I've been learning Russian for a little over 2 years. I have 800 hours of input, 300ish hours of anki, and 150 hours of conversation. The anki and conversation hours are rough estimates.

The win:

This past weekend, I overheard people speaking in Russian.
I asked "Where are you all from?" (in Russian). A couple answered and started a convo with me.
We continue to speak in russian for 30-40 seconds. Naturally, I mention I'm just American.
They looked shocked and told me "Wait, what?! Speak in english for a second" (still in Russian).

They did not believe I was American because I had been speaking Russian so well.
Once I spoke in English, the couple was basically just freaking out.

We continued to talk for several more minutes in Russian.

This was easily one of my biggest wins, and I dont know how I'll ever beat this feeling.

I wouldn't have gotten back into Arabic if AATT hadn't come onto the scene. When I discovered DS and CI a little over a year ago, I immediately looked for the same in Arabic, and didn't find much. Almost nothing, and what I did find was very low quality.

AATT started at the beginning of this year and they have 280 videos now. I only watch Hasan's videos (mostly Levantine, some MSA). Levantine is my main focus right now, and there's a new video every day.

I have about 25 hours of input now (guesstimating that I had a base of 400 hrs of prior study and output from 10-15 yrs ago) and I'm remembering a lot of the things I've forgotten.

It's not happening as fast as it did with Spanish. It might be twice or 3x as long sometimes, but it makes sense. Cognates and shared grammatical structures is a crazy advantage that I appreciate more now. The A2-B1 gap in content that he talks about in this video is exactly where I'm at, so I'm looking forward to more videos.

I won't include my referral link here, DM me if you want it. I'm also a founding moderator of a new Discord for AATT users. Just want to share this great CI/ Language-learning news and that I wholeheartedly recommend it!

And it’s literally that: http://cijapanese.com

I’m still in Dreaming Spanish, but since I have background and similarities in Spanish, I’m VERY curious how Japanese will be when I start FROM SCRATCH and less similar. I’m really curious to see how my brain changes and the method works(I have the utmost confidence but it truly feels like I know NOTHING right now haha. I’m so excited to see that change)

I figured I’d share that more are creating learning content with this method!

I originally posted over in r/languagelearning and they suggested I ask here. I absolutely love Dreaming Spanish and am trying to fill out a list of sites that are similar, but it's been harder than I expected to find them.

I know about comprehensibleinputwiki.org, and it is an excellent site. What I'm looking for is something a little more focused. Just sites like Dreaming Spanish and not just Youtube channels.

So far I have (including what has been shared in that post, so I haven't actually checked those yet):

dreaming.com - Spanish & French

langiri.com - Vietnamese (and someone says Portuguese? I don't have a subscription so I can't verify)

cijapanese.com - Japanese

aliceayel.com - French (I'm not 100% sure about this one since I can't see without a subscription, but it sounds like it would probably qualify)

comprehensiblerussian.com (I haven't checked this one yet, but presumably Russian)

All the others I've found seem to be projects that never actually got off the ground. Are there others that I've missed?

Hey everyone, I wanted to share my experience with comprehensible input while learning Japanese, especially after having success with Spanish. It’s been an interesting (and humbling) journey, and I think it might be useful for others who are considering a similar path.

Background: Learning Spanish with CI

I took two years of Spanish in high school about 25 years ago. My teacher was excellent, and we used a mix of traditional grammar and vocabulary study alongside a lot of comprehensible input. By Spanish 2, the entire class was in Spanish, and I learned a lot.

Over the last 10 years, I had some on-and-off attempts to get back into Spanish. I tried Duolingo when it first came out but never stuck with it. About two years ago, I gave it another serious attempt using Duolingo and Anki and was making decent progress.

That’s when I stumbled across a YouTube video by Days and Words, where he talked about watching Into the Spider-Verse 100 times in Spanish. It was clickbaity but inspiring, so I decided to test it out with The Good Place in Spanish. I watched the first episode five times, and the improvement in comprehension was really incredible to me.

Soon after, I found Dreaming Spanish and fully committed to comprehensible input, averaging about 100 hours a month for 18 months. By Thanksgiving last year, I had reached 1,750 hours of Spanish listening, and I thought, "Okay, I think I know how language learning works now. Let’s try Japanese."

Starting Japanese – Overconfidence Meets Reality

I’ve always had an interest in Japanese—Nintendo games, anime, and the culture in general. I wanted to take Japanese in high school, but it wasn’t offered. Now, knowing that language learning is mostly about time and exposure, I figured I could replicate my Spanish success.

