How is your listening comprehension?
I am working on my listening comprehension. I have an easier time with reading and wriring en español as I am at a beginners level. I have a droidx cellphone and I was browsing the market for applications and I found one quite unique. If you have a phone that runs android or if you have an iphone you can look for the application at the marketplace, it is called, Listen and Learn. The application pointed me to a website and I think their method is kind of neat. Listen to audio and read at the same time. In your left ear, you hear the language you want to learn (spanish/english). In your right ear (after a delay), you will hear the translation and you also have the simultaneous texts to read in front of you. I believe that we are intelligent beings and we do have the abilty to comprehend more than one thing at a time. Though I just stumbled onto this learning method. I think it is neat and I would like to share this con mis amigos
binaurality.com
Have fun, please feel free to share any experiences. At that site you can find a level test where you listen to spoken spanish and then take a compehension test. Honestly, I failed. Not to worry, I am still able to learn and this is an area I am working on. I know that more of us struggle with listening también.
Please don't forget to wear earphones for the full effect. That does make a difference.
Su amigo, Amor y paz
7 Answers
Voices en Español is free. Voices spelled in English, en Español in Spanish. It consists of readings in Spanish, each one read by a different speaker from a different country. You can receive the texts of the readings via email or by searching the web. The emails always have a link to the audio. You can also subscribe-- free--via iTunes. They have several stories by Julio Cortázar, one by Elena Poniatowska, a couple of newspaper articles from Spain, and an interview with a Cuban-American enterprenuer, plus many other things.. They record two each month and you can download all the recordings since September, 2008.
If you go to SpanishDict's link text Learn Spanish page, you will find several audio recordings made by Heidita and other members.These are great and I wish there were more.
My biggest problem with listening comprehension is vocabulary.
Another good site for beginners wishing to improve listening ability is "News in Slow Spanish". You can subscribe to their podcast (I do that and listen to them while doing the treadmill at the gym). If you pay some $$ you can get a transcript of every lesson, too. I think they have flashcards and some other features but I just download the podcast and listen to that.
You could try Bueno Entonces for the Iphone as well. It really helped my listening skills I think. It's Argentinian Spanish. ( I got the instant computer download, but it's cheaper to get each lesson individually if you have an iPhone I thin) It's also very expensive when you count all the classes and there's a lot of wasting time in English and irrelevant English-language waffle about nothing which I find frustrating. I wouldn't mind the chit-chat and the jokes if they were all in Spanish.
All in all I'm glad I bought it, but when the next level comes out I won't be spending my money on it.
There are so many free resources on the internet for beginners to learn Spanish, i don't think buying things is really necessary. Funny times we live in! No way I could have learned Spanish 10 years ago, I'd have enough money to buy about 2 books, no access to Spanish television or news and no one to ask questions when I got stuck.
I wonder how they decided which language to hear in which ear? Since one hemisphere of our brain dominates in handling language skills I wonder if they took that into account.
It looks like a great method, but I would caution you that this is a commercial product, not a free program. SpanishDict.com might not appreciate your free "plug" rather that them paying advertising fees.
Usually as long as you are not just hawking the product there is no problem. (If you create an online account, you can download a free lesson, but after that lessons are for sale.)
However, if you get flagged for Spam, don't be surprised. You should mention in your review that the program is a commercial product.
It is a wonderful time we live in, with the technology available to us all. I wish the internet had been available when I was a child, and my mind worked better. Of course there are downsides as well. Less face to face communication as it has become so easy to find the vast resources available to all with the net.
In my case, it is wonderful to be able to reach almost any part of the world from the comfort of my home, and get involved in so many cultures, and ideas.
