881 Hours Later: My 3-Year Spanish Progress Update
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Table of Contents
Ever since I started learning Spanish I’ve made an annual update post about my progress.
Last year, I felt it was hard to believe that two years had already passed since I started learning Spanish. This year, it feels different. I now feel like I’ve been learning Spanish for quite some time. Like it’s now become a natural part of my life, and that it wasn’t yesterday that I got started.
And here we are—3 years in. Or more importantly, 881 hours in.
Spanish is a language I have kept close track since I started (in case you’re wondering how I know the exact number of hours). The reason for my progress tracking have been:
To give you a clear idea of what level you can expect to reach, based on the time you’ve spent learning. It’s not the years you’ve learned that matters, it’s the hours.
It maintains my motivation and helps me stay consistent.
We’ll go through the 4 main language skills and what I’ve have done in each one to further my Spanish language abilities. I’ll also give with some fun stats, such as how much time I’ve spent listneing, how many words I now know, and more.
This year, has been a breakthrough year in many ways. My level of comprehension got a significant upgrade. I also saw dramatic improvement in my speaking ability through one incredibly effective tool.
I’m excited to share my journey this past year and where I’m at in my Spanish!
Listening: The Foundation of My Spanish Journey
Since day one, listening has always been my number one priority. One of my main goals has been to understand Spanish media—like TV shows and movies—so improving listening comprehension is obviously the key to that.
My other goal is to be able to communicate comfortably with native Spanish speakers. In order to do so, I have to be able to understand what they’re saying (it’s tough to have a conversation with someone when you can’t understand them, isn’t it?)
I also knew that the more my listening comprehension would improve, the faster my speaking would develop (a skill we’ll talk more about later in this post). Because it makes Spanish form naturally in my mind, repeating things I’ve heard, rather than translating from English in my head.
Platforms and Apps I've Used to Improve My Listening
Something I’ve been very gung-ho about is listening to something in Spanish for at least 30 minutes every day.
I usually try to get it done first thing of first thing in the morning. Being an achiever type personality-wise, it gives me a sense of accomplishment to get it done early. There is also less risk that distractions come in the way as the day goes on. However, on the days I’m not able to get it done in the morning, I just fit in my listening whenever I get a chance throughout the day.
Since listening is my main focus, I’ve used a mix of platforms and apps. Each has its strengths, serves different purposes, and adds variety to keep things interesting.
Here’s a breakdown of how each one and the role it has played in my learning.
Dreaming Spanish: My Go-To Spanish Listening Tracker
Keeping track of my listening time helps me see exactly when I’ve reached my 30-minute goal.
I use the progress tracker on the Spanish video learning platform Dreaming Spanish (check out the post: Everything You Need to Know About Langua [the most human-like AI tutor] for a detailed breakdown of the platform).
No matter what I‘ve listened to, I always input the time into Dreaming Spanish’s listening tracker at the end of the day. It’s well-designed and easy to use. When tracking daily, you want it to be as easy and quick as possible to do.
My progress page in Dreaming Spanish, showing daily goal, streaks, and other stats.
As far as listening, I have used the actual content on Dreaming Spanish less than in previous years. I felt like a lot of it had gotten a bit too easy for me (which is the whole point of the platform). I was hungry for more challenging Spanish spoken at a more natural speed.
If you start to feel impatient with the speaking speed of the language, it’s a good sign that it’s time to amp things up!
That said, I still enjoy turning on a Dreaming Spanish video now and then when I want something easy. On days when I feel my focus isn’t as strong, for example.
YouTube: My Spanish Immersion Hub
YouTube is such a great place to find interesting content to listen to. If I’m interested in a particular topic, I usually search for videos about it in Spanish. That way, I can learn more about the topic while also improving my Spanish.
If you’ve been following my journey, you might know that I’m a big Starcraft fan. So whenever Starcraft season is in full swing (which is maybe 4 months out of the year), I mainly watch that as my listening immersion. Interestingly enough, when I first started watching it, it felt like a sacrifice to watch it with Spanish commentators—I’d grown attached to the English ones I’d followed for years. But over time, I developed a connection to the Spanish commentators, and now they’re part of how I experience a game I’ve loved since my teenage years.
This brings up an important point:
Once you get used to content in a certain language, you start associating it with that language. Immersion then becomes effortless, because it naturally fits into your daily life.
