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- Hello everyone and welcome back to English With Lucy.
Long time no see, right?
I know, I had a little break.
I've moved house, I'm in a new house now.
And this room will soon be my new studio,
it's got a lovely window over there
so there's lots of light, so I'm in the middle
of setting that up for you guys.
Today I'm going to talk about improving your understanding,
so being able to understand what native speakers say
when they're talking and when they're talking quickly.
Now I have done a video that is quite similar to this,
it's along the same lines, it talks about the same subject
about listening and improving your listening skills.
If I remember correctly I think there were 12 ways
that you could improve your listening skills
in that last video, if you wanna see that,
you can click right here, and I'll put a link
in the description, but today we're only going to focus
on four tips.
I'm going to be focusing less on the academic side
of listening and more on the real life side of listening
and the listening skills and the listening comprehension
skills because it's about understanding
that you will use on a daily basis.
So let's get started.
So tip number one, order your resources.
Now the biggest tip that any English teacher will give you
if you're trying to improve your listening is
listen to movies, listen to audio books,
listen to more exams and things like that,
listen to the news, listen to the radio.
Excellent tip, it's a tip I give myself,
but I want to make sure that my students
listen to the right things in the right order.
I wouldn't recommend a sarcastic British comedy
that uses the complexities of British English
to the fullest extent, see they'd use things like that,
and I almost don't know what I'm saying,
so you maybe won't either.
You want to start with easier things
and work your way up to more difficult things.
There is no point starting at the top
unless you're a genius.
So I'm gonna give you this sort of order of resources
that you should go for and you can kind of see
where you're at, see what you understand,
and then, you know, maybe move up to the next one.
So what kind of thing should you listen to
if you don't know any English,
if you're a complete beginner.
Mr. Bean.
Joke, that is a joke, in Mr. Bean he says
very little in English, but it is a fantastic TV show
so watch that for fun first and then you can start
your English listening practise.
So beginners and even early intermediate
because remember that listen is often found to be
the hardest skill of all four skills
that they tend to test in exams,
listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
I always see with my students they get the highest scores
in reading and writing and it's listening and speaking
where they start to suffer and listening
tends to be the worst.
Oh my god.
- Hello and welcome to English With Lucy.
- Oh shut up.
Oh my god.
Sorry about that, I got disturbed.
Where was I?
- Hello, welcome to English With Lucy.
- Stop it.
This is why I don't upload more regularly.
Bye Will.
So what I was trying to say was
don't be afraid if you can actually understand
way less than you would expect a person of your level
to understand, so even if you're at like an intermediate
level you might need to listen
to lower levels to start with.
So what I always recommend is test out
listening to children's TV programmes
simply because children's TV programmes
are normally designed to help a child learn more
and understand more and also improve their vocabulary,
especially TV programmes for younger children.
If you want I have a great recommendation
for a British TV show that's designed for kids,
it's very educational, it's packed full of vocabulary,
and it is Peppa Pig.
Incredibly famous TV show that I imagine
will be in your country as well.
See if you can switch it into its native language
which is British English and it's actually
really, really funny because it think it's designed
for parents to watch it with the child,
so not only area you learning loads
it is just a really good programme.
If you find yourself understanding 80% of Peppa Pig
or whatever you choose to watch that's designed for children
then you can move up to slapstick comedy,
comedy that is silly, it's not got in depth humour
and it doesn't play around with the language,
it's just basic comedy.
Normally and I really don't want to offend anyone here,
but normally American comedy shows are more on this level
than the English ones.
The British English sense of humour tends to be darker,
more subtle, we tend to say things with a straight face,
but as a huge generalisation American comedy TV shows
seem to be more in your face, the jokes are more obvious,
and you can follow the plot more easily.
A couple of recommendations for you are, of course, Friends,
Friends can be enjoyed in any language
and chances are you've seen Friends in your language
so you'll understand more or less what's going on
in English as well.
If you do want a British TV series
one that I really like, it's an old one now,
is The Vicar of Dibley, again, I'll put this
in the description box.
