No escucho bien.

May 22, 2012 9:06 AM

Foreign language filter: What did you do to improve your listening comprehension in your target language?

I have been studying Spanish for a good 2 years now and have made big strides in speaking, writing and reading. All three of those skills are WAY ahead of my listening and ability to understand what is being said to me. I more often than not have to guess from the context of the overall conversation what someone is asking me, rather than being able to engage and parse the actual phrases/words people are speaking.

Some suggestions I have already tried include regularly listening to music, watching TV and movies and of course as many conversations as possible in Spanish, where I often try and paraphrase what the other speaker is saying to make sure I have it right. With all of these methods however, I feel like I am swimming in an ocean of words and only catching an idiom here or a word there.

My questions is: Were there any specific ways you were able to isolate your listening comprehension and improve it, beyond what I have tried above? What can I focus on more? Happy to hear from non-Spanish learners too if you feel your experience might apply.

posted by the foreground to Writing & Language (29 answers total)

Best answer: You mentioned watching television, but I'd like to add what helped me increase comprehension.

Watching television with the Spanish subtitles on. Specifically watching the news.
posted by sciencegeek at 9:14 AM on May 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

Best answer: One thing that I found useful with French was to listen to an audiobook of a text I had to hand (specifically The Stranger) and pausing after each sentence to see if I understood it, and then checking against the text. It was slow and laborious, but it was very helpful.
posted by Bromius at 9:17 AM on May 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

Total immersion for periods of time. Is there anyway you can do this from where you live? That is, are there any Spanish only community activities or events or neighbourhoods you can go for a few hours?

I wasn't even actively learning Finnish but total immersion while living there helped me pick up far more understanding (listening comprehension) of the language than I expected, even if I was responding in English (or waving my hands about).
posted by infini at 9:20 AM on May 22, 2012

Best answer: Active listening really works well. Instead of just watching television, try to make notes about what is being said, or try to make note of specific language and idioms that you hear.

This will mean listening to the same clip several times - you can either record something from TV, or use YouTube or a DVD.

If you want to get really creative, why not take a video camera (or your smart phone) and record an interview with a native speaker, and do the same thing?

That way you can actually record real speech, and you can also listen to how you sound, and perhaps get feedback from other native speakers.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:20 AM on May 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

What sciencegeek said!
posted by jgirl at 9:27 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

One thing with audio that can be helpful: listen using a player that allows you to alter the speed of the recording (both slower and faster, and without pitch distortion). That way you can start listening at a speed you automatically comprehend, and then you can speed up to natural speed. Repetition, of course, is key.

I also work on improving my comprehension by transcribing audio.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:38 AM on May 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Audio books where you can follow along with the print book; TV/movies that have closed captions or subtitles in Spanish; to some extent, even TV/movies with Spanish audio and English subtitles can help because the English word primes your brain to listen for the Spanish word.

Also, listen to things that are a little bit slow and simple for you. Sometimes children's TV can work for this, sometimes not.
posted by Jeanne at 9:38 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Also, do you know about Lo Mas TV?
posted by ocherdraco at 9:40 AM on May 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Best answer: For German, I watched the news. Specifically, Deutsche Welle has a podcast of the news read really slowly. This rapidly became too slow for me. ZDF has a news broadcast aimed at kids that you could watch online. This was amusing because it was sort of cheesy. Eventually, I upgraded to the real news. For French, RFI or someone makes a news podcast where the language is simpler and it's read at not quite full speed. Perhaps similar things exist for Spanish.

The advantage I saw in using the news (other than that it was readily available) is that I had a rough idea of what the major global stories were already, which helped up my understanding when my language skills weren't up to snuff. (German news broadcasts have a lot of business news and the same story drags on all week. So by Friday, I'd heard about the new head of Deutsche Bahn or whatever enough times that I'd understand more of that story.)

The big downside is that news broadcasts are read by newsreaders (duh). For me, the next level up was soap operas. There's real language, there's a consist story (which you can look up online if you can't figure out what craziness if going on), in Germany they're 25 minute episodes, so it's not super time-consuming. Plus you get to watch trashy television while doing something productive. (If you're exerting effort to understand the language, it makes them watchable, I swear.)
posted by hoyland at 9:41 AM on May 22, 2012 [4 favorites]

I am wondering if you might have some hidden issue, like auditory processing problems, which you learned to compensate for in English but do not know how to compensate for with a new language. Guessing from context and supplementing their understanding with lip reading are two techniques commonly used by people with auditory processing problems to fill in the gaps.

For my son, turning off all distracting noise sources and facing him when I spoke so he could watch my mouth helped him understand me more consistently (though this was in English, not a second language). Addressing underlying health issues also helped make his wiring work generally better so he did not need to struggle so much to understand what was said.

Best of luck.
posted by Michele in California at 9:55 AM on May 22, 2012

Seconding immersion. If there is any way you can spend just a few weeks in a total immersion environment, you should do it, because it's guaranteed to pay off. Your comprehension will go through the roof within a couple of weeks, without any actual effort on your part. I spent five weeks in an immersion setting and my comprehension went from being the worst aspect of my French competence to the best.

Also, somewhat unintuitively, I found that increasing my exposure to very vernacular spoken French and very unfamiliar dialects of French (mostly through movie-watching) improved my comprehension of more standard French by making it seem much, much easier and more familiar in comparison.
posted by ootandaboot at 10:01 AM on May 22, 2012

Every morning I listen to a bit of a French science podcast. I started listening to the news but found it to be too scripted to be helpful. While a lot of this science podcast IS scripted (introductions, questions, etc), the interviews usually involve a fair bit of extemporaneous conversation.

Bonus: science is a subject that fascinates me, while regular headlines just make me want to become a Super Villain and carve my name in the moon or something.
posted by jph at 10:05 AM on May 22, 2012

In my experience, people who are "good at languages" are really often just people who are okay with struggling and being wrong a lot.

Aural comprehension is hard. I've been learning Spanish since I was eight; I spend a few months out the year working in Guatemala; and I still have to pay close, close attention to get it right. Fast speech that goes outside basic conversational vocabulary still throws me for a loop. (I hate watching the news in Spanish unless it's subtitled; my ears can't keep up unless I drop everything and devote my full undivided attention to the TV. It's exhausting.) On the other hand, I'm still slowly getting better at it.

The answer is really just to keep doing it even though it's a struggle. The feeling of struggling means that you're pushing your limits and improving. So at a certain point you just need to decide you're okay with that.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:09 AM on May 22, 2012 [5 favorites]

I'm struggling with this right now with French. Lately, I'm watching movies over and over again. I find a French movie that I like at lot and don't mind seeing multiple times. I watch it the first time with subtitles and then a few times without. Each viewing I understand more. And as mentioned already, I'm also listening to stuff where I have a access to the text of what is being said. There are several French websites that offer text and accompanying audio material. I'm sure there are similar Spanish sites.

It's hard. Most French online content is news or documentaries, both of which I hate. That only leaves watching movies since regular tv shows can't be viewed in the US. I did increase my vocabulary substantially by watching three seasons of Bones with French subtitles. This didn't help my ear directly but the more words you know the more likely you'll understand what's being spoken.

I'm planning a month-long trip to France to immerse myself, which is not nearly long enough, but it's all I can do. In the meantime, I'm watching movies and the news.
posted by shoesietart at 10:51 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Choose a topic that interests you (sports, magic, cooking, whatever) read up about it in Spanish until you know most of the common vocabulary for that topic and watch quality VIDEO (NOT radio or podcasts discussing that topic.

Cooking demos, for example (chop, stir, fry, season ...; onion, frying pan, bowl etc.). As you watch a video, you can use the context to figure out any still-unfamiliar vocabulary and you will be better equipped to deal with mumbling or nonstandard pronunciations. Your confidence will grow as you tackle more and more topics. Soap operas are great if you consistently watch the same one for weeks on end and can find some text backup (scripts, Wikipedia articles etc.)
posted by juifenasie at 10:53 AM on May 22, 2012

I have the same problem. I can speak Spanish fluidly but cant take it in very well. This is especially true in group conversations and background noise. I like in Madrid with 3 Argentines and I still feel substandard in my comprehension. I've known a few people with this problem. Maybe it's just that your other skills are more advanced than your comprehension? At least that's what I tell myself jejeje.

I started doing the movies with subtitles a few weeks ago and it seems to be helping a lot.
posted by Che boludo! at 11:12 AM on May 22, 2012

Best answer: I find that the more sources of input I can combine, the easier it is to understand and one can gradually move up the levels of difficulty while creating links between sounds and visuals:
- foreign language (FL) film (not dubbed), with FL subtitles: gives you voice, visual context, text, and lip reading
- film dubbed into FL, with subtitles: as above, minus the lip reading
- FL audiobooks with FL text to follow along, also helps with learning the pronunciation of words you read
- FL films without subtitles
- FL audiobooks
...
- actual people, one-on-one
- group conversations
- group conversations in noisy environments, AAAAArrrrr
posted by meijusa at 11:15 AM on May 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

- Immersion
- Watching the same movie over and over. The first time with the English subtitles on, so you get the gist, and the next 6 times with them off.
posted by small_ruminant at 11:20 AM on May 22, 2012

Best answer: Assuming immersion isn't an option, try a podcast like news in slow spanish, where the spanish you hear is slow and exaggerated, and you also have the benefit of a transcript on their website. This is a good bridge between not being able to listen at all and listening to full-speed spanish. You could also try show time spanish which also has fairly simple spanish conversations at a slower speed, and then an explanation afterwards.
posted by btkuhn at 11:23 AM on May 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

If it is listening and understanding in conversation which you are having trouble with I don't think there's any substitute for just getting tons and tons of practice. I don't think watching the news or listening to audio books will help with that because it's a completely different style of speaking and listening.

Some people are a lot easier or more difficult to understand than others because of accents, speech patterns and a million other things. I'd try and interact more with people whose speech you can follow better.
posted by neilb449 at 11:48 AM on May 22, 2012

My Japanese comprehension improved significantly when I took classes with teachers who only spoke Japanese. It was difficult and tiring, and sometimes I just don't get what they are saying, but suddenly it was easier for me to understand TV ads, and I aced the listening portions of tests.

My native language is Spanish, and I found that listening to podcasts in English helped my listening comprehension, specially if they are conversational, like the MeFi podcast or Savage Love. Podcasts are great because you don't have a visual fallback so you have to make an effort to understand. But more than that, I feel you have to get used to the language's sounds and cadences and suddenly things start to click.
posted by clearlydemon at 12:12 PM on May 22, 2012

Best answer: What helped me was becoming addicted to a telenovela. Hours and hours spent with the same people every week made my ear a lot quicker.

You might also consider transcribing something, especially if there's already a transcript somewhere. Pause the recording periodically to write down what you thought they said, and then check it with the existing transcript or with a native speaker.
posted by ceiba at 1:15 PM on May 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

Hiring a native speaker to speak with for 30-45 minutes/day helped me tremendously.
posted by lotusmish at 1:24 PM on May 22, 2012

I find radio and podcasts so much more helpful than TV for this, because no visual cues.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:25 PM on May 22, 2012

Best answer: Helpful for me: Movies on DVD produced for a native-speaker audience, either drama or situational comedy. Rich in "normal" everyday speech and everyday subjects, and people speak at a normal speed.

Not helpful for me: Joke-based comedy, too frustrating when you're trying to learn. News and similar programming: it's not natural speech, and people speak too fast in order to fill time slots. Popular music--people misunderstand lyrics in their own language, now I'm supposed to understand lyrics in another?

There are exceptions, but those are my general rules.
posted by gimonca at 7:36 PM on May 22, 2012

jph, what's the name of that French science podcast?
posted by benito.strauss at 8:09 PM on May 22, 2012

Best answer: Just a couple of thoughts:

Try learning and singing songs yourself; it focuses you on the sound and gets the way that the words smoosh together into your head. Also handy at parties!

And don't get hung up on hearing; the illusion of converting a stream of sound directly into words is actually produced using a lot of contextual and grammatical cues. We understand what someone must have said, rather than the noises that come out of their mouth directly. You do this in your first language automatically without noticing, so don't beat yourself up about doing it in Spanish.
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 3:38 AM on May 23, 2012

Ha! Can't believe I forgot that bit of detail. "La tête au carré" on France Inter.
posted by jph at 6:43 AM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone! Really impressed with all the different ideas.
posted by the foreground at 8:06 AM on May 23, 2012