3 reasons why it’s HARD to understand TV without subtitles (and how to fix that)

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Do you ever feel like you understand most everything when you watch your favorite KZbinr, or have a conversation with others in English, but when you watch a movie or TV show, you suddenly start to question how much you really know and understand!?
You’re not alone! In fact, today I share with you 3 reasons why it’s hard to understand TV and movies with subtitles, and what to do about it!
Learn more about why we need subtitles in movies and TV from this video by Vox: • Why we all need subtit...
Improve your listening comprehension with these videos:
Schwa - the BEST vowel sound in English • Schwa - the BEST vowel...
The Schwa: How One TINY Sound Can Make a HUGE Difference [Podcast] • The Schwa: How One TIN...
How to Improve Your Listening Skills in English - 9 tips for English Learners • How to Improve Your Li...
How to pronounce AND, OF, OR and FOR in a sentence | Reductions in English • How to pronounce AND, ...
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[@hadar.shemesh]

What’s your best piece of advice for understanding characters on TV shows and movies?

[@waltersantana2573]

First of ALL need used to understand with subtitles over and over again and after start take off sentences little by little untill have a Full understanding

[@Mr_Optimist_UZ]

Firstly, watch the movie a lot of time. Allahu Akbar

[@Sunflowersarepretty]

Turn on subtitles only when you absolutely cannot make out what's being said because of background noise or characters talking over each other. Try to pick up the whole idea based on the context and listen to the phrases. So for instance if you hear "a piece of cake" and you know what it means next time when you hear this phrase and even if you didnt pick the whole phrase so long as the context gives away that you know that it must've meant "its easy" you know instantly it was "a piece of cake"

[@teambellavsteamalice]

I would have said the back button, I hate to miss even a single word. But I also have that reading. I'm dutch but mostly read in English and it's hard to not go back and reread. I guess it's getting used to missing things and not worry about it too much? I do realize how silly it is, like after a few days you'll only remember the main idea in the story not every word. But I guess it just takes practice. I plan on trying speed-reading one day, pick a book I've already read and see how easy it is to go superfast and not get frustrated. I plan the same for watching a movie, one I know well, in a language I don't speak (Spanish or German) and see if I can make heads or tails of at least some of the words. (I need to find out how to add languages ). I bet this will help in watching stuff without English subs a lot.

[@nizamkhan.72]

Just watch it without subtitles and by time you will use to it that accent.

[@e-genieclimatique]

in brief: In this video, Hadar Shemesh discusses three reasons why people struggle to understand English spoken on TV and in movies and shares tips to improve listening skills. 1-Brain capacity: When watching TV or movies, your brain processes various elements, including dialogue, storyline, characters, facial expressions, and more, which can make it difficult to focus solely on language. 2-Lack of experience with spoken English: English speakers often emphasize important words and reduce less important ones when speaking, making it challenging for non-native speakers to understand. Practice listening to chunks of speech rather than individual words. 3-Technology: Sound compression and actors' lack of diction can make audio less clear, even for native speakers. This issue is not exclusive to non-native speakers. Tips to improve listening skills: -Expose yourself to different speakers and accents, practicing without subtitles. -Train your brain to understand the main idea of a sentence or chunk, rather than analyzing every word. -Practice pronunciation, focusing on reductions and function words. -Transcribe lines from TV shows or movies and compare your transcription with scripts or captions to identify weaknesses in your listening skills. Hadar encourages viewers to share their experiences and advice in the comments section to help others who struggle with understanding spoken English in TV shows and movies.

[@jorgerivera7658]

I like the way you teach us

[@renemrt]

Sounds like chat gpt 😊

[@brownfoxspn]

@@renemrt that's what i was about to say. llol

[@bloodymares]

To me it's always 3. Feature-length films usually have better sound quality and I don't struggle with them as much, or voice-acted animation always has clear speech and good sound quality but TV shows are the worst when it comes to sound quality or mumbling, even worse than amateur KZbin videos.

[@ABDabd-xz3tz]

that's summary for the video it's so great. thank you

[@ericcsuf]

I'm a native English speaker and I got a lot out of this video! As I get older, I have more difficulty hearing overall, but I also tend to lose the way younger people speak. Languages change and as your social group gets smaller and less diverse, it's easy to sort of lose touch with how your own language is spoken. So I have been getting more and more dependent on subtitles in English for many of the same reason non-native speakers rely on them. So I'm taking your suggestions to heart and plan to wean myself back off of subtitles. I think you've come up with something that is more universal than you might think.

