500 Hours Dreaming Spanish How to stop getting tired comprehensible input

Stop getting tired during input
500 hours
My first 8 hour input day was yesterday :)

[@ashleykumar6341]

Thanks for the great tip! I will definitely use this. I would also love to see how you crosstalk if you find someone willing to record. I do it already but I'm always interested in what others are doing.

[@Alex-Learns-Spanish]

I have three videos of crosstalk on my channel.

[@badboybootz8]

I just hit 350 hours some days i feel like an expert , some days i feel like a newborn

[@Alex-Learns-Spanish]

Well said

[@givemekape2418]

I 100% agree with your point about counting hours. A lot of the questions in the Dreaming Spanish subreddit are about this very topic. Does it count if I can't understand it at x%? does it count if I zoned out for a couple of minutes? That stuff obviously makes a difference, but I don't think its worth crunching the math on every outside our you put into the tracker. I still do that a little bit sometimes based on my own judgement, but I've learned to just not stress out about it, and I certainly don't think about it for more than 2 seconds.

[@Alex-Learns-Spanish]

Wow, thank you so much! I was kind of conflicted on that until now. You explained it better than I was thinking about it.

[@TheDurbanitejoller]

Congratulations for reaching 500 hours level 5.

[@Alex-Learns-Spanish]

thanks

[@theexpatteacher8255]

Hi Alex, thanks for the tip. It's hard to focus all the time when watching DS videos.

[@Alex-Learns-Spanish]

YW, Thanks for watching 😀

[@DotSimLtd]

I agree with the counting hours thing. At the end of the day its a way to measure for yourself. I will try that CI tip, however I have not had that much success with CI audio and visuals. I mean it works to a point but I find after 1000s of hours really not anywhere close to understanding everyday speech.

[@Alex-Learns-Spanish]

What do you think of language transfer? I always planned to try language transfer if I was still struggling around the 600 mark. I pushed that to 900 hours because I am making nice progress now.

[@kevinlevine5543]

If you have tips and tricks for Spanish learners wanting to learn English, I want to know them because I will be in the same situation as you soon and learning ways to help native Spanish speakers would be very helpful for me to be more effective. Than you.

[@Alex-Learns-Spanish]

Yes, practice crosstalk. 1. Crosstalk = you speak Spanish and your partner Speaks English. I will be your partner. 2 lots of comprehesible input.

[@evelinenangura6501]

Listening to English music helps

[@marshallh.7553]

ojala que hubiera contado mis horas del inicio de mi tiempo aprendiendo espanol. No se si llevo 300 o 1000 o lo que sea, pero tome una prueba que me dijo que tengo un nivel b1. Crees que si hubieras hecho este metodo de input comprensible sin contando tus horas llevarias menos horas con input? Tal vez viendo tus horas que llevas es algo que te motiva, no se. De todos modos gracias por tus consejos Don Alex. (Y perdon por hablar sin tildes mi teclado no los tiene)

[@Alex-Learns-Spanish]

Definitely seeing the hours is motivating for me. It is a very thoughtful question. Now I am wondering that if I had not counted the hours could I have come up with another method of motivation or perhaps made the input so enjoyable that I accumulated even more hours? I don't know. I think your comments have been very interesting, I think you could make a good channel.

[@Dell.3.]

I'll try this tip. Thanks! How many hours do you do per day and how do you do it?

[@Dell.3.]

Oh 8 hours ( I just read the discription ) How do you do that? O.o

[@Alex-Learns-Spanish]

Oh sorry, I only did 8 hours the day before the video. I slowy worked up to 3 hours over several months. I am doing more now with this trick but I have only been doing it for a few days.@@Dell.3.

[@Tyler-mm2xl]

Gracias por tus consejos Voy a seguir aprendiendo 💪

[@Ajas0810]

I’m almost at 600 hours. Got another 50 episodes of how to Spanish left then on to my next podcast. Debating if I just wanna listen to how to Spanish again or on to another podcast. Thinking about no hay tos but how to Spanish was just so comprehensible to me I’ve learned so much Spanish in the 230 episodes I’ve listened to. I tried easy Spanish a few months back but I couldn’t get past the girl giggling every few seconds but maybe I’ll try it again. I do an hour of DS videos a day and 2 hours of podcasts.

[@Alex-Learns-Spanish]

Very cool. How to Spanish is so good it is sort of in a league of its own.

[@givemekape2418]

When did you start how to podcast? I'm at about 320 hours and its still a bit fast for me. If I focus really hard, I can follow along but only for just a few minutes.

[@Ajas0810]

@@givemekape2418 probably around 250 hours. I had the same problem with not understand everything and I still have that problem although I can understand more at 600 than at 250 but ultimately I don’t really care if I understand everything. I’m doing this for fun I don’t have to learn Spanish I just want to do it really doesn’t matter. I know that I eventually will if I keep going.

[@givemekape2418]

funny enough, I decided to take another listen and I actually could follow along a lot better than in the past. I guess its been a while since I last tried 😅@@Ajas0810

[@user-fd9sw4oh8y]

@@givemekape2418 When you listen to How to Spanish, do you use the Spanish subtitles? When I first discovered their channel, I was more or less at the same place you are. As long as I had the Spanish subtitles turned on, I could follow them with no problem, except the occasional word I wasn't familiar with, but if I didn't have them on, I found myself getting lost if I didn't focus 100%. Strangely enough, the breakthrough came when I started listening to them in my car, and therefore couldn't read the subtitles. I think it subconsciously made me adjust my expectations, and accept the fact that I wasn't going to understand every word. From that point on, my comprehension improved considerably. Or maybe I was just getting used to their voices and their diction. Also, I would sometimes end up listening to the same episode a second time, and my comprehension went from 85-90% to almost 100% with no additional effort. I have noticed that they speak faster in their more recent podcasts, and sometimes don't enunciate quite as much as they did in the earlier ones (this is not a criticism, it's actually more like your average person would speak, and will probably help with overall listening comprehension in the long run).

[@Topsealguy]

Any tips on how to get 8 hour days?

[@Alex-Learns-Spanish]

I did 8 hours only one time just before this video. I would say don't do it unless you are in an emergency situation. I sort of had a mini burn out and I lost the fun of learning for a week. But I am happy to answer in 5 parts: Definitely the tip in the video where you repeat the Spanish to distract yourself from translating in your head. Don't be afraid to listen to very easy material. Set your radio in your car to a terrible station and this will remind you to switch to input on your phone. Finally be very forgiving with yourself and let the confusing things pass right through you because its better to not be bothered than it is to try and circle back. I hope to speak to you in Spanish one day :)