I am currently at 1450 hours of Dreaming Spanish comprehensible input. For the past few hundred hours I have also watched other CI channels in Spanish. I do CrossTalk twice a week with my friend in Madrid. I can understand about 80% of what he says. I am just starting to speak a little bit. In my case, maybe because I am older, I think the DS road map is too optimistic. I will need another 1500 hours to be comfortable with my Spanish. I tried a number of traditional language learning methods in the past, but nothing stuck with me. I would forget what I learned, unless I constantly reviewed the material. Finally I found DS and it felt natural. I am not a DS purist. I do use Language Transfer The Thinking Method and I find it complements DS; it is also quite different from traditional language methods. From what I have heard and read from other DS users, I don't believe DS is a cult for most users. Most people look up words and grammar when they are ready. Thanks for the video. - Dave
A big congratulations to you! You're almost there. I've never actually done cross talk but im sure you're able to gain alot from it if you have a friend who is patient enough! Because its removes some of the anxiety of speaking out loud. Im surprised you've been able to hold off speaking until now! But yeah everyones journey is different as long as your enjoying learning and improving day by day thats what really matters. I agree DS isnt and people can and do what they want when they are ready! Thank you for your time Dave!
Bruh the Pablocito Doulingo bird had me dead. Imo Dreaming Spanish's value-add it that is it's an easy and low-effort way of learning Spanish. If you don't like it, don't do it pretty simple. Or you can be like the Refold guys and use it as a supplement to Anki, basic grammar study, and reading from the start. Or you can stick to 'traditional' methods like plenty of other people. No matter what, you're going to have to put in time and risk that what worked for someone else won't work for you. As for me, DS has worked better than I could've hoped for so I'm very grateful for what the team there has created.
You couldn´t of said it better bro. Other methods work you just have to find what works well for you. Adding a little bit of watch time doesnt hurt if anything its a treat
Thank you for reflecting honestly on this, making it sound less like a cult. You are in general very likable! Comprehensible input is great, but for me, it’s only about 60-70% of my language learning strategy from the very start. I like to mix it up with other methods, like using active recall with Anki, language reactor, chatting with native speakers, and starting to read early on. This combination can seriously speed up the process, cutting the time it takes to learn a language by half. That’s why I can’t justify spending all my time on comprehensible input. Honestly, I don’t see the point in relying on it completely when there are faster ways to reach my goals, that also include comprehensible input. That said, extreme advocates of comprehensible input criticize my approach, claiming my pronunciation will suffer or other aspects of my learning won’t measure up. At times, it therefore feels almost cult-like to me. I’m not here to claim my pronunciation is flawless in every language I speak-my ego isn’t that big. But from my experience, the best non-native Mandarin speakers I’ve met (Mandarin is my native language) didn’t rely solely on comprehensible input. Many roads lead to Rome, and the idea that fluency requires massive amounts of input is, to me, just common sense. Finding something you can keep up with might be the best thing you can do, and in your case I feel you did exactly that! Congrats! ✨
Wow thank you for the kind words. That sounds good! Having a diverse pool of things gives you the best opportunity to see what works best for you and also keep it fresh. Anki is a tried and tested method that many people before have had success with! I personally could never get into it because I was too lazy to make the cards for every word or frase. Honestly don't take them too seriously, those people need to wake up to reality. There's literally millions of people who have learnt a language through traditional methods. way before the hype of comprehsible input. I think you can always tell when someone is not a native speaker 9/10 times. But if they can understand you then you're right on track! Literally as you said its not really about the numbers its just about doing a little everyday so you can keep ontop of it. Thank you for your time and goodluck on your journey!
