[elliekelly]

> and I had serious trouble understanding actual Spanish speakers

This is why I much prefer Fluent Forever. They play clips of words or phrases that sound similar to non-native speakers but are easily differentiated by native speakers. If you do it enough (and have immediate feedback about whether you heard it correctly) you can eventually learn to hear the distinction. For me it was be the difference between being able to read/write in another language and being able to listen and converse in it.

Some examples that I can remember:

Dutch- broek (pants) vs. boek (book)

French- bague (ring) vs. bogue (bug)