#traditional study

a watercolour/gouache study of a "the wind rises" background!

check for my wip shots underneath the seperator

I think a big reason DS learners report huge amounts of usefulness after 150-300 hours, is because classroom learners rarely go seek out 'lots of practice' in the language to the degree of 150-300 hours outside of class, engaging with the language in ways they understand. 150-300 hours of Dreaming Spanish is comparable to A1-A2 level, but a lot of 'beginner 1' and 'beginner 2' language class students do not go out and practice listening to a LOT of learner podcasts and Comprehensible Input Lessons - language material they'd understand. So classroom learner's language skills only tend to get a few dozen hours of listening practice, at most, per semester (language in the dialogues in their textbook, and any conversations in class).

If the class is particularly heavy on using the language, with the teacher talking frequently in the language in ways students understand (usually with visuals and gestures just like Comprehensible Input Lessons) and assigning a lot of outside listening and reading materials, then A1-A2 students after A1-A2 classes would probably be similar to any DS learners at 150-300 hours. Because those classroom A1-A2 students probably got a similar amount of practice understanding the language.

I took a French 1 class (A1) in college, and by the end of it I was A2, I took a 'practice' test with my professor because I wanted to do the Fullbright Scholarship in a French country and had to be assessed. Why was I around B1? Because I was reading a LOT outside of class. I was engaging with the language a LOT more than my classmates, and I probably just got much more hours of practice with French.

This disparity between 'hours in class' and ' practice hours' of engaging with the language in situations you understand just increases as you get to B1 and B2 classes. You might take a B1 class for 1 semester, then move onto a B2 class. But B1 skills require twice the practice hours that A2 did, and B2 will require twice the practice hours that B1 did, and most classroom learners probably aren't ramping up their outside of class practice hours that intensely. Some schools split B1 into multiple semesters, and B2 into multiple semesters, and that probably helps students get more hours of practice in class (and per day outside of class practice if they're doing any).

Many people take years of a language in High School or in College, then say they 'can't use the language' and then get a lot of practice (comprehensible input, they read or watch or listen to the language a lot later, move to a country where they must speak to a lot of people and are spoken to in contexts they must understand to get by) and then they 'have learned the language' and assume the immersion in the language is what did it. In reality, it was probably a combination of what they studied in class, AND all the hours of practice. They didn't get where they expected in classes alone, because they didn't accumulate the practice hours needed to reach B1, B2, C1 while in school. The classes made the following hours of practice, more understandable to them.

There are some people who study for a year, or less, and pass something like B2 or C2. like this person, they did a combination of explicit study (which makes more things in a language comprehensible to you) particularly study that would prepare them for the standardized test, and LOTS of hours of practice per day. They did at least 2 hours of explicit study per day for the test, and 2 hours of practice per day (learner podcasts etc., then materials for native speakers they could understand). I've seen a few youtubers make 'learn a language in a month' videos and the ones who were successful* learned to maybe an A2 level in a month, and were studying like 8-10 hours a day. If you get 300 hours in a month, of explicit study to make the language more understandable to you - plus hours of practice understanding, yeah you'll reach around A2 if the language has similarities to ones you know.

My conclusion to all this is: if you are taking language classes, and they progress Beginner 1, Beginner 2, Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2 etc. And you'd like to actually be at the level those classes are labelled (A2, B2 etc), then get hours of practice OUTSIDE CLASS. So if you're in an A1 or A2 class, read Graded Reading material for your level of understanding, watch Comprehensible Input Lessons on youtube at a level you understand, listen to learner podcasts made for your level of understanding. As you increase the level of your class material, or textbook if self studying, increase the amount of practice hours you'll want to aim for. If you want to reach the level of language understanding the class you're taking is labelled at: make sure to get hours of practice outside class. Your class will focus on making sure you can pass their tests, that's the only way they can grade your progress. If you feel you can 'pass tests' but can't understand the language in other contexts, get some PRACTICE with the language outside of class!!!! You probably just need more practice at your language level. Class is not going to provide enough hours of practice, as you need to get to the level you want.

I think a lot of people who've had years of prior study, and still feel they can't 'do' things in the language either:

Need to be more honest with themselves about how much they studied. (For example, if you - like me - studied Genki 1 over multiple years... that's not even N4 in JLPT, even though college splits Genki 1 over 2 semesters and is labelled Beginner 1 and 2, and then Genki 2 over 2 semesters and is labelled Intermediate 1 and 2, all of that combined won't even teach you to N3 in JLPT. So did you ACTUALLY study to intermediate level N3, or did you just think you did? If you only studied 50 hours in 2 years, did you REALLY study to A2 knowledge? Or did you just study the A1 basics, and got practice with A1 basics? 50 hours is very little... 300 hours is around A2 - for a language similar to one you know - so if you studied less than 300 hours and it's been 4 years... be honest with yourself. This happens a lot with Japanese language learners, they say they studied multiple years*, but never completed Genki 1, and rarely did they study all of JLPT levels N5-N1 material. This Japanese example includes myself, I was like that, until I honestly looked into what I had explicitly learned, and how many hours of practice I'd had, and both were pathetically small, and then it made sense why I barely understood anything).

“Zilla”

Illustration techniques

“ Louise Belcher”

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” Eggs”

Oil Painting