To make Spanish immersion easier, I have a dedicated Spanish immersion ‘YouTube channel’. I show frame-by-frame how to set this up easily in the post: How to Set Up Your YouTube Account for Language Immersion [Step-by-step guide].
YouTube also keeps track of watching time, making it easy for me to add it to my progress tracker.
Lingopie: The Push I Needed to Advance My Listening
Since I felt the need to push myself to the next level listening-wise, I also started using a platform called Lingopie this year.
I wanted something that offered more challenging, native-level content but also included tools to help me learn from it. Lingopie’s dual-language, clickable subtitles make it easy to look up any word. I especially appreciate that the subtitles are word-for-word transcriptions (unlike typical streaming platform subtitles) and that I can easily toggle between Spanish and English subtitles.
Lingopie blew fresh wind into my Spanish learning, and I saw a noticeable improvement in my listening comprehension after 2.5 months of using it. I still use it regularly. It’s such a user-friendly platform that makes learning both convenient and entertaining.
Just as with YouTube, I would add in the listening time on Lingopie to Dreaming Spanish.
You can get a significant discount on all Lingopie plans with my link: Get up to 73% off Lingopie.
Watching Dubbed TV Shows on Streaming Platforms
Interestingly enough, my wife decided to start learning Spanish this year. As a bit of an experiment, she started learning purely by watching the Spanish-dubbed version of the TV show ‘Friends’. Since she’s already seen every episode multiple times in English, the familiarity of the show makes it much more comprehensible for her. It’s been super fun to follow her process.
She’s still quite early in it, but she has already picked up words and expressions, even without subtitles. I’ve watched quite a few episodes with her, which is a fun way to combine hanging out together with both of us improving our Spanish.
I’m a fan of dubbed shows for language learning because the audio and speaking are usually clearer than in shows where the original language is Spanish.
Disney Plus is a great platform for dubbed content since most shows and movies offer dubbed versions in 8-9 or more languages, making it easy to switch the audio to the language you’re learning. It’s been my go-to platform as of late for language learning.
I watch dubbed shows without subtitles. It does sacrifice some comprehension, but I find I don’t listen as closely when I have target language subtitles on. Plus, I’m watching more to enjoy it and improve my listening as a bonus. Lingopie is better for watching with subtitles since they are synced and matched word-for-word, and I can turn them on and off with a keyboard shortcut.
Another tool I use daily is a VPN, which unlocks more content and additional language options on streaming platforms. I personally use Express VPN (←save up to 61%), and I’m super happy with it.
Nerdy Stats:
Listening Hours this year: 220
Total Listening Hours (all 3 years): 658
Want to learn how I applied the same principles to learn 3 completely different languages—Spanish, Finnish, and Cantonese?
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Reading: The Daily Habit That Transformed My Vocabulary
The second most important thing I focus on—and a staple across all three languages I’ve been learning—is reading. I started reading on day two of my Spanish journey and have maintained a 1,094-day streak ever since.
It has had a significant impact on my Spanish, particularly in terms of growing my vocabulary and making listening easier. Oftentimes, I’ll hear a word I have encountered before when reading, so I might already know what it means, my ears just have to pick up hearing it.
How LingQ Makes Reading in Spanish Effortless
Unlike listening, I stick to just one platform for reading—LingQ (← get up to 43% off). I don’t feel the need to use anything else since LingQ has everything I need. I can import any e-book or text, easily look up words and sentences, see the saved definitions across different contexts, and keep track of my progress in a detailed way.
Reading regular books, which would otherwise be a struggle, becomes a smooth and highly enjoyable experience with LingQ.
In LingQ all the tracking is automatic, so I never have to manually add my reading time like I do with listening.
My daily reading goal this year has been 1,000 words (LingQ also tracks words read). According to LingQ, I’ve read a total of 91 hours this year. This means these 1,000 words on average take me 15 minutes a day. It’s about half of my listening time, which makes sense since I’ve always seen reading as a supplement to listening, rather than the other way around.
Another motivating metric to follow in the app is your amount of ‘known words’. I’m currently close to hitting 26,000 known words in LingQ.
What I’ve Been Reading in Spanish This Year
I pretty much only read regular books since that’s what I find the most interesting. In Spanish, I have mostly read books in the personal development genre. It’s a great combination of learning about topics I’m interested in learning more about and improving my Spanish all at the same time.
