We were watching a soccer (football) match on television a few months ago when it hit me: I understood him—the commentator, that is. Even when a goal was scored and his words flew out faster than I thought possible, I understood. I wasn’t even trying. A few years ago, I would have been astounded to understand such commentary. (If you don’t know, they tend to speak very quickly.) Nowadays it’s almost old hat. What a change!
And I’m not saying this to brag. I got to thinking about the different levels of understanding a language. In my case, it’s Spanish, specifically Spain Spanish.
Of course you could go with levels, but I prefer my own method here:
- I can understand a few words here and there, words like hola or adiós or queso. The most important word here is obviously queso.
- I can understand my teacher.
- I can understand another teacher. You have to get used to each teacher, so the ability to understand more than just your own teacher is important.
- I can understand a native. Sometimes the gap between non-native teacher to a native is a big one. I could often say a word in English to my students, and they wouldn’t understand, but they would understand their non-native teacher’s pronunciation.
- I can understand a lecture. A lecture given by a native.
- I can understand a radio program. Again, it depends on the program, but I’m thinking more of a slowed-down, NPR-like program.
- I can understand the television news.
- I can understand a fast-speaking native. We all know these people, people who often seem proud of the fact that they alone are difficult for you to understand.
- I can understand a game show. It depends on the game show, but try watching the popular Spanish game show Pasapalabra.
- I can understand a soccer commentator.
- I can understand an auctioneer. Wait, I can’t do that in English.