LISTEN & UNDERSTAND: How to improve your listening comprehension in English

Listen, man. I cannot comprehend what you're saying. Hi. James from engVid. He

wants me to listen. Comprehend. "Comprehension". What is that? Well, a

lot of lessons... and before I get started, I want to say something. This

listening... this lesson is about listening comprehension. I want to work

on it from a beginner standpoint, to intermediate and advanced. So, yes, I'm

speaking slowly right now; but if you're intermediate and advanced, don't click

away yet. Once I finish doing the lesson here; and in fact, part of this lesson

is for you — then we're going to speed up and we'll do the second part, which

will greatly benefit you in my... my belief. So, I put here: "Beginner". This

is a beginner lesson at the beginning for this first part of the lesson; but

note: If you're advanced or intermediate, this can help. So, if

you're struggling, or you're advanced and intermediate, and you still don't...

you're still not able to comprehend or take in information — the input — when

people are speaking, pay attention. All right. So, E's telling me: "Listen,

man", because he knows that listening is only half of it. You can listen, but do

you hear? My job today is to help you with that. Why is it important?

Obviously, because you want to hear what people are saying. But the other thing

is: Our listening — our input skills — help to... us to produce sound for

speaking. And the more input you can get in that's comprehensible — that you

understand — the better you will be able to speak later on; output, express

yourself. So, a vital lesson. Okay? So, first, I'm going to say right off the

bat: You need at least 250 hours to 300 hours of study, four or five hours a day

for 15 weeks before you have enough input in your brain to really start to

push a lot of the things I'm going to suggest. So, just because you do this

for two days, I'm not saying you will all of a sudden understand all of the

English people. First of all, there are different dialects from different areas,

so that's not going to work. Scottish does not sound the same as Australian,

or as American English. Heck, not even the same as some Canadian English. Okay?

So, we know this is going to take time; about 15 weeks, but try and follow these

procedures. And you might find that you jump from beginner to intermediate and

advanced in a lot faster fashion.

So, the first thing I'm going to see, if you're a beginner — and that means you

don't understand; you're about ten to twenty, to maybe 30% of what you hear

you understand. For me, that's a beginner. You're the first 30%. Okay?

And that's why I'm speaking so slowly. Surprise, for most of my students. Okay?

You need to get materials that you can understand 90% of. You're like:

"That's... that's like, what?" I'm like: "Yeah, that makes it difficult." Sorry,

that's just the way it's gonna be. Children's programs, like "Sesame

Street" in Spanish, or... sorry. It would be in English, because they speak

slowly and they have really good examples, so the context is there. And

you're on the internet, so you can find materials, where there will be

something, like: "The boy eats the apple." And you know: "boy", you know:

"apple", you know: "eat" — so, okay, I just don't know article "the". Okay? So,

you want to look for stuff that you can get 90% that you can understand — it's

out there — you'll have to work; that's part of your job.

Next, slow it down. So, you're going to listen to this material. And I know on

YouTube — and I have a video, so you can check it out — where I explain how you

can use YouTube to slow down videos to make even me sound, you know... go

slower; half speed to a quarter speed. Right? So, YouTube has that capability;

Netflix does — you can slow down videos. There are even apps you can use to slow

it down. And then once you slow it down, imitate the speaker. So, I want you to

copy me. I want you to copy me. Just like that. Imitate what they say. This

is going to get your body involved. There are three types of learning,

basically. There are more than three types, but the basic three teachers are

usually taught are: kinesthetic, which is body, how the body moves; audio,

people are better at listening. I know, it sounds obvious. But if these people

who are audio people don't hear things properly, they don't understand. You can

put it on paper as... it's not completely like that, but they have a

difficult time learning. Kinesthetic people, if you let them do it, do

something, write out the vocabulary — they'll understand faster than if you

explain or show a picture. Audio people need to hear it, so you can put it on

the paper, but they're like: "Say it to me" and visual people will look. Okay?

