Escuchar: Eres Bella Tal como Eres

This video is a powerful listening experience that moved me even when I couldn't understand most of the words. One of the judges says "a mí me estás tocando el alma." It touched my soul also, so I had a person on RhinoSpike give me a Spanish transcript so that I could study it.  

RhinoSpike is a fabulous resource if you haven't discovered it yet. It's a mutual assistance language site where you can ask people to record words, sentences or paragraphs in the language you are studying. And you can help others by responding to their requests in your language. Beautiful.

Eres Bella Tal como Eres ... don't miss listening to this amazing video

Haz clic aquí

Quiero que me pongas mucha atención.

 I want you to give me all your attention.

Sé que te has sentido rechazada, 
sé que te has sentido que no vales absolutamente nada, 
te has sentido una perdedora. 

I know that you have felt rejected.

I know that you have felt you’re absolutely worthless, 

you have felt like a loser.

Que por más que trates de buscar tu sueño, 
de conquistar lo que realmente tu quieres, 
piensas que jamás lo vas a lograr.

No matter how hard you try to find your dream,

to conquer what you really want, 

you think you are never going to make it. 

Hay tres errores que te van a paralizar 
toda tu vida para alcanzar tus sueños.

There are three mistakes that will paralyze you,

keep you from achieving your dreams

El miedo, el no, y el fracaso. 

Fear ... no ... and failure.

¿Miedo a qué? 

Fear of what?

¿Miedo a no llenar l
a expectativa de tu familia, de tus amigos? 
¿Miedo a no arriesgarte 
porque no quieres perder 
lo que ya tienes seguro? 
Simplemente miedo.

 Fear of not filling 

the expectations of your family, of your friends.

Fear of not taking a risk 

because you don’t want to lose 

what you already have. 
Simply fear.

Si permites que el miedo te atrape, 
te agarre, jamás te vas a levantar.

If you permit the fear to trap you, 

hold you, you are never going to rise.

Sé que te has sentido rechazada, 
de que no, no soy bella, 
no tengo la talla perfecta, 
no sé hablar, 
no tengo experiencia 

I know you have felt rejected, 

felt I am not beautiful,  

I don’t have the perfect size, 

I don’t know how to talk, 

I don’t have experience.

¡No, no, no! 
Es lo que está en tu mente 
para no levantarte.

No! No! No! 

If that is what is in your mind, 

you will not rise.

¿Quién me dice del fracaso? 
Nos han enseñado que el fracaso es malo, 
que si fracasas, no vas a triunfar, 
no vas a lograr lo que tú quieres.

Who tells me of failure? 

We have learned that failure is bad, 

that if you fail, you will not succeed, 

you are not going to get what you want.

¡Caite, pero levantate! 
¡Jamás te des por vencida!

Fall, but get up! 

Never give up!

 
Fracaso es igual a éxito, 
fracaso es igual a éxito. 

Failure is the same as success,

Failure is the same as success.

Recuerda que eres bella, 
que eres única, 
nadie es como tú. 
Sé que hay marcas, heridas en tu vida, 
pero recuerda que es para hacerte mejor 
y hacerte fuerte. 
Y recordarte de dónde tú has venido.  

Remember, you are beautiful,
You are unique, no one is like you.
Know that there are marks, wounds in your life,
but remember that it is to make you better
and to make you strong.
And remember where you come from.

Eres hermosa y nadie es como tú. 
Sin limites, 
porque el cielo es el límite, 
nada es imposible. 
Sin excusas, 
las excusas siempre van a estar. 
Sin tallas 
¡Escucha! 
Sin talla.

You are beautiful and no one is like you.
Without limits,
because the sky is the limit,
nothing is impossible.
Without excuses,
excuses are always going to there.
Without sizes.
Listen!
Without size.

Porque eres bella 
tal y como eres. 
Quiero que lo digas a ti misma, 
eres bella tal y como eres.

Because you are beautiful
just as you are.
I want to talk to your self,
you are beautiful just as you are!

 

  

Escuchar: Conversaciones cortas

This video from Spanishpod101 offers two hours of short, basic conversations, once without subtitles and once with. Listening to short segments once or twice and noting words you don't know is a good way to building your listening skills and vocabulary.

My process:

• listen to 15 minutes of the video
• start again and read out loud with the subtitles
• make a list of all the new words 
• review the words and go back to the beginning of the segment and relisten.

