#spanish progress

[rigelmejo]

Spanish Listening Experiment Update 8/25/2025: 33 hours (115 hours of prior experience, for a total of 148)

I'm going to try to keep this on the shorter side.

Listened to The Wild Project #50 video today:

I would estimate I understood 95% certainly enough to follow all the main ideas, and many details. Now, I have a engineering background from college, so I already know about Quantum Physics, String Theory, Multiple Universes, so I picked a podcast episode on a topic I am familiar with - which surely helped me understand it. Also science topics tend to have MANY more cognates with English and French, compared with everyday basic life words (like trash, path, long, short, small, big, something).

It was funny as Fuck to me when I heard Lex Luthor's name in this episode multiple times, after they mentioned Elon Musk and Starlink and then sidetracked to Lex Luthor and the new Superman movie and the Zack Snyder Superman movies. They also mentioned Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer movie, all of these were parts I did not expect lol. I am hyperfocused on Smallville's Lex Luthor lately, and the new Superman 2025 movie, so it was really a fun coincidence.

The hardest words to understand were some verbs, especially verbs in new forms, and some common word basic nouns (like string theory - teoria de "cuerda") and stuff like some - "alguno" and "nunca" - never). I suspect some of the most common words in many languages are less likely to be cognates.

I turned on Spanish subs for a few minutes, could read quite well, same words were troublesome. I did look up a handful of words in Google Translate. I did not have a problem with the speed of speech, anything I heard I,could guess how to type okay or say into Google Translate Speech Recognition if I wanted to look it up.

I did try to watch Alex Tienda's Corea del Norte videos. He does talk a touch too fast for me to follow unless I pay full attention (versus The Wild Project where I didn't need to watch the screen and could multitask). I could understand many words Alex said when watching with full attention, so I think it's not that his speed of speech is too hard, but more that he is using a lot more daily life palabras (which have less cognates in general with English and French). So I have to actually rely on visual context more to figure out the meaning of many words he's saying.

I tried How to Spanish podcast yesterday and I can handle it now. So I went on a search for a bunch of higher level podcasts and channels. My comprehension has apparently increased a LOT in 33 hours. Fascinating.

If I try to watch the show Elite in a day or two, you'll know what happened. I was trying to see if I could understand it. I may try to test out some audiolibros too.

So far all the podcasts for learners I have tried have seemed understandable (at least for the 5 minutes I tried them out).

I have Spanish Boost Gaming (and Spanish Boost podcast) to thank for all the progress I am making. Martin really does speak slow and clearly enough, and manages to speak in a way that helps a TON with learning new words. I suspect I have been picking up a TON of the most common Spanish words from Martin's videos. And his videos interest ke amd keep my attention in a way no other learner content has.

I just finished Spanish Boost Gaming's Bioshock playlist!

It was great! I truly love Martin's videos. They're all perfect for me - they feel easy, I can watch the video games or just listen to the podcast episodes, they're the kind of stuff and topics I watch in English too.

I feel like this is not the usual progress expected for 33 hours (or even 148 hours). Although Spanish Boost Gaming is supposed to be perfect for 150+ hours so Level 3 on the Dreaming Spanish roadmap. My hypotheses right now for why my progress is the speed it is:

1. Perhaps all the French I know is REALLY helping a ton (likely due to cognates). I can read whatever I want in French (at probably a high school reading level). I learned to read over years, so I probably learned 9000+ words in terms of reading. Although my listening did not get much practice until recently. And Spanish has like 20,000 cognates with English. Google search keeps saying French and Spanish have 75% lexical similarity but I haven't found any actually researched academic texts to confirm that. I did see on reddit, someone mentioned they were B2 in French (which is roughly where I am) and at 281 hours odlf Dreaming Spanish could understand the DS Advanced videos. (If French does give a big benefit? It may mean the DS Roadmap taking 750 hours instead of 1500, or somewhere in between).

2. Perhaps working on listening skills in one language gives Large Benefits to other language's listening skills. This one I am fairly sure happens to people studying multiple languages, as I have seen other people studying multiple languages mention focused listening practice in one language happened to help their listening skill in another language. (The youtuber Days and Words mentioned noticing a similar result of improving one language's listening skills helping another language's listening skills).

[rigelmejo]

Serious question. Especially if you are doing Dreaming Spanish, or using comprehensible input mainly to learn a language (like DS's method):

Should I wait until 600+ comprehensible input hours of Spanish, to start reading Spanish? That is what the Dreaming Spanish Roadmap suggests.

I ask because Spanish is the closest to a language I can really try the method of learning "mostly with comprehensible input" with. I knew very little Spanish prior to this year. So nearly all I'm learning of Spanish is from the comprehensible input videos I watched this year, and Spanush podcasts for learners.

In contrast: for French I learned to read, really well, and focused NOTHING into listening skills. So by 2 years, I could read nearly anything I wanted in French, but my mental idea of French pronunciation was so absolutely fucked up. In my head it sounded like English and Spanish and Italian when I read, so if I listened to French I could not tell if it was French or Spanish (I knew very little Spanish then, and like I said I had NO fucking French listening practice). So I spent a whole summer focusing on differentiating spoken French sounds compared to the languages I was confusing it with, and building a basic foundation of "French mental model of pronunciatiom" that was at least close enough to start noticing if I was hearing SOMETHING French versus not-French. Still took more years to build up French listening skills with practice, and its still worse than my reading skills by a very noticeable chunk. Now, my French listening skills do seem to improve a LOT with very few hours of practice, so the reading did seem to help. But I KNOW my mental sound model of French was FUCKED from not doing enough listening study as a beginner before reading.

So I know exactly why Dreaming Spanish recommends building a SOLID mental sound model of Spanish before reading a lot.

With Mandarin, I learned from my mistakes with French - I studied Mandarin sounds from the start, watched shows often, the first things I read were with audiobooks or show Mandarin subtitles while listening to the show. I still read from basically the first few months in Mandarin, just like with French. So I did start reading before building a solid mental model of Mandarin sounds in my mind. But, with Mandarin, I also heard correct sounds often, daily, which hopefully undid any "fucked up mental models of Mandarin" I formed early on, and helped shape my mental Mandarin sound model into something more accurate over time. But I can't say for sure. Perhaps reading early in Mandarin will result in a permanent sucky accent when I speak, that will never be undone or lessened.

So with Spanish... I get the chance to genuinely WAIT to read, and see if that is helpful to a big enough degree to my eventual speaking skills, to be worth doing.

The thing is. I have 6 Spanish books at home I want to read, that I can read. As in I can understand their main ideas when I read them (in part thanks to French cognates in spelling, in part knowing the English versions of some of the book's plots, and two are graded readers - the nature method books). So waiting like 400 more hours to read sounds so frustratingly long...

And as you can tell - my desire to read in a language is usually the thing that motivates me MOST, considering I always focused on that skill first in my past language learning efforts.

[rigelmejo]

8/24/2025 Updates:

My brain not feeling underwater anymore is fucking awesome. I feel so good. I can't believe how much easier it is to understand every fucking language I've studied before. I can't believe how underwater I felt before.

Tested my French: Inner French episode I left off of last time (episode 7 on conspiray theories) was at least as comprehensible now this time. Although I felt it now takes less mental effort to pay attention and follow what's going on.

Tested my Spanish (obviously as it's most of what I've enjoyed this past week): absolutely notice it's easier now than before. I can now repeat after almost every word, figure out or already know and recall the meaning of almost every word, of Spanish Boost Gaming and Spanish Boost podcast videos. Yesterday I tried to watch a How to Spanish podcast video, because I know I could not understand that series when I started studying Spanish, and lo and behold I CAN understand at least 1 episode of How to Spanish now! The speed was a little faster than Martin from Spanish Boost, and there were definitely more unknown words. But the words still felt quite easy to parse, to figure out the unknown words from context, to quickly recognize and understand the words I know. And since I studied Spanish directly before the hospital, watched a little Spanish Boost Gaming in the hospital (because it was familiar and emotionally comforting), directly after the hospital, and now every day since getting out of the hospital, it is extremely clear to me how much my memory and recall/recognition speed are getting daily. How much my ability to figure out new words from context improves daily. It truly felt like I was underwater holding my breath feeling exhausted, trying to hear and understand stuff before. And now I am above water in the air where everything is clear sounding and I can breathe easy and am wide awake and alert.

Tested my Chinese: a few days ago with Guardian cdrama and Dashu Mandarin, recall and recognition speed was slower then. Tested my Chinese again yesterday, was better than it had ever been before. Dashu Mandarin was finally clear and easy feeling and understandable. I realized Xiaogua Chinese Upper Intermediate felt easy to me yesterday, I barely heard any new words except policy 政策 and 农村, which I could easily and quickly guess the meanings from context.

Testing my Japanese now: listening to Nihongo Con Teppei beginning episodes I have heard before multiple times, as I know for sure I understood these before the hospital. Like everything else language related, it is so much EASIER to follow what is being said - I don't need to put in as much effort, I can type or multitask while listening and still follow what's being said, I could translate these sentences if required (which is a skill I was finding too hard pre-surgery pre-hospital visit). With how much easier Japanese feels, I am wondering if I'll still feel like an upper beginner, or if I will feel like intermediate stuff is doable more now. Like I find this Yakuza Lets Play easier to follow now (although I could follow the main idea gist months ago - it just felt like way more effort to focus, to figure out word meaning from context clues, the speed of understanding felt so delayed compared to now).

I wonder how much of all this stuff I've studied, my brain was actually storing into memory, and it's just the bleeding made my memory and focus absolute shit so it felt really hard to grasp more than the overall main idea and felt like I was on a delay. Like those old school dial up internet speed, versus now on high speed internet (as in how my recall feels now). Again, it was like I was underwater hearing someone speaking to me, had run out of air, and was exhausted. Now I feel like I'm on land, breathing air and hearing with no barriers between me and the source of sound, and I've had a good night's sleep and I'm wide awake. Also... that hematoma in my brain was not just fucking up my memory, it was worsening my hearing, because my hearing simply IS better now.

Lmao so much for me testing how ALG or Comprehensible Input Lessons work for someone. My brain was so nerfed before, I think any progress I made was slower than it would normally have been for others. Also it is surprising I was able to learn at all tbh. Based on how I felt before and afte4 my surgery, I clearly did learn a LOT while my brain was nerfed, I just was having trouble recalling and recognizing those things I learned.

[rigelmejo]

Notes to self about progress and level of understanding:

Chinese: 595 (1142) hours

French: 8.5 hours

Spanish: 8.5 hours

Japanese: 8 hours

Peppa pig appears to be Level 4 understanding on the Dreaming Spanish roadmap. Based on what people say they understand, many people say at Level 4 they understand Peppa Pig. Level 4 is 300 hours for a language similar to ones people know. Or 600 hours for a language less like ones you know.

Chinese peppa pig: I understand by only listening, very easy. This feels as easy as listening to English. I am almost Level 5 on the Dreaming Spanish Roadmap doubled for Mandarin. So it makes sense this would be easy, and now regular dubbed cartoons for kids to teens and some easier shows for adults (like iPartment) are easy to doable.

French peppa pig: I understand if I look at the video. I do not recognize all words if I listen without looking (like voiture I did not realize was car until I looked), but I can understand enough from only listening to know the main idea of what's going on. To catch all the details, I need to look at the video to see what's going on. So from this result... maybe I am in the middle of Level 4, for French?

Spanish peppa pig: i can follow some phrases without looking, while only listening like "hello everyone, men/people (hermanos), a baby is coming" "a boy or girl, both" and "very interesting." However I didn't know the word for bird, until I looked at the video. I need to look at the video to understand the main idea of most sentences. I can understand the overall main idea if I look at the video, but many words/details that don't have a visual to hint at them I am perplexed by. Mentally this feels harder than listening to French, and much harder than listening to Chinese. I need to focus more intently to the Spanish. So maybe I am at the end of Level 3 in terms of what I understand? This is close to what I was guessing the content I can understand is - anything suggested for Level 3. So Beginner Dreaming Spanish videos, some Intermediate videos, some Spanish Boost Gaming (except the advanced videos - although I understand them enough for them to be fun for me).

Japanese peppa pig: this one is for fun, to check. If I look at the video, I think I understand this one as well as the Spanish one, possibly a bit more. Since I recognize the conjugations of words in Japanese, and I have no idea what the different conjugation endings in Spanish mean. If I don't look, only listening I just catch phrases. "Want to eat" "what?" "Lunch" "strawberry cake" "help me" "quickly." I need to look at what's going on to follow what they're saying fully. I think... I am vaguely familiar with ~4000 Japanese words, from many study activities, and so if I kept watching things I could turn those words from vaguely familiar to quickly-understood and then I would no longer need visuals to give me a hint about what many of those words mean. So I think I have the vocabulary to understand Peppa pig somewhere in my head (peppa pig only has around 5000 unique words), I just would need to watch and listen more. I am vaguely familiar with more Japanese words, in terms of words I studied at some point, than Spanish words. So based on this test, I would imagine I'd get to the point of quickly-understood when listening faster with Japanese than Spanish (not factoring in that Spanish might be easier to pick up/internalize for an English speaker). I have a way stronger internalized model of Japanese grammar, from all those years studying and reviewing and refreshing lol. Again I wonder how things would go if I just... watched the lets plays I have saved, or played the video games I have...

So based on these I'd say:

Mandarin - almost Level 5, feels like Level 5.

French - solid Level 4 listening skills. Still need visuals to understand some words. I think with some cartoon and show watching, to connect words I can read to listening while seeing visuals, my French listening might improve decently fast. I feel my French could catch up to where my Chinese level of understanding is, if I watched more French stuff.

Spanish - somewhere in Level 3. I still need to learn some basic words and grammar to understand some things without visuals. I am fully lacking some basic words. I have to learn many things brand new. Level 3 recommended materials and under will probably be most useful for improving.

Japanese - somewhere in Level 3 maybe toward the end, as the vocabulary is there inside my head somewhere. Like with French, I feel watching more visual stuff would rapidly improve the words I can recognize when only listening.

Some thoughts: studying reading first, like I've always done, seems to mean the phase where I am "confused about grammar when trying to understand something" happens while I'm learning to read. As for French, Chinese, and Japanese, I studied them through reading first (Japanese the least though) and grammar doesn't confuse me when listening. I can't replicate correct grammar when speaking or writing, but I don't have to puzzle out what they mean by X grammar when listening. I just 'get' it. I do remember the stage in Japanese when I was kind of reasing, kind of listening, and I WAS constantly confused by grammar and word order whenever I listened or read.

Then eventually one day it just clicked and I stopped having to intensively think about each sentence. I remember that stage in Chinese and I was mainly reading, so one day the grammar just "was understood" in reading and shows (Chinese captions I'd read) and I didn't need to intensively puzzle out every sentence and word order. That stage also happened in reading for French - one day 1-2 years in, I just stopped having to intensively think about grammar as I read. That phase is really frustrating, as its easy to get overwhelmed by every sentence. I have not had to go through it a second time when listening to Chinese or French. Even Japanese it only comes to mind once in a while, during more complex sentences. With Spanish, the grammar is constantly tripping me up - every single verb slows my understanding and makes me intensely puzzled. Lots of longer sentences confuse me. It is like night and day, how much similar things just Don't trip me up in French. My brain already did the work of puzzling over the word order and grammar, and now at listening speed (like shows or audiobooks) its ONLY words I don't recognize that trip me up - and I usually recognize them as words I've read after a while.

I liked the experience of picking up grammar in reading. If I have to reflect lol. It was an exhausting endeavor sure, but reading is as slow as I need it to be. Listening is so fast, so any confusion prevents me from understanding other parts I would otherwise have understood. So I guess if you learned to read, you could look forward to not having to adjust to the grammar a second time.

[rigelmejo]

2/18/2026 notes

Chinese:

The more I learn, the harder listening feels...

