Yesterday Michael and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for 18 guests, all but two of whom were native Spanish speakers. And the two who were not native? They’re pretty much fluent. And guess what? I was able to follow nearly every conversation. Whether we were talking about the differences between buying a home in Spain versus the US, choosing to have a child as a single woman, the origins of Thanksgiving or how Michael and I chose to move to a town of 5000 that most Americans have never heard of–I was part of it all.

Sure, I’ve worked hard on learning Spanish. But I’m not sure I ever would have gotten here had it not been for my dear husband, Michael. About a year after moving to Spain, Michael–a connoisseur of YouTube videos–sent me a video he stumbled upon about learning languages via “comprehensible input.” 

The theory is this: we should learn a second language the way we learned our first.

• We listened for a year (or more) before we ever spoke a word. 
• When we started speaking, we did so only in short sentences, and still spent a ton of time listening.
• Reading? We didn’t start doing that until we were five years into our language learning process.
• Writing? Five years.
• And grammar? Seven years when I started learning the basics. I didn’t learn what a preposition was until sixth grade (now 12 years in!).

So according to believers of comprehensible input, teaching a language by first giving a student a textbook full of grammar lessons is completely backwards. And an excellent way to make them lose interest–fast. 

So the theory is that we should start our language learning journey by listening–A LOT. And everything we listen to (and, eventually, read) should be comprehensible.

How is it possible to comprehend anything in a foreign language when you’ve never heard it before?

Well, remember when your parents read books to you? They pointed to the pictures while they told the story. Their facial expressions changed from excitement to fear to relief. You had the visuals to support the words you were hearing. So even if you didn’t understand the words being spoken, you got the message. 

This all sounded good to me except that the only things I could comprehend one year into my Spanish language learning journey were children’s books and cartoons. And most weren’t that interesting to me.

And herein lies the other (if not most) important part of comprehensible input: the “input” should be enjoyable.

You’re less likely to stick with it if the material you are taking in is not interesting to you.

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Twenty years ago, during my travels, I began taking an informal survey. If I met a foreigner who spoke English, I’d always ask how they learned it. Their first answer was always, “We learn it in school.” 

“Most Americans learn a language in school, but can’t speak it as adults,” I’d counter. And then I’d tell them this joke that I first heard in Switzerland:

• What do you call someone who speaks three languages?
• Trilingual
• What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
• Bi-lingual
• What do you call someone who speaks one language?
• American

Shared laughter is an excellent way to break the ice. It’s then that I’d get the real answers. Yes, there were the people who had studied abroad in an English speaking country. And then there were the Scandinavians, who explained that their movies weren’t dubbed, so they learned that way.

But recently, answers have been more along the lines of: 

• “I watch a lot of YouTube videos about (insert topic) and most of them are in English.” 
• “I wanted to watch (insert TV show) and it was only on Netflix in English.”
• “I love video games and in order to play any of the ones from the US, I had to teach myself to read English.”

All of these people had something interesting to them through which they learned the language. 

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As a teacher who quickly learned that studying Spanish in a language school in Spain was not going to work for me, this new take on language acquisition was fascinating. And I wanted to test the theory. 

It was then that I remembered hearing an expat tell me about the Dreaming Spanish website. So I went to check it out and . . . jackpot!

Here was a Spaniard who had lived in Finland, the US, Thailand, and Japan; he told stories about his life and travels as well as how he learned English, Japanese, Thai, and now Chinese using comprehensible input. I could understand his beginner level videos thanks to the visuals he used–a calendar when he referred to a month, a year, a period of time; a page of images of fruits and vegetables whenever he spoke about eating or a specific food; a map of the world to show going from one place to another; simple whiteboard drawings of animals, family structures, a hospital, a school as he shared stories about his childhood, his travels, and life in various countries. 

On the same site, Alma’s videos taught me about her childhood in Spain, her life as an au pair in England, her not-so-great experience ordering cosmetics online, and . . . and. . . I don’t even remember, but she always kept me entertained. 

Eventually I was able to understand intermediate level videos on the site. That’s where I “met” Sandra–she’s a native Spaniard who is now a nomad. From her videos I learned about teaching in China, traveling in Turkey, holiday customs in Spain. 

