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meepa · 08-28-2005, 02:19 PM

Since you're doing Spanish, you can easily listen to Spanish radio at websites such as http://www.rtve.es/rne/web/index.php. If you are just starting, obviously you're going to want to be getting the hang of basic grammar and vocab. But as you get someone competant, you can really boost your reading comprehension by going to Spanish websites and translating.

One decent way to do it is to go to a popular Spanish news site and try to read through a story a day. Try to pick one that you will be able to relate to (as in, don't try to read something about Spain's agriculture economy, because would you even understand it in English?). For each paragraph, read it once in Spanish and try to understand as much as you can (read it and THINK it in Spanish, don't try to translate into English as you go along). After you've done this, copy & paste the paragraph into some web-based translator tool (e.g. google language tools) and read it in English. Of course the translation is never perfect, but it will usually fill in most of the holes you didn't know. After you do that, read the paragraph again in Spanish with the full understanding. Do this for every paragraph. News stories tend to be of a reasonable length and never too complicated because they have to be accessible by the average reader. I think this is a great way for outsiders to both practice some serious reading comprehension, and as a bonus, you get to learn about the nation and culture as well.

Also if possible, try to read the Spanish out loud. This will force you to be speaking and thinking in Spanish instead of reading Spanish and thinking English. Also, it will help you work on your pronounciation (be careful though, if you know you're lousy at pronouncing correctly, you don't want to reinforce bad behavior. Practice at a language lab at your school).

If you do this, you'll start to notice which words are more common and keep cropping up. Those are the ones you can write down and put on flashcards to memorize. Don't try to memorize every new word you encounter, just focus on the most common and most important ones.

Just listening to the radio is pretty difficult when you're just learning because you don't know any vocab. But it's still good to get the proper accent and pronunciation for a lot of things churning in the back of your mind. It's even better if you pick up DVDs and watch them in Spanish (especially if you've seen them before and know what is going on). This way your mind can associate what it sees with what it hears. Since Spanish is so common in the US, you might even have a Spanish channel on basic cable.

And remember, it typically goes something like reading is the easiest, then hearing, then writing, then speaking. So don't get overwhelmed that they're not all at the same level during your learning process.

Good luck and, when you need encouragement to keep going, just remember the opposite sex always loves someone who can speak an exotic language!

08-28-2005, 02:19 PM	#5 (permalink)
meepa Insane	Since you're doing Spanish, you can easily listen to Spanish radio at websites such as http://www.rtve.es/rne/web/index.php. If you are just starting, obviously you're going to want to be getting the hang of basic grammar and vocab. But as you get someone competant, you can really boost your reading comprehension by going to Spanish websites and translating. One decent way to do it is to go to a popular Spanish news site and try to read through a story a day. Try to pick one that you will be able to relate to (as in, don't try to read something about Spain's agriculture economy, because would you even understand it in English?). For each paragraph, read it once in Spanish and try to understand as much as you can (read it and THINK it in Spanish, don't try to translate into English as you go along). After you've done this, copy & paste the paragraph into some web-based translator tool (e.g. google language tools) and read it in English. Of course the translation is never perfect, but it will usually fill in most of the holes you didn't know. After you do that, read the paragraph again in Spanish with the full understanding. Do this for every paragraph. News stories tend to be of a reasonable length and never too complicated because they have to be accessible by the average reader. I think this is a great way for outsiders to both practice some serious reading comprehension, and as a bonus, you get to learn about the nation and culture as well. Also if possible, try to read the Spanish out loud. This will force you to be speaking and thinking in Spanish instead of reading Spanish and thinking English. Also, it will help you work on your pronounciation (be careful though, if you know you're lousy at pronouncing correctly, you don't want to reinforce bad behavior. Practice at a language lab at your school). If you do this, you'll start to notice which words are more common and keep cropping up. Those are the ones you can write down and put on flashcards to memorize. Don't try to memorize every new word you encounter, just focus on the most common and most important ones. Just listening to the radio is pretty difficult when you're just learning because you don't know any vocab. But it's still good to get the proper accent and pronunciation for a lot of things churning in the back of your mind. It's even better if you pick up DVDs and watch them in Spanish (especially if you've seen them before and know what is going on). This way your mind can associate what it sees with what it hears. Since Spanish is so common in the US, you might even have a Spanish channel on basic cable. And remember, it typically goes something like reading is the easiest, then hearing, then writing, then speaking. So don't get overwhelmed that they're not all at the same level during your learning process. Good luck and, when you need encouragement to keep going, just remember the opposite sex always loves someone who can speak an exotic language!