Recently I have had some current and former students ask me about how to increase their knowledge of another language. I always recommend watching TV and movies in the target language! You can start by watching Spanish shows (or whichever language you are working on) with English subtitles, progress to Spanish shows with Spanish subtitles and then go without subtitles all together! Your ability to understand will vary from show to show, as Spanish is different from country to country. It will also vary from speaker to speaker. Just as in English, some people speak faster than others.
A few good places to start are Viki.com, Hulu, Netflix and YouTube. On Viki.com, teams of people are formed to create subtitles to show. We recently watched a few episodes of <<Yo soy Betty la fea>>, which originated in Colombia.
In addition to TV and movies, you can take advantage of social media to improve your language skills. Join a discussion board for a topic that interests you. Follow Spanish speaking people on Twitter.
Many students learn some Spanish (not all appropriate!) when they play video games from players around the world.
The absolute best way to learn a language, however, it to be immersed in the language...but that topic is for another time...
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