So, what I'm trying to do here is to increase your comprehension; that it's

not just an audio facility. It's not just audio. When I'm speaking, even, I'm

moving my hands and you're watching that; you're watching my movements,

you're listening to me. And you... sometimes you're moving your body with

me, or you're watching my body, seeing me and hearing me — all of these senses

improve our comprehension. Okay? So, you want to imitate the speaker, because

even in different cultures, they move their hands differently — this will help

you get more into the language, because language isn't just something that comes

out of our mouth. And even so, we have to move our mouth, which is physical.

You hear it, and we move our bodies with it. All right?

Next, listen and read at the same time. Whoa, we're getting complicated. I've

got you slowing it down, copying them, and reading. But I want you to read

first with your own language subtitles. So, if you're watching "Friends", for

example, if it's, you know... something you can do — put it in Turkish, put it

in Spanish, put it in Russian, put it in German. Yeah, put it in your language

and watch it. This is what we call: "prepping your brain". It's like when

you're going to make food at home, and you cut the onions first and the

tomatoes, you cut the... you get the chicken ready. You get it ready before

you cook it because it's very hard to cook and move everything at the same

time. So, how do we prep your brain? Because you're looking at the subtitles,

the... the TV program, or movie In English, and you're reading in your

language, you basically know what's going on, so your brain has less of a

job about trying to understand what's going on. And then it can work on the

vocabulary and the grammar. And believe me, your brain is doing that, even

though you don't think it is. It's a marvelous machine; it keeps your heart

pumping, your lungs going, and you watching this video. It's going to help

to do the translation, even though you're not actively doing it. Okay?

Now, the second time you listen to this, now listen with English subtitles. Once

again, I want you to read it, imitate them. So, now you're putting the

visual... Remember we talked about visual? The visual of what the word

looks like with what it sounds like. Some of you read a lot. You'll go: "Oh,

those words I know already." And you do; you've just never heard them. Or vice

versa, you know the words; when you see it, you'll go: "That's what it looks

like?" And your brain is getting both auditory and visual. And remember: This

lesson... this lesson isn't just listening; it's about comprehension. So,

it's going deeper in your brain that that action, that word, that sound mean

this. And you'll notice the way I'm trying to teach it to you because you're

not doing it once, but twice — your brain is going: "Okay. This is the

concept. This is what I'm getting." We're breaking it for you; breaking it

into pieces. Now, also, you can also read a summary. So, not only watch it

with the different subtitles. Before you even get there, to prep your brain even

more — Netflix does this — there are summaries on the... on... in Wikipedia,

there are summaries on... in Google. You want to watch an "Avengers" movie? You

put in: "Avengers movie", they'll put the IMBd. And they'll say: "This is what

the movie is about. These are the characters. This is the plot." So,

you'll have an idea, even if you've never seen it: "This is what's supposed

to happen. These are the main characters." So, you'll have an idea;

one less job for your brain to do. Because it has less jobs to do, it can

actually focus on the movie or television program for you. All right?

So, now, we've done all that, what are you going to do? Go out and watch ten

hours of "Avengers Marvel Cinematic Universe" or, you know... a "Star Trek"?

Or you're gonna watch... I don't know. Anime. No. 20 to 30 minutes. They have

found that if you study for 20 to 30 minutes and stop, you have a greater

ability to keep the information you've just learned. If you go beyond that,

you're really kind of making your brain tired, and you're getting less and less

for the longer you spend. I know some of you have deadlines, and you have to do

something in a short period of time, but comprehension isn't something you get

just today; you study for one week and get it. I already told you fifteen

weeks. Fifteen weeks of study. Breaking it down, that's five hours a day, four

or five hours a day, over five days a week. You'll get there. You'll get there

and it will happen. When it does, it'll be like magic. But I'm going to say: You

put in fifteen weeks and 300 hours — there was no magic; it was just work.

So, in saying that, break your sessions into 20 or 30 minutes, then take a

break. Okay? Take a break. Breaks... Go for a walk; get out in nature. You need

to move your body, let your brain actually relax. So, you know, a

five-minute walk you; come back, you'll find that you're like: "Oh, I'm ready.

I'll do another session" and it'll, you know... it's better to do that than one

hour straight. You're going to get less out of it than if you do an hour and ten

minutes — 30 minutes listening, ten-minute walk, 30 minutes listening

again — you'll be fresh; you'll get more. Promise you, Okay?

