Here follows a ChatGPT translation a post I made on the Spanish forum:
In May, I reached 4 million words read in Spanish and have already passed 1,000 hours of listening. Very soon, I’ll also reach 200 hours of conversation. I’m really happy with my progress and wanted to share an update.
Comprehension
I can read and listen without help. I’m currently reading my third physical book (Cuando Era Puertorriqueña), without using LingQ. Regional slang and some very specific topics still give me some trouble, but overall I understand very well.
Speaking
I feel more comfortable with conversation and have received great feedback. Last week, people told me: “You don’t speak like a gringo” and “Did you live in Latin America?” Obviously, I still make some basic mistakes (gender, prepositions, past tenses), but they’re fewer and I often self-correct.
The plan going forward
I’m no longer so interested in chasing numerical input goals. Now I want to focus on creating language islands (fluency in specific topics), practicing more conversation, and correcting specific errors. The idea is to keep improving (and there’s still a lot to improve), but also to enjoy simply using the language.
If I were to start another language
Based on what I learned with Spanish, I think I’d follow a plan like this:
Start: learn the basics to get going with comprehensible input (CI). The resource or method doesn’t really matter. Perfection is the enemy of progress here.
Lots of comprehensible input: read while listening with LingQ, moving from intensive to extensive as soon as possible. Re-listen to reinforce. Do only the deliberate practice needed to help comprehension. Gradually add output little by little starting from 1–2 million words read.
Shift to output: when comprehension is high (~3 million words read, 750 hours listened in my case), focus on producing more and developing language islands.
Enjoy.
Thanks for reading. If you want to share something or have questions, go ahead!
I quite like Dreaming Spanish myself. I personally disagree with their whole philosophy of not having a transcript and solely doing everything through listening/viewing. So when I consume it I import it into LingQ and get the transcript.
However, I think the content itself is good and with the transcript and videos it is quite helpful.
You might find the following playlist interesting. This youtuber is trying to learn Spanish solely by using Dreaming Spanish videos. The video that the playlist links to is his latest video so look back in the playlist for the first video he did and follow from there:
I didn’t subscribe. I watched their freely available videos. I like the content. The organization by difficulty is really nice. Some is boring but that is to be expected as they have a large variety.
I don’t agree with the Dreaming Spanish position on CI. It is based on ALG by Dr. Marvin Brown, which is a more dogmatic version of the Natural Approach (Krashen) and they take the the position that studying (even analyze it in your head) may harm future progress, pronunciation, etc. These positions are speculative and are not supported by any published peer-reviewed research, but Dr. Brown promoted it as if it was.
That said, if you like it, I think it can work. They seem like great people and I have enjoyed using they’re youtube channel as a resource. The subscription has a nice tracking system to help keep you motivated, etc. I just think adding some targeted deliberate practice is helpful and more efficient. I also think reading while listening with LingQ is very effective/efficient.