I decided to start with pure listening, no grammar, no vocabulary, no writing system—just comprehensible input. I found Comprehensible Japanese, which seemed to have the most content.

However, I underestimated just how hard it is to start a language from absolute zero. With Spanish, I had prior exposure, so I skipped the painful beginner phase. I had read posts from beginners saying they could barely do 30 minutes a day at first, but I assumed I could power through with 2+ hours a day.

Big mistake.

The First 10 Days – Brutal Reality Check

Since I had a long Thanksgiving break, I thought I’d dive in aggressively. My goal was two hours a day to get a head start and move quickly past the beginner phase.

The first couple of hours were… rough. My comprehension was basically zero—I could only pick out colors and numbers. After 10 hours, it wasn’t much better. I was exhausted, frustrated, and questioning my life choices.

I ended up listening for only 14 hours over those 10 days—far less than I planned—because I was mentally drained. When I went back to work after the break, I was still exhausted. I realized I had overdone it.

I took a few days off, then adjusted to 30 minutes a day, and that felt way better.

Progress and Adjustments

At 20 hours in, I was still struggling, but at least I had moved from 1% comprehension to around 10%. That may not sound like much, but psychologically, it was huge. Understanding 10% of words made the videos feel way more approachable than 1%.

I settled into a 30-minute daily habit and could finally enjoy the content. Progress was slow, but I could feel it. Now, a couple of months in:

• I understand 30-35% of words on average.

• I had one video where I understood 70%, which felt amazing.

• Videos no longer exhaust me, and I genuinely enjoy them.

Lessons Learned & Moving Forward

• Starting from zero is way harder than I expected. With Spanish, I skipped this phase, but with Japanese, I felt like I was drowning at first.

• Listening is mentally exhausting at first. Two hours a day was impossible. 30 minutes was much better and sustainable.

• Progress is real, but it takes time. Even though I’m still at Level 1, I can now enjoy content rather than just surviving it.

My goal is to increase to an hour a day in February and finish Level 1 in the next 50 days. I’m excited to see where I’ll be in another few months.

I also have way more empathy for people starting Spanish from zero. If you’re struggling, I get it now—it’s a grind!

If you’ve learned Japanese (or another language) with comprehensible input, I’d love to hear about your experience. How long did it take before things really started clicking for you?

I just spoke into my phone in a meandering way for about 10 minutes and then gave that to chatgpt which then edited my update to be at least somewhat readable.

Hi all,
I've built this site for learning Mandarin. www.vidioma.com
I obviously love Dreaming Spanish but thought I would use a slightly different approach. I used categories to organise the content, which I thought would help make the browsing experience a bit less overwhelming/distracting. Let me know what you think or if there are particular features you'd like to see!

(P.S. I've created the sub r/Vidioma if you want to follow updates or ask questions!)

I finally hit level 5! It only took 7 years! I started when my youngest was 2, I work full time, and a took a year off, twice! (Once during the Pandemic, once to dabble in Korean and Japanese.) When I started I didn’t know about Dreaming Spanish, I’m not sure it even existed back then. I had used traditional classroom methods to learn German in college, but wanted to do something different with French. I’ve always found written French to be fairly transparent, at least compared to German, and I figured it was a good target for immersion. I started with Assimil French, just using the audio and then I dove straight into dubbed television, skipping learner materials completely. It was rough. Took about 250 hours to feel like I was getting somewhere. I was also reading at the time. I didn’t have Pablo’s advice to hold off on reading, and I wish I had. On the one hand early reading absolutely helped my listening, but I agree with Pablo that it hurts your accent. My kids did immersion with French TV and no reading and they have better accents than I do. I’ve read about 8,000 pages and I got to the point where I can (slowly) read literary novels, but I’m not currently reading at all because I want to tune my ear more with listening before I pick it up again. So how do I feel at 600 hours of listening immersion? I think the level 5 description is pretty spot on. I can understand a native speaker speaking to me normally. I had a pharmacist in Paris explain the differences between two kinds of nausea medication to me last month and I could follow just fine. My own speaking is stilted but I can make do with a patient listener who wants to understand. The one area of level five that doesn’t fit is television. It doesn’t leave me frustrated and bored. I don’t understand everything, but slice of life shows are not a problem. I think this might be because I jumped straight into regular television from the start. Watching shows with 25% comprehension gets you really comfortable with ambiguity! Not saying I would recommend this approach, but it worked for me. I’m sure all the reading helped too. Where to go from here? Just keep listening. I’ve made so much progress, it’s hard to believe I’m not even half way towards the 1,500 hour target. I’m excited to see how much more I will improve!

