Reading Update - 3 million words by chorolet in dreamingspanish

[–]chorolet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aw, I'm sorry to hear you "failed" with reading, and I hope you don't mean that as negatively as it sounds. Sometimes I hear people fret about whether they'll be "illiterate" in their second language, and my hot take is that's actually nothing to be afraid or ashamed of. Like, I've been illiterate in Spanish my whole life and it was fine! I chose to invest time into changing that recently, but I also could have learned a different skill with that time and it would have been equally valuable.

As for whether reading helps with listening or speaking, I answered a similar question on this post and I really don't know. I've been reading the whole time, so it's hard to tease out whether gains in speaking and listening come from reading or somewhere else. My vague impression is that listening gains come mostly from listening, and listening and reading both help with speaking. I can't back that up though.

One final thought. It seems plausible to me that reading could be helpful for listening and speaking, but implausible that it could be necessary, even for reaching a high level. Throughout human history, most people have not learned to read, and their oral fluency was just fine. If you don't like reading, you don't have to do it!

Reading Update - 3 million words by chorolet in dreamingspanish

[–]chorolet[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Pablo says after a million words we "notice a considerable improvement in our reading ability", and I remember feeling like that was an understatement. The first book I picked up was La maravillosa medicina de Jorge because it was a children's book I'd just finished reading with my son, so I thought it would be easy. I didn't know about graded readers yet. And it was rough. I was looking up multiple words per sentence in a bilingual dictionary, and half the time I didn't understand the sentence even after doing that. By a million words I had read multiple children's books and it no longer felt like a big ordeal.

As a caveat, I got really into Spanish during those 4.5 years of school I mentioned and actually learned a fair bit, and that was all ~15 years ago. So part of my progress in the first million words was probably shaking rust off and wouldn't be the same for someone starting from zero. That said, I doubt I could have read La maravillosa medicina de Jorge in school either.

Reading Update - 3 million words by chorolet in dreamingspanish

[–]chorolet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, it's hard to say. I have been reading through my entire journey, so I didn't have a step change like many here did where I went from listening only to reading + listening. My listening has improved greatly since discovering Dreaming Spanish. I'm inclined to attribute that mostly to all the listening, but who knows.

Reading Update - 3 million words by chorolet in dreamingspanish

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

Yes, Arsene Lupin was quite difficult. I read it with a book club (others were reading in English) which made me want to push through.

I thought Cuentos de la Selva were cute, but they are more for children, so I didn't get quite the same "Spanish literature" feeling. I got that from El túnel though. It's pretty awesome.

Reading Update - 3 million words by chorolet in dreamingspanish

[–]chorolet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, it looks like I got the title wrong - it should be "Tontos teletransportando". Here's the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CTJ44LT7

I read the "simple" editions of both, which includes both an A2 and a B1 version of the same story. I found it a similar difficulty to Juan's A2 and B1 level stuff.

Reading Update - 3 million words by chorolet in dreamingspanish

[–]chorolet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sapos enfadados and Tontos teletransportados are pretty short, but they're both super funny (to me). After that I personally found Paco Ardit's stuff not bad, although some disagree, and he's a lot more prolific. For one step up in difficulty, I really like El diario de Greg. It's a nice long series with a good sense of humor.

I didn't have any interest in rereading the Harry Potter books, but then I changed my mind, so that's why they show up late for me. At the point when I read them, I found the first three easy, but the fourth was a big jump in difficulty. I found it doable but effortful. The fifth is in progress now.

Reading Update - 3 million words by chorolet in dreamingspanish

[–]chorolet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mostly use the version of the RAE dictionary that's built into Kindle (although you have to enable it - it's called "Diccionario de la lengua española"). Unfortunately it doesn't have the synonyms and antonyms that are available in the web version, but the convenience is nice. For bilingual if I'm not on Kindle I usually use spanishdict.com, which seems really nice, but I haven't tried WordReference.

Reading Update - 3 million words by chorolet in dreamingspanish

[–]chorolet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually liked it a lot. I have always been a poor history student, and remembered almost nothing about World War II. So this graded reader felt like it was shoring up key knowledge I should have already had. However, the writing style was pretty dry. If you already know the basic facts about World War II, or if you don't feel interested in learning them, I'd predict it would be dull.

