[0:00]
What's up, grinders? Welcome back to the channel. Now, today we're going to continue on with yesterday's video. In fact, I figured it was completely done. But after I posted my video, someone linked to me in the Discord a subreddit thread which was about my video. Apparently, it's kicked up a bit of a storm over in the Dreaming Spanish sub community. So, let's have a look at it right now. So, it's titled, "Damn, this is sobering." It's got 111 [ __ ] comments, man. Didn't realize I was making that much of an impact on the world. Yeah. See, Dad, I succeeded in life. Anyway, let's keep reading. I've 
[0:31]
been following Evil Deer on YouTube, and I'm not thrilled about his most recent video, which puts CI in a pretty bad light. And there's a link to my video. It's put a bit of a downer on my day, although I haven't actually seen the whole video, just snippets and a brief look at the comments. Maybe one of you have yeah, had seen it. If so, I'd like to hear your thoughts. Okay, first up, when I saw how this was worded, it caught me, like it it really interested me. Not because of like what people are saying about, you know, my video and stuff, but just the way it was worded. 
[1:02]
Okay, so I'm looking at this and he's saying here it's put him in a bit of a downer. So, a video he's seen online has made him not feel good. Okay. And this is a video about me reviewing someone else's experiences, providing my own input, both positive and negative. Basically, a nobullshit review about where I'm at and what I'm seeing in front of me. Okay? And yet, this has managed to put someone like make them feel down. Now, this is not an attack on the person. I just want to if the person 
[1:32]
happens to watch this, I am not attacking you. I actually want to critically examine what you've written here together with you. Okay? So why why would this make you feel down? Okay, let's critically think on that. Why would you feel down over what I said? And I think it's not because of what I said. I think it's because in some way deep down you actually agree with what you saw. And what you've done now is you've gone to the community and you've asked to be I guess cuddled. You know, 
[2:02]
like you've asked for almost support to say this guy on the internet is wrong. This is why what you think is right. Now, if that's true, you're in you're in a box, my man, because you are thinking the same things that I was saying. Now, that's fine. But at the same time, you don't want to believe that. Now, you're at level four, and I think this rolls in quite nicely with my video where I spoke about the sunk cost fallacy because let's say you get 400 hours into this, 500 hours, 600 hours, and then you start 
[2:34]
having these deep-seated thoughts about [ __ ] man. I I'm not feeling the progress anymore. or I'm not feeling this like maybe this is wrong but you built your like belief around this system and by doing that you've now made the the method of learning the language more important than the language itself. So, what I would say is one, I don't want to make you feel bad about this, but two, why does this bother you so much? If you get to a point where you're like, "This is not working anymore." Try something else. Do anything else. The 
[3:06]
The only way to truly learn a language is to do something with it every single day. Even if you've done 500 hours of dreaming Spanish, that's still a [ __ ] ton of input. That's going to be a massive benefit if you took up another method. Okay? So, I would say think about yourself why you're having these thoughts internally. Now, a lot of people are probably wondering how the hell do I do it when I have such a critical look upon, you know, dreaming Spanish? Well, because for me, I'm in it for the [ __ ] experiment. I enjoy the 
[3:36]
experimentation. And I don't like being the type of person who will watch content online about people who have done it, provide their thoughts, and sit there and not know. I don't like not knowing because like maybe they're telling the truth, maybe they're not. Maybe it works for them, maybe it doesn't work for me. I want to know. So, I'm in it for the experiment, which is why you can guarantee I'm going to be around to freaking 2,000 hours or whatever because I love the experiment. Okay? It's less about the language and it's more about the experiment for me, which I feel is probably going to make a bunch of people over at Dreaming Spanish 
[4:07]
sad because uh they want me to go. I'm just too much of a hindrance in the community, I guess. But yeah, that's that's why I'm sticking to it because I just enjoy the process overall. Now, let's have a look at a couple of the comments in here. This first comment is actually quite interesting. It's almost as if the person here is saying, and you can pause and read, it's almost like they're saying that, well, the person who's being interviewed after 2,000 hours is actually just massively underestimating their abilities by saying all they can do is ask where the bathroom is and like order food and get up and stuff like that. And I would I 
[4:38]
would say that this is highly highly unlikely for a number of reasons. One, I've done investigations into a lot of polygots, okay? Both well-known and not wellknown on their language abilities. And the one thing I've found after doing multiple investigations is that nearly everyone universally bar one so far overestimates their ability by a minimum of a factor of one. Okay. Now, that there just shows that humans generally overestimate their abilities. They don't generally underestimate. So if this guy is so substantially 
[5:12]
underestimating his abilities, I would say that's actually super strange. More likely he's overestimating or in this case probably because he was saying he's basically beginner in the level. That's his actual level. Like I believe him that's his actual level. So I don't know why we would even question that. Now this person skimmed through my video which is perfectly fine. But they said here, "I think what most people who have hit 1,500 hours agree on is that Dreaming Spanish is very, very liberal with their definition of fluent. I don't think anyone should have the expectation that they'll hit 1,500 hours of 
