Understanding spoken spanish is the hardest part
Understanding spoken spanish is one of the most dificult parts of the language. It's easy to read it, to write it and to speak it once you have enough vocabulary but the challenge comes when you have to face a real person and actually
- hear what they are saying
- process and comprehend
- answer
They speak so fast too
22 Answers
Hi Dewclaw,
Thanks for your post. I can sympathize with you. As a student of other languages, I have faced up to the same music. The beauty of learning a new language is that if you keep at it, one day your brain seems to put it all together, and Voilà!, your listening comprehension reaches unforeseen levels.
All I can tell you is to be patient because it does pay off in the end.
Renzo
Hola Dewclaw,
Gracias por tu comentario. Te entiendo perfectamente. He estudiado otros idiomas y me he topado con las mismas dificultades que tú. Lo lindo de aprender un nuevo idioma es que si perseveras te darás cuenta de que por arte de magia el cerebro parece recalibrarse y ¡Pum! llegas a entender el idioma a niveles sin precedentes.
Lo que te puedo aconsejar es que seas paciente porque tendrás tu recompensa.
Renzo
After 12 months on SD I was beginning to think I was seeing the tree in the
Forest at long last. And then last night I stupidly did a listening comprehension test
on Lomas, with that strange young lady with the extraordinary eyes , and I did not
understand a word she was saying , I was devastated by this, is there not a
"Sesame Street" in Spanish I could listen to in order to gain some semblance
of self confidence , I keep seeing that young girls rapid eye movements and
her even more machine gun like delivery ,and I despair at my incompetence.
I think I may go back to ," Qué hora es " at least I knew what they were saying
even though it was gibberish ,perhaps I could do a course in advanced gibberish. 
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The absolute hardest part of a new language is understanding someone on the phone because you don't have the facial expressions or gestures that you see in person. The main thing: don't be afraid to make mistakes.
I agree with you completely, Dewclaw. And for me, I have been losing my hearing. I now have hearing aids and the first thing I had to do was practice saying words (english words) out loud to myself for a month to retrain my brain to recognize the different word sounds. I still have a lot of trouble understanding if the other person has any kind of an accent, but I think I am getting better. Now if I could just remember to take them off before getting in the shower. The other answers here are very encouraging and I have been listening to more television and movies in spanish, even though I only comprehend words and phrases.
I agree with you they speak very very fast!
Thank you for asking such an obvious question. I've struggled with listening comprehension the most. Language immersion is not a practical choice for me at this time.
Renzo gave us an encouraging response.
I wish I could tell you the number of times my Hispanic friends have told me, "Jack, you have to have patience" after I would express my frustration of not being able to understand them at "full speed".
So, dewclaw, if you're putting in the time listening to Spanish, understanding will come, it will come, it truly will come. For the last few years, every few months or so I could tell my comprehension was getting better. A much more gradual process than picking up new vocabulary.
My Spanish speaking friends don't cut me much slack any more, they talk to me just like another Hispanic, and it makes me really have to focus to hang with them in a conversation, a situation I couldn't even dream of a few years ago.
Have patience, keeping working hard, and the 'hardest part' will eventually not be so hard.
Even when you know a word, sometimes it can sound like another!
I agree it is hard to comprehend foreign speech when you are learning. Sometimes I do get into the zone and I do better, but if I get hung up on one word and start to mentally translate it, I lose the next few sentences.
The SpanishDict chats are good for getting used to different accents, different rates of speech and also native English speakers going slow enough that it's easy to listen to their Spanish, and all these things mixed up together. Highly recommended!
The key to comprehension for those who do not live in a Spanish speaking country, in my opinion is nothing more than constant, unremiting exposure. Listen to radio and TV in Spanish, use an MP3 player and buy various songs in Spanish.The more you listen, after time, the more you comprehend. Even when you understand nothing at first, you are unconsciously acclamating you ear to the cadence of the language. Comprehension arrives piecemeal, step by step, but it can be enjoyable too.
The level of improvement directly correlates to the amount of commitment. You can't listen to Spanish 15 minutes a day, and expect to improve rapidly. This is my opinion, it has worked for me. If you try, it will work for you too. Remember, you are trying to absorb a language. Something a new baby will do effortlessly, because it is immersed in constant, listening.
I agree with Joe:
Listen to radio and TV in Spanish, use an MP3 player and buy various songs in Spanish.The more you listen, after time, the more you comprehend.
My listening comprehension, after about 3 years, is getting really good. I attribute this to the last 6 months or so of listening to radio, movies, and Mp3 lessons every day.
Yep, and I think Spanish is a fast language in general. Definitely faster than English.
I agree with you all on this post. Comprehending the native speaker is the hardest part of learning. And that is where the language courses fail. They can tell how to ask where the Baño is, but the courses cannot tell you how to understand "it is down the hall to the left ,but it is out of service". Immersion is probably the best, television news or movies as well, I find spanish language movies with english subtitles helpful. My own good fortune is that I live with native spanish speakers ,and slow but sure my comprehension is improving.
That happens to me with English. I took the TOEFL test (English proficiency test or something like that) and my worst score was at the speaking section.
