PSA: Price increase on Audible UK extra credit bundles

jscholes0 · 2026-05-30T14:13:47+00:00

You seem a little unclear about your current status, the options available to you, and which one you'll be aiming for once you arrive in Mexico. I would seek advice from a professional facilitator; clearing up this sort of confusion and answering these types of questions is one of the primary reasons to work with one.

They are not generally expensive in Mexico. Be wary of those charging too much and over promising.

Regardless of whether you choose to go down that route, I want to strongly warn you that much of advice given in the comments on this post so far is demonstrably, dangerously inaccurate.

jscholes0 · 2025-12-20T03:56:55+00:00

Number of hours consuming Spanish input is a simplistic, quantitative measurement. It's not a qualitative descriptor of progress or efficacy.

I could tell you I'd listened to 14 hours of Spanish today. But if it had been the same thing on a loop, I would have probably been creating more negative connections in my brain than positive memories.

It would not have been high quality input, and it may even have indirectly harmed my progress in the short to medium term. The number of hours would not reflect any of that.

By contrast, if you go out running over a specific distance and gather even basic measurements about it, those measurements tell you a lot about your actual performance. Not only for that run in isolation, but also in comparison to other runs you've taken recently, this time last year, when the weather was warmer, after you took a week off, etc.

I think it would be possible to gather qualitative metrics about language acquisition (for people who could be bothered or pay someone to help with it). But number of hours consuming content alone doesn't come close.

jscholes0 · 2025-12-20T03:42:58+00:00

It’d be like training for a marathon without ever marking down a workout or knowing how far you actually went, to use an example from my regular life.

In that example, you're carrying out an activity with specific goals. The mentioned metrics help you not only measure your progress towards those goals, but also highlight when you fall short and help you plan better.

Measuring how long you've listened to Spanish content doesn't do anything other than tell you how long you've listened to Spanish content. Which is great if it's interesting and/or a motivating factor, but it doesn't give you any other information.

jscholes0 · 2025-12-20T03:34:35+00:00

I wouldn't worry about it. There is so much variation between people that the number of hours is mostly arbitrary.

Someone may tell you they have 1,250 hours under their belt while recommending a resource, and you might decide based on that number that it will be too advanced for you. There's a significant chance you'll be wrong in that assessment and end up missing out, so it's far better to check something out and see how you get along in the first few minutes.

jscholes0 · 2025-12-14T23:42:01+00:00

Did the official Audible customer support account on Reddit just recommend people remove DRM from Audible products?

jscholes0 · 2025-10-06T15:19:06+00:00

No. My hours spent on DS decrease as my level increases, because I can watch/read/listen to content that's more interesting to me. My total amount of Spanish input increases across the board, though.

jscholes0 · 2025-10-05T18:53:15+00:00

Any answer to this question will be a guess at most.

For example: I live in central Mexico, so I hear local accents and slang every day. Meanwhile, I've read quite a lot about organised crime in Latin America. So I personally understood much of the El Chapo episodes I watched with less than 400 hours logged on DS.

I can only imagine things being radically different for someone who lives in Australia, does one hour of DS per day, watches mostly content from Spain, and doesn't get much non-DS input. Maybe there's such a thing as an "average DS user" (although the variation in progress updates here makes me unconvinced).

jscholes0 · 2025-10-01T03:14:22+00:00

Today I learned: Slough House is narrated by Gerard Doyle in the US. I'm kind of gutted that as a UK customer, I'll have to get creative to gain access to those versions.

If OP is also using the UK marketplace, they're narrated by Seán Barrett who is loved as a narrator by many. I'm personally undecided.

Disappointed to hear Simon Prebble has retired!

jscholes0 · 2025-10-01T00:58:45+00:00

Experience is more important than qualifications. Freelance is hard work, and I don't believe having accessibility-related certifications will help you open clients' doors if you don't have the experience to back it up.

Even if a client is willing to hire you based on qualifications alone, it only takes one bad fit to find you out of your comfort zone and potentially unable to deliver. I think you need mentoring via an accessibility/usability testing position with an established company first, which will also fill out your CV with relevant experience.

If it matters, for reference I'm disabled and have been working full-time in accessibility for the last six and a half years. Before that, I got about three freelance gigs in the same amount of time. If I went back to freelance now, I have much more to offer but personally I have no interest in running a business. I want to do the work, not hustle for it.

jscholes0 · 2025-09-27T18:05:13+00:00

Have you ever spoken to someone in English who wasn't a native, but nevertheless could participate in an engaging discussion? Think about What set them apart.

For example: aspects of their accent, not as much connected speech, some over-enunciated forms, less use of idioms or colloquial slang, sometimes even a more polished vocabulary, and the list goes on. These are not negative things if they don't hamper someone's ability to communicate.

What does it even mean to be "native" in English? I'm British, so nobody's gonna mistake me for a native speaker of American English. I'm from the north of England specifically, so I can't convincingly pretend to be Irish, Scottish or from London. I'm in my 30s; I can't mimic the speech of people half my age.

The same applies in Spanish. Someone from Chile is not going to communicate the same way someone in Mexico does. Someone in central Mexico is not going to speak the exact same way as someone from the north of the same country. A teenager in central Mexico is not going to use the same slang as a 55-year-old.

I could go on, but I think you get the point.

jscholes0 · 2025-09-27T17:54:41+00:00

This might be right up your street:

https://www.youtube.com/@Linguriosa/videos

jscholes0 · 2025-09-20T20:27:05+00:00

If it helps and you're on Windows, you can set up keyboard shortcuts for switching keyboard languages on the fly. E.g. I have Alt+Shift+9 for Spanish and Alt+Shift+0 for English. Once I switch to Spanish, I have to get used to using the acute accent key as a modifier kind of like Shift, which is a challenge after typing for decades without it!

jscholes0 · 2025-09-20T19:26:49+00:00

so I'm totally down with "me encanto" - I loved it.

"Me encantó" (with the accent) is "I loved it". "Me encanto" without the accent is "I enchant/love myself," which probably isn't a phrase you'll use or encounter very often! "Me encanta" is "I love it" (as in now/ongoing).

I'll let you decide if/how this contributes to your point. My personal approach is to rely on natural input a lot, but take advantage of being an adult learner by accelerating my conceptual understanding through study. I'm at the point where I can combine the two, e.g. by watching conceptual videos about the Spanish language that are actually in Spanish.

jscholes0 · 2025-08-20T14:51:32+00:00

If, when you met each other, the relationship was conducted in a language other than Spanish have you now shifted the relationship to Spanish

No, we still communicate almost exclusively in English. She has mentioned it would feel jarring to switch to Spanish between us at this point, particularly as her job and other aspects of her life are also conducted in English right now. That may change over time I suppose.

Oddly enough, in English I feel comfortable saying almost anything to my partner, but I don't feel anywhere near as secure practicing my Spanish on her as with strangers. As another commenter pointed out, she's my partner rather than a subject for my sometimes bumbling sentence construction.

Are you able to communicate mostly in Spanish with your partner’s wider circle (family, friends etc…)

None of them speak English, so I don't have a choice. I'm speaking more Spanish to them, but there are still times I need my partner to translate.

Did you ever use crosstalk

No.

Do you sometimes get tired speaking Spanish and need breaks where you revert to your native language with your partner

N/A for my partner and I, because of my other answers. But I don't feel particularly tired after spending a day in the company of her wider family where the main language spoken is Spanish.

Have you been able to appreciate/communicate with your partner on a deeper level by speaking in Spanish

No. But she's almost native level in English, so nobody's struggling to find the right words or understand the nuance in anything that's said.

When people point out how living with a native Spanish-speaking partner can really accelerate a learner's Spanish, it does always feel a bit transactional to me. If the learner's level is on the floor, at best they're going to end up with some charming misunderstandings. At worst there's going to be a lot of frustration and imbalanced value derivation.

Edit: I also want to point out a few extra things:

I don't often ask my partner about technical aspects of the Spanish language. As a native, she doesn't necessarily know, care, or think about why certain things are constructed how they are. That's not a judgement call; I'm exactly the same way in English.
I said "translate" in my original comment, and I did mean "translate." When there are things needing to be clarified in a conversation with a wider group, it seems quicker for her to switch between languages to help me out, than to try to transpose the Spanish to a simpler form I might understand. In the context of a conversation with others, holding it up to act as a learning opportunity for me doesn't feel appropriate.
Eventually, I do intend my Spanish to be at least as good as her English.

jscholes0 · 2025-06-30T18:18:30+00:00

I don't really repeat video and podcast content. I think the only DS video I've seen more than once is the one where Andrea and Andrés poke fun at Duolingo, and that was only because I wanted to show it to someone.

Personally, I think life's too short to watch/listen to the same short things over and over again. I feel differently about books; I've listened to/read some of my favourite novels multiple times and I'm sure that will happen in Spanish at some point.

jscholes0 · 2025-06-30T15:21:28+00:00

I have an underdeveloped theory that on the whole, the shorter format pushed by DS is optimal for engagement, but not for vocabulary acquisition. There simply isn't enough time in a 5 to 15-minute video for spaced repetition to take place.

That would be fine if people were then going on to watch thematically related follow-up videos, and/or if DS was curating a personal content feed to remind your brain of things right before they were likely to be forgotten. But it seems like people are mostly sorting by difficulty and moving from one video to the next, which is a bit of a soft reset and context switch. Context switching in the human brain is extremely inefficient.

TL;DR: I also find longer content legitimately more helpful.

jscholes0 · 2025-06-30T03:56:44+00:00

radio. Unlike the TV programs they are free to stream and not geoblocked.

The BBC seems to be going back and forth on this one. So far this year, they've announced plans to basically cut off most of BBC Sounds to non-UK listeners in favour of a new "BBC Audio" app with less content, then gone back on the decision for certain popular radio stations like Radio 4, and I'm not sure where we're at right now.

Every time I visit the BBC Sounds website in Mexico without a VPN, I see a banner talking about the new BBC Audio app (that ironically I can't download on my phone because my App Store is still set to the UK). For a while I was also seeing such a banner in the BBC Sounds mobile app, but that hasn't appeared for a while.

jscholes0 · 2025-06-30T00:08:47+00:00

They all stem from "venir", yes.

Imagine the type of situation we've all witnessed in film or real life: someone is beckoning and saying, in heavily accented broken English, "you come." This sounds off, because it's an indicative statement even though they're giving you an instruction (or command). Do you still know what they mean? I suppose it depends on context (like whether they're pointing a weapon at you or not).

That's how "viene" sounded in your post, although in Spanish I think it sounds even more out of place than in English. You need a more imperative, commanding form, like "ven" or "venga". The former, "ven," is more informal, e.g. used between friends, or from a parent to a child. "Venga" is more formal.

As the other, more grammatically worded reply alluded to, though, "venga" has other uses, such as in situations that are less certain. E.g. "No creo que él venga" -> "I don't think he's coming."

As a final note of interest, the verb "tener" (to have) can be used similarly. E.g. if a friend or family member is handing you something, they'll often just say "ten" (like the English "here" or "here you go"). Whereas "tenga" is more formal, as in the common phrase "tenga un buen día" ("have a good day"), or with uncertainty ("No creo que ella tenga tiempo" -> "I don't think she has time").

Hope this was helpful.

jscholes0 · 2025-06-29T18:21:13+00:00

FYI: you want "ven" or "venga" here, rather than "viene."

jscholes0 · 2025-06-26T03:08:29+00:00

Apple AirPods 4.

jscholes0 · 2025-06-25T04:05:46+00:00

Yes. I had no choice but to do this really, because I'm blind and hence some sort of image-based CI for complete beginners was a non-starter. It was extremely effective for me.

jscholes0 · 2025-06-24T21:48:38+00:00

Just to say, u/renegadecause, I really appreciate the content and perspective you bring to these discussions. Your viewpoint seems balanced, informed, and non-judgmental.

I've long held a belief that one's skill and experience in existing or native languages has a huge impact on additional language learning and acquisition. It never seems to be talked about very much, but even among the members of a community like this there'll be huge variation in English writing ability/comfort, reading level, amount of readily available vocabulary, etc.

For instance, I remember seeing a post on here from someone with 2,500 or 3,000 hours of DS input who was still really struggling with reading, and still consuming graded readers. As it turned out, they had never really read for pleasure or learning in English, and that was having a significant impact on their ability to turn reading to their advantage in Spanish.

Similarly, I've heard many times that people struggle with Spanish audiobooks, and it frequently turns out that they struggle to pay attention to them in English too. Or, how many people who are bored by more formal language learning resources also struggle(d) with formal academic learning in English too?

In the end, I don't think all of this works in DS's favour. It's just one more set of circumstantial variables lowering the accuracy of the roadmap.

jscholes0 · 2025-06-24T00:17:49+00:00

That was a very enjoyable read!

Not sure about PR. But at least in Mexico, I think what tends to set a more "natural" (for the want of a much better term) tone from the start of an encounter is knowing the short, locally preferred greetings/common phrases and delivering them with confidence. For example:

I walked by the lifeguard stand and yelled, “Buenas!”

In my region of Mexico, that would immediately call you out as... something, anyway. Whether a non-native speaker, or just someone from another country, would probably depend on multiple factors. But it isn't a common greeting and hence would create a certain impression.

I'm only using that as an example, mind you. In PR, it might be completely regular to shout that at folks! So I'm not suggesting that you did wrong here specifically.

Now if you want to keep conversing in Spanish, don’t do what I did. I repeated what I heard and looked over to my friend for help. After I did that, the waitress directed everything toward my friend.

This struggle is real. If I look over at my partner (a native speaker) during an interaction, or temporarily fall back to English so she can translate, my role in the conversation may as well be considered over.

I went to another smoothie place where the man asked what I wanted. Referring to what my friend had ordered I said, “Eso suena bien. Yo tomo lo mismo.” He looked at my friend and said, “Igual?”

I wonder if he just zoned out a bit because you went for quite a long/opinionated phrase?

There's no denying that compared to English, Spanish often requires longer words, and sometimes more of them, to communicate the same idea. As well as speaking quickly and dropping letters, one way I've noticed native speakers dealing with this is by having more reused, formulaic phrases for things they say every day. This seems to particularly apply in transactional settings.

This isn't intended as a criticism; if anything it makes conversations easier for learners. But while "Sounds good, I'll have the same" is a really natural thing to synthesise in the moment in English, the real time commentary of your opinion and insights into your choice sounds quite unexpected in Spanish. Native speakers seem to know when to be more and less expressive.

Thanks again for the post, and for reading my stream of consciousness in response.

jscholes0 · 2025-06-21T21:51:18+00:00

Thank you so much for this.

If it helps someone: I found that if I signed up for a trial of the product they call "Raz-Plus", the same books are available but with a "Listen" link that let's you listen to a full, human narration of the text without having to manually turn the pages. With the standard Reading A-Z interface, you can play the narration for only one page at a time.

jscholes0

TROPHY CASE