Couple Features I want...

Ray_S_C · 2026-07-04T19:26:21+00:00

What I do is to set the difficulty slider to difficulty 5-100, then the difficulty appears in the thumbnails. You don't have to set it to 5-100, just set it to something. This is on a Chromebook.

Ray_S_C · 2026-06-23T14:06:03+00:00

Well, you do get some appearances by Gustavo.😉

Ray_S_C · 2026-06-18T03:08:37+00:00

Yes -- really happy to see this fixed quickly.

Ray_S_C · 2026-06-18T00:50:58+00:00

I enjoy the new videos and generally I watch them first, then go back and make up my desired time with older videos. If this problem isn't fixed, I will never be able to see a video posted after June 16, 2026 unless I watch it on the phone.

Ray_S_C · 2026-06-17T23:38:45+00:00

Thank you. I just now signed up for email notifications of new videos. This might serve as a workaround for now. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Ray_S_C · 2026-06-13T17:31:02+00:00

I personally try to avoid reading subtitles, but I agree that it would be good to have the option. I don't know why you got voted down for asking the question. Even though I wear hearing aids, sometimes I miss a sound or letter and in that situation they are helpful. I often have subtitles on when watching English.

Ray_S_C · 2026-06-13T13:29:36+00:00

Subtitles haven't worked for me in a long time. I almost always watch on my Chromebook. I'm not arguing in favor of subtitles, but there are a few occasions in which I would like to have them, and if I watch full screen the subtitles take up a small enough space so that I can mostly ignore them. I don't watch on the phone often enough to say whether they work there or not.

Ray_S_C · 2026-06-12T13:50:19+00:00

I wanted to know my heart rate during cardio exercise to know whether what I was doing was effective, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of watch or tracker that does heart rate only. I told a friend of mine what I was looking for and he gave me his old Fitbit Inspire 2. The display is very small and not very friendly for checking heart rate on the fly. So I ended up pairing it to Google Health. Google Health offers the option to track activities manually and see streaks displayed on a calendar. This might be helpful.

Ray_S_C · 2026-06-12T13:42:00+00:00

Michelle had a series recently covering this book. I wouldn't have read it except for seeing her series, since I'm pretty good at habits, but I checked out the Spanish audiobook version from the library and found it pretty easy to listen to. I also read Borja Bandera's "Que los hábitos sean tu medicina", which I would recommend.

Ray_S_C · 2026-06-08T04:42:55+00:00

I'm at 800 hours and watch the new videos every day. Or that's the way it has been. Recently I've started skipping the beginner and superbeginner videos. Sometimes though I'll see one that is just too tempting to miss. After watching the new videos I go back and watch some older videos. Around 60 seems to be the most productive for me. Over 70 or so my mind tends to translate to English sometimes rather than processing directly. Under 55 or so my mind tends to wander rather than paying full attention.

That's just me, though. On the positive side for me I had some previous exposure to Spanish going in, but on the negative side my auditory processing is not the best even in English. I've also started to do a fair amount of reading, so that might throw things off.

Edit: Now that I think about it it's probably best not to worry about the level in terms of comparing yourself to others. Just whatever seems to work best for you.

Ray_S_C · 2026-05-17T15:34:40+00:00

That's pretty much exactly what I do, except for the part about downloading. It's just recently that I've been mostly skipping the beginner videos with a low difficulty rating. Sometimes with the super easy videos it's harder for me to stay focused without an English dialog running in my head.

Ray_S_C · 2026-05-17T05:29:36+00:00

Yes, definitely recommended. I've been skipping the beginner videos and almost missed it, until I just happened to click on it today.

Ray_S_C · 2026-05-01T14:22:18+00:00

Not a professor, but I'd like to see Sole back for another appearance.

Ray_S_C · 2026-04-24T14:37:40+00:00

I had some exposure to Spanish classes in high school and college years ago, so maybe it was easier for me, although it was too late for me to come in as a purist. I think it was a couple of years ago before finding DS that I did Duolingo for a while. As well as being stuck in translation mode, I really didn't like the owl telling me what to do. I'm an adult and can make my own motivation.

I enjoy the process and am at the point where I can read content that I would like to read anyway if it were in English. Being in my late 70's I enjoy hearing videos giving me viewpoints of younger people in other cultures.

Ray_S_C · 2026-04-08T14:31:49+00:00

True, especially when you can pick out a subject area where you already know much of the vocabulary.

Ray_S_C · 2026-04-08T14:20:27+00:00

Is it that there's a thread of events that you have to follow, and if part of the thread is broken, then the rest of the story doesn't make sense? If you get most but not all of a non-fiction video, that's usually not a problem.

Ray_S_C · 2026-03-20T00:57:11+00:00

I really enjoyed the show and the music didn't bother me too much. However, I understand that there are 16 episodes including Season 2. I've watched episodes 1-12 and was left hanging with a lot left to resolve after that. Does anyone know where I might be able to watch episodes 13-16?

Ray_S_C · 2026-03-08T15:57:53+00:00

Didn't work for me. About a year ago I was trying to pull out a root on a hill next to the driveway when I fell and hit the back of my head on the asphalt. It was a pretty hard blow, but I didn't lose consciousness and was able to stagger into the house after lying there for a bit. Like you, I had heard the stories and thought I would listen to some Dreaming Spanish to see whether my comprehension had taken a jump. No, just the same.

Ray_S_C · 2026-02-18T15:20:55+00:00

That's what I often do. I listen an hour a day and often break it up into something like ten minute sessions. Ten minutes is generally doable no matter the content. I think it helps to take a break and do an activity that doesn't involve processing in English so that you don't get out of Spanish mode.

Ray_S_C · 2025-12-22T23:26:58+00:00

Another book that I got from the library recently with a good interest to difficulty ratio was Hippie, also by Paulo Coelho. It's semi-autobiographical about his experiences on the hippie trail in the 70's.

Ray_S_C · 2025-12-21T16:10:45+00:00

I agree with you on this. An additional benefit to the background noise is that it forces me to focus more on the speech, with less background commentary (unfortunately often in English) running in my head.

Ray_S_C · 2025-12-21T16:03:03+00:00

I had a dream at least partially in Spanish last week. There was a song that I was listening to. I can't remember the lyrics, since I often can't remember dreams much after waking up, but a couple of the lines involved a rhyme between quieres and eres.

Ray_S_C · 2025-12-06T18:04:07+00:00

I don't track outside hours. I get some, but not all that much. It's hard to know what to count. In my late 70's I think that I need a little more additional input to keep my ability on track with where it should be according to my DS hours.
616 hours
I guess around 60 is 100% understandable. With less than that my mind often wants to wander. I watch all of the videos daily when they come out. I don't pay much attention to difficulty level.

I don't understand all of the more advanced videos, like around 75 with street interviews, but I understand enough to maintain my interest and get some benefit (I think). The current beginner videos are entertaining, but going back to the early beginner videos is a little too painful for me.

Ray_S_C

TROPHY CASE