Dreaming Spanish is one of the best things that ever happened to the Spanish learning community 🧡 I love seeing how far Pablo has already come with his vision!

Thank you so much for this video! ❤ we are working even more on the super beginner videos to make them more entertaining, engaging and fun! Congrats on your journey! 🎉❤

I credit Dreaming Spanish with opening my mind to just how humans learn languages. Pablo has a winning model.

I'm only at 300 hours. I look back at my first few hours of Dreaming Spanish and understanding barely anything at the SuperBeginner level despite having studied basic grammar and vocabulary before. Now, I am quite comfortable watching intermediate and sometimes advanced videos that have easy topics. Still can't understand full native content yet, but the progress I have made without resorting to translation, vocabulary drills, or grammar study is incredible. This is truly the future. Can't wait for 1000 hours and when I finally start speaking. At first, I had a lot of doubts about the process and if language acquisition was legit, but in hindsight I can clearly see the massive difference in comprehension just by me listening to comprehensible content. Hope more people realize this and refrain from traditional study methods.

Thank you for making this video! I am so glad our videos have been helpful to you! This is amazing feedback and we will definitely use it to keep improving :) Good luck with your Spanish learning journey!!!

Great review Matt. I am closing in on 1100 hours but have yet to make any effort to practice speaking but I experienced something last week that proved to me that this method works. My family and I were in Barcelona last week at La Sagrada Familia when we were notified that my daughter had passed out due to hypoglycemia and that we needed to go to the medic station. I was able to understand everything the medic was telling me and was able to speak to her in Spanish without too much difficulty. I know that I made mistakes but I am confident that I will improve once I begin to practice speaking. Keep up the great videos and congratulations on the growth of your channel.

This the the superior method for learning Spanish. I stared from close to zero and now I am understanding the advanced content. Still not speaking very much but that is OK, it will come. There is a lot of satisfaction that comes from increasing you comprehension, it happens so slowly but eventually you get there.

I just hit 64 hours of Dreaming Spanish. I can see my progress already!

Feel like for language learners, spending money is for convenience of time and planning, while doing things for free is more effort to set things up and have a self-service game plan. As well as ads. So it’s up to the learner what they’re willing to do.

Dreaming Spanish is definitely on my recommendation list, along with Spanish Playground, How to Spanish, Easy Spanish, and many others. This is based on Steven Krashen's hypotheses, which are themselves based on children's first language acquisition. I've seen some criticisms about Dreaming Spanish not explicitly teaching grammar, but if you think about how you acquired your mother tongue, did you have to learn grammar as a toddler? Probably not, but when we do start learning grammar of our mother tongue in school, it might be way easier than learning the grammar of a language we're unfamiliar with.

I have to credit Pablo and Dreaming Spanish with really sending my language learning journey to a new level. Just a wonderful resource. I'm not a 100% sure learning some grammar, etc. isn't a faster method for adults to learn, but regardless receiving loads of input is undeniably key to the process.

I’m at 300 hours and I absolutely love Dreaming Spanish. I used to study with traditional methods and while I made progress, I was still translating like crazy like you mentioned. My comprehension has skyrocketed since using it. Pretty much, it’s only a matter of time until this goes mainstream so I’m glad you’re contributing to spreading the word! Also, self promo: I just released a comprehensive crosstalk tutorial over in my page. So if you’re already an intermediate DS user come and check that out!

I was about 1.5 years in my Spanish journey in 2021 and still at a struggling A2 level. Then I signed up for DS and after about 9 months I was solidly intermediate. It was like rocket fuel. But there's still a huuuuuge gap between the advanced videos and native content. That's my main gripe. It's worth every penny. I would download the audio of every video and listen to them over and over. If I could go back I probably would've used the Refold Spanish Anki deck and DS together to really accelerate my Spanish. It's not pure comprehensible input but I find some methods of study are like steroids for immersion. The ALG approach can sometimes be a bit self righteous that nothing works but pure comprehensible input.

