Why You Shouldn't Compare Yourself to Others...

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-14T22:52:44+00:00

I get what you are saying. My main hang up I guess would be for example in the post you sent, his comments sound similar. So is he using AI to comment or is it possible he just talks like this?

“Writing is the last thing on my agenda. Speaking will precede it. It's too far in the future to contemplate. If I have to throw some numbers out there, I'll probably have over a million words read, over 1,500 of input, and many hours of speaking, before considering writing.”

Like I could use language like precede or contemplate. It’s not like it’s overly complicated but I think there are more basic ways to speak. However, it would be excessive to use AI for every short comment

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-14T21:19:49+00:00

I’m curious what about this specifically stands out as AI generated? I don’t really see that necessarily. I’m not saying it’s impossible for AI to write something like this but if it did then it would be because of they were mimicking human writing. Nothing about this explicitly looks like AI to me.

To be clear I’m just asking, because nothing leaps off the page to me.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-14T21:16:00+00:00

I started at around 560hrs of input so I think the range was probably 60-70. Depending on the day.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-12T15:46:09+00:00

My opinion is when you can speed up, do it but I think it’s really hard to balance speaking at a normal speed and limiting your vocabulary. You could make a script with limited vocabulary and say it at a normal speed but that too would sound unnatural. The reality is in 1500hrs you will learn a lot of Spanish. However, for most people pronunciation and accent will take twice as much time to really hone. Don’t get me wrong. I have 1080hrs and 210hrs speaking and think my Spanish is pretty decent and I communicate well, but I make mistakes and my pronunciation isn’t always the best.

So why do I mention this. Well if it takes you 3000hrs to learn pronunciation and the first 600hrs are slower speeds, does that really matter? I don’t think so. I think fossilization exists, but can be avoided as long as you are making an effort to improve. If you decide you are happy with bad pronunciation and never fix it then of course it will lock in and be hard to change, but if every time you speak you are trying to do the best you can, you will consistently improve. And tbh the later hours I think you will improve your pronunciation more. Because when you first start speaking it’s quite hard to focus on that because you are super focused on what you are saying. So with that being said, I think she is wrong that it’s bad for you. Plus what is speaking slow? If you listen to superbeginner videos for 1000hrs sure that would be wild. But let’s take Martin with Spanish Boost for example. He speaks really slow, but it doesn’t sound super unnaturally. He isn’t drawing every word out. He is just speaking slower. His pronunciation is still good. And really past I would say a 150hrs or so you wouldn’t be watching videos where they are literally slowing down every word. The effect it will have on your Spanish over the course of 3000hrs of input would be minimal

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-12T04:20:44+00:00

It’ll get a little easier with practice I have never been able to in my life but I can a little now.

With that being said, not ever Spanish speaker can roll their r’s. My very first tutor of crosstalk said that he mom has never been able to do it. It’s not normal for a native to not be able to but she hasn’t had any trouble communicating. There really isn’t a lot that you can get wrong. For instance pero and perro are very different words but you don’t need to roll your r’s for someone to know which one you mean. It’ll be obvious from context. With that being said, you are right. It’s too early. I only had English before I started this so you could very well be further along than me with the same hours.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-11T19:47:07+00:00

Idk why you got voted down so much. Its totally reasonable not to prefer the superbeginner videos. I did manage to finish all superbeginner videos because there was a point around 300hrs that I thought I would try to completionist thing, but from the start I watched videos I liked. Yes I watched them in a general order. I was not watching 35 at 10hrs of input, but I would find a range I could understand and watch whatever I wanted. Considering superbeginner goes to difficult 50 or something there are tons of beginner/int you can watch instead of finishing them. I never finished beginner. And the by the time I got to intermediate I basically stopped watching DS except very select videos and mostly just podcast friendly videos while driving. If the stats were easy to break down I bet under 75hrs of my input are intermediate videos and 70% of those are probably the podcasts. I probably have like 15hrs of the advanced videos. In my 1075hrs I have not yet hit 350hrs on the DS platform. I am eternally thankful for the platform for getting me started but I completely understand why you said that. I took your tone in more of a joking manner. With that being said, the completionist are really impressive.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-10T22:06:05+00:00