[5:43]
listening with zero other work and suddenly be fluent. And Dreaming Spanish employees would probably privately agree, but they obviously can't walk back their biggest selling point." So basically, they're lying. Okay, that's that's what you're saying. But we'll get back to this in a minute because there's more comments around this. seemed to me that the guy with 2K hours was more critical of his language skills than Evil Deer was. Evil Deer was just shocked at his lack of progress in those areas. Yeah, I was just shocked realistically for a number of reasons. One, even with ALG method, even though I'm critical of it, I still feel at that amount of time, if you actually follow 
[6:13]
their method, you'd be way further ahead. So, I feel like he probably didn't actually do enough speaking practice. Realistically, he's probably he's probably one of those people who's actually, you know what, he's probably actually following ALG because ALG, what they say, if you look into it, is that you should not start speaking until you feel that it can just roll out of your mouth, basically until you feel like it's just ready. So, he's probably waiting until he feels ready, realistically. And unfortunately, I'm 
[6:44]
pretty sure for the vast majority of people in existence, they will never feel ready. You have to take that first step as painful it as it is. And this is why this method is so popular because you don't have to take this step. You can just sit down and watch content. You don't have to ever actually open your mouth and try with other people. Now eventually most people will get fed up with that and they will try. But there will always be those people who are just afraid to actually try. And that's probably what's happened in his case is he just he doesn't feel quite ready yet. 
[7:15]
And I don't know when he will. I got 12 seconds into the video before I noped out of there. Well, I guess I'll have to skip past this. This guy basically in a a response to that one actually clarifies my arguments quite well, which is good to see. Now, this this actually kind of pisses me off. So, I read this guy's comment and then he says down here, "As a paying customer, am I mad at Dreaming Spanish for selling me a lie? And yes, it is a lie. As at level seven, I don't think anyone who has reached it is like a native or even close." No, I am not because I understand why Pablo 
[7:46]
had to make those claims. He was trying to sell a product and telling his potential customers it really takes 3,000 hours and 3 years to reach a level where you're comfortable in Spanish. Well, it's not a good seller at all, is it? So, this is what annoys me about this. If you applied this level of thinking to anything else out there, you would basically be called a fraud. Okay? Realistically, like think about it like this. If I started a programming school and I promised by the end of my 2-year course, you would be the equivalent of a C++ senior programmer in the game 
[8:17]
industry. Well, you would pay for that course and you would base joining that course based on what other claims from other courses are. So, you would analyze all these different courses and maybe one says, oh, it'll take you three years and maybe one says it will take you two years and you go, hm, okay, well, the 2-year one seems pretty damn good because I'm saving a whole year here. I pay for that. You get to the end of the two-year course and well, let's just say you're only like a mid-level programmer or maybe even just like a a strong junior with specific expertise in one specific area. Should you be angry about that? Should you feel cheated about 
[8:48]
that? Like, is that a lie? Yes. 100% godamn that's a lie because that's not what you paid for. So, when you go into these things, even though you've stepped out of it with like great programming skills, you didn't step out of it what you were expected to have, what you paid to have. Now, if at the end of it, the vast majority of your class all stepped out as senior programs and you were the only one who didn't, then probably it's on you for being a tool and not actually paying attention. But if no one steps out of it, as the vast majority of people within the dreaming Spanish 
[9:18]
community seem to agree in this thread that at 1,500 hours, you are not, as they say, uh, near able to understand the vast majority of the language and use it in such a way that would be highly functional for most people type of thing, then you've been sold a lie. Now, Dreaming Spanish is still a great resource, still gets you a long way, especially if that's the type of method you want to follow, but it is a lie that part of the road map. Now, when I made my video, I didn't even bother calling it a lie. I just said it was a marketing ploy. Okay, this guy here brings up the 
[9:50]
fact that it's a lie. So, yeah, it is a lie. It's a marketing ploy. Whatever. Just expect that the first three to four levels are going to be accurate and the rest beyond that are not. This guy looks like a pretty stereotypical clickbait YouTube fool. I loathe the loweffort reaction content. I have no idea why people give them attention. Their whole monetization scheme is taking down on stuff or eliciting response. Okay. Well, reaction videos only make about 25% of my videos. In fact, some of my videos take weeks to make. Okay, so that's not true. But anyway, let's talk about this 
[10:21]
whole monetization scheme, bro. If you're a YouTuber and you're monetizing your channel, well, for one, you only monetize it when you can monetize it. And everyone, as soon as they can monetize it, they monetize. It's [ __ ] money. Are we What are we doing here? Are we lying about this [ __ ] now? YouTubers want to make money. Holy [ __ ] Did not see that coming. Okay, next one. Oh yeah. Yeah. They only want to elicit a response. Come on. If I'm making videos and no one's responding, then it's a [ __ ] video. 