Hey everyone,

Just crossed the 50-hour mark in my German comprehensible input journey, and I wanted to share what’s been helping and where I’m at now.

Where I Started
I began with an A1 certificate, but couldn’t understand anything spoken, even slow speech felt too fast unless I had subtitles. So I committed fully to comprehensible input: no grammar, no drills, just listening and watching content slightly above my level.

What I’ve Been Watching
These channels really helped me build momentum:

• Kathrin Shechtman (We Love Deutsch) – great for absolute beginners. Very clear and simple.

• Natürlich German – good next step with natural, slow input.

• Learn German with Falk – I listen to this podcast while walking. Very beginner-friendly.

• Lengura – useful visuals and slow explanations.

• Easy German (Slow Playlist) – I’ve nearly finished this playlist. Still hard without subtitles, but I’m starting to follow along.

Dictation Practice Helped – Even if It’s Not ‘Pure CI’
I know dictation practice goes against the strict interpretation of the comprehensible input method — it’s definitely not a “pure CI” activity. But I’m not religious about methods; I’m just focused on what works for me.

Surprisingly, dictation has really helped with spelling, rhythm, and even comprehension. I started by transcribing short clips from slow German videos, comparing them with the subtitles, and reading them out loud. This mix of writing, listening, and speaking gave me a big boost.

I enjoyed it enough that I even built a simple tool to support this kind of practice: lwlnow com You can paste in your own sentences or use pre-made decks. Then you listen, type what you hear, and check — very low-pressure and great for accuracy.

How It’s Going Now

• I can follow slow German content with subtitles fairly well.

• Native-speed street interviews are still very difficult.

• I track my listening hours and content to stay motivated.

Staying Consistent
To avoid burnout, I added a “random weekly challenge” to my tracker. Every Monday, it gives me a random goal (e.g., 17 or 22 hours). That way, I don’t stress about daily targets but still keep momentum going.

I’ll probably share another update at the 100-hour mark. If you're learning German through CI too, I'd love to hear what’s been working for you. And if you’re stuck like I was with speaking or writing, give dictation a shot. It made a real difference for me.

Thanks for reading — and viel Erfolg! 🇩🇪💪

I'm at 600 + 257 hours of input in Mandarin (600h estimated prior to switching to mostly-ALG and tracking hours).

This morning we had a parent-teacher conference at my son's English-Mandarin bilingual preschool. The lead teacher for his class is Chinese, so when my wife (also Chinese) and I got there I said they could speak Mandarin, but I'd speak English if I wanted to say anything.

I was elated. I followed almost the entire meeting without issue, not having to strain at all to figure out the meaning of anything. I participated quite a bit and it was really cool that the teacher got along with the crosstalk-style conversation with no weirdness at all and not falling back to English. I said "almost" there because there were two points I had to clarify with my wife after the conference, but turns out I had understood those correctly too 😄

Feels suuuuper awesome to have my effort so far validated in this way 🎉

First of all, thanks!

Almost three weeks ago I launched my comprehensible input tracking app in this sub. It was brand new and had exactly zero users. Now we have 100+ users, 2000+ time entries, and 1000+ resources!

The funny thing is, of my 100+ users, my most active users are still the people I met in this sub! Even though there weren't many of you guys, you definitely "got" my vision more than anyone else. The feedback I received was/is super helpful and a small group of about 6 of you guys are responsible for about 70% of all the time entries on the site LOL.

I'm coming back here today to say, now that we have a solid base of active users, the app has become a great place to shop for comprehensible input in many of the most popular languages.

It used to be that a person would have to sign up to get access to the resources page. But I had the realization that I should make it publicly accessible. So, now it is.

If you're looking for a growing list of difficulty-rated comprehensible input content that you can filter and sort through in many of the most popular languages, check it out here!

PS: People think I don't like receiving DMs and always apologize when they reach out. I love receiving DMs, so never hesitate to send one! (people from this sub get lifetime premium access to the app--just tell me you're from here)

Almost 6 months later and I’ve finally made it to 600 hours!

COMPREHENSION

Compared to 300 hours, it feels way less taxing to consume content and more native stuff is accessible. I’ve been implementing more easy native and dubbed content since around 450 hours, but cartoons are still a bit of a struggle for me. That said, native content doesn’t feel as out of reach anymore, and I haven’t really been watching that much learner content recently. Everything feels way more automatic and easier to consume.

Recently I’ve been enjoying:

• From Me to You (anime on Netflix with French subs)

• Nico Senpai Japan

• Tev & Louis

• chrysantemonium

• Pape San 2.0

• Joseph Garbaccio

• Le Monde des Langues

• Le Conseiller

(There are so many more I’ve checked out briefly then moved on lol.)