[@cryvage1354]

I've been fighting this battle for more than a year now. Key things I came up with: 1. Practice as much as you can, spend as much time listening native English speech as you can afford to. Like 8 hours a day, 7 days a week is a good starting point. 2. Don't expect fast results. It makes sense to measure your results not more often than every couple months. Day to day progress is absolutely not visible in this case. For me, a year was not enough to reach the desired level (robust understanding without an effort), but the result is significant, so I can already tell the efforts are paid off. 3. Additionally, master the vowel chart, linking speech, and reductions. IPA is also helpful, especially when you learn new words. All these really help, but this is not enough. It won't work without the practice of listening real native speech. 4. Subtitles do not help at all, in fact, the opposite is true. Human brain is only good in processing just ONE speech input at a time. It could be written speech, or spoken speech, not both. When you read the subtitles it might seem like you understand more, but the truth is you are reading, not listening. So, when practice listening, only turn subtitles on when you listen to for the second or third time or whatever attempt you give yourself to try to understand it by listening, until you give up and read. 5. The last, but not least: learn to stop your internal dialog. It always helped me in studying, since stopping your thoughts increases your ability to focus dramatically. But the effectiveness of this technique in the case of listening foreign speech is stunning. I've already said that human brain is only good in processing ONE speech input at a time. Your internal dialog counts against this limit. It is a speech input too. Moreover, this one is in your native language, which makes its negative impact on your ability to focus on foreign speech enormous.

[@MaxEnglishCoach]

Great tips!

[@lilzupa1661]

Thanks a lot! What do you mean by "Internal dialog"? Could you give an example?

[@cryvage1354]

​@@lilzupa1661 it's basically our thoughts. When you think without speaking out loud, it is called internal dialog or internal monologue (I've met both terms). I usually stop my thoughts for half a minute just before starting to read or listen to something important. The brain doesn't like this silence, it is trying to find something to think of. If you give to your brain any information at a moment like this, it would happily dive into whatever it would be. This trick was usually enough to help in studying. The internal dialog run again while I read or listening, but it is in form of my comments about the subject of studying so it usually not a problem at all. It is OK to have thoughts about things you've just heard. But when I started to practice my listening in English I realized these occasional thoughts are a problem because I need every bit of my attention to keep up with fast native speech. The fact these thoughts are not in English is not helping either. I don't know if it were better if my thoughts were in English, but for now, to think in English is not a trivial task for me by itself, so I decided to try not thinking at all and it seems to work.

[@Ananiya2013]

Great points, thanks!

[@MaxEnglishCoach]

Really interesting writeup@@cryvage1354 . I like how you're observing your inner voice. In my opinion, though, trying to force stop your thoughts isn't very effective. It takes energy and negative thoughts always come back. I think in my video about confidence i talked about how it's better to acknowledge and accept one's negative thinking, and then quiet it down with actions that produce confidence and positive thinking. Anyway, Keep up the good work!

[@ezequiasrocha3037]

People do not speak like teachers. Unfortunately, understanding Hadar is not a confirmation you can deal with native "speakers". People speaks so badly we must learn from that level.

[@josecontreras7153]

people speak*

[@marcoarrieta4983]

I used my skills to communicate for business with several natives with different accents within the U.S... a few misunderstandings here and there. I can't do the same watching a movie. Let alone music.

[@andymounthood]

@@marcoarrieta4983 People tend to speak more clearly in business meetings, especially with non-native speakers. If you sit at a dinner table with a group of them talking casually, they tend to be harder to understand. Even more so in a movie.

[@FeralMina]

Becuase you say the word “English” like “englesh” with two clear short /e/ sounds, you made me realize that I, as a native English speaker, actually say it like “inglish”. How funny.

[@ezequielgervasio]

I got your point of view, but most of the English teachers teach English for English learners so they have to speak slowly to be more understandable using easy words with less phrase verbs

[@fernandoz6329]

A little dumb thing I did helped me a lot: I don't usually read much aloud. However when I tried , I realized that I had a 'mismatch' between what I read with what I thought it would sound. So I started practising reading aloud few minutes a day (no that much, 10-15 will do). This single practice suprisingly improved my 'internal' understanding of many words on how they should be pronounced, sounded and being written. Also my pronunciation improved and made me 'untangle' my tongue reading very much faster. This trick helped a lot when you don't have anybody near in miles capable of maintain a single english conversation.

[@Curiosissima]

What a great tip! Thank you for sharing, I’ll try doing the same! 😃🙏🏼

[@myriampro4973]

Same with my Italian! My teacher gave us a book with extra exercises. I completed the exercises, read every sentence and every batch, then read again past lessons. It worked for me in any level.

[@mollycarlson9715]

Thanks for sharing your experience with this technique. It's really encouraging to hear study tips that have worked for others--and to have less excuses for not advancing when I can't practice my target language with others!

[@MrDavidSoro]

I think I don't fully get it, how could you now that you are pronouncing some word in an incorrect way? Thx

[@maugog]

@@MrDavidSoro It might be possible with a little help, like learning IPA or listening to the words and dialogues on youglish, and repeting and recording until the words sound better. I've also found that shadowing technique is very helpfull

[@clarencehammer3556]

These explanations and advice apply to every language. Not just English. I have a lot of trouble understanding Spanish in vídeos. Technology is a big part of the problem. Also the people are not talking directly to me. They are talking to each other. They may not be facing the camera directly. They may😅 speak in a low voice. And they do not fully pronounce words. They shorten words. And some speakers speak at an incredible speed that seems humanly impossible. I noticed that when listening to songs If I don’t understand words if the vídeo has the text on screen I seem to be able to hear the words much better. Anyway, I am a native English speaker and I have a lot of trouble in real life conversations too in English. I constantly have to ask for repeats. People just do not speak clearly. It is really hard on the telephone. Yesterday I went to get my tax return packet. That lady asked for my ID. She had to ask me at least three times before I had any idea what she was saying. I even have had people on the phone get so frustrated with me that they ended up spelling out the word. So it’s not just non-natives that have trouble understanding English.

[@giulianoaugustoanacleto3410]

I have the same problem. I'm a not native english speaker, but even in mmy own language (BR Portuguese) I struggle in understanding people just as you said. It's even worse on the phone.

[@pedroagonzalezfoto]

Three anecdotes: 1.- I was attending a meeting of an European project. The facilitator begun presenting the project and announcing what was to be the schedule of the meeting. I wasn`t understanding almost anything of what he was saying, so I begun wondering wether my level of English understanding had dramatically fallen. Suddenly, another one of the attendees (a native English speaking man) raised his hand and said: "Sorry, John, would you soften your Scottish accent? Otherwise we won´t understand anything at all!" 2.- Another international meeting. In this case, half of the attendees were European and the second half were North Americans. The meeting would last a whole week, from Sunday to Sunday. Well, until Wednesday I wasn´t able understanding the American colleagues. After Wednesday, once I had made my ear to how their English sounded, I begun understanding them better and better 3.- One day I was waiting for the start of a photographic event with a group of people, outside the premises of the gallery and just in front of the main Church in my hometown. At a given moment, I realized that one lady was trying to ask something to a teen girl, speaking to her in English. As I was aware that the girl wasn´t understanding what the lady was asking to her, I went towards them and offered my help. I was chatting with the lady for some 15 minutes or so. She was understanding me, and I was perfectly understanding her. At a given moment, another lady came towards us and asked something. The first lady answered her that for sure I could help her. So she asked to me something that I didn't understand. I told her and asked her to repeat. So she did ... with the very same result. So I looked at the first lady and asked her to explain me what was asking the second lady, who turned around and walked away saying something like: "Don ma'ar" In all of the three cases, no technology, no TV, no film. Just three unintelligible (to me) accents. 😀

[@shutterchick79]

As a Spanish learner, I prefer to use subtitles when watching TV in Spanish, and audio along with reading a book. It's helped my listening skills and makes the process much less frustrating. And as a native English speaker, I've also noticed the bad audio and mumbled/whispered speech in TV and movies. Disney plus is a big offender - I always need subtitles when I watch their app. So, ESL learners, don't feel bad if you need subtitles for English movies and TV!

[@rubenbuitrago6033]

It has been weird to me the fact that I'm capable of understanding real people but sometimes it is harder to understand a movie. I can speak with natives face to face or using an app like zoom or meet, but understanding pulp fiction was a nightmare with all that swearing and phrasal verbs 😢

[@hassanechetouane1092]

Dear teacher, about encountering difficulties to understand listening on TV, I found a method; It is to turn your back to the TV in a way not to see images and thereby focus only on listening for a time. After that, we will come back to watch. It becomes easy to understand because the brain is accustomed to only practicing listening by separating the sound from the image.

[@johnasonharris2853]

It took me 30 yrs of living in the US as an immigrant to have figured out what you outline in this video. Your points are exactly what I gradually grasped over the years.

[@hadar.shemesh]

Oh wow, I’m actually very proud we share the same insights!

[@franciscusmagister]

I'm Australian, and I put on the subtitles when watching American films. I dont like to miss any little bits!

[@bharadwaj8ananth388]

I turn on the caption for the reason I want to enjoy the conversation or dialogues. I don't want to miss anything. I studied English as my second language and I don't intent to speak like a native speaker. I don't have any problem speaking or listening in real life. Caption gives me the full satisfaction of having seen a movie in full.

[@thainariel]

Yeah, me too! Usually I watch lots of videos here ob youtube without any subtitles for listening practice, but when I'm watching a movie it's my leisure time, I don't wanna lose anything

[@wanderleyalcasser5186]

One tip I can share that has worked for me is increasing the volume. When someone is angry at you, they usually talk louder, which naturally grabs your attention. Increasing the volume can help your brain focus and pay attention, as it tricks your mind into thinking someone is angry at you. Additionally, a louder volume makes it easier to understand the quieter sounds that English has.

[@kassiugtres1368]

I think one of the keys to developing our listening skills is patience. Be patient and listen to things you enjoy passively or actively. Practicing listening passively is not useless. Unconsciously we are exposing our brains to a variety of sounds and accents and it works like a "knife being sharpened to cut later".

[@Azeltix]

My understanding skills improved when I started to watch videos on KZbin like yours, or conferences like TED talks. After a few months, my ears get used to the different accents because I heard people from all over the world pronounced the same words totally differently. Now I keep struggling in some movies, sure, and this video has great keys to improve that too. Thank you

[@berryesseen]

I got used to subtitles so much that I watch movies in my native language with subtitles on. It just simplifies things in case you miss a word or something. I see it as an insurance.

[@Max-tq1ig]

One tip that is scientifically proven while we are learning complex topics is to concentrate on just a couple of things at a time. As she said, if we are struggling when we are watching something in TV, then we can really watch the same parts over and over again but we have to try to concentrate on different things (1 or 3). It's tough, but it works.

[@RobertoCinetto]

Another suggestion that works for me a lot is to listen to the same thing repeatedly until you internalize it. Music for example is very good for this because you can learn the lyrics of the song and that's going to stick in your brain forever. But watching your favourite movies and trying to repeat the dialogue again and again helps a lot.

[@isabelgonijurio6185]

You can't expect to learn much grammar reading the lyrics of a song. Even those of "The Boss"

[@thiagohermes4806]

I'm doing this writing down exercise with music; I write down what I heard and then check the lyrics. I'm an advanced English speaker but I often had confidence problems with my Engliish because it is hard to understand a lot of songs, movies and TV shows. Now I'm starting to build more confidence since I'm realizing that even native speakers can find hard to understand some movies and songs in their language (there's even a hilarious instagram page only about misheard lyrics, lol!). And confidence is everything for your performance in pretty much anything. 🙂

[@annelima6506]

What I do that is helping me a lot is listening to your videos first without subtitles, second I put subtitles in English and the third time I put them in my mother tongue. Doing this in a few weeks I understand practically everything I'm hearing, I do this with several English speakers.

[@hadar.shemesh]

Great strategy and advice!

[@thejourneyoffabio]

I was struggling to try to understand each word in random dialogues. However, the approach to focus on keywords sounds pretty interesting. Thanks, Hadar. ❤

[@MaxEnglishCoach]

Keywords are king!

[@adolfolowskibautista646]

would you like practice listening and speaking with me?

[@nafise1614]

I do believe that the reason why we learners struggling with understanding is on KZbin channels they try to talk clearly in order to be understood easily, whereas on the TV, actors don't need to be understood by non_ native people

[@idealcode]

Thank you so much Hadar for your time, knowledge and motivation videos. You are right, forcing myself to see videos without subtitles has improved so much my Listening skills. I have a lot of work ahead but it's a start. 🎉

[@Zora245]

There is something that has worked really good for me and I would like to share it with you all. Get earphones. choose audiobooks that you would love to listen and also get the paper format. If you don't know a lot of English at the beginning it could be a little difficult, but don't stop listening and reading at the same time. After some time just listen the audiobooks. It is incredible how your brain begins to make connections and you begin to understand and remember words when you are talking.❤

[@victorialee1323]

I'm a bilingual person, and studied three more different languages. The approach of understanding the idea and not every single word is the actual key to understand other languages that works for me, and I'm doing it since I was a kid because my bilingual brain was trained doing it. I "feel" the language more than "understand" it, and this is one of the most important achievement everybody should pursue learning a language. I believe bilingual kids are just more favored, but everybody can learn how to do it with a good guide (a good teacher) and quite a time/effort.

[@alessandroperigo6731]

what is your native language? where are you from?

[@victorialee1323]

@@alessandroperigo6731 I'm from Italy.

[@raman.deepak]

Great topic again, Hadar. I've said this in my previous comments but here I go once again. I like that you always try to cover the psychological angle of learning the language. Like what kinda feelings or questions it leaves the learner with, when they're unable to comprehend what's being said. :) And not too long ago, I happened to stumble upon the very same "Vox" video that you've quoted, to my relief. Ironically, with technological advancement in sound engineering, the audio quality around dialogs in movies has only gotten worse. lol One of the things I try to do in order to improve my listening skills while watching a movie or series is, try to have that conviction to not turn on the subtitles, no matter what. I've developed the patience to rewind and listen to the actor again. Also, it's important to make sure TV is the only sound in the room. Because the movie itself may have enough background noise that drowns out the dialog. Alternatively, wearing headphones could be a great solution. Having said all of that, more often than not, I find myself unable to understand anything at all, when the movie characters speak in diverse dialects. But it's for the same reason I intentionally pick movies involving subcultural American accents, just to challenge myself. Lastly, for a long time after I started to work on my American English phonetics, I didn't realize English was a non-phonetic language. :) My first language is [predominantly] phonetic in nature. [How we spell is how we pronounce. No interpretation]. This was indeed an awakening for me. It opened up all possible avenues and perspectives that helped me drastically improve my listening and speaking skills in English. Because I started to realize why things are the way they are in English and why I was doing [mistakes] what I was doing. It'd be great if you could post a video on this subject, if you haven't already. I'll share more of my experiences here as and when I'm able to recollect.

[@naturelover2367]

Hi Deepak Same here. In my mother tongue it's the same. It's a phonetic language and also a syllable time language. I tried not to turn on the subtitles.. 😂

[@raman.deepak]

@Nature Lover Good to know. Keep up the no-subtitle challenge. lol. And yes, knowing whether the target language is syllable-timed or stress-timed is important.

[@adolfolowskibautista646]

would you like practice listening and speaking with me?

[@MaxEnglishCoach]

Watched that vox video. Good points

[@robertocspinto]

Hi! Here is Roberto from Rio de Janeiro. Watching TV news greatly improves someone's listening skills because you make connections between what you hear and the images you see about daily facts. And most of the commentators speak clearly. Cheers.

[@rgrrigel9332]

Very interesting and clarifying video. I had also watched the Vox video mentioned and that opened my total understanding of why I'm not able to understand so clear. That supposed a total release for me. And now I'm trying to be more confident with myself and keep going in my daily live. Thanks for sharing this kind of videos and knowledge 🙏

[@seekthuth2817]

I'm a native English speaker learning Portuguese and I've gotten quite adept at reading to a point that shows with Portuguese subtitles on are actually fun to watch so long as the vocabulary isn't that crazy, but the minute I turn off the subtitles, I can't understand a word of it, even if I've seen that episode multiple times. The second tip has helped me a lot with how I need to listen moving forward, which is very exciting for me, thank you.

[@hadar.shemesh]

Happy to help!! ❤️

[@ziquinhogamer5213]

Hii! I'm native Portuguese speaker and I'm trying to learn English! Here in Brazil, some peoples have a bad diction, so it's harder to understand what they say! Sometime neither I can understand hahahaha😂

[@phaserfull]

Once I was at a hall in a hotel in Dallas Texas and there were some people talking. I didn't understood anything they were saying. When I talked to my boss here in Brazil I understood everything and he was from Boston. I think some people don't want to be understood. Go to a "favela" and try to understand what they say there.

[@Fit_soldier]

@@ziquinhogamer5213 please help me learn Portuguese

[@ziquinhogamer5213]

@@Fit_soldier basically, Portuguese have too much rules, focus to learn how to speak and write! Almost all the Brazilians don't know how to write or speak correctly because of the rules! So try your best and relax about grammar rules, anyone here don't care about this.

[@FernanGonzalezDomingo]

Great video. Speaking about technical issues, I've done simultaneous interpreting (from English and Icelandic), and the audio in the booth is top-notch. Everything's so clear. That doesn't happen with videos (like Netflix; I felt so identified with the guy in the Vox video). I once was requested to subtitle a documentary in Icelandic, and I had to decline after realizing there were so many parts I didn't fully understand in just a few minutes. Regarding English, I speak it for 1-2 hours daily during the week, not so much on the weekends, and often with native speakers. Still, I struggle with London English when I am there (it's probably okay if I speak with a Londoner on Zoom and they know I'm not a native speaker of English). My friends there are from other parts of the UK, and I am fine understanding them even when they are speaking to each other (maybe they all started speaking in a way that ensures communication between different accents, and that's why they are easier to understand).

[@hadar.shemesh]

Wow! That is really interesting to hear.

[@user-mrfrog]

Gott kvöld! Ég er að læra íslensku. Mér finnst þetta tungumál frábært! Ég er frá Québec-fylki! Takk fyrir og bless bless!

[@FernanGonzalezDomingo]

@@user-mrfrog gaman að kynnast þér! Ég var í Québec 2008. Fallegur staður! 😊.

[@leandrofelipebuenotierno4724]

One of the best videos I've seen in youtube. It helped me a lot to understand some difficulties I have when listening. It wasn't clear for me, because I can read almost like a native american, without the need to think the meanings of the words in my native tongue (Portuguese). Congratulations !!!!

[@raulguimaraes5460]

Hadar, what an incredible channel and content! It helps me so much to improve my english and increase my confidence! Thank you so much

[@margett__]

When I stumbled upon the Vox video, it was such a relief. I'm glad you included it! When I first watched it, it felt like my experience was finally validated. Apparently, many people in the comments section felt the same way. It's something incredibly important, especially for non-native speakers of English. I'm reasonably comfortable with all sorts of accents, and I consume a large variety of content created by both native and non-native speakers from different parts of the world. Hence my confusion when I couldn't properly hear what was being said in movies. Thanks for sharing this incredibly important information. Great video, as always! ❤

[@hermanoamor3606]

I learned a lot wirh subtitles,, especially. I finned my ears, once my listening was fine, I abandoned subtitles the only thing is that it makes the learning process slow but effective improving your listening.

[@hadar.shemesh]

Thank you for sharing this!

[@calmontes651]

That Vox video is the best, even in my native language sometimes I don’t understand movies, the Vox video makes so much sense.

[@LanguageLounge]

Great video! Watching movies in a foreign language without subtitles can be really challenging and it requires a lot of focus and you can easily miss important details. I personally find it even harder to understand movies in the original language because the actors often mumble, like Til Schweiger for example. On the other hand, when the movie is dubbed into a foreign language, it can be easier to understand because the voice actors often have clearer pronunciation and don't mumble as much. Thanks for sharing these insights and tips!

[@MaxEnglishCoach]

Never thought about this. Great point!

[@joseluisvincesmenendez4597]

I approached this problem in a different way My dear Hadar, you speak very clearly because you want to teach and in the same way other youtubers do something similar. So I have your videos in a category less than the way in which what do native speakers do. I listen to you and I listen and I pass by listening to you and then other youtubers, in order to learn the "easy" way and from there I give birth to the street and I listen Thanks to you I have learned a lot , but your videos do not support everything that if it does , let 's say , a normal conversation Thank you so much . I am delighted with you , you are something great and have taken my English to the next level .

[@mzmscoyote]

I’m a native English speaker and I need subtitles to understand people on TV. That is a rather new experience. The speakers are dropping a lot of ending consonants - speaking sloppily. The practice of not moving their lips in order to appear powerful does not help.

[@bergerkos]

Oh I always understand Jean-Luc Picard or Seven of Nine. Or mr. Président, for that matter. But this mumbling in the movies... So many words in a language, but that's not the problem here. There are also so many ways to pronounce every single word. Even when you, as a foreigner, have generally got what my mom used to call "the music of the language" -- still, I suppose, mumbling is an individual thing, no system there😁😁😁

[@andreysavinykh6890]

I think that the key to understand native speech is to learn more phrasal verbs - which are used in everyday life. This really helped me to improve my understanding

[@adolfolowskibautista646]

would you like practice listening and speaking with me?

[@andreysavinykh6890]

@@adolfolowskibautista646 it may be interesting to try

[@adolfolowskibautista646]

@@andreysavinykh6890 yes of course! would you like giveme any contact you ? For example email or some social media I have a nevel of B1 TOEFL score

[@adolfolowskibautista646]

@@andreysavinykh6890 but I need practice with someone:(

[@andreysavinykh6890]

@@adolfolowskibautista646 it's strange. I left my email a couple of times, but after a few moments my answer disappeared...

[@ronfehr7899]

I grew up with the English language ever since I started school, so I guess I'm basically a native speaker. While I understood the first two reasons that you explained, they didn't really apply to me. But your third reason really resonated with me. Like you said, it's sometimes hard to make out what the people are saying when continually raising and lowering the tones of their voices. I have definitely found captions helpful.

[@Pikiri]

The reduction thing is very important, and I think that is the answer of why I don't fully understand the series,movies,etc. But study new vocabulary is crucial too.This video was really helpful. Thanks!

[@darcash1738]

Soy un hablante de inglés primero, y he estudiado español por 4 años. Recientemente, vi clase de élite en el doblaje latino y fue difícil en algunos partes también 😅 Honestly bro, I’d say that it’s tougher to adjust to all the different patterns of speech in Spanish. It’s not as varied in English. Cuban and Chile can go craaaazy 😂

[@jesusbeliare9821]

Spanish is hard asf, we have different kinds of accents and pronunciations depending by the country or city, even some of us don’t understand the way of the Chilean speak so don’t worry 😂

[@alexpadi6464]

Cuban is impossible for me, and as a mexican spanish speaker

[@darcash1738]

Tal vez sería útil ver videos en español con doble rapidez para acostumbrarme a los chilenos 🙂

[@Matt-qp8zt]

Tranquilo es normal, ni yo le entiendo a los chilenos, y tampoco trate de entendernos a nosotros los Dominicanos xd, te recomiendo ver series/peliculas spanglish como puss in boot, Narcos de netflix, etc.

[@mcs3210]

Thanks again, Hadar!! This video was enlightening in so many ways… 🤩

[@tonyfix4226]

you made me happy, because listening to you, for the first time I understood the entire speech from the first to the last word

[@alexandreneves3441]

I just want to thank you Hadar for sharing this kind of videos with us

[@bo2f]

I agree with your first point, specially beacuse it's sometimes hard to understand dubbed Disney songs the first time I watch a movie with my kids, because there's a lot of things happening, not just the lyrics. The fact that people will watch things with their phones in noisy environments adds even more information for the brain to process...

[@texasrattlesnake95]

This situation was happened to me last year, and I improved that with watched some American TV shows. For instance, modern family and so on. Surprisingly it helped me a lot both in listening and speaking

[@scarpatialexandre2089]

Thanks for the video, I want to add some details about sound issues: - it can come also from the movie sound mix and in which purpose it has been done. The sound may be sometimes mastered to be efficient in movie theatres and they don't prepare a 2nd sound mix for tvs. Then when you watch at home you hear explosions and action scenes super loud and hear nothing when there are dialogues. If you have a 5.1 sound system, it should be OK, but not everyone can afford that. Also, I have seen a documentary on Arte (German and French TV channel) speaking about the capacity to hear whispers depending on where you’re from. They were showing the fact that american actors in TV shows often sound like they whisper and depending on your native language and your culture, your ears can be less trained to hear it.

[@SergioGermanStinco]

Thank you for your very useful video. I have been teaching in Argentina for half a century and now I only hear may be a 30 % of only one ear. Subtitles help lot but I can understand you perfectly because of your amazing diction. When I was in D.C. I understood people but not the TV. You are right, I always tell my students that is not necessary to undertsand all the words. Thank you from frozen Patagonia.

[@solteiumpeido]

its funny how i can understand completely what you are saying without being helped by subtitles. maybe it's because you have a clean and smooth speech. it not happen with other people and teachers. you're awesome. keep it!

[@alexzambrano8441]

I loved that you mentioned that video "why we all need subtitles" I had seen it before and it gave some relief knowing that some native speakers also use subtitles.

[@hadar.shemesh]

Yes! Thanks for watching :)

[@adolfolowskibautista646]

would you like practice listening and speaking with me?

[@EdwinAr]

Me sorprendió la claridad al hablar que pude entender la introducción solo escuchándola, me llamó la atención porque casi siempre no entiendo el inglés sin leerlo, pero al revisar la presentación del canal en español entendí el porqué.

[@michiv334]

I showed a video of yours to my US friend who helps me practice my English and said, "Mark, just listen to Hadar, to me she sounds 100 percent American, but what do you think as a native?" And he was like "Yeah bud, that's 100 percent American! I mean, not 99 percent but a hundred percent! Everything's American in how she speaks, her pronunciation, vocabulary, intonation, sentence structure etc, just everything!" And all I could say was "wow! I've developed a great American ear then!" 😄 Hadar, you are the only non-native English tutor on KZbin he has ever commented on like that... Take care 👍

[@mcarletti]

Great video! In my experience, trying to understand the main idea of a sentence/chunk was the game changer. Removing subtitle when possible also helped a lot :)

[@Yehor-oz6ii]

I haven't seen the video yet but I could not wait to thank you for just bringing up this topic. People often don't realize that listening to another person, listening to an interview and listening to movies are very different things. P.S. My advice would probably be: be attentive but not stressed (native speakers miss a lot of words and not even notice it or care), watch one time for purely for enjoyment and the second for practicing (doesn't have to be immediately and also, the "practicing time" would be a lot more enjoyable because you've already don't have stress going into "the unknown" and missing something), don't think that not understanding a lot will ruin the experience -- you can make it self-fulfilling prophecy. P.P.S. When I hit my "listening skills roadblock" I start to wonder whether your speaking skills have anything to do with the listening. Glad to find confirmation on that

[@teachermarciosilva9837]

Congrats! I usually recommend your channel to my students! Another point that stops them from understanding is quite obvious: they may not know the meaning of the words or expressions. That's why I focus a lot on vocabulary acquisition as well.

[@hadar.shemesh]

Great point, that is very true!

[@Obamjur]

For me the biggest difficulty is not thinking in English. Trying to translate to understand is not efficient watching a movie on TV. But my problems are about to be solved because I found your channel. I loved ! Subscribed ! Thank you!

[@hyperseah]

I have problem listening to some actors, not all. Some are really articulate while other mumble. As for KZbin videos, I have no problem with the educational types ( tech, piano, gadgets, cameras, etc.). This channel is a good example.

[@letsgoforit88]

It's my first time here, but you gave clear understanding why I have difficulty in understanding movies. And your 3rd advice (tech point of view) really hit me and brings me more confidence. Really appreciate it.

[@iristrang2312]

Honestly this is the first video I watch without captures. I was surprised because Idk how can I understand almost the contents that you are talking about and you speak so clearlyyyy I love itttt. I have hearing lose disability and I am a Vietnamese. Even Vietnamese people talk with me, I cannot get what are they talking about because of my disability and that’s why I dont have good listening reflection. As you said it depends on our brain capacity and I just realized that I refused to receive information involuntarily. Your video saved me and I am very grateful to you❤❤

[@GerardoInterianoCLE]

Thank you haddad for explaining why it's hard to understand spoken English on tv. (The technology bit was new for me but it makes sense) I will apply writing down what I hear and compare it to the script to find room for improvement.

[@user-zj9mu8uf5c]

I love you, seriously! Thank you for the very helpful videos -- I just bumped into your channel. You have a colossal charisma -- it's a great delight to watch you! You're a super star!

[@Alanhslc]

That was a really good video... As a non-native English speaker living in Canada, I often struggle when I go to the theater to watch a movie.

[@_sonicfive]

For me the key was working a job in the US where the stakes are high. Recording calls, listening to them, and learning a ton of phrasal verbs and American culture. I learned conversational English watching Friends but Joey Triibianni only took me so far.

[@cameliacat]

I would recommend starting listening practice with shows that do not require understanding every word. I mean cooking shows, reality shows on animal planet or HDtv, or talk shows or news shows on MTV do not require you to understand every word to enjoy them. For movies or dramas, it will be too frustrating to miss even one word because it could be an important clue to the storyline and it is hard for us to enjoy them without following the exact storyline, right? So, pick the practice materials that you can enjoy enough without understanding every single word. That will help you to build a habit of turning off the subtitles. That is my advice ❤

[@rayoflight62]

True. I speak various languages, and the mumbling experience is mostly for English movies. For example, in languages which are spoken as they are written (say, Italian) this problem is unknown. Also, switching the audio from a smartphone or tablet to a TV with Dolby audio helps a lot...

[@jesussiloh8989]

Wow, thanks for these cool hints to improve our learning. It's a valuable video. I have even this problem I'm struggling with it. But you're really helping me with this video. Congratulations

[@folive64]

It is a relief to know that even native speakers report they have difficulties understanding what is being said on tv. My advice is to use a good headphone. It helps a lot in making sounds clearer and you brain focus on the dialogues.

[@hadar.shemesh]

Good tip!

[@dunodolien674]

When watching something, always try to speed up the pace! I never watch a video at a normal pace. I've moved into into the Italian language and again, it works like a charm!

[@marcosmenezes727]

i'm Brazilian and i was understand almost everything, very good your course

[@alexisbonifacioreyboue360]

Astonishing, unbelievable channel. What a master piece! Your explanations are extremely clear and welcome. Thank you very much. I learn a lot with your topics

[@NeelamSharma-eb7jp]

Thank u Hadar for making a wonderful and useful video Ur videos really helps me ❤️

[@dancu9271]

A lot of thanks for making and sharing your video!!

[@LeopoldBlooom]

Great video! For me, it happens a lot when listening to music. Actually, sometimes it results in the lyrics from the song being totally different from what I thought they were.

[@manoelsilva1420]

Thank so much, for sharing your knowledge with us!!

[@danceingdave3]

I just found yr vid by "accident". I'm a 70YO Australian who is a native English speaker. This is the best vid I've found on addressing non-native English speaking difficulties. I have trouble listening to dialogue which you descibe as "chunks". My hearing is OK. My advice is to listen to content through headphones. American shows introduce this street-talk for the sake of authenticity. But hey, without sub-titles, you can't get the plot. Great recommendations Hadar. BTW, many Eastern countries rely on sub-titles to know what's going on, eg. Home & Away & Neighbours from Australia.

[@hadar.shemesh]

I grew up watching these shows 😍 Thanks for sharing your point of view, glad you came across this video:)

[@kevin_mitchell]

6:08 YES! It's because some actors always mumble and slur their words together, as well as lowering their voice on key parts of their speech, because you can always understand other actors.

[@user-ju3dp8ot4v]

Congratulations Hadar. This is a new level.

[@tomgreat5471]

This video helped me so much, I usually listen to video without subtitles and even if I get some difficulty, I still try understanding what I hear. The key is to practice.

[@josephruiz5926]

Just what i needed. It'll finally be the video I was Waiting for?

[@AlexandrePaivaBR]

I loved to hear you about this problem. It’s a relief, and a motivation to increase my efforts. Thank you very much

[@josedavilatraavieso4327]

Thanks for your wisdom, patience and willingness.

[@evandeandrade6749]

It's the first time I can understand someone speaking English without having to translate... You speak perfect English, clean and well articulated / é a primeira vez que eu consigo entender alguem falando ingles sem ter que traduzir... Voce fala um ngles perfeito, limpo e bem articulado / Es la primera vez que puedo entender a alguien hablando inglés sin tener que traducir... Hablas un inglés perfecto, limpio y bien articulado.

[@franciscojose6496]

An excellent teacher the best motivation 😊

[@gerardoavila4724]

this is the first video I've watched from you. i'm exited, i'm going to watch all your videos.

[@fabianperez3149]

Thank you Haddar, well in my particular way, when i close my eyes and i dont watch the actors but i only hear them, i can understand every conversation than they are having, but if i watch them performance and what they are doing, i lose a lot of the conversation that they are having, it is a little crazy for me, but now all have sense with your video.

[@hadar.shemesh]

That’s such an interesting and wonderful way to deal with it!

[@Mindspectrum]

I started with subtitles in my native language and now I use English subtitles. This way you can hear and read the words. For me, this is the best way to learn

[@sunalwaysshinesonTVs]

I think ya nailed it and solved an age old trope; speaking "American" is speaking english with "freedom"!

[@franciscojavierrodriguezsi6765]

For non native speakers, subtitles are a great tool.

[@israelcaneca]

As a native speaker of portuguese, when I was watching a brazilian TV series and I couldn't understand about half the dialogues in it, it suddenly clicked in my mind and I undestood that the problem wasn't me, but the sound mixing in the movies.

[@brendon2462]

I'm a native english speaker and holy sh*t your english is really really good. I can't really tell you're not a native speaker. You're like 99% of the way there. Basically speak as good as a native. People think it's not possible for a non native to reach a native level. But there are a few like you tgat show it's possible.

[@user-vk7nw1bl7z]

Thanks a lot! Really useful for me.

[@asyam8445]

Thank you Hadar for the tips! I’ve been using an exercise with writing down what I’d heard. I found it useful, but it made me focus on non-meaningful words which were not pronounced distinctly (as you said here!). And I noticed that this practice lead to trying to hear every single word and hence slowed down my speed of speech perception hereinafter. So, it is contrary to an idea of perceiving speech fast by key words… Any advices here? 😏

[@amos0140]

Hi Hadar, Thank you for all of the great advice you have released so far and also in the future. One point I would stress is that American English is not English, per se. The word manipulation in this video is great if learning “English“ for use in the US, but maybe not so good if it is to be used here in the UK. Thank you again for all your help and advice.

[@user-tg2dv2dn3m]

very helpful, thanks a lot.

[@luisalbertousugaguzman9074]

Thank you a lot, this video is mesmerizing, great advises

[@wuliuxiansheng1605]

It's a regret that have missed this so great course ever before 🎉🎉❤

[@sreekrishnam5268]

Thank you so much ❤ it's very helpful :)

[@tomasdale5306]

what is helping me a lot is to listen to my favorite songs with lyrics, very different what I hear and what is

[@MasakyoRenSai]

Thank you! Love your videos, I’ve found some very helpful methods and essential points that a lot of tutor training materials don’t have. ✨👌🏼💐🍭🏆

[@greencatnme53]

I've just seen your channels. Your clip is so clear. I really love your accent. Thank you for the great clip.

[@aruizsilva]

Thanks for your knowledge! first time watching you, but one can see that you are a very good communicator and teacher

[@hadar.shemesh]

Thank you!