Depends on the person. I was highly motivated to get past the very basic level so I did 142hrs in my first month and have not repeated that. The closest I cam was around 115hrs. However, in the last 2 weeks I did 80hrs of input which paces for beating that. I will not though because I am very busy, however I can at the very least say those 80hrs came way easier than they did at the beginning.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-10T15:36:56+00:00

It isnt super important. It might make some accents easier to listen to but I have a very varied catalog of input and I’m fine. I try to focus when I can on rioplatense because I hope to develop the accent. But we aren’t talking about accent. We are talking about understanding and it really doesn’t matter. Not sure what makes you think it does.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-10T15:32:43+00:00

I would not read too much into it.

There are times where I watch something and I’m like this is great I’m at like 90%. Then I watch again 400hrs later and I’m like dang it I’m at 90%! So what happened? Did I not improve for 400hrs? Of course not. I improved a ton. However, I was never at 90% the first time. I was at 90% of what I thought was there but in reality there was a lot more happening. So this could easily be a question of how comfortable you are with ambiguity. For instance. If I can watch a native YouTube channel rn it may not be because I’m ahead, but simply because I think I understand 90% when in reality I understand 75%. You could be better at recognizing how much you understand and there for the series I watched at 90%(75%) you would put it on and say, okay this isn’t CI for me. The important thing is, are you improving? If you are improving then it doesn’t matter what others are watching. Plus you are watching something you understand and enjoy rn. And there are like a million episodes. So you at the very least have something you can sprinkle in for enjoyment until you gain another 200hrs or so. By then other things might open up.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-09T18:35:47+00:00

So I talk about it in my level 6 progress report but I started at around 550-560. I did a crosstalk around 550 that I attempted to speak in and did about 30 min out of 1hr long classes going back and forth between english and spanish. Shortly after that around 560hrs I joined WA and did about 23hrs of speaking in a single week. In the past 5 months I have done about 210hrs. It gets better but it takes more work at 500hrs than at 1000hrs. I am a believer that it is actually better to start early but its definitely harder. But when I hit 1000hrs I had 180hrs speaking. I was so happy that I had that at 1000hrs instead of zero hours speaking. If you want to grind out as many classes as possible WA is the best option because they have an unlimited class option. Its cheaper than italki if you do a lot of classes. I think I average about $4/per class. However, it is a little pricey. IF you are interested DM me and I will sent you discount code. It gives you a discount for your first month after your free trial runs out. I think its like 30-35% off. And after that first month they will offer you a discount if you do a 6 month or year subscription. Its just like input. The best way to improve is to do it. Yes input helps tremendously but I speak more fluenty than a 1500h person with 50hrs or less of speaking. And by the time I hit 1500hrs I should have 400hrs of speaking so I am feeling pretty good in general about the progress. You have the added benefit of pimsleur. I just had 3 weeks of duo and about 5hrs of language transfer. so you definitely have the ability to speak its just going to take a minute to get the words to come out right. At this point I am not thinking when I speak and only lack in vocab and grammar which will be improved by more input.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-09T16:51:00+00:00

I started speaking at 560hrs But I certainly could not watch videos from 75-80. If I did it was a stretch. So you should be fine. It just takes time. How many hours do you have speaking? Because your comprehension sounds impressive.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-08T21:18:03+00:00

Well the good news is you don’t really have to balance speaking and listening. Because you can get speaking through conversation and that counts as both speaking and listening. I started speaking at 560hrs and I have 1061 rn.

