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Improving listening | ||
Tags: Listening | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| narigold Newbie United States Joined 4119 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 15 08 September 2013 at 12:01am | IP Logged |
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I'm an intermediate Spanish student, and I have a terrible time with listening to spoken Spanish. I can speak about
limited things -- it's no problem for me to spend hours on Skype talking to native speakers in poor Spanish -- and I can understand most of what my teacher says and other people who are talking slowly directly to me. But whenever I listen to Spanish of any sort, on radio, podcasts, television, or audiobooks, I don't understand any of it. I'll recognize a word here or there or understand a phrase out of context, but the rest is a blur. Even relatively moderate to slow paced Spanish audio is impossible for me to decipher. What am I doing wrong and how can I get better? Is this merely a vocabulary problem, or are there techniques I can specifically use to improve my listening comprehension now? What is better, listening alone or listening while reading subtitles? Finally my most important question: am I wasting my time spending hours listening to stuff I can't even understand? Perhaps it is too early in the process for me to be attempting listening at all? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4831 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 2 of 15 08 September 2013 at 12:36am | IP Logged |
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You mentioned audiobooks. Have you tried listening to an audiobook, and at the same
time, reading the printed book (or e-book)? I think this could give you at least two advantages over just listening to the audiobook alone. 1. You'd be able to pick out words in the text that you are missing in the audio. 2. You'd then be able to go back later at your leisure and review the missed words, looking them up, putting them into whatever vocab system you use, or just making a mental note of them. (You could also compare the same section of an English translation of the book, if you have one). You could do the same using podcasts that have transcripts, if you can find them. There should be at least some available for free on the internet. Try it in small chunks to begin with. One paragraph at a time, or even one sentence, if it's really tough. There is one catch, unfortunately: a lot of audiobooks come in abridged editions :-( Ideally, you need an unabridged edition, although it depends on how the book has been abridged. Some I've used haven't been so bad, because it seems they have been edited by removing entire paragraphs, so you can re-sync every so often, and it will stay in sync until the next missing chunk. That's annoying, but still usable. Edited by montmorency on 08 September 2013 at 12:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5378 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 3 of 15 08 September 2013 at 1:18am | IP Logged |
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I agree. Try using audio books while reading the text. There are a lot of fairly "easy" books out there with audio... Harry Potter, Narnia, etc. Have you tried Assimil? Doing an Assimil book with an extra focus on listening may be good. Whatever you do, don't get frustrated. Listening is tough... particularly understanding TV and conversations between natives. It takes a lot of time, but you will get it.
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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5378 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 4 of 15 08 September 2013 at 1:21am | IP Logged |
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Watching Destinos may be a good idea for you too. You can watch with or without captions. It is an easy to understand Spanish learning TV series. Destinos link. Edited by James29 on 08 September 2013 at 1:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5265 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 5 of 15 08 September 2013 at 1:36am | IP Logged |
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Narigold. I second montmorency and James29. I'll also add that you should check out VeinteMundos. It's an audio "magazine" for intermediate and advanced students. The articles are about varied topics in the Spanish-speaking world. Each article is narrated by a native speaker with clear speech and accent. The transcript is accurate. Difficult words can be moused over for a pop-up definition or explanation, The articles can be downloaded in pdf and mp3 format- all for free. The articles/audios are short- about 10 minutes long.
Using a transcript as you listen is not technically the listening and reading method, although that is what you're doing- listening while reading. Eventually you won't need the transcript at all. Try to read the article first without listening. Then listen. Next listen while reading the transcript. Finally listen again. After a few weeks of this, you'll notice your comprehension improving. You can do the order any way you want or just skip forcing yourself to listen without the transcript, but remember, you're trying to train yourself to listen. Subtitles and transcripts aren't always available in the real world. Try to wean yourself off the transcripts as soon as you can. You'll know you're ready when you can transcribe the audio by listening and then check your transcription against what's written. ¡Buena suerte! Edited by iguanamon on 08 September 2013 at 1:37am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| narigold Newbie United States Joined 4119 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 15 08 September 2013 at 4:06am | IP Logged |
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I appreciate the responses so far and would love to hear what others have to say about this. But I would also like
to add that tonight I just tried something new, after I posted this question. I had been watching Breaking Bad in Spanish and even though I've already seen it in English I couldn't follow the audio at all. Well I decided to go to http://www.opensubtitles.org/ and get the English subtitles downloaded in a text file...now I am following along with the English reading slightly ahead and my ability to hear and understand the Spanish has improved immensely. I read the English ahead of the dialogue, do a quick anticipatory translation in my head, then listen to the Spanish version...all seemlessly in real time while i'm watching. Since I'm anticipating what words I'm about to hear, it helps me to recognize and understand the word in Spanish when I do hear it. I will try this method with the rest of the TV I have, and then I will try some of the sites/methods you all have recommended to me in this thread. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tsopivo Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4474 days ago 258 posts - 411 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Esperanto | Message 7 of 15 08 September 2013 at 8:35am | IP Logged |
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I definitely agree with the suggestions posted above and would add trying to watch TV shows with Spanish subtitles (they have to be close enough to the audio though, I have tried this with Game of Thrones in Spanish yesterday and I was disturbed by the difference between the audio and the text and in the end, understood less than with audio only - transcripts would probably be even better than subtitles).
Also, some shows are harder than others, if Breaking Bad is too hard for you, you can try another one. Extr@ is the easiest Spanish "show" I have ever come across - it is actually made for learners and not for native - but also the worst. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5194 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 8 of 15 08 September 2013 at 9:30am | IP Logged |
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Have you tried the Notes in Spanish podcasts? Start with their basic level and work your way up. Just keep listening.
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