@@TyreeceGreen Thank you so much! There are so many Anki add-ons available that you can effortlessly save cards with full sentences, cloze deletions, and audio by simply clicking on a word in the subtitles of the content you consume. I’ve never manually created a single card-I’d go crazy if I had to! Alternatively, you can seamlessly export all your saved content from Language Reactor to Anki in a single upload. However, I completely understand when people dislike reviewing cards or simply don’t enjoy the review process. If I hated it, I’d be miserable doing it and would probably stop doing it. Fortunately, I actually enjoy it! Good luck mastering Spanish-I’m sure you’re not too far off now! :)
I've been living Spain and have learned naturally because I live in a town where nobody speaks any English. If people think they can do nothing but listen to DS without speaking and then arrive in a town like mine and magically be fluent they are indeed dreaming. 😂😂 I started watching DS videos myself to see what all the hype is about and even up to the advanced videos is nothing like 'la lengua de las calles'. 😂 Real life conversation in Spain takes place VERY rapidly, and it's not just the speed they talk but the speed they think. The Spanish brain is always 4 or 5 sentences ahead. There's none of the 'eh... Em...' ponderous way that English speakers are used to. And Spanish people don't 'slow down' just because you're a guiri. Their brains are not programned that way. 😂 Yes, you might be OK ordering a coffee in whatever tourist spot you go to, but in the thick of it in a town where no English is ever spoken.... Don't fool yourselves. DS is a good tool, but you have to learn to speak and get comfortable speaking as you learn to understand. Otherwise you will be like a mute. You have to read. You have to learn the grammar. Spanish gets complex fast as you progress to upper intermediate. There's simply no way around using traditional study and hard work alongside DS, that's if you really want to learn the language beyond 'guiri' level.
It’s 100% a cult. You can identify it as such because criticism of the method leads not to a discussion about the method itself but to an almost reflexive defense of the leader. This is a hallmark of cult-like behavior: the conflation of the method or ideology with the person who created or popularized it. Cults often require a deep personal investment in the leader's infallibility and the exclusivity of their methods. This goes beyond mere admiration or respect-it's an almost sacred reverence. When followers believe the leader offers the only solution to a particular problem and dismiss alternative perspectives as misguided or inferior, that's a strong indicator of cult dynamics.
Was this inspired from the reddit? 😆 happy to have found ur channel! I'm at 470 hours more or less and I'm so happy with my progress. I've been documenting my journey too. It is a really genuine community.
@@ThePeachGirlDiaries That was my post! If you click the yt link it will bring you here haha😂. Im happy you've enjoyed and ill have a look at yours! Wishing you success!
Great video. I’m a huge fan of comprehensible input. IMHO it is a very effective way of developing good listening comprehension. I’m also a big fan of Dreaming Spanish. They’ve done a great job at creating a quality platform for developing listening skills. Is it a cult? I can’t see what’s cult-like about it. There’s no pressure from within DS to stay and even if you do stick around there’s no pressure from within DS to adhere to their recommendations. They are just recommendations after all. Yes, some individual users become obsessed but that’s nothing to do with DS. As you so rightly point out, all the DS team does is make videos.
@@raysouth1952 100% Agree, I've seen leaps and bounds of improvement in my listening comprehension. Which has defo prepared me for conversations today. Exactly that you're able to do what you want but someone people think otherwise haha😂. Thank you for taking the time to watch and wishing you success on your language journey!
The only thing I found cultish was some of the rhetoric from Pablo, the founder. He talks about CI and his OG method as the only effective way to learn a language, and that doing anything else will hinder your progress . Then, when I see people repeating his opinions like they're indisputable facts, it feels a little cultish.
A lot of input is necessary for progress. Speaking from day one, workbooks, grammar, flashcards, etc. are all very effective too. Comprehensible input is silly though. Intentional practice is far more effective. Its well researched that CI is not an effective way to learn (they call it acquire 😂) a language. IDK know why ppl are so into it, maybe because its hyped as "easy".
@@twodyport8080 I mean think its really down to when you want to speak. If you want to go on holiday say in 3 months. You'll be alot better off just learning traditionally. But if you want to have better control over the language that's alot more effortless in thought then CI works after X number of hours. But it's defo case by case imo
Can you please cite these studies? As someone early on in my journey learning language I’ve read studies backing comprehensive input but would love to hear otherwise.