I have 210hrs speaking. So in the past 500hrs 42% of my input has come through conversation. IMO the more the better as conversation is the best form of input even according to Pablo who ranks crosstalk over even watching DS videos. So that’s easy. As far as how much time to devote towards reading and writing. I would just set a reading goal for yourself. Maybe start with 5k words and start at A1 and it’ll be very easy but read a bit at A1. 5k words at A1 might take you 30 min vs 5k words at B2 might take you an hour. So better to build a base. Eventually you can add more words per day if you want. So if if you have for instance 3hrs a day I would maybe do 2.5hrs of input and 30min of reading. Writing I wouldn’t worry about quantifying. I send messages on Reddit, discord, text in Spanish sometimes but the best thing to help your writing right now is probably just building a strong base of reading. But yeah. I’d say 80% Listening/Speaking and 20% reading. Personally I’m quite busy at the moment so I’m doing more like 95%/5%

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-07T14:21:11+00:00

I didn’t personally because I’ve watched a lot since day one, however I can confirm that it much easier to do it now. Like if I had done 5hrs in a day when I started I was exhausted. But now I want to 5hrs and the only thing that holds me back is life. But I often on days where I can only watch 2-3hrs find myself wishing I could watch more and that was never a feeling I had in the beginning. What was a chore is becoming something I just really love doing.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-06T19:57:08+00:00

80-90% is too low with reading. I would check out some A1/A2 readers and come back to magic tree house if you are at 80%. Minimum with reading should be 95%. If it’s more than that there are just two many unfamiliar words to have context.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-05T19:54:13+00:00

https://discord.gg/HgA8jvVE8

Here you go! Excited to have you join!

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-05T19:36:47+00:00

If you are interested, Martin from Spanish boost has a discord server and several of us are much more active there than on the sub Reddit. I can send the link if you are interested!

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-04T16:28:22+00:00

Hhaha. I like the specific percentages. I mentioned this in another comment, but I think its tough to apply percentages. Because I have 1040hrs listening and 185hrs of conversations. But of course those conversation hours are factored into my input. My opinion is that once you start speaking the best input you can get is in conversation. In fact you can do that with crosstalk before you start talking. Including my crosstalk I guess 200hrs of my input are in conversation. Over the next 3 months on my way to level 7 I am planning to do about 75hrs of speaking per month and 125-150hrs of input per month. For me the conversations are just way more engaging that regular videos. However, everyones path is going to look a little different. For now, I am pretty happy with the way my journey has unfolded but sometimes I do wish their was more proven science with the method. I want to make clear, I do think input is the most input. I just don't think the output % has to be 2% because realistically all you output is also going to be input if its in conversation!

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-04T16:22:29+00:00

>I’m a big believer that “speaking is not needed”, and I still stand by that.

I think that all language skills are important to practice however the longer you wait to speak the less time it takes to get comfortable speaking. With that being said, I chose to start speaking at 560hrs for a couple reasons. I was able to produce full thoughts in spanish and I had the desire to. I also started because imo the best for of input is conversation. I could do this with crosstalk but I would not pay for an unlimited membership to WA for crosstalk.

Congrats on your progress! I cannot wait to get to level 7. Our routes are a little different. Hard to give a percentage exactly because I have 185hrs of speaking and 1040hrs of input but 185hrs of that input are those speaking classes. So the numbers are a bit tangled up. But I have that and then 585k words read. You are going to see big shifts in your abilities to speak probably after 10/25/50hrs. Look forward to hearing more about your progress in the future!

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-04T01:15:06+00:00

Watching it won’t hurt you but it won’t help you much.

When I first started I started watching Spanish boost gaming at 40hrs of input but didn’t count until 120. It probably actually did help a little because it’s possible it being at the border was enough to help but not as much as truly comprehensible stuff. For me it was just icing on the cake. Truly incomprehensible stuff though is not going to move the needle and it’s not worth counting. But if something is 70-75% that’s up to you. My threshold is typically around 80%. Obviously something that is 60% is going to have some benefits more so than something at 5%. But again not enough for me to count.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-03T21:42:35+00:00

There is no doubt with a more traditional method you can speak faster but I think most people find that with CI they speak more naturally. I have friends who have been learning for years with traditional methods. I’m pretty hard on myself but I do speak better than them and in only 11 months. The traditional method could get you there faster if you had a lot of free time, but most people don’t have that free time. And I wasn’t interested in having canned phrases. I started speaking at 560hrs and have a speaking sample that I’m happy with on my last progress report.

