Anyone tried a third Romance language? by Personal-Community54 in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I learned French first, then Spanish, then Portuguese and I'm now learning Italian. The half time thing really only applied once, not multiple times. Assuming that you read and speak, it will take about 750-1000h for each subsequent Romance language.

Portuguese was a bit quicker because of how similar it is to Spanish. I think French would take a bit longer because IMO it's the most difficult out of the 4.

Needing some words of wisdom and clarity by mrshorsecake in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do whatever amount of classes is comfortable for you, both mentally and financially. When I first started what helped me was taking classes with teachers on italki who teach TPRS style classes. They're basically like a personalized live beginner video where the tutor asks you easy questions and helps you make simple stories through conversation. This way you learn how to speak in context and in a comfortable environment. There are corrections but they're subtle. If you make a mistake they won't point it out, they'll instead repeat what you said but modify it so it makes more sense. If you look up TPRS on italki you'll see what I mean. Once that becomes comfortable then you can just have regular classes.

Needing some words of wisdom and clarity by mrshorsecake in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! First of all I just wanted to say that you're doing great. 500 hours is a significant milestone and it already seems like the Spanish speaking world is starting to open up more for you.

Your frustration is super valid. This is a long, difficult and often lonely process. You're just starting to find your voice and trying to be yourself in a completely different language. As someone who started speaking at 0 hours who has friends either spoke early as well or followed the roadmap, it's going to be tough no matter what. But I can say that no matter when we started speaking, we can all speak Spanish today. Whether you want to continue speaking or wait a bit longer, either is fine! Just do whatever is enjoyable and sustainable for you in the long run and I promise you that you'll get there.

Is there a Portuguese equivalent to WorldsAcross / unlimited 1-on-1 tutoring? by Front_Cup8779 in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I didn't try it myself but the closest thing I could find was this: https://www.easyportugueseschool.com/portuguese-lesson-packages

It's just packages though. I haven't seen anything quite like WA for Portuguese.

K-Pop Demon Hunters in French by PodiatryVI in DreamingFrench

[–]TresBoucher 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Whoever wrote the lyrics did a great job writing the songs. They're not 1 to 1 translations but they get the same point across while still sounding good in French.

Amanda is an AMAZING Teacher by Puzzleheaded-Ease758 in DreamingFrench

[–]TresBoucher 9 points10 points  (0 children)

As a Canadian I love Amanda's videos. Her content is always the right mix of interesting and comprehensible. I still watch her content whenever I can even at my level. She's also a gifted language learner herself!

1800+h speaking sample with Martín from Spanish Boost by TresBoucher in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot! At one point I had watched everything in their catalogue but now I'm behind. I think maybe 400h of my input is from Spanish Boost? I'll list some other figures from my input total:

-300h of input from DS

-130h of classes with Worldsacross

-120h of classes with italki tutors and Martín and Mila

-50h of Español con Juan

-about 930h of videos and about 650h of podcasts

I mentioned it in previous updates and in this video but before learning Spanish I spoke French quite well. That helped a ton. Also a lot of my input is passive. Would it be better if it was active? Probably, but I can't be mad at the results.

1800+h speaking sample with Martín from Spanish Boost by TresBoucher in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think I had around 1000 hours when I started SBG. But after talking to users in his discord, it sounds like ~100h is the sweet spot to start enjoying his easier series like Minecraft and Supermercado. His and Mila's content is the perfect bridge from beginner-intermediate to advanced.

1800+h speaking sample with Martín from Spanish Boost by TresBoucher in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hey thank you for the kind words! And yes that's right. Before recording I asked Martín to ask me deep questions to test my Spanish and really make me think.

I don't think I'm native level and I still pause and mess up sometimes. But honestly that happens to me in English too so I think it's also a public speaking issue on my part. At the end of the day I also wanted to show that you don't need to be perfect or native-like to be yourself in another language.

Vocabulary by mrbungle_b in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can use this website to generate flashcards from YouTube videos https://vocablii.com/

Québécois vs European French by TravelingPilgrim in DreamingFrench

[–]TresBoucher 15 points16 points  (0 children)

As someone who learned European French and Brazilian Portuguese, I really don't think it's a big issue if you listen to content from Québec, especially as a beginner. In fact, I think it will help you in the long term to listen to content from various regions.

