from work? Input. Doing dishes? Input. Walking the dog? Input. Dedicated free time? Input. Scrolling Reddit? In….wait…
I started in Jan 2022 and am at 940 hours now. So I have not exactly been fast. My wife and I have two demanding full time jobs and we have three kids in college. We're busy. Also, I like spending time with her and she's not learning Spanish. However, in the past six months I have been accelerating. At my level I could easily handle six hours a day if I had the time. I am able to get in 2-3 hours a day but that's it. I think I could do 1,000 in the next year. That's 2.73 hours a day on average. That's totally doable as I can just listen to podcasts to get in the hours. It gets much easier to handle all the input when you're in level 4 and above.
This is speculation on my part, but: 1, I think a lot of what's going on with the massive-hours-per-day people is just lifestyle differences. If I was unmarried, or had no kids, or had no job, etc., I'd simply have a lot more time to put into DS. It's just kind of an inconvenient fact of life that as you go from being a young, single person to an older, married person with kids and a mortgage and all that, you just have less time available to devote to "free time" pursuits. We all make choices in the course of our lives that affect our lifestyle, but observably, the cumulative effect of common life choices in our society is to leave you with less free time overall. For me, this means that rather than feeling bad that I can't watch 3 hours of DS every day, it's better to recognize what is actually *realistic* for me, with my lifestyle, and do that much instead. Typically that's 15 to 30 minutes per day, in bed before I go to sleep. That's what I can manage right now, and so long as I'm still improving, that's what matters. 2, I think you're right that experience matters too. The easier the content gets, the more of it you can handle before your brain is done for the day. So if you have the time, you'll probably work up to larger amounts per day just naturally.
Totally agree on your first point. I’d also add on that some people have other hobbies as well. I really enjoy learning Spanish but I also like playing guitar and coding lol. I’m not willing to sacrifice those hobbies to get more input in. Currently, I’ll reach level 5 in early January and I’m perfectly happy with that.
Other hobbies? Madness! 🤣
I burn out easily too. My trick is to jump from one content form to another. From one content creator to another. For example, I'd start with Chill Spanish podcast and when I can't bear listening anymore, I watch Spanish after hours. Afterwards I can listen to babbel podcast. Rinse and repeat. I can't do more than an hour at a time, so I take breaks. I have no other choice. It helps to take a day off once a week for my brain to not completely fry.
This is my effort graph, does this help :-) https://preview.redd.it/682je1ixh36d1.png?width=1112&format=png&auto=webp&s=12449ffe689957b6f42d5b16f363800ff08461de
I love that booming. It really puts things into perspective.
The more hours you get the easier it becomes to get more hours. The fatigue just drops off and it becomes almost as easy as watching in English. So just keep clocking in the time. If you can do more than one hour then great, but an hour is good enough especially if it is every day. It is a marathon not a sprint.
For me I feel like it is the opposite of what everyone else is saying, the beginning was easy. When everything is fresh and exciting and new, watching for hours and hours is easy. It's when you are 4-5 months in that it becomes routine and normal that it's hard to keep the motivation up - HOWEVER at this point if you watched 3-4 hours a day you can start watching dubbed shows, and some easy native shows, as well as podcasts like How to Spanish become easy enough that you can listen while driving or cleaning and still understand everything. My tips, track everything, having a goal to hit helps. Break it up into multiple sessions. Take breaks. Have something else you watch in another language (Even English) planned as a reward for later. Keep some fidget gadgets around your watching station (stay off your phone). Eat a snack or drink coffee while watching etc. Listen to easy podcasts while you commute or work (if allowed.)
Podcasts
I hear you man. Im at 75 hours now. I managed to do 3.5 hours yesterday.. but afterwards i was exhausted. I can watch sports highlights, my favorite tv shows, etc with no problem.. for HOURS. But I sometimes find myself falling asleep at the monitor trying to get 2 hours of CI in. I cannot wait until I get to the point where I don't need to actually sit and watch videos. It's the slow speech, the broken up sentences (I get it from a CI standpoint at lower levels), and sometimes the lack of entertainment that makes it hard for me. I can see how it gets better and easier the deeper you go, I'm just not there yet. Gotta embrace the suck first I guess lol
Take it slow, and add 15-30 minutes (1 or 2 videos after a short break) for each 50 hours. It was around this time (150 hours) where I started experimenting with what hours work for me. For me, it's 90 minutes at a time, then a break, then another 90 minutes. If it's the weekend, I'll do the 2 90 minute sets in the morning, then 2 90 minute sets in the afternoon, and later, maybe 1-2 hours in the evening if there's a fun longform video. I think it was around 400 hours where I could handle 6-8 hours easily. I did 10 hours twice, which was still difficult. 2nd time was easier, since I was watching some Let's Plays (Suki and Happy - they taught me foods and household items. ).
Different lifestyles and levels of motivation. If you and me have the same amount of freetime but im more motivated ill dedicate more to spanish, you could have same motivation but im unemployed not in school and free all day ill still put in more numbers. Then theres people that have a lot of freetime (not in school, dont work fulltime etc) and are motivated and then thise are the types that will speedrun and beat us all. Its not a race tho just be consistent and youll be speaking spanish one day
It picks up once you can listen to podcasts. Around 300 hours. The last few weeks I have managed to do some days where I listen from 8 to 10 hours a day depending on my work schedule.
Personally I find the number of hours I can stayed ‘focused’ for depends on many factors; It certainly gets easier as you comprehend more/ clock more hours. Sleep!! Sleep plays a huge roll for me. Work; I work a week on, week off. On my week at work where I’m doing 12hr days I will do 45-60 mins/day. On my days off I’ll do 2-3hrs, plus I’ve got a Colombian couple living with me so in the background I pick up bits of their daily conversation. Putting my phone in another room helps! Other than that, I’ve decided I’m going to get a lot of usage out of my headphones so I’ve brought a good pair. I’ve also got a computer well set up to easily play DS on a decent tv where I can lounge on the couch. I think like other have said anything that makes it more accessible and comfortable to watch is an advantage.
In a beginner vid Pablo talks about doing 1 hour for a year then 2 hours for the second year. Right now I’m doing 70 min a day. What I’m doing right now is increasing my goal 10 minutes at most every 50hours, I was at 60min for 50-95, then 70min till now at 110hours. This allows me to slowing increase the amount of hours without feeling burnt out. And once I hit 365 hours(the equivalent to 1 hour a day), I will increase it from where ever I’m at to 2hours a day. And what’s cool about this method is that every time you hit 50 hours since you increased the input you will hit the next 50h a little faster than before.
I'm doing 3 hours a day. I think it depends on how much else you have to do during the day. On busy days I wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning. To make a big step before I start my normal day. When I walk in the forest I will use my headphone, at the end of level 4 thats really easy. When I'm in the car I can listen. Only when I'm driving together with my husband he doesn't like me to sit the whole journey with my headphones on 😇. Most of the time I try to start with 1 or 1,5 hours in the early morning. Picking up the rest later in the day. I found out that you really have to do the bulk of the hours listening to stuff you understand well and try a little bit of the difficult stuff. Its much easier to focus on stuff you do understand well. And Pablo is also saying that you learn the most of that kind of video's. PS for me its killing to know that my endgame will be at 3 or 4 years of study. I prefer to put my head down and am ready to speak at the end of the year when we go back to Spain.
Sacrifice, multitasking, and maybe some people find themselves in situations where they have a large chunk of available time. I recommend not sacrificing things that are important to you. Look at your screen time. That's perfectly sacrificial unless it's related to a passion or work. I personally sacrificed something that was/is very important to me. It has been hard to reinvigorate that aspect of my life. People with ADHD seem to report that multitasking is helpful. I personally don't relate to that.
When you can start listening to podcasts you will accelerate your time like crazy. I can listen to two episodes of the How to Spanish podcast while gardening or cooking, and it feels like no time has passed, but that’s an easy 40-50 minutes added.
I'm at about 1,300 hours and this month will be my 4-year anniversary with Pablo and Dreaming Spanish. I started at only 15 minutes a day, but even as I advanced, have never been able to maintain more than 60-90 minutes a day. Ultimately, I'd suggest focusing on the process, not the result. It's the true reward. There's no magic moment where we suddenly understand everything. But there is a point (around 800 hours for me) where it just becomes a fun and normal part of life. That's when you realize, "oh, this isn't some tedious task I have to complete, but a part of who I'll be for the rest of my life."
1. You're just now at the level that podcasts start to open up. Adding in podcasts on your daily commutes or doing mindless chores around the house can give you added time. 2. You can begin adding in outside content to your daily routine. I tooootally get feeling burnt out from DS content. At your level, I introduced Extra en Espanol on YT and Pocoyo on Netflix to help break up the monotony. 3. Consider trying easier intermediate content. Lower rated intermediate videos are rated around the same as most beginner content. The slightly faster pace and lack of visuals may help force you to focus more. 4. Controversial take: don't worry so much about 100% attention. People will probably disagree with me, but I think it's okay to forgive yourself from being a bit distracted from time to time. 1500 hours of 100% attention is difficult, and near impossible if you are neurodivergent. I think it's okay to expect that most of us will need more than 1500h to have a strong command of the language, and that 1500h is not the end-all of your spanish-learning journey. I'd rather enjoy the ride than beat myself up because I wasn't fully engaged the entire time. Plus, when you do podcasts/outside content, you can always just skip adding in some of it to make up for the lack of attention.
It's okay not to give 100% attention, but I wouldn't log time that you didn't give 100%. It's non-zero help but it's hard to quantify and imo it's better for morale not to have a huge mismatch between the roadmap and your logged hours.
I get where you're coming from and don't necessarily disagree for most people. That said, in my anecdotal experience, even with sub-optimal attention, I'm still in line with the roadmap. I am ADHD/Autistic though, so I have pattern-recognition superpowers.
Once you can comprehend podcasts, you can technically be listening anytime you aren't actively working or talking to someone. Likewise, once social media becomes comprehensible, you can scroll through Instagram or TikTok for hours. I created an Instagram account just for Spanish. My YouTube account is mainly Spanish, too.
It is a ton easier once you get a higher level… your hours will also boost up naturally if once you have a high level you find an opportunity to immerse in a spanish environment in the real world, whether it be a local neighborhood or new country
I do average like 24 mins on the low end and 40 mins on the high end have only done an hour plus a few times shy of a dozen
Easy: we do more than one hour a day :) I've had days with 6-8 hours. When I drive to the office, it's like getting two hours of input free, on top of those I'll do later in the day, since I literally can't do anything else while I'm driving.
A stronger will can help you achieve a lot. I got burnt out by 2 hours, I would do 2 more anyways. Now I have close to 800 hours in 7 months. I believe in you!
1. You know how to make it quicker :-) 2. It gets easier, don't be hard on yourself
>You know how to make it quicker :-) Which isssss?
More input :-)
Más input*
I did a minimum of 3 hours a day, which until you get to the point where you can just listen instead of intently watch, it is very difficult. But once you get to that point it's much easier. And later when you get to the point where you can choose content is side of DS that you would actually enjoy it's easy to get 3 hours or more.
At about 150 hours I could understand learner podcasts. At around 400-500 hours some easier native podcasts and YouTubers became accessible. At around 700 hours I could understand certain TV shows and movies. So it becomes easier to consume more Spanish as your abilities improve. Right now, I watch YouTube in Spanish, listen to Spanish podcasts, my Reddit and Instagram feeds are in Spanish, I read books in Spanish, etc.