If I spoke spanish I wouldn´t need ¨learn spanish 4.¨
I appreciate the site and the efforts of parlee and everyone behind the scenes, but I am having some trouble understanding the lessons in ¨learn spanish 4¨ because I don´t speak spanish yet. I get it that I have to be challenged to comprehend spanish - and i do get some of what is being said - but there much I don´t get or have to review many times before ¨understanding.¨ It´s too bad because I got A LOT out of the previous lessons. I wouldn´t have progressed up to lesson 4 if I hadn´t.
I have an idea that conditional perfect and future perfect might be important but I guess I´ll have to find out how important from some where else...
21 Answers
I appreciate the site and the efforts of parlee and everyone behind the scenes, but I am having some trouble understanding the lessons in ¨learn spanish 4¨ because I don´t speak spanish yet. I get it that I have to be challenged to comprehend spanish - and i do get some of what is being said - but there much I don´t get or have to review many times before ¨understanding.¨ It´s too bad because I got A LOT out of the previous lessons. I wouldn´t have progressed up to lesson 4 if I hadn´t.
I have an idea that conditional perfect and future perfect might be important but I guess I´ll have to find out how important from some where else...
Tom, the idea here is that you have to do all of the lessons in learn Spanish 1, 2, and 3 before you are ready for the dialogue in Learn Spanish 4.
Your profile says you completed only 5 out of 15 lessons in Learn Spanish 2 and only 1 of the 15 lessons in Learn Spanish 3. Looks like you didn't bother with Learn Spanish 1 at all.
Coincidentally, Tom, I just began Learn Spanish 4 last night. The difference is obvious, and it was somewhat of a challenge to follow what Paralee was saying. But frankly I managed to understand almost all of it my first time through.
the difference may be that I took the time to do all 45 lessons prior to learn Spanish 4. Yeah, I already knew what ¿Cómo esta usted? means from taking 2 years of Spanish in Highgh school, but I did it anyway.
I think that work paid off for me. Just a thought. And good luck in your quest to learn Spanish.
I came to a spansih speaking country with no spanish. I had a horrible time in the beginning. Because I work in a place where there are lots of translators it was a temptation to put on the headset and listen to the translation. I resisited that temptation and listened to the spanish even though I didn't understand anything to begin with. Now I sit through most meetings and have a good idea of what is going on. I have a friend who has relied on the translation system and she has a much more difficult time understanding what is going on. Her ability to understand conversation in a social setting is not existant. I find myself, now understanding most of the conversation and I am able to contribute some. Don't give up listening to what you don't understand. The more you listen the more it becomes a part of you and the more you can understand. My English grammar is good, not because I know all the rules but because the rhythm of the language is a part of me. I heard it for years before I had any formal understanding of the rules. The rules made sense to me because, for the most part, I was already using them correctly and hearing them everyday. I am beginning to see the same thing in Spanish. The grammar rules make sense because I have heard them used correctly over and over again, even though I may not have understood everything.
Hi Tom, I'm a bit new to this forum, but I've done a lot of studying Spanish (and other languages) from a variety of sources: I studied it in high school and college, took night classes, took classes from a local university while living in Spain, etc. I understand that you are also getting your studying from a variety of places, and I really applaud that of you. No two teaching sources are the same, and it can be very helpful to get a variety of perspectives on a language, particularly one with as great a variety of cultures and variations as Spanish.
However, while I think utilizing a variety of teaching sources is great, I would hesitate before mixing and matching them, especially when you get to the more advanced portions of the language. Language learning is not a straight road, but a tree that must be climbed. Sure, we all start at the base of the tree with greetings, basic verb conjugations and basic vocabulary, but the higher you climb in the tree the more choices you have to make as to which branches you explore first. This is where the variety in teaching sources really exposes itself. One source may choose to teach a given set of vocabulary at one point, while another may teach it much sooner.
Think about it from the perspective of an English teacher (which I have been). If I'm going to teach my student modal verbs, it may be helpful for me to be certain that the student is familiar and comfortable with countable and uncountable nouns before doing so. But a student who has made it into my class may have had a teacher that chose to spend time on something else of equal complexity (e.g., advanced prepositional uses) instead. That student may end up feeling lost when I start to teach about modal verbs. It's nobody's fault, it was just a difference in curriculum.