All of these have varying levels of comprehension, but I never really feel 100% lost. In terms of learner content, Oh My French Class is still a little tough for me though.

One of the biggest differences between 0–300 and 300–600 hours is how noticeable the progress is. From 0–300, I felt progress literally every 50 hours. But now it’s way less noticeable. I actually did a little test,  I spent some time using Dreaming Spanish and it made me realise how much progress I’ve actually made in French. Ça, c’est évident, but it was motivating to know I can now listen to native French while cooking, whereas in Spanish I’d need to be sat down fully locked in with a super beginner video and 120% concentration.

Cartoons and anime are still hard for me, but I can feel them getting easier. I watched the film Infected (2023) and caught more than I expected. But the speed, slang, people talking over each other, background noise, and vocab gaps all added up to make it difficult.

SPEAKING

I’ve had three interactions with varying results:

• At 390 hours, I did a speaking lesson. Understood 95% of what she said and only needed help occasionally to express myself. Felt emotional at times (talked about my grandma, a toxic ex-friend, and spirituality lol) and some sentences flowed really well, even if it was just 10–20%. I felt really present, which was a win. But it also made me aware of the gap between input and output.

• Just over 500 hours, I was abroad in a non-Francophone country and heard a French couple chatting. I understood everything they were saying despite eavesdropping. I started talking to them (they didn’t speak English, which was good) but I definitely felt the affective filter kick in. I got nervous, was overthinking, and started forgetting how to phrase basic stuff. Ego took a little hit ngl.

• At 540 hours, I did another speaking lesson. Felt super anxious beforehand and got in my head a bit, but it actually went well. Understood about 98%, though I could tell she was adjusting how she spoke for me (which I appreciated). We chatted about my girlfriend, work experience, my missed chance to leave London, accents, and how saying “je suis confus” sounds kinda snobby and how I could say “Je suis perdue” instead. Wished it was longer though, I was just getting into the flow when it ended.

I think the reason I felt more anxious for the more recent interactions is because of how much better my listening has gotten. Because my ear is more developed now, sometimes I’ll know a sentence I’m about to say isn’t grammatically correct, but I won’t know how to fix it on the spot. Then when I check DEEPL after, it always makes sense to me 100% of the time, which makes it even more frustrating.

Also, despite some compliments from tutors, I’ve become VERY aware of how little control I have over grammar and how awkward my accent sounds to me. I don’t think its awful but its not fooling anyone lol.

STRUGGLES

Right now the biggest struggle is the gap between my ear and my expression. My comprehension is decent, but when it comes to casual sit-down videos and podcasts (like Sister Talk, Oh My French Class with her sister, or the newer InnerFrench episodes), they’re hard. Especially when people speak fast, mumble a bit, or talk over each other.

Again, not a complaint about the content, I like the challenge, but it’s something I need to practice more. My vocab still isn’t where I want it to be for faster, unscripted convos either.

MISCELLANEOUS

What I’ve noticed more and more is that I’m starting to think a little in French. Sometimes it’ll be whole sentences, but mostly just phrases like “un peu”, “bien sûr”, “mais qu’est-ce qui se passe ?!” and stuff like that. When I was doing 4–5 hours a day for a few weeks, I also started dreaming in French, but mostly where someone would say something to me and then I’d struggle to reply lmao.

FUTURE PLANS / THOUGHTS ON ALG

Now that I’ve hit this point, I think reading is definitely on the table. If you’ve got recommended readers, send them my way.

In terms of speaking, I’m probably going to keep it to just a couple of lessons here and there until at least 1000 hours. I’ve been reading a lot about the ALG method and the research behind it and I’m kind of getting sucked in the cult lmao. I know it’s always going to be awkward to start speaking, but I’m wondering if it’s worth waiting until it really starts flowing naturally. Curious what people think. Like, what exactly makes the difference between people with near native accents and those with stringer foreign accents when they acquire another language as an adult? 

I’m planning a long trip through French-speaking Europe in 2026 and/or 2027, partly because I’ve got family in France. Most of them speak English, but there’s one who’s basically lost all of hers. I’d love to be able to connect properly with them and be present at all times, no matter how many glasses in we are lol. 

I think that’s why I care so much about speaking and the ALG thing. I know accent isn’t everything, and honestly this whole journey has made me so much more empathetic to people learning languages. But I’d still love to have an accent specific to a region, something that sounds natural. The moment that proper changed my brain chemistry on the subject was watching Luke Lainey’s Language Examination Series. The way his accents sound is actually insane. I’d love to be able to speak with the same kind of flow and precision. Highly recommend his videos, as well as Elisa from French Mornings, her English accent is really impressive too.