@@finsimple4396 not sure I can paste links here but theres some good videos with leading linguists who refute CI. E.g. Dr Norbertt Schmit. Lois Talagrand has some good interviews re this topic. Also googling you will find lots of papers. Of course CI is not a method its a theory of learning, which is false. Depending on what language you know and are learning then applied CI supposedly can work but its inefficient. CI flat out does not work for languages that are very different to your own.
Comprehensible input is input you can comprehend. That’s why watching kids shows and reading kids books is key. You can’t jump in the deep end. I started with comprehensible input and now I live in Mexico without problems understanding. Stop making excuses
@@twodyport8080 You can post links so feel free. There appears to be plenty of people who’ve learned distant languages through CI. I’m willing to accept that there is (perhaps) more efficient methods (mixing in other tasks) but there is enough people out there who have learnt a variety of different languages through CI within a reasonable timeframe to prove it is plausible. You know why it’s popular, it’s easy. I can tell you that I’m not going to sit down for an hour daily to write in a textbook. If consuming toddler-like content and progressing slowly for 1000 hours will get me to a reasonable level of language is less efficient then so be it. It’s something more people are willing to stick to. If it was pure nonsense then it just wouldn’t work. That being said, I’m willing to consider this an experiment. I’ll use pure CI to learn Spanish and reach 800+ hours by the end of the year. If I’m unable to understand a decent level of conversation in Spanish and basic native media, I’m fairly happy.
When is the right time to talk is an irrelevent question. Either do what DS folk recommend or follow your own instincts like you have. When is the right time to read is a different mater entirely. I don't agree with the opposition to reading early on, sorry! And in your case you did do some reading, if only duolingo and text books etc. I think of language learning as a pie chart. You can learn by mainly reading, mainly listening - it doesn't matter but you probably should do some of both according to your own interests. Spanish is written down in a fairly simple way related to speech. I can imagine reading at a later point would not be too bad in Spanish. But English or French? The written system has elements that the speech system doesn't in French and English has its own problems (as we know). One slight criticism is the idea of the amount of time. A lot happens in the brain when a new language is encountered and we aren't always aware of how our own brain is working things out. Some exposure every day may be more important than trying to get many hours. That said there's the commute, break time and such so really one can rack up quite a lot of hours relatively easily. Quite a few people do DS along with other things an I think that's probably good. That said the DS materials are really good. It ccan be a really good phase of learning, so I feel fairly positive about it. I watch some videos but my learning is mainly reading (comprehensible input of course). Finally, including you (!) I've seen people do videos of really good progress and who feel really good about the process. That's always good to see. If you can joke, understand things and follow conversation that is fluent enough as far as I am concerned. Errors always be there.....
@@cpnlsn88 I agree with a lot of your takes, Ultimately everyone has to work out what works for them I don't think it's a one size fits all aswell as one specific method. Gotta try a little bit of everything
I have been learning spanish for 2 years and i just started dreaming spanish like 2 months ago, I personally think its over hyped because i learned spanish before i used dreaming spanish
If you have previous experience and you can already express yourself and have a conversation then yeah DS won't be that useful for you. You would be better off just watching native content.
I haven't spoke to my partner for 3 days because I've been watching Bluey in Spanish. Gotta get that input.
@@JoeMambrodi Only 3 days?! You're not trying hard enough mate 😂😂😂
I am currently at 1450 hours of Dreaming Spanish comprehensible input. For the past few hundred hours I have also watched other CI channels in Spanish. I do CrossTalk twice a week with my friend in Madrid. I can understand about 80% of what he says. I am just starting to speak a little bit. In my case, maybe because I am older, I think the DS road map is too optimistic. I will need another 1500 hours to be comfortable with my Spanish.
I tried a number of traditional language learning methods in the past, but nothing stuck with me. I would forget what I learned, unless I constantly reviewed the material. Finally I found DS and it felt natural.
I am not a DS purist. I do use Language Transfer The Thinking Method and I find it complements DS; it is also quite different from traditional language methods. From what I have heard and read from other DS users, I don't believe DS is a cult for most users. Most people look up words and grammar when they are ready.