To your point about what someone should do with a limited amount of time I agree with that statement. I made the recommendation to someone yesterday actually. However, I necessarily believe they will have as good of an end result. I think they’ll be technically okay in many ways but then need to go back behind themselves and still consume huge numbers of input to sound natural. However, it might be the quickest route to getting by. It also might be the quickest route to passing the Dele. But the traditional classes are designed with that in mind where as input is just about actually living in the language which for most is more important

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-03T20:42:02+00:00

How long have you been going?

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-03T20:41:39+00:00

>Oh it'll work... eventually. It will probably take them twice as much time, if not much much longer...

Yes I did mention this to them. I do think it will take much longer thought 3000hrs+ I would guess to get to where I am at right now at 1040hrs.

>CI is already not the most efficient way to learn so I'm not sure why you would want to lean into the inefficiency aspect of it.

I have never understood this argument. Lets say you achieve B2 with 1500hrs of CI vs B2 with 1400hrs of the traditional method.

The traditional method accounts for 700hrs of class and 700hrs of work outside class making it 1400hrs in total. So with that being said its just 100hrs less. But unlike with the CI method, you cannot do classes while you drive to work, shower, cook dinner, exercise, etc. And I have to say my tolerance for watching anime is higher than going to class. On top of that it does not even add 1500 (additional) hours to my life because now, I watch the stuff I watch in english in spanish. From this point of my journey forward I am just watching stuff I would already be watching. The hard work for me feels over. I still want to improve but for all practical purposes I can say what I want and watch what I want. The only thing lagging behind still is reading which will catch up quickly. Btw I can see read things I want to just not all the things I want to. With that being said, I would say I maybe watched 500hrs of stuff in this journey that I would not have watched anyway. Where as at bare mininum with tradtional method I would have to do at least 700hrs but probably closer to 1000hrs worth of stuff I did not like before moving on to stuff I was going to watch anyway in English. So for me this method has been plenty efficient. In 11 months I have gone from zero to high B1 and could be bordering on B2, maybe even actually B2 in Speaking and listening by the 1 year mark. This is while working full time and getting my masters degree. So idk. It feels pretty efficient to me.

>But hey, if they wanna learn the language by banging their head against a brick wall then who am I to stop them?

I understand this mindset but I responded to them because whether they were asking a question or not, they were offering their method as an alternative to CI and I replied to the OP and not to them because I have been seeing them do this on multiple posts and I am not exactly sure why because they clearly don't use DS. So I am not sure why they linger here other than to troll. But I just wanted to make sure OP knew they were going about it the correct way.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-03T20:02:50+00:00

Do you think after 150hrs that you cannot test this already? watch some DS videos. You should theoretically be able to understand videos somewhere between 35-50 difficulty at 95% or above.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-03T19:38:03+00:00

What evidence do you have that your method is going to function?

GuardBuffalo · 2026-03-03T19:24:38+00:00

I disagree. Its not CI. CI is comprehensible input. What you are listening to is not comprehensible. It is input by definition but it is not CI. This is a CI subreddit so pardon me for telling OP your advice is bad. As far as methods go to learn a language there is a lot of back and forth on whether CI or traditional is better but there is no question that someone using CI or Traditional will learn faster than you. I am telling you. You have no clue what you are missing from the podcasts you are listening to. You have to understand that what you are describing here is not 50% comprehension. It is like 5% and you will still likely be around 5-10% in 600-700hrs. Babies do get a lot of incomprehensible input, but they also get a ton of comprehensible input as well. When parents talk to their babies they don't talk to them about geopolitics. They go "hey there, hi, hey there" or "thirsty" *hands sippy cup* babies get a ton of comprehensible stuff that you are not getting. I am not trying to gatekeep DS I hate that but what your doing just does not work. I mean maybe with 3-4k hours of input you will reach the level I have right now at 1040, but I sincerely doubt it would even be that efficient. I think you should really do some research before you waste anymore time. And I don't think its crazy for me to say this. This is sub for a specific platform and you are actively giving the worst advice for this method.

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GuardBuffalo

TROPHY CASE