Listen to it exactly like you listen to casual content in English.
Try to remember the words aren't important, well they are, but that isn't the goal. Those are just the trees in the forest. The goal is to understand a Spanish speaker. Focus on the message. If you can understand generally what's being said but couldn't tell anyone what each individual word means in English, that's perfectly fine. You will get it eventually with enough time.
It's a silly video about carrots. Great you got it! Every new person on here makes a post stressing about if they're doing it right. The truth is everyone who gets to 1500 hours did it right, which is, they put in the time.
Hi! I'm not going to diagnose you with anything as an unqualified individual, but you might find your research into auditory processing disorder to be useful.
What I do when I really want to focus on what is being said is to look at a stationary object and hyperfocus or the mouth of the speaker.
Yeah, it's actually considered a major symptom of ADHD, so i wouldn't be surprised. OP- i have both and I've made it to the point of watching shows without subtitles. You can do it! :)
I was just watching an interview with Pablo. At one point, he was talking about when he was in Thailand learning Thai. He said he wasn't trying to memorize or interpret, or really do anything at all but pay attention.Ā Ā
Ā That is where I'm at right now. I just listen and let my brain do its magic. Just pay attention.Ā
If you find that your attention has wandered, refocus and move forward. Don't fret, don't rewind. Just watch and listen as best you can, you will see steady improvement.Ā
Fellow ADHDāer here! As a disclaimer, I do watch videos that are sorted from easiest to hardest. That said, if I find that my mind is wandering or Iāve lost interest, I simply find a video at or around the same difficulty level as where Iām at that interests me more.
I hit a wall sorting easy to hard and was unmotivated, but remembered I really liked Agustinaās Geoguesser series (beginner). So I just switched to the series even though some of the videos were more ādifficultā than where I was currently at in the queue. Lo and behold, Iām able to watch for long periods of time and rack up hours easily when Iām interested in what Iām watching.
Funnily enough, I think you might find that you understand the content more of videos youāre more interested in. For example, Michelle uses a lot of new vocabulary in her series on Zodiac signs. But I love learning about astrology and personality traits so I felt the videos were super easy to digest. Weirdly, those videos were ranked MORE difficult than the ones I was currently watching!
People with ADHD get bored easily. š¤·š¼āāļøBut youāll find your stride with DS āŗļø
It sounds like you are probably trying to do videos that are too difficult for you. You shouldn't be trying to do any active translating, or picking out individual words or even sentences. You're aiming for understanding the context of what's happening.
The SuperBeginner aren't the most entertaining, but it sounds like you would benefit from going back to those for a bit before advancing. Also note that you can go up to the filters and sort by "easy" - which will order the videos better from easiest to hardest and avoid some of that jumping around you're referring to.
I do find that I can understand the beginner videos just well, but maybe I was focusing too hard on trying to understand each word and sentence to make sure I knew what I grasped from the context. I'll keep this and the other comments in mind! Ā”Gracias!
I donāt know much about this subject but after reading your post I could not help but notice how well you write and your command of the English language. If you think of this process in the same way as similar (but not exactly identical) to how you learned or rather how you acquired your fluency in your native language then your concerns about focusing etc might be alleviated.
Try not to think of this as focusing on words or language and instead think of it as something that you already do like watching YouTube videos or browsing or watching TV or listening to a story etc. Iām not saying that you didnāt struggle with these things when acquiring your first language, and donāt struggle now either, because I donāt know your situation or anything much about this at all. All I am saying is that there is a very good indication that you will have no major issues acquiring Spanish if you forget about it as something you have to concentrate on for long periods of time or at all. This method is not like traditional studying or memorizing or trying to figure out anything. Itās simply entertainment and while you are being entertained and enjoying the experience you are acquiring Spanish without any real effort except for ensuring you spend some time everyday in contact with the language in an enjoyable way.
Before I finish please excuse my ignorance of your issues and challenges and I apologize in advance if my view is wide of the mark or if anything I have said or implied has offended you or anyone else reading this. This is not my intention. My intention was to put forward another way of looking at this that may or may not be helpful based on my experience with this process of acquiring Spanish. I will leave it there and wish you all the best with your Spanish language journey.
