Spanish television to help learn Spanish?
I've been told to watch things in Spanish to help me learn. Movies, soap operas, etc.
I have been watching las telenovelas on Univision and I only catch a word here and there. They talk so fast!
I've also been told to put on the Closed Captioning. Well, I can do that, but it is a few sentences behind, so I'm not sure if that is making it more confusing.
Should I keep doing it? With or without the Closed Captioning?
If it will help... I'll keep it up... even if I can't tell it's helping! LOL
Thanks!
9 Answers
Hi and welcome to the forum,
I would suggest that you watch Spanish language channels without the closed caption option. It might help in the beginning, but in the long run, you are better off just listening. As you mentioned, the captions are running behind. Also, because this will never be a word for word translation anyway, I think it might be more confusing than anything.
In the beginning, you are only going to pick up a word here and there. Eventually, you will understand short phrases, then sentences and finally the entire dialog. It requires time and patience and then some more time and patience. But you will get there.
Buena suerte 
I agree with, Nicole, I wouldn't use the closed caption option. You end up not listening to the Spanish and just reading the English 
.
Maybe you could find a dubbed series as these are usually slower and the accent is clearer. Later on, when you're honed your listening skills, you could watch the telenovelas again. If you know the series you're watching before hand, you'll be able to really concentrate on listening to Spanish, and not have to try to figure out the plot, too.
Welcome to the forum, Toshasem.
Keep watching.
Remember, this is a long-term process, you aren't going to see immediate results overnight. After a few months you'll realize that you understand way more than you did before.
As for captions or not, there are no absolutes, do both. One day you can turn them on, one day you can turn them off. I think that what you'll find is depending on where you are in the learning process, you'll know whether or not you want or need them on.
As you progress you will be fine tuning your learning approach. You will need to do different things at different times depending on what it is you're trying to achieve.
Right now the most important thing is to keep watching and listening. If you're really into a particular movie or show and you really want to know what's going on, put the captions on. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Don't stress yourself out over small stuff like this. Do what feels right and helps you learn the most. As long as you're progressing and having fun, it's all good.
Gracias a los dos! I didn't specify, but they suggested the Closed Captioning to be in Spanish, not English. But still it is confusing.
No way can I figure out the plot! I know quite a bit of Spanish but sometimes I go minutes without understand a single word. LOL
Dora la Exploradora is more my speed for now, but I'll keep watching las telenovelas también!
Que bien verte en el foro otra vez, Tosh.
Creo que tienes este hilo: rtve.es
Es posible eligir diferentes programas, pero como dices, no he encontrado ningún programma donde hablan muy lentamente, no, lo siento. Hay un dvd con la entera telenovela '' Los gozos y las sombras.' Estoy mirandolo pero tengo que ver cada capítulo dos veces. A menos. ¡Que disfrutes de tus próximas vacaciones!
good way to learn
I always listern to spanish radio in my car even if it is muy rapido. My goal is to pick up as many words as possible and most of the time I only get one or two but it is getting better.
Hi there! I'm a newbie. Besides some movies for children I find books about fables and fairy tales very helpful. I have loved to both read and watch: "Historia de una gaviota y el gato que le enseño a volar" by Luis Sepulveda. And reading helps me both with my vocabulary and my writing. Hope my answer was useful 
Ser capaz de hacer algo venciendo miedos?
