How long before it sinks in?
I'm getting good at writing sentences but when it comes to listening and understanding , not as good. I leave my TV on a Spanish channel at least 2 hours a day and am hoping to be able to understand the di*a**log. Any pointers from you guys/gals?
6 Answers
Last week (on Sunday morning) and this (Saturday) morning I happened to walk by the sports field of a neighborhood school. There were a bunch of kids there practicing baseball. I suspect that they spend many hours every day practicing their batting, throwing, catching, etc. The situation with language learning is quite similar. You want to practice until it becomes almost automatic.
Particularly when it comes to oral/aural skills, it's all about practice. You need to understand/produce phrases automatically (there is very little opportunity to think about what is said (or plan what you say). As with native speakers, if you've heard/said it a hundred times, the 101st time is easy.
It helps me to listen to the same thing a hundred times! I have purchased "audiolibros" en español. (..hmm..do I need to capitalize that "e"?) and recorded them with a program called audacity to my computer so that I can even replay individual phrases - oh let us say, 10 times or more over and over until I finally "get it".
However, - and not to be discouraging, but it does seem that I start again with each new story hardly understanding a word! Will I have to have heard everything there is to say in the world before I will ever understand anything?
On the bright side, I can read now. I just have to look up a lot of words.
Every now and then I feel I've made a significant step-up - but what I'm really looking forward to is being able to completely understand every word said by the people who work in 'El Asturiano', the (fictitious!) bar in Madrid featured in my daily Spanish listening treat, Amar en Tiempos Revueltos. (I know I'm always mentioning it, I just love it so much!)
Marcelino and Pelayo especially, it took me a while to realise that they not only 'drop' s, but also d , so 'He comprado' sounds like 'He compra'o' etc.
Here are Marce and Pelayo at work, La enfermedad de Enriqueta
Actually in this clip Pelayo is easy to understand but normally he talks in long sentences, rather speedily, and uses his own phrases which I have fun researching, eg ¡No me toques los colindrejos! ¡Habla de una forma muy rebuscada!
I also write, but saying the words work best for me. If you can say them , you can hear them.
Put some Spanish music or speach on your mp3 and keep it with you. This site: link text
helped me a great deal. And keep up your studies. It is hard, but I find that just as I am about to give up, suddenly things start clicking and I like level up or something and can hear and speak somewhat better. Have fun!
Hi Joseph,
I think "listening/comprehension" skills come last when learning as an adult. I would suggest that you continue doing what you are doing. If possible, increase the amount of time you spend "listening" to Spanish. When you are watching Spanish TV, listen for words you recognize and watch for body language and other cues to see if you can figure out what is going on. Write down any words/sounds that you are curious about and try to look them up. Eventually, you will start hearing more and more words you recognize. This will be followed by understanding short phrases, and then whole sentences. It requires time and patience, but the rewards are well worth it.
Commercials are excellent places to start because they are so repetitive. Also, the best thing for me is to find Spanish speaking friends to talk to. They not only give you instant feedback, but they correct and guide you in learning.
Also, I have found this website to be extremely helpful for "listening". It is called La Casa Rojas. They are offering free online video lessons for this entire year. Their main emphasis is on "listening" to the rhythms, sounds and patterns, which gave me a whole new perspective.
Buena suerte 
