Learn English: How to Listen and Understand

Hi, James from... Excuse me. What are you listening to? I'm trying to do a lesson right

now. We've got to get started. Oh, hi. I had a lesson planned for you. I think not. Today's

lesson, it seems, will be presented by Mr. E. Many students, when they try to learn English,

have a very difficult time actually catching the language. When I actually teach, I teach

a conversation class, grammar, vocabulary, and a listening class, two of them actually.

And what I find is there are some basic things you have to do. So this lesson will be in

two parts. This will be the basics that you have to do and maintain when you're listening,

just listening every day. And then I'll actually teach you a lesson on how to listen effectively

when you're watching television or movies, TV programs, Friends, for instance, to improve

your listening so you can actually hear native speakers like that. You ready? Let's go to

the board. I'll take a written flag. We'll see. Mr. E was asking me if I was listening

because he's going to teach me 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ways to improve my listening ability.

Now this is so good, it's good for natural listeners, but it's also going to be great

for you, okay? Now, your ability to listen is better than you actually think it is. It's

limited simply because you're learning something new and you lack a little bit of confidence

in what you're doing, right? Let's say you're listening to English. That's what you hear.

I mean, I went to Spain a couple of years ago and that's what I heard. After a few days

I heard them say, "Agua." Water? Yeah, I want water, alright? So, first thing you want to

learn is to listen optimistically. Adverb use. Why? You have to actually believe you

can hear what they're saying. Now, if you can understand me, you can listen and you

can learn. That way, I want you to learn to listen optimistically, right?

Okay, in English, "have a good frame of mind" means think you can do it. Know you can do

it before you say you can't do it, okay? So, think about it, go, "You know what? I can

do this." And how do you know you can do it? You learn one language. I don't know where

you are right now, but I know you speak either Hindi, Russian, Croatian, Japanese. You learn

one language, you can learn English. So, just know you can do it. You've got ears, they

work. He doesn't even have ears, he can hear. So, you can hear, alright? That's number one.

Let's look at the second one. Another good way of actually improving your listening ability

is not to listen for exact details. That's the problem. A lot of people, they go for

details. They go, "I need to hear every word." If you need to hear every word, that's it.

You're not going to hear anything. You'll be so busy concentrating on the words, first

of all, you'll miss most of them. Even the best English listeners who are native speakers

only hear about 90% of what people say. The rest of the people go with what we call idiomatic

language. We know how it should end, so I don't have to listen. The same works for you.

If you go for every word, you're going to miss something, and something might be important

and all of a sudden you don't understand. But here's a trick. You're going to like this.

Shh, don't tell anyone. Secrets other people shouldn't know. Instead of listening for exact

words, listen for ideas. Okay. Give your brain a job. When you listen for ideas, your brain

actually focuses. It goes, "Okay, what are we talking about?" As long as you're listening

for exact words, your brain goes, "Tch, tch, tch, tch, tch, tch, tch, tch, tch." Each word.

It doesn't know what you're listening to, so usually when you're finished, you're frustrated

and you don't understand. You're like, "Ah, I don't know." Your brain actually, if you

say, "What is the general idea?" and listen for the idea, your brain will take all the

words and actually go through what you know and try and give you an idea. And because

of that, you actually focus better, so your listening improves. Cool, huh? Give your brain

a job. Give it a job to do. Say, "What is the idea this person is trying to tell me?

What are they trying to get to me? That's what I need to know." Forget the exact words.

"I know, I know, you want to learn every word because you want to learn English properly."

That'll come later. This is to prime your brain. When I mean prime, prime means first

or important, but it's to get your brain ready to get deeper in English. Okay? Cool. Here's

one I haven't said. It should have been number one, yeah? They usually say wise people, like

very intelligent people, I mean wise. Wise, by the way, is one of my favourite words.

To be wise, you must have experience, knowledge, and make good decisions. In all of these cases,

you must learn to look and listen properly. Alright? So in this case, wise people usually

listen longer. What they want to do, and this goes with this idea here, they want to make

sure they hear everything so they can make good decisions and not make rash decisions.

Rash means like rush, too fast. Okay? So they listen longer and they go, "Okay, now I get

the idea." See? Get the idea. If you let them finish, you'll get the idea. They go, "Oh,

I get the idea." Then the words will start coming into your head. Something I say to

my students that's kind of new to me, I say, "There is no magic in the world. It's called

work. This is work." It's hard when you, "Ah, ha, ha, ha," to slow down, let them finish,

let the idea come to you, know that you can hear it, and go, "Got it. Now I understand."

Alright? Now, here's part of the reason why people have a hard time letting people finish

or listening longer. Remember? Why does people listen longer to get the idea? The idea is

here. The reason why this is, is quite simple. You're human. I'm human. