650 ish Hours Update With A Small Speaking Sample

Hey All,

I finally hit 600 hours of Spanish comprehensible input! I started over a year ago having the traditional classroom experience while in high school and not be able to speak Spanish after finishing. I actually swore off language learning as I thought it was too complex. I started listening to music in Spanish like Natalia Lafourcade and Bad Bunny and wanted to finally learn a language so I could connect with another culture better and I liked the idea of being bilingual and exploring other cultures.

Comprehension/Listening:

Fast forward and I am using luodingo to learn Spanish and nothing is really sticking in my head (Duh, if I only knew the difference between learning vs acquiring a language). Then I stumbled upon Dreaming Spanish via Reddit. I started at Superbeginner and could only stomach 15 minutes of Spanish a day or else my head would hurt. Slowly but surely, I grinded my way through superbeginner and beginner and reached around 300 hours (150-300 is HARD). I had my doubts about the method in the beginning and when I got to audio only content I understood the magic of comprehensible input. I also learned more about Pablo's methodology and saw videos of him speaking other languages which sort of eased my doubts I had about the process. This is where things took off for me as audio only podcasts opened up for me ~300 hours and I could listen to Spanish during my commute to and from work.

I started by listening to Español con Juan and then picked up Hoy Hablamos along with Charlas Hispanas. Now, I am getting into some native content like No es el fin del mundo which is about geopolitics. Most of my content now is audio only along with watching intermediate and advanced DS videos at home and I can fit in listening while cooking dinner for example. I've noticed as more unlocks, the more fun I am having exploring different cultures, points of view and connecting with whole worlds that I never knew existed being a monolingual.

Speaking/Writing:

One of the main reasons I started learning another language was to communicate with others and I knew I wanted to speak as soon as I could, so I held off until 600 hours. I have attached a speaking sample (2 clips *CRINGE*) so you can see what pronunciation/accent at this level is like (def made some mistakes). Before I began speaking, I wrote back and forth with ChatGPT and had mini conversations which can be quite helpful to get your output going. You have more time to react and get to think more about your answers which can prep you for conversation… but there is nothing like speaking with a native.

I began iTalki lessons and I have a lot of room for improvement speaking wise but understood everything the teacher was saying. There are a lot of connecting words that I don't have and I do feel like a child looking for words in the moment. I do have to simply my thoughts as I don't quite have the vocab yet to explore long sentences and nuanced ideas. The thing that sticks with me though is that everything that I am saying is coming from the input that I have acquired. All in all, room for improvement as I take in more input. Currently at like 3 hours of speaking practice and I plan to use listening/reading as my bread and butter while adding speaking lessons throughout with some shadowing.

Speaking Sample:

https://soundcloud.com/chase3243/8-16-24-spanish-speaking-sample

Future Goals/Outro:

The next step is to get to 1,000 hours of listening and I have began reading texts at the 3rd grade level to further cement grammar and vocabulary. I would definitely tell someone with zero hours to get ready for a grind that is worth it. There is a growing community here that is open to help and support and I am writing this very update as these updates and progress reports kept me on my path at the very beginning when so much is in doubt.

TLDR: We are all becoming bilingual BEASTS *NOT CLICKBAIT*