You expressed that beautifully! It's refreshing to see such honesty. I had a similar experience; I felt a sense of relief and hope about learning Spanish when I found honest RUclipsrs and programs that explained this journey would take years. This understanding lifted the unrealistic burdens off me and allowed me to relax into my new journey.
Brilliant! This video is great. Sincere, honest, and correct. There are a lot of us with parallel experiences. DS also unlocked my ability to listen to podcasts, so driving gives me more input using time that otherwise is not well used. Also, some of us with the DS experience are making content for people to learn our language, in my case English. I am referring to two RUclips channels, Input English and English Input. DS is building a community of committed language learners. Thanks for a great video!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! It really is awesome how many comprehensible input creators there are, and that number is growing every day! I think language learning will look very different in the next 5 years.
I watch the DS videos for a lot of my CI. I have found it is exactly like exercise. Your improvement is so slow as to be inperceptible, but if you keep fun, you'll be more likely to do it everyday without getting burnt out.
I watch Dreaming Spanish for at least 30 minutes a day BUT... I also talk to a Baselang tutor for an hour a day, and do grammar exercises, or look at RUclipss about grammar points. It all helps. I think to advise someone to ONLY watching DS is a bit dogmatic.
I am at ~500 hours of DS and I love the method, the one issue I have with it is that I don't believe you will 'speak like a native' at 1500 hours. To give an example, if you are brought up in a bilingual household, many kids will simply speak one language and understand the other - but they will not be able to speak it despite tens of thousands of hours of input. Speaking is something that takes deliberate practice. After 14 months I have begun speaking lessons with a tutor online, and I find it very enjoyable. We will see whether I can reach conversational level by ~1000 hours. But CI is definitely >80% of what I do.
I do agree that at 1500 hours you won't be comparable to a native. Though I do think the answer for getting better at speaking is still, overall, getting more input! Though specifically practicing speaking does help too. Also, good luck! I'd love to hear how you feel at 1000 if you want to give an update haha
Yeah I agree I grew up billingual and like you said I'm way way better at speaking Swedish than Finnish, the other language I grew up with. I understand it perfectly no problems but I'm not good at all at speaking it, sure i've gotten much better but only after I decided I need to get better and I'm still not at the same level as my Swedish, sure it's enough to get by in most situations like the doctor or customer service but kinda bad considering I live in Finland
I don't disagree with you but i feel that on some level your passed experience with Spanish helped you with dreaming Spanish as your friends who failed were studying Spanish while you were acquiring it with input. Which is why i think refold is better just because it lets you watch what you want as my only problem with dreaming Spanish is that its boring not slow.
I get that it's sort of impossible to know how much (or if at all) the past experience helped. All I know is when I started Dreaming Spanish, the only things I knew that I knew were the handful of Spanish words that have basically entered american english, like amigo and hola. and that's totally fair. If you don't enjoy watching the DS videos and have a high enough tolerance for ambiguity, Refold method is the way to go.
I think with refold if there were things like dreaming spanish for every language they would reccomend it. Really refold is focused around comprehensible input with vocab study. It's just the way to get things comprehensible that they differ on. Also remember that the refold method started as a japanese specific method that evolved because it really is universal. I've personally been learning japanese for several years now using what is basically refold and just decided to start doing spanish, just started doing their method for Spanish but I may switch to dreaming Spanish as an experiment. Is dreaming Spanish mobile friendly?
@@jeremymorris6738 yeah I agree with that assessment. The methods are not mutually exclusive and I’d bet a lot of people primarily using Dreaming Spanish are also incorporating things like flashcards and other forms of study. And I’d say Dreaming Spanish is pretty mobile friendly. Just bookmark the DS website on your phone so you can get to it easily.
@@jeremymorris6738 from what I know you can use dreaming Spanish on mobile but you can just watch the free videos on RUclips. I would also recommend the channel easy Spanish but idk if that goes against your experiment.
I'm 24 hours into Dreaming Spanish as someone who's never taken a Spanish class or had any prior experience with the language. Although I do feel like it's helping me and I'm slowly learning new vocabulary, I'm considering adding the Refold method alongside Dreaming Spanish. As a super beginner, doing 2 hours a day can make the videos get pretty boring at times.