Haz clic para ver el vídeo

Palabras nuevas para mi:

1. 15 minutos
echarle un vistazo                          aún no
estante                                         surfear
suena bien                                    costear
un trabajo de medio tiempo            se llevará a cabo
mezclar                                         sofisticado/a
agregar 
añadir
ir de compras
de hecho 

2. 15 minutos 
la impresora
funcionar
allá
¡Que lástima! 
la madrugada
la parada
el semáforo
girar
embotellado/a                             ligero/a
temer                                         el palito
la lata                                         alargar
el horario                                    la aspiradora
especificar                                  la fecha
la pastilla                                   la capsula
la dosis                                      el medicamente
nervioso/a                                  el pasatiempo
pescar                                        la ama de casa
la cocinera                                  la secundaria
últimamente                               el modelo
cuadrado/a                                 el marco

3. 15 minutos

cancelar
la cita 
agendado/a
programar
retirado/a 
emocionado/a                             el complejo
el descuento                               apurar
el pasillo                                     el asiento
buen punto                                 hospedar
el fleco                                       el anuncio de empleo
aplicar                                        opinar
genial                                         la cajera
estampado/a                               atrevido/a
la manga 

4. 15 minutos 
la venta 

Escuchar: How to improve your active listening skills in Spanish, and how to draw a dog

Skill #1: Listening

There seems to be universal agreement ... listening, and actually understanding, spoken Spanish is the key to becoming conversational. That is why "Escuchar" is the first skill listed on the Aventura Español model.

Not long ago, I hit a wall on my Spanish journey. I had spent a year plowing through a Spanish grammar workbook series ... 600 pages of grammar, conjugations and endless, repetitive sentences. I was ready for immersion. I thought.

I knew I was in trouble when I decided to test myself, assuming I was about to break into that lovely territory of "intermediate" Spanish. I took the listening segment of an online test. And failed. Utterly and completely.

There was a moment of ... "Do I really want to do this? Maybe it's too hard. Maybe I'm too old." I was already booked for the immersion course ... two weeks. Maybe it will be a miracle, I thought. It wasn't. My inability to hear ... and speak ... the language overrode my reading and writing skills and I landed in the beginner section of the course, starting where I had been a year ago when I began the workbook series. 

While I had learned a lot of grammar and tenses, I still couldn't hear or speak them. It took a lot of chutzpah to tell my new instructors I was dropping out of the class part of the course and would just participate in the activities. They didn't understand and I wasn't sure I did either. However, I knew I either had to find my own way or quit trying to learn Spanish. 

It occurred to me to go home and give up entirely, however, I had paid a bunch of money for the course ... and I really did want to learn to speak Spanish. 

So, I set out with one fact in hand: I needed to know how to listen and hear the language. The search for how to do that prompted new directions and this blog. While I am making more progress than I ever expected, I am still learning how to listen ... actively listen.

This YouTube video helped and was fun: 

Learning Spanish: Why is it so Hard to Understand Spanish Speakers || Improve Listening Skills by WhyNotSpanish (YouTube channel). (Haz clic para vídeo)

Sometimes the comments on videos are priceless. If this one describes how you sometimes feel on your journey, don't miss watching the video. Below the comment are some review notes.

Funke Motor 1 year ago (edited)

Nativo: Hola 
Gringo: Hola 
Nativo: Cómo está? 
Gringo: Bien y usted? 
Nativo: Ahnopuesvieraustedcomoestalaseñorafatalyelperroconchorrillolosmocososquenosecomportangentedelanguloesigualalcatetoopuestoentreelcatetoadyacenteacidodesoxirribonucleico. Pero bien. 
Gringo: Ok... 

;-)

Notes:

Passive listening ... in the background or multi-tasking. Not very efficient learning process.
Active Listening ... actively looking for meaning in what you hear.

YouTube tool bar

YouTube gives you an option at the lower right of the screen to select subtitles. Click the little gear and set subtitles to Spanish. Warning: the subtitles vary in quality according to the clarity of the speaker. Most educational videos produce good subtitles. In-the-field interviews can be horrible.

"(Subtitles) are of course training wheels that you eventually will have to do without." Also, if you are listening to music, find the lyrics (in Spanish) so you can see the words as you listen. We are putting popular Mexican songs and lyrics in posts under the "Cultura" tab at the top of the blog.

You can reduce the speed on a YouTube video by also using the little settings gear on the bottom right. The .75 setting is usually helpful but below that there is too much distortion.

Write the words you have trouble with and see if you can decipher them using Google Translate. Then, when you listen at normal speed, you should be able to understand them.

Cómo Dibujar un Perro

Un ejercicio divertido con muchas palabras nuevas para mi ...

un marcador, la lapíz, la raza, específica, la dálmata, pastores alemanes, un rectángulo, un ovalo, los bigotes, un parche, curva, el revés, la colita, unas manchas.

Video quiz at: https://www.whynotspanish.com/listening-activity-draw-dog-transcript/

More listening tips.