My worst fear realized... : (
When I followed the suggestion made by someone here of just relaxing my brain and "letting go" when I listen to spoken Spanish, my worst fear was realized--I really don't know Spanish at all! I understood absolutely NOTHING.
I now realize that I don't understand Spanish. I just translate words like a dictionary in my head. This is NOT understanding and this will get me nowhere.
So can I expect that by letting go of English when I listen, as I've done, I can expect to continue to understand nothing? Will the understanding come back, or...ugh. I HATE translating in my head, but now I know that if I don't, I won't understand anything!
I feel SO discouraged right now. : (
16 Answers
There is nothing wrong with translating in your head.
That is a stage of learning.
There is nothing wrong with not understanding. It's a matter of practice. Babies take years, you may note, even though they are programmed to learn faster at this stage of their lives.Also, they start out very modestly with ' dadadada, mamama' . They don't form full sentences in the subjunctive.
Go somewhere where they speak slower,( like in a class). Just start out with small, easy sentences. Don't expect to understand everything. I live in Devon and I still don't understand the locals after 35 years, not the most Devon farmers..
I lived 18 months in France and I cried a lot, but I had to speak and it did get better.
First of all, I would ditch all of the negative self-talk. It isn't going to help, if anything, it will make you feel worse about yourself. Feeling bad about your situation is not going to improve it. You need to accept where you are, and work your way up. If you are too embarrassed to write or speak in Spanish you will not improve.
Many of us feel silly at times, but it is something you have to learn to deal with. I remember having a conversation with someone from a church I used to attend, and instead of saying "pecado" I said "pescado". I was embarrassed, but I decided to laugh at my mistake instead of letting something so silly get the best of me.
Take control!
Destinos. Seriously. Watching this series improved my listening comprehension so much. I watched every episode twice. It took a couple of months.
It's free, you have nothing to lose!
http://www.learner.org/series/destinos/watch/ep1/
NikkiRivera's story about the pecado/pescado reminded me of another fish story. I took conversational Spanish in college and we had to tell a story to the class. I told the story of me catching this really big fish when I was 8 years old. State champion for its species! Anyway, in relating the tale I used the verb "coger" because it means "to catch". Well apparently in some parts of Latin America it means "to have sex with". My instructor explained that to me when I was just about done with the story and of course I said, "I definitely did not know that. Wow. Estoy embarazada." SERIOUSLY! The class completely lost it and I did not know why. Then they explained that embarazada does not mean embarrassed.
A few months ago I tried to ask for my receipt (recibo) and asked for a recipe (receta).
Anyone trying to speak a non-native language is going to have these kinds of encounters. People are usually just so patient when I tell them "Estoy aprendiendo español." They seem to be glad that I'm trying at all. Lowering expectations by asking them to speak slowly and as if I am a child sometimes helps.
Every step you take is a step and the beginning of a journey.....Do you know how to eat an elephant?.......bit by bit. You simply can't expect yourself to speak/listen to and read a foreign language without obstacles. Everyone has one, two, three or even more of them....I'm one those "more" ones 
(I know, silly pun) I'm after three years studying on a daily basis still struggling with things like the se-passive and the se-impersonal, by most people apparently experienced as the most simple part of the spanish language.....preterit or imperfect.....I'm horrible at it.....but I'm having the fun of learning and feeling progress although with tiny little steps. If you can't understand everything right now, try to read a spanish book but don't frustrate yourself by focussing on everything you can't do right now. When you're cleaning a floor, look towards the side you already cleaned. This way you can say to yourself.....that's the thing I have achieved. If you look the other way you would depress yourself because you only see the things you haven't achieved. Remember that a lot of people have not even tried to learn spanish, or even thought about it. Respect yourself for the fact you're trying to learn something new.
Good luck and chin up! You can do it!
Don't feel discouraged.... just read my blog and look for me on Skype. If you can translate simultaneously then you are almost there, but the necessary glue to put it all together.
chileno74 is my Skype name, just mention this forum and tell me you time availability.
Just another person chiming in with encouragement. It takes time and practice, practice, practice so don't beat yourself up (though I understand that it can be frustrating sometimes, we always want to be ahead of where we are!). I spend a lot of time with Spanish speakers, and it is still feels like magic when we are having a conversation and I understand in a natural way. It felt like I would never get there, but I did! That said, I still have times when all of a sudden I don't understand anything a person said. Sometimes they use a word or phrase that I'm unfamiliar with and it throws me off. Sometimes I don't understand words and phrases that I KNOW. Also sometimes I have trouble with certain people's accents. I agree with the folks who recommended "Destinos" and other listening shows/websites. However, I also think nothing equals practice with real people. It's OK if you make a ton of mistakes, in fact, it is the best way to learn! The sky will not fall, you will probably have some good laughs, and you will learn like crazy! Most people are really nice and happy to help. I remember having lots of difficult conversations in which I could barely express anything, and now I can have a deep and meaningful conversation with someone (though I still have a lot to learn, I don't think that ever stops). It is worth the wait! Paso a paso, you can do it!
I feel exactly the same about English. I think I can understand more if I'm reading than if I'm listening to someone speak. When I read, I can understand 50% most of the times, but when I hear someone speaking English I'm lucky if I get the 10% of what they're saying, and only if the person is speaking very slow. Also is very hard to understand people with marked accents. And ME speaking? Don't even touch that subject! My pronunciation is awful! I think I'll never be able to have a conversation in English :(
Glad to see you back. I had read your other posts. I have two mixed race kids and I get the identity thing. I also remember the awful feeling when I realized I had no idea what my soon-to-be mother in law was saying in Spanish after months of hard work on my part learning the language. But you know, after many years daily Spanish speaking, at times I still have to resort to "dime otra vez" and "habla mas despacio". I'll say that as many times as it takes. Will I appear foolish? Who cares....I want to know what's being said.
Yes, people will be people. It's hard when you don't catch what's being said, or the person switches back to English when you're trying hard in Spanish. We all go through this. Most good things come at a price. With a second language, part of the price is swallowing your ego in order to learn. But it is a valuable asset to have, a huge benefit. There are more native Spanish speakers in the world than English (source - wikipedia).
You already know a lot of Spanish just by knowing English. The average person only uses about 2000 words a week, not that many. Sure, some of the most common words are real different, but it's doable. As said before, forget what others think and seize the opportunity to learn that you have by being around so many Spanish speakers. It's kind of like playing a musical instrument, practice is everything, and some sour notes are part of the deal.
The 'on-board translator' is necessary at first, nothing to be ashamed of. It's a cool thing when it starts to go away on it's own and you find yourself thinking and dreaming in Spanish. You just need the sincere desire, and the patience with yourself to get there.
It is something that comes with experience. Some things that will help is play the games, picture of the day, word of the day, etc. But write in Spanish then translate to English. When you think about things do your best to think in Spanish. When you make notes and lists for yourself again in Spanish. Get yourself accustomed to doing everything you can only in Spanish. Then after some time it will become automatic and natural even if it is not perfect.
I myself have a new problem because I hardly use English. When I talk to someone in English if I don't stop and think Spanish comes out. For me it takes a moment to change languages.
Well, the best site I know of to improve one's comprehension of spoken Spanish is LoMasTV. I simply love the site. Give it a try. It is not a free site, but the cost is well worth it.
Like you I have studied Spanish off and on for years and listening comprehension has always been my weakest link as far as communicating. Through watching the Destinos series and a exploring a number of other listening resources from the link below I realized that listening comprehension is a multipart problem. Parsing + grammar + vocabulary.
I recently discovered that the resources to tackle all three are as close as the internet. So just start listening, explore words you don't know, read the Spanish grammar articles here and there are many you can find elsewhere as well.
You can do this! It just takes time and focus.
If it makes you feel any better, I have to speak Spanish every day so most of the time I feel like I am doing great. Recently however, I went to a party and a guy with an accent I am not used to looks at me and asked "¿Usted bebe?" and I swear all I heard was "wahwahwah wah?" So he asked me again in English. I looked at him and said "obviously I do because you sound like Charlie Brown's teacher" I went home feeling like a donkey because I had told everybody that I speak Spanish. Oh well.
I don't know if this will be worth anything to you or not but here goes. Keep your chin up and don't stress about it so much. My very first Job out of college was at a speech therapy clinic that treated mostly Spanish speaking patients. I was the only non native Spanish speaker in the office. I spoke no Spanish and only understood a handful of words. I got to where I memorized whole phrases that I had to use often. Things like "I'm calling to remind you of your appointment". I didn't know the meaning of what I was saying a lot of times. so I had a bit of a script so I could at least function at my job. Then later when I learned more of the language the script made more sense.
Also don't worry so much about the "translating" you are doing in your head. It takes a lot of code switching to be bilingual. Being biracial you already do that I am sure. Think about it. Perhaps not with language but are the cultural norms different on the different sides of the family? Does your English change depending on if you are hanging out with your parents, grandparents and your friends? We all code switch in our first language. It's all English but I use a different kind of language at work than I do at church, home, etc. So you are already good at code switching and you didn't even know it. so let's apply that to learning Spanish.
I sometimes find it easier to think in "pictures" or concepts instead of words. In my head that concept or picture has two names or codes being the word in each language. So when someone says the word "gato" or the word "cat" I see the animal in my head instead of the word in the opposite language. This also helps me to go faster from English to Spanish. I wish you all the luck in the world and I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better about your skills. You talk about being around native speakers as if it is a bad thing when in fact it is the best place to be to learn. Take heart my dear, It will get better I promise. Just celebrate the victories. The mistakes are victories also, because you learn from them.
Just saying....
When I watch a movie I listen and watch, If I wanted to read, I would go to the library.
Just saying...