It's very, very British, I would say
it's slightly more difficult than friends
because they do use the language and play with language
a little bit, but it's a gorgeous British accent,
they've got a wide variety of accents really.
It's about a female vicar, Dawn French,
one of my favourite female comedians,
who becomes the vicar for a very small village
that's very set in their ways, they're not very modern,
they like to do things in a traditional way,
and it is hilarious.
There aren't that many episodes,
but it's something I've always watched
with my parents at Christmas.
Next, I would move up to films and TV shows
that tend to have less talking, i.e. action films,
detective films, films and TV shows
where there's time for you to think about what's going on
and it's very visual.
And then obviously for the most advanced
you would want to look at Sci-Fi
because they give in depth explanations,
dark comedies, drama, and also period drama,
that's quite difficult 'cause they tend to use
old fashioned language, obviously.
The next tip is one that is so, so important,
it's practise, but it's not just practise,
it's practise with consistency.
An hour long conversation with a native, fantastic,
that is great practise.
An hour long conversation with a native every single week
with feedback, now that is how you're going
to improve your understanding.
And not only that, making sure that you work
on every single other skill as well,
obviously we need more, obviously it's always good
to really focus on what you're lacking
which is your listening skill,
but improve your pronunciation,
improve your reading so that you understand more words,
writing is also incredibly important,
speaking and listening goes hand in hand.
This tips comes thanks to the sponsors of today's video,
it is Lingoda, Lingoda is an online language learning
platform that is very close to my heart,
I really like what they do there at Lingoda.
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I've tried out some of their classes myself
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very small group sizes, private lessons as well.
You pay on a monthly basis, there are various
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You can get 50 dollars or 50 Euros off your first month
at Lingoda, all you have to do is click on the link
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Please let me know how you get on
'cause I love to hear about your success stories.
Moving on to my next point which is more focused
on real life conversations and how to understand
native speakers when they're talking to you
and when they're talking quickly.
My tip for you is dominate the conversation
which I know can be quite hard
especially if you're naturally quite an introvert.
I have my days, some days I'm an introvert
and some days I'm an extrovert,
but I'm not talking about going into a conversation
and taking over and dominating everything,
I'm saying take the lead with the conversation
and direct it because if you're speaking
with a native speaker or somebody who has a much higher
level than you, you are the one who is doing
most of the work and they can kind of relax.
It's very easy for them to not understand
if they're just native or to forget if they did learn once,
but now they're at a kind of level
where they don't have to think about anything,
it's all natural, it's very easy for them
to not understand how tough it is for a non-native speaker,
for a learner of English.
So I want to make it very clear to you,
I as a teacher and I as a friend and as a native speaker
of English have never once felt annoyed or frustrated
with somebody asking me to repeat something.
if I know that they have been listening
and trying to understand me.
If you know, it's my boyfriend who obviously
has zoned out who wasn't listening to what I was saying
and then says what, sorry, can you say that again?
Yes, that is annoying.
But if someone's obviously not understood me
I don't mind, in fact I'm glad that they want to understand
what I'm saying and that they care enough
about what I'm saying that they're asking me to repeat it.
So there are two things that I want you to start
getting confident at saying.
The first one is asking for repetition,
and the second one is asking for somebody to slow down.
So asking for repetition, oh sorry, I didn't catch that.
I didn't quite understand it, I got the majority,
but not all of it, I didn't quite catch that.
Sorry, could you repeat that?
Note that I'm often starting with sorry
because it's a good interjection
to get somebody to stop talking.
What was that, could you say that again?
Notice that I'm showing you my ear
and I'm kind of doing a circle motion,
could you repeat that?
I'm making it very clear that I'm having
trouble understanding.
About slowing down, you're either asking for them
to speak a little bit more slowly or to speak more clearly,
maybe they're joining their words too much,
they're using too much connected speech.
You could say sorry, I'm having a little bit of trouble
understanding what you're saying,
would you mind speaking a little bit more slowly?
A little bit more slowly, and I think these hands here
mean separate your words, don't join them all together.
