Understanding spoken Spanish

[timtim1]

I find that i virtually understand nothing in spanish when i watch spanish on television or on music (ive been studying for three months now) simply because it is too fast and i am still translating anything i do understand into english in my head.

With written spanish i have made great progress, i have a good understanding of spanish grammer and can hold a decent written conversation in spanish on the internet.unfortunatly i dont know anyone with whom i can speak (in person anyway) to practise my spanish. when i attempt to speak in spanish i do a decent job but i constantly have to stop every few words/phrases to construct what i want to say in my head. Is it just a case of keep practising and as i become more familiar with the language i wont have to translate or think about what it says so i will understand faster, spoken spanish or am i doing somthing wrong in my learning technique?

[wrholt]

You aren't doing anything wrong; you're doing as well as you can possibly expect given the length of time you've been studying Spanish and the amount and type of practicing speaking & listening you've been able to do.

And you've got it: mastering speaking and listening requires practice and more practice, supported by continuing to study grammar and vocabulary and continuing to develop your reading and writing skills.

[chileno]

Nothing wrong really, but you could do better. How? By transcribing a novel from Spanish to Spanish and then translate to English. Read out loud paragraphs while you record yourself, and then listening to the recording.

One exercise particularly useful, is to repeat a section from someone speaking (a novel in a cassette for example) and then repeat the whole paragraph while recording yourself, then listen to what you recorded and compare it to the other recording. Watch for inflection and rhythm etc.

This will allow you to be more fluent in all aspects of the language.

[Glen]

Something that helped me, is to listen for the syllables rather than for the entire word as we do in English.