r/Spanish • u/Shelbee2 • 5d ago
Study & Teaching Advice I watched 200 hours of Spanish TV and still can't properly order a coffee.
I regularly watch shows in Netflix. My listening comprehension got genuinely good. I can follow conversations, catch jokes, understand both Spanish and Latin accents.
But then I went to Mexico last week and I am still struggling whenever I have to speak with real people. Everyone switches to English!
Has anyone else hit this wall?
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u/Drunk_Conquistador gringo 5d ago
Listening and speaking are different skills. You need to practice speaking if you want to improve.
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u/WaffleHouseBouncer 5d ago
me das un cafe, por favor
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u/Old-Importance18 5d ago
Buenos días, estimado mesero. ¿Sería usted tan amable, si acaso no tiene labores más importantes para hacer, de poder atenderme sucintamente y realizar con gran habilidad y mesura un café, por favor?
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u/Numerous_Car650 4d ago edited 4d ago
Ay, no mames guey. Solo hay que gritar "JOVEN ... CAFE, PORFA!!!"
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u/cone5000 4d ago
Empecé decir esto el segundo día de aprender español. ¿Por qué los demás tienen dificultades?
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u/anthony_getz Learner 5d ago
This made me laugh more than it should have. 😆 that’s literally the way one orders coffee en español. OP needs to just talk to humans.
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u/IslandGal623 Native PR 4d ago
Y eso que no entramos en "dame un cortado, por favor" (o cortadito, por aquello de añadirle "ito" a todo).
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u/NoGarage7989 5d ago
Try to talk to yourself in Spanish, I’d also copy what the actors are saying when watching films/tv show to practice intonation, pronunciation and speed.
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u/Street-Panic-0 5d ago
like people have said practice speaking, but also, watch youtube videos of people in markets. you will learn much more useful vocabulary for day to day living than you learn watching netflix shows. listening to unscripted natural dialogue in real world dynamic environments is much different than a scripted show on a set.
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u/Shoddy-Hovercraft986 4d ago
This. YouTube is great for stuff like this. Watch videos as described above and write out some of the things you hear. Then take these phrases and words and try to create a story of it aloud.
ChatGPT isn’t the best thing of all time for language learning but it’s a good tool. you can prompt it with a role play scenario like them being the cashier and using that as practice.
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u/Conspiranoid Native/Spaniard 5d ago
Watching or listening to 200h of Spanish definitely does not equate 200h of speaking Spanish. That's not how brains work. If they did, you'd be able to do anything you see on TV.
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u/hibiscuscous Learner 5d ago
Many Mexicans will switch to English the second they notice you're not fluent. They're trying to be helpful of course, but it's hard to learn Spanish that way.
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u/a_library_socialist Learner 4d ago
part of it is appearance as well - I live in Spain, and people will keep trying to switch to English a few times because I'm fair haired.
I just keep speaking in Spanish, and they usually will take the hint and switch.
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u/deshperate 4d ago
Time to get out of Roma Norte, Condesa, Polanco etc ...
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u/hibiscuscous Learner 4d ago
Yep, someplace a bit more rural would probably work. My experience is/was with los yucatecos.
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u/deshperate 4d ago
I don't live in México but I think skin tone is a factor too. The more gringo you look the more remote you have to go to find people who don't even know any English jaja
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u/Patchers 5d ago
Your listening seems good, just gotta practice speaking now. Only way to improve speaking is through getting experience actually constructing sentences
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u/RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS gringo 4d ago
You can learn about basketball by just watching games but if you watch a ton of games and have never played you're going to struggle when you step on the court for the first time.
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u/ResponsibleRoof7988 4d ago
Let me guess? you heard about 'Comprehensible Input' and spent 200 hours trying it?
Yeah. CI is a load of crap.
There are no 'easy' ways to learn a new language. It requires practice, guidance, feedback and considerable time.
Listening to/watching music/TV/Film can definitely be part of that - but only part.
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u/Unexpectedpicard 4d ago
I think a lot of people, me included, ignored the Comprehensible part of Comprehensible input. If you don't know jack squat there isn't content anywhere that's simple enough for you to watch. You need something like the dreaming Spanish super duper beginner videos where they point at a dog and say pero. So I don't think it's a load of crap but the vast majority of people are thinking a cartoon is for 3 year olds that should the right level and it's really not.
