Good morning, good afternoon or even good evening depending on where in the big wide
world do you happen to be right now.
So, in Japan, where I live, it is still morning not for much longer.
It's almost lunch time so soon it will be afternoon but right now it is still morning.
So, today I have an email from Amy and Amy says "I can't understand what native speakers
say.
It's just too fast."
So, let's talk about that in today's video, a little bit.
So first of all, let's think about where this problem, this listening or understanding problem
might come from.
Now, a lot of people say that they have a problem with listening and they find listening
hard.
Therefore, they can't understand what people say.
But I think, often it's not a problem with listening and such rather that it's more of
a vocabulary problem if that makes sense.
People say that they can't understand what people say but it's not that they can't listen
to them or they can't hear them, it's just that they simply don't know or not used to
the kind of vocabulary and phrases being used.
And this could happen when if for example you're learning from let's say textbooks you're
learning from textbooks and that textbook is using quite dry, quite very standardized
English and then you speak to a native speaker and of course they don't speak dry, standardized
English.
They are probably using phrases and idioms and kind of ways of saying things and expressions
that you're just not used to or that you haven't learned.
So it's gonna be hard to understand them.
Again, that's not really a listening problem it's more of a case of you're just not used
to the kind of English they are using.
So, if you're if it's conversation that you're having trouble with, then try to learn from
conversations more.
I would find materials that are really based on conversations and a quite natural or have
more conversations yourself.
Now, it could can be also a listening problem.
If you're practicing or if you are always listening to things that are very very slow
then, it's gonna be hard to suddenly listening to something which is very fast and I think,
a lot of English learning materials do tend to be quite slow.
My videos also tend to be quite slow.
I speak quite slowly and I enunciate my words very carefully and very clearly in my videos
but my videos are not designed for listening practice.
I want you to understand the content.
I want you to understand what I'm saying so I keep my English quite simple.
So, I speak quite slowly.
But again, they're not designed for listening practice.
So, when you're trying to practice listening, I recommend that you try and listen to things
that are of natural speed as much as possible.
Again, the best thing you can do is try and find good materials that will give you the
kind of phrases and vocabulary and the speed is well.
Try and find materials that are really based on dialogues and conversations and that will
then help you to understand people in conversations.
Of course, the other thing that you really just need to do is to just have more conversations
and just get used to it.
And yes, it is frustrating and it is kind of embarrassing in the beginning when you
have to keep asking people to repeat some again and again and again and again and you
know, you just can't understand and yes, that is frustrating but it will get easier.
My advice is to basically don't make excuses for yourself.
Don't avoid speaking to people having conversations or anything like that because you think it's
gonna be hard to understand.
Do it because it's hard to understand and it will get easier.
Don't ask people to slow down for you.
Just throw yourself in the deep and go for it and it will gradually get easier over time
as you get used to the speed, as you get used to the kinds of phrases people use as you
get used to the accent whatever.
And yeah, I guess accent is another thing.
If you're used to listening to an American accent and then suddenly you're trying to
listen to an Australian accent, it's gonna be difficult.
Then you have to get used to it.
That is the key to understanding and comprehension and listening in everything - getting used
to it.