I love your videos though I’m terribly biased (I did 2.5 years or so of DS. The best IMO). Great stuff! Keep up the nice work. Have you ever tried crosstalk?
First, let me just say that your style of narration is brilliant. And I hope that you continue to upload (what I feel is) motivational content for language learners. Currently, I am acquiring my seventh language, German, using a narrow mix of Dreaming Spanish-like content and Netflix. I have done (or am doing) pretty much the same thing for French, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, and even my heritage language Spanish. This approach works like a charm with each successive language. Update: Sadly, I dropped Portuguese for Latin. As a devout Catholic, I needed access to the Vulgate. Oh, if you ever wondered how I am acquiring all these languages, I devote each day of the week to one language. Like so: Monday, English; Tuesday, Spanish. Wednesday, French. And so on. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone - except jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none types.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. I hope they're motivational! That's definitely the goal. and learning a language this way- I truly can't see doing it another way. It fits so seamlessly into my life and allows me to lean into my interests. also that's amazing. I'm hoping to join you with some of those in the future! haha
You mention about taking Spanish in school for years and lessons etc . Did you include those hours in how long it took to be fluent ? If not , how many hours in and out of DS has it taken you , Total ? Nice video by the way . Very encouraging .
I took two years of Spanish in middle school over 15 years ago. While it's impossible to say for sure, I don't think they really made any difference. I could not understand any spoken Spanish when I started DS, did not remember vocabulary from the classes outside the words that have sort of just become part of american english (like hola, adios) and I was conversational around 1000h of Dreaming Spanish. Right now, I am at around 2400 hours total.
TLDR: there are more efficient ways of learning Spanish at half the time. How bad do you want to learn Spanish? 1500 hours is quite the devotion and frankly that many hours you should get some kind of Latin American citizenship! That's 4 hours a day for 7 days a week for 52 weeks. And that's still not 1500 but rather 1456 hours. So the claim is in a year studying 4 hours a day you could be fluent in this target language (never mind all of your "wasted efforts" but in reality you have still learned something from each of them). That's a lot and after that much time for Spanish, you'd better be fluent! Especially almost half of the time you are not doing anything but watching videos. I am a Generation Xer and that just seems like a lot of wasted time on the computer or in front of a screen. I look at it this way, millions if not billions of people have learned a foreign language. Think of our brave servicemen and women who have braved DLI, I don't know how it is today but back in the day (yeah I know I'm old) it was simply a record or tape player and the instructor who didn't speak English (on purpose). These people go down afterwards and help out in country, conversating with the natives, teaching them, and making allies. While most of our learning isn't going to be for such noble causes, we still have to decide how much time we are willing to spend in order to communicate with our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. At 600 hours you should be able to get through a basic conversation (conversational fluency) and be able to read anything even if you don't understand it all.
Yea but learning a language is not quick no matter how you go about. When you were a baby, you got 1000s of hours of English input from your parents/environment before you even spoke your first word. 600 hours is only 4 months at a full time job. To go from 0 to fluent in that time would be highly unlikely.
OK, but you realize you're comparing two very different things, right? DLI aims to get its students to a basic conversational proficiency at 600 hours. Dreaming Spanish's plan aims to get its students to a much higher level of fluency, so of course it's going to take longer.
“That's 4 hours a day for 7 days a week for 52 weeks.” The point is everyone already spends more time than that everyday watching TV or RUclips or TikTok or listening to podcasts or reading books, etc. So, instead of doing all those things in your native language, you can instead do them with CI in your TL. It’s not 1500 hours of beginner material created specifically for language learning. As you progress, more and more of your input hours will come from native content, at which point you’re less “learning” the language and more so just using it, although still improving.
You expressed that beautifully! It's refreshing to see such honesty. I had a similar experience; I felt a sense of relief and hope about learning Spanish when I found honest RUclipsrs and programs that explained this journey would take years. This understanding lifted the unrealistic burdens off me and allowed me to relax into my new journey.
Exactly! It takes so much pressure off to know that it just takes a long time!