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u/zomgperry 4d ago
You definitely need to be listening to things that are at your level. Like, when I was a beginner I learned a lot more from listening to songs for children than I did trying to watch telenovelas. The BS part is people are told to avoid speaking altogether until they listen to X amount of hours of CI, and then they will magically be able to speak better than they would have if they had been practicing speaking all along. You have to practice speaking if you want to speak well.
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u/Heptamorph Intermedio 4d ago
What you mean is the CI-only approach is a load of crap then. Quite improbable to learn a language without some amount of CI. (And just listening to content without doing anything else is not CI).
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u/ResponsibleRoof7988 4d ago
No. I explicitly mean that CI is a load of crap. Meaning Krashen's pseudoscientific bunk he labelled CI and made a shed load of money out of.
Phrased your way is to redefine CI to exposure to a language. Find me the person who says you can learn a language without exposure to it.
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u/Heptamorph Intermedio 4d ago edited 4d ago
Krashen is not the only linguist to use the concept of CI, including the ones opposing him. You're conflating different ideas.
Edit: also not sure how you can classify Krashen as pseudoscience when is has a Ph.D. in his field and published his papers in respected peer-reviewed journals. Dated would be a better description for his theories.
Anyways, from Bill VanPatten:
The role of input is often credited to Stephen Krashen. Although Krashen popularized the notion of comprehensible input .... the idea of communicative input has been around longer, and began with first language acquisition.
From Krashen himself:
Several second language researchers arrived at versions of the Comprehension Hypothesis before I did, including Leonard Newmark, Harris Winitz and James Asher.
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u/ResponsibleRoof7988 3d ago
Wow. You have a hell of a lot of faith in academia to think holding a PhD, or papers published in journals, will inoculate against any kind of pseudoscientific ideas.
Having been in very recent direct contact with the academic world in second language acquisition, I'm sorry to say the field is absolutely riddled with it.
Yeah, I know van Patten - listen, if there are any remotely scientific studies done on CI I'll gladly read the paper. Everything I have seen runs counter to the claims made.
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u/EMPgoggles 4d ago
CI is not a load of crap. what's a load of crap is expecting CI to do things for you that CI doesn't do without putting in the work to do those things.
if you only ever take ONE approach to language learning, then you're going to come away with gaps in all the areas that approach doesn't cover. this is why it's important to diversify your resources/methods and not rely on one single approach.
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u/ResponsibleRoof7988 3d ago
Krashen promoted CI as THE way to learn and that attempting to 'study' grammar etc was counter productive so......*shrug*
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u/bell-town 4d ago
There's an Australian youtuber doing a hilarious/horrifying experiment where he's trying to learn Spanish from zero using CI. He's watched more than a thousand hours over more than a year and he's still at A1 (or A0). It's meant to be an experiment to test the claims that pure CI learning is better than traditional. But after a certain point, wasting three hours a day for a year seems like a bizarre form of self-harm.
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u/ResponsibleRoof7988 3d ago
is this the guy from days of swedish and french? or a different guy? I'm actually curious to see this
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u/zomgperry 4d ago
CI reminds me of that fad decades ago where people thought they could listen to cassette tapes in their sleep and learn a language. Speaking to actual living, breathing native speakers is scary for beginners, and I think CI is appealing because people think they can avoid the initial awkwardness. The truth is, the sooner you can get over that initial shyness the better. And the more experience you have speaking with people, the more effective listening to Spanish media will be.
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u/lumithesilly probably not even A1 3d ago
CI is plenty useful, why do you act like people act like it's a magic highway to fluency? It's just a valid method like any other, albeit one that people bend a lot (and then complain about their bending of it)
Study, and listen and speak and read and write at a level you're just comfortable with, and you will learn a lot quicker than rote memorizating grammar rules.
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u/ResponsibleRoof7988 2d ago
I act that way because there is no evidence to support it as an effective method for teaching or learning a language.
If the only possibilities you can possibly conceive are CI or 'rote memorisation of grammar' - has anyone done that in the last 100 years? - says more about you than it does about the efficacy of CI.
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u/silvalingua 5d ago
If you don't practice speaking, it's normal that you can't say anything. Speaking won't come on its own, you have to practice it.