I admit that I have not yet gotten to lesson 4 in this site, so I can not say for certain, but I suspect something similar may have happened to you here. When you get to the advanced stages of a given curriculum, the teacher makes certain assumptions of what you already know based on what he/she believes you have already been taught. And since no two curricula are the same, confusion can easily arise when one starts to mix them. I know this because it has happened to me a lot.
That's why I would recommend making sure you follow a given curriculum as intended, even if there is a lot of overlap with grammar and vocab you have already learned. In my case, I feel like I am fairly advanced in my Spanish, but I am starting at Lesson 1 here anyway, because it's entirely possible that Paralee may have something to say that I did not know, and I don't want to find myself listening to her in lesson 6 having missed something she thinks I have already been taught.
Sorry for the wall of text, I can get a bit verbose, but I thought it was an interesting issue and wanted to share my experience in the hopes it might help.
I was able to read Spanish pretty fluently before I returned to South America about two years ago, but I had a lot of trouble following conversations in Spanish (all this after almost 40 years of not using the language). When I got back into an immersion situation it took about two months before I was able to understand what was being said without a lot of "¿cómo?" or "¿otra vez?". The point is that you gotta hear it and stretch your understanding. I'm partly deaf, so I guess I've learned to fill in the gaps a little better than some other people.
I can't believe that I just said being hard of hearing is an advantage for learning to understand spoken language!
Don't give up, Tom. Paralee knows what she's doing in the lessons. You may have to listen to some of them several times, but you'll eventually get it.
Heidita
If Quentin and I think that transcripts would help us I guess we are not the only ones. They would help me for sure.
Heidita dijo: I know, Goyo thought he felt a little silly, he could hardly understand and talk, however, he came again and tried again and we could all understand him better and I am sure he understood more too.
Goyo, what do you think? Does a written text help on the long run to understand more? I don¡t.
I'm not sure about that one way or another, but I can say that I've heard repeatedly about spoken Spanish, "don't worry if you can't understand it all, just listen anyway." I think I first heard that said about the Destinos video series, and in several contexts since then. Lots of times I listen to things by faith and try to pick out what I can.
I also listen to the Spanishpodcast.org podcasts. Sometimes I follow along on the transcript files, and sometimes I don't. I think I understand more when I am also reading it, but I think I listen more intently when I'm not reading it. I honestly don't know which way is the most helpful. (But since you say you don't think it helps in the long run to read along, that's very significant to me. I trust you more than anybody about things like that.)
The thing about Paralee's stuff is, there have always been things I didn't understand. Gosh, how long did it take me to figure out ¿Listo? Weeks!
But eventually I got that and several other things she said. I've got a really long way to go, but I just trust that by listening enough I'll get better and better.
Several requests have been made over time for transcripts of the lessons which may help those of us that can read Spanish much more than we can understand listening to it. I have never heard whether that will ever happen or not.
You should pop by on the reference section now and again
Tom, welcome to the forum
There is certainly no way you can do Learn Spanish 4 if you have not done the previous lessons. the idea is to do the lessons one by one...not skip half of then and then complain: listen , I don¡t understand!
It is always hard to understand a spoken language. However, if some are asking for transcripts is because they don't really take advantage of all that is offerered.
Quentin, a transcript will not help you understand better unless you finally start talking/writing in Spanish.
There is a Spanish native who offered conversation on skype, there is a voice chat every week end ( I am happy Goyo has joined the fun!), you can participate in the voice recording challenges Carlos posts on this site, I mean, there is a lot of material.
I´m glad it worked for you. I do exercises via other programs and was hoping to learn grammar rules from the lectures. That is why I don´t complete the exercises from the Spanishdict courses - I´ve got over 2000 flash cards that I can use without turning on the computer or needing an internet connection... I have listened to all the lectures in 2 and 3 and was following very well until the point that the just wasn´t understanding clearly enough.
I believe that I benefited from the flashcards on verb conjugation, but less so on vocabulary flash cards. If more of the the flash cards were about grammar, I would have done more of them. Not to say that the vocab flash cards don´t have value, but I´m in a situation where I won´t have much online time soon. I´ve got to make it count.