Up until this point, all the videos I watched were completely free. But once I realized I’d watched nearly every free video of interest to me, I committed to subscribing for $8 per month–which gave me access to hundreds more of their videos and to a new video in each level every day. 

Someone told me about Español con Juan on YouTube. The first time I watched his videos, I had no idea what was going on and quickly turned them off. But a few months after starting my comprehensible input journey, I found him endlessly entertaining.

I really enjoy learning about how people learn languages so I started listening to podcasts – in Spanish- about learning languages. 

My comprehension kept growing.

Now that I could watch and understand much of the highest level of content on Dreaming Spanish (and was running out of content that was of interest to me), the next step was to find content for native Spanish speakers (as opposed to content specifically made for language learners). I found a Spanish YouTuber who talks about all things related to the Camino de Santiago. And then I branched out: I now listen to interviews between two Spaniards. About the Camino, of course. 

Thanks to conversations with my Argentinian friend Kitty and listening to another Argentinian on the Dreaming Spanish site, I now know the differences in pronunciation in Argentinian Spanish and can listen to Argentine-produced content. Which was great when I came across a YouTube channel on  simplicity and minimalism–two topics I love–produced by a young Argentine. I added her content to my growing list of places from which I could get “comprehensible input.” 

I’m now 30 months (2.5 years) into my Spanish language learning journey. But, according to the comprehensible input believers, it’s not years or months that should be measured. (After all, how many of us have had “years” of learning a language and can’t speak it?)

Instead, we measure hours of input (i.e. listening and eventually reading and/or conversing). 

I’ve listened to 887 hours of Spanish content in the last 934 days. Initially I could only do 20-30 minutes per day and understood based on the images rather than the words being spoken. Now I aim for 2 hours per day and can listen while cooking, cleaning, or going out for a walk.

I no longer choose medical professionals based on their ability to speak English. I know enough Spanish to follow them. In fact, a few weeks ago I accompanied Michael to a medical appointment. After the doctor spoke, I wasn’t sure if Michael understood everything, so I told Michael what I’d heard. “Are you the translator?” the doctor asked. Highest compliment I’ve received yet!

Last week, I went to the dentist and understood almost everything he said to me the first time he said it.

The next day I spoke with an Italian pilgrim for a half-hour because, much to my delight, Italian and Spanish are close enough that we can understand each other speaking only our own languages!

There is a theory that if you start taking even the smallest possible steps towards your goal, the world will open up in ways you never imagined to help you reach that goal. As cheesy as some of you may think that sounds, I don’t care. I’ve seen it happen in my life over and over and over again. I spent years trying to figure out how I could legally move to Europe. Then I set a date and kept taking small steps. I never could have predicted a global pandemic would be the tipping point. 

So go ahead. Set a goal. You don’t need to know how you’ll get there. Just keep taking baby steps towards it. And then watch as something or someone (in my case, my husband) says, “Oh, that’s what you want? Here, let me help you with that. . . “

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For those of you that like dates and numbers, the Dreaming Spanish website has a tracker that I’ve found to be simple yet incredibly motivating. So a little number crunching. . .

Start Date	End Date	Days	Months	Average	Hours
May 15, 2021	August 15, 2022	468 days	15 months	20min/day	150 hours
August 16, 2022	January 15, 2023	153 days	5 months	1 hr/day	153 hours
January 16, 2023	September 10, 2023	238 days	8 months	1 hr 50″/day	435 hours
Sept 11, 2023	Nov 6, 2023	75 days	2 months	2 hr/day	149 hours
					887 hours

• In my first 15 months, before I discovered Comprehensible Input, I averaged about 20 minutes per day of Spanish practice. (150 hours)
• In August of 2022, I dedicated myself fully to Comprehensible Input (listening/watching only things that were interesting to me and that I could understand ). In the first five months, I committed to 1 hour per day. (153 hours)
• In January, 2023, I increased my goal to 2 hours per day. Most days I get there. There are definitely days I don’t. But if I average it? I’m right on target:)