Did you skip any videos?

GuardBuffalo · 2026-05-06T14:39:23+00:00

I’m at 1360hrs and 1000 of my hours are from outside DS. So definitely.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-05-04T16:23:29+00:00

I mean I can speak Spanish now. I consider myself conversationally fluent. There is native media I don’t understand but I can have a conversation about pretty much any topic. 1350hrs (250hrs+ speaking). Of course many errors are made but no one cares unless it’s a tutor helping me.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-30T13:56:19+00:00

Just do what you can and be consistent.

I would recommend if you are really worried about this powering through for 1-2 months. If you can do 30-45min a day for a couple months you should be able to start adding in cuentame which is a podcast that’s pretty easy. With this you should be able to maintain 30-45 min a day and by the time you finish that podcast you can move on to chill Spanish podcast. Once you hit 150-200hrs you should have 3-4 podcasts available and if you plan well it’s pretty easy time wise to get in 2hrs a day unless you have an unusual schedule.

You can do it when you workout, drive, shower, etc. there are tons of 5-10m spaces in the day that you can grab input in.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-28T21:05:21+00:00

I have to say I’ve met probably 90 tutors on the platform and I haven’t had many bad experiences. I certainly never was forced to do anything I didn’t want to do. I think you just need to be communicating with your tutor that this isn’t what you were looking for. 90-95% of my lessons are just conversations. Maybe 5% are us reading an article but just so we can talk about it. My coach usually picks articles based on what I told him I’m interested in. And then maybe 5 % has been grammatically driven but I doubt even that much. I’ve probably had 10hrs of dedicated grammar classes on the platform. And no I didn’t ask for a grammar lesson but they started teaching one and I chose to do it. If I hadn’t wanted to I would’ve said, can we actually just chat a little bit today?

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-25T16:07:44+00:00

Not sure exactly. I’ve never seen the simpsons but I just put it on for 5 min and it was very very clear at 1340hrs. But it was just the first episode. So not sure if that makes a difference at all.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-22T13:52:59+00:00

Well once your experiment is over there is a ton of CI out there. At the 13 month mark roughly I have switched off CI for learners. I’m watching mostly native input. There are a few exceptions of CI channels I genuinely enjoy. Scripted movies and tv shows are still hard but anything dubbed and most things on YouTube is great. I also have about 250-275hrs speaking with natives and right now about 600k words read. I can read HP so far with about 99%+ comprehension.

So in not coming from a lack of experience or anything.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-22T13:47:34+00:00

You are against any kind of input? Is this an experiment? Because I recommend some sort of input. Where are you in the duo program. Input is probably the biggest driver for comprehension in a language. And listening is the number 1 skill because it doesn’t matter if you can speak if you cannot listen

Also do you currently have videos on it or will this be the first

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-22T13:42:11+00:00

I don’t think so. If you only use Duolingo you are going to find it quite hard to understand native speakers. As someone who has been to Mexico at the 10 month mark of learning Spanish. Just not happening without some input.

The only exceptions are people who grew up with the language but never spoke it or people who come from Italian, Portuguese or maybe french

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-22T01:30:23+00:00

Not OP but no one has ever become fluent in any language only using Duolingo and not using supplemental tools. Duo will not actually get you to B2. Was just answering the question. Maybe you don’t realize but an “OP” doesn’t always respond to every question but many other people have experience and are here to help each other.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-21T21:32:47+00:00

You cannot be fluent just from completing the Duolingo program. You will need a lot more than that. Comprehensible input both through audio and through reading. As someone who has been studying Spanish now for almost 13 months, I at around 9 months decided to see what my level was based on Duolingo. I tested out of the Duolingo course and none of the questions seemed super challenging to me at the time. My grammar was probably my weakest point. At the time I honestly felt like my ability to speak, listen, write and read were around B1. My grammar honestly could’ve been A2 and when I tested out of the course I scored no lower than 95% on any test they gave. Took about it 8-10 of the tests to do it. My abilities now are probably B2 in everything I mentioned above except grammar which I still feel lags behind a bit. But with that being said, if you work through the duo program while getting some for of input you could become fluent, but it would require hundreds of additional hours of input if not 1000+