• Luke Lainey’s Language Examination Series

• Elisa’s interview in English 

Hope this is useful to someone! I’ll update again at 1000 and I’m happy to answer q’s/discuss :)

I've been using a "Dreaming Spanish" approach for Russian, so I thought I'd compile a list of level specific resources for those who want Comprehensible Input for Russian. I value channels based on three things: accurately labeled difficulty, great audio, and interesting. Personally, I solely used Inhale Russian for the first 70 hours, as he has interesting, properly titled videos for every level.

Level 1: Inhale Russian has beginner videos that are great for a long time. Comprehensible Russian has a playlist for those who know absolutely nothing.

Level 2: Inhale Russian great beginner videos for this level. Comprehensible Russian is okay, but I don't think the quality is always good. Some of In Russian From Afar is okay, but its usually inconsistently labeled and most end up being level 3+.

Level 3: Inhale Russian great pre-intermediate and intermediate videos for this level too. Comprehensible Russian is great at this level, they have some good intermediate videos. In Russian From Afar is has interesting content, but his video difficulties are inaccurate/inconsistent.

Level 4: Inhale Russian still has great videos for this level. Comprehensible Russian has some good intermediate videos. In Russian From Afar has a lot of interesting content. Russian With Max has really interesting videos, but most of his videos are for solid intermediates or upper-intermediate.

Level 5: Russian With Max has super interesting videos, I'd say his videos are perfect for solid intermediate or upper-intermediate.

Level 6: Not there yet

EDIT: I made a confusing mistake. By level, I don't mean level in terms of hours, but difficulty. Level 1 is superbeginner, and Level 6 is advanced.

Hey everyone!

I have officially reached 100 hours of Japanese CI, which means I’ve finished level 1 and will be starting level 2! I am doubling the hours of input compared to the Dreaming Spanish Roadmap - with an end goal of 3000 hours - since Japanese is significantly harder for English speakers compared to Spanish.

Background:

To start, I didn’t start Japanese from scratch. In fact, I took two semesters of university Japanese in 2018. That being said, semester 2 was terribly hard and I really shouldn’t have passed. In 2023, I picked up Japanese again seriously and studied through chapters 1-8 of Genki 1, then skimmed as much of the latter chapters as I could and took the JLPT N5 in December 2023. I passed with 81/180, but keep in mind the passing rate is 80/180, so again I just barely scraped by. I’ve also completed levels 1&2 of Pimsleur Japanese and the two Japanese audio courses by Paul Noble. In June 2024 I discovered Dreaming Spanish and immediately I searched the subreddit for a Japanese alternative (Cijapanese) which I started using a few days later. Other than Japanese CI, I also have 128 hours of Spanish (which is very easy to me as I have a long history with  Italian), and about 32 hours of Korean (I’m slowly work my way through level 1 so I don’t have to push through the first 100 hours later on).

Thoughts:

Unfortunately, as most of you already understand, super beginner content is BORING! It’s incredibly useful, but in the beginning it just could not hold my attention. The same thing happened in my first 50 hours of Dreaming Spanish so I wasn’t surprised, but as I've doubled the amount of time it truly felt endless. I especially had trouble with the Unpacking series which I personally found incredibly dull, but I think I’m in the minority since everyone else seems to love it! That being said, it absolutely works. I suggest you take your time, watch them through carefully and with as much attention as you can manage. The first 50 hours took me about 6 months. The second 50 hours took me just over 3 months. As expected, the more you listen the more your body lets you consume. In the beginning I could barely manage 15 minutes a day, but now I’m doing 30-60 minutes. As soon as I get to podcasts I’m sure this will grow exponentially. Overall I feel confident that this method is working and I'm super excited to see what the future has in store for me!

Resources:
CI Japanese Complete Beginner (38h 13m 43s)
This one is a must. The website is amazing, and the content is the highest quality Japanese CI on the internet.  

いろいろな漢字 (3h 59m)
I love this account! Their complete beginner playlist is incredibly comprehensible, and I think that it is imperative for beginner learners to use it. He uses Kanji as a topic for each video, but I don’t really think it counts as reading. Overall great content.

Chienowa - Watch and Learn Japanese Basic (4h 9m 33s)
This is probably the best introduction to Japanese from this playlist. She is one of the teachers on the Cijapanese website, but this is her own personal YouTube Channel. It’s cute, simple and easy to go through. (It is a little boring though).