Great review! Just started Dreaming Spanish. LOVE IT! Videos are engaging and fun. DS is a breath of fresh air. I've never felt so satisfied with a spanish learning resource. Also highly recommend to anyone to watch Pablo's videos explaining comprehensible input

A great review of DS! ❤

I'm going to have to watch this through when I get back home. I've been using Dreaming Spanish for a while now and I see so much improvements in my understanding it's crazy!

Comprehensible input is very cool, especially when you get the "lightbulb" moment. There's not as much of it for Icelandic, but I managed to cobble together enough resources that I've gotten to around a B2-C1 by just listening, watching and reading. Thanks for the excellent video!

Matt, this is a wonderful outline of Dreaming in Spanish. I am much earlier in the journey than you are. I first came across Alma doing her Pablo and Elisa series, which I loved when I was starting out and then through her I came to dreaming in Spanish. I am really surprised that you have advanced so far and done so much time without speaking. Even if that works my personality would not permit me to do that. For better or for worse I do trust in the process but I still feel the urge to "taste stuff as I am cooking". I am very keen to hear what your experience is like when you start talking.

Highly appreciate your video tysm for sharing

Great video. I am loving dreaming Spanish

Dreaming Spanish is the best thing to happen to language learning. Im almost at 800 hours and i only started last August. And that's after making basically no progress for 3 years using duolingo so I'm so grateful I found DS!

I'm up to 216 hours on Dreaming Spanish and it's been great. One thing to note is that the majority of the super beginner and beginner videos are free, so you can get pretty fair before really needing to subscribe. And the price is extremely low. I'd say most people will need the site for no more that 2 years. That's less than $200 for learning a language.

Brilliant video, Matt. I am considering learning Spanish at some point in the future, and I have been wondering how good DS is. Thank you so much for making this wonderfully informative video .😊

Thanks for the website review. I agree with pretty much everything from watching the youtube videos. I will say that I try to spend 10-20% of my Dreaming Spanish time watching/listening above my level. I think it's good to pop into the higher levels to hear the increased speed. I also find that they are less scripted and so you learn a lot of common words that aren't used as often in the more scripted videos. These are the super useful but banal words that you wouldn't even think to learn or teach someone but that are used constantly to move a story or a sentence along. Plus it's just good to pique the vigilance every so often.

Dreaming Spanish is great! I used the Refold 1K deck, Dreaming Spanish, and some graded readers and my understanding of Spanish has proved drastically while not really having to “put in much effort” (explicit studying) because of how the series are structured. I am now breaking into native content (Netflix dramas) and having a lot of fun! Agustina is the best!

Great review! I'm closing in on 250 hours and your review tracks with my experience so far. I am so thankful that I stumbled upon Dreaming Spanish. I am now in the intermediate level videos and can mostly follow them. I find Pablo's videos on the process of language learning to be quite helpful and very interesting. Like you say in your review, you sort of have to trust the process, but there's a lot of research backing up this particular method of language learning (Stephen Krashen's theory of comprehensible input, etc.). Plus, Pablo used this approach when he successfully learned the Thai language, so he has first-hand experience to back up the research. It was interesting to hear your take on which videos to watch, as well. I'm watching *all* the videos, but when I eventually begin to speak I'll probably have to pick an accent (at least I think so). The most logical choice for me, as an American, is probably the Mexican accent, but honestly, I'm in 😍with the sound of Rioplatense Argentine Spanish. But, the most important thing is I'm enjoying the journey. Thanks for your excellent review.

Dreaming Spanish is excellent Thankypu for the video

Tambien he usado Dreaming Spanish como mi recurso principal para aprender el español, y tengo que decir que definitivemente ha sido mi recurso favorito. A mi me gusta mucho Dreaming Spanish y funciona muy bien.

