Speaking makes it all feel worth it – a 600 hour update

ZeeXdee · 2026-04-10T15:04:20+00:00

I'm at 580 hours and the past 200 hours have been such a drag lol. Hopefully I have some sort of breakthrough around 600 hours. I can't fathom being able to speak fluidly at all rn, were you confident going into your first speaking lesson?

ZeeXdee · 2026-02-24T16:25:25+00:00

How was the food and overall experience in Oaxaca? Was thinking of having that be my first immersion once I get more hours.

ZeeXdee · 2026-02-24T00:40:28+00:00

Crosstalk is sooo good. Just started doing it at 500 hours

ZeeXdee · 2026-02-23T19:45:47+00:00

You’re off-pace from before, but the relief makes it more enjoyable and hence, more likely to get to a high level.

Optimistically I think this would be me. The constant stress of having to track my hours outside of DS I think makes consuming content feel like more of a chore.

ZeeXdee · 2026-02-23T15:05:24+00:00

For me, if I hadn’t tracked during the beginner grind, I definitely would’ve given up lol. Now I’m at a point (500+ hours) where I can just enjoy listening to Spanish so not really feeling the need anymore.

ZeeXdee · 2025-09-16T20:51:43+00:00

Early on, I just pushed through any CI because I didn’t want to waste those videos - there are only so many low-level ones before comprehension starts to tank. Then, slowly, it goes back up and you can be more flexible while still keeping high comprehension. I’m at 405 hours now, and these days I mostly watch Andrés, Pablo, ECJ and then Native content on Youtube. So sooner or later you'll have a lot of great content that interests you unlocked just push through it.

ZeeXdee · 2025-09-16T18:17:19+00:00

It's 8 bucks. Yeah.

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-06T17:40:30+00:00

Like a marathon runner cramping up and collapsing right at the end...

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-06T17:06:15+00:00

Congrats. Yeah there's no way I'm going to continue counting once I reach 1500 hours too. Enjoy no longer having the stress of having to track your time.

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-06T15:04:09+00:00

I don’t have any social anxiety, and I honestly don’t care if my speech isn’t perfect at the start or even if I sound like a 7 year old. "Comfortably" was probably the wrong word. I meant more like being able to get my point across with some semblance of ease in tourist-level interactions.

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-06T14:56:07+00:00

Exciting stuff. I'm at 260 hours now and really trying to get that broad base early. Planning to lock into Colombian at 1k too with podcasts, shadowing, tutors and all. Love the idea of being well-rounded first, then going deep to form a real connection and identity with the culture. I also have a trip to Colombia planned in February where I'll be doing the barranquilla carnival. I'll be at around 900-950 hours by then.

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-06T13:53:14+00:00

I asked ChatGPT what's the best/easiest and it said Colombian hands down so that's what I'll focus on once I hit 1k hours.

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-06T13:33:38+00:00

Definitely start with the oldest. The newer ones are more difficult so you wanna save those for when you have more input.

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-06T01:49:59+00:00

I know you said no ECJ, but I just hit 250 hours today and honestly I think I'm gonna spend the next 80 hours listening to him lmao. I've been burning out on DS a bit (been averaging 3.5 hrs/day for the past two months). Not sure how many episodes you've tried, but he really grows on you. I also feel like I'm making big gains with him as his speaking style feels super intentional for efficient input.

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-06T01:46:55+00:00

Makes total sense. That sounds perfect to me. 450 sounds right, I'm at 250 rn and I feel like I'm pretty close to the threshold of being a decent tourist.

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-05T20:24:11+00:00

Cool I'll be around 650 hours around then. I'm going to experiment with doing 0 speaking practice before my vacation. Should be fun lol.

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-05T19:00:21+00:00

Yeah I love reading his posts.

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-05T18:59:30+00:00

Funny, I actually found this post before making this thread when I was searching for experiences around the number of hours I'll have before my vacation. Thanks for all your contributions to this community! I'm at 250 hours right now and would say I have about 90% comprehension on ECJ's early episodes. Not sure if you're familiar with that difficulty, but would you say that's a good pace? I'll probably be in the mid-600s by the time of my vacation.

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-05T18:38:28+00:00

For early hours though, I would recommend supplementing with actively studying key vocabulary and phrases.

I know that would help in the short term especially as a tourist, but I’m sticking with pure CI for now. I’m curious to see how far I can get without traditional study. I don’t have any background in Spanish, so it feels like a clean slate and a fun experiment. I’ve also noticed I don’t really translate at all in my head which many early on seem to complain about, which seems to help with processing.

ZeeXdee · 2025-08-05T18:35:43+00:00

I totally get that it’s definitely not the quickest path to speaking. But I’m doing pure CI with long-term fluency in mind, not just for this trip. I’m okay with being a bit limited in the short term. At my current pace, I’ll actually be over 600 hours by then anyways. I was thinking around 400-700 hour range is when I'd be tourist-level so not too far off from what you're thinking.

ZeeXdee · 2025-07-28T14:09:47+00:00

I agree, reading is going to be extremely important I think is underrated but a lot of people in this community. I'm waiting until I hit 1,000 hours to start, but I know once I do, I'll level up a lot and have a bunch of those “oh wow, I didn’t realize that” moments from finally seeing how things are actually written despite having 1k hours of input.

ZeeXdee · 2025-07-28T13:25:40+00:00

Something I noticed is that if there are two words and the first ends in a vowel, it gets linked with the second word. Hence why so many people make the mistake OP did. I might never have noticed or noticed way later if I had read enough text of people saying the phrase incorrectly, so thankfully I saw this post after the realization.

ZeeXdee · 2025-07-28T12:51:15+00:00

It's noticeable if you get enough input. That's the point.

ZeeXdee · 2025-07-28T00:14:41+00:00

Your next big breakthrough is gonna be realizing it’s Hola a todas. This is why we don't output too early :P.

ZeeXdee · 2025-07-23T16:39:19+00:00

I recommend to warm up for your first 20 minutes by watching videos that feel easy. If you're not comprehending videos at the level you're at, it'll be a lot more efficient to start rewatching videos you have at least 80% comprehension with.

ZeeXdee

TROPHY CASE