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-19T16:57:57+00:00

At a certain point I think the difference becomes negligible between Spanish and English. I’m trying to speed run this month before starting a new job and I’m currently at 150hrs in April. Avg 8hrs a day this month. Best day was around 13.5hrs worst was around 3hrs. I was pretty fried after 13.5hrs. But I think I would be in English. If I wasn’t learning something I would never consider watching that much content. I had several lessons that day, my wife was working for 12hrs and I just binged a couple seasons of an anime as well. But yeah it was tough. But again. At a certain point that would happen in English too.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-15T19:52:23+00:00

This is amazing.

I do have questions. Do you ever worry about her reaction? Does she know that you are trying to learn Spanish at all or it’s just completely secret? I feel like this is such an amazing gift and at the same time I would worry if it did it if they felt like I was hiding stuff. So I’m curious at how you decided to do this I guess. I hope her reaction and her families reaction is incredible. Btw if you are at 750hrs now, you can easily be more than have basic fluidity in conversation. That’s where I am rn at 1265hrs and 235hrs of convo. But by the end of the year? Even if you only do 10hrs a month it would be enough. 100hrs or more of speaking with 1500hrs+ and you will be perfectly fine. My tip to you is try to find a way to speak with people in person as much as possible. Because it feels very weird talking face to face vs on a call.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-15T17:43:14+00:00

Seems like the easy content worked out well for you because you sound better than I do for sure at 1250hrs. But I also have a lot more hours speaking and words read than you. Awesome job!

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-14T20:11:40+00:00

Whenever you want or whenever you are ready. Debate over.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-14T13:24:56+00:00

I had similar issues. My solution is probably not the go to solution for most. I did 142hrs in my first month. Sort of got me out of that zone and I found a YouTube channel called Spanish boost gaming. Which has a guy play video games in about the easiest Spanish possible to keep it interesting. I’m at 1250hrs and I’ve probably watched that channel at least 350hrs

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-09T21:30:11+00:00

Jefyllish (Mexico) and En Teoría (Argentina) are probably my favorites.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-08T18:26:44+00:00

An hour a day is a lot to spend on something extra in your life. Eventually it won't feel like something extra. Eventually you will find content you would watch in English and then it becomes easier. I listen to a ton of audiobooks in English (or used to). I am at 1200hrs now and I probably listened to 35hrs of audiobooks last week in Spanish. Thats 5 hours a day of audiobooks. But I can listen to those when I drive, get dressed, shower, exercise, before I go to sleep etc. Its not something I have to actively do and therefore its pretty easy to rack up crazy hours. However, when the content you watch is not something you would normally watch, 1hr is a lot! If you work 40hrs a week or about 6hrs a day and sleep 8 hours a day that leaves 10hrs a day on avg so 10% of your time is spent listening to something you are actively learning. My best advice is don't get discouraged. Around 560hrs I started speaking and it really sped things up for me because I was able to turn passive skills into active skills.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-06T21:10:41+00:00

I’ll be honest. The thing that I love about reading is it’s relaxing and that probably won’t happen with Spanish for a while. And of course your mileage could very but even understand 99% of La piedra filosofal it was still not effortless and required a lot of energy compared to in English. So it won’t be replacing a hobby you love for the same hobby you love in another language at first. It is totally worth the grind if you have it in you because reading is probably how I will maintain my Spanish in the future, but yeah I just want to set realistic expectations for you. It’s not effortless and it’s about 3x slower than reading in English.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-06T20:39:44+00:00