Dreaming Spanish is an incredible source of learning Spanish language. I'm so grateful to Pablo and his team for my progress!❤❤❤

I'm starting to dip my toes into it a bit and find it quite fun. Sometimes I even forget it's in Spanish. I've been considering getting the premium, you may have convinced me!

I wish this was available in more languages, it sounds fab

I’ve been a premium member of Dreaming Spanish since February 2022 and I feel like these guys are my friends. Pablo is so passionate about teaching this CI method and it definitely WORKS!

Thank you so much for this overview. I'm a paid user but had been using a separate spreadsheet to track other activities. I will definitely start to use the dashboard for tracking everything else in one place from now on. Great tip!

Excellent and fair review. Pablo and company set the gold standard for comprehensible input. I am at 220 hours and I know the method really works. I can listen to intermediate podcasts (e.g. Espanol con Juan) easily.

Great feedback. Having the freedom to listen and trust you are learning is great and you will. That being said, I hope there are assessments available after you pass the watch hour markers. Trust but verify is my mantra. 2) Other tools provide you with the speaking practice and I take advantage as I now speak to as many native Spanish as I can. In the US, Spanish speakers seem to light up by just saying the most basic phrases. I try my best to practice more phrases instead of individual words to avoid overly translating. 3) Dreaming Spanish on KZfaq has advantages that the platform alone lacks. Mostly that you can exchange ideas and ask questions on YT. I read comments now and respond in Spanish even if I make a few errors. Another example, is when Agustina de Argentina pronounced la playa as "la plasha" I laughed when I figured out it was her form of Spanish in Argentina to just say, the beach. Thanks again. Am following

Awesome, thanks so much for reviewing this, do you know if there are other sites like this for other languages?

I took 3 years of Spanish in high school (1962-1965). I couldn't speak it and never used it much. Then in 2020 I watched some INT/ADV videos at Dreaming Spanish -- and I understood everything! I have no explanation. It's not expensive -- it's worth the monthly subscription, even if you only watch a couple videos a week -- and stopping a subscription is super-easy.

I’ve been waiting for someone to review this as I’m only 30 hours in so far. Thanks for the video!! How is your confidence with grammar? I’ve been thinking of maybe doing some grammar work on the side to maybe speed things up a bit.

I randomly saw the thumbnail for this video and thought to myself there’s no way someone thinks they’re a waste of time… glad to see it was an endorsement of DreamingSpanish. I only came across them a couple of weeks ago, but the videos they have are extremely interesting and a good tool for Spanish learners. My level is an intermediary level but I can only imagine what it’s doing for beginners.

I'm still waiting for a negative review on comprehensible input (in general) by anybody, but there doesn't seem to exist any. I just passed 100 hours at Dreaming Spanish, and I'm FAR from over the chock that it actually works. Not that any other method has worked for me, but still. I looked up the first videos again (sorted by difficulty), just listening to what they said, and not watching the screen at all. There were a few occasional words I still didn't understand, but not many. The strangest thing though, was that I now noticed several phrases which had been there all along (like "pues si"), but which hadn't even registered the first time. It wasn't even sounds in the beginning, it was just noise that my brain filtered out while waiting for something to understand. Really weird feeling.

Dreaming Spanish is great. It might be my favorite Spanish resource overall - it's helped my listening comprehension a ton, and a chunk of my vocab has come from there. But I don't agree with the idea of using it alone, without bothering to study vocab/grammar/etc. separately, which is what they recommend on their website. Some of the other comments here have people saying they've been using Dreaming Spanish alone, for hundreds of hours, and still can't speak at all. I'm about ~300 hours myself into my studies, but with a combination of Dreaming Spanish and traditional studies, and I'm semi-conversational now. Meaning I can and do speak with native speakers about far more than just "hello, how are you" - albeit I currently need them to slow down to about a "Dreaming Spanish intermediate level" speed so that I can understand everything (fixing that part is my goal now :)). I can read/write more-or-less fluently, understand all the main grammar including the subjunctives, etc. Kinda at this point now where I'm just practicing speaking/listening faster, and filling in gaps in my vocabulary and set phrases. Hoping to get to a point next year where I can say "yeah I'm conversationally fluent." So I suppose my point is 1. Dreaming Spanish is amazing, but 2. using it alone without any other resources is going to take twice as long. Unless you have unlimited time, it makes sense to do whatever's going to get you to fluency the fastest.

