Understanding Spanish
Is it possible to learn Spanish fluently when you are an older adult? I find the lessons easy to follow but when engaged with someone that speaks Spanish, I am unable to understand because they speak so rapidly?
10 Answers
YES YES YES!!!
Honey, I'm 55, and I'm doing it!! I've poured my heart and soul into learning the Spanish language, I started the first week of June 2008. I can understand most general conversations, I can communicate reasonably well in Spanish. I am so happy now with my progress, even though I have struggled with so much frustration getting this 'learning thing' off the ground. I am so honored and yes, even proud, when my Spanish speaking friends tell me "Jack.... your Spanish is so good, and you're understanding so much more now".
Regarding not being able to understand conversations, well, I used to have blood spurt out of my eyes 
after listening to Spanish conversations for several hours. However, hearing and understanding is a learned skill, and I promise you, if you listen long enough, and then listen some more, it just starts to come. I practice speaking all the time, even if I'm alone, I speak. I pray in Spanish, I'm teaching my grandson Spanish, I talk to the cats and dogs in Spanish. The rest of the time, I listen, I listen, I listen. Speak it, listen, speak it, listen, and then repeat.
Another world opens up when you can get beyond ¿Comó estás? and actually talk.
Please don't give up! Just find a way that you can learn, that fits you.
Suerte!
Puede ser cierto para algunas personas. Por ejemplo aunque mi padre tiene 56 años y por más que le explico como usar la computadora, no entiende, me imagino que si le enseño lo poquito que sé del inglés, no va a entender nada .
En mi caso que soy joven también se me hace algo dificil, escucho y escucho música en inglés y series en el mismo idioma, y solo entiendo 5 o 6 palabras. Aún me falta mucho, pero creo que lo lograré.
Age doesn't matter. As long as you are dedicated and willing to learn new things, you can do it! I'm already 27 yo and yet I was able to learn 2 other languages- English and Japanese... Yes! I'm an Asian, but I can manage to speak English fluently -
This is probably the most commonly expressed frustration among those of us learning the language. I listen to a fair amount of Spanish radio, not to learn, since I have no context of what is being talked about. I do it to test to see if my listening skillshave improved. It is by far the area of learning that has seen the least amount of progress.
I do think that as my vocabulary gets stronger, when I hear a word or phrase that I implicitly know without having to convert to English in my head, I will be able to do better with this.
We'll all keep plugging away!!!
Yes you can learn as an older adult!! (Unless you're also having problems understanding conversations in English...?)
Conversation is great, but its hard to log enough time to really develop your ear. I really recommend listening to radio, leaving the TV on a spanish-language station, or watching videos online. Think how little kids learn -- they are surrounded by language that they can't understand, but eventually it starts to make sense. Its much the same as an adult. If you don't spend many hours listening, you will never develop the ear for it, no matter how well you can read and write.
Also, when you get to the level 4 lessons, they are all in Spanish, but spoken rather slowly, so its not so hard to understand. That helps alot.
Don't give up!! One day you'll find yourself understanding everything! 
How long have you been learning Spanish, because that too is also a factor in understanding the language when spoken. If for only a short while, understand that it just takes time to develop an ear to the language. If for a longer period, emersing yourself into regular conversations with Spanish speakers is probably your best bet in gaining the ability to understand a conversation spoken aloud, and if forces your to use what you are learning.
I was reading all these very interesting comments and I remembered something very curious that I would love to tell all of you that are learning Spanish.
When I came to the US to live for good, I did it to Miami to my sister's house, back in 2002. She had an old parrot by the name of Paco and I remembered that I was amazed because he could talk in English and Spanish. Paco could even roll the RR's. He could say my name, Ricardo, very good and my name is not easy to say it correctly. I remembered my sister saying to me: "Riche, if Paco can speak English, why you can't? I never forget this.
So I tell you all the same thing, if a parrot can speak Spanish, why you can not???
No rocket science here, it is just a matter of patience, listen and repeat, listen and repeat. Eso es todo.
And if you need some more listening practise, you can use one of the following podcasts banks:
LingusTV some funny videos together with transcripts and translations
Cody's Cuentos popular fairy tales in Spanish together with transcripts
Notes in Spanish dialogues in Spanish with English explanations
Learn Spanish learning lessons by Guardian
Archivo de podcasts everything for free, you can download transcriptions in PDF format
Spaniards conquer Philippines for about 400 years that's why it's quite easy for us to learn Spanish. Some of our words are actually Spanish. Like Comedor (kitchen), Lunes (Monday), Semana Santa (Holy Week), etc...
Age is just a number, nothing more, and you will be absolutely amazed at how Spanish speech seems to get slower and slower as you learn more, I hear it's true of English too, so I guess all languages. I memorized some songs before I knew hardly a word of what they were singing, now those fast songs almost seem like slow songs. I hope this encourages you.
