Why you can t understand Spanish movies yet

If you always need subtitles to follow Spanish -language films that's completely normal—we' ve all been there when learning Spanish That's why we're going to analyze one together now scene from the incredible film The Society of the Snow to discover why it's so hard to find and I'll also show you how to get started o understand movies in Spanish without feeling so lost In the scene we are about to analyze We see two characters Pancho and Numa and Pancho is trying to convince his friend Numa joining the trip with the Montevideo Uruguay rugby team to Santiago Chile Let's look at the scene now and then analyze it together You're not taking these two idiots with you on the trip Please I'm begging you They won't convince me with this Pancho Want a solid reason to convince you Here it is: I want to go with you You'll be receiving it in a couple of months You'll start working without stopping You're going to be the best lawyer in all of Montevideo and we' ll be proud of you But you'll live your life and I'll live mine Have you ever thought that this might be the last trip we ever take together You want me to cry too Very good it's not an easy conversation but don't worry At the end of this video you'll understand it perfectly Now what we're going to do is analyze each part of the dialogue That is the meaning so you understand everything And then we'll go over other elements such as accent and other aspects We'll listen and then analyze each part of the dialogue together You're not taking these two idiots with you on the trip Please I'm begging you Here the first line is "Don't make me go on the trip with these two idiots " Please I'm begging you Boludo is an Argentine and Uruguayan slang term and while in its strictest sense it's an insult it's widely used among friends In this case it truly is an insult It means something like "idiots " Please I'm begging you If you've seen my video about direct and indirect objects you' ll know why this sentence is structured this way I'm asking you I'm begging you please this is what I ask of you I'm asking you It always has to be this way Person thing verb You can remember it because it's alphabetical Person thing verb It can't be Ask for it or I ask for it I always ask for it you ask for it and so on Please I'm begging you You won't convince me with this Pancho It says here "You won't convince me with this Pancho " By the way Pancho is a nickname for Francisco They won't convince me with this Pancho Want a solid argument to convince you It's a phrase you've probably already heard And here it means something like "Let's hear it " Come on Go ahead Show interest in what the other person is about to say I want to go with you He says I want to go with you I want to go with you I'll explain the use of "vos" in a bit In a couple of months you'll graduate You'll jump straight into working without stopping You'll graduate in a couple of months You're going to graduate Graduating In many Latin American countries it means graduating from university To earn a degree Completing university studies You'll start working without stopping Non-stop You're going to work non-stop You're going to be the best lawyer in all of Montevideo and we're going to be proud of you You're going to be the best lawyer in all of Montevideo And we're going to be proud of you But you'll live your life and I'll live mine Living your life or living mine It's about living your life You'll live yours and I 'll live mine What might be tricky here is this part And mine is mine This "mine" refers to life Making your life Making my life and it's used to avoid repetition You'll live your life and I'll live mine No need to keep saying that That' s why it says "and mine " You're going to live your life and I'll live mine You started thinking this might be the last trip we could take together This part goes by really fast Don't worry Later we'll analyze what's being said here It says you started thinking that this It could be the last trip we ever take together You fell into thought Getting started on something It's usually like beginning to do something I started studying after dinner I began studying after dinner She started crying ta In this case you started to think It's more like have you considered that this might be our last trip together Have you thought about that that Make me cry too you want to make me cry too You want to make me cry too Aside from the new expressions and structures one thing that can complicate understanding in this dialogue is regional differences Regional differences are always present in Spanish and in this case what we're hearing is a Rioplatense accent It's the typical accent of the Río de la Plata region namely Montevideo Buenos Aires and the surrounding areas A fairly typical feature of this accent is that they pronounce the Y and double L like "yo " That's why Pancho says "I want to go with you" instead of "I want to go with you " Please I'm asking you You won't convince me with this Pancho Want a solid reason to convince yourself Well I want to go with you And then it says proudly instead of proudly You'll be receiving it in a couple of months You'll start working nonstop You're going to be the best lawyer in all of Montevideo and we' ll be proud of you But you'll live your life and I'll live mine The other point I mentioned in the first part of the analysis is the use of "vos" instead of "tú " which is very typical of this region and many other parts of Latin America So here it doesn't