The Key to Improved Listening Comprehension

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I spend most of my time listening. Listening comprehension is where the action is, in my opinion. If you can understand movies, podcasts, conversations, the other end of the conversation, you can eventually get to where you can hold up your end of the conversation.
0:00 Listening comprehension is where the action is!
0:52 Two times in my life when I didn't understand what was being said to me in another language and what they taught me.
3:33 Don't criticize yourself when you don't understand; being in a situation where you don't understand is GOOD.
4:59 My advice when it comes to listening comprehension.
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#listeningcomprehension #languagelearning #languages

[@Thelinguist]

The app I use to learn languages -> bit.ly/3JNDqbk My 10 FREE secrets to language learning -> www.thelinguist.com What kinds of listening comprehension activities do you find helpful?

[@Itziar_hay_yan]

Estoy intentando poner un comentario pero parece que youtube no me lo admite, no sé por qué.

[@Itziar_hay_yan]

En el canal "jan Telakoman" hay una serie de vídeos para aprender un idioma con imput comprensible. Cuando intento explicarlo el comentario no se publica. No sé cuál de las palabras que uso es la que no le gusta a youtube.

[@helenemorgenstern9110]

I am a native Russian speaker. Ladies at the cashier desk on train stations are impossible to understand. Thank you for the inspiration!

[@irina_manezhnaia]

true story)))

[@sedatakkas8427]

Hahaha

[@ish8138]

I smiled when you related the two incidents. I have friends, excellent English speakers, who had to leave their native country in the 1980's because of persecution. They'd learned English at school and spoke it well. They then spent two years in an intermediate country until they were assigned to the UK by the UN and during that time they conversed in English. As one of them said, all this time I'd been speaking English and felt prepared, then someone spoke to me at Heathrow airport when we arrived and "I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND A WORD!!!" 🤣

[@johnfoley4023]

I learned Portuguese. When someone said to me "Do You..." I translated it in my head thinking oh they said you. But when I say you, it means You. Then I suddenly realized you is ME! at least when SOMEONE ELSE is saying it.

[@thorodinson6649]

@@johnfoley4023 wow, how old were you 😂

[@johnfoley4023]

@@thorodinson6649 11 and a half.

[@thenaturalyogi5934]

😹 I've been speaking English my whole life and sometimes I still misunderstand things, so I'd expect as much in the other languages I speak and the languages I am learning.

[@nochu9753]

I'm a Spanish speaker and SAME 😂

[@ilyauneroute8944]

The Natural Yogi : Exactement pareil pour moi🤣!! (Totally the sale for me). 🧘🏻‍♀️🙏👍

[@capslocked7274]

i love that steve promotes the idea that its fine to not understand everything in one go, you pick things up subconsciosly and sometimes forget the simple things, its all part of the journey

[@petecam3949]

I can attest that doing a lot of listening is key. When I started learning Spanish, I couldn’t understand anything when they were talking fast, but since I’ve kept at it, I can understand more and more natural spoken Spanish. At first I could only really understand Spanish that was being spoken for learning purposes very slowly and enunciated perfectly. Now I can understand most naturally spoken Spanish.

[@Elspm]

I think it's good to remember that in our native language we fairly regularly ask people to repeat themselves in new situations. We're just way more vigilant of it in our target language!

[@Celestina0]

Funny how you assess the two situations. If you can’t understand them in your language - they’re not speaking clearly enough. If you can’t understand them in their native language - you’re not good enough at their language. No in between.

[@fleetze]

So many of your lessons can be summed up as "go easy on yourself and just keep trying". An important lesson though nonetheless and it bears repeating in a world that is harsh to itself and each other.

[@onetwo9719]

Thats basically the key tho, because even in your native language it probably took like 15 years of language study and even then there are words you don’t know

[@kerim.peardon5551]

I remember my second year of Spanish, our previous (American) teacher left and was replaced by a woman from Mexico in her first teaching position. She greeted the class the first day and asked something very basic. And we all sat there and stared at her. She repeated herself. And we continued to look at her blankly. And she grew very alarmed that we didn't know something so basic, even though we were second-year students. She wrote the sentence down on the board and asked, "You don't know this?" And then the entire class said, "Ohhhhhhh, that's what you were saying!" and we were able to reply to her. It took us a few weeks to adjust to the way that she, as a native speaker, pronounced things.

[@LucasLima-cc6jh]

What did she say

[@andyharpist2938]

@@LucasLima-cc6jh transl. "How ya'll doin' here then, ready for some action today and learnin', you lazy know-it-all yanks?" 🙂

[@kerim.peardon5551]

@@LucasLima-cc6jh I don't remember. I just had my 25th reunion, and that was even longer ago because it was 9th grade. It was probably something like "How are you today?" I mean it was very basic--the sort of stuff we would have learned the first week or two of class in our first year.

[@tedc9682]

Very very helpful. It explains what we've all experienced. The two short stories were a very good way to explain by example. Listeners will remember them and think "Oh, this is just like what happened to Steve..."

[@coryjorgensen622]

So true, Steve! I had a similar situation in Keflavik, Iceland. My level was near B2 and I could easily understand audiobooks, podcasts, radio, etc. I went to buy a coffee and the server asked if I wanted a receipt. For some reason it threw me off guard and made her repeat in English. Needless to say, I learned that phrase!

[@justinsauer6740]

how long did it take for you to learn icelandic?

[@coryjorgensen622]

@@justinsauer6740 I've been working on it for the past 3 years, starting out doing at least 3 hours/day of listening. I still listen at least 1 hours/day + some reading.

[@yassoilcapo9952]

Wow im learning icelandic aswell before i move there for 1 year do you think i could get to a B2 level before i move there if i study for 1.30 hours to 2 hours a day every day? Thanks, it's so rare to see someone Who learned Icelandic wow

[@yassoilcapo9952]

​@@coryjorgensen622i have 2 to 2,5 years to do that thank you if you respond🙏🙏

[@coryjorgensen622]

@@yassoilcapo9952 I think you could definitely get close. Keep it up og gangi þér vel!

[@jimmyf6145]

Very true - listen, listen and listen. I was brought up in an English speaking school and my English level was quite good. When I first went to study in the U.K., I could only understand roughly 70% of what the teachers said in class, which really surprised me because I thought I would be able to understand more than that. But being immersed in the country and by listening and talking to school mates and teachers, I could already understand over 90% in a few months’ time, except some of the rare words or vocabularies they used. Having said this, I think a lot have to do with the different accents I encountered rather than not actually knowing the words…….

[@holliswilliams8426]

If it's any consolation my Spanish is quite good and I sometimes don't know what people are saying, I honestly think there is something wrong with my concentration that I stop listening sometimes.

[@romanlakes]

Thank you Steve, I’ve been really pushing myself with exposure to Spanish and being quite resilient in regards to not understanding things, but still getting frustrated if I don’t understand at times. This is a great reminder and I think it’s important no matter what level you’re at. I’ve been here before a lower levels and now I’m here again, just with a higher level of comprehension!

[@tomaaron6187]

We moved from Montreal to the .Black Forest in Germany when .I was a teen. My German schoolmates and I I would cross over to Alsace, France. They would get frustrated at not being understsbd the locals despite taking French in school. I would tell them not to feel bad as I went to school for 8 years in French and even I only understood 80% at first. Asking someone to clarify a word or expression can be a real positive in opening up a more intimate dialogue as they are often then curious about your background and happy to help. I always try to praise their local dialect and culture. Sometimes we even start exaggerating our dialect and vocabulary for fun, The same happened with English when visiting my mom’s family in London. It’s good To turn being ‘different’ into being a positive novelty as it gives chance to have lots of speaking opportunities.

[@justlove7475]

i always listen to you at least 1 video on youtube , i found that i can understand mostly 95% . Thanks our teacher , really appreciation .

[@konstantinberezovsky9653]

Thanks for sharing that comprehension experience. This is quite important observation and advice to expose yourself to real-life situations and to check the fluency

[@flashgordon6510]

I've said it before, but I'll say again, thank you for all your advice and perspective! It really has helped to keep me from getting discouraged as I grind my way through Japanese, which I love, but it is so hard...

[@samaval9920]

Suggestions to find Japanese & English tefrrence grammars- both. websites & books.to compare point by point But, for each language’s unique culture words to sentences, find articles, books, websites, videos, etc. For self learning methods ( many) see videos by Kaufmann, Stevei Lampariello, Luca Zoe of Zoe. language Ohama, Ruri Seales, Dr. Izzy etc. Gan batte!!

[@tobikrutt]

I have found language partners to be helpful to prepare for the kinds of everyday situations that you describe. They can help you role play things like ordering in a restaurant, buying a train ticket, asking for directions etc. I have always learned things to say or not to say in these scenarios that I would never have known otherwise. I actually was just talking to an Italian language partner yesterday about restaurants and asking directions, and learned some vocabulary, phrases, and "do's and don'ts" that I don't think I ever would have found in a book or video.

[@mainlander3920]

I frequently notice how sometimes I don't understand some terms and slang people from younger or older generations say in my own language, so we really shouldn't be hard on ourselves about not understanding something in a foreign language we speak, even if we have a good proficiency level.

[@daveboberg]

Your videos are very encouraging and helpful but this one particularly inspires me to keep listening, even if I don't understand everything. I think I need to increase my exposure to my target language (Spanish) by listening more and reading more, using various forms and levels of comprehensible input. ¡Muchas gracias por este video!

[@Bleachfan-hx4po]

Thankyou Steve Getting caught out where you've either invertedly overlooked something, or haven't learnt to date is a good teacher for a reality check, it keeps me in check with my Japanese which is a long haul grind but the pay off is worth it.

[@polyglotsjourney]

I agree with your claim that we sometimes feel upset when when we face situations in which we simply don't understand the interlocutor. It happened to me couple of times, especially when the interlocutor perceives that you have a high level of proficiency in the target language. Those situations are simply awkward 😅 Sometimes I simply pretend you didn't hear anything and move on 😂

[@danilavishnevich5906]

Thank you for this video, Mr Kaufmann!

[@lailaazdouffal753]

I was waiting for your video.BTW all what you shoot is pretty much significant for me .i admit you are the best guide ever for me thank you so much

[@romuloromano]

You‘re so great, very helpful as all of your videos.

[@ahmedff2133]

What I've noticed recently is once I got to intermediate-level English, When I listen to English audio I'm able to understand the general idea and my mind gets kinda lazy to look up the new words or maybe I don't even realize them I think that's why most people get stuck at the intermediate level

[@alanvergara7662]

That's me though I don't feel I got to intermediate-level English, I understand the main point but I get lazy to focus on new words, new vocabulary, I'm just in this comfort zone 🚶

[@helenemorgenstern9110]

You don't need to focus to acquire new words. This process is sometimes subconscious. My listening comprehension jumped from intermediate to almost proficient in three years consistent exposure. Just keep listening and you'll understand more :)

[@samaval9920]

See several videos on this by Kaufmann, Steve? Zoe of Zoe.languages? Ohama, Ruri? Seales, Dr. Izzy? Lampariello, Luca? etc,

[@moonasha]

well if it makes you feel better, most native english speakers are stuck at the intermediate level lol

[@EFoxVN]

Thanks a lot for this video. I found it quite encouraging.

[@kabir09999]

I love Steve's videos. Thank you

[@1994amaa]

Thanks mr Steve ,I've learned a lot from you 🙏

[@Trumppower]

Thanks Steve you are a inspiration.

[@zeraihadera1915]

I am really benefitted by your advice.

[@aidagholampour100]

This tip also helps a lot in IELTS exam part listening, when I anticipate what speaker wanna say I can be better the fill the blanks

[@gustavodc3684]

Thanks 💖

[@mohamedaminegwada8986]

Yes dr. You are right we have just to put our self in other situation either it can easy to comprehend or at least few understanding it's attempt about time but with daily practice to make perfect 😃

[@BuffaloBuffalo-uc6zp]

Steves Spanish is excellent based on the conversations that i have seen him engage in when he speaks to that Spanish woman in South America via his Web - cam link - up with her that he has done on several occasions with her. Judging from those interactions alone the guy is very advanced in Spanish, and for him to say he didn't understand the gardener mostly comes down to being faced with regional accents, and different interpretation of speech which gets lost intranslation

[@zayu871]

u're really smart.I do love your posts

[@lubna347]

Very helpful!

[@HarrietStanley-th4tp]

Steve, what really struck me when you described these two incidents is that this is exactly what my hearing-impaired husband explains to us. He is profoundly deaf and relies on speech reading (lip reading). If he knows the context and is familiar with how these conversations go (and if the person does not have a lot of facial hair), he can often follow along. But, if one of us throws in an unexpected or unrelated word or reference, he is completely distracted by needing to figure out what that was and he loses track of the rest of the conversation. He and I refer to this as "red pots" due to an early unfortunate - but hilarious - moment during a camping trip when I was moved by a realization to suddenly announce "I forgot the red pots (our camping cooking pots)!". I returned to our conversation only to look over and see him repeating the movements and approximate sounds to try to replicate - and define - "red pots".

[@sebastienlopezmassoni8107]

Thanks Steve

[@MartaPereiraB]

Spanish is my mother tongue (I'm from Uruguay) but when I watch serials from Spain or other Spanish speaking countries I need subtitles because I miss a lot of words. And in English I was once surprised arriving at Chicago Airport and a Migration Officer asked me to show him what sounded like "decoration" but it was in fact "declaration". Oh, it was so frustrating!!!!

[@juancarlostellesgomez2424]

Thank you very much.👍

[@piotrekn3127]

Thanks for this one. I should probably spend more time listening to unscripted speech. I mostly listen to YT videos, where hosts often read off some sort of prompters. Also, I've just learned the phrase "by dint of", or rather I refreshed in, because I remember either hearing or reading it. Greetings from Poland.

[@jakobnan5063]

It's very important to be able to anticipate .So you can understand what other person is saying .👍

[@ewncilo]

This is exactly why full immersion, like living in the target country is so powerful because when you are fully immerse living in the target country your listening comprehension will be beyon supirior than someone who have not been living in the target country. Someone who has the opportunity to be immerse inside an environment constantly surrounded by the language will randomly encounter the language, will unforcefully improve their listening.

[@FitProVR]

Steve Kaufman is the only man who can convince me to expose myself. #goat

[@slava9431]

Thanks 👍

[@---lj1vb]

okey steven thank you .Lima Perú

[@kurtthecat3995]

I had the same experience at different German bakeries around the country. They will usually ask "anything else?" but can ask it several different ways. There was one time I was caught off guard and didn't know what they were asking.

[@Binhnguyen-po8dd]

Cảm ơn Anh rất nhiều thank you so much

[@BR-lq6fc]

Good points. But think you can be a little more proactive than simply waiting through exposure. The 'anticipation' mentioned is one of the strategies we can use (a top-down strategy) to prepare ourselves before we listen; and then looking at phonological features of speech like elision in the 'pago' example (bottom-up this time) can help decode the stream of speech

[@messizhao3813]

good idea ~

[@user-go6il2tm4b]

I think Resource is also really important part in learning language. Anyway I will keep going as you said until I master english~ english has lots of resources haha😊

[@holliswilliams8426]

I've been learning Arabic some months and it's a bit overwhelming being able to understand so little, but hopefully over time I will improve.

[@samaval9920]

See for example, 4 ? videos on how to learn Arabic by Zoe of Zoe. languages Kaufmann, Steve etc. Langfocus, etc.?summaries/analyses of Arabic.

[@grandbaks4468]

I have been learning German for 1,5 years. I lived in Bayern and Baden Württemberg. I can only speak standard German / Hochdeutsch and so in Bayern is spoken “Fränkische Sprache” and in Baden „Alemannisch“. You can learn really intensively and then come into a wall / dialect. It is really disappointing

[@michaels2219]

It’s all about predictive capacity. A native speaker can predict the next word or even the next few words in a typical sentence, based on context. As non native learners, our predictive capacity being limited, our brains get overloaded by the sheer limitless possibilities.

[@banatkhan189]

Good ways that lead to learn a language

[@deutschmitpurple2918]

Amazing video

[@mr88cet]

My wife and I mostly speak Mandarin at home, here in Texas. _Usually_ not much difficulty understanding each other, nor various other Mandarin-speaking friends. What’s curious though is that I find Mandarin-language videos much harder to understand!

[@yongyang5836]

that is what i say ,people don't listen and understand , but understand and listen

[@wolfthequarrelsome504]

The pain of embarrassing moments is the best ways to learn a language, imo.

[@yul498]

I had funny situation in Milan Exhibition. I didn't understand a guy from Kentucky. My colleagues from Belgium, German, France, London, Ireland next to me, didn't understand too. A person from Bombay India, transfer for all of us what does Kentucky is speaking:)).

[@salamsalamo9944]

Salam one one hand it s more easy and we have enough time to make a big list of new words. In the other hand it is difficult and we havn t sufficient time to review these words several times . So the solution is : While reading enjoyable books ,don t look up new words in the dictionary . And concentrate your work on the repetition of words already seen but not acquired. So you can look up words you already studied but you forgot them or words with second meaning. Therefore you rise the period of time to acquiring words in long-term memory. Thank you for all.

[@HunterNuttall]

I overheard a conversation where a customer kept asking for a kid's meal and the employee kept insisting that they didn't have them. Finally she said, "I just want a kid's 'mealk' from over there" and pointed to the milk, and then he got it.

[@lexaznaurov5205]

Steve, give please advice how to work with textes ? How many times to read? What is a strategy for learning?

[@Thelinguist]

In the beginning I listen often, later on less often. I read whatever I listen to, and save words on LingQ. Just keep going.

[@vendingservices8900]

It’s interesting. Accents play a massive part into it. When I eat at Mexican restaurants, almost everyone can understand my Spanish, but I was at one the other day, she couldn’t understand anything I said. Frustrated the hell out of me. I know the words I was saying were correct and not normally an issue. She is just not used to gringos speaking Spanish with her, so her brain didn’t understand.

[@jackierota1161]

Hi Steve. I was watching one of your videos where you talked about being in intensive speaking opportunities. I understood what you were saying and I suppose I agree but it started me to asking myself: "Why the heck I'm trying to learn Hebrew"? I'm an AA woman and I'm wondering when I'd ever get to speak to people who really speak Hebrew. Just thinking...

[@andyharpist2938]

Learning to understand a simple basic level of a spoken language, could be said to be as the result of having around 3,000 such Mexican and Ticket office awkward moments!

[@karlburmeister1552]

This is dead on. Actually, if you look at some of the videos of "polyglots" on youtube they don't really have a level of fluency in a language. What they've really done is learn enough words whereby they can ask a question and have studied a limited amount of likely responses so that they can reply. It's a kind of magic trick where one can seem more knowledgeable than they are but it has a certain merit as well. Anticipation is key to almost any discipline. In music one must know how to read ahead and be able to pick out common interval patterns to be a good musician. In mixed martial arts one studies moves and counter moves to the point where both set up and reaction become second nature. In programming and electronic troubleshooting one learns to see things in terms of chunks of code or groups of components to simplify logic. When they're talking about the young Annakin Skywalker's abilities and they say "he sees things before they happen" it clearly alludes to this type of intelligence being a main key to success.

[@donblackh3479]

First! "Hej" from Sweden by the way!

[@jmsl910]

your video just showed up in my feed! i'm new here. what's this channel about?

[@Thelinguist]

Language learning

[@arthurhex770]

Hi Steve, any tips on how to keep up with Japanese subtitles, sometimes the narrator is so fast that I lose track of the words.

[@Thelinguist]

Keeping up with subtitles in a language we are learning is very tough. Get the transcript, read it and then focus on listening comprehension would be my advice.

[@arthurhex770]

@@Thelinguist Thank you very much, your tips help a lot

[@rvdzst]

Pao = (Yo) pago. A good example of the flat and diluted pronunciations of many native speakers. Native speakers, depending on the situation, certainly tend to be way more "mouth-lazy" than non-native speakers. What about "Djéédyad?" in colloquial (US) English? Solution: Did you eat yet? In a one-on-one talk you can ask them to repeat. But I remember watching a docu on youtube where someone was interviewing elderly Brazilians...I could have rewinded it a thousand times with slow motion and still not having been able to understand most of them, had it not been for the subtitles the channel put in. But that certainly does not deter me from learning a language, otherwise I would have quite learning my native tongue at age 1 or so... Native or non-native alike, one should factor in that you will encounter situations where you won´t perfectly understand all people all of the time.

[@SuperMentalidadExitosa]

Yo no se ingles pero lo entiendo perfectamente

[@marcelosilveira7079]

How to upgrade the intermediate material to advanced or used by native speakers. Just keep listening and wait until it naturally improves?

[@Thelinguist]

Basically. There are shortcuts,

[@ShowyGDL]

I had to try a couple of sentences saying "pago" to notice I do pronounce it a bit like "pag" if I'm speaking fast @_@... had never realised.

[@sezyofc3093]

I give up learning language, i until now still can't understand Spanish listening

[@ChanHK04]

One weird tip: watch KZbin videos at 2 times speed

[@Irisman98]

I like this weird tip

[@ChanHK04]

@@Irisman98 haha thanks

[@Adam-vv9co]

我学习中文

[@euridsol8221]

Can someone summarize?

[@roos3013]

elektrichka 🙂 lol

[@deidreadams2621]

Your video is showing b-roll of a Netflix import taking place. I have tried this several times and it has never worked. Gives back the error "No appropriate captions found." A quick search of your forum indicates that this is a known problem several months old. Might want to stop using this footage unless and until it's fixed.

[@Thelinguist]

If there are captions it works for me. I will look into it.

[@Thelinguist]

I checked with our people and it should be working properly now, but it doesn't work for all movies or netflix shows.

[@deidreadams2621]

Thanks so much for the quick reply. I have tried several shows & movies with Spanish subtitles. I get the same error on all of them in multiple browsers. If you search "Netflix import" in the forums you will find many, many people having the same problem. I haven't seen any with a solution. If you can give me an example of a known Spanish language show that it works on, I can try it.

[@martinschmelzle4864]

Wait a minute... You can import from Netflix to Lingq??!?!?!?

[@Thelinguist]

You can import the subtitles as text to study. No sound. With YT you can also get the audio.

[@martinschmelzle4864]

@@Thelinguist 谢谢，Steve师傅！

[@jorgeromera3861]

Learning a foreign language is not for cowards.

[@erturtemirbaev5207]

А когда вы успели съездить в Россию?

[@Thelinguist]

2012

[@joeytan5297]

how poetically ironic that i couldnt follow this video because of my poor listening skills

[@jargalanjandavsvren8244]

[@syriasyria2911]

انا من سوريا بحاجة لمبلغ من المال للدراسة وشراء الدواء. ممكن احد يساعدني باقرب وقت؟ رقمي موجود بوصف القناة. شكراً 💚🖐💚💚💚💚