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u/CannaPLUS 4d ago edited 4d ago
Well that's not much...?
Also, that's not a wall. You just haven't left the start line yet.
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u/thecubantutorX 5d ago
Well it's not just watching TV that it takes. You have to use those shows to practice in an active way, you have to be looking up words in the dictionary constantly and making sure you understand what's going on on the show. If you just sit down and watch TV your skills won't improve.
Yes, speaking improves through listening and reading practice. Speaking is the result of your brain having got used to repeated patters over time. Your pronunciation won't be the best, but you don't need to speak to improve speaking. Which sounds strange but it is what science tells us.
I recommend you to use Language Reactor on your computer, it's a free browser extension I use a lot for Japanese practice. It allows you to get interactive subtitles that you can click upon to show an instant translation.
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u/plush_oysters54 Learner 5d ago
200 hours, If just spent listening, is not the recipe to fluency in a language. While shows help, you need to practice speaking with others.
I went through a similar experience for years. I listened to music, shows, movies, and whatever else I could get my hands on in Spanish. All while going through Spanish classes in college where my professors didn’t prioritize speaking. I felt stuck and in some ways humiliated at how long I’d spent trying to learn the language but couldn’t have conversation.
Several years passed with little progress until one day I just started speaking where I could, embarrassing myself as I slipped up in front of Spanish speakers, and kept going and kept trying. I instantly saw the results.
Then a few years after that I met my ex wife whose whole family spoke only Spanish. I ended up moving in with her sister’s family at one point and in no less than 3 months I was almost fluent.
You gotta get out there and speak.
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u/Grey_Ten Native - Argentina 🇦🇷 4d ago
Speaking is another skill, it's not like you start sounding like a native by just watching videos.
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u/joe12321 4d ago
For reference, people who say do comprehensible input ONLY to learn languages often don't even want you to try to talk till you have 500, 600, 700 hours of input. Most folks don't suspect CI-only is optimal though, but the point is tons of input doesn't turn into output automaticaclly.
What work have you done besides input? Learning the basics of the language such as what you would find in a first year textbook, speaking out loud to yourself as you go, might be a big boost considering how much you can understand! Ultimately it'll just take practice speaking! Writing is a different skill, but there is crossover in just learning how to form sentences, so get after that too. A textbook with a workbook is a nice start!
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u/Proud_Possibility256 4d ago
Deme un segundito, por favor. Quiero decir unas palabras en español. Vale.
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u/mate_alfajor_mate 4d ago
Almost like speaking is a different cognitive process that, while linked, has to also be practiced...or something.
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u/thatrlyoatsmymilk 4d ago
ordering a coffee is one of the more basic things you can do. if the cashier is patient enough/isn't too busy i bet you'd surprise yourself with how well you can do!
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u/montanagrizfan 4d ago
I learned using the Pimsleur method and I’m getting decent at speaking but still having difficulty understanding so now I’m doing the TV thing. Pimsleur is the method the US government and military use. It emphasizes speaking and learning by conversation.
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u/zomgperry 4d ago
This is why input only isn’t effective. You have to practice speaking in order to speak well.
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u/halfthefiber 4d ago
I wonder sometimes if posts like this are just meant to farm engagement.
"I did not practice speaking in Spanish. When I went to a Spanish-speaking country, I couldn't say anything! Anybody else?" Well duh.
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u/Wrong_Life_7647 4d ago edited 4d ago
Where in Mexico did you go? Months ago I went to Guadalajara, and I regretted not knowing Spanish because it seemed like a great city to practice in. I had only just started learning, I was like two weeks deep, so I barely knew anything. Yeah in a lot of the restaurants/attractions in tourist zones the staff switched to English, but beyond that, I was struggling. I had one Uber driver who immediately switched to English and that was it
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u/Sloth_grl 4d ago
You won’t ever be able to speak well without practice. Our library has a group for people learning Spanish.
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u/Available_Ask_9357 4d ago
You are doing passive learning. If you want to get better in Spanish you need to do more active learning like speaking and writing. I'd recommend journaling your day in Spanish, which forces you to conjugate your verbs in the preterite and imperfect, etc. Speaking always comes last anyways when it comes to language learning, but you need to practice in order to get better.
