It used to be a dangerous place for some, but not anymore. Medellín, Colombiahas become a very touristic place. Many foreigners come every week to check out one of the most interesting places in the world. And some of these visitors love the city and want to move here. If you are planning to move to a Spanish Speaking country, we recommend that you train your ear, and listen before you move to any Spanish speaking country.
Why should you train your ear?
Isn’t it frustrating when you hear people talking and you cannot understand a word of what they are saying? Isn’t it worse when you think you know the language? Isn’t it even worse when they’re talking to you? Yeah, that feeling is horrible, but some may think “I’ll just get used to it when I get there, it isn’t that hard. In fact, I’ll be surrounded by people that speak Spanish, so that will help me get the language faster.”
Yeah, that’s right, if you surround yourself with Spanish people, you will get the language faster, but you need to know the basics, and at least practice listening to the accents of the country and region that you are going to live in.
You need to train your ear because accents are difficult, and if you don’t believe this, try to talk to people from a different state in your own country. If you are from the north talk to people from the south or if you are from east try to talk to people from the west. You will see that the accentsare very different. Now, imagine yourself moving to a different country, a place where you don’t know the language perfectly. What would the result be?
People that didn’t train their ears before moving to a Spanish speaking country
I know a few friends that have moved to Colombia, some know Spanish and others don’t know anything. However, all of them need these things:transportation, food, clothing, housing, groceries haircuts, a fridge, an oven, a bed, etc.
Do these things sound familiar? You know we all need them, how are you going to get them? Are you prepare to get some of these things on your own? Are even prepare to get from the airport to the place that you are going to live? These are really important things to consider before you move to a Spanish speaking country.
There are some examples I want to give you so you can see the importance of training your ear.
Example 1: First time of this foreigner in the city he didn’t bother asking or doing research about the currency and the exchange amount. The result, he gave a tip to a taxi driver almost two times more of the money he had to pay. With that money, he could have eaten for a few days. How many other people did he pay double or triple for their services?
Example 2: These friends have been living for a while in the same apartment, so the owner decides to raise the rent. The problem was that she didn’t fix a few problems in the apartment. The result they had to move to a different place a little more expensive because the didn’t know enough Spanish to express what they thought.
Example 3: This woman went to a supermarket to buy food for her, her husband, and some friends. The store is about a 15 minutes walk from her house. When she got home to cook, she realized that the meat that she just bought was rotten, now she needed to go back and she had to bother one of her friends, to go back with her to the supermarket because she didn’t know, how to explain that the meat was rotten in Spanish. The result, everyone had to wait longer for the food.
If you’re planning to move to a Spanish speaking country you are going to need these things. I don’t mean you have to be prepared for every situation because no one is prepared for everything, but you can actually save yourself some time, money and headaches training your ears before moving to a Spanish speaking country.
How can you train your ears?
There are a few things you can do to train your ears. The first thing you need to do, is to start identifying where do you want to go? Are you going to Spain, Mexico, Chile or Colombia? Every country has a very different and unique accent.So, you really need to know where you are going to start your process of listening.
After knowing where do you want to go, try to listen as much as you can things in that accent.How can you do that?
There are always the reliable tools like Google and YouTube. You can start by searching in Google things like “best TV program in Spain” : ”mejor programa de television en España”, or “el chavo del 8” – TV show from Mexico, or “German garmendia” – YouTuber from Chile or “Betty la fea” – TV show from Colombia.
Every country has its accents, and they also have their TV shows where you can listen, and learn those accents. The more you listen, the faster you get them.
Another thing you can do is to look for the news in that Specific country and listen to the news every once in awhile if you don’t like the news. However, if you like the news, then listen to the news every day. With this you will get, not just the language, but also the behavior of the people in the country and their progress.
Conclusion
There are several ways to train your ears before moving to a Spanish speaking country, but everything comes down to one person, YOU. You are the only one that can improve and move on with your Spanish. So, if your goal is to move to a Spanish speaking country,start applying what we just talked about, you will be grateful you started your training before moving.
For more Spanish tips, keep tuned here at spanishtomind.com.
