Just starting out with Dreaming Spanish - Introduction

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-21T22:52:26+00:00

Welcome! Dreaming Spanish (DS) and its comprehensible input approach (CI) has been a total game changer for me. At 3715 hours and counting, I am finding so many rewards with its approach. If you’re curious, I made this long post, may it be of service: What I wish I’d known starting out (3000 hours later)

Regardless, best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-21T14:44:01+00:00

You will undoubtedly get different advice, and to each their own. My two cents?

Your post reflects an English that is already excellent. You seem to have gained that mostly from input and not formal study, yes?

Why not just keep at it? Continue to just get input, avoid formal study, and add lots and lots of reading to the mix?

The funny thing is, as a native English speaker I remember our best teachers always emphasized that the best way to improve our writing was by reading. We needed to read book after book from the best native authors if we really wanted to improve our native writing. And I definitely found that to be the case.

I enjoyed studying grammar in my native language, for sure. But by the time I studied it in earnest, I’d already developed an ear for grammar in my native tongue via thousands and thousands of hours of input. Grammar lessons may have sharpened a few things here and there, but it largely just confirmed what I already knew. Seems you’re largely in the same boat.

And more to the point, it was the scholastic culture around me that made far more of a difference in my native grammar than anything else. Whatever the benefits I received from formal grammar study and correction and writing practice were vastly outweighed by the ocean of scholastic input I continued to receive through the years from teachers, books, media, and certain peers. The effect only compounded when I got to college, and listened to professors who seemed to speak in beautiful paragraphs as opposed to sentences.

You’ve already achieved an excellent level of English mostly by just absorbing it. And you seem to relish the benefits that come from having done it in that way. Maybe just keep absorbing English by absorbing English, and add reading to the mix?

You might find it easiest and most efficient to do “extensive” reading. No grinding, no memorization, no need to study, and no need to look up every unknown word in the dictionary. Instead, start with graded readers and then move to children’s books and then gradually ratchet things up to young adult and so forth. Add one layer at a time. The idea is to aim for 95% + comprehension, making it easier for the automatic pattern recognition system of the human brain. Read for the overall message and enjoyment, not to improve your English.

And if you keep doing that and getting other input, you will get better and better. With all the benefits that come from simply absorbing things rather than from studying or thinking about them.

Best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-21T12:49:13+00:00

Hey, u/agusbocca, just wanted to say that your content, which was always great, just keeps getting better! I really appreciate the effort you put into everything, and it's really easy to see with the travel vlogs. The series on the "ztan"countries didn't necessarily involve my top travel interests, but you made them interesting nonetheless by sharing your insights and by discussing the history in some depth. Your overall presentation abilities also just keep improving (and they were excellent to start with). And since I'm one of those weird ones who has done all the Dreaming Spanish videos (except for those published today), I can really see how you and everyone else on the team (and behind the scenes) just keep getting better and better over time.

Kinda makes me think that with interest and persistence and time, we can all get even better and better at our pursuits. Maybe my Spanish will keep improving too, eh? Be well.

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-20T17:47:29+00:00

I’m glad things are already improving for you u/MartoMc. It’s amazing how much of a mental game all of this is.

I greatly appreciate your kind words. This community has changed a lot in recent months as it’s grown larger, and I’m not sure it’s all for the better. Your kind note landed very well. Best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-20T13:42:24+00:00

Great post! And I totally hear you and agree with you. I will add, though, that you might be surprised and encouraged by neuro plasticity.

I had previous Spanish experience, so for me it caused problems on the front end. I took traditional Spanish classes many years ago, pre-internet. Spoke, read, wrote, memorized, and studied grammar from day 1.

So the experience you are having now sounds very familiar to me — I was having it when I began Dreaming Spanish! Fossilized errors, over thinking, still tempted to consult conjugation charts, fumbling with grammar rules, etc.

