Why can I understand y'all so well (but not other people)

[stutzman]

I've really enjoyed and learned a lot by listening to the Notes From Spain podcast. I can understand almost everything you guys are saying. (Without using the transcript).

I lived in Guadalajara, Mexico for a year a couple of years ago and I had a similar experience. I could understand the teachers at my children's school very well (whether they were native English speakers speaking in Spanish or Mexicans).

But, I usually have a hard time with conversations I overhear on the street, the radio, or the television. Usually I can pick up 50-75% of what is going on instead of the 90+% of what is said in Notes From Spain or from the teachers.

I can read in Spanish fairly well too.

I try as long as I can to watch Spanish language movies or the Spanish TV channel (Univision here in the US) without closed captioning in Spanish. Of course, when I switch the captioning on, I can understand so much more. That is why I have resisted buying the transcripts of Notes in Spanish -- to force my ears to learn.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

-Bryan Stutzman

[neskadebilbao]

I kind of can relate in a different way. Before studying in Spain I really only knew of Latin America : the culture, history, pronunciation, etc. Understanding any latin american speaking Spanish didn´t present a challenge, however, I realized that me cuesta mucho entender a los latinoamericanos (especially those with strong accents) now. I have to concentrate much more.

[Edith]

Hi Bryan, and welcome to the forum.

This appears to be a problem for many people. Understanding news bulletins or documentaries has become very easy for me, but movies are still another matter. Buying DVDs and replaying them will help you to improve your listening skills - it has helped me improve mine although some conversational Spanish still drives me crazy. ;)

[thismortalcoil]

I can certainly relate! I can understand NFS almost 100%, but "street" conversations and movies are a completely different story.
I've taught high school Spanish for the past 3 years, and we have never had a Spanish-speaking student. So even though I speak Spanish almost all day, the only words I get to hear in return are the ones I've taught my students! So my listening comprehension skills are not great. The number of Hispanics in my area is growing, but is very small at the time. And I don't get a TV channel in Spanish! :'(
I very, very rarely get the chance to hear a native speaker. Because of this, I can speak and read very well, but I don't understand much!
All I know to do is to keep watching movies for practice...that's why I love my Netflix subscription!

(by the way, Bryan, from one southerner to another - seeing "ya'll" on the forum made me smile!!)

[Catica]

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

YES!

As I read your post, I had a flash of a thought that might actually make sense. Tell me what you think.

I think it's because television, movies and radio are not natural communicative mediums in the human experience. These mediums were developed within the last 100 years. Prior to that, humans still learned other languages, but without the added pressure of having to understand movies!

Here are some examples in my highly unscientific study.

Exhibit A: In high school, many of my friends were foreign exchange students. They were straight A students, and they couldn't understand movies. Whoa. That boggled my mind at the time. I mean, here they were, going to the Prom, hanging out the mall, leading otherwise "normal", functional lives, and they couldn't understand movies? How can that be?

Exhibit B: I've seen some Scottish films that I would not understand without subtitles, but I can carry on conversations with most Scots. :)

As for listening in on other people's conversations, I challenge you to try this experiment. Try listening in on some English language conversations and see how much you understand. See, you never question your English so unless you're really nosey, you rarely put this to the test. Try it! You might be suprised by how little you understand.

[Edith]

You might be suprised by how little you understand.

Movie actors also tend to use lots of slang and apart from that, sound quality isn't always what it should be - especially in (older) American movies. Therefore, I often use headphones when watching movies, and it makes a lot of difference.

Sitcoms, on the other hand, are much easier to understand (at least in my opinion) and I think this may be related to the sound quality, which tends to be much better.

[richardksa]

Exhibit B: I've seen some Scottish films that I would not understand without subtitles, but I can carry on conversations with most Scots.

Ah, but have you listened to a conversation between two Scots, or Geordies, or Brummies. I speak what most people would call BBC English and I have a problem with regional dialects. I once worked with a group of Northern English whose birthplaces stretched from the Humber to the Tyne. I was the sole Southerner. Sometime I felt the need for a phrasebook. Yet I could speak one on one with each one.

[ValenciaSon]

When I went back to Spain or spanish relatives came to visit, it took me about 2 days to adjust to the velocity of their verbal expression.

[Catica]

Ah, but have you listened to a conversation between two Scots, or Geordies, or Brummies. I speak what most people would call BBC English and I have a problem with regional dialects. I once worked with a group of Northern English whose birthplaces stretched from the Humber to the Tyne. I was the sole Southerner. Sometime I felt the need for a phrasebook. Yet I could speak one on one with each one.

This even better illustrates my example! Truth be told, whenever I meet a Scot fresh off the boat, so to speak, we are officially "two people divided by a common language". I was even just telling a friend of mine (Scottish) that it's obvious she's lived in the States for awhile, because we can all understand her. She laughed quite loudly. And then she told me that two of her schoolmates had come for a visit in California, and she resorted to her "native language" without thinking about it. She said her husband and son just stared at her, wondering what had happened.

Believe me when I tell you that Scottish is one of my most favorite of accents. That and Irish. And Liverpudlian. Makes me weak in the knees, really, especially when I can't understand them. I think, "You're telling me this beautiful language is ENGLISH?!"

[guapo]

I spent a year working in California and I think for the first six months nobody understood a word I was saying in my typical London accent. When I got home people thought I'd had a lobotomy because I was speaking so slooowww ;D