I love Dreaming Spanish! I'm a high school Spanish teacher who spent 15 years in Venezuela, so I'm pretty fluent. However, I still love to watch/listen because I can hear the different accents, vocab, and grammar. Also, I get lots of ideas for my students!

Great stuff Matt, I am trying to start CI with Chinese.

Dreaming Spanish is easily one of the best tools to use when learning Spanish! My Spanish learning journey has improved show much since I started using dreaming Spanish.

Matt, have you found any other resource in other languages that are as close to Dreaming Spanish as possible? Meaning ones that have something like their Super Beginner and Beginner content? All the comprehensible input i’ve seen are usually just in intermediate levels and up.

3:57 I developed a website that used the KZfaq API and I can't remember if it was a youtube restriction or a browser restriction but you can't trigger autoplay automatically on mobile.

Do they have resources and videos for Costa Rican or just Tico Spanish?

Hi! Great video! You posted this 10 months, have you started speaking yet? I’m curious to know how this approach leads on the speaking 😊

2:30 - LOL, every video on DS! I have thought about something like this too, but then I realised that it's literally impossible, since they add 3 new ones a day. (OK technically it's possible if you watched 6 a day, you could catch up but it would take 3 years haha.) The thing you described about "Coma tus fresas" - yeah... weirdly, I think your brain makes the "switch" earlier for a third language than it does for a second. For example, it was a while before I was able to hear something in Swedish and just think "Well I don't agree because blah blah blah..." (without thinking about it being in Swedish), but it happened after like a month in Spanish. (Yes my Spanish was better after a month than my Swedish was, but my brain also seemed much more ready to just "go with it".) The thing I rate about DS is that they DO talk about every day stuff. My own Swedish could use something like "Dreaming Swedish" because my comprehension of time of death and murder weapon is much better than my comprehension of the things that Swedes actually talk about which is how nice each other's apartments are and when the next kanelbullar break is. Another great video!

I started with more of a refold / lingq approach, got burnt out, took a break, and then rediscovered Dreaming Spanish. It’s so easy and enjoyable. 10/10 would recommend!

I really like Espanol con Juan as well!

Ok u convinced me

Awesome. What do you think it will take for you to start speaking? Just more experience or try to pratice?

Does listening to a video while your at work count, or do you have to be focused on it and not just having it blaring into your ear with earbuds while you’re doing other things?

Great review! Agreed on all points. Like you I'm also trying to watch all the European Spanish videos and am about half way through (excluding Advanced). I've been aware of DS for a while but only started using it as my primary source back in March. I combine it with Español con Juan's videos and podcasts and am getting close to 400 hours and the progress I'm noticing is great. We had a call with Jonathan Tetteh a couple days ago and he inspired me to go further, and your videos also help remind me to get my daily input. I'm still debating whether to get some bone conduction headphones like the Shokz OpenMove pair you recommended, or some wireless neckband earphones, gonna have to go find a shop that has a demo because I really can't decide haha.

I don't know if it's just me but I noticed I don't really improve fast when I just count on comperhension input. I love DS videos and I make sure to watch them everyday cause they're really fun and I can pick up some useful phrases but I noticed when I learn thro reading or by memorizing phrases I learn WAY TOO FASTER. I still find it cool that there's some people out there want you to enjoy your journy learning their langugae!

