My friend is studying Spanish entire on duo lingo and I'm doing a hybrid method of duo lingo and Dreaming Spanish. We both had taken Spanish in high school and are both around the same duo lingo level but I feel that Dreaming has helped me learn more vocabulary and be able to retrieve words faster. I am also a daughter of immigrants who speak an entirely different language while she grew up only hearing English at home so she thinks my exposure to different languages from birth might give me a little more phonetic/grammar flexibility but not sure about that. We mostly talked about all the perrrrrrros that we saw but we were probably reinforcing each other's "learner habits". I am hoping to do an immersion trip to Costa Rica or Mexico in a program designed learners at the end of the year.

Those of us who already come in with at least the foundation do have a head start over someone who starts from zero (II'm not talking about the people who are able converse and understand native content when they start but those who have about 200-300 words and know basic sentence structure). But I talked to someone who said that after 500 hours of DS, the gap fades and sometimes true beginners pull ahead in comprehension because they were able to get meaning from what was pure noise to them at first and were able to slog it out for those first 20-30 hours and learn to get meaning ENTIRELY from visuals or context. Is that true? I'd like to hear more from the "the true beginners"? Do you think that the ability to start from zero and stick with pure CI makes you a stronger language learner?

I wish they would measure levels by specific benchmarks rather than hours because 1) we all learn at different paces and 2) Some of us came here with quite a bit of Spanish exposure through other sources (high school class, other apps, real life exposure etc). I know the concept of CI is not to translate but they could offer assessments in other sources such as at the super beginner level, just a brief audio clip and you click on the picture that matches what they said and in higher levels, they ask you simple questions in Spanish and you click on the answer to see what level you are. That way 1) people don't always measure themselves based on their levels claiming you can do xyz at 150 hours cuz some feel bad if they haven't and 2) They ask YOU to add in prior Spanish knowledge but it means different things to different people. One person who took high school Spanish for 2 years may literally start not understanding anything from Super Beginner cuz they only learned verb conjugations and a few pleasantries while another person who took Spanish for 2 years in high school might be able to jump into intermediate. And one person who starts from scratch may be able to move from SuperBeginner to Beginner after 20 hours while others might need 200 hours. There's such a wide range in how people learn!

Would you say those who came to DS after studying Spanish with other methods have a significant advantage over the course of 1000 hours or does the difference fade out after about 300 hours? Im curious cuz my friend is going to start from scratch this weekend only literally knowing about 5 words in Spanish and I started already about high A1 but my listening comprehension has improved remarkably with DS and duo lingo combined. She is going to try the purist route but she's more naturally gifted with languages as she already speaks 3 languages and has functional communication in a 4th, just not Spanish, not any romance language related to Spanish. She is from a country where multilingualism is the norm. She has a lot of free time on her hands now due to her life situation. So we will compare notes a year from now. Stay tuned!

I tried an advanced video today and understood most of what Augustina was saying. https://app.dreaming.com/spanish/watch?id=69f86bd3add1079282768fe2 In fact, I think I understood more of what she said than some of the other creators in the intermediate videos. This video is straight up advanced rated as 75 but seems easier than some of the other videos rated in the 50s. Is it because Augustina's easier to understand or just that I've adapted to her style from all her travel blogs (my favorite)?

I've been watching a lot of Augustina due to liking both the travel videos and some of the podcast discussions. I would like to get used to more of the Mexican and Central American dialects of Spanish. I do like Andrea but she has far fewer travel blogs. I do like it when Augustina and Natalia make a video together. Are there any other guides you recommend for me (early intermediate)?

My friend knows i"m using Duo lingo and Dreaming 50/50 and she wants to start but she has no experience in Spanish at all and only knows "Hola" and "gracias". Should I tell her to learn a foundation of 100-200 words from duo lingo or another app first to make sure SuperBeginner has some words she can anchor. I know there is no way I could have progressed to watching intermediate videos with 70-90 percent comprehension in 3 months (now watching about 30-45 minutes a day) without both the high school foundation and using duo lingo in tandem. I think you need some anchor words and a basic sentence structure to start. I am am on level 65 in Duo Lingo Spanish and level 9 in French (I only dabble in French for a few minutes 2-3 times a week while I spend half a hour a day on Duo LIngo SPanish). I intend to start Dreaming French after 1)I complete the entire duo lingo SPanish class and 2) I have at least levels 1-30 in French. I am not a purist but would like to hear from those of you guys who are purists? Should I tell my friend to dive right into SuperBeginner Spanish?

I'm currently doing 30 minutes of duo lingo and either 2 or 3 short videos (split between beginner and intermediate) or one 30 minute podcast (usually Augustina who I find easier to understand) from Dreaming Spanish each day. Should I reduce the duo lingo time to 15 minutes and aim for 45 minutes of Dreaming Spanish each day. I can understand just about everything in beginner and intermediate ranges from 60 to 90 percent depending on the topic. Don't tell me to dump Duo Lingo entirely cuz I like the feedback and structure. I am on level 64 in duo lingo and intend on finishing the entire course. My goal is functional fluency in Spanish. I started in January already knowing the basics (being able to follow beginner with visuals) but am not counting hours like I'm supposed to.