And do the material at least twice a day. So, do the same thing — that video

you're watching. Maybe watch the clip for fifteen minutes with subtitles in

your language, then watch it fifteen... the same fifteen minutes again with

subtitles in English. Okay? And then that's half an hour. Maybe you wait

later on in the day; you watch that same thing again. Do that. If you get 80%

comprehension the first time you do it — hey, you're free; go. But if you don't,

do it at least twice a day, and try and get 80% by doing it twice. Because the

first time you might just, what we call "skim" — you'll get the surface; maybe

get 60% of it. And then after the second time, you're like: "Oh, I understand

it", because not only do I understand the context because I've watched it

enough; but now I picked up the words I didn't get — those grammar words, and

that vocabulary, and I'm putting it together in my brain and I can actually

now take out individual words. But more important, I understand the message of

what's being told, even if I don't understand everything. So, I can learn

English, and maybe not understand everything you're saying to me, but I

can understand what you're saying to me. And that's cool, and that's power. So,

here's the cool thing about this: You should understand 90%. So, what I'm

saying: As a beginner, we're only looking at adding an additional ten

percent. But that ten percent will add up quickly. And in a fifteen-week

period, you'll be surprised how far you can go. And if you want to see how far

you can go, which I know you do — and my other advanced students are like:

"Finally, he's going to speak normally" — you're going to come back to the

second part of this lesson. We're going to do the advanced/intermediate level,

and explain... and give you strategies on how to improve your comprehension.

And do so in... well, a hard way... or an easy way, and a hard way but it's

really fun. Okay? Looking forward to seeing you on the other side. (snaps

fingers)

And we're back. Now, I'm going to speak a little faster. So, you beginners, if

you're still here, hang with me; this will be part of a comprehension exercise

for you. And advanced and intermediate, some of this is going to seem very

familiar. And, in fact, some of you are going to say: "You just taught that."

I'm going to go: "Yes, I did, but I'm going to be dropping stuff that they

should do that you don't have to do, and I'm going to go faster, so we won't stay

here as long." Got it? Good. Let's go to the board. So, starting off advanced and

intermediate. For me, basically, you're going to be almost the same. You're

clearly not, but these methods or methodologies will work for you both.

Now, I call this the "baby-steps method" and I call it "three 'i'". You're gonna

say: "What's three 'i'?" Well, it's: "immerse in input". And, again, that's

"immerse" — put yourself, like, your hand in water — "in input"; "input" is

information coming in. So, we're going to flood our brains with a lot of

information. As I said, in the fifteen-week period, 250 to 300 hours.

You will start, if you put yourself in that much... in concentrated and more of

a passive way of taking in information, you'll start to find the natural

comprehension happens as the brain has enough information that it can start to

do things by itself. Okay? So, it's like trying to swim. You can learn from a

book how to swim, which is just listening; you're not gonna learn how to

swim. You got to get in the water. It's gonna get a bit messy; it's gonna be a

bit hard, but your body will figure it out. And that's what your brain is doing

when you aren't really paying attention. But we're gonna kill it — not kill it,

but we're gonna immerse it — right? — in input. And we have two methods of doing

it. Okay?

So, the "baby-steps method", I say: "baby steps" because this one is

repeated from the front board, which is for the babies. Not babies. I say:

"baby-steps method" for this reason — I was joking earlier — babies have zero

comprehension. A baby does not know what a square is, what a bottle is, what time

is. So, everything a baby learns is by paying attention to the input it

receives. And babies, if you think about it, learn rather rapidly; within two to

three years, they're not just speaking — they're walking, talking, they're doing

a whole host of things, but they're becoming aware of their world. I've

mentioned this in other videos, like, you're not in that position; you have

concepts in your head, so you don't have to start from the beginning. But we can

take how babies learn and incorporate it to make a system that will help you

improve your comprehension at a faster rate. At the beginning, it may seem slow

— and I'm sorry, there's not much I can do about it. But as that threshold or

that line of 250 hours to 300 gets closer and closer, you should start see

your ability to comprehend get quicker, or faster and faster. It will almost

seem like magic, and you won't realize how much work you've put in once you get

to the other side.

