Avoid this and your Spanish comprehension will improve

If you’re reading this, you probably want to understand native Spanish speakers. 

Maybe you’re close, maybe you’re a ways off. 

Either way… there’s something that might be holding you back. 

It’s difficult to avoid (I still catch myself doing it). 

But it’s a critical comprehension mistake to avoid because it zaps your motivation faster than an all-you-can-eat pancake buffet before work.  

Despite making this mistake for way too long, I eventually learned to understand Spanish well. 

But had I avoided it, I could have understood native speakers sooner. 

So what is it, and what can you do about it?

What are we looking at here?

The big comprehension mistake is one I can best explain with a couple photos. 

Can you tell me what you’re looking at here?

How about here?

.

.

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Unless you were at the Louvre last week, it probably wasn’t obvious that it’s the Mona Lisa.

Even though it’s the most famous painting in the world.

Why?

We were too zoomed in. Too focused on the details. Missing the pizza for the pepperonis.

Many of you are probably treating your comprehension the same way…

Like someone trying to identify the Mona Lisa by looking at her wrist, or the bridge in the background.

How to fix this

For most of us, the default is to want to understand every word. 

I know I feel that way — unless I make an effort to reframe my objective. 

This reframing is so important because focusing too much on each word can kill your comprehension of the phrase overall. 

You might even know all the words in the phrase (like you know the parts of the Mona Lisa). 

But with too much focus on the parts, the whole becomes invisible. 

So what is this reframing I’m talking about? 

It’s about expectations and goals. 

• Expectations: you should expect to have plenty of individual words you don’t understand. Stopping every two seconds to look words up sucks the joy out of your listening.
  
• Goals: your goal should be to understand the overall message. Not every little thing.
  

Try to make your practice closer to the “real thing” (in this case, conversations).  

In real life, there will always be unknown words. 

Imagine how hard conversations will be if you pause mentally on each unknown word and stop listening… 

If you understand the overall message, you don’t need to understand every detail. Even in a conversation. 

My recommendation: go find a YouTube video in Spanish. It should be something you’re motivated to understand. While watching, limit yourself to ONE lookup per minute. 

For this exercise, don’t worry if there’s a lot you don’t understand. 

The goal is to reset your expectations and train the skill of understanding through context clues. 

When is it okay to look things up? 

There are no real “rules” in language learning. 

But there are different “learning modes” — let’s call them “immersive” and “analytical”. 

In the immersive mode, you’re listening, watching, or reading. You’re trying to enjoy something in Spanish. If you can follow the plot or main idea, that’s good enough. 

In the analytical mode, you’re dissecting a dialogue or passage, trying to make sense of specific bits of language. In this case, it makes perfect sense to look everything up. 

The problem arises when you apply the analytical mindset to the immersive mode. 

It’s like watching a movie with a film buff who won’t stop analyzing the director’s choices — kinda ruins the fun. 

My recommendation: when you’re immersed in Spanish, limit your lookups as much as possible. 

If you miss something major, rewind before reaching for your dictionary. 

Improving your comprehension requires letting go of the need to understand every detail, and trusting that with enough exposure, you’ll improve over time. 

Recommendation: If you listen to a lot of Spanish but you feel like you’re not improving, combine today’s tip with Jiveworld (affiliate link). They turn episodes of the hit podcast Radio Ambulante into interactive learning material. 

I recently partnered with them to get you 20% off because it’s a resource I would have loved to have when I was stuck in the intermediate plateau. I do get a small commission if you join, at no cost to you (although it’s good enough I would recommend it for free, just don’t tell them that). You can read more about it in Saturday Spanish #82. 

If you practice focusing on the big picture, your comprehension will improve by leaps and bounds. 

¡Buen fin de semana!

Connor 

P.S. There’s another skill that makes a big impact on your Spanish comprehension. You can read about that here.