150 Hour Update!
Level 3! I'm 1/10th of the way to 1500 hours! Lets gooooo!
I know many folks wait 1-5+ hours before making their Level 3 progress report. Well,
I wanted to buck the trend and post my progress report 1 whole minute into level 3! Y'all, it feels good to finally be here!
If you're interested in my previous progress reports, here is my 50 hour update, and here is my 100 hour update from just 24 days ago! As you can tell, I've been grinding out the last 50 hours this month.
The last 50 Hours:
The last 50 hours have been really productive, but I've also noticed some things I need to also need work on.
For hours 100-125, I was still working on sorting Beginner videos by easy. While I felt it was good to build that foundation of easier videos, by 120h the videos started to get way too slow and my attention/motivation started dropping off. Videos in the 35-40 rating zone started becoming nearly 100% comprehensible, and the pacing of the videos started to cause nightmares for my ADHD. I would find myself drifting off and daydreaming or picking up my phone more often than not. After some great advice, I started to get pickier with my content and picked up more difficult beginner videos that seemed more interesting.
During hours 125-130, I tested the waters with Espanol con Juan's A2, Peppa Pig and Bluey. While they were far more comprehensible than when I was at 99h, they still felt a little too out of reach. However, during this time, I finished up the Cuentame Podcast and started on Chill Spanish Listening Practice. Both have been fantastic resources to add 45m-1h of listening during my commutes and work lunch.
In the last 20h, I have gotten about 75% of the way through Chill Spanish, and have noticed in the last week that although it's about 90-95% comprehensible, it's becoming easier to listen to it in the same ways I listen to native English content. New words don't trigger my internal translation nearly as much and can guess them out when in context.
Where I'm at now:
I still have 420 videos of Beginner left. Most videos rated in the 40s are becoming clear and don't take much mental effort. Plus, the Espanol con Juan A2 playlist is starting to open up for me. Some of the harder Beginner content is still hit-and-miss, but I have so much left that it's not much of a worry. I can also tell that visual aids are far less needed, so I feel confident diving into easier intermediate content.
I've also noticed:
- Nouns and Verbs are becoming understandable much more quickly now.
- Conjugations are starting to come into focus. I'm getting better at understanding -o, -a, -amos ect much easier.
- Adverbs are getting easier. Entonces and Bastante are there for sure, and others are well on their way.
Where I'm going:
At 200h, I plan to dive back into the world of Bluey and more cartoons in Spanish. I also plan around this point to do fewer and less Beginner videos and mainly focus on intermediate. By this time, I should be all finished with Chill Spanish and moved onto El Dia en Espanol and/or well as sorting in more Spanish After Hours, Extra en Espanol, and other beginner/low-intermediate Youtube Content.
At 200h, I plan to dive back into the world of Bluey and more cartoons in Spanish. I also plan around this point to do fewer and fewer Beginner videos and mainly focus on intermediate ones. By this time, I should be all finished with Chill Spanish and moved on to some harder podcasts. I'm thinking that El Dia en Espanol or more ECJ is next up.
My worry for this next level is with getting bored and losing focus. I can now comfortably get 2h of listening practice each day, which is great for my year-end goal of 600 hours. However, I want to make sure that time is quality input, which has not been so great lately. I think that having good variety in content and faster-paced content will help, but I also want to stay motivated during this next phase. Any tips from fellow ADHD/Autistics would be much appreciated.
That's all for now. See you all for my 300h level 4 update!
Posted Mar 30, 2024, 4:55 PM UTC