Ok... what's my problem?
I just watched an episode of Teresa - una telenovela.
After a year of studying Spanish... knowing a bunch of vocabulary... almost on Level 3 of Rosetta Stone (and fully comprehending everything they are teaching)... able to read and write most everything that I know (and be grammatically correct)... able to have small, very basic, conversations with Spanish-speaking people...
do you want to guess how much I could pick up watching that show???
NADA!
Well... almost nothing. I think I heard 'hombre', and 'conmigo'. :(
Watching that is more discouraging to me than helpful.
So, what am I doing wrong?? I would have thought by now I could watch and not pick up every word, but at least enough to know what's going on. It might as well have been in Russian.
31 Answers
Don't feel bad. I've been trying to learn Spanish since 1972, lived in Venezuela for 2 years, and still can't understand a lot of what they say on telenovelas. They seem to involve a lot of shouting and talking over top of each other, as well as simply talking very fast and using slang.
Try listening to/watching a Spanish language news report. Reporters are trained to speak clearly and at a moderate pace. It's much easier to understand.
Well Tosh, all I can say is that this is a very common problem. If you do a search you will find many threads on this very topic.
The most important thing to do is to start "listening" to Spanish conversation from the beginning. I studied French for many years, could read, write, etc., but struggled in conversation. I was determined that this would not happen again. So I have been doing everything possible to incorporate "listening" into my daily Spanish learning routine.
It is not too late. Since you have a basic understanding of the language and vocabulary, just begin over emphasizing the "listening" portion of your studies. This can be done through TV, movies, paid sites like Lo Más TV, the many listening examples in the reference section on this site, Serius radio, etc. The important thing is to constantly expose yourself to the rhythm and cadence of the Spanish language. Language is like music. There is timing, rhythm, changes in pitch, blending of words, etc. If you spent a couple of years reading music theory books, you would become knowledgeable in part to how music functions on paper. However, it wouldn't help you in playing a piece of music unless you had been exposed to how those written notes sounded in real time.
I wish you the best, but can't overemphasize....listen, listen, listen!!!! 
Hi Tosh :
Occasionally I am invited to the university here in Chihuahua to give a presentation in English for the purpose of listening and comprehension tests in the classroom. The very same thing that you are experiencing, happens to the Mexican students learning English.
The professors have told me that many of their students read and write English with nearly perfect scores, but as soon as the television is turned on, or a native speaker like me gives a presentation the comprehension is lost.
By this Tosh, reading, writing and speaking, require different skills than listening.
Listening comprehension only comes from listening, and as indicated in all the above posts takes time and patience, lots of time and patience.
It is clear that you have the desire,so just keep at it, it will come.
I'll agree with reading a book. I read all 7 Harry Potter's in Spanish and it really helped me out a ton. To be able to understand fast (normal) speech, you really need to be fairly comfortable with the language and have a good idea of what to expect what will come next. When you expect what will come next, your mind will fill in blanks for you even if you don't hear the next word very well at all.
I started reading them after like 9 months of studying or something and I knew all of the verb conjugations but sometimes I would see something like "hablaría" and then I would stop and think "wait, uhhhh oh yeah that's conditional". You need to get to the point where you really don't have to think at all to recognize a conjugation or how to conjugate a verb to any given tense. It will also really make you get comfortable with all of the grammar you've learned. If you see "si no fuera por ti, no podría haberlo hecho" you want to be able to just see it, understand what it means, and move on. Without any sort of thinking about why which conjugation is used where, where the "lo" is placed, or anything like that. Reading a book will drill some constructions into your mind that you'll never really think about them again. It'll also drastically increase your vocabulary.
After I read those books and a few others, I started watching anime (Death Note, among others) dubbed into Spanish. Maybe you hate anime, but it's nice because they generally speak slower and clearer than normal. This helped me just get used to listening to Spanish for long periods of time. Before, my brain would get really tired just listening to Spanish for an hour and I would start thinking "must....go back....to English...." but now I can listen for hours and not be affected really.
And while I was doing all of these things, I was also watching news and listening to music in Spanish too. Try to listen to a song and understand first without looking up the lyrics. Afterwards look up the lyrics and listen a few times. Then listen a few more times without looking at the lyrics and make sure you can catch all of the words.