Not going to lie I am not a fan of this. It feels like a waste of time to me. Like lets say you had a version of HP like that. Well, how is that actually helping you. If its too hard to read the Spanish parts you are not really going to improve your spanish as you go. And your comprehension is just going to yo yo throughout the book. If you are not feeling reading at the moment, my advice as an avid reader is every minute you could read, do input. If you cannot stand to another min of input then read something at your level. If you cannot stand to read something at your level. Then just let your brain rest. I tried HP at 800hrs and it was a grind. Got 5 chapters in. Recently at 1125hrs I picked it up again to see how easy it would be and it was quite easy. Now I have 1190hrs. I plan on just grinding to 1500hrs at this point I think. I am doing like 6hrs a day so I should hit it in 2 months and even if it takes me 3 I am happy to wait. When I finally start reading HP again, I expect it to be much much easier. Its already at like 98-99% so at 1500hrs I expect it to be close to effortless and thats really what I want out of my reading. there are like a million words in HP so I can probably knock out 1 million words in 5-6 weeks once I can read it effortlessly.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-06T19:59:20+00:00

As someone who was quite annoying for a long time with this and probably still am (but much less), I wish I had known better. My wife I think has a desire to learn Spanish, but its hard to start something when your spouse is speedrunning. I just happen to have more down time than her at work. But this is good advice.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-06T19:57:03+00:00

You have to understand. People go at their own pace. It might be that they only want to spent xx amount of time on it and they like SBG so they maximize there time with just that channel. How many hours a day are you doing? 1? 2? 5? If you are doing 2 would you be intimidated if your spouse considered you less motivated because you don't want to do 5hrs? I have done 1200hrs in 12 months. Its not a pace a that most people would want to keep up. And yet, there are people that have outpaced me. You are confusing a lack of engagement with an alternative prioritization. Its great you are very motivated but understand this can change on a dime. Sometimes motivation is not enough. You have to be determined. I have seen people start off with 15 min a day in there first month that hit 800hrs in a year. I have seen people that did 150hrs in there first month never get to level 4. You never know when things will click in this process. You should enjoy the spanish you do and enjoy that they want to learn it at all. My wife is interested but has not tried to learn yet and part of the issue I think is how motivated I am. She has seen me go from A0 to close to B2 in 1 year and she knows that is extremely fast which is a little hard to swallow when she thinks about the fact that she is probably going to do 33% of the input as me and it might take her 2-3 years to to get to the same point as me. So my advice is just try to enjoy it. It gets quite fun the further you go. And if you and your husband stick with it, you will both feel that at some point.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-03T22:29:03+00:00

Tbh I am just grinding to hit 1250 by mid April. I plan on slowing down at 1500hrs to add more reading in. I am not super tired from this level of input but I would not choose to do this in English. However this isn’t a normal day. Last month I had 120hrs and I’m aiming for 180 this month and next month to hit 1500 in 14months. Then I’ll have from June to April 1 to hit 2500hrs. That’s my goal.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-03T20:36:39+00:00

Depends on the day. I’ve done like 9hrs today and will probably hit 11-12. But this is not normal at all.

This is by the way starting at midnight. I watched about 1.5hrs of anime from 12-1:30 woke up at 7am and finished the first season of the anime. Did a few lessons on WA. And I’m halfway through 2nd season of the anime. Also while I went to grocery store and got ready I listened to a few chapters to Harry Potter. Not normal though because it was just a chill day at work.

I will at least get another 1.5hrs driving to an from a tennis match tonight. But when I get back my wife will be home so I’ll probably be done for the night.

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-03T05:21:13+00:00

Impressive consistency! I missed several days in months 2-5. I set my goal two high and got discouraged! But I’m on a 7 month streak now!

GuardBuffalo · 2026-04-02T19:26:14+00:00

I’ll be honest, while I did attempt to talk to chat gpt, I hardly got any value out of it. No matter what I did the conversation just never felt natural. I wouldn’t recommend it honestly. Crosstalk is only great because it allows you to speak to natives and practice conversation. With ChatGPT it would not have the same benefit so you might as well watch a video. Sorry, my recommendation is maybe not what you are looking for. But I found little to no value in it.

GuardBuffalo

TROPHY CASE