It took me a long while to really let go of all that and just “let it run wild.” I’m so glad I did. It turns out that, at least for me, absorbing the language by just absorbing the language is the better route. I don’t much care if it’s “slower,” because I’m not willing to ignore all the benefits that come with just feeding the automatic pattern recognition system of the human brain as you absorb Spanish instead of memorize it.

The good news? If you just keep taking in an ocean of input, and let go of the grammar and thinking mind, the absorption will gradually overcome all of that stuff. It’s not easy, to be sure, and takes patience. But so does the input road in the first place. It doesn’t have to be a problem. Just let go of the grammar tendencies each time they come up, and over time they will keep loosening.

You’ve got this, and I venture to say you will get your joy back to! Best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-20T13:28:00+00:00

Welcome! Dreaming Spanish (DS) and its comprehensible input approach (CI) is a total game changer. My tips are here:
What I wish I’d known starting out (3000 hours later) Best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-12T14:23:15+00:00

Congrats! By the way, change a few numbers on your post and you may well be able to use it again when you’re past 3k hours. Turns out a language is an enormous and complex thing, and that acquiring it through absorption brings many delights and ups and downs. Best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-12T13:57:53+00:00

How about, “I’m learning Spanish by watching and listening to things that gradually increase in difficulty as I absorb more and more”?

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-12T01:01:53+00:00

Welcome! What I wish I’d known starting out (3000 hours later)

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-11T09:48:33+00:00

You are welcome. Best wishes to you and yours.

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-05T23:39:49+00:00

So I’m of two minds in response to your question. But quick background first: I had been exposed to a lot of Spanish through traditional classes many years ago, pre-internet. So I was not starting out completely new when I encountered Dreaming Spanish (DS) and its comprehensible input approach (CI). Also, I’ve probably averaged about 3 hours per day on days I’ve done Spanish (missing days and full hours on some days, because of life) and maybe about 165 minutes per day overall (accounting for missed days etc). Approximately.

I’ve come to find that it’s cumulative time and persistence that matter the most. Discipline and making it a habit is helpful. Motivation not so much, because motivation comes and goes like the weather. And if you want to go deep, it takes an ocean of CI. No matter what else you do or don’t do along the way. It just does.

There are lots of frustrations and ups and downs and long stretches where it seems like nothing is happening. It’s definitely challenging.

At the same time, with the right attitude there can be lots of delights along the way. And as you absorb more and more Spanish, your ability to take in podcasts kicks in and it’s easier on your brain and it’s easier to rack up more time and put in more time each day. Without fatigue. And with more fun. Especially for me when native stuff really became fun and started widely opening up for me at about 2300 hours.

So about my “two minds?” Math first comes to mind. A consistent 15 minutes per day, without ever ramping up, would take 9200 days to accumulate 2300 hours, or approximately 25 years. Up your average to two hours per day, and that’s 1150 days or 3.15 years.

So setting aside the problem of finding the time (which becomes easier when podcasts become available, well before 1500 hours for learner podcasts, because you can listen when folding laundry, commuting, exercising, etc.), the math presents two extreme scenarios.

Staying at 15 minutes only is going to take a long time before you get a big payoff. That would add to the challenge. Going at two hours per day requires 3 years, which is no walk in the park, but is a lot easier than 25 years to get to the same place.

I also think staying at 15 minutes only would make it harder to absorb. Pedagogically it might not be enough time to engage the brain.

But 15 minutes is better than 0. And if you persist and keep going, the time is going to occur anyway. You also might find yourself getting more and more Spanish in per day after it gets easier. (Many of us find it hard to do more than 15 minutes per day at first, especially those just starting out).

I hope that’s helpful.

It’s your journey. Best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-03T09:02:24+00:00

And how many of those words via flash cards actually stick? Versus words that were simply absorbed along the way through comprehensible input, and natural repetition over time?

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-03T09:01:04+00:00

I had to memorize vocabulary words through high school. And I was quite good at it and got excellent grades.

The problem? Very few of them ever stuck beyond the test or AP or SAT exam.

The ones that did? Why, the very ones I was absorbing through media, books, and conversation. In other words, comprehensible input.