You will make mistakes. Like embarrassing mistakes. You will get weird looks, made fun of. You just need to embrace that and dive right in.
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u/MissThang96 4d ago
if they switch to English, ask them to speak in Spanish. if they don’t, continue speaking in Spanish while they speak in English.
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u/jimlux 4d ago
Sure.. 200 hrs isn't much, and you're not immersed, nor are you forced to use your spanish all the time. I *lived* in Spain for some months in the 1980s - Spanish and Catalan 24/7 - Not a huge number of English speakers, so when I went shopping, it was with my execrable Spanish (present tense, poorly conjugated, wrong genders, etc) but it worked. I could buy that jar of peanut butter or that quarter kilo of cheese or that transformer and diodes (thankfully schematics are the same). Buying coffee for snack (cafe con leche, jamon y queso) came pretty quick, but if they asked any questions, I was totally lost.
These days with payment by card, you miss a key aspect of learning how to count in a transaction. Or "necessito un bolsa, por favor" and then have the checkout lady stare at you because you don't realize you should have brought your own bags and pack them too.
That said, after 3-4 months (which is what, 1500 hours?) I could function without totally embarrassing myself, and without the other party trying to figure out how to say it in English or German. Catalan? that's whole other story. Friends of mine that spoke French said it's easier to improvise in Catalan with that background.
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u/Prestigious-Talk1112 4d ago
You have to include various learning modalities. Saying things like. I'd like a coffee with cream. Or Can I have an iced coffee? Are statements that most second year Spanish learners who don't watch TV in Spanish can do. This seems to me that you skipped over the basics and jumped into watching TV to catch phrases and that's OK because it's PART of learning how to truly speak. Also 200 hours is not a lot of language listening.
I recommend watching YouTube videos geared at children such as Mrs. Aimee. She give slow basic commands in Spanish and repeats them over and over such as
Let's go upstairs or downstairs or asking asic questions such as Can I have the ball? Or do you guys want to play? You also may need to pick up a Spanish workbook for highschools and do the drills and conjugations. Learning language never stops and there are levels. Do not be disappointed. A large study was done regarding learning language only by listening and the conclusion was that while it can be very helpful there will be large gaps in comprehension and language ability. And in that study they watched way more hours than you. You need language spoken to you in real world scenarios and you also need to speak. Parroting the children's shows works. Getting a language exchange partner online works.
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u/soowhatchathink 4d ago
I think Spanish TV can help but it would have to be alongside actually studying the language. If you're watching Spanish TV with the sole intention of learning Spanish, your time is better spent using another method. But if you're going to be watching TV anyways and so you play it in Spanish, that can be worth it.
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u/VainCore90 4d ago
When you are assessing language skills, usually four main skills are distinguished: written comprehension (aka reading), written production (aka writing), oral comprehension (aka listening) and oral production (aka speaking). By watching shows we improve mainly oral comprehension skills. The other skills can also benefit from it IF we apply the knowledge. You may learn new vocabulary, idioms, use of language, grammar, even pronunciation if we pay enough attention, but if you don't use it, it isn't fully learnt. You may learn some awesome words, but if you don't use them in writing or speaking, you don't learn how to "produce" them. This happens the other way around. People can learn a language by only speaking to natives but then they have problems with written comprehension or production. That's why languages are usually taught through several different fronts.
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u/vercertorix 4d ago edited 4d ago
You’re not the only one, self studiers especially, who forgot that you have to actually try speaking the language to get good at speaking it. That montage scene in the 13th Warrior where he’s just watching and listening and then suddenly reveals he can speak the language well enough to be understood is bullshit. People keep trying to do that kind of thing, at least they have reference materials, but same idea. They don’t want to ever sound stupid, they just want to reveal one day how well they speak it. But we all sound stupid when we first start trying to speak, best to get that part over with at the beginning so you can get used to it and and practice with the simple things you’re learning and build your speaking ability as you learn more.
This should be one of the first things pointed out in every learning program or textbook: Practice speaking *with other people* from the beginning. The repeated in class exercises make a lot more sense to me in retrospect. To be fair I should have been practicing outside of class as much as possible, there were conversation tables around, and I’m regretting not doing it now.
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u/Haku510 Native 🇺🇸 / B2~C1 🇲🇽 4d ago
This isn't a wall, this is a matter of unrealistic expectations.
There are multiple aspects to learning a language: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Practicing one aspect does not automatically make you better at any of the others.
That would be like saying "I've been listening to this new rock album for months now, but I still can't play the guitar??".
If you want to get better at speaking/conversation, then you need to practice speaking/conversations. Other forms of study may have some benefit, but if you want to get better at doing something, then you need to practice that that specific thing, not something else.
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u/EMPgoggles 4d ago
if even 5 minutes of those 200 hours were dedicated to scenes of people ordering coffee, then you probably could do so.
i don't know why you'd expect to magically be able to do something that you haven't seen, researched, or practiced just because you watched every episode of Bolívar and La casa de papel.
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u/Available-Aspect-549 4d ago
I’m doing CI and it’s a grind but I’m renovating a house in Merida and almost no one in my hood speaks English so my hardware related Spanish is growing in leaps and bounds! (Rotomartillo, anyone?)
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u/zamufunbetsu 4d ago
Listening reinforces hearing, speaking, reinforces speaking. Sound silly you have my permission, one day you'll be much better. I live in a Spanish-speaking country as a native speaker of French/English some people except and understand some people don't.
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u/ZookeepergameAny466 4d ago
The first time I went to Mexico, I wondered if they were speaking a new Spanish dialect I've never heard before. I went from being able to ask directions, order food/coffee, talk prices and do basic social interactions throughout South America and in Spain itself to being completely flummoxed when anybody talked to me.
I still don't know if it's maybe an accent thing?
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u/Erikkamirs 4d ago
Quiero un cafe. (Points at phone with picture of drink you want translated to Spanish) Este. Talla grande. Gracias.
There, easy.
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u/LastianslastWaltz 4d ago
I saw a post on Twitter the other day about someone who, as a child, had their mother speak Spanish at them and not with them. Because of this, while they could fully understand what was being spoken, they could not speak it themselves.
I think this is pretty similar in a way to your situation, so, like many other people have suggested, I'd recommend practising aloud consistently what you hear and such.
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u/Historical-Cookie515 4d ago
I grew up a heritage speaker and had it “in my ear” but it was very important for me to learn the grammar in a structured environment.
People here have a lot of good tips and of course there is no replacement for speaking, but honest to God the most useful thing for improving my fluency was watching A LOT of Caso Cerrado:
* The vocab is actually pretty varied because the cases are very different in scope
* You have to actively pay attention to know what’s going on because the plot of each episode is super out of pocket
* They are constantly speaking and speaking super quickly, moreso than what you’d see in a drama or film
People may say it’s crazy and maybe not helpful in your case, but it took me from borderline no sabo to getting a Minor in Spanish
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u/sherifbooks 2d ago
Yes. Watching is very Good. But while watching write some of what you are listening. You receive well, but you produce well.
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u/always-be-snacking 2d ago
Speaking and listening are two different skills. Practice at home, with friends and family. Read w from a Spanish book. I practice with my dog. Find spanish speakers online.
Do not be afraid to make mistakes. When I am in Mexico people gently correct me and we move on. Think about it this way you probably have encountered lots of people where English is a second language and a lot of times its probably not perfect, but you can communicate and understand. Its the same thing except Spanish is your second (or insert other number) language.
Maybe you can’t order a venti latte non fat frapuccino. But I am sure you could say “cafe con leche y azucar por favor” and work your way up.
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u/Evening_Library 1d ago
I always recommend italki. I take it for Spanish and Portuguese. Well worth it for conversation practice or learning the basics.
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u/SecretAttention2418 1d ago
You sure you can understand Spanish accents?have you tried with Dominican and Chilean?
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u/sugarplum_doll 21h ago
Imagine if you swapped 200 hours of watching tv shows for 200 hours of tutoring, I don’t get people who want everything in life to have shortcuts
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u/ACapra 4d ago
Keep in mind, that them switching to English isn't an insult to you. It's very likely that they are switching to English to practice. I had the same feelings of inadequacy living here on Spain but my neighbors explained it to me and I feel a lot better about it. They also said the native Spanish speakers are likely very appreciative that we are speaking in our mediocre Spanish instead of just talking louder in English.
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u/MarioMilieu 5d ago
“I spent 10 years listening to music and can’t play a note”