Listening Comprehension Activities Need Compelling Content
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2024
- People often ask me about my listening strategy. How often do I listen? How do I fit it in? How much of the audio do I understand? Which content is the most effective?
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I think one issue that a lot of people have is that they have a very low tolerance for not understanding. You mentioned only understanding 50% to 60% or 70%. For many folks, I would venture to say a majority of folks, they can't stand only understanding that amount. They're so accustomed to understanding 100% in their native language that they have a very low tolerance for not completely understanding. People who are good at languages, and make good progress in languages, are usually people who have a very high tolerance for not understanding everything. I think this is a really key point.
Absolutely right. I might make a video on this subject.
I agree. This is a really interesting subject to develope.
"They're so accustomed to understanding 100% ",
I do not think anybody understand always 100% in a native language
I agree, too. Part of the process is not understanding everything yet.
@@Thelinguist hi steve where is the video?
an amazing podcast source is the app Podcast Republic, you can chose the content location, there's a lot of countries (and therefore a lot of languages) available
Abdallah Nsir I use to listen to these podcasts: You are not so smart, Note to Self, Flash Forward and College Info Geek. I'm learning English as well :) On Podcast Republic app you can set the content location to United States and the app will gove you a lot of recommendations of the bests English Podcasts :)
Hi Steve. Thanks for your amazing help with your videos and tips! You know, I guess one of the biggest problems is that, when someone chooses to learn a language on their own it's very probable (at least here in Brazil it is like this) that they do not have enough money to spend with language courses and/or material. It's true there are lots and lots of great sites with material to help us learn, but then most of them are not for free and when we do find good material, the sites usually offers for instance only some of the lessons free or even have the listening part for free and then you would have to pay for having the transcripts or the answer key for exercises. So what most of us really look for is to learn the best we can without having to pay for it. Maybe that's why so many people ask you where to find good material to learn on their own: even though listening is so important it is hard to find good stuff with the transcrips for free. The ideal would be to buy all the great stuff you mention, but unfortunately wishing does not necessarily mean being able to.
It's funny because I'm increasing my understanding of English just by listening to you right now.
I find the listening content will come to you. And as you say, it should be something you're interested in! I wanted to find out how to make Japanese pickled vegetables, so instead of searching in English, I googled in Japanese, found lots of recipes, and watched a 15 minute video of the history of 漬物 (including current prefecture specific made dishes, etc.). It was good listening practice!
I really like the way you encourage us to find material ourselves. Thanks for the advices, I´ll do it for my chinese learning. Greetings
Truly inspiring!!
I think you're selling listening to "gibberish" short. I have found it speeds up learning intonation when I'm not distracted by knowing too many words.
Hi Steve, I've been watching your videos for quite a while. I don't remember exactly when I saw your first video but it was really inspiring and listening to you talking about language learning has definitely changed my life. I've decided to become a polyglot. Also there's been videos of other polyglots I take my inspiration from but your approach and maybe of Luca lamparielo is close to mine. the only thing I did was listening and reading when I was learning English. I've been learning English for 1 year after 11 years of school where I did not so well. I'm Russian, 19 years old with the dream of understanding as much cultures and people as possible although I never talked to native speakers and in my opinion it's not that necessary for my goal. that is understanding. I know that being able to understand English is not so impressive nowadays but I'm glad I did it. being happy for your achievements is the most important thing, do you agree? also I wanted to ask you : is it possible to know a foreign language better than a native speaker and do you consider it something worth striving for? or is it better just to move on and learn other languages? I just feel like I cannot find a will power to start a new language even though I know that reward is so great. and what level of English do you think I have? I know this is a silly question but I'd like to know your opinion. because this is the first time I'm writing to a native speaker. thanks for your learning method, hope someday I'm gonna be able to watch all your videos in all languages. by the way I've tried lingq. unfortunately this is quite expensive for me. I bought it because in free version you cannot even see the translation without saving links. not mentioning the fact that the number of free links per day is too small. sorry for writing too much. would be happy to see your reply. also I'd like to know about you talking to your subscribers via skype. is it possible for us just to talk about anything? I know you're not studying Russian but anyway...
Hi Steve, I just wanted to thank you. I've been struggling with learning Irish (Gaeilge) for an embarrassing number of years now, partly because the orthography is so different to English - if I understood a written word, I couldn't pronounce it, and if I could speak it/understand it when I heard it, I couldn't spell it (so it was almost impossible to look up spoken words I didn't know). This left me with really bizarre/uneven vocabularies depending on how I initially learnt any particular word, and it frustrated me immensely that I couldn't subvocalize adequately, which made me feel functionally illiterate - not a good feeling for a voracious reader like me!
After a few days of watching your videos, I decided to google until I found an audiobook *with transcript* that actually sounded interesting to me. (Finding content that's of interest without being way, way over my head has been where this idea had always failed me in the past.) It took a few hours of digging around, but I found a few available online for free, and a few more (which are probably more appropriate to my current level) available for sale. Best of all, they're all written and read by native Irish speakers - something I had never expected to find outside of the occasional children's book. I've now got three audiobooks with companion texts coming to me in the mail, and I'm currently working on one of the ones available for free in the meantime.... and it's *incredibly* hard - in the first page of text, I've written down about 90 words I either didn't know, or recognized spoken but not written, or written form but not spoken - but I'm having *fun* with Irish for the first time in quite a while, and I'm truly shocked at how much I *do* know.
I don't know why it took me so long to realize that since I love to read, I should quit with the grammar books, flashcards, vocab drills, speaking practice etc and solve my literacy issue *first*... I guess I just figured audiobooks in Irish with companion text weren't widely available, ergo it would be a difficult and possibly expensive task to engineer my own compelling material. Turns out, it just took some good old-fashioned persistence.... and with the US dollar almost equal to the Euro at the moment, buying a few audiobooks that caught my eye wasn't expensive, either.
Please continue to give those of us who study minority languages a verbal kick in the rear when we whine about not being able to find these materials... you're right, they are out there, you just have to be motivated enough to keep digging till you find what you like.
It feels so good to have *fun* again in a language that's so dear to my heart. Go raibh míle maith agat - thanks very much.
Thank you for your comment. Glad to hear it.
2 Seanchaı
In couple of words: no payin', no gain. :)
+tsche wm, very true, when it comes to minority languages anyway. I've always been happy to pay for Irish resources (these days, it's possible to spend your money exclusively with/in the very communities that are trying to keep those endangered languages alive, so as broke as I am, it's always been money well spent)... but, as is often the case with languages that are on "life support," the available selection can be very uneven. What I finally decided, thanks to Steve's encouragement, was to stop accepting "there are no good audiobooks with transcripts in Irish" as a fact. For Irish, at least, it's far more a case of "no payin', no bloodymindedness, no gain." :)
Thanks from Egypt I love Canada
all about that longer shaft (in the learning process)
Steve, I absolutely love your channel and I'm making my way through all your videos. I have learned several languages using your method and can vouch it works! It may not be for everyone, sure, but I'm also a fan of 19th century Russian authors, so maybe it's the reader in me.
I had a question on finding/using content. I'm currently studying a less common Arabic dialect and the resources - even for beginners - are scarce. You can find some audio and a couple of Peace Corps-style texts, but after that, you have the vast jungle of CZcams with its advanced level shows, podcasts etc - none of which have transcripts. As you know, the Arab dialects are oral, and online dictionaries rarely work for them. So I wonder what advice you would have for bridging that intermediate gap in a situation like this. How did you approach this with Cantonese?
Thank you again for your wonderful content - I always learn something new from you!
I can't help you. I have not started Arabic yet, and for Cantonese I just listened to Cantonese radio in Vancouver. I already spoke Mandarin and worked with news content where vocabulary is very similar.
Also CZcams - e.g. if you are interested in Body Language and are learning Spanish, search YT for Lenguaje Corporal - free listening resource!
Have you talked about learning from listening to music and using lyrics?