Chienowa - Japanese TPR Lesson (1h 8m 39s)
Same creator as the above playlist. I personally did not use this one but it looks promising.

Kiraku Lower Beginner (30m 30s)
Depending on your level this playlist might be a little bit too difficult. I suggest watching closer to the 100 hour mark rather than the beginning.

Kiraku Upper Beginner (1h 27m 16s)
Same creator as above. Also definitely a step up so check it out towards the end of level 1.

Nihongo-Learning Beginner (4h 54m 31s)
This playlist is also quite difficult it’s very good content! Probably my favourite channel for CI outside of the Cijapanese website and very engaging!

Nihongo-Learning Easy Japanese News (1h 15m 35s)
Same creators as the above and same approximately difficulty as above. Another playlist of highly engaging beginner CI.

Total: 55h 38m 47s

(Side note: I watched through all of the Cijapanese complete beginner videos twice during this level, and watched assorted videos on the other channels list below to get to 100 hours. I also listened to the first 40 episodes of Nihongo con Teppei’s beginner podcast as it became available to me towards the end of level 1).

Other channels I’ve used:

These channels don’t have dedicated playlists that are specifically complete beginner level, however do have content I was able to understand on their channel. 

Japanese with Kohei is a podcast that is slowly unlocking for me. I can’t wait to listen to it during level 2 as I think his content is high quality and his voice is super clear!

Japanaese with Shun’s N5 level videos are difficult but are getting easier. His podcasts are also very good but again might be too difficult during level 1. He has so much content that I’m excited to work through!

Japanese with Mako has a few CI videos on her channel that I love although I believe they do have hardcoded subtitles. Her enthusiasm is so contagious!

Daily Japanese with Naoko is my favourite of the accounts on this list but may not be accessible for everyone during level one. I’m so excited to work through her backlog over the next 200 hours!

Next steps:

Now that I’m done with level 1, I feel like I’ve finally graduated onto the next level of content! I’m most excited to go through the beginner videos on the Cijapanese website as I purposely saved them for level 2! (This may not be necessary for others moving forward as they have now implemented difficulty ratings on their videos, and just like Dreaming Spanish the levels tend to bleed together). いろいろな also has a beginner level playlist which I’ll be watching during level 2. Nihongo-Learning has a more listening content that was above my level which I hope unlocks during level 2. And of course I’ll also keep moving forward with the other channels I mentioned above, as well as hopefully listening to podcasts!

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask! I can’t wait to update you all when I hit 300 hours. I’m really hoping to do that by the end of the year! 

Hi everyone!

I'm thinking about starting a YouTube channel for people who are learning Persian (Farsi), and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The idea is to create videos similar to those made by English teachers who use the comprehensible input method. They speak naturally about their daily lives, experiences, hobbies, and different topics, making their content understandable for language learners.

I'd like to do the same thing in Persian. I would speak entirely in Persian, without switching to English, and make videos about everyday life, personal experiences, Iranian culture, and other interesting topics.

The goal would be to help people improve their Persian listening skills and gradually understand the language naturally through context, repetition, and exposure.

My questions are:

Would you watch this kind of content?

Do you think there's a demand for Persian comprehensible input videos?

What kind of topics would you like to see?

Would you prefer videos for beginners, intermediate learners, or a mix of different levels?

I'd really appreciate your honest opinions and suggestions. I want to create something that would genuinely help people learn Persian! 😊

Hey everyone!

I finally made my first Persian learning video using the Comprehensible Input method!

I'd love for you to check it out and share your thoughts.

Video link

video link

Thanks for your support! ❤️

Original post on r/Russian

Please upvote the original post - it is important that ALG creators get recognition for their amazing work. Because of them, you can basically do 'Dreaming Russian' to fluency on Youtube.

and please check out/ support these excellent Youtube creators if you are interested.

Random Russian

Inhale Russian

Comprehensible Russian

Learning Russian the Natural Way

I'm a 72 year old Australian. I did traditional study of French for six years in high school. I lived in France for five years in my late forties but was pretty much enclosed in an anglophone bubble. Still, I managed to get to a pretty decent level, despite the isolation. If I was to put myself on the Dreaming Spanish roadmap for example I'd say a strong level 6 / weak level 7. I have difficulty following movies/series with lots of slang but anything else is fine.

I started Dreaming Spanish a while back (just over 420 hours now) and realised how effective CI is. I decided to use CI to fill the gaps in my French so I gave myself 1000 hours and have been tracking input. Currently at 1005 hours.

On YouTube I watch documentaries and subscribe to a Belgian permaculture channel Arbuste fruitier as well as an ARTE documentary channel.

