Hello everyone!
I'd like to share my learning journey with you all. I'm going to talk about my background and my learning approaches in Spanish (TL) and Japanese (TL).
Current levels: around A2 in Spanish and complete beginner in Japanese.
Background
Spanish
- 2005ish: Studied Spanish for 1-2 years (I forget hw long) in high school.
- 2020: Used Duolingo for about a year. Realized I was only maintaining my streak, so I stopped.
- 2023, April: Restarted Duolingo, current level is 35/129.
- 2026, June: Textbook and associated resources
- 2026, July: Began watching comprehensible input via Dreaming Spanish.
Japanese
- 2008ish: Took 2 semesters in college.
- 2026, July: began watching comprehensible input.
My approaches to learning
Spanish
My approaches with Spanish have been varied, as you can see above in my background. I've used Duolingo, comprehensible input, and a textbook.
Duolingo (DL): Duolingo is how I got my foot into (re) learning Spanish. It has taught me quite a lot of vocabulary and some grammar. Although I have used it for over 3 years, my actual learning progress has been somewhat minimal. Quite a lot of that time has been maintaining my streak and not furthering my learning (i.e., review lessons instead of new information).
How I use DL: Whenever I hear a new word, I write it and the definition into a notes app on my phone (which I almost never review, but I think writing it down does help). I also translate or generate the sentence in my head before looking at the word options/answers it gives you. That way, I know it's recall, not just recognition.
Comprehensive input (CI): I'm currently at 28 hours in Dreaming Spanish. I am loving it. I mostly watch beginner videos, with the occasional intermediate video. My comprehension of the beginner videos is excellent (DL has taught me something). It is so fun and exciting to watch something in a completely different language and understand it!!
However, I recently watched a “what not to do” video and found out I have some bad habits:
The biggest one is translating in my head. I'll hear a new word and go “oh, that's [English word]”. This may be a habit from DL, which has you translate a lot.
Repeating new words to myself
Looking up new words in a translator
Why these are (potentially) bad habits: the CI approach aims to use the automatic side of your brain, not the “thinking part.” Translating is using the “thinking part” and, as such, is quite slow.
Regarding habits 2 and 3, with CI you should not worry about retaining individual words. Instead, you'll just absorb them through (lots of) repeated exposure. I can certainly see the rationale, as that's how we all learned to speak our native language. On the other hand, learning definitions of words has been the way I've learned so far, and it's pretty ingrained. I may still do this, but minimally.
Shout out to u/whosdamike whose detailed posts inspired me to add CI to my own learning.
Textbook: Before starting CI, I decided to take a Spanish class at the local university this fall. I tested out of Spanish 1. However, I worry I won't know something important, so I've been going through the textbook chapters that are covered in Spanish 1. This consists of me writing down a lot of vocabulary and their definitions (this time on physical paper). I also have the associated workbook, which has exercises, quizzes, and videos. I haven't gotten very far because it's not exactly fun to learn a list of words. I made some flashcards for Ch 1, and used them for all of one day. I'm only on Ch 2, out of the 5 I planned to cover before mid-August… yeah….
Japanese
My approach to Japanese so far is basically just comprehensive input, though I have been learning hiragana with DL and I did complete 1 whole lesson there.
After learning all the things I'm doing wrong with CI in Spanish, I thought it would be interesting to have a more “pure” CI experience with Japanese as a comparison (i.e., not mixed methods of learning - CI only). I've been watching the complete beginner videos from Slow Japanese with Yuki. I only have 1 hour so far (very, very early in my journey).
The videos are, expectedly, a lot more mentally taxing to watch than those for Spanish, as I know very little Japanese. I have found myself trying to associate (translate) the words I figure out with the English word… or the Spanish word. Trying to stop that and mentally imagine the word instead (e.g., visualizing a triangle instead of thinking the English word “triangle”). A related issue is that when Yuki asks a question, my brain answers in Spanish (brain: “Ok, not-English, I've got this!”). Hopefully this will lessen as I learn more Japanese.
What's fascinating though is I recognize some words immediately as words I learned back in university, ~15 years later! Yesterday I couldn't tell you what “look” is in Japanese, but after hearing it once today, I can.
Some words I can comprehend, but not reproduce. For example, Yuki asked which picture was the white dog, and I automatically knew which dog she was referring to, even though I can't tell you what the word “white” is.
Closing thoughts
I really like comprehensible input. It's a lot of fun and doesn't feel like “work”. However, at the moment work is quiet, so we'll see if I'm able to keep this up when things get busy again.
For Spanish, I'm also considering trying to read a “graded reader” book. Not sure if I'm ready for it yet, though.
I'm interested to see how learning 2 languages simultaneously will progress. I read a post that recommended you be around ~B1 in one before starting the second. I am not, though I'm also not a complete novice at Spanish. I'm prioritizing Spanish at the moment (~70 min a day, mostly CI, vs Japanese at ~20 min CI a day).
In all, I'm having fun and learning every day!
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