I don't really know a lot of good places to start i use duolingo and then i start to read and listen to stuff but apart form that i cant really find anything good for free i want to learn some Asian languages in the future when im done with what im learning now but duolingo has some kind of bias against non European languages or something so i need i find something different i tried to find tutorials on CZcams but they are all messy and i don't know where to start
Hi Steve, I would like to know what would you recomnend in regards to japanese audiobooks, I can read Hiragana and Katakana but i only know about 20 kanji, I would say that I am at a beginner level. Thank you!
You will need to increase your Kanji count. Work with lessons in our library at LingQ.
I have been using lingq for a few months, and I have been able to improve my ability in Japanese. However, compared to European languages, there is not as much content. I usually upload articles on my lingq, but there is no audio, and although my reading comprehension is improving, I am starting to worry about my listening.
I have looked online for audiobooks, and try to find matching online books, I have not had much luck. What are your suggestions?
WE have some audio books in the Japanese library at LingQ. I suggest you ask for help on our Forum at LingQ. I am not studying Japanese right now.
Hey Steve, could you do a video in Korean about dealing with english grammar? I have some korean friends who are struggling.
I am planning a series on English grammar together with Hanna, part English and part Korean. Stay tuned.
Hi Steve, I also love authors such as Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, they're the main reason I started to learn Russian, but I find it hard to enjoy their work when about 30-40% of the words are blue, saving all those new words gets too tiring after a while and I lose my motivation. I thought it would get easier over time, but Russian synonyms seem to be endless! Any advice would be much appreciated.
I would work with easier content in our LingQ library for a while, or at least mix in some easier content with the more difficult content.
Eg Horus I feel you man... I'm Brazilian and after an year and a half studying english I decided to move on to Russian. And now it's been passed 2 months and all I can make out it's some phrases and words here and there as well as some words that I listen and manage to write them down... I don't know if I'm going well but I'll keep struggling with that... let's keep it up dude! =)
I think that it's not good idea to start reading those kind of books in the original until you're very fluent in a language. Those novels are full of descriptions, and they were written long time ago, so some words aren't widely used today and they will probably be unfamiliar to you as a beginner.
Tolstoy is diffucult to read even for some native russians.
To learn a foreign language, I would reccomend to take two books: one in your native language and the same book but translated to the studied one, or vice versa.
Various descriptions of the nature and such things you could read in native and the dialogs read, "decipher" and try to remember in foreign.
I am personally trying to study Turkish now. I managed to find " Red and Black " in Turkish and in Ressian (no problem to read for me Ukrainan), copied the both to my comp and have been working with them.
Particular attention I try to pay to dialogs and the words I count for being very often met.
Simultaneously I drill the Turkish pronunciation using easy dialogs.
Eg Horus And in addition. I don't think you need to know now all that посторонки, черессидельники, дворовые, фрейлины и редуты
mr. steve...if i am listening to a novel ..a bit higher than my actual level and reading it at the same time...does that help me to increase my fluency level?
I do both. Read and then listen, always to content a little difficult for me. But I use LingQ.
Hi Steve,i learnt basic chinese but ive started Japanese,not sure wether to learn the writing eg Hiragana books as well as listen to audiobooks like Michel Thomas?how did you approach it? Thanks
I always want to read and listen Yes you would need to learn the writing system, kana and kanji, to learn my way.
Many thanks.Im hoping to buy some novels in Japanese, i love Haruki Murakami.If not maybe Manga.
Thanks.
Does anyone have ideas for interesting Chinese listening content? I found some nice graded readers by mandarin companion but they are without audio so I've only got my reading covered so far.
Ask on our forum at LingQ.
Hi steve, do you have any suggestion of japanese podcasts/audiobooks?
Caio Cruz gbt" JA audiobook app has a leveled japanese stories.
Ask on our forum at LingQ. I don't know.
لو تضيف نص لكلامك سيكون شئ جيد وإحترافي أنا مستفيد جدا من فيديوهاتك
Where can I find audio books for Japanese?
You will have to google, I don't know.
estou tentando montar uma comunidade no WhatsApp para trocarmos experiências e vivencia na língua inglesa, quem quer participar?
I like you daddy much more
Hi Steve, I've been watching your videos for quite a while. I don't remember exactly when I saw your first video but it was really inspiring and listening to you talking about language learning has definitely changed my life. I've decided to become a polyglot. Also there's been videos of other polyglots I take my inspiration from but your approach and maybe of Luca lamparielo is close to mine. the only thing I did was listening and reading when I was learning English. I've been learning English for 1 year after 11 years of school where I did not so well. I'm Russian, 19 years old with the dream of understanding as much cultures and people as possible although I never talked to native speakers and in my opinion it's not that necessary for my goal. that is understanding. I know that being able to understand English is not so impressive nowadays but I'm glad I did it. being happy for your achievements is the most important thing, do you agree? also I wanted to ask you : is it possible to know a foreign language better than a native speaker and do you consider it something worth striving for? or is it better just to move on and learn other languages? I just feel like I cannot find a will power to start a new language even though I know that reward is so great. and what level of English do you think I have? I know this is a silly question but I'd like to know your opinion. because this is the first time I'm writing to a native speaker. thanks for your learning method, hope someday I'm gonna be able to watch all your videos in all languages. by the way I've tried lingq. unfortunately this is quite expensive for me. I bought it because in free version you cannot even see the translation without saving links. not mentioning the fact that the number of free links per day is too small. sorry for writing too much. would be happy to see your reply. also I'd like to know about you talking to your subscribers via skype. is it possible for us just to talk about anything? I know you're not studying Russian but anyway...
Your English is awesome. Focus on enjoying your languages. Move on to another one when you feel like it. Languages are an adventure and a personal adventure. We could certainly have a conversation in both English and Russian at some time that is convenient for you. Just let me know what works.
Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve к сожалению я сильно заболел буквально вчера, после того как написал комментарий, резко поднялась температура 39,2 поэтому в ближайшее время не получится. А вы есть вконтакте? очень популярная соцсеть в России. мне удобнее всего было бы связаться там, когда выздоровлю .
Hacker2501981 день назад
"когда выздоровею" Учите для начала "родного языка" (для нерусских: "учите родной язык" - это правильно, а "родного языка" иногда говорят в шутку
И не сбивайте с пантелыку тех, кто изучает русский как иностранный
ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/выздороветь
"выздоровлю" мать может сказать ребёнку, который притворяется больным и не хочет идти в школу: "Я тебя сейчас ремнём быстро выздоровлю!" (в обиходной речи)
Кстати, мой родной - украинский.
tsche wm а чем плохо учить диалектные формы, просто я никогда не слышал чтобы говорили выздоровею, да и слово то редкое какое ! на русском я очень долго не писал , но могу быть уверен, что орфографических ошибок практически никогда не допускаю, пунктуационные.. возможно, но мы ведь не на диктанте, я имитирую разговорную речь и чем это плохо? я очень рад например учить разные диалекты английского. просторечная лексика может быть интересна тому кто знает более менее литературный язык. Я признаю, что редко пользуюсь русским , но говорю я также как говорят в воронежской области практически все, и мой русский абсолютно понятен всем носителям, я не таджик какой-нибудь вызвавшийся учить кого-нибудь русскому. и как по мне, обороты и слова которые я употребляю достаточно интересны. Если кому нужен "единственно правильный литературный русский язык" то пусть общается с лингвистами и книжки классические читает, а я далеко не филолог. ещё придрался бы к акценту, к тому что я "гэкаю".
Hacker250198
tsche wm а чем плохо учить диалектные формы, просто я никогда не слышал чтобы говорили выздоровею, да и слово то редкое какое !
Слово редкое, потому что, как писал Гоголь в Ревизоре: "люди выздоравливают как мухи" :)
Слово "выздороветь" - это непереходной глагол.
а "выздоровить" - переходной.
Мне слово "выздоровлю" сразу резануло слух.
Относительно диалектов - не знаю. It's up to Steve.