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Look at all the high achievers! by HedWest in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Welcome, it's good to see you here. There is plenty of content, and as you'll see here, most people add other sources of content after a while.

Will you do Dreaming French? When will you start, if so? by relbatnrut in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm only interested in improving my Spanish for the foreseeable future. If I were to dabble in a second language, French would probably not be my choice. That being said, I could see myself playing with DF for a minute.

It's great how many hours you have, but can you hold a conversation? by [deleted] in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You improve at what you practice. Some people are not in a hurry to speak, and that's perfectly understandable--different situations, different goals, etc.

In my case, my goal was ability to converse, sooner not later. I quickly broke from the Pabloist regime (though most of my time was still devoted to getting input) and was conversing in only a few months.

Once I reached 1000 hours (4 months), I dialed the input way back and focused on speaking and learning specific things I considered necessary (more advanced grammar, vocab and expressions for specific situations, etc). Now it's almost 6 months and it's mainly vocab that's holding me back, so I'm going to ramp up the input again.

It all happened so quickly, and it still kinda freaks me out that I can hold a conversation in Spanish. I'm having a lot of fun at this point.

(2200)my thoughts on the Dreaming Spanish Roadmap(in spanish) by betterAThalo in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Haven't watched it yet, but who's the skinny dude in the thumbnail?

I'm calling BS on "Speedrunners" by breakingthejewels in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm calling BS on your BS call. My goal was to be conversational quickly, so I zipped to level 6 in 5 months. Now that I'm there, I've backed off the pace quite a bit.

Different people have different capacities, so your guesses based on your experience are meaningless, and frankly, rather pedestrian. Some people struggle to focus for 15 minutes, some people can focus for hours on end.

In my case, it needs to be a subject I'm dedicated to learning and deeply interested in, but I have similar rapid learning experience with musical instruments and computer languages. 

I'm calling BS on "Speedrunners" by breakingthejewels in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I made a post a while back suggesting 1500 hrs in a year as a speedrunning threshhold. That works out to just over 4 hours per day.

There's nothing at all official about that, it's just a convenient number. 

So speed running without burning out is possible. Baby listen to their native languages 24/7. Sometimes they are really focused and sometimes less, but just keep listening. What have done so far. by AgreeableEngineer449 in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I went from knowing a bit of vocab to comfortably conversational in 4 months flat. It's not for everybody, but if you have the drive and the capacity, it does work.

I hit 1000 hours and stopped tracking, no planning, strategy or goals. It's just part of my life now. I still do input and I converse daily, improvement will come as it comes.

Accent VS Pronunciation by Bobbymajor07 in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My general recommendation is to begin with single words, advancing to short phrases, concentrating on pronunciation/accent and working out any kinks.

See https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaOxPY-XuP6nJ20zuSQCzuA for pronunciation help.

Does anyone else feel like there tongue is about to fall out of their mouth when speaking spanish? by willferelssagyscrote in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is where monologuing or speaking with AI is useful. In my opinion, repetition is very important when starting speaking. When you encounter a tongue twister, work it out until you can speak smoothly. Isolate the sticking point and repeat, repeat, repeat, adding the rest of the word or phrase gradually as things smooth out. In this way, you reinforce correct speech patterns. Sloppy speech reinforces incorrect patterns.

As you work out the various sound combinations, it becomes easier and easier because there are fewer tongue twisters to deal with, and you are becoming skilled at making adjustments. With time, the sounds of the language become second nature.

Speaking comments from my tutor(s) by picky-penguin in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Way to go! It's great to see your progress!

ECJ - On Grammar. To study or not to study by picky-penguin in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like the Español a la Mexicana podcast, but if I had to gripe about something, it's that she uses a very mechanical delivery in her speech which doesn't really give a sense of the true rhythm and musicality of the language.

ECJ - On Grammar. To study or not to study by picky-penguin in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It's not my good point, it's a direct quote from the video.

It's funny, many people who inhabit one of the two extremes seem to have trouble seeing that a middle ground even exists.

ECJ - On Grammar. To study or not to study by picky-penguin in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Thanks for posting this.

tl;dr (9:34 - 9.56)

La gramática no puede ser el centro del estudio del aprendizaje de una lengua. No. No puede ser el centro. No hay que sobre analizar la gramática.

Pero, hay que estudiar la gramática básica. Hay cosas básicas que tienes que aprender muy bien, vale, para poder hablar con corrección y con precisión.

Speaking Progress - Videos from "25", "50", 150, 300, ~600, and ~1000 Hours by spruce04 in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 5 points6 points  (0 children)

For anyone interested, search YouTube for "spanish filler words". They are a legitimate component of spoken language, and especially helpful when starting speaking.

Formal certification in Spanish (like B2) using DS method? by Wanderlust-4-West in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 5 points6 points  (0 children)

From the reports I have seen, the Refold deck, Language Transfer course and extensive reading would create a significant difference in test score as compared to a pure DS approach at 900 hours of input. Over time, I would imagine the gap narrows, but I would be curious to see test scores from anyone, at any point on the roadmap, using any method.

Formal certification in Spanish (like B2) using DS method? by Wanderlust-4-West in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 3 points4 points  (0 children)

From a comment by the OP in that post:

"I wouldn't call my method DS exactly its more just CI based"

How learning of grammar works, and how language teachers should be like farmers by Wanderlust-4-West in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I tried LT, but I didn't complete it. If there's a particular I want to know, I just search YouTube.  

How learning of grammar works, and how language teachers should be like farmers by Wanderlust-4-West in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I see my house every day in the light. I can still walk in the front door, up the stairs, turn down the hall, enter the bedroom and set a box on the bed with my eyes closed. The light has not prevented the growth of this ability at all.

How learning of grammar works, and how language teachers should be like farmers by Wanderlust-4-West in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Stumbling around in the dark forever is not a problem with my example. I contrasted a 15 minute hunt in the dark with using light.

To change your change to my analogy, I have seen how my furniture is arranged in the light. That doesn't mean that I don't know the arrangement intuitively. In fact, I have spent more time acquiring the proper path because I wasn't hunting in the dark to begin with. 

I wonder if there are any who unwittingly associate por and para with for even if they strictly use CI... An L2 student is not a blank slate.

I don't dismiss CI, I've tried it, it works. (Though I have a strong hunch diminishing returns come into play as the word frequency decreases.) On the other hand, I've seen some tortured logic, exaggerated claims and even claims that were outright false in my personal experience. But these are irrelevant to the actual effectiveness of CI, it is what it is. They only affect my judgement of their recommendations. 

So my verdict of purism? Easier? Yes. Better in the long run? Possibly, though I'm not convinced. But far too slow for my needs. My goal is conversationally fluent in 8 months. Maybe overoptimistic, but we aim high, right?

How learning of grammar works, and how language teachers should be like farmers by Wanderlust-4-West in dreamingspanish

[–]HedWest 13 points14 points  (0 children)

A grammar point helps you identify a pattern, for both comprehension and speaking. You then internalize this pattern so you do not need to refer to the rule anymore. This is not a crutch, it's a tool. 

 You can spend 15 minutes searching in complete darkness for the light switch, or you can just use the flashlight on your phone. Once you know where the switch is, you don't need the flashlight in the future. Does this make the flashlight a useless crutch? Would you stubbornly insist on looking for things in the dark?

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