i have been learning Spanish for sometime and my biggest problem is understanding. If someone says a short sentence or question to me i can normally understand it but if its slightly too long i lose it. I want to watch films and telenovelas and listen to music.
Sometimes i just cant understand the words. My current strategies are podcasts on the way to work (notes in spanish mainly) and listening to music. I lose interest very quickly with films as they are talking so fast i cannot understand.
I havent had the opportunity to chat for sometime now due to my work being so busy and i know thats probably the best way to learn.
Whats your strategies for understanding you target language?
kike, escucho a la radio todo el tiempo pero a veces es demasiado rapido.
Gabriela, tambien escucho a la musica mucho, por ejemplo jay alvarez y daddy yankee (jaja) y un poco bachata porque es mas despacio.De hecho, puedo cantar unas canciones bastante bien en español! aunque no siempre yo sé lo que digan
Hi Steve, watching telenovelas could be a funny way to learn Spanish. I know you can think that Telenovelas is for women but is better than watching cartoons I guess. Besides there a lot of Telenovelas that are very funny and easy to follow. For instance the typical plot of mexican telenovelas is the following: A poor guy falls in love of a rich girl, her family is against this relationship and in the final episodes they find out that the poor is in fact the lost son of one of the richest families in the country...the girl's family instead have a lot of debts and are near to the bankruptcy and so is the "poor guy" to save the girl's family. Easy right?
Colombian Telenovelas instead are typically funny
Venezolanas Telenovelas talks about betrayals
Argentine Telenovelas maybe you wouldn't understand because they speak a really weird spanish. (no offense)
I don't have idea about Spain TN since I've never watched one. Oh actually there is one very famous that calls "Paso Adelante" I watched once but not in Spanish.
I enjoyed a Colombian TN "Pobre Pablo" you can find it on youtube, it is really funny.
Good Luck!
Steve, try to find Spanish movies with Spanish subtitles. It helps keep up when you can't hear what they're saying as they speak so fast. Even then I still find I pause the movie a lot to catch up. When you listen to a new song, find the lyrics online & read along. Even with some English music I can't tell what they're saying. And look for dual reader books where they have both the English & Spanish on opposite pages.
Steve- A new language aint easy! Try easier materials....dont overload the brain. I found that when I understand very little I learn even less. I cant follow movies or songs. Try spanishlistening.org
Also....big tip here..... read out loud. And make it stuff that you readily understand. Really helped me.
Good luck and keep working at it. -S
thanks for your answer Eric. Yeah i have a few films to watch soon. Although some i find dont have spanish subtitles and some have subtitles which differ but its still a good idea
i need to find some new spanish music as put it on my ipod as i havent found any in a while
