a little bit lost and a little bit not
I was doing fine in Learn Spanish I and II and pretty well in the first part of Learn Spanish III. Then Paralee started speaking more and more exclusively in Spanish during the video lessons. I've just started Learn Spanish IV, and I'm finding that my brain is not processing the Spanish very well. I fail to understand a lot of what she says. The weird thing is that so far I think I'm getting the main point of the videos. The Spanish sort of washes over me, and somehow meaning happens even though there's a lot of new vocabulary that I don't know, and the Spanish is coming at me too fast for me to be able to think much about grammar and verb tenses and the like.
I'm wondering whether others have had a similar experience and how long it normally takes for the "lost in a sea of Spanish but somehow sort of 'getting it' anyway" feeling develops into truly understanding what's being said in a way that's more like listening to one's native tongue.
4 Answers
I think it is different for every person but we all go through that stage. It is an important stage as it is when we start to "think" in Spanish and stop translating. For me, unfortunately it was a long process. Thick headed as I am. Hopefully for you it goes faster. One thing for sure the more you apply yourself the faster it will click.
I can only echo what Jubilado and gringo said, and add, explicitly, that it's a moving target.
Basically, whatever you have down pretty well, will feel like normal, and stuff just a bit beyond that will feel like it's washing over you, but you GeT it, and the next level will wash over you with maybe quite a bit less comprehension. This is normal. Things you just barely got the jist of today will become tomorrow's 85% comprehension. Today's 85% will become easy. It's a sliding window, with older, more established terms becomeing easy, and newer ones becoming doable with comprehension, and really new ones sometimes just baffling you.
Enjoy the journey and learn.
Buena suerte
Roger
I felt the exact same way as you describe when I watched the videos. Comprehension is a curious thing and I think the videos are quite good precisely because it is possible to understand what Paralee is trying to get across even without being able to say "here she uses this tense of this verb, that ending there is so and so and still that other verb is a spell-changer". However it's a long road from here to this higher level of understanding that starts to look like listening in your native language. Some people might be able to take this long road in just a few giant steps, lucky peeps. I think for most people this is the longest step because it's the most "fuzzy" stage of learning if I can put it like that. You already know the basics of verb conjugation, you have a limited vocabulary, you have an idea how to form sentences: this is the stage where textbooks have done most of the groundwork and now you need practice, more vocabulary, and even more practice but how much is a very individual thing. Breathe, relax, and rest assured that your brain is sorting it out, just keep exposing it to... Spanish brain food, haha.
Currently I'm slowly going through the course again (a couple of months after the first time), experimenting to see if I'll have an easier time now with the additional things I learned. I've just plunged into Part 3 so things should get interesting shortly!
I am at the same part of my learning spanish. I have taken spanish for 2 years and am pracitcing by watching tv, listening to radio, and talking to native friends in spanish. I do very well with written word and can read books in spanish with ease. I am mostly working on formulating my own sentances by reflex and comprehending spoken language.