So, let's go to the board and I'm gonna show you the first one, the first step;

or the first of my three "i" process is 90% comprehension. You're like: "What?

You just said the beginners had to..." Yes. There's a reason for it, because

what you're aiming for when you're doing this is different than when we do the

other side of the board. Okay? So, we're going to look at understanding 90% of

the materials. So, there's not much you don't understand. You're going to prep

yourself by reading it. So, you're gonna read a summary; quickly get a blurb. And

this is on any television program. We'll say, you know, if it's about "Three's

Company" — Jack Roper is looking for a job because he has no money, and you'll

understand that's what it is. By now, if you've done the beginner material for,

let's say, four or five weeks, what have you — you're going to have a large

amount of comprehension. So, unlike them, who has to find something, like a

child's program, you can watch a much more complicated program. Okay? So, you

did the first steps and you've created a very nice base so that you can now jump

faster, and do more interesting work. So, you're going to be looking at

materials that you understand 90%. Those are usually sitcoms, like "Friends", and

that. They use basic language, you know... a few words you won't know —

that's okay. But that's why we're using it, so you can get those few words.

You're going to prep by summary. You can... as I said, you can go to IMDb —

it's like an international movie database, or you can go to Wikipedia on

movies or programs. You can look on certain things, like, Courtney Cox. You

can look and they'll say: "She's in this episode of this program." And you can

press — and that's in Wikipedia — and it'll take you to give you a summary.

Lots of talking in saying: You can get this; it's not that difficult. If you

can watch this... watch this video, you can find the information on the program.

Next, what you're really working on, because you're doing this 90%, is you're

working on the grammar and the vocabulary. Okay? So, that's what the

big difference between the beginners are and you — you're... you've got a task.

You're looking at: "Okay, I want to get the individual words. The message is

good, yes — but I want to get the structure of the language, the grammar,

and whatnot." Okay? Now, here's the benefit about this: Fast progression.

Beginners won't experience this right away, because they don't have enough;

they only have 20 to 30% understanding. Sorry. Ten to 30%. Okay? Here, you have

a higher level of understanding, and you're getting materials that are easy

for you, so the progression is going to go very, very quickly. You're going to

like this. You're going to be going: "Whoa. It's like I understand a lot of

things." Because, usually, it's small things that we have problems with; and

when we fix them — they're like ladders; they help us go to the next level. The

drawback, here, is the limited resources because, let's face it, everybody's

different. Mr. E is different than me, so what I have problems with will be

different than his, so we may not be able to watch the same materials for...

to get the same result. So, you're gonna have to work a little harder to find

things to work with. That's part of what you get, but the benefit is: You're

going to progress quickly.

The other thing is: It can be boring. You already know 90%. You're like:

"Well, I know all of this. I'm looking for, like, ten, fifteen words I don't

know." Of course, you're not gonna watch every program to look for those words;

you're gonna put a program appropriate to your level. I'm going to give you a

list, not of movies, but of concepts you can look for. Look for slapstick comedy,

you know... some... you bump into walls. Right? If you're in the lower... lower

tier, mid to intermediate — look for action movies. They use simpler language

and they make... they gesticulate, which means move their bodies in ways to give

you an understanding of what they're doing. So, your brain has less to

work... less to work on, and more to work with. Ba-doop-bum. Okay? So, in

doing that, that will help you get more information out of it. Because, really,

what we're doing is we're going for the grammar structure and the vocabulary,

and we can strengthen our weaker vocabulary and our understanding of how

grammar translates meaning. That's this part here. Okay? Cool? It's a... as I

said, you'll get fast progress. The difficulty you'll find is in finding

resources for it, and that you might find that a lot of the programs are at a

level that you're more sophisticated than. Like, "Friends" is a nice program,

but it's not the most sophisticated program. That's okay. We're here to

learn.