Thanks for the video. - Dave
A big congratulations to you! You're almost there. I've never actually done cross talk but im sure you're able to gain alot from it if you have a friend who is patient enough! Because its removes some of the anxiety of speaking out loud. Im surprised you've been able to hold off speaking until now! But yeah everyones journey is different as long as your enjoying learning and improving day by day thats what really matters. I agree DS isnt and people can and do what they want when they are ready!
Thank you for your time Dave!
i am on 217 hours and feel like i understand but not , spanish is very easy and if you dont believe me try to learn irish
Somebody who is willing to put in 1500 hours must be highly motivated. Just the sort of person who makes an ideal learner.
Anything worth while takes a little time to complete! I´m sure you can do it too!
Bruh the Pablocito Doulingo bird had me dead.
Imo Dreaming Spanish's value-add it that is it's an easy and low-effort way of learning Spanish. If you don't like it, don't do it pretty simple. Or you can be like the Refold guys and use it as a supplement to Anki, basic grammar study, and reading from the start. Or you can stick to 'traditional' methods like plenty of other people. No matter what, you're going to have to put in time and risk that what worked for someone else won't work for you. As for me, DS has worked better than I could've hoped for so I'm very grateful for what the team there has created.
You couldn´t of said it better bro. Other methods work you just have to find what works well for you. Adding a little bit of watch time doesnt hurt if anything its a treat
Thank you for reflecting honestly on this, making it sound less like a cult. You are in general very likable! Comprehensible input is great, but for me, it’s only about 60-70% of my language learning strategy from the very start. I like to mix it up with other methods, like using active recall with Anki, language reactor, chatting with native speakers, and starting to read early on. This combination can seriously speed up the process, cutting the time it takes to learn a language by half. That’s why I can’t justify spending all my time on comprehensible input. Honestly, I don’t see the point in relying on it completely when there are faster ways to reach my goals, that also include comprehensible input.
That said, extreme advocates of comprehensible input criticize my approach, claiming my pronunciation will suffer or other aspects of my learning won’t measure up. At times, it therefore feels almost cult-like to me. I’m not here to claim my pronunciation is flawless in every language I speak-my ego isn’t that big. But from my experience, the best non-native Mandarin speakers I’ve met (Mandarin is my native language) didn’t rely solely on comprehensible input. Many roads lead to Rome, and the idea that fluency requires massive amounts of input is, to me, just common sense. Finding something you can keep up with might be the best thing you can do, and in your case I feel you did exactly that! Congrats! ✨
Wow thank you for the kind words. That sounds good! Having a diverse pool of things gives you the best opportunity to see what works best for you and also keep it fresh. Anki is a tried and tested method that many people before have had success with! I personally could never get into it because I was too lazy to make the cards for every word or frase.
Honestly don't take them too seriously, those people need to wake up to reality. There's literally millions of people who have learnt a language through traditional methods. way before the hype of comprehsible input. I think you can always tell when someone is not a native speaker 9/10 times. But if they can understand you then you're right on track! Literally as you said its not really about the numbers its just about doing a little everyday so you can keep ontop of it. Thank you for your time and goodluck on your journey!
@@TyreeceGreen
Thank you so much! There are so many Anki add-ons available that you can effortlessly save cards with full sentences, cloze deletions, and audio by simply clicking on a word in the subtitles of the content you consume. I’ve never manually created a single card-I’d go crazy if I had to! Alternatively, you can seamlessly export all your saved content from Language Reactor to Anki in a single upload.
However, I completely understand when people dislike reviewing cards or simply don’t enjoy the review process. If I hated it, I’d be miserable doing it and would probably stop doing it. Fortunately, I actually enjoy it! Good luck mastering Spanish-I’m sure you’re not too far off now! :)
@Yihwa-G__ I never knew that! Im going to look into it! And the same to you!! You already know atleast 2 so what's one more!!!
