so some two years ago I was having the
very first coaching lesson met with a
student of mine who had been trying to
learn Spanish but to no avail and it
turned out that he had been you know
learning the language for a few months
and I asked him what are you doing
tomorrow Spanish and it turns out that
he was actually listening to the radio
and listening a massively in order to
understand in the hope that he wouldn't
understand everything with time
and of course listening comprehension
like old things takes time it takes
exposure but you have to learn how to do
it you might be in the same situation
right now maybe you're learning a
language and you're wondering why you
still don't understand the language why
is it so difficult why are you
struggling and in this very same video
I'm going to give you some fundamental
tips on how to make your listening
comprehension a fantastic in a
relatively short amount of time so in
this video I'm going to give you the
fundamental rules of thumb word tips in
order to understand any language quickly
and effectively and we're going to have
a very cool extra tip of hand
so please stay tuned the fundamental
rule of thumb in order to understand the
language better and better is to get
exposed to comprehensible input that is
input that you can understand and when
you are a beginner when you first start
learning a language make sure that you
always always listen and read at the
same time because if you can read and
listen at the same time he will be able
to actually see the words that are being
spoken and this allows you to build a
comprehensible input that will help you
in the intermediate stage when you can
venture into the unknown round of pure
listening but you have to remember that
the listening comprehension process as
well as the language learning process is
not linear but it's progressive so
always make sure no matter what stage
you're in that you expose yourself to a
comprehensible input the input that you
can't understand at least to 70 or 80
percent how many times have you found
yourself sitting in a class and not
caring at all about when you were
listening this is common especially and
when
to language learning at school at
university because people are not
interested they're in a passive state of
mind and one of the reasons is because
they're not interested in what they're
listening to they they don't care they
didn't choose the material they didn't
choose the audio or the text so as an
independent language learner you have
the possibility of listening to whatever
you like make sure that what you listen
to is something you find interesting
because it is interesting for you your
levels of dopamine in your brain
will literally skyrocket and you will
absorb the content much better have you
ever found yourself interacting with
native speakers in a language you still
didn't know well and you're trying to
understand every single word they try
that they were saying to you well I
think that a better technique or a
better strategy is to simply focus on
the big picture
I really like the sentence in English
missing the forest for the trees you
don't want to miss the forest for the
trees so even if you don't understand
all the words focused on the big picture
so focus on the few words inside the
sentence that would give you the meaning
of the sentence even if you don't
understand old the elements of the
sentence itself this is really important
so relax you need to understand
everything you just focus on the main
things on the main cues and focus on the
big picture
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every after sentence in any language is
a complex combination of sounds in order
to make your life easier in order to
understand absorb and replicate these
phonetic patterns you might want to make
your life easier and do things in
step-by-step what a very very easy
strategy in order to tackle this problem
is very simple you just slow the audio
down so take the audio track or the
audio tracks that you have play them at
normal speed and then play them a little
bit more slowly in order to do this you
have many possibilities nowadays for
example you can use free software
programs that you can't download from
the internet like Cody RIA or Illyria
but you can also use Google Translate
you can simply put a sentence inside the
box and play it and the second time it
will be uttered slowly so this is very
simple make sure that you always slow
down the audio look at the bigger
picture look at the details and make it
a habit especially at the beginning this
will make a big difference if I say the
word listening associated with language
learning probably people think ok
listening to a podcast or listening and
watching a movie or listening to music
in a foreign language that is true but
there are so many other activities you
can engage in when it comes to listen
and it's not only what you do but how
you do it and where you put your
attention well you can for example
listen to a podcast just for the sake of
listening to it when you writing some
errands but you can also listen to a
podcast focusing on the pronunciation
and intonation of the language that you
you're listening to or you can even take
notes that is you're listening to a
podcast in a foreign language for the
sake of grabbing and absorbing
information so what you do and how you
do it counts and you have to make it
better the more varied activities the
better the things take time I always say
it out loud to myself when things get
frustrating and they do get frustrating
when for example I don't understand the
language still when I would like to talk
to someone and I still just understand
the gist of it when I don't understand
the radio so you have to remind yourself
that it takes massive exposure to
understand the language it takes volume
it takes sampling these are the most
important nutrients for your brain so on
the one hand you need massive exposure
on the internet you have to find the
system to distribute this massive
exposure you have to do it day by day
that's the best way and how to do that
well just one of the strategy is to
associate your listening activity with
something else for example you just
listen to something that you can
obviously understand and you do it while
you're doing something else
I myself do some work out in the morning
while I listen to polish podcasts so
remember to do something every single
day
be consistent good things take time but
if you do that you will make it happen
so here you have it listening and
understanding the language takes time
but it's not difficult you learn how to
do it and you have to be consistent now
if you want to know more just click on
the description box below and head over
my blog where you will be able to listen
to the article I put together and you
can even just listen to it so you can do
this while doing something
as I suggested in this very same video
now I have one question and one extra
tip for you let's start with a question
what is the biggest struggle that you
have when it comes to listening
comprehension and what are you done to
overcome it what do you think you can do
to overcome it so since you've been in
so patient I want to reward you for your
patience and I'm going to give you one
cool extra tip and here is when we think
about listening we tend to think that
listening is just a passive activity
just listen to something and the sounds
flow into your ear but you can actually
do something that can completely change
your strategy and your listening
comprehension and that is be active let
me give you a very simple example when
you listen to something that obviously
you can't understand you can just listen
to it maybe you're running some errands
or you can sit down and take notes when
you take notes you will realize how your
attention changes because your entire
body is listening to that piece of
information so the next time take a
youtube video listen to it and take
notes and you will see how that
influences and improves the way you
understand the piece of content and the
way you absorb
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