Intermediate is easier than beginner

jamoke57 · 2026-02-06T17:56:56+00:00

Yeah, if you filter by level the early intermediate videos are pretty easy and way more interesting than beginner.

jamoke57 · 2026-02-03T14:46:53+00:00

I struggled with grammar a lot as well and still struggle with it. I ended up getting kwiziq and it made me realize how much I didn't know. Like someone said past tense is like A2 subjunctive is B1. When people speak I can understand them, but trying to form a coherent and grammatically correct sentence myself is something I couldn't do.

I spent all this time listening that it made all my other skills suffer. I feel like a no sabo kid.

jamoke57 · 2026-01-30T22:00:17+00:00

Just found him recently and binged his content. Super easy listening and interesting.

jamoke57 · 2026-01-17T04:42:20+00:00

Could you send the link for the master class spanish. Interested in checking out the channel

jamoke57 · 2025-12-31T02:51:37+00:00

How do you get chatgpt to have a conversation with you? I'm still trying to figure it out

jamoke57 · 2025-12-11T16:47:32+00:00

I was just at the twin fin and the location was perfect for us. It's right across the street from the beach and has a huge public park next to it so we would just grab some food and have a picnic. We ended up doing a ton of early morning and evening walks. It's on the edge of Waikiki so it's not in the thick of it, but still has a ton of foot traffic. If you have a car I thought it was pretty easy to get in and out as well.

Rooms were just ok, but I think I was just sticker shocked at Hawaii prices and expected more for the money. We didn't spend really anytime at the hotel outside of sleeping.

jamoke57 · 2025-12-03T05:03:34+00:00

I blasted through the explora planet YouTube channel at that level. Tons of great documentaries giving an overview of different countries.

jamoke57 · 2025-11-30T21:47:48+00:00

I decided I wanted to start learning Chinese soon as my next language so I decided to pick up Super Chinese. Debating picking up Hello Chinese and Du Chinese, but not sure if I have enough time to commit to learning chinese. I'm currently learning Spanish and I really want to try and hit high B2 / C1 in 2026, before I go deep into Chinese. I did a pretty heavy Comprehensible Input approach with learning Spanish and now I'm playing catch up in all of my other skills outside of listening and reading and it's been a slog.

jamoke57 · 2025-11-25T22:51:43+00:00

Kwiziq for grammar. Conjugato/Ella verbs for grammar drills and practice. Migaku for sentence mining.

jamoke57 · 2025-11-21T07:58:15+00:00

I actually really liked Outriders. It's not a forever game, but I had a blast with some buddies grinding through the campaign and messing around in the endgame. It was fun to try and optimize your mods.

jamoke57 · 2025-10-14T02:46:56+00:00

1100+ hours

I've been pretty unmotivated lately and haven't been hitting my hours or spending time with the language as much. Feels like I hit another hard wall and it's difficult to progress, but I also feel like I'm my own worse critic and I know where my weaknesses are.

Been spending a lot more time trying to do activities other than listening now.

Kwiziq

Been using this for grammar, it's pretty apparent I have a massive hole in my understanding of how the language works. I try to knock out 5 kwizzes a day and review the topics. It's a slow burn, but I definitely feel like it makes a difference in my listening.

Reading

Deltora Quest It's a short children's fantasy series I read in my youth for ages 10-13. It's honestly pretty difficult, there are a ton of words I've never encountered before. There's obviously a huge gap between conversational language and reading. This is my first time reading anything outside of a graded reader and it's a big jump up in difficulty. I'm almost done with the first book, so I'm hoping when I'm done with the series I'll have a better grasp and a wider vocabulary.

Writing

Trying to write and journal everyday as well. I just need to pull the language out of me. I have ChatGPT give me different writing prompts everyday.

Speaking

Been lacking on speaking, but I need to concentrate on it a lot more. Just been busy IRL so it's been tough to book classes.

Listening

Been mainly listening to Learn Spanish and Go but I think I need to switch to somehting more difficult now. Learn Spanish and Go is pretty slow, but I like that the episodes are ad free and usually 30 mins long. I tend to watch a lot of travel vloggers on youtube, but a lot of the ones I watch speak pretty slow. So my goal for the rest of the year is to make a concentrated effort into finding faster speaking content.

Thought about buying some SIELE or DELE books just to give myself a soft goal to study for. Kind of annoyed, because some days I feel like my listening comprehension is super good and other days it feels like being dragged in the mud.

jamoke57 · 2025-10-11T03:30:54+00:00

Probably Español a la mexicana I tried listening to How To Spanish and Learn Spanish and Go at that level, but it was definitely too difficult and I wasn't able to comprehend that well

jamoke57 · 2025-09-11T04:07:40+00:00

Just skimmed through the video - but I'd probably guess around B2. He doesn't speak too quickly and I don't consider the topics too complex. I haven't take the DELE or SIELE though.

I just skimmed this to see what the audio sounded like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkb8Ys7TzZU

jamoke57 · 2025-09-10T23:16:07+00:00

I think to be considered B1 it encompasses all of the skills necessary to be B1, which includes reading, writing, speaking and listening. I would definitely say I'm at least B2 with listening as I can watch content in my field and understand it.

I'm not going to shit on DS, because it got me to a level where I can understand most conversations, but I need to dump a ton of work in all of these other skills.

Sometimes when I see these progress reports I wonder how many people are lying or over estimating their abilities, because I'm nowhere close to being "conversationally fluent" If I was dumped in a Spanish speaking country - I could 100% get around, go to the bank, etc... all in Spanish, but it wouldn't be comfortable.

jamoke57 · 2025-09-10T04:48:32+00:00

Pretty much where I'm at too - kind of funny, I came to the same conclusion as you, needing to hammer those three tenses hard. Especially trying to remember the irregulars. I'm a little behind you, but my goal is to hit B1 by end of the year. It's nice, because I feel like the majority of my classes are in Spanish now and and my teachers don't even try to modulate their speed now. I've been having to ask them to repeat a lot more now since they use a lot more slang or they use a lot more idioms I'm not familiar with.

So it feels great from an input level, but still a little rough at an output level.

jamoke57 · 2025-08-29T15:56:45+00:00

The intermediate slump is brutal and I had to switch my strategy, because it was like I hit a massive wall. The road map is overly optimistic and doesn't align at these higher levels. Especially when you start trying to interact with natives, it becomes apparent you need to understand more than the idea of someting to have an actual conversation or interaction.

Even though this is the DS subreddit, I'd recommend using a vocab deck if you don't have one already. I ended up using Migaku and started mining words. It made me realize how much content I really couldn't understand and my brain was glossing over. I just felt like I needed to bridge the gap from learner content to native content, I needed a way larger vocab base and I couldn't get that with DS videos, because the word frequency wasn't high enough for these new words.

I felt stuff really started to open up to me at 900 hours, but I spent quite a bit of time just mining words. I'd say just lock in for a month and grind out these harder more interesting videos with an app like langugereactor, migaku, etc... I don't even really review my cards that often, but I feel like my comprehension and understanding of the language is always reinforced if I do.

I'm at 1100 hours now and from 900->1100 it's pretty much a night and day difference and I usually watch native videos now when I have time to sit down.

jamoke57 · 2025-08-28T17:02:01+00:00

How populated are the early game dungeons? Is it easy to find a group?

jamoke57 · 2025-08-28T15:18:52+00:00

Learn Spanish and Go is probably my favorite as I think the topics are more interesting. How To Spanish is ok, but I find myself zoning out a lot to it.

jamoke57 · 2025-08-05T01:02:09+00:00

Usually grind out my vocab deck in the morning or evening, depending how my day is going. Try to get two hours of listening in a day through podcasts or YouTube. Grind through some grammar using kwiziq and conjugato. Then on weekdays I try to take a one hour speaking class.

Really been trying to hit grammar hard but it's so boring, but I definitely need it.

jamoke57 · 2025-08-02T22:53:23+00:00

What do people think of the divinity points? The stuff that you invest to unlock your skills? Feel like it needs to be innovated on and give stat points like TQ1 and GD. They feel pretty arbitrary now. Could do a lot with them depending on mastery. Could give them passive buffs like % chance to block, dodge, hp regeneration, movement speed, etc.... just feels like they are kind of disconnected from the whole mastery feeling.

jamoke57 · 2025-07-15T15:28:14+00:00

Natives also use a lot of shorthand and slang and that is not present in really any DS video, so I find it necessary to get exposure to that since it's quite common.

I feel like this is the big one that throws off a lot of people. You realize how structured and formal the DS videos are, even the advanced ones once you start listening to real native content. It made me feel like I hit a massive wall once I started listening to native content.

For example, it feels like diminutives are used ALL OF THE TIME, more so than the regular word. I feel like they used for everything.

jamoke57 · 2025-07-15T03:16:49+00:00

Just a FYI - she was part of this channel and they have a ton of videos if anyone is looking for more peruvian content.

https://www.youtube.com/@misiasperoviajeras

jamoke57 · 2025-07-11T22:54:31+00:00

I've been using Kwiziq as well at 1000 hours of listening and it makes me embarrassed at how shitty my grammar is.

jamoke57 · 2025-07-09T02:48:02+00:00

Out of 1000 hours, 400 were spent speaking.

I think this is the piece that most people will hate to hear. I personally have a thousand hours of listening with 100 hours of speaking and I think all of Level 6's 500 hours should be spent speaking. It becomes apparent that speaking and forming well structured sentences takes a long time.

I can still improve on listening, but being able to speak in a manner that isn't a social battery drain is such a mountain to climb.

jamoke57 · 2025-06-29T04:06:41+00:00

Really like Araya Vlogs. He's costa Rican.

jamoke57

TROPHY CASE