Have you been learning English for many years but still can’t understand native speakers?
Well today I tell you why that is and how to fix it. What’s up guys? My name is Shane
and today we are talking about why you don’t understand English. This is a very common
problem that many of my students have. They understand me, they understand my YouTube
videos but if they are listening to movies or the TV or native speakers on the street,
they can’t understand anything. And the main cause of this is that most students learn
textbook English but they haven’t learned to speak English like a native speaker or
to use phrases like a native speaker. So today we look at 3 reasons why you don’t understand
English and how to fix them. Okay, let’s get started! As I said in the intro, one of
the main causes of English learners not being able to understand native speakers is because
they learn textbook English. English that comes from a textbook, not English that is
spoken by native speakers. And part of learning English from a textbook is that English learners
don't learn about connected speech. Connected speech is when native speakers speak really
quickly sometimes they add sounds, remove sounds or change sounds. If you've been watching
my channel for a while, the example I always give is: What are you doing? What are you
doing? This is how a non native speaker would say it. But a native speaker would say: Wodduyuhdowing?
Wodduyuhdowing? Wodduyuh, wodduyuh, wodduyuh, wodduyuhdowing? All the sounds come together.
Wodduyuhdowing? When you've been learning English, you've probably learned to say: what
are you doing? What are you doing? But then, a native speaker says to you: Wodduyuhdowing?
Wodduyuhdowing? And you're really confused. You don't understand. Huh!? What? Wodduyuhdowing?
What does this mean? But you actually know this phrase already. You understand but you
just haven't learned to say it like a native speaker. A few more common examples could
be: This is a book. This is a book. Could you get me a coffee? Could you get me a coffee?
And ... what do you do? What do you do? What do you do? So how can we fix this problem?
Well the first thing you can do is start watching my videos. Because on most of my videos that
are about pronunciation or new phrases, I show you how to pronounce these phrases like
a native speaker. Let me show you an example of a clip I just put out recently. And when
we say this really quickly, it sounds like this: Djyuh hava table for two free? Djyuh
hava table for two free? We don't say do you. We don't say have a. We say djyuh hava. Djyuh
hava. Djyuh hava table for two free? Now you try. Djyuh hava table for two free? Welcome
back! So now the second thing you can start doing is: to listen to native speakers at
every opportunity you can. And really really listen. Listen to how they talk. Listen to
what sounds they join together and listen to which sounds they don't join together.
Watch tv. Listen to YouTube. Listen to the radio. Watch movies. Talk to native speakers
in real life. Use every resource you can and then start copying the native speakers. Start
copying how they actually say phrases. And this will really help you to start to understand
native speakers when they're speaking really quickly. Chair. What did I say? Share or chair?
Day. What did I say? They or day? This is the second reason why you might not be able
to understand English. You can’t hear different sounds in English. For example, the first
two words were made with ch and sh. These are very common sounds in English and if you
can’t hear them, then when a native speaker is speaking to you, you probably won’t understand
what he is saying. And in the second example, the first word was day. Day. With a d. the
second word was they. They. With a voiced th sound. These sounds are very commonly confused
by people learning English and if you can’t hear these sounds, if you can’t understand
these sounds, how can you understand native speakers? You can’t. So how can you fix
this problem? Well you can start to fix this problem by understanding pronunciation. And
learning pronunciation is easy. Because we all have a mouth, we have teeth and we have
a tongue. So we can all make the sounds that we have in English. You just have to say it
correctly. I have a whole pronunciation series on this channel and it covers the very basic
sounds in English. I show you how to pronounce these sounds, what your mouth should look
like and where your tongue should be and much much more. And when you start to understand
pronunciation and how to make these sounds, this will help you to be able to hear the
sounds correctly as well. You should spend time on your pronunciation every day. Not
just one day, not just a week, not just a month but every day. You need to make your
mouth used to speaking English. Used to making English sounds. But when you are practicing,
you need to be saying the sounds correctly. Because if you’re practicing and saying
the sounds incorrectly, then you will get into a bad habit of saying these sounds incorrectly
and you don’t want that. You want to be speaking English correctly from the start.
Many students spend a lot of time on learning new words, new grammar, new phrases. But they
don’t spend time on pronunciation. And then they ask themselves why isn’t my pronunciation
getting better? It’s because you haven’t spent any time on it. You need to spend time
really learning pronunciation. And when you are learning pronunciation, don’t just listen,
you need to speak and use your mouth as well. Pronunciation only gets better with practice.
I actually just put out a video recently about pronunciation. This letter is called r. the
sound it makes is rrr. Rrr. When you make this sound, you need to put your lips like
this. They should be round and your tongue should be like this. Rrr. Rrr. An example
word is rabbit. Rabbit. Welcome back! And the second thing that you need to start doing
every day is listening to native speakers so your ears can start learning to understand
the sounds in English. And the more you listen, the easier it will be for your ears to hear
the sounds and understand the sounds. Especially sounds that are very similar. For example,
sh and ch. And when I say listen, fly. And when I say listen, I mean really listen. You
have to sit down and concentrate on what the native speakers are saying. And when you’re
listening, try and think about where are the sounds coming from in the native speaker’s
mouth. Are they coming from more the front of the mouth or is it more at the back of
the mouth? So if you understand your pronunciation, you will know where all of the sounds come
from in English and how to make them yourself. Let’s pretend you ask someone a question
and they say I don’t know. You understand this, right? But what happens if you ask someone
a question and they say beats me? What does this mean? Do you understand the meaning?
This is the third reason why you might not understand native speakers and it’s because
you only know very basic phrases in English like I don’t know or I’m sorry. And these
are good phrases. You can use them in many situations. But sometimes there are better
phrases you can use or phrases that are more appropriate to your situation. For example,
before I used the phrase beats me. This is a very common phrase we can use to say I don’t
know. So if you want to start learning to understand native speakers, you need to know
many many different phrases that you can use in many many different situations to express
yourself. So how can we fix this? Well the first thing you can do is start watching my
videos. I have a few videos on this channel where I give you different ways to say basic
phrases. For example, I recently put out a video regarding different ways to say I’m
sorry. The second phrase is my apologies. My apologies. This is also another formal
phrase that we use in more serious situations. So let’s pretend that you work in a call
center and you’re talking to a customer on the phone and he’s very very unhappy
with the service he has received. You could say to him: my apologies sir but we are trying
to do everything we can to help you. Please be patient. Welcome back! And the second thing
you can do is start watching native speakers in many different situations and writing down
the phrases they use in those situations. So if you’re watching a native speaker speak
to his boss at work, it’s very likely he won’t use I’m sorry. He will use a more
formal phrase like I apologise. So stop trying to translate everything from your language
to English and start watching what a native speaker would say in that situation instead.
And that is the end of the video today. If you’re interested in learning about the
right way to learn English, check out this video right here. If you haven’t subscribed
already, make sure you subscribe right now so you don’t miss any video that can help
you understand English like a native speaker. And comment down below and tell me: what are
your biggest problems when listening to native speakers? If you learned something today,
please hit like and share this with your friends so they can start learning to understand English
that is spoken by native speakers. And for daily quizzes, and for weekly posts, videos
and lessons, make sure you’re following me on Instagram and I will see you in the
next video. If you’re interested in watching a video regarding. A few more common examples
of connected speech.