I've been living Spain and have learned naturally because I live in a town where nobody speaks any English. If people think they can do nothing but listen to DS without speaking and then arrive in a town like mine and magically be fluent they are indeed dreaming. 😂😂 I started watching DS videos myself to see what all the hype is about and even up to the advanced videos is nothing like 'la lengua de las calles'. 😂 Real life conversation in Spain takes place VERY rapidly, and it's not just the speed they talk but the speed they think. The Spanish brain is always 4 or 5 sentences ahead. There's none of the 'eh... Em...' ponderous way that English speakers are used to. And Spanish people don't 'slow down' just because you're a guiri. Their brains are not programned that way. 😂
Yes, you might be OK ordering a coffee in whatever tourist spot you go to, but in the thick of it in a town where no English is ever spoken....
Don't fool yourselves. DS is a good tool, but you have to learn to speak and get comfortable speaking as you learn to understand. Otherwise you will be like a mute. You have to read. You have to learn the grammar. Spanish gets complex fast as you progress to upper intermediate. There's simply no way around using traditional study and hard work alongside DS, that's if you really want to learn the language beyond 'guiri' level.
It’s 100% a cult. You can identify it as such because criticism of the method leads not to a discussion about the method itself but to an almost reflexive defense of the leader. This is a hallmark of cult-like behavior: the conflation of the method or ideology with the person who created or popularized it.
Cults often require a deep personal investment in the leader's infallibility and the exclusivity of their methods. This goes beyond mere admiration or respect-it's an almost sacred reverence. When followers believe the leader offers the only solution to a particular problem and dismiss alternative perspectives as misguided or inferior, that's a strong indicator of cult dynamics.
Spot on!!
Was this inspired from the reddit? 😆 happy to have found ur channel! I'm at 470 hours more or less and I'm so happy with my progress. I've been documenting my journey too. It is a really genuine community.
@@ThePeachGirlDiaries That was my post! If you click the yt link it will bring you here haha😂. Im happy you've enjoyed and ill have a look at yours! Wishing you success!
can you understand much now after 470 hours
@@liambyrne591 yes way more than 0 hours. I’m actually closing in on 600 hours and will make an update video about my progress
RUclipsrs stop using the word "Cult" in your titles challenge, level: Impossible.
Great video. I’m a huge fan of comprehensible input. IMHO it is a very effective way of developing good listening comprehension. I’m also a big fan of Dreaming Spanish. They’ve done a great job at creating a quality platform for developing listening skills.
Is it a cult? I can’t see what’s cult-like about it. There’s no pressure from within DS to stay and even if you do stick around there’s no pressure from within DS to adhere to their recommendations. They are just recommendations after all. Yes, some individual users become obsessed but that’s nothing to do with DS. As you so rightly point out, all the DS team does is make videos.
@@raysouth1952 100% Agree, I've seen leaps and bounds of improvement in my listening comprehension. Which has defo prepared me for conversations today. Exactly that you're able to do what you want but someone people think otherwise haha😂.
Thank you for taking the time to watch and wishing you success on your language journey!
The only thing I found cultish was some of the rhetoric from Pablo, the founder. He talks about CI and his OG method as the only effective way to learn a language, and that doing anything else will hinder your progress . Then, when I see people repeating his opinions like they're indisputable facts, it feels a little cultish.
A lot of input is necessary for progress. Speaking from day one, workbooks, grammar, flashcards, etc. are all very effective too.
Comprehensible input is silly though. Intentional practice is far more effective. Its well researched that CI is not an effective way to learn (they call it acquire 😂) a language. IDK know why ppl are so into it, maybe because its hyped as "easy".
@@twodyport8080 I mean think its really down to when you want to speak. If you want to go on holiday say in 3 months. You'll be alot better off just learning traditionally. But if you want to have better control over the language that's alot more effortless in thought then CI works after X number of hours.
But it's defo case by case imo
Can you please cite these studies? As someone early on in my journey learning language I’ve read studies backing comprehensive input but would love to hear otherwise.
