language2015 wrote:Would you watch television in your TL that you couldn't understand well instead of watching easy TL TV.
I won't tell you what I would do, I'll tell you what I have done and still do. I watch the easier content (like Serpent, I'm a massive fan of the Moomins) and harder content, and feel gratified and amazed when they reinforce each other. I study transcripts and watch with subtitles when they're available (and look up words if I have to), and I watch other things without any help at all. I listen to different types of media. As Serpent pointed out, easier does not mean 'made for children' or 'boring'. Audiobooks are easier, because they are slower and clearer. They have the added plus of coming with a premade transcript and then you get LR which is extremely powerful for improving aural comprehension and for picking up new vocabulary and getting used to TL structures. Radio shows and podcasts don't come with the aid of visual clues, but there is usually a lot less going on in them than in most TV programs. Documentaries have all the visual clues, but presenters tend to speak more slowly and carefully. When I started doing these things for Swedish, I was in a much weaker position than you were in for Spanish. I hadn't made it even halfway through any textbook, although I had used FSI and Lingq a bit, and I didn't know most of the words, much less understand them when they were spoken. But I did make progress through doing the things above, through rewatching content until I could hear the words I was reading, through getting my ears used to the easier stuff.
There's a recording and translation for every lesson (click "source").