You’ve just broken your language app streak record and are feeling confident about your upcoming vacation in Mexico.
After all, you are able to understand the majority of the Spanish you hear on the app and have even ventured onto YouTube and watched hours upon hours of videos from your favorite Spanish learning channels.
And then you step off the plane and hear this:
…and meet reality head on. Between the speed, regional accents and slang there seems to be a decent sized gap between the Spanish spoken in language learning materials and that spoken on the street.
I’ve created this group to help close that gap.
Welcome to Daily Spanish Listening,
a private WhatsApp group that delivers you authentic and unscripted audio messages made by native Spanish speakers.
One of the biggest problems that Spanish learners face is being able to understand what is said to them.
If you can’t understand, communication is difficult or impossible.
If you are not currently a member of the group and would like to join, send me a message with the following information:
- Your name
- How long have you been practicing Spanish and your current level
- What you hope to get out of joining the group
If you are already a member of the group, please read through this post so that you can maximize your learning and let me know if you have any additional questions or need more guidance.
How to use the audio clips:
The primary objective of all posts will be to improve your listening comprehension. Follow these steps and over time, you’ll notice dramatic improvements in your ability to understand fast Spanish:
- Listen to the audio first w/o reading the transcript (at least 3 times)
- If you have understood 80% or more of the audio you can either a) move on or b) listen to the audio while scanning the transcript to find the parts that you missed.
- If you understood less than 80%, alternate between listening to the audio with and without reading the transcript until you do understand at least 80%.
Remember, the point of listening practice is to improve your listening skills, not to improve your reading skills. Use the transcript as a tool to support your listening comprehension, but always remember that the ultimate goal is to be able to understand without having to read a transcript.
What if I don’t understand the meaning of the words?
I will always include key words and useful phrases along with their translation in English. I’m very intentional about not providing a word-for-word translation of the entire clip because this practice can be very problematic.
Over time, you will realize that a lot of Spanish simply doesn’t translate well to English – and vice versa. They are two different languages after all.
It’s always best to try to understand through context, then through a dictionary in the target language (in this case Spanish), and after all else fails, a direct translation to English. This is tedious at the beginning but will save you frustration in the end.
To learn more about how to understand Spanish without translating, check out this blog post.
How else can I use the audio clips?
Most of the clips that I will post on the Whatsapp group and here on the blog will be relatively short (between :30 and 3 minutes). However, if you follow my recommendations and listen to each clip multiple times, your listening practice session could end up lasting 10- 20 minutes or longer.
If you have time and want to “sacar el máximo provecho” of the audios, then I suggest practicing a technique that’s called shadowing.
Shadowing consists of reading the transcript out loud while simultaneously listening to the speaker, attempting to match the pronunciation, rhythm, intonation, etc.
Cuidado…this isn’t the same as free production. You aren’t producing your own Spanish, but that’s not the point of this exercise.
The point is to practice and improve your pronunciation and fluidity so that native Spanish speakers can understand you better.
Still have questions?
This should be enough to get you started, but if you still have questions, don’t hesitate to contact me through the blog or send me a private message on WhatsApp.
Learning a lot by being a member of the group? Please consider spreading the word to your Spanish learning friends, family or co-workers.
¡Te esperamos en el grupo!