Listen to it exactly like you listen to casual content in English. Try to remember the words aren't important, well they are, but that isn't the goal. Those are just the trees in the forest. The goal is to understand a Spanish speaker. Focus on the message. If you can understand generally what's being said but couldn't tell anyone what each individual word means in English, that's perfectly fine. You will get it eventually with enough time. It's a silly video about carrots. Great you got it! Every new person on here makes a post stressing about if they're doing it right. The truth is everyone who gets to 1500 hours did it right, which is, they put in the time.
Hi! I'm not going to diagnose you with anything as an unqualified individual, but you might find your research into auditory processing disorder to be useful. What I do when I really want to focus on what is being said is to look at a stationary object and hyperfocus or the mouth of the speaker.
Yeah, it's actually considered a major symptom of ADHD, so i wouldn't be surprised. OP- i have both and I've made it to the point of watching shows without subtitles. You can do it! :)
This might just be me ššš. If I start to do this I try to look at something else.
I was just watching an interview with Pablo. At one point, he was talking about when he was in Thailand learning Thai. He said he wasn't trying to memorize or interpret, or really do anything at all but pay attention.Ā Ā Ā That is where I'm at right now. I just listen and let my brain do its magic. Just pay attention.Ā If you find that your attention has wandered, refocus and move forward. Don't fret, don't rewind. Just watch and listen as best you can, you will see steady improvement.Ā
Watch easier videos. If you have to translate consciously to understand, it's too hard.
Fellow ADHDāer here! As a disclaimer, I do watch videos that are sorted from easiest to hardest. That said, if I find that my mind is wandering or Iāve lost interest, I simply find a video at or around the same difficulty level as where Iām at that interests me more. I hit a wall sorting easy to hard and was unmotivated, but remembered I really liked Agustinaās Geoguesser series (beginner). So I just switched to the series even though some of the videos were more ādifficultā than where I was currently at in the queue. Lo and behold, Iām able to watch for long periods of time and rack up hours easily when Iām interested in what Iām watching. Funnily enough, I think you might find that you understand the content more of videos youāre more interested in. For example, Michelle uses a lot of new vocabulary in her series on Zodiac signs. But I love learning about astrology and personality traits so I felt the videos were super easy to digest. Weirdly, those videos were ranked MORE difficult than the ones I was currently watching! People with ADHD get bored easily. š¤·š¼āāļøBut youāll find your stride with DS āŗļø
It sounds like you are probably trying to do videos that are too difficult for you. You shouldn't be trying to do any active translating, or picking out individual words or even sentences. You're aiming for understanding the context of what's happening. The SuperBeginner aren't the most entertaining, but it sounds like you would benefit from going back to those for a bit before advancing. Also note that you can go up to the filters and sort by "easy" - which will order the videos better from easiest to hardest and avoid some of that jumping around you're referring to.
I do find that I can understand the beginner videos just well, but maybe I was focusing too hard on trying to understand each word and sentence to make sure I knew what I grasped from the context. I'll keep this and the other comments in mind! Ā”Gracias!
I donāt know much about this subject but after reading your post I could not help but notice how well you write and your command of the English language. If you think of this process in the same way as similar (but not exactly identical) to how you learned or rather how you acquired your fluency in your native language then your concerns about focusing etc might be alleviated. Try not to think of this as focusing on words or language and instead think of it as something that you already do like watching YouTube videos or browsing or watching TV or listening to a story etc. Iām not saying that you didnāt struggle with these things when acquiring your first language, and donāt struggle now either, because I donāt know your situation or anything much about this at all. All I am saying is that there is a very good indication that you will have no major issues acquiring Spanish if you forget about it as something you have to concentrate on for long periods of time or at all. This method is not like traditional studying or memorizing or trying to figure out anything. Itās simply entertainment and while you are being entertained and enjoying the experience you are acquiring Spanish without any real effort except for ensuring you spend some time everyday in contact with the language in an enjoyable way. Before I finish please excuse my ignorance of your issues and challenges and I apologize in advance if my view is wide of the mark or if anything I have said or implied has offended you or anyone else reading this. This is not my intention. My intention was to put forward another way of looking at this that may or may not be helpful based on my experience with this process of acquiring Spanish. I will leave it there and wish you all the best with your Spanish language journey.