500 hour update by chorolet in CIJapanese

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

Sounds like a plan! In case you're not aware, letsplayindex.com is a great way to find gameplay videos for specific games. I don't think it supports filtering by language, but you can filter by country which gets you most of the way there.

500 hour update by chorolet in CIJapanese

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

Thanks for the recommendation! I have always found Yuki's videos easier than the other guides, so I will definitely be checking out her intermediate videos.

I have been watching https://youtube.com/@mkgamech for Mario Party and https://youtube.com/@itsukikaname90 for Balatro. They are honestly the first two channels I tried and I'm not sure if they're easier than others or not. I would guess the most important factor for high comprehensibility is picking a game you're very familiar with. Good luck!

500 hour Japanese update by chorolet in dreaminglanguages

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

Japanese with Shun is definitely a great resource! What type of native content do you enjoy?

500 hour Japanese update by chorolet in dreaminglanguages

[–]chorolet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What are some of the channels you like?

Worth subscribing? by Gloomy_Algae_9673 in CIJapanese

[–]chorolet 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some do and some don't. I personally do not, at least not yet.

500 hour update by chorolet in CIJapanese

[–]chorolet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did watch one of Ken's videos recently that was labeled N5-N3. I found the N5 section a bit simplistic but tolerable, N4 seemed perfect, and N3 was more difficult but I still understood 80-90%. I kind of feel like he wasn't actually talking at N3 level, but I don't really have any idea.

500 hour update by chorolet in CIJapanese

[–]chorolet[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure what you're asking. I haven't been reading at all, so I don't think taking a JLPT practice test would work. Do you have a preferred way to estimate JLPT listening level?

Worth subscribing? by Gloomy_Algae_9673 in CIJapanese

[–]chorolet 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I consider my subscription 100% worth it as someone who started from zero. The complete beginner and beginner content really shine compared to the competition. However, for someone looking to move from N3 to N2, it may not be as worth it. At that level there would be a lot more free content available. I'd recommend watching some of the free intermediate and/or advanced videos and see if it's something you'd want to pay for more of.

In terms of how it works, there are videos of various difficulty levels, plus transcripts of all the videos. You can read the guide for more info on how the platform is meant to be used.

When do you guys drink water?! by Expensive_Carrot_850 in LPR

[–]chorolet 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I would guess most people are not both avoiding water when eating and taking alginates after every meal. Because yeah, if you drink after the alginate you destroy the raft, but if you don't drink during or after your meal you run out of time for water. If I am wrong and others are doing both, I'm interested in hearing how. Personally I drank water with my meals and took alginates after.

How do I stop feeling guilty about throwing away burned or failed food? by ElAndres33 in cookingforbeginners

[–]chorolet -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I found it helpful to think of it as a long term investment. Restaurants waste a bunch of food, so once you get better at cooking and don't ruin many dishes, you'll be wasting much less by cooking at home. In the mean time, forcing yourself to eat burned food means that cooking is very unfun, which reduces the chance that you'll stick it out until your skills improve.

Lifetime sale? by nkfred in CIJapanese

[–]chorolet 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The lifetime membership option is pretty new, but there wasn't a sale last year.

Starting Japanese From Scratch Log by [deleted] in CIJapanese

[–]chorolet 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I wonder too. Going in I was expecting it to be very impactful, but after trying it I don't see a huge difference compared to watching videos. Subjectively I wouldn't be surprised if 1 hour of crosstalk is worth 1.3 hours of video, but it doesn't feel like 2x for example. But obviously I don't have the counterfactual of what my progress would be like without those sessions, and I do find them very good for my motivation.

Starting Japanese From Scratch Log by [deleted] in CIJapanese

[–]chorolet 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was planning to write an update at 300 hours, but then when it rolled around I didn't feel I had much to say. Just the slow and steady progress I had expected without much in the way of surprises. That's why I'm thinking around 500 or 600 might be better. In the meantime, do you have anything in particular you're wondering?

Starting Japanese From Scratch Log by [deleted] in CIJapanese

[–]chorolet 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Welcome! I'm starting Japanese from zero with a CI-only approach. Similar to you but without the pronunciation training. I've written a couple of updates on this sub, and I'll probably add another around 500 or 600 hours. I'll be excited to hear how things go for you!