(I am in a down part of the Improvement Rollercoaster. I was excited by how easy things felt like 40 hours ago. I'm currently in the midst of "oh fuck this feels so Hard and Exhausting")

But also like... I'm noticing new words I never noticed before like 熨帖 yutie (calm), 居民 jumin (resident), 名利 mingli (fame and wealth). This audiobook is not actually harder. I still understand the same main ideas and details I could follow for months. It just FEELS harder. Because I'm noticing new words, which means my focus lingers on them and I catch less overall details that follow them, and in being distracted by these new words I notice I lose track of the main ideas a bit more. I know this is just part of the pattern. I know I'll stop feeling like this, and it will feel "easy" again in a few dozen hours or sooner.

I'm noticing so much more this time I'm trying 默读 (I listen to it every so many hours, to gauge progress). Like I noticed aihao (hobby) and danchun (simple) this time while hearing Zhang Donglai's description, and phrasings I didn't pay as much attention to the nuance of last time. I noticed residents, calm, fame and wealth, which are details I didn't notice last time. I caught danci (word) this time in description. I'm noticing SO many words that weren't critical to what was happening in scenes, this time around.

I did try 40 minutes of 日谈公园. It is... a bit too hard. I guessed they were talking about deciding how to make the podcast, their online platforms, how they started the business, based on the details I caught. But I am not sure. So it was NOT understandable enough to enjoy. However: it felt like listening to "Dashu Mandarin" podcast but harder. So I'd like to go try Dashu Mandarin again, and see if it feels easier now.

I do think the current "everything feels harder" feeling is due to noticing more new unknown words now. I need my speed for recognizing the newly learned words to improve, and then I expect i'll feel another "this is easier" period.

Okay update - I tried Dashu Mandarin's first episode again and. 1. YES its easier now. But the "this feels hard" is alive and well, I caught many words I didn't used to catch, which made listening "feel exhausting" even though I understood more than last time I listened to the episode.

Another update - i am still typing a chinese journal, and successfully wrote my first "this happened then that" story. While finding words i knew, and not needing to look up words. I am excited about this, as managing to do it means maybe i could get by in a REAL conversation and get a basic version of my point across. Because being able to talk about something basically, and being able to talk Around words you dont know or say the same idea with different things is really useful for having conversations. I was so excited!

I also find, the more hours of Chinese i do daily, AND the more i try to speak and repeat after phrases when i hear them, the easier it is to spontaneously say things in Chinese. This is useful to know - future me, to prep for speaking, consider repeating aloud after conversational stuff a LOT.

Spanish:

I really love that even though I took a break from Spanish (a few months), coming back I'm still roughly where I was in terms of understanding. If anything, it maybe even improved.

I have not had time for Spanish in a few months, but I came back and Espanol Con Juan is understandable now, and so is Alex Tienda's North Korea videos (which I wanted to watch for a while).

I just finished watching Alex Tienda's first video in that series! I am so hype! I managed to follow the gist of what he was saying! I realize it was an easier kind of video (a vlogger talking about what he was doing and seeing, a lot of names of things I could recognize like places, a lot of cognates and near cognates like passport and immigration etc). But I'm really hype. This was the first thing NOT made for learners that I've understood in Spanish!!!

(I do think, partly why I can understand Alex Tienda better now, is he talks fast. That was the biggest reason I couldn't follow him last time I tried watching him. But in Chinese listening, I've been getting more comfortable with faster speeds. And maybe that improvement carried over to a degree with Spanish? Or else, who knows. My brain got more used to Spanish somewhere in the background while I wasn't doing much with it conciously.)

I also was writing, and coming up with a scene, and sometimes i improv dialogue aloud to figure out what I want to be said through a scene. I improved mi corazon. Which i know, it is a little thing, and i think i have known corazon means heart for years. But it came out of my mouth without thinking about it, so without me thinking to translate "my heart" which is a big thing For Me. A special little thing i have not done before: ramble and Spanish comes out.

[rigelmejo]

11/28/2025 Spanish updates:

96 hours CI (plus 115 prior experience, so 211 hours total)

I got so many little notes (i find fun) that I want to jot down. Not going to remember them all though :c

I think my Spaniah pronunciation is getting better. Not amazing or anything. Just like "google translate can now tell what I'm saying into it" to look words up. So I'm getting better at repeating something I just heard, close enough it still sounds like the words. This is notable because b/v, ll, a/lla, and rr/r, I was saying too indistinguishable for google translate to parse accurately a month ago.