[10:52]
Okay. I want people to respond. I want to engage with people. Now, I want to make money and I want to I want to elicit a response. Does that negate the fact that what I'm saying is true? No. Two things can be true at once. And in this case, Dreaming Spanish has oversold those later levels. Okay, that's just how it is. Evil deer has become a bit of a clout chaser. So, I really don't pay much attention to his videos or what he says. I actually really don't know what clout chasing means. Let me look it up. A person who 
[11:22]
attempts to gain political or social power. So, I guess in this instance would be social power uh with conflict of public figures. Okay, so let's see. Do I actually clout chase? I would say no because pretty much if because in this case apparently it's about you know targeting public figures. Have I targeted public figures? I've made a few videos about public figures but my vastly most popular videos are actually about people who no one's heard of. In fact, a bunch of people I've made videos about are now public figures in a sense 
[11:53]
because I made videos about them. So I've helped a bunch of people. Now there's a couple of videos that I've made about actual public figures. I guess people who are more wellknown than me, but also overall I would say a lot of people come to me. Like I'm talking YouTubers that are way bigger than me. They like to come and talk to me because they like the type of [ __ ] that I do and they even look for ways to work with me. So does that make me a clout chaser when they come to me? I don't know. Now we'll look at one last comment. So this person says YouTuber claims to be testing ALG. He's not. He 
[12:24]
proves that in the same video. Okay, let's see how I'm not doing it. It's unbelievable how hard it is for adults to understand something so simple. Just watch and listen to people talk and don't think about language while you do that. Don't read. Don't use the language. This is everything you have to do for the first 1,000 hours. The more you avoid thinking uh get experiences where the target language is happening, the closer the results will be to a one lana. Okay. Shadowing. Either experiencing people talk or not thinking. No, then don't do 
[12:54]
that. Okay. Well, that's good to know. Apparently, I can't do shadowing. Although I would love to hear from Pablo himself about whether shadowing is accepted or not because if it is accepted I believe it would massively boost my ability to speak when I get to that level. But if it's not and Pablo says no it's not part of the ALG method. It's not acceptable then I just won't do it because I am in it for the experiment. Is studying grammar either experiencing people talk well I didn't did I mention studying grammar as part of this experiment? No I didn't. I don't even know where you got that from. is talking about what grammar features 
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you're confusing at the moment in Spanish in the middle of your 10,000 hours Spanish project. Either experiencing people talking or not thinking no, then why are you doing it? Bro, what the [ __ ] are you trying to tell me that for the 1,000 hours you did this? You did not once like retrospectively or like just critically look upon the things that you're hearing. You just sat there brain open for like a thousand hours, not even critically thinking once about the [ __ ] you're hearing. That is some [ __ ] if I have ever heard it. Okay, even in my native language, I will often 
[13:57]
critically think about things that I say and be like, why do we do it that way? And when people ask me, I will think about my own language. So, you're trying to tell me right now there's never a point when you've done this. This by just me in that previous video saying, "Is it or par can't even do the [ __ ] r par like that's somehow me failing at it?" Really, bro? If that's true, everyone's failed. You've failed. I've failed. [ __ ] the entire world's failed at it. Okay? Because everyone at 
[14:29]
some point wonders why it's said a certain way or why a certain word is used when learning a language. Okay? You This is [ __ ] if I've ever seen it. Okay. Now, I do want to point out that the comments that I showed you were the ones I wanted to react to. In fact, the vast majority of comments in this thread are actually quite good and informative, and I do reckon you go check them out. However, I did want to cover off obviously on the ones I disagree with or I just find completely ludicrous because it has become kind of crazy how people 
[15:00]
are so attached to a method as opposed to learning a language. Why is the method so important? Like I look at this method and I don't agree with it yet I'm still able to go out and freaking learn a language doing it because I'm not like a fundamentalist in any of this [ __ ] Okay, this is just mindboggling how how people attach their entire identity to these things. It's a [ __ ] method, guys. If it works for you, great. But it's not going to work for everyone for 
[15:30]
a number of different reasons. Okay? Just like I don't say Anki is the only way to learn words. It's the only way forward. If you're not using Anki, you're doing it wrong. And if you I don't know, if you stop using Anki for one day, then you have failed. like this kind of level of commitment to an ideal is just insane within language learning. Now, before I wrap up the video, I do want to stress that the vast majority of people I've interacted with in the Dreaming Spanish community are completely levelheaded. They've watched my video. They've commented on my video. 
[16:00]
They've they've agreed with some points, disagreed with other points, you know, they've provided their input. I highly appreciate this. The type of people that I've been talking about are the minority, okay? But the morinority are the ones that I like to target because they're the ones who make things hard for others to know the truth. Anyway, I'll see you all in the next video. And if you're not there, I will find you. if you're not there, I will find you. And why would I do that? I guess we'll find