Now, if we want to say: "Okay. You know what? I don't mind working hard",

because this is an easier method. Right? It's easy. You know most of it. You're

going: "I don't mind working hard. Just make it interesting." I'm thinking:

"This is for you." And for most people, I'd say it's the best way to go because

if you're not interested in what you're learning, you don't really learn very

well. I went to, you know... a school in Ontario. We have been given at least

nine years of French, and all I can say is: "le chat noire". I hated it. It was

boring. I learned more Spanish in, like, three months by studying on my own than

I did in nine years of formal education. So, I did it later on in life. So, does

that make me stupid? No. Does it make my teachers bad? No. Was the material bad?

No. Did I like anything I was doing? No. Had they put comic books or did

something with "Star Trek" or something, I would have been... I would be speaking

the French language like no problem. Yeah. But I wasn't given material that

interested me, so I didn't pay attention to it. I had a reason to learn Spanish

— I wanted to go there, I like the food, I met some wonderful people. I was

interested in learning, so I could communicate with them. And I was taking

the school; it was just a course I was told to take. No choice. So, that's

similar to this. That's why I said it could be boring, but there'll be lots of

progress, because you've already started and you're interested in the language.

If you want to challenge yourself, find materials that it's only 20 or 30% that

you may know. This might be podcasts, because they're not scripted and they

don't really care that everybody loves them. Something like: "Everyone Loves

Raymond", or "Friends", or "Frasier", or... I don't know what else is on

television these days. "Blue Bloods". What's his name? "Sherlock Holmes".

Those programs are geared for mass appeal; they want a mass audience. But a

podcast by Joe Rogan, or something like that — he doesn't really care if

everybody loves him. He's saying: "These are my guests. This is what we're going

to talk about." And that's what you're there for. So, you may find they talk

about subjects in a specialized way you just don't have the words for. You might

only have 20 to 30% comprehension in the listening materials; but your

superpower, your advantage is you're interested, so your brain is going to

pay attention and pick up that information. Cool? All right. So, you

care about the intro... the material, you're more interested in it, so you're

gonna learn more about it. Now, what we are looking for here is different than

here. We don't really care about the grammar structures of vocabulary;

although it will come up. You're seeing if you can get the input — the basic

information. You're going: "Okay, I want to understand what they're saying. I

want to get" — what we call in English — "the gist", the idea of it. And that's

really kind of cool to think that 70 to 80% of it, you don't understand the

words; but you walk away, going: "Okay, this podcast or this program was about

this." Say: -"But you don't really speak that much English." -"Yeah, but I

understand it." Once you've got this, you'll be able to work your way

backwards. And I'm going to give you a couple of techniques to help you with

that, but also show you how you can combine these techniques to really

master comprehension. Okay?

Now, you're gonna do active listening. So, here, we're going to get specific

and that's why I said: "We're going to work on our comprehension skills, even

though we're not working on vocabulary." Take notes. So, you're gonna sit down,

listen, write out what you think they're talking about. And then you can go back

and, you know... use the other method to check the vocabulary by putting

subtitles on, and check to see what you got. Get active. Test yourself. Right?

See how long it takes you to get... So, maybe you give yourself ten minutes,

write out the... everything they say, then replay it back and check it; or

give yourself two minutes to write down as much as you can. I did that with

students, and it was amazing how the less time they had, the more they were

forced because they were interested in the game and winning — the better they

did. Something that... for you to think on. Okay? So, take notes. Do activities

while you listen to the material. So, I don't mean drive your car. I mean get

something, like, take a shower. So, you're taking a shower, you're listening

to an English podcast, and you're trying to, you know... you're not 100%

listening, because I hope you clean yourself. That's more important when

you're in the shower. But you got it going in the background; so you're

listening, going: "Oh, yeah, that's really funny. That joke that guy just

did. Okay, that's cool. I didn't know that was happening on in the world

economy." Because your attention is divided, but the brain is becoming more

accustomed to, in a more casual way, taking in English so it's not so

stressful. Stress is a killer. When you're stressed out, the brain doesn't

work as well. But if your brain's like taking a shower, it's relaxing, and

you're just listening casually to English — it'll open itself up more to

absorbing it and being more comfortable in the presence of English, which is

extremely powerful.

And, finally, play it in the background. I often tell students: Play music in the

background in English, play TV in the background while you're doing anything.