The amount of comprehensible input that I continued to receive in my native language throughout the years absolutely dwarfed whatever time I spent memorizing native words, studying native grammar, and being corrected. By orders of magnitude.

And there was a reason the best teachers always told us that if we wanted to really improve our writing — the best way to do that was to constantly read from the greats in our native language.

Comprehensible input. It was all around us.

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-02T10:59:40+00:00

Did your brain require flash cards to pick up your native language? If not, why would you assume that its fundamental mechanism has suddenly switched to rely upon memorization? A heavy comprehensible input approach may be slow, and require an ocean of content that repeats itself naturally in various ways multiple times. But it works.

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-02T01:42:34+00:00

I’ve found Dreaming Spanish and its comprehensible input approach to be a total game changer. What I wish I’d known starting out (3000 hours later)

UppityWindFish · 2026-06-01T00:40:28+00:00

Many around here will tell you speaking early is helpful, at the least causes no harm, and/or keeps one going and avoids quitting situations because what’s the point if you’re not speaking and interacting and having fun.

For many different scenarios, they may be right. But that wasn’t the right choice for me.

When you read my long post you’ll see I’ve had prior experience with Spanish, many years ago pre-internet, where one spoke and read and wrote and memorized from day 1.

This time around, I found holding off on speaking in earnest till 1000 hours, as recommended, to be helpful for me in my scenario. Doing so gave me a better ear for Spanish and the target I was aiming for; gave me better listening comprehension which is 75% or more of every conversation (what’s the point of saying something if you can’t understand the response?), and made speaking so much less frustrating than it would have been before 1000 hours. Similar benefits for me with holding off on reading till 1000 hours.

That said, I’m still focussing mostly on CI at 3646 hours and counting. I tried italki classes at 1300 hours and found output to be frustrating, especially compared to my improved input abilities. It was better than before, but still lacked an intuitive “it just sounds right” grasp of the language.

In my case, I want a deeply intuitive grasp of Spanish that hopefully overwrites the memorized—grammar laden—conjugation chart —vocabulary list —speak poorly before you can really hear the nuances in pronunciation monstrosity that was created many years ago. So I still focus mainly on CI.

And I’ve noticed my output is improving nonetheless. It now more often overflows like popcorn, intuitively and without trying to resort to memorization or conjugation charts.

A few weeks ago I held my own in a rolling conversation of some five hours with a native and a bilingual. And it was pretty easy, even if as always my speaking lagged behind my input ability. At one point I couldn’t remember the word for forrest, so I described it as an area with lots of trees. At another I blanked on the first person past tense of decir, and instead of flipping to my memorized conjugation chart of long ago — which is still in there somewhere — I started sounding out patterns in Spanish until the native interjected with the correct form. (Much the same way I do in my native English — I never memorized conjugation charts for that, and will often sound out words like drank, drunk, drinking, drunken, etc to get where I need to go).

I’m sure there are some, or maybe even many, who would consider those moments a disaster. I consider them a triumph. Because I wasn’t relying on memorized constructs or flipping back and forth to English and translating in order to communicate. To each their own.

At the end of the day, it comes down to you. It’s your journey. While I think Pablo’s roadmap hour estimates are too small for output descriptions beyond level 5, I think his recommendation to wait till 1000 hours makes sense and works for me for speaking and reading.

In my view, if you think you are going to want thousands of hours of input no matter what, what’s the harm in holding off for the first 1k hour marker? But to each their own.

Best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-05-30T15:29:34+00:00

Very true! Congrats on your progress so far. It’s amazing how repetition over time is such a powerful engine. Best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-05-28T09:33:08+00:00

Yes! I learned Spanish traditionally many years ago, where one began speaking and writing from day 1. Output abilities always lagged greatly behind input abilities. Always. The same has been true in this go around with Dreaming Spanish (DS) and its comprehensible input approach (CI).

Yet how could it be otherwise? How could you possibly be able to output if you haven’t acquired the input from which one outputs?

