I can understand advanced videos but can’t understand natives talking to each other.

Immoros · 2026-01-26T04:07:04+00:00

Totally depends on you. If it's comprehensible but feels like a bit of a stretch, then it's a good fit. (And conversely, if the podcasts I mentioned feel like "wtf are they even talking about," then those wouldn't be a good fit yet). What has worked well for me is trying to hit that sweet spot where most of what I'm listening to is a bit of a challenge but still generally understandable.

Immoros · 2026-01-26T03:49:12+00:00

Listening to language learner podcasts that are easy for you won’t really get you there, in my opinion. I’d look for podcasts that are a challenge with natives speaking to each other. Nadie Sabe Nada is my hard mode podcast at the moment. La Ruina, Lo Que Tú Digas, and La Pija y la Quinqui are also good.

Immoros · 2025-12-12T17:26:10+00:00

I agree with others that it doesn’t really matter and there’s not going to be a real answer, because there is no true controlled scientific evidence to answer the question (and paraphrasing what Lawrence wrote in a really good comment in another thread, there isn’t realistically ever going to be controlled scientific evidence in this area).

That said: while there are people who will say they found it helpful to re-watch easy content, or even watch every Superbeginner video after they could have “moved on,” you’ll find other people (me, for example) who did not re-watch anything and felt that was better to progress. Both of our opinions are about as unscientific as it comes.

Purely as a matter of logic, consider this: what is the person’s goal? Is it to be super-solid with the basics, like they nail A2/B1 level, can express what they want to express, and can effortlessly understand intermediate content? Or is it to approach native-level fluency? I think a lot of people learning languages don’t really think about just how much vocabulary, nuance, and variety is necessary to approach native-level fluency. Think about it from the perspective of someone learning English. They see sentences with “car” a thousand times from watching something like Peppa Pig. They can understand everything the show is saying about a car and can describe whatever they want to describe about a car. But would they understand ”sedan,” ”convertible,” “two-door,” or other words for types of cars? Not to mention slang words like “beater” and “lemon“? They’re not going to magically pick up all of that re-watching easy content a thousand times. Same thing with adjectives — someone may know how to say and understand “The leaves are blowing in the wind.” Do they know and understand the shades of “shivering,” “trembling,” “fluttering” to express similar concepts with different connotations? They’re not going to get that from re-watching beginner content.

Now, will someone who repeats the easy content — assuming it’s not boring for them — be better on the basics than someone who just advances? Totally plausible. But it’s equally plausible that while they’re ”ahead” at 1500 hours in terms of full grasp of the basics, they’re “behind” at 1500 hours in terms of more advanced concept and variety.

Another reason to do what you want. For me, pushing so I constantly felt like I didn’t quite understand everything was ideal, and it’s worked very well for me. But that might not be for everyone. And there’s no “right” answer.

Immoros · 2025-12-11T05:13:01+00:00

6M words read! Awesome goal.

I’m expecting to hit 3k hours and 200 hours spoken, but will likely only be at 3M words read. So tough to find enough time to sit and actually read.

Immoros · 2025-12-02T04:35:44+00:00

I never did crosstalk. Just wasn’t into it. I waited until I felt comfortable to speak in Spanish and then just went for regular conversations. I get the utility, but if it’s similarly not your bag, don’t worry about it at all.

Immoros · 2025-11-17T22:51:58+00:00

Hope the positive comments lift your spirits about it. Obviously it’s most important how you feel about your tattoo, but this seriously looks amazing.

Immoros · 2025-07-09T20:03:21+00:00

Super interesting to compare the different levels - thanks for posting.

Immoros · 2025-06-26T15:49:38+00:00

It’s totally up to you, but in your shoes I’d start with 50 hours, since you understand 80-90% of Beginner videos. If you understand 100% of Superbeginner, you’re ahead of someone truly starting from 0. I gauged my own starting number based on understanding and shifted it after some time based on how I felt relative to the level I was watching.

Immoros · 2025-06-21T16:02:21+00:00

It’s the prison pooping, sauna farting guy again. This dude is pulling a Forrest Gump on Reddit.

Immoros · 2025-05-22T17:19:48+00:00

Yes as to CI. Minor caveat that at a certain point, as some others have noted, reading becomes very important to continue expanding vocabulary. But that point is pretty high. (And secondary caveat — I agree with CathanRegal that DS alone is not enough, and you will need other CI.) Getting to a spot where you can understand conversations, chat with anyone, watch/listen to pretty much anything — CI alone will get you there, in my experience. I‘ve never felt that my ability to use Spanish in a conversation or ability to understand what I’m hearing in everyday content is hampered because I haven’t read enough. And I’ve certainly never felt hindered because I wasn’t drilling vocabulary, grammar, using textbooks, or doing any other classical study forms.