I remember living in Spain, I could see English people
coming over to Spain and speaking slowly,
but still using words like wanna and gonna and don't ya,
like connecting all these words together
and not understanding why people weren't getting
what they were saying.
They had no idea, they were trying to be clear.
So people just need that reminder
and you have every right to ask someone that
so dominate the conversation.
Another part of this tip is you ask the questions.
You can make sure that the conversation stays on track,
it stays on the topic that you are comfortable talking about
if you ask the questions.
And instead of asking for repetition again and again
and again, you can kind of confirm that what you've heard
is correct by saying an affirmative statement,
so you missed the bus.
Or by using a tag at the end of the sentence,
so you missed the bus, didn't you?
And then they will confirm that that's
yes what they said.
Or if you've misunderstood they might say,
no, no, no, I got the bus, but I almost missed the bus.
And there we are, it clears it up a bit.
I think that tip is more of a collection of pieces of advice
that are often overlooked in the English classroom.
Asking somebody to speak more clearly is absolutely fine.
One last thing I'd like to add to that
is asking somebody if they've used a specific saying
or if it's a slang word.
If you have no idea what someone has just said
you could say is that a saying,
and then they will hopefully explain it to you.
Or is that regional slang or do you say it
all over the country?
And then they will hopefully go on to explain
what they're talking about and it might also serve
as a reminder that they can't use
loads of different slang words
and loads of different sayings
when they're talking with an English learner.
Obviously if you're at a very high level
you of course want somebody to speak
as naturally as possible, but there is nothing wrong
with asking somebody to slightly adapt to you
if you're really struggling to understand.
Now my last tip, tip number four,
this one is incredibly important because it's very easy
to lose enthusiasm and to feel disappointed
because you're not understanding as much as
you think you should be able to.
I get this comment all the time, okay?
It is Lucy are you speaking really clearly
because I can understand everything you're saying,
but when I try to listen to other native speakers
I can't understand anything.
My tip is manage your expectations.
You need to understand that what you study in private
and what you practise in private is always going to be
at a higher level than what you experience in real life.
What I mean to say is I'm in a teaching environment
right now, I am making sure that I'm clear.
I'm not slowing down a hell of a lot,
I still use slang phrases, but I will try
and explain them.
A hell of a lot means a lot.
But you need to understand and expect
you're not going to be able to comprehend
as much outside of the classroom
and outside of your private personal practise
as you do in those times.
And it's very important to have this understood
from the very beginning because it's so easy
to lose motivation.
And really these tips, they all link together.
You need to practise, in order to practise
you need to use different resources,
but make sure you choose the right one,
make sure you put them in order,
understand that you might be feeling really confident
after an English lesson, but when you go out
and you speak to a native you might not be able
to communicate as much as you thought before,
manage that expectation.
But something that you can do to understand more
in real life is lead that conversation.
You ask the questions, ask them to slow down,
ask them to speak more clearly,
and ask them to repeat things.
That's one thing that you can do.
But in order to understand 70% of a real life conversation
you need to make sure that you're understanding
80% in the classroom.
All right guys, that's it for today's video.
Thank you so much for joining me here in my new house,
very exciting, it's in a lovely tiny village
near Cambridgeshire.
But it's a very old property and I can hear
everything my neighbour is saying,
I can hear everything my boyfriend is saying
on the phone downstairs, and I can see,
and I can, well I can see neighbours walking past.
But I'm very happy here, very excited.
Don't forget to check out Lingoda,
all of the information is in the description box,
and you can use the code that is here.
And don't forget to connect with me
on all of my social media.
I've got my Facebook, my Instagram, and my Twitter,
but I definitely want to point out Instagram
because I've been doing loads of giveaways
and I did one with Cambridge University Press the other day,
we gave away some Grammar in Use books.
We've got some very exciting giveaways in the pipeline.
In the pipeline means they're being planned,
they're coming up soon.
I hope you enjoyed the lesson today.
Let me know any video requests in the comment section
and I will see you soon for another lesson.
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