@@finsimple4396 not sure I can paste links here but theres some good videos with leading linguists who refute CI. E.g. Dr Norbertt Schmit. Lois Talagrand has some good interviews re this topic. Also googling you will find lots of papers.
Of course CI is not a method its a theory of learning, which is false.
Depending on what language you know and are learning then applied CI supposedly can work but its inefficient. CI flat out does not work for languages that are very different to your own.
Comprehensible input is input you can comprehend. That’s why watching kids shows and reading kids books is key. You can’t jump in the deep end. I started with comprehensible input and now I live in Mexico without problems understanding. Stop making excuses
@@twodyport8080 You can post links so feel free. There appears to be plenty of people who’ve learned distant languages through CI. I’m willing to accept that there is (perhaps) more efficient methods (mixing in other tasks) but there is enough people out there who have learnt a variety of different languages through CI within a reasonable timeframe to prove it is plausible.
You know why it’s popular, it’s easy. I can tell you that I’m not going to sit down for an hour daily to write in a textbook. If consuming toddler-like content and progressing slowly for 1000 hours will get me to a reasonable level of language is less efficient then so be it. It’s something more people are willing to stick to.
If it was pure nonsense then it just wouldn’t work. That being said, I’m willing to consider this an experiment. I’ll use pure CI to learn Spanish and reach 800+ hours by the end of the year. If I’m unable to understand a decent level of conversation in Spanish and basic native media, I’m fairly happy.
What is the word Cult doing in this video on this topic, I'm so lost...
Just something I´ve seen in the comments of different language forums
I created a new RUclips just for spanish,and i also changed my phone and laptop language to Spanish, now i know alot of words just by using my phone.
Exactly, we use our phones day in and out. It´s probably one of the best hacks! That I do but forget to mention!
When is the right time to talk is an irrelevent question. Either do what DS folk recommend or follow your own instincts like you have.
When is the right time to read is a different mater entirely. I don't agree with the opposition to reading early on, sorry! And in your case you did do some reading, if only duolingo and text books etc.
I think of language learning as a pie chart. You can learn by mainly reading, mainly listening - it doesn't matter but you probably should do some of both according to your own interests.
Spanish is written down in a fairly simple way related to speech. I can imagine reading at a later point would not be too bad in Spanish. But English or French? The written system has elements that the speech system doesn't in French and English has its own problems (as we know).
One slight criticism is the idea of the amount of time. A lot happens in the brain when a new language is encountered and we aren't always aware of how our own brain is working things out. Some exposure every day may be more important than trying to get many hours. That said there's the commute, break time and such so really one can rack up quite a lot of hours relatively easily.
Quite a few people do DS along with other things an I think that's probably good.
That said the DS materials are really good. It ccan be a really good phase of learning, so I feel fairly positive about it. I watch some videos but my learning is mainly reading (comprehensible input of course).
Finally, including you (!) I've seen people do videos of really good progress and who feel really good about the process. That's always good to see.
If you can joke, understand things and follow conversation that is fluent enough as far as I am concerned. Errors always be there.....
@@cpnlsn88 I agree with a lot of your takes, Ultimately everyone has to work out what works for them I don't think it's a one size fits all aswell as one specific method. Gotta try a little bit of everything
Good video and great work. I want to get to your level man. I agree with a lot of what you said.
@@Kap-o3y Appreciate you, Bro It's just a matter of time. Stick it out and you'll see results! Experiment and enjoy the journey!
I have been learning spanish for 2 years and i just started dreaming spanish like 2 months ago, I personally think its over hyped because i learned spanish before i used dreaming spanish
If you have previous experience and you can already express yourself and have a conversation then yeah DS won't be that useful for you. You would be better off just watching native content.
I just wish that i found DS first before any other dumb app I’ve purchased 😂😂😂 so i feel cult like when recommending it 😂
We can defo get passionate about it for sure, atleast you found it! Some people are still looking haha
Culto o no, tu dedicación tuvo resultado amix 😝😂🔆
@@ximenafigueroa2988 pero también tu ayuda! 😁