Cause the Spanish language isn't fast enough...

So was moderately amused the other day in my Spanish lesson when my prof opened up a youtube video and went to the speed selection -- I, naively, thought he was going to show me how to slow the native speakers down so I'd have a hope at understanding (which I acknowledge is an option I may have utilized previously ;). But no, no that was not his intent at all.  Instead, he SPEEDS THEM UP!  Wtf?!?!  Spanish is already the second fastest common language in the world, but sure, let's make it faster. lol.  I have to give him credit though - it was an interesting exercise.  He wanted me to just pick out any words I could -- apparently even one would be acceptable.  The like five I came up with was a shocker ;).  We repeated it a couple times then he slowed it down to 1.5x normal and I got a few more.  By the time we got to normal speed I had enough to figure out context.  Admittedly not an exercise that's super-useful on my own as it requires somebody who can actually understand it to identify if the words I think I hear are actually there, but still good.

 

I've also discovered that SO many of my DVDs and BluRays have a Spanish option :). This is particularly awesome for animated movies where the misaligned speaking (which generally drives me insane) doesn't matter at all.  So I've been playing with that and have to say I have a HUGE respect for the translators dealing w musicals.  Lol not only do they have to translate, but also in a rhythm and rhyme that works with the English songs.  Now to be fair, I have no idea how much of these I'm "understanding" because I already have the movies memorized.  I may or may not rewatch favourites on a regular basis.  But I'm getting enough to acknowledge that the meaning if not the literal translation are generally pretty close to the original.  For instance, Be Our Guest was moderately amusing in Spanish as "Guest" has 3 syllables in Spanish so credit to the translators on that one.  No closed captioning with this option though, so I’m thinking my knowledge of the story helps balance out the fact that I can’t read to cheat ;).  With stories I don’t already know, I definitely still need the text option to get anything more than the gist.  Ah well.

 

I also learned how much I generally just listen to movies I already know.  Was watching Anastasia in Spanish and paying much closer attention than normal; SO many details on screen that add to the story that I’d long since forgotten.   But when you don’t really understand the words, any hints help ;).  

 

The challenge continues….