Understanding spoken Latin American Spanish

[jsega]

NHK is up seven days a week, however; you have to remember that Japan is about 13 hours ahead of US EST. There's a certain window of time during the day on NHK when the transcript and the audio may not match because of the time zone difference. Check back tomorrow morning (US time). Democracy Now takes the weekends off- weekdays only.

Would you recommend reading books along with the audiobook for training listening comprehension?

I do. Whatever you will listen to, as long as it is native-speech at native speed and intended for a native Spanish-speaking audience. The reasons why I recommend the news with a transcript are many- the wide and varied vocabulary; the repetition of vocabulary in an ongoing story; the individual items are short so if the story is boring- it ain't going to kill your soul to listen to it. If you keep up with the news in English, you've got half a chance to already know what's going on and can figure out more from context. The right audio book can also work, provided that 1) you are already familiar with its content or the author; 2) the language isn't too far over your level and 3) the text and the audio match exactly.

Of course, as a beginner, you should concentrate on learning the language but also take a little time to expose yourself to the real thing so it isn't such a shock when you finish your courses and have to move on to native materials. It's all in my signature link.

At the moment what I do is even when I'm just browsing on the internet, I keep a tab open of twitch.tv (website for video game streamers) streaming spanish e-sport tournaments or spanish game streamers and listen. I do sometimes just sit there and watch a stream even though my comprehension sucks. I can pick up a little through context because I watch streams of games I'm familiar with (league of legends and world of warcraft mostly) so when things are going down I can understand what's happening at least. I have also played some of these games on a spanish server for a little while so I know some of the in-game spanish terms which helps.

I'm not sure how useful of a habit this is, but it is at least becoming a habit. I figure it can't hurt.

[M23]

Telenovelas and the news are pretty rough for a beginner (they were for me anyway). I second the suggestion to check out Destinos from your local library or find it online somewhere. I went through that series a couple of times when I was first starting out and found it very helpful. I would also suggest Pocoyo as well. It is cute and short enough that you can work on studying one episode over and over without it getting too tedious.

It is quite interesting to listen to something and barely understand it, and then come back to it later on after you have been on the study grind for a while and to be able to follow it without hardly any problems. One of the things that keeps me motivated and full of curiosity is when I encounter materials that I do not understand very well is to ask myself, "I wonder what this is going to look like/sound like to my brain in a year?"

Did you do all the exercises that come with Destinos, or just watch the videos? I picked up the textbook for cheap, and may start fiddling with it soon.

I just watched the videos (which have a Q&A at the end of each episode). They were great for helping to develop listening comprehension.