Five months of Spanish
A short in Spanish text at level B1. The translation sits next to it: reading with a dictionary is still too early at this level, and without support it will not happen at all. I started learning Spanish on my own, with a dictionary and a pocket grammar, and after two months I quit halfway. In…
Text
- Empecé a estudiar español por mi cuenta, con un diccionario y una gramática de bolsillo, y a los dos meses lo dejé a medias. En enero me apunté a un curso de tarde y descubrí que la teoría la tenía bien, pero que hablar me costaba muchísimo. La profesora me hizo una observación que recuerdo entera: que entender de oído no se aprende leyendo, sino escuchando cada día. Desde entonces pongo la radio mientras cocino, tomo apuntes de las palabras que se repiten y las aprendo paso a paso. Todavía me lío con los verbos irregulares, pero la semana pasada mantuve una conversación de veinte minutos y me salió bien.I started learning Spanish on my own, with a dictionary and a pocket grammar, and after two months I quit halfway. In January I signed up for an evening course and discovered that I knew the theory quite well, but speaking was very hard for me. The teacher made a remark I remember in full: understanding by ear is not learned by reading, only by listening every day. Since then I turn on the radio while I cook, write down the words that repeat and learn them step by step. I still get confused with irregular verbs, but last week I kept a conversation going for twenty minutes, and it worked.
Comprehension questions
The questions are asked in Russian on purpose: we test your understanding of the text, not your ability to read the question.
- How did the narrator start learning the language?
- What turned out to be hard for him?
- What did the teacher advise?
- How did last week end?
Frequently asked
What level do you need to read this text in Spanish?
B1. That means: you know the letters and have a stock of everyday words — about two or three hundred.
How to read a text in an unfamiliar language usefully?
First all the way through without peeking at the translation — just to catch the familiar words. Then with the translation. Then all the way through again: the second pass brings noticeably more, and that feeling matters more than any rule.