Your heart rate increases, the room seems smaller and stuffier, maybe you start to sweat a little too because it is time for the listening portion of the exam or you are alone with only Spanish-speakers for the very first time. You have studied so hard and you know all kinds of great vocabulary from all those flash-cards. You can talk about your family members and where you want to travel on vacation. You even know how to use the subjunctive correctly to describe your doubt and dreams.

So how is it that when you hear someone speaking Spanish to you at a normal speed, it all sounds like one word? The answer is elision, the omission of sounds when individual words are combined into phrases and sentences, and you do it all the time in English as well. When asking someone “How are you doing?”, you don’t usually pronounce each word separately with pauses between each word, right? Instead it sounds more like “howeryodoin?” This is a very common practice for informal, regular speech in almost any language. It just seems more apparent in Spanish because you have learned each word individually instead of in phrases and regular context like your native language. While you learned “¿Có-mo es-tah us-ted?” is the correct way to ask someone how he or she is doing, the more common pronunciation is more like “¿Cómwestáusté?”. And it can get even more complicated when you have to differentiate between “helado” and “el lado” or “ha alquilado” and “alquilado,” but this is where context really comes to the rescue.

Now for a few solutions to the problem that plagues almost all students of a new language. I have always found watching movies and television shows with the Spanish subtitles on to be extremely helpful. This way, you can hear what the speakers are saying and at the same time connect it to the individual words you are more familiar with through reading. Also, if you are using DVR or watching a DVD you can pause, rewind, and play as many times as you like, you can listen to tricky phrases over and over until you are more familiar with them. I also suggest listening to newscasts since the newscasters are usually professionally trained public speakers and will enunciate a little more clearly for a more dramatic effect. Listening to your favorite Spanish songs while reading the lyrics may be a little more fun, but I have always found it to be a little difficult since pronunciation is really not a priority when rhyming and following the beat are involved.

In conclusion, listening is just plain hard at first. But just like learning how to conjugate a verb in a new tense is hard for the first few (hundred) times, it gets easier with practice. Focus on getting the general idea of the conversation and not so much translating each individual word and the rest will come in time. Until then, “¡Háslwégo!”

Comments

• 1.6k
• 11
• 2k

cheeseisyumm

This is soooo true. I had a very difficult time understanding spoken spanish for a long time. I still do quite a bit but I am alot better than I was. like the article says I find movies with subtitles are very good help along with news/radio people speaking since they try to use clear sentences mostly. It also gives you a better idea on how native speakers actually talk, not the textbook proper speak which almost no one does even in any language. Also practice speaking alot (even if just to yourself - although you may seem crazy to some people if you are talking to yourself in a foreign language, hehe) and you may start to hear the words blend together, and later on if you will recognize the blended words easier. Te agradezco la ayuda! Good article!

• 0
• 4
• 12k

Dee914

Excellent article! I struggled with this for years (and still have my moments). It may be because I've always learned best by reading vs. hearing. ??? I have an extensive Spanish vocabulary and I know all the "rules", but it seemed to take forever to make a sentence in Spanish and even longer to understand one. On the other hand, my husband (who learns best by hearing/doing) hasn't studied one lick of the Spanish language, but can pick out the Spanish words he's learned from me by only listening to a conversation he overhears on the Spanish TV channels. Grrrr...It's infuriating! ;-) One of the ways I've gotten better is by practicing common phrases aloud, in order to get into the 'rhythm' of the language, instead of constantly focusing so much on diction/"proper pronunciation". By doing this, I'm now better able to understand and follow/join a conversation in Spanish...even when the phrase equates to a simple "haya doin'" instead of "how...are...you...doing?" :-) Thanks again for sharing this. Great article and Great advice!!!

• 6.2k
• 99
• 69k

Seitheach

I have recently ordered two spanish movies from amazon.com. I hope to recieve them soon and I will watch them often until I get sick of them or understand them. I hope to buy more soon, but I don't want to go broke learning either.

To add a comment, please Login