say you want a good argument to convince yourself You want it you want it meaning you're looking for a solid reason to convince yourself It doesn't say "you go " it says "you go " You want it you go As I mentioned the voceo is used in many Latin American countries so it's worth understanding If you're interested I have another video about voicing and how to conjugate and use it I'll leave a link in the description of this video With this step you can now see why understanding Spanish-language films can be so difficult It doesn't matter if it's a film from Uruguay Peru Mexico or Spain There are always regional differences just as there are in English As Spanish students we have to learn to understand many different accents Doing this It's challenging Yes but with practice any Spanish accent becomes more understandable Training your ear to comprehend different accents It makes your Spanish more flexible and gives you greater confidence when speaking with people from different regions Now that we have a clearer understanding of the conversation between Pancho and Numa let's move on to the third and final part of the analysis which I believe is the most Crucial for better understanding authentic Spanish And it's true that not all sounds are pronounced with the same intensity just as in English In casual conversations such as the one we see here in this scene set in a bar there are sounds that ca fade away or weaken Sometimes entire words are almost inaudible Let's listen to a couple of examples of this More relaxed pronunciation like chatting with friends I'm not going to play along with these two idiots Please I'm begging you They won't convince me with this Pancho Here in these first two lines we hear a very emblematic trait of Rioplatense Spanish and furthermore From many Spanish accents and it is the aspiration of the S When the S sounds like J That's why Pancho says "They won't convince me with this this " La S sounds like J this and these two idiots He doesn't say these two idiots It vanishes here and here These two idiots aren't going to convince me with this Then he says in a couple of months right In a couple of months it sounds like a couple of months You'll be receiving it in a couple of months And notice that the S doesn't always disappear When it appears between vowels it's usually retained That's why he says you're a strong argument you're a strong argument But the S that comes before a consonant for example these these two These two idiots tend to aspirate the S in those situations Another characteristic typical of Spanish in general is that the consonants B D and G become significantly weakened when they follow a vowel That's why the word lawyer sounds like that Lawyer and not non-lawyer lawyer indeed lawyer And in a more relaxed setting those consonants weaken even further That's why when Pancho says it it sounds like "abogado abogado " And everything just sounds like everything everything That is this D and that D both nearly vanish Lawyer lawyer for everyone lawyer for all of Montevideo And as I said the V also weakens and the D between vowels These consonants weaken and sometimes disappear And the phrase ends up sounding like this You're going to start working without stopping You're going to be the best lawyer in all of Montevideo and we're going to be proud of you In more relaxed settings like this it's quite natural for people to speak this way Then comes Pancho's final line in the conversation which is fairly quick and says You started thinking this might be the last trip we can take together And here we see everything we've just mention the S the B the V the D and the G You started thinking In this part of the sentence the second S in "pusiste" disappears and it sounds like "te pusiste " g you began to wonder whether this could be the E of what and the E of this and when they join they become what this is what this Then the D in puede becomes weakened in a verb as common as poder It's very common for that letter to disappear or to be pronounced very weakly Therefore it's very common across all Spanish accents for people to say "maybe maybe and maybe not " Maybe It says here that it might be that it might be Then he says the final journey the final journey That V the B string weakens He does not say the final journey or journey He says the final journey journey the final journey What we can do together becomes what we can do together what we can do together In this case La D disappears But you'll go on with your life and I'll go on with mine Have you ever thought that this could be e last trip we can take together the one we can share together You're trying to make me cry again too To finish up we're going to replay this scene one more time You're not dragging these two idiots along on the trip with me Please I'm begging you You won't convince me with this Pancho Want a solid reason to change your mind I want to go with you You'll be receiving it in a couple of months You'll start working without stopping You're going to be the best lawyer in all of Montevideo and we'll be proud of both of you but you'll live your life and I'll live mine You started wondering if this might be the last trip we ever take together You want me to cry too is that it This process of active listening and analysis is one you can apply to any Spanish content and gradually you'll rely less on subtitles When watching movies to improve your comprehension try analyzing them with a different type of Spanish a different variety I recommend this video here