Some of the books I’ve read this year include La administración de las finanzas ("Financial Stewardship") by Andrew Wommack, Qué hace la gente exitosa con su tiempo libre ("Off the Clock") by Laura Vanderkam, Un líder como Jesús ("Lead Like Jesus") by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges, and La dieta carnívora ("The Carnivore Diet") by Dr. Shawn Baker
Your interests and what you like to read will probably be different than mine. The idea is just to take what interests you and turn it into engaging Spanish learning content.
Nerdy Stats:
Reading Hours this year: 91 hours (300,000+ words read)
Total Reading Hours (all 3 years): 223 hours
Total ‘Words Read’: 967,773
Total ‘Known Words’: 25,953
Speaking: Why I Couldn’t Ignore it Any Longer
Even though I’ve been speaking Spanish occasionally since my first week of learning, it hasn’t been a major focus throughout my language journey. I wanted to first build up my comprehension, since I know speaking is largely an outflow of that. That said, you do need to practice speaking to be able to speak well.
In my 2-year update post I mentioned briefly that I wanted to focus more on developing my speaking area this coming year. So, when I was invited to be interviewed on a Spanish YouTube channel a few months ago, I was definitely motivated to do so.
At that point, I could manage in everyday conversations, but I just wasn’t confident in my speaking ability. There’s a difference in “getting by'“ when speaking and being able to give clear and thoughtful answers to questions in an interview setting.
I was nervous and felt unsure if I’d be able to pull it off, but I knew I had to do it. Because I know challenges like this are when you truly grow. However, I needed to quickly boost my lacking Spanish speaking ability in a matter of weeks!
I had no idea what kind of a surprise, or shock even, that was waiting for me.
How Langua Helped Me Go from Insecure to Confident in Weeks
In the past, I would have just taken a bunch of lessons at LanguaTalk, and I did take some. It’s a great way to practice speaking with native speakers and develop your conversational skills. However, I needed to practice every day, and taking a lesson every day just wasn’t practical since our second son had just been born.
I ended up using a platform that had everything I was looking for and more. One that was time-efficient, cost-effective, convenient, and very effective at improving my speaking.
The platform used is called Langua (use code: LINGTUITIVE20 to get 20% off any annual subscription), which has the most incredible AI conversational tool I have ever used. It’s by far the best tool I have encountered for developing speaking.
Chat about any topic with Langua’s life-like AI tutor (many Spanish dialects available).
Click on any word to look them up, and add them to your flashcard deck.
Translate any sentence, and get corrections and suggestions on your own speaking.
I was honestly shocked by how quickly chatting with Langua improved my speaking. The hundreds of hours I had spent listening for sure was a big factor, but I don’t think I could have improved anywhere near as fast without Langua.
And best of all, I did most of it while doing the dishes! (When you’re a family man with small kids, you’ve gotta grab any chance you can get!).
For more about the exact process of improving my speaking for the interview, check out my post: 4 Steps to Crush Your Foreign Language Interview—Follow My Process.
A great benefit of speaking regularly was that my listening also improved. Speaking forces you to pay closer attention to aspects of the language you otherwise might not, especially before you have truly internalized the language at an advanced level. This increased awareness came from Langua’s feedback during conversations (you can also get a written feedback report after each conversation) but mainly from struggling to express myself and having Langua guide me to say something correctly.
Speaking is not something I keep track of. I do add conversations as ‘listening time’ though. For example, if I have a 10-minute conversation with a Spanish-speaking tourist (which has happened multiple times in my town), I count it as 5 minutes of ‘listening time,’ assuming I spent about half the conversation listening.
Also, Langua’s AI tutors sound so authentic and human-like that I even consider it a source of quality input. So I would add these conversations as listening time as well.
To find out more about how Langua works, check out my extensive post about the platform: Everything You Need to Know About Langua [the most human-like AI tutor]
Writing: Crafting Native-Like Texts and Emails with Langua's Help
Writing hasn’t been a priority for me since I haven’t really felt the need to improve it yet.
One exception was when I was messaging back and forth with the host of Spanish Hacks. For that, I also used the AI conversations in Langua.
What I love about it is how conversational the process feels. The AI tutor helped me draft and refine my texts until I was completely satisfied. You can speak or type your messages, and it’s a great way to learn how native Spanish speakers express themselves. It has helped me write everything from texts to emails, adjusting the tone to be as casual or formal as I want it to be.