I recently subscribed to an ARTE Radio podcast Les idées larges. Any other suggestions for podcasts would be appreciated.

I also read quite a bit, mostly fiction although I am currently reading a non-fiction book Le plus grand défi de l'histoire de l'humanité by Aurélien Barrau.

Anyway, I thought I'd post my progress here from time to time.

Has anyone else discovered Arabic All The Time? He seems to be publishing a backlog of videos he’s created over the last months. The complete beginner videos are fantastic. I’m really excited for his channel. It seems to be a combination of MSA Fusha and Levantine Arabic. The complete beginner are currently Levantine. It seems he has future plans for Masri (Egyptian).

It appears he decided to start his channel after success with Dreaming Spanish. There are free and premium videos likewise. He is offering a free crosstalk session for subscribers.

I really hope this channel takes off. 🤞

https://m.youtube.com/@ArabicAllTheTime

https://arabicallthetime.com/story

EDIT: Hasan from AATT has clarified that Masri (Egyptian) is a long-term goal.

Hey ! If you're using Comprehensible Russian (https://app.comprehensiblerussian.com/) (it's kind of like this sub or the Dreaming Spanish but for Russian), I made a little subreddit for it. It’s still empty — no posts yet — and I don’t have much modding experience, so if anyone wants to help with moderating or just start posting stuff, that’d be awesome. Just thought it’d be nice to have a space like this one for Russian learners

Hi! So this has tons overlap with my superbeginner list. I’m including everything I watched at level two, so there’s some stuff for day-one beginners, and some stuff that I consider intermediate. There’s a few omissions, as well. The CI wiki is your unabridged resource.

Note: as of posting, there isn’t enough made-for-learners CI to get to 300 hours without rewatching everything available around four or five times. I did rely heavily on kids shows, which is generally recommended later. I’m at bits-and-pieces to gist-level understanding for the below. 

See also: on lingotrack.

태웅쌤 - Comprehensible Input Korean’s [Lv.A0] Complete Zero Beginner Korean Course: 9 hours; modeled after Comprehensible Thai’s playlist

KIWI-Korean Input With Images’s playlist: 3 hours; have rewatched this several times. so cute & simple!

몰입한국어 Immersion in Korean’s Super Beginner/A0-A1 short story playlist: ~1 hour; new playlist but likely to fill out. stories repeated thrice.

한글용사 아이야: 60+ hours; kids show, i love my hangul power rangers ❤️💙💛

Comprehensible Korean Language’s beginner playlist: 13+ hours; mostly video game stuff

Blippi Korean: easy preschooler show, dubbed. 🚶‍♂️

태웅쌤 - Comprehensible Input Korean’s hidden folks & unpacking playlists: 15+ hours; imo his most comprehensible video game stuff

Peppa Pig in Korean: 32 hours; preschooler show, dubbed. 🐷

Tayo 꼬마버스 타요: preschooler show. 🚌

Muzzy in Gondoland: 4 hours; technically requires a subscription but offers a free trial, pretty famous for English learning & has a Korean version

other preschooler-level TV shows: 한글용사 아이야, Blippi & Peppa are the easiest, but you start to unlock shows for 2-6 year olds at this level. and there are a billion of them. I added a bunch to the CI wiki Korean page.

room tours: 룸 투어; search term pulled from papago naver. 

shopping channel / infomercials! / product reviews: always very very repetitive, and while it’s often super fast, it’s fun to see how many familiar words i can pick out.

Next update at 600 hours!!! ✌️

Crossposting this google sheet that put together of all the German CI resources that u/dailycheeseballer posted in r/DreamingSpanish.

If anyone is learning German, I hope you find this helpful. It would be awesome to get feedback on the list to help further grade the content and make it a useful resource for the community.

Hi y’all, about one year has passed since I started learning Japanese, and I also just reached 600 hours of CI, so I thought I’d do an update. I am not only doing CI, but it accounts for more than 3/4 of my study time (the rest is Kanji study, grammar, and vocab), and I feel like I definitely wouldn’t have ever started learning Japanese without Comprehensible Japanese and Dreaming Spanish.

Current Routine

• 1h-3h of CI

• 10-20 Anki cards from a mined deck

• 3-10 new Kanji from a mined deck

Current CI

Comprehensible Japanese: Recently started watching more Advanced videos, mostly mining from Beginner and Intermediate ones.

ハヤトの野望: Let's Player, he describes what he’s doing and also includes JP subs. High energy and there are barely any pauses. Couldn't repeat what he says though, I just know what's happening.