@@DoomscrollToFluency 🤗
Brilliant! This video is great. Sincere, honest, and correct. There are a lot of us with parallel experiences. DS also unlocked my ability to listen to podcasts, so driving gives me more input using time that otherwise is not well used. Also, some of us with the DS experience are making content for people to learn our language, in my case English. I am referring to two RUclips channels, Input English and English Input. DS is building a community of committed language learners. Thanks for a great video!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! It really is awesome how many comprehensible input creators there are, and that number is growing every day! I think language learning will look very different in the next 5 years.
I watch the DS videos for a lot of my CI. I have found it is exactly like exercise. Your improvement is so slow as to be inperceptible, but if you keep fun, you'll be more likely to do it everyday without getting burnt out.
Yep! It takes time to build up stamina for watching lots of stuff in another language!
Well said!!! Also, what a relaxing video.
Thank you!
I watch Dreaming Spanish for at least 30 minutes a day BUT... I also talk to a Baselang tutor for an hour a day, and do grammar exercises, or look at RUclipss about grammar points. It all helps. I think to advise someone to ONLY watching DS is a bit dogmatic.
I am at ~500 hours of DS and I love the method, the one issue I have with it is that I don't believe you will 'speak like a native' at 1500 hours. To give an example, if you are brought up in a bilingual household, many kids will simply speak one language and understand the other - but they will not be able to speak it despite tens of thousands of hours of input. Speaking is something that takes deliberate practice. After 14 months I have begun speaking lessons with a tutor online, and I find it very enjoyable. We will see whether I can reach conversational level by ~1000 hours. But CI is definitely >80% of what I do.
I do agree that at 1500 hours you won't be comparable to a native. Though I do think the answer for getting better at speaking is still, overall, getting more input! Though specifically practicing speaking does help too. Also, good luck! I'd love to hear how you feel at 1000 if you want to give an update haha
Yeah I agree I grew up billingual and like you said I'm way way better at speaking Swedish than Finnish, the other language I grew up with. I understand it perfectly no problems but I'm not good at all at speaking it, sure i've gotten much better but only after I decided I need to get better and I'm still not at the same level as my Swedish, sure it's enough to get by in most situations like the doctor or customer service but kinda bad considering I live in Finland
How to Spanish is a good when you want to level up after a lot of exposure to Dreaming Spanish
I don't disagree with you but i feel that on some level your passed experience with Spanish helped you with dreaming Spanish as your friends who failed were studying Spanish while you were acquiring it with input. Which is why i think refold is better just because it lets you watch what you want as my only problem with dreaming Spanish is that its boring not slow.
I get that it's sort of impossible to know how much (or if at all) the past experience helped. All I know is when I started Dreaming Spanish, the only things I knew that I knew were the handful of Spanish words that have basically entered american english, like amigo and hola.
and that's totally fair. If you don't enjoy watching the DS videos and have a high enough tolerance for ambiguity, Refold method is the way to go.
I think with refold if there were things like dreaming spanish for every language they would reccomend it. Really refold is focused around comprehensible input with vocab study. It's just the way to get things comprehensible that they differ on. Also remember that the refold method started as a japanese specific method that evolved because it really is universal. I've personally been learning japanese for several years now using what is basically refold and just decided to start doing spanish, just started doing their method for Spanish but I may switch to dreaming Spanish as an experiment. Is dreaming Spanish mobile friendly?
@@jeremymorris6738 yeah I agree with that assessment. The methods are not mutually exclusive and I’d bet a lot of people primarily using Dreaming Spanish are also incorporating things like flashcards and other forms of study.
And I’d say Dreaming Spanish is pretty mobile friendly. Just bookmark the DS website on your phone so you can get to it easily.
@@jeremymorris6738 from what I know you can use dreaming Spanish on mobile but you can just watch the free videos on RUclips. I would also recommend the channel easy Spanish but idk if that goes against your experiment.
I'm 24 hours into Dreaming Spanish as someone who's never taken a Spanish class or had any prior experience with the language. Although I do feel like it's helping me and I'm slowly learning new vocabulary, I'm considering adding the Refold method alongside Dreaming Spanish. As a super beginner, doing 2 hours a day can make the videos get pretty boring at times.
I love your videos though I’m terribly biased (I did 2.5 years or so of DS. The best IMO). Great stuff! Keep up the nice work. Have you ever tried crosstalk?