And when I say: "Play it in the background" — do something where you

have to concentrate on it, like a puzzle, or reading in your own language,

so it becomes something that is a natural thing for you. Think about it:

In your own country or language, your language is always around you. It causes

no stress. And there are things you kind of pick up subconsciously because you're

surrounded by it. A lot of you know: "How's it going?" or "What's up?" and

some... some very bad English words, simply because while you're playing

video games, you heard the words again and again. You didn't really know what

they meant. But after a while you go: "Oh, he say that word, this man get

angry. Oh, this word is a bad word. I like this word; I use this." And then

maybe someone explains it, but you know it elicits or gets a response. You don't

always have to go to school to learn them. Right? So, by having it in the

background, by doing some distracted listening and doing some focus

listening, you're going to get your brain to really focus in on the

comprehension aspect. So, although we're not working on vocabulary, and we're not

working on grammar as per se, you will pick up grammar parts. Language is

pattern recognition. How are you? How are you? How are you? How are you? How

are you? How are you? How are you? After a while, "are you" is the pattern

recognition. "are you" is "How are you?" And as long as you hear: "are you",

you're going to understand it, no matter who says it to you. It's that pattern

recognition. By doing this method over here — okay, the second part — you're

getting pattern recognition. So, you're going to start to see how grammar goes

together. "How are you?" you're going to get the "are" is the verb "to be". Maybe

you don't know that, but "are she", "are", and you'll go: "These words seem

to have something to do with being and the verb 'do' has to do with action. I

just don't notice the pattern." You won't notice it; your subconscious will

notice it. You still should do some study on that. I'll get back to that in

a second.

Now, the benefits of this is there's lots of material. At 20-30%

comprehension, the world is your oyster. Watch what you want to watch. Right?

Watch sports, watch business, watch news, because well, if you like it, you

don't have to know that much to actually study it. Second benefit: It's fun, it's

interesting. Maybe you want to learn another thing and you're like: "Hey, I

just want to learn about cameras." Go ahead. You don't have to learn as much.

Your interest will help you draw out the meaning, which will help you in casual

conversation. All right? Later on. What's harder about it? It is going to

be harder and slower. Look at what the activities are: Taking notes, doing it

in the background. This is what I said: the three "i" — you're immersing

yourself, so you'll spend hours at a time in a day on your language learning

English. Right? But it'll be worth it and it'll be more fun. Now, the best...

honestly, because you're... I know you were going: "Well, you haven't told me

how to do grammar and vocabulary." Dunh-de-dunh-dunh. Use both. What?

That's right: Use both. This is for fun. Once you've got this down and you're

watching a program, you're like: "Hey. I got this program, got the meaning", then

use this one. "What?" Yeah, go backwards. Then take your time. You've

already prepped it by watching it. Work on the grammar and the vocabulary. And

that's when you're gonna get your fast progression. So, between the two of

them, you're going to notice steady steps up in the evolution of your

English language. Cool? We do try. Okay.

So, I'm going to give you a couple of hints that will be... that will help

facilitate or help you learn a little faster. Things that you will notice in

the English language — we have a lot of these — and they're called "reductions"

or "linking words". I've done a video where I did one with, like: "How's it

going?" and showing how words get linked together. And I've done ones with

reductions. So, an example for "reduction" is: "I don't know 'im", "I

don't know 'er". Now, most of you are going: "What is 'im' and 'er'? I've

never seen these words." Well, in English, a lot of times we drop the "h"

before for pronouns. We drop those pronouns, and we just say... Instead of:

"I don't know him", we go: "I don't know 'im. I don't know 'im". "I don't know

'er. I don't know 'er." So, this: "I don't know 'er" —you might get this, and

then this all of a sudden just drops off. So, you want to look for

"reductions". So, that's one example of the pronouns: "him" and "her" — the "h"

often gets dropped off. Okay? Another thing you can look for are "linked

words". So: "How is it going?" become: "How'sitgoing? How'sitgoing?" So, we put

the "is" and the "it" together; link them together. So, it's not so much a

"reduction", as it's putting words to be, you know... making three words into

one. In a "reduction", we're just taking a word and dropping a sound because

it's... makes it easier to say. In the linking portion, we're actually taking

two or three words and putting them together. And sometimes you actually

have both happening in the same sentence. So: "How'sitgoing?" is: "How

is it going?"