I think my spelling is also getting better. But in fairness, Soanish words are spelled how they sound SOOOO much more than English words. It's wonderful. I don't think I've studied any language with more irregular spelling, than English. So my spelling getting better is more a case of I can tell now when I hear a ll versus a y, b versus a v, lla versus a. And in cases where I can't hear a difference (like b/v in some words) I am familiar enough with some basic patterns enough to make a guess (like if I notice its a verb conjugation of a v word then I'll be able to guess okay its spelled with a v).

Cuentame podcast now sounds 98% comprehensible on first listen. The only unknown words I hear are the ones she immediately explains, or are surrounded by so much context I can guess them. All the main ideas, and nearly all details, I understand.

Spanish Boost Gaming I understand Martin's talking and podcast videos, still not 98% but I can always follow thw main idea, and catch more details than I used to. I'm still mostly watching the lets plays though.

I tried Juega Con Juarez's lets play videos, he's about as understadable as Martin to me, except I'm used to Martin's slang lol. These videos are good and long, I should check out more of them.

Espanol al Vuelo podcast is still hit or miss on if I have to listen to an episode twice to grasp as mqny details as I want to, so noticeably harder than Cuentame. But doable, and it feels a bit easier than 50 hours ago when I started it.

I want to branch out and listen to more podcasts I have saved.

I want to try watching some Spanish dubs of things I've seen before. I think I could follow at least the main plot now of some. I think that could be a fun way to get more hours of Spanish.

Alternatively, if there's any easier telenovelas where lots of action happens related to what they say, lots of episodes, that's fun to watch, that could be a nice way to get more hours in. Maybe a comedy or romance or murder mystery (or all), those tend to be easier kinds of story plots to follow in shows.

I want to try watching Elite and see how much I can understand (or not).

I am atill unsure how much my French reading skills are helping, but I think it's somewhat.

[rigelmejo]

9/13/2025 Spanish Experiment 53 hours (115 prior hours, so 168 hours total):

I must be making some real progress.

1. I can now understand Peppa Pig in Espanol. Still some unknown words (like por supesto of course), but all clear and easy from visual context.

2. I can understand Simon very easily. Words like saltar jump I do not know, but its very clear from visual context.

These are notable improvements, because I definitely STRUGGLED with Peppa Pig when I first started trying to listen to Spanish. Many nouns and verbs are not cognates, so a lot of those most basic common words that make up Peppa Pig and the majority of basic daily life conversations I was VERY lost with.

(Whereas I did okay with some science heavy intermediate type stuff like QuantumFracture, since their videos are on science topics I'm familiar with, with a lot of French and English cognates).

Also, How To Spanish podcast videos (recommended for Level 4 300 Hours) are mostly 95%+ understandable now. I am not having trouble with most of them. I had trouble with some How to Spanish podcast episodes last week, so this is a notable improvement. How to Spanish podcast is still a BIT harder than Dreaming Spanish's Intermediate Podcast. How to Spanish podcast has more unknown words, more heavy sections of brand new words, and tends to tangent more with no explanations of new words at times. I can tell now how simplified and directly How to Spanish discusses topics, compared to regular podcasts like The Wild Project. Dreaming Spanish Podcast simplifies how they talk even more than How to Spanish.

And of course, everything on Spanish Boost Gaming is still super understandable and fun! I love Spanish Boost Gaming and Spanish Boost Podcast. Apparently if you're the kind of beginner I was, then jumping right to Spanish Boost will work and is a route that'll work.

I've bought nothing so far. I've only been using free Dreaming Spanish, and other free learner resources.

I am really a little blown away by how fast progress has been. I have only been watching and listening to Soanish 53 hours! I only calculated 115 prior hours of Spanish experiences/study and that was really being generous.