Thank you!!!
and I have done ~75 hours of crosstalk (give or take a bit) and am planning on making a video on it at some point!
First, let me just say that your style of narration is brilliant. And I hope that you continue to upload (what I feel is) motivational content for language learners.
Currently, I am acquiring my seventh language, German, using a narrow mix of Dreaming Spanish-like content and Netflix. I have done (or am doing) pretty much the same thing for French, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, and even my heritage language Spanish.
This approach works like a charm with each successive language.
Update:
Sadly, I dropped Portuguese for Latin. As a devout Catholic, I needed access to the Vulgate.
Oh, if you ever wondered how I am acquiring all these languages, I devote each day of the week to one language.
Like so:
Monday, English; Tuesday, Spanish. Wednesday, French. And so on.
I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone - except jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none types.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. I hope they're motivational! That's definitely the goal.
and learning a language this way- I truly can't see doing it another way. It fits so seamlessly into my life and allows me to lean into my interests.
also that's amazing. I'm hoping to join you with some of those in the future! haha
@@DoomscrollToFluency Oh, very exciting! I will stick around and find out which!
@@DoomscrollToFluency And yes: it has always made really good sense to learn and use a new language as solely a vehicle for one’s interests.
Sorry, but I’ve just updated you on a few things, since it was gnawing at me for some reason.
@@flinput that is a tough schedule! How are you handling it?
Great video and great point of View 😀
Thank you! :)
You mention about taking Spanish in school for years and lessons etc . Did you include those hours in how long it took to be fluent ? If not , how many hours in and out of DS has it taken you , Total ?
Nice video by the way . Very encouraging .
I took two years of Spanish in middle school over 15 years ago.
While it's impossible to say for sure, I don't think they really made any difference. I could not understand any spoken Spanish when I started DS, did not remember vocabulary from the classes outside the words that have sort of just become part of american english (like hola, adios)
and I was conversational around 1000h of Dreaming Spanish. Right now, I am at around 2400 hours total.
@@DoomscrollToFluency Thanks man.
TLDR: there are more efficient ways of learning Spanish at half the time. How bad do you want to learn Spanish?
1500 hours is quite the devotion and frankly that many hours you should get some kind of Latin American citizenship!
That's 4 hours a day for 7 days a week for 52 weeks. And that's still not 1500 but rather 1456 hours. So the claim is in a year studying 4 hours a day you could be fluent in this target language (never mind all of your "wasted efforts" but in reality you have still learned something from each of them). That's a lot and after that much time for Spanish, you'd better be fluent! Especially almost half of the time you are not doing anything but watching videos. I am a Generation Xer and that just seems like a lot of wasted time on the computer or in front of a screen.
I look at it this way, millions if not billions of people have learned a foreign language. Think of our brave servicemen and women who have braved DLI, I don't know how it is today but back in the day (yeah I know I'm old) it was simply a record or tape player and the instructor who didn't speak English (on purpose). These people go down afterwards and help out in country, conversating with the natives, teaching them, and making allies.
While most of our learning isn't going to be for such noble causes, we still have to decide how much time we are willing to spend in order to communicate with our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. At 600 hours you should be able to get through a basic conversation (conversational fluency) and be able to read anything even if you don't understand it all.
Yea but learning a language is not quick no matter how you go about. When you were a baby, you got 1000s of hours of English input from your parents/environment before you even spoke your first word.
600 hours is only 4 months at a full time job. To go from 0 to fluent in that time would be highly unlikely.
OK, but you realize you're comparing two very different things, right? DLI aims to get its students to a basic conversational proficiency at 600 hours. Dreaming Spanish's plan aims to get its students to a much higher level of fluency, so of course it's going to take longer.
“That's 4 hours a day for 7 days a week for 52 weeks.”
The point is everyone already spends more time than that everyday watching TV or RUclips or TikTok or listening to podcasts or reading books, etc. So, instead of doing all those things in your native language, you can instead do them with CI in your TL.
It’s not 1500 hours of beginner material created specifically for language learning. As you progress, more and more of your input hours will come from native content, at which point you’re less “learning” the language and more so just using it, although still improving.