8 months later, I have several updates from my own experience. I now have 820 hours of input, a lot of that from podcasts alongside DS. I'm back in Spain and I can understand most native speakers if they speak directly to me, but I know this will improve as I approach 1000 hours. As for Dreaming Spanish itself, the website has gone from strength to strength, they have new hosts, some are hilarious, and new editors and content quality. Seriously, some of the most recent videos are like professional short films. I'm now listening 2 hours a day, and hope to reach 2000 hours by the end of 2025. I'm just on the edge of being able to watch native media, and am slowly adding reading into my study, which helps a lot when preparing to speak.

I'm at 300 hours, i've gone from fear, drop and roll when a Spanish person talked to me to actually being able to understand them if they speak slowly.

What are thoughts on watching spanish content (eg. spanish netflix ) with spanish sub titles??? I know in a recent video from Pablo he was against this (turn it off). But I like making the connection with the spoken word with the written word in my brain (make sense??).... especially when they are speaking faster than I can comprehend?? Also have you started using Chat gpt in anyway yet on your spanish learning journey??? Perhaps future video on your thoughts here?? Thanks for your content!

The idea makes sense, and I like your pointing out that getting in a few extra minutes a day. I got started on the timer today. I don't think you realize, though, that you have a head start on most of us because you have at least one relative that you spend time around who speaks Spanish. I suspect you'd heard her tell your niece other things, giving you bonus listening you hadn't even thought of. I'm not as interested in the Spain version of Spanish (vosotros) because the vast majority of Spanish speakers don't use it. Mexico alone has more than 2 1/2 times as many speakers as Spain. Living in the U.S., I'm more likely to run into the other kind of Spanish.

I've tried to learn Spanish by studying long lists of vocabulary, doing grammar practices, and other boring stuff. I made 0 progress. Then I decided that the best way to learn it is in the same way that I learnt English (it's my second language) - by immersing myself in the language. I'm only 15 hours in (tbh Duolingo & listening to Spanish music helped me a lot), and I can understand almost everything that is said in intermediate videos :)

Me: *minding my own business* Phone: *Notification that Matt made another video* Me: *sigh* Guess I’ll finish this other thing I’m doing later. 😆

Wish i was learning spanish!

I’m convinced

can you Download only the audios? And can you pay by creditcard?

1:58 Yes I know what you mean. There are times when I stop a DS vid and rewind because my brain heard English. I know the DS speech is all in Spanish, checking confirms that I watched in Spanish, but I swear I heard English. This is at 170 hours of DS input.

Do they have transcripts of the audio that you can read?

I wish they had something similar like this in Italian to learn.😢😢😢

I would be interested to see results of people's conversational level that have clocked lots of hours of listening. No doubt you will improve your comprehension listening a lot, but I feel like there are gaps in the equation. If you are not also practicing consistently speaking, you are not using your mouth, tongue, cheeks to produce the sounds you need for spanish. They are muscles that need to be exercised in order to have good pronunciation. Just listening eliminates the very human side of speaking a language. We get nervous when we speak, we can't pronounce the words that are pronounced perfectly "inside our head", we freeze up and can't find the words. It's unlikely that most of the vocabulary that you understand perfectly while listening, will just hang out in your brain, until you are ready to use it, and then magically be remembered when you need it. To speak well, you have to practice that skill. O sea, si quieres comunicarte bien, es sumamente importante practicar esa habilidad

come one man do another update on this!

I'm happy to subscribe for $8 a month just to support Pablo in this fantastic effort!

I misread the title as Dreaming of Spinach which I believe is a bad thing btw

"All of the language" is quite a bold claim. There are literally words in my native language that I don't know the meaning of.

I've watched a lot of the free videos, and they arr definitely an enjoyable way to learn. My only complaint is that he often tries to convince you that input is the best and only way to learn, and you should not even try anything else. That always makes me skeptical.

ds is good I understand pretty much everything but i am lacking on speaking and writing yet doing nothing about it

Did you mean that you finished all the super beginner videos in Spain Spanish, then Latin spanish, and continued for each level? Or did Spain spanish all the way to the end, and then did some advanced Latin spanish?