Maybe it's because I already know so much French I can read anything in French (so maybe I am B2 in French?). Maybe all my French knowledge is making this process so much faster? Or perhaps once you have studied multiple languages (I have studied French, Chinese, Japanese, and German all to some amount - mostly French and Chinese, since those are the languages I can read novels in), the speed at which you can comprehend new ones just speeds up a lot? Or perhaps the speed at which you comprehend grammar, and recognize new words, when listening/reading is faster?

I did not expect this much progress in such little time.

I am basically listening to all super understandable stuff right now. I will check later some harder stuff, like the show Elite or No Hay Tos podcast. Because there must be a challenge above my current level of comorehension, to humble me lol.

I will say this has been such an easy learning method! Just put on Spanish learning material you follow the main idea of, and enjoy! Gradually pick new stuff.

I did one additional thing not on the Dreaming Spanish recommendations - I was looking up unknown words 1-20 times a day in Google Translate, when I would hear a new word I was curious about.

It depended how curious I was, and how often I heard it and couldn't get it - so I looked up certain words like ayudar, lo siento, entonces, siempre, tenemos, tienes, podemos, mieda, no pue, fue, algun, fuerte, lo mismo, buscar, quieres, creo que, several times. I don't think looking up words was necessary, I just have done this with every language I've studied and I like doing it. I enjoy doing it.

I still don't know what hacer means, despite looking it up multiple times, I think it's like "be/being" and a very multi usage common word. Same with siempre, still not sure what it means but I suspect its more than just "always" thag Google Translate keeps telling me.

So yeah. Dang. Dreaming Spanish's study plan does work great for learning passive listening comprehension! (At least if you know French enough to read like me*).

Which makes sense based on my Chinese Listening Experiment results (but I am an actual Beginner in Spanish so I see more fast clear big results with Spanish).

No Hay Tos podcast (recommended for Level 5 600 hours) is now becoming understandable. I can follow this episode fine:

Alex Tiendo is recommended for Level 4 300 hours, I am finding his videos a bit hard still. Way easier than last week! But he speaks way faster than How to Spanish. I can, this week though, understand enough of his videos to follow what is going on.

Weak spots: it is clear to me I am still missing some basic nouns, adjectives, verbs. Stuff that is basic to understand if I am watching something visual, but very hard to guess if listening to a conversation with no visuals. So I am going to keep watching learner stuff, with lots of visuals (like Spanish Boost Gaming my beloved lol), to fill those gaps.

The Wild Project is recommended for Level 6 1000 hours. I do follow the main overall idea of any topics related to science or a topic I have SOME prior familiarity with (like certain history topics). The harder parts of The Wild Project is random tangents they go off into, that have very little to do with the main discussion. QuantumFracture is an easier channel because they stay more on topic.

I can follow the main ideas of this discussion on The Wild Project. But like I said, their side comments and tangents do throw me off when they happen.

I'll test out my understanding of an actual Spanish show tomorrow maybe.

It is WILD to me how fast progress is happening.

[rigelmejo]

Some Spanish videos I understood today:

Our Experience as Latinas in the US - Intermediate Spanish

*Watch on our website and get the full experience: https://drming.es/home*📺 6300+ videos across all levels and all kinds of topics.📈 Sort an

I understand Agustina almost perfectly, I understand the general ideas Natalia is saying but not every word.

I understood probably 95%+ of every word, but in some sentences just the main idea. For How to Spanish podcast, some episodes I understand great and some I am soooo confused and lost by.

So I think it's a bit harder than Dreaming Spanish Podcast.

I am gauging where my Spanish progress is now. I think Dreaming Spanish Podcast is getting a bit easier. But also it really depends on the topic, for these intermediate type videos. For example, the How to Spanish episode above had a ton of English and French cognates I could rely on. And this Dreaming Spanish Podcast episode has lots of proper nouns I recognize, and cognates.

I still love Spanish Boost Gaming and his videos are dragging me through learning. I find all of them great, perfect level for me right now.

I think I am gradually picking up some past tense of common verbs? I also am noticing siempre probablydoes not ONLY mean "always" and alguien means something common but I am not sure what. I think both are weird function words that may mean a variety of things. Like que, para, those kinds of words perhaps.