Spanish listening gcse

have u tried doing the past papers on the exam board website?

Hi,

You know Duolingo, the Languages learning app? Well they also do podcasts telling real stories in French and Spanish. They're bilingual with the storyteller speaking in an intermediate level of the language, and the host coming in for context in English. They're free to download from wherever you get your podcasts from, and they're of an intermediate level. Just search for Duolingo Podcasts and you should find them.

I also use The News in Slow Spanish, where they cover news and current affairs. There's no English spoken at all in this series (apart from specific English names /titles) but if you're familiar with the subject matter, you should be able to follow the story or get the gist of it quite easily. There's a free version that's only about 5 mins long, or there's a premium version that lasts about 20-30 mins.

In the meantime, you can always take a quick lesson from Gwyneth Paltrow

Yes I have listened to the duolingo podcast a few times but I'll give them a go again

Wow I didn’t know Gwyneth Paltrow’s Spanish was so good! But it isn’t perfect like the video suggests, there are a few errors she makes regarding the subjunctive, correct verb tense and making an adjective agree with the noun. But it’s certainly very good for practising listening to someone who’s speaking much like a native in tone and also speed.

TBF, I think if / when you learn a new language from scratch, you're always going to be making the occasional mistake which will be obvious to a native speaker. The possible exception is if you live in the country where that language is spoken for years and you totally immerse yourself in that language. It's just good that they're a bit more patient than some French people are.

But that works both ways...I'm not sure if you've come across many native Spanish speakers who are learning English (or don't speak English that much), but you may notice that instead of saying "I don't have it" or "I'm not going", they may say "I no have it" or "I no going" (as you probably know, the vast majority of negative in Spanish is "no"

And thank you for taking the time to go through the interview... I'll have a detailed look when I've got 5 mins (maybe 15 )