"What did you do?": "What didja do?" Right? So, we linked it. "What did you?"

"you" becomes: "ja". "What didja do?" And there's actually, here, a reduction

and a linking to make two words into one, which makes it very difficult and I

understand why people get upset to learn English. When we are looking for these

things, I would like you to make sure you pause. If you get to a video or

movie, you're watching it and you see it, pause it and imitate it. So, replay

it again. "What did you do?" And he says it, and you go: "What did you do? What

did you do? What did you do? What did you do?" By vocalizing it and using your

mouth, and forcing that — you're actually teaching your brain to

understand what you're hearing. And I know it's strange, but it's sort of like

when you see a friend talking and there's a glass there, but you can read

their lips. He goes: "Come on in. We're waiting for you." You can't hear the

words, so what are you looking at? You're watching his mouth, because

you've seen that movement a million times, so you can basically figure it

out. You're gonna do the same in English, but you're gonna do it

physically by moving your mouth, like: "What did you do? What did you do?" Once

you've got that down, you're gonna notice you hear it all the time. Okay?

So, these are two things you can work on — right? — when you're looking for...

when we're looking for vocabulary and whatnot. And grammar, we can look here

and see how the rules are broken. I've given you two methods. What I want you

really to do is combine them. But they're two different methods, so it

depends how you feel. So, I'm giving you an option. If you're like: "Oh, man, I

don't want to study English today", do this one. It's gonna be easier; you find

something easy to do. You work on basic vocabulary and grammar that you can look

at, and break it down, like it's math. Okay? It might be a bit boring, but it's

gonna be easy. You feel like you want to get challenged; dunk, dunk, dunk, dunk,

you want to get in there — do this one. You can pick something, like: I really

want to learn about MMA this week. I'm going to watch a podcast, or going to...

Sorry. Watch a fight. Listening to them describe it. Your comprehension may be

only 20, you know... 20-30%, but getting the message of what's going on; how,

who's winning, who's losing, how are things turning around? Being able to

walk away, going: "I maybe didn't know every word, but I knew what was

happening" is really cool. We're gonna watch out for reductions, we're gonna

watch out for linked words — that will get you to go deeper into the English

and get into comprehension of it, because you're going to go deep, and

your brain will do the work behind the scenes. Okay.

Now, here's what I want you to do: I want you to write in the comments your

favourite movie or TV program that you love to watch to study English with. And

why? Because everybody has a reason, and it's that reason that may help somebody

else. So, everybody who gives... so, for every one you write, TV program and why

— you're going to get 1,000 points. Cool? So, if you write two programs, you

get 2,000 points; three programs, 3,000 points. Listening-wise to help, not...

it's good for us to get to know you, but it's actually better for helping others.

Okay? So, I'm gonna say thank you once again for taking the time, because I

know it's a long video, but I hope this is very instructive and helps you. And

if you do find it helped you, please give it a thumbs up. It helps. It helps

me be able to produce more videos. And what I mean by that is that YouTube

pushes a bit — don't usually explain this — but they push it a bit so that

more people get to see it, so I get to help more people. And if you've noticed

that you've watched more than two or three, my Dad would say this: If you

have to borrow a tool three times, go buy your own tool. So, if you've watched

at least three of my videos, you should be subscribed already. I'm not saying

you have to, but think about it; you keep coming back to the resource. Why

not subscribe? Hit the notification bell, and you'll get all of my videos.

That's not so bad. And also, I said thank you. I would like you to go to...

Oh, but before I make you go there, I would like you to hear my quote of the

day. It goes with the video. "The world is giving you answers every day or each

day. Learn to listen." That's what the lesson was about, and now you have the

skills to do so. So, before I take off, I would like you to go to www.eng — as

in English — vid as in video.com: www.engvid.com, and you can go do... Or

there won't be a quiz for this. But you can go see other videos I've done where

there are quizzes, and more information on listening comprehension. Okay? So,

check if there's anything linked up there, and it's been a pleasure. See you

soon.