I share more about my message-writing process in the post: 4 Steps to Crush Your Foreign Language Interview—Follow My Process.
What’s My Current Level After 3 Years and 881 Hours?
Dreaming Spanish has a “level indicator” based on the hours you’ve spent in the language. According to this, I’m at ‘Level 5’ out of 7, which says:
“You can understand native speakers speaking to you normally.”
I would say this is quite an accurate representation of my level right now. I don’t take it too seriously though. It’s just a fun gauge to follow as it gives you some kind of a goal to strive towards. It’s a nice feeling when you finally unlock a new level (gamifying things are always fun, aren’t they?)
If we’re using the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, I’d say I’m probably a strong B1. I’m hesitant to say B2 because I feel like it’s actually quite a high level. People often tend to overestimate their level, in my opinion.
But to be honest, it doesn’t really matter to me.
My level in the language isn’t what I care to measure, because my main motivation isn’t about how good I can get (although I’m not saying it’s completely insignificant). For me, there’s a much better indicator:
My enjoyment of the language.
The higher your level, the more you can enjoy the language. You can do more with it and understand things on a deeper level—whether it’s a conversation, a book, or a TV show.
And right now, I’m able to enjoy all those things with relative ease. It’s a very fun level to get to as things then start to really open up in the language.
To hear me speaking Spanish, check out the Spanish Hacks interview I did a few months ago. It should give you a good idea of where I’m at.
What's Next for My Spanish Journey?
A big change this year is that Spanish requires much less discipline than before. I’ve gotten used to doing certain activities in the language, whether it’s watching a certain TV show in Spanish, or just using it.
Because of this, for the past few months, I’ve become less rigid in hitting my 30 minutes of listening each day. It’s still part of my routine, but if I can’t reach it one day, I don’t stress about it. I think it was crucial to stick to this goal for the first few hundred hours because that kind of discipline is necessary until the language becomes a natural part of your life.
But it also depends on what your goals are.
For me, I never had a goal to get to a certain level in Spanish. My goal was just to have fun with it and get started. To see where this Spanish adventure would take me.
The goal doesn’t have to get to a near-native level. That takes a lot of time. The difference of being able to have a conversation about everyday life stuff and native level is a huge. We’re talking thousands of hours. There are a lot of meaningful levels before that.
And at my level right now, Spanish is already a meaningful part of my life. It has opened up doors and relationships that otherwise wouldn’t have. And I’ve been enjoying learning about the different cultures of Spanish-speaking countries.
As for the future of my Spanish—I honestly don’t know. It’s an unwritten chapter.
What I do know is that I’ll continue to carry the language and culture with me wherever I go. I’ll keep updating you on my progress!
Summary of all the Spanish Gear I’ve Been Using
Here’s a summary of all the resources I’ve been using to learn Spanish. Together, they cover all the needs I have in the 4 different areas of language learning. Of course, you don’t need to use all of these. Just pick the ones that best suit your goals and preferences.
Listening
Lingopie (← get to 73% off) - making watching TV shows a breeze with helpful dual-subtitle and lookup tools.
YouTube - Immersing and learning about different topics.
Dreaming Spanish - Learning by watching easy videos and keeping track of my listening progress.
Streaming platforms: Netflix, Max, and Disney Plus - to immerse in dubbed versions of TV shows.
Express VPN (← get up to 61% off) - Unlocking tons of immersion content on various platforms.
Reading
Speaking (and Writing)
Langua (← create a free account to try it out + use code LINGTUITIVE20 to get 20% off any annual plan ) - Practice speaking anytime, anywhere with the incredible AI tutor, and get help refining your writing.
LanguaTalk (←try a free 30-minute trial lesson) - Practicing conversations with top-quality tutors.
Related Posts:
How good is my Spanish after 1 Year? (An honest progress update)
Everything You Need to Know About Langua [the most human-like AI tutor]
I Used Lingopie for 73 Days [here’s what happened to my Spanish]
Lingopie vs. LingQ [Which Platform Suits Your Learning Style Best?]
9 Reasons AI Is the Fastest Way to Improve Your Speaking Fluency
4 Steps to Crush Your Foreign Language Interview—Follow My Process
How to Set Up Your YouTube Account for Language Immersion [Step-by-step guide]
‘The Blueprint to Spanish Fluency’ series:
