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Listen to Spanish at the Speed of Light. 

We have chosen to offer a transcription with this particular native Speaker interview. Once you listen to Spanish spoken in the video, you’ll understand why we have chosen this particular one to transcribe.

The video was shot in the weekly market in Torrejón de Ardóz that comes every Wednesday to the town. The reason for our visit was to buy some trousers for my sister from the stall that sells copies of the famous brand, Desigual.

I was shocked.

It’s not easy to listen to Spanish whilst you are outside and lots of things are happening around you, yet normally, I manage quite well.  However, I have to say that when the stall owner began to speak I was really surprised at the speed of the words that were shooting out of his mouth.

Across the years I have had the pleasure of being able to listen to Spanish from all over the world. Some accents are more difficult than others, clearly. However, as I listened to this guy speak, I realised that there were levels of difficulty even higher than I had imagined.

Where is the speaker from?

This is a good question. We never thought to ask him but our best guess is South America, perhaps from Venezuela. However, we cannot be sure of that. The fact is, however, that wherever he is from, he could win a speaking marathon hands down.

Why should I listen to Spanish with the transcription?

The two main issues that every student of the Spanish language has are speaking and listening. Both of these mediums of communication cause us a great deal of discomfort and concern. It’s for that reason that we promote the practice of following a conversation along with the transcription. There is something very powerful in educating you ears to link what are sometimes for us unintelligible sounds with actual words.

The process of showing your mind that THIS SOUND = THIS WORD is very effective. Once your mind has been able to make that link, it will be much easier to recognise that same sound in the future.

Do yourself a favour.

When you listen to Spanish with a transcript you do yourself a big favour. You educate yourself and you coach your mind, allowing it to see and to link previous learnings with new ones. For every student of the Spanish language, this is ‘imprescindible’.

So, it’s for that reason that we now are really pleased to offer the transcript to this and many more native speaker interviews for only 1 British pound. All you need do is click the button below for access.

Gordon 🙂

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Pocket Por and Para. Just released!

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Do you have problems using Por and Para in Spanish? Are you unsure which one to choose from when faced with saying ‘FOR’ in Spanish?

If that’s true for you then Pocket Por and Para is the ideal tool to help you clear up the mystery once and for all.

A Simple System.

We like systems, especially if they are easy to follow. This is precisely what our new book offers you. An easy to follow, simple and logical system that will coach you through all of your confusions.

Once you have sailed through the chapters and completed the easy to understand, easy to do exercises, you will be left with no doubt about how to use Por and Para in Spanish like a native speaker.

Why are they so difficult?

They are difficult because of a few issues. Firstly, for all of us who learnt French at school, the desire to use POR is almost addictive. Yet, as you will discover in the book, that can be our biggest mistake.

Secondly, in English we often just have the word FOR, which gives us no clue as to whether we should choose Por or Para in Spanish.

The great news.

The great news is that although the word FOR gives us no clue, Pocket Por and Para will show you how to see the clues in the surrounding words. And trust us when we tell you that once you’ve read the book,  the clues will be so obvious you’ll be wondering why you never saw them in the first place.

Available from Amazon and in Kindle format soon.

Right now you can get a hold of your copy of Pocket Por and Para from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and soon it will be available in the vast majority of online book stores.  As we write this blog, it is also being converted into Kindle format and will be available within a few more days.

Pocket Por and Para is an easy read. It’s not technical nor does it steep itself in heavy grammar. It has been designed with you in mind and we feel confident that it will take you to a place of confidence when you go out into the real world and begin to use Por and Para in Spanish, de verdad.

Muchas Gracias.

We would like to thank you for your support and for helping us to be able to help so many other people in turn. Our goal continues to be what it always has been:  To help people learn Spanish easily, fluently and with fun.

Hasta pronto,

Gordon y Cynthia:)

Why test your Spanish?

If you really want to test your Spanish and use it as well as a native, there are two things that you truly MUST do. One is to SPEAK Spanish. The other is to LISTEN to Spanish.

Does reading and writing not test my Spanish too?

Yes, of course it does, however, those two activities are far more passive, they are less spontaneous and, let’s be honest, they are the least challenging of the four activities.

Do them all.

Whatever the case, if you limit yourself to only one medium of learning, your Spanish will be unbalanced. It would be like only exercising one of your arms. We recommend that you do some of each activity each day.

However, in our book, Speaking and Listening is the real way to test your Spanish. For that reason we always end each series of Podcasts with one specific session designed to test your Spanish and your ability to actively listen.

The trick to listening well.

We always say to our students that when they listen to Spanish being spoken, they should always listen a minimum of three times. That’s because the first time you are really just getting an idea of what the topic is about. You capture the overview the first time around. Then, the next few times are more focused on picking up the details.  Our advice is that you NEVER listen only once to something, especially if it’s challenging.

Then, once you have listened enough to know that you can’t capture any more of what was said, THEN you listen with the transcript if you have one. (The transcript for this video is available here.)

After having listened three times, your mind is quite literally screaming out to know what the words were that you couldn’t quite catch.  It’s that desperate interest that makes the learning stick. Often, when you see the word or phrase written down you say to yourself: Of course! How easy! And from that point onward it will be. Your mind learns quickly and puts the sound-word into it’s memory banks for the next time.

Once learnt, never forgotten.

Once you have that particular sound sequence logged in, your mind will recognise it when it crops up again. And it will, be sure of that. The issue comes when we just don’t know what they’ve said and we carry that confusion and frustration with us. Every time we hear that same thing said, we feel confused and frustrated.

We even invent meaning.

One person asked us: Why do you say: ‘Mi negro’ in each video? Of course, we weren’t saying that at all. We were saying: ‘Me alegro’. = I’m happy for you.

So, if you want to test your Spanish, always try to listen to something that your have the transcript for, That way you will learn at a much faster rate.

Video for This Spanish Lesson