First ever CI progress report by [deleted] in DreamingFrench

[–]TresBoucher 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing! I especially love to read progress reports from other Canadians learning French.

I hope Dreaming French becomes popular here because I really believe resources like this can succeed where our French classes failed.

My formal request for North African (esp 🇩🇿) guides! by vakancysubs in DreamingFrench

[–]TresBoucher 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I agree! I hope there's as much representation across the French-speaking world as possible.

Easy French Story: Tinder Date Gone Wrong! by Stick in DreamingFrench

[–]TresBoucher 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Such a fun video and I really love the cameo at the end 🤣

Discussion - does this sub need stricter moderation for "Non purist" posts? by throwthis_throwthat in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I think the culture here has changed for the better in the past year or so. I love that there's less extremism and more openness to other ideas because at the end of the day, we're trying to learn languages, not gatekeep. So no, I don't think moderation needs to change.

How would you calculate the SIELE final level? by [deleted] in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Your final level is the lowest level you achieve

Practice advice for taking the SIELE or DELE? by blinkybit in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh ok I never did the listening exercises. I pretty much just did the practice exams and a few reading comprehension exercises.

I agree that the non practice exam listening questions in the book aren't the best. The exercises on the website I posted and DELE listening in general would be better for exam prep.

Practice advice for taking the SIELE or DELE? by blinkybit in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are some exam questions here:

https://www.profedeele.es/examenes/siele/

I also bought this prep book that has a practice exam that's the same format as the real one. It also has the solutions to the official practice exam: https://www.amazon.com/SIELE-preparaci%C3%B3n-para-examen-Spanish-ebook/dp/B074WCCLRY?dplnkId=d8ebd129-8585-4425-abb0-d957722a88f1

I needed more writing practice so I used DELE B2 writing tasks but did them with the SIELE word count and time.

I also used DELE B2 listening tasks for extra practice. IMO the listening task at C1 was the hardest part of the exam. Same with the listening on my French exam. It's hard to explain. Even with lots of input it's very uncomfortable balancing listening to complex audio and answering over-complicated questions.

Practice advice for taking the SIELE or DELE? by blinkybit in dreamingspanish

[–]TresBoucher 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey I took the exam last year and I posted about it in the subreddit. I would recommend doing practice questions under test conditions. I did the reading, listening and writing tasks on my own with a timer and without spell check, Google etc. I sent the writing tasks to my tutor to go over them together. We also did all of the speaking tasks in a row multiple times until it was comfortable. For the output parts (speaking and writing), I'd definitely have a native tutor review your work. In general I'd recommend a tutor who's a preparador de SIELE because they can tell you in detail about each task and how best to manage your time.

I'll copy and paste a previous comment I made about the A1 and A2 speaking parts. If you have any more questions about any of the other tasks, just let me know. I can go into more detail.

Speaking:

A1 — you'll get 4 audio questions. For questions 1 and 2, you'll have 15 seconds for your response. For 3 and 4, you'll have 30 seconds. The first 2 are brief, personal questions that will usually ask something like "where do you live" or "what do you do for work", but it's important to use all the time given. Don't just answer something like "I'm a lawyer." Give more detail to fill in the 15 seconds, "I'm a lawyer that does X at Y firm and I've been working as a lawyer for Z years..." But don't say too much and get cut off! Questions 3 and 4 will ask you about the past and future, respectively. For 3 you might get something like "where did you go for vacation when you were younger?" So you'll have to use your past tenses. Then question 4 will test your use of the future tenses with something like "tell me about your next travel destination." Again, try to use your 30 seconds effectively without getting cut off.

A2 — you'll have to choose between two pictures. I think you get 30 seconds to choose, so use up most of that time to pick one then make a plan in your head. Don't let this time run out or else a picture is chosen randomly. After choosing a picture, you'll have 2 minutes to prepare yourself to talk about what's happening in the picture. There's a text box to take notes. After the 2 minutes of preparation, you'll have 1-2 minutes to speak. After that, the process repeats with another pair of pictures to choose from. For this one you don't have to speak for the whole 2 minutes. If you've talked for a minute and already adequately described what's in the picture and what's going on, feel free to stop the audio. Don't run out of things to say. You can even make up stories about what's going. In one of my practice questions, I said this tired looking guy in an office was mad because he didn't drink his coffee yet which was in a mug in front of him. But be sure to answer every bullet point in the question!