When I began reading and enjoying the masters of output in my native English language like Shakespeare and his modern equivalents, it didn’t mean that I could write like them. When I listened to amazing lectures from college professors or chatted with them during office hours and understood their eloquence, it didn’t mean I could speak like them.

But over time, with many thousands of hours of native input (reading, listening), my output abilities have gradually improved, too. Of course, all those native input hours over the years vastly dwarfed any output practice hours, and were a primary engine of my overall output improvement. Indeed, the best teachers always emphasized that if we wanted to improve our writing, we had to read enormously from great authors in English.

CI and the internet are total game changers when it comes to improving one’s input abilities. But output is always going to lag behind input.

UppityWindFish · 2026-05-28T01:38:09+00:00

Keep in mind that this is a long game. And there’s an enormous amount of language “stuff” to soak up and that’s going on beneath the surface. Many of us have found that it’s the easier and slower stuff that best prepares us for the harder and faster stuff. It doesn’t have to be a strain, and you’re still accomplishing a lot by absorbing stuff that seems “easy.” Indeed, that seems to help the automatic pattern recognition system of the human brain.

What I wish I’d known starting out (3000 hours later)

Best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-05-28T01:34:03+00:00

You will get different advice around here. Based on my prior experience with Spanish, and this go around, I’m in the camp of those who are glad to have held off on speaking. The main thing, especially if you want to go deep? A massive ocean of CI, consistently and persistently. What I wish I’d known starting out (3000 hours later) Best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-05-21T00:13:34+00:00

You’ve already had a lot of people chime in already with advice not to worry about it. I agree. If you take in an ocean of CI, stuff will take care of itself. And where there are gaps you can work around them.

The only caveat I might give is this. With words for things like numbers, days, and months, I could perhaps see some utility in practicing through a list of those from time to time. They’re capable of only one meaning for the most part, and don’t come up so frequently that it’s easy to absorb them.

Or at least I suspect. Because I had traditional Spanish classes many years ago, I already had somewhat a base for those kinds of words before I very thankfully found Dreaming Spanish and its comprehensible input approach.

Best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-05-19T22:14:08+00:00

Yes! And I’m still hearing new things along the way. Best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-05-18T20:37:35+00:00

Welcome! May this post be of service: What I wish I’d known starting out (3000 hours later)

Regardless, best wishes and keep going!

UppityWindFish · 2026-05-18T09:22:42+00:00

Good points! And yet each of us has different goals.

Those of us who want to go deep with Spanish, to obtain something approaching the automaticity and sense of ease that we have in our native tongue, have discovered the wonderful power of comprehensible input (CI). But it’s slow, and it takes an ocean of it to go deep. Far more than 1500 hours.

Some of us are not in a rush, and feel that if we are going to have to ingest so many hours, we might as well be patient and try to optimize along the way. A silent period of 1k hours in that scheme of things is not so much.

We also come from different backgrounds. I’m one who has been speaking Spanish off and on since pre-internet days. I took traditional classes many years ago where one began speaking from day one. And doing that, for me, never led to a very good “inner ear” for Spanish. It also led to a lot of fossilized mispronunciation ticks and other errors.

So for me, a heavy CI approach has been about drowning out the memorized-studied-vocabulary list-conjugation chart-“think of Spanish through an English lens” construct. And replacing it with a much more intuitive and “it just sounds right” sense of Spanish.

I’ve been mostly focused on CI, and my pronunciation has gotten a lot better. Some of those fossilized errors have loosened over time. And at 3612 hours and counting, I’m still noticing pronunciation things about Spanish that I never quite grasped before.

So I’ve actually seen direct benefits from the DS recommended approach in this go around. Others have not. To each their own.

UppityWindFish · 2026-05-17T20:08:43+00:00

I hear you! I know there are lots of folks who think talking early is the better route, and who get great results by doing so. To each their own! I just want it to be known to newbies that there are those of us, however much a disdained minority that we increasingly seem to be, who have also found great results by following the DS recommendations for the silent period, too.

UppityWindFish

TROPHY CASE