And now, after doing all that, and coming on 2 years of studying Spanish, I can understand the majority of what is said on telenovelas, but there is still a lot I don't catch. I can understand usually almost everything on the news. My current struggle is to understand my friends from Venezuela. If they are talking calmly then I do fine, but as soon as they start laughing/telling jokes, or get angry, or anything like that they start talking faster, less clearly, start using a lot of slang, and I feel like I regressed 2 years and am back at day 1 and wondering what language they are even speaking in.
But, like you, this is the position I was in with things like telenovelas earlier, and I came to be able to understand a lot of that, so I will just keep on reading, watching shows, listening to music, and talking until the day comes when I just start to understand that kind of speech. Moral of the story, don't give up/feel discouraged, and keep pressing on.
It just takes a lot of practice. I recommend you turn on the subtitles when you watch television and movies to help you learn how to hear. When you see the subtitles you will recognize more words and be more likely to hear them. The subtitles are like training wheels though, don't become dependent on them. Luckily, some commercials won't have subtitles so you can practice hearing without seeing during the breaks. Hope this helps!
At this point, you should put what you know to practice. Get a spanish book, newspaper, magazine and READ IT COVER TO COVER. Start off with fables, and then move on to reading the Mexican American War in spanish and other factual events. Highlight every word you don't know, and reread the story if you like it or have the time. Read paragraphs and interperet different concepts and viewpoints in a different language and practice spanish writing and composition. This helps you THINK the language, and in conversations and listening, you will notice that you can listen to faster talkers without having to think about what they mean. You can also go to spanish websites with listening clips, and download spanish music. It's good to listen as much as you can - this is useful in public areas because you can just listen to the lector or other people talk (but always be courteous). The only way to get better at speaking is through trial and error. Regardless of whether you get tounge tied in a conversation, native speakers will admire your honest perseverance, and your spanish will advance over time. You are so close now; don't let this hurdle stop you.
Read.
Listen.
Plain and simple.
If you want to improve your vocabulary and acclimatize yourself to the various syntactic arrangements inherent to the Spanish language, then read.
Reading extensively produces a sort of language echo whereby your mind begins to recognize patterns in the language without any conscious effort, so that when confronted with unfamiliar words or phrases, it becomes progressively easier to guess correctly what is being said or written based on context.
One caveat: Be sure to read that which interests you. This sounds simple but is not always intuitive. While I certainly believe that reading novels and news journals can go a long way in expanding one's language abilities, it makes little sense to read such material if you find it mind-numbingly painful to do so. That is, if you hate reading newspapers with a fuzzy purple passion, switching from English to Spanish is not likely to change things much for you. So if you like anime, then read anime, if you like sports then read a lot of sports journals, if you prefer computers then follow all the latest tech innovations in Spanish, whatever you do, follow your passions—in Spanish—and it will make learning a lot more productive.
As far as Rosetta stone is concerned, although I have never tried it personally, I have found such "listening" programs often to be too contrived to be of much practical value. If your goal was to understand telenovelas then I would suggest (and this is not meant in any way as a knock on you) that had you spent the entire year actively watching telenovelas (by actively, I mean getting involved and interested in both the visual and verbal context of the program) you would probably be a lot more confident in your aural abilities.
I might make one more suggestion on this account. There are plenty of Spanish movies and telenovelas available on youtube that are often broken up into clips about 10 minutes long. A good exercise is to actively watch these clips (really try to get into the story) but in the following manner. Repeatedly watch the first 10 minute clip until you start to get the urge to want to see what is going to happen next (and by repeatedly I don't necessarily mean back-to-back but rather at fairly regular intervals such as every day or twice a day, etc.). Once you have gotten to the point where you are interested enough in the story to want to follow it further, you can then start making a playlist where you you add a clip at a time, but only add each successive clip as you become interested in what will happen next.
Though I am not particularly fond of soap operas/telenovelas, I have tried this approach in the past with a couple of them and found it to result in a very marked improvement in my listening abilities, and in a very short time too. Another thing that I have done in the past is take short (5 - 10 minute) clips from youtube and try to transcribe them.
In any case, as with reading, it is definitely best to utilize media that you find interesting (i.e. if you hate soap operas then steer clear of the telenovelas; if you like crime dramas then watch those, etc.).
Man, talk about a lot of answers! How great. I too would like to throw in a few cents... because I have improved my listening comprehension using telenovelas, in addition to living with a Spanish-speaking family in Mexico for three months.
Here is the important thing to recognize: the neural pathway from printed word to language comprehension is entirely different from the neural pathway from heard speech to language comprehension. That's what immersion is all about, it just takes time. Reading books is great as an ADJUNCT to listening. It will help you learn vocabulary, grammar, and sentance structure. But you still have to PRACTICE listening. Which, if you don't understand much, is boring and hence difficult to do.
My suggestion is this: keep studying, read, do Rosetta Stone, all that. But get some telenovela DVD's, and listen to each phrase over and over till you get it. If you can't get it, ask someone what the phrase means, then move on. If you can get to where you understand half in this fashion, you'll be over the hump and you'll improve.
ANd if you have the chance, go live in a Spanish speaking country, and eschew speaking English when you are there.
Buena suerte cuate! You're my twin because, really, we're on the same path.
Jeremy
If you haven't listened to telenovelas before, they will be hard to understand. Listening to a teacher speak Spanish is nothing like listening to a TV show.
I remember when I first tried watching a dubbed episode of Friends 
. I think I caught about three words before I gave up five minutes in
. (That was after I'd listened to the audiobooks for Harry Potter books one, three and four )
Then I watched easier stuff so I could get used to listening to Spanish: things I was very familiar with, and Disney movies . When I'd watched at least 20 Disney movies and other films, I went back to Friends and watched the first episode without any problems at all.
And then I got cocky and tried watching El secreto de sus ojos which is Spanish from Argentina and it's not dubbed either so it's full of difficult accents, slang, speed, people talking over one another... The introduction I understood fine - it was clear and slow... and then two people met up and started talking... O M G.
I was so glad that Marianne also watched the beginning of the film and gave up too jejeje. We caught about 5 words between us I think 
.
So I went back to the easier stuff. I watched all the episodes of Friends and couple of other series and much more films - not just Disney and children's films. Then I watched films from Spain - the accent and slang I was most familiar with... and then I finally tried watching El secreto de sus ojos again and understood 80% of it... .unfortunately I got bored about 30 minutes into it as it really wasn't my type of film.
So stick at it, comprehension will come with time, you just need to practise, practise, practise. If you're getting frustrated with telenovelas, then give them a break for a while and try something easier to get used to listening for extended periods of time. Go back to them in a couple of months and you'll be amazed how much more you can understand .
Josh, your problem is not uncommon, and not only for spanish. The novela you mentioned is difficult because it has a lot of slang from many places. First, there is slang from areas of Spain, then from Mexico (the capital), and finally Sinaloa, a state in Mexico. Add to that the narcotraficante slang, and the speed and manerisms of speech the different actors have, and anyone would go crazy.
I highly recomend a program like Primer Impacto, because you will hear mostly correct Spanish, with some idiomatic expressions courtesy of different nationalities. Also suggested (and a good idea) are news broadcasts, especially Joaquin Lopez Doriga, who is highly educated and very good. Don't give up on novelas, though, there are many fine broadcasts with clearer language.
I would also recomend to keep up the variety of programs, including the ones hard to understand. Eventually they will begin to make sense. I used to listen to Persian television programs and could not even identify one word. Bllut after listening a while, and hearing different accents and speech patterns, it became easier. I may not remember much, but the pain is still a vivid memory, and makes me want to comfort you
Well, Tosh you're not the only one this is pretty common 
you don't have any problem, but it's only that you're learning, which is not a problem!
So don't be discouraged, if you practiced enough you'll do great
Try this website, it'll help you a lot to practice and to know your level LoMasTv!
My brother in law has been speaking English for many years and I would consider him fluent, he still annoys my sister when they are watching TV in English, asking her what is going on constantly. It isn't easy listening to TV in a second language.
When you speak to people they are aware that you are not speaking your own language and most will slow down a little even if only subconscioulsly. That doesn't happen with TV.
Probably you need to review your spanish and take it slow. My other conclusion is you forget things fast. 
Hey don't feel bad cz there are so many people in this world who don't know spanish so be happy and i just took spanish this year and its my first year of learning spanish cz i just came from India.
I may forget things fast...
what language was I learning? what question did I ask?