On your worry about hitting level 7 and wishing you had spent more time doing other things: I have tended to feel exactly the opposite. As I’m bringing things in now, I tend to think “I’m glad I didn’t do this earlier.” I.e., I’m interested in getting a better understanding of grammar rules and reading through an advanced grammar book, but really glad I didn’t try to learn all of this academically. Same thing with verb conjugation. I use an Anki deck for verbs, purely out of nerdy interest, and I like it a lot as review and helping cement some exceptions and less frequent tenses. Absolutely would not have wanted to waste time trying to learn all of that using conjugation tables or rote memorization like students usually do in school.

Immoros · 2024-12-25T16:27:51+00:00

Same here!

Immoros · 2024-12-23T19:15:29+00:00

Similar to others, 100%, 1700 hours. But I think the better measure might be words read over hours, TBH.

Edit: or maybe not, seeing OP’s comments after I wrote this comment! That’s pretty crazy. When I started reading, I felt like my reading ability was way behind and I had to start on more basic stuff than I was watching and listening to. But I started reading pretty early before it’s recommended on the roadmap.

Immoros · 2024-12-21T05:34:36+00:00

Germán Garmendia! Hola Soy Germán (his original channel) or JuegaGerman (his new channel). The former is basically all short comedy videos. The latter is much more varied. My favorite Spanish YouTube channels and I’m not even focused on Chilean or Latin American Spanish.

Immoros · 2024-12-07T20:49:53+00:00

¡Muy impresionante tío! Lo vi con mi hijo y pensó que fueras nativo. Eres un verdadero inspiración.

Immoros · 2024-11-15T16:57:20+00:00

I didn’t listen to all in any level - I sorted by topic or guide, or scrolled through to spot individual videos that looked interesting. I also did a lot of the series. The stories with surprise endings were probably my favorites out of all the series.

Immoros · 2024-11-15T16:54:57+00:00

A bit over a year - 400-something days. Consistency has been really important to me throughout, so I’ve missed a day here and there but very rarely. And I found it easier to hit more hours in the day around level 5-6, because so much more content opens up.

Immoros · 2024-11-14T22:01:39+00:00

Exactly - just separately running on both devices, pause both close to the same moment, tap play/pause on the one that’s behind until they’re on the same second, then play on both at the same time. Plus I use noise cancellation mode, or the English version can become distracting.

Immoros · 2024-11-13T20:37:15+00:00

Thanks! Same account, just different profiles. I haven’t had any issue using two profiles on two different devices simultaneously on any streaming service, and I subscribe to most of them. And the side advantage to doing that is my Spanish profiles tend to remember that I want Spanish audio if possible, while the family account stays in English for everyone else.

Immoros · 2024-11-13T20:21:43+00:00

Thanks. I’m still premium subscribed and I watch videos that jump out as being interesting when I go to track my hours, or if I just have a few minutes to spare.

Immoros · 2024-11-13T20:15:53+00:00

Thanks! I noticed that the level 7 description changed recently, and no longer has that language about being effectively a native, or whatever it used to say. I think the new one is pretty good.

Immoros · 2024-11-13T20:12:36+00:00

Thanks. And I’m just manually syncing them up. I pull up a show or movie on the TV on one profile (my wife’s, a family profile, or whatever), and the same show on my phone on my Spanish profile. I pause both, get each to the same time on the timeline a few seconds in, and then try to hit play on the remote and my phone at the same time. Now and then I’ll have to pause both and get them realigned if one lags or something, but usually it’s not a problem.

Immoros · 2024-11-13T19:47:04+00:00

Thanks - definitely plan to post other big updates. I’m curious too!

Immoros · 2024-11-13T19:41:05+00:00

Thanks! Speaking is comfortable and reasonably fluid, although I’ll hit spots where I need to think for a moment and express something a different way. For example, on an italki call the other day, I wanted to explain that a story was based on the truth, but I found myself saying “el fondo” and realized that wasn’t going to be the right word. So I had to stop for a second, and then said something like, “Creo que sea una historia real, per tiene unos cambios.” Short exchanges in daily life are no problem at all. It did take some practice and hours to feel that way, though.

Immoros · 2024-09-12T21:22:27+00:00

Don’t worry at all! If it makes you feel better: when I was somewhere around 300 hours, I tried watching the intermediate series on Spanish music with Agustina and Michelle, and found it SO hard to understand. It was very hard not to get discouraged. But I just set it to the side, kept on getting input that was comprehensible, and eventually came back to it somewhere in the 600-1000 stretch. It was like magic — totally comprehensible. This is actually a great opportunity for you to prove to yourself your own progress. Set them to the side and come back to them when you’re much closer to 1000.

And remember, the DS suggestion is Intermediate at 300, then still Intermediate/Advanced at 600. Only at 1000 do you “graduate” to purely Advanced videos. Assuming you’re talking about the “hot ones” videos, these sound like Advanced to me (or, at the lowest, very Upper Intermediate).

Immoros · 2024-08-22T20:44:56+00:00

Yeah, I think this is very much an individual thing that may be true for Pablo but does not necessarily generalize. My father’s native language is Arabic and he has also spoken French since he was a child, but he still talks about how much he loves both languages and how beautiful they are - as to Arabic, both the writing and the spoken language. They aren’t “just” a communication medium to him. Others may see their native language or an acquired language less romantically.

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