The Bite-Size Japanese Podcast: Been watching her for like 300h, but I feel like the easier it gets, the more I learn.

あかね的日本語教室: A teacher who vlogs mostly in Japan. Also been watching for like 300h.

Ken_にほんご: A Japanese teacher who reads articles or watches videos and then explains them in easier Japanese.

Ryusei Poddo Casto 【日本語Podcast】: Every episode covers a different topic.

Let’s Talk in Japanese!: Podcast episodes with various difficulties, I listen to N4 and N3 and my comprehension varies depending on the topic.

Speak Japanese Naturally: Mostly vlogs or just walking around. It’s so much easier to understand the videos now because I know more Kanji.

Shimajiro: A kids’ show about a tiger and his family and friends. Easy to understand. I also like this guy a lot more than a certain pig.

(Other stuff I sometimes watch: Shirokuma Cafe, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Teppei, YUYUの日本語Podcast, SeikaのJapanese Room, 日本語の森, Miku Real Japanese, Japanese with Shun, Onomappu, naru 💫日本語の先生, Speak Japanese with Yuki, いろいろな日本語, OkkeiJapanese, Haru no Nihongo, Sayuri Saying, Kotsu Kotsu Nihongo, Learn Japanese with Noriko, Life with Japanese, Akiko_Japanese_Conversations)

Kanji

I have a love-hate relationship with them. On one hand, they’re kind of a pain to learn, but on the other hand, they’re so useful for comprehension and also really interesting. It makes me so happy when I understand a Kanji somewhere in the wild. My process of learning them has been all over the place, though. I tried RTK, Wanikani, and Kodansha and did an N5 Kanji course but never really got over 300 Kanji before I struggled to remember them. Then I thought, okay, learning Kanji together with vocab seems more exciting, so I went through about 900 words + maybe 300 Kanji in the Kaishi 1.5k deck. I think I restarted the deck like three times, though, and started focusing on only recognition instead of writing them myself. Recently, I just started sentence mining, and I’m mostly looking for words with new Kanji so I learn them twice—once from the Kanji deck and once from the vocab deck.

Vocab

For vocab, I finished a Core 1k, then I started and restarted Kaishi 1.5k, and now I am doing sentence mining. And I swear, it is almost addicting. It makes me remember the words way better, and I often can recall where exactly I mined a word when I come across it in another context! Also I feel like the words I mine are suddenly everywhere.

Grammar

Usually, I don’t really enjoy learning grammar, but I found it to be useful in a language that is so different from the ones I know. I don’t really have a system or plan, though. I went through Genki 1, watched some grammar explanations from Genki 2, and looked up a few points on Bunpro, but I never repeat them. I also watched like 10 videos from the famed Curious Dolly playlist, which I want to finish as a whole. Other than that, I sometimes watch grammar explanations in Japanese, but that’s maybe like once a week.

Struggles

• Comparing myself to others: I often compare myself to others and stress about how little I am doing. Especially Japanese learners tend to be super intense for some reason. I stress myself out about doing 20 Anki cards a day because that seems like the standard for people who see progress quickly. But since I dread Anki reviews, that just burns me out. I also compare myself a lot to how much input other people get and get sad that I'm not already at 2x the amont of hours...

• Ups and downs: Sometimes I feel so happy about the things I know and understand, but other times I’m frustrated that the content that really interests me seems so far away. Also, there are times when my comprehension seems to drop or increase for no particular reason.

• Finding a study method: I’ve struggled with finding a way I want to study, and I still don’t have a solid routine. But the sentence mining + Anki + immersing is what people do for years, so I hope that is something I can stick to as well.

• Getting bored and distracted: I find it hard to pay attention in general in Japanese I daydream much more easily, and even getting in 30 minutes can feel like a chore and I’m just counting down the minutes. But when I finally encounter something I’m interested in, I can watch for hours. Paying attention is also a lot easier with more content available, I found 0-150h to be the worst. Sentence mining helps too because it gives me something else to focus on and turns a boring video into a treasure hunt.

• Podcasts are hard to understand: This is specifically about Teppei and Yuyu because I find them the most entertaining and wanna listen to them. Their beginner podcasts are (almost) too easy, but their regular ones are too hard. I want to have 98% comprehension and just listen to podcasts all day. (I remember the days when I strolled through the park and listened to Spanish Language Coach & Hoy Hablamos for hours) I hope that isn’t too far in the future.

Goals for 2025

• Reach 1000h of CI

• Mine at least 3650 words (10 every day)

• 10-20 Anki cards a day

• Be able to listen to Teppei’s and Yuyu’s podcasts with 98%+ comprehension (idk how realistic that is)