Well, good luck, Tom. I'm sure the lesson videos won't be done over, especially since I've never seen anyone else make your specific complaint. I hope you keep trying, and eventually get it.
Maybe when you can't be on the site anymore, a good book will help you?
Here's one that I've heard is good: A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish
Tom,
I appreciate your feedback and I want to let you know that I agree that Learn Spanish 4 is extremely difficult. That's the point! Even if you take Spanish in a public high school, your 4th year of the class should be completely in Spanish. At least that is how it was in all the schools I taught in. They even started 100% Spanish in Spanish 2 in a few of the schools. Of course it was hard on the students, but they could understand and speak more Spanish than the students whose teachers spoke English all the time.
Don't worry about understanding each and every word. The idea is to take it all in and get a good general idea of what I am talking about. Take a stab at some of the exercises and remember that at the end of each lesson, I give you the corresponding reference article (which is in English) so that you can read about the grammar subject in detail. I know it's hard to learn something new in a different language (remember, I had to learn Spanish too at one time!), but the best classes are the ones that challenge you.
My plan for the Learn course was to make each lesson harder than the last, building on the vocabulary and grammar that you have already learned and introducing more spoken Spanish in each lesson. In my ideal world, a student would spend an entire week on each lesson, watching the video at least 3 times and completing all of the exercises until he/she got at least 900 points. At that point, the student would actually know the material instead of just recognizing it before moving on.
I do hope you continue your learning through Learn Spanish 4.15. There are reference articles and even transcripts available in the Reference section to help you along. And please feel free to contact me directly with any questions you may have. Thanks again for the feedback!
I'm not looking for the transcript myself, but I can understand that if the student listens and gets most of the verbal, the transcripts can help fill in the gaps. Sometimes we get all but one or two words. The transcript would give us those few words. I also agree that just reading the transcript without putting in the effort to listen carefully would not help the listening comprehension. I guess it's up to the student to use a transcript appropriately.
Heidita
If Quentin and I think that transcripts would help us I guess we are not the only ones. They would help me for sure
You are wrong if you think they would make you understand better, that would improve your understanding of written Spanish better but certainly not the oral understanding.
Why not participate in the voice transcripts by Carlos? why not try the chat?
I know, Goyo thought he felt a little silly, he could hardly understand and talk, however, he came again and tried again and we could all understand him better and I am sure he understood more too.
Goyo, what do you think? Does a written text help on the long run to understand more? I don¡t.
I found listening to the lessons in sequence helped me build a vocabulary in the process.I was surprised to be comprehending the Spanish as she taught by that process.
Several requests have been made over time for transcripts of the lessons which may help those of us that can read Spanish much more than we can understand listening to it. I have never heard whether that will ever happen or not.
Can I put in my two-pennorth worth?
I think transcription would be good and if some people really want it I would not argue with them! However, could it be made inaccessible until one has listened say 3 times at least to the spoken, would that be possible?!
I know that I, for one, find I am way ahead in my understanding of text compared to verbal, and if text is there in front of me or easy to access I will sneak a peek (or more!), and I have already had the feeling it will not help me as pure listening will. Someone kindly recommended Antena3 videos to me and even though the amount I understand varies from nil, to brief sentences or parts thereof, I'm enjoying watching and listening.
Modal verbs well I have no idea what they are lol 
I think this site is wonderful, and Paralee's lessons are amazing. No mean feat to be video'd like that I am sure, and not to be boring or irritating. Big hug and thanks for Paralee!!
I did all of the lessons in order up to the lessons starting w/ 4. I enjoyed them, learned much from them, took notes and often go back to review them
I was very dissappointed w/ lessons 4.1 and on. I felt that they were not teaching spanish to english speaking people, they were teaching spanish grammar to spanish speaking people (as I believe someone has already stated).
Since lesson 4.15 was finished, I have spent many hours studying spanish workbooks, watching Telemundo and reading the forum as well as the references here. I am very proud of how far I have advanced so I went back last week to re-watch lesson 4.1.
It still makes me mad. Learning spanish for the last year has been fun and relaxing for me, but Lesson 4.1 and so on are just as annoying as they were when I first tried them. I understand them much better, but it's just not fun.
Subtitles or a transcript would definitely allow me to finish the last 15 lessons.