¿Y cómo es posible que no nos conozcamos todavía?

Are you fluent now? How long have you been at it?

Well, my target language is French, but when I switch gears to Spanish in 2027 then I'll be sure to hop on this. Too bad there's no Dreaming French.

How and when does one jump from watching these videos to speaking???

I'm a new premium member of Dreaming Spanish. I had high school Spanish 67 YEARS ago. I live in So Calif so I hear it almost every day. Definitely a beginner now. I tried at the Super Beginner level, but found most of the presentations completely annoying. Since they can't deal with a lot of words, they comically exaggerate their voice, their pronunciation, their gestures and their drawings. It was so distracting, I wasn't really getting the words all that well. I switched to Beginner. Far less animated presentations and more words and concepts to deal with. I missed some, but that's OK as I can easily rewatch a video. I find it helpful to watch all the presenters/teachers/whatever they call them. Some I can easily relate to and understand. Some I can't understand as well. And some I don't relate to well enough to want to watch them. Just like in real life. Try different ones. You need to be able to understand different voices, but in the beginning, you just need to understand. I like several, but I think it's fair to say I have favorites ( Michelle, Agustina, Andrea). They're all very professional so it's just a matter of finding a face and a voice you want to spend hours and hours with. Again, just like real life. Thanks for the videos Matt. Your interview with Dr Jeff McQuillan was outstanding. You're a very good interviewer with insightful questions that really bring out the best in your subject. That seemed to be apparent to Dr. McQuillan as well as you both had good chemistry.

How did you find cross talk partners?

I don’t understand why one doesn’t just watch KZfaq videos and track their progression themselves?

How many hours is he doing everyday did anyone get what he is doing

¿Por qué el título tan negativo? ¿Alguna vez alguien ha sugerido que Dreaming Spanish es una pérdida de tiempo? Me suena mejor "¿Dreaming Spanish vale la pena?". Suena menos irrespetuoso. Pero bueno!

Are clickbait titles a waste of time? Twelve minutes later: Answer is no!

Hearing people say they made progress after 100, 600 or even 1000 hours is hilarious. Of course you made progress!! You put 100s of hours of your life into it. Imagine if you spent even half that time studying, how much more you would have learned.

Your brother in law’s wife is your sister in law.

Dreaming spanish is not enough to understant language and speak correctly.

The spanish is a little romance language. Pronunciation is a lot easier than English

Dreaming Spanish is great. But…. @1:30 “Your brother-in-laws wife”……Wouldn’t that just be your sister?

Is this an ad?

I wish there were a Dreaming Spanish alternative for Latin American Spanish ...

But can you speak??

I'm just going to say this, why? Isn't the whole idea of MIA to get natural/normal and untainted input? Because I know when I talk to someone that doesn't know English that I speak slower use less advanced words, and speak very unnaturally, so why would you want to speak/hear like that? I have heard a graded English speaker and it felt like nails on a chalk board, so I would say just don't fall into this trap. (Also an instance of a channel that has graded English speakers is ENGLISH CRUNCH, Compass publishing, And I'm sure they don't get much better.) Basically what I'm trying to say is to at least try to grow a pair and watch some hard content, I did so and the reward was great because I have content that isn't "Asking for direction at Red Square" I can just click on a video, I think more people should at least try to listen to that harder content even if it's only passively.

Their advance level videos are slower than dele A2 beginner audios. Don’t see how it’s helpful

So you understand it but dont speak it. Seems half ass. The goal is to talk too.

If I am supposedly your friend and you tell me you need to borrow five hundred dollars and I give you five dollars did I really help you? Spoiler alert!!! Most KZfaq sites are not going to help you do anything meaningful, but there job is to convince you that they are the exception.

I don't care how great the system is ,the clips are so fff annoying. Plus you should be fluent after a year