This site is a record of my journey acquiring Spanish through comprehensible input.
I started documenting things at around 200 hours and plan to continue through at least 1000. The goal is simple: track what actually changes over time—what starts to click, what still feels difficult, and what kinds of input seem to matter most.
If you’re new here, this is the best place to start.
Current Status
- Hours: ~150
- Main input: Dreaming Spanish
- Daily input: ~90 minutes
Philosophy
I’m not trying to “study” Spanish as much as I am trying to acquire it through exposure.
The focus is on understanding first—letting the language build gradually through input—rather than memorizing rules or forcing output too early.
I’m largely following the Dreaming Spanish method but I am not especially dogmatic about it (I often like Spanish subtitles).
How to Use This Site
Most posts fall into two categories:
- Hours — milestone updates every ~50 hours
- Compartir — things I’ve found interesting along the way
This introduction is a bit more detailed than usual. Future hours posts are shorter, more structured, and get straight to the point.
Why I Decided to Learn Spanish
A few months before my 40th birthday, I took a voluntary break from work after 10 years in the same job. I wanted time to reset.
During that break, I decided to finally become bilingual.
There wasn’t a single moment that triggered the decision. It had been building for years.
As a kid, I used to check out books from the local library in Thai, Hindi, Mandarin, Russian—anything with a visually arresting script—and pretend I could understand them. I never had formal language training, but I always felt drawn to it.
Growing up in Southern California, I was constantly surrounded by other languages, especially, but not exclusively, Spanish. I remember feeling left out when friends spoke to their parents in a language I didn’t understand.
I took Spanish in high school, but it mostly amounted to learning the alphabet, vowel sounds, and a bit of basic vocabulary. In college, I took a year of French and remember none of it.
When I finally decided to commit, Spanish was the obvious choice.
My wife is Cuban and Puerto Rican and understands Spanish at an intermediate level but doesn’t speak it fluently. My daughter is already taking lessons. We live in Texas, surrounded by Spanish speakers.
At some point, it just became clear: this was the language.
How I Started Learning
Like a lot of people, I started with Duolingo in late September 2025.
It was useful at first, but it always felt a bit shallow. I didn’t love the gamification, and eventually it started to feel like I was optimizing for points instead of actually learning.
Things came to a head when my wife’s Cuban family visited in December 2025.
They didn’t speak much English, and I completely fell apart trying to follow the conversation.
Even when I recognized words, I was translating them into English in my head, and by the time I did that, the conversation had already moved on. I couldn’t keep up.
At the same time, Duolingo’s listening exercises suddenly became much harder—entirely in Spanish instead of mostly English—and I found myself replaying clips over and over, trying to catch every word.
That’s when I started looking for something else.
I kept seeing recommendations for Dreaming Spanish. I was skeptical at first, but eventually gave it a try—and it completely changed how I approached learning.
I started in late December 2025 and quickly got hooked. I was doing around 90 minutes of input a day, and by March 7, 2026, I reached 152 hours.
Why This Blog Exists
On my way to 150 hours, I came across a lot of “X Hours Update” videos.
Most of them weren’t very useful to me: too much setup, not enough substance.
So I decided to make something I would actually want to read.
This blog is meant to be a straightforward record of what the process actually feels like over time.
At a minimum, it’s something I can look back on. But I also hope it ends up being useful to someone else working through their own language acquisition journey.
Also, my family is tired of hearing me talk about Spanish, so this is now my outlet.
What Keeps Me Going
In July 2026, my family and I are traveling to Spain.
If I stay consistent, I should be at 300+ hours by then—roughly an intermediate level (level 4 in Dreaming Spanish).
I know I’ll still have a long way to go, but I want to be able to participate, even imperfectly.
More broadly, learning Spanish has already changed how I experience the world. It’s made things feel bigger, more interesting, more alive.
I plan to keep going until I reach conversational fluency—and to document that process here along the way.
Where I Am Now
As of writing this, I’m at around 150–200 hours of input, primarily through Dreaming Spanish.
My experience so far has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve moved away from traditional study methods and toward consistent comprehensible input, and I’m starting to notice longer stretches of understanding without translating in my head.
Long term, I plan to keep going well beyond that. My goal is simple: to become comfortably conversational—and to see how far I can take it.