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Old December 29, 2013, 10:50 AM
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Rusty Rusty is offline
Señor Speedy
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
Posts: 11,299
Native Language: American English
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Listening will help you learn how the language sounds and you'll discover its cadence.
At first, you won't be able to understand a single thing. It'll be a stream of sounds. Some of the sounds will, over time, begin to stand out in your mind. You'll begin to recognize that they mean a specific thing.

Now, to answer your question about how to make listening productive, you can't just listen to Spanish to learn the language, although it's a VERY important step in your learning process. You didn't learn an English word until you heard it first. You shouldn't expect anything different about learning Spanish words.

You should, at some point during the listening exercise, ask questions about what you don't understand. This part involves another person.

¿Qué es ...? = What is ...?
¿Qué significa ...? = What does ... mean?
¿Qué quiere decir ...? = What does ... mean?
In each case, substitute what you heard but didn't understand.

When you're ready to start learning about the Spanish world around you, hang out with native speakers and ask, "¿Cómo se dice ...?" Substitute "eso" (that) or "esto" (this), or provide the English word/phrase if your interlocutor understands English.
Repeating a lot of what you're hearing is a very good exercise. When the native speaker replies, "Es un árbol," repeat their answer trying your utmost to exactly mimic the way the sentence was said.
If you would like to look up the word later, write it down. Ask your friend to spell it - "¿Cómo se deletrea?" (How's it spelled?). You may or may not get the right spelling, but you'll at least have a good idea. If you can't find it in the dictionary, write down some context and ask about the word/phrase here.

Last edited by Rusty; December 29, 2013 at 10:52 AM.
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