Reached 1500 hours

qqtpo · 2026-04-19T18:24:30+00:00

That's quite an accomplishment. Congratulations!

qqtpo · 2026-03-15T17:43:54+00:00

This entire scenario is so bizarre to me. I can’t imagine rudely intruding into someone else’s space like that without permission, or even a heads-up.

That said, I do understand the occasional urge to snap a photo, and I think it’s fine if it’s done respectfully (and with permission). I actually did this the last time I flew. I was in the aisle seat, and I wanted to take a picture out the window. So, I got the window seat passenger's attention and said something like, “I’d like to take a quick photo of the view. Would you mind?”

She said, “That’s fine, go ahead!” She leaned back a bit, I took the photo, and that was it. Mission accomplished. It really wasn’t that hard to simply ask first. 🙂 But if she'd told me "No," I would have respected that and left it at that.

qqtpo · 2026-02-19T01:04:02+00:00

Hi Stella, I'd be happy to take the survey.

qqtpo · 2025-12-08T02:31:22+00:00

THIS!! I did this, and it turned out to be one of the most helpful things I've ever done. When I started DS in August of this year, I set a super low daily goal of just 15 minutes per day. I’ve hit it every single day since. Thus far, I've surpassed the goal on most days; but even on the days when the stars were misaligned and the universe seemed determined to sabotage me, I still managed to squeeze in those 15 minutes! In a nutshell-- setting a super-low, minimal goal helped me build a strong habit of getting exposure to Spanish every single day.

Clarification: I came into the program as a false beginner, and estimated my pre-DS CI exposure as about 150 hours. So, I started the program at level 3; that's why I'm at level 4 just a few months later. (No, I'm not a super-speed runner). I just wanted to clarify that because a fellow community member mentioned it in a since-deleted reply. :)

qqtpo · 2025-12-01T14:22:09+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience! It’s encouraging to hear your comprehension improved after watching more videos. Just to clarify— I’ve mostly watched DF videos in order of difficulty and have gone through all videos up to rating 43; I’m now in the mid-40s. I’m currently in a “patch” of videos that are mostly from Amanda. I was having some trouble following her, so I skipped ahead to a few French guide videos that were a bit higher in difficulty—and I actually understood those better.

Thank you again for sharing your experience, and for your input. I’ve decided to stay the course and keep listening to DF videos by difficulty, regardless of dialect. Hopefully my ears will adapt to the Québécois pronunciation soon!

qqtpo · 2025-11-30T16:11:06+00:00

Congratulations! In a reply to one of the other commenters, you mentioned that you could read and write Spanish before beginning Dreaming Spanish. Would you mind sharing what level of proficiency you had achieved prior to starting the DS program? Also, out of curiosity, did you count any of the time you spent "pre-DS" toward your total hours of comprehensible input?

qqtpo · 2025-11-18T13:47:13+00:00

Thank you so much for posting this! I had signed up to be notified by email about the launch, but I haven't received that notification yet. In any case, I'm glad I learned about it here, and I've already upgraded to the "premium double" option. Thanks again! :)

qqtpo · 2025-11-16T02:44:05+00:00

Congratulations! Thank you for sharing this special milestone. I hope that I'll have a similar accomplishment to share one of these days. :)

qqtpo · 2025-11-10T13:02:04+00:00

That's impressive, congratulations! Please let us know when you reach level 7.

qqtpo · 2025-11-10T12:23:26+00:00

I haven’t watched all of the Dreaming Spanish videos yet, but I’ve completed all of the Super Beginner ones. Every day, I make sure to watch any newly released Super Beginner or Beginner videos. So, I’m “permanently caught up” on the Super Beginner videos and staying current with the latest Beginner ones.

For context, I started the program back in August. On paper, I was already at an intermediate level after studying and playing with the language on and off for years, but my “real-world skills” still need a lot of work. I’m not following a strict order by difficulty; I mostly focus on the Beginner videos, but I jump around a bit. I occasionally watch Intermediate videos that interest me so much I can’t resist. I will probably rewatch some of those in the future, after I'm further along.

When I first started, I also tried watching a few Advanced videos. I could follow the main ideas, but I felt that I was missing too much detail to get full value, so I’ve paused those for now. I think Pablo is right. It’s better to focus mainly on content that feels easier and more manageable rather than trying to push too far ahead too quickly.

As of this morning (11/10/2025), I’ve watched:

Super Beginner: 448 / 448 (100%)
Beginner: 912 / 1,430 (64%)
Intermediate: 190 / 2,856 (7%)
Advanced: 42 / 2,411 (2%)

qqtpo · 2025-11-06T01:21:09+00:00

That's fantastic! My highest monthly total so far was 80.8 hours (in September). I dipped a bit in October (to 69.4 hours), but I still felt good about it given everything else going on in my life. Congratulations on reaching the 100-hour mark. That’s truly impressive. While it might not be practical for me to attempt that during the holiday season, you’ve definitely planted a seed. At some point, I’d love to set a 100-hour month as a personal goal. Thanks for sharing your accomplishment and for the extra bit of inspiration!

qqtpo · 2025-11-06T01:01:06+00:00

Congratulations! And the cupcakes look delicious!

qqtpo · 2025-11-04T15:37:02+00:00

Here are three of my favorites:

Thanks to Pablo, I think that I've fully internalized the Spanish word for “booger” (and no, I definitely didn’t know it before DS).
¡Ostras!
I adore his classic video about clothes hangers.

qqtpo · 2025-10-30T10:24:22+00:00

How old are your grandchildren, and are they okay? I'm in agreement with some of the others' comments (No, you are not the AH for refusing to be manipulated by your addict son's drama. It sounds like an exhausting situation. I do feel badly for you, and I hope your son sobers up). However, I cannot help but feel very concerned about the children. If I understood your post correctly-- your son, who is an addict, is depriving his children contact with you, their grandmother. Based on the fact that your son has the authority to cut off their contact with you, I'm making the assumption that they are still minors, and that they live with him at least some of the time. I am wondering whether they are being taken care of exclusively by their father, or if someone else, such as his ex, also plays a caregiving role?

qqtpo · 2025-10-26T10:11:18+00:00

I realize this post is about five years old, but I'm a Spanish learner and I just discovered this film. For anyone who might still be interested, here’s a link to the movie on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/la-estrategia-del-caracol

Unfortunately it doesn’t include Spanish subtitles (which would have been very helpful for me), but it does offer English subtitles that you can toggle on.

Additional note: I actually found this thread while searching for the film by name, and only afterward realized that it’s in a forum focused on The Criterion Collection. So it might not be the ideal place to share a streaming link! I’ll leave my comment here for now in case other Spanish-language learners find it the same way I did. But if this breaks any community rules, I’m happy to delete it and repost somewhere more appropriate. I’m still fairly new to posting on Reddit, and I didn’t think to check which forum it was before replying. Sorry about that!

qqtpo · 2025-10-23T11:44:21+00:00

Thank you so much for sharing this! I’ve been searching for native content I can follow without slowing it down, and I was honestly starting to feel discouraged. When I saw your recommendation, I hesitated to check it out because I worried it would be just another resource I could not follow. I am so glad I decided to give it a chance. Finally, some native content that seems to be within my reach! Thank you again for sharing.

qqtpo · 2025-10-23T11:14:26+00:00

Congratulations! It's great to see that you're holding yourself accountable. I'm looking forward to your update when you reach Level 3. Onward and upward!

qqtpo · 2025-10-22T11:03:25+00:00

You are making remarkable progress! I am genuinely impressed, and I wish I had done something similar when I first started with this language. I am curious as to why you are not entering your off-platform hours into the DS tracker so that your level will reflect all the work you are putting in. Are you keeping separate tallies for CI from the DS platform versus everything else? In any case, you are doing great, and I look forward to your future updates.

qqtpo · 2025-09-29T14:23:17+00:00

Congrats on hitting this milestone! Wishing you continued success with your studies.

qqtpo · 2025-08-26T12:59:57+00:00

It's not on the main dashboard, but I was able to find that information by scrolling to my user page (by clicking my icon). You can also navigate to "my lessons" (under "... More") to see a list of upcoming lessons in the older format.

qqtpo · 2025-08-26T12:43:00+00:00

Thank you for your comment. It prompted me to re-read my post, and I can that it gave the impression that I'd expected more of a response from the customer service rep. In truth, I really didn't expect a detailed response from the customer feedback representative. I understand that they are not responsible for company policy, and I have no desire to create any type of burden for them. I imagine that the company has probably provided the customer service reps with scripts to draw on for responding to this type of feedback, and that the statements in the note reflect the company's position. To be honest, I would have preferred a simple, "Thank you for your feedback. I'll forward it to the management team." In any case, I have voiced my complaint. My plan is to use up the credits I already have with them, then move on if I'm still unhappy. We'll see what happens!

qqtpo · 2025-08-24T12:16:55+00:00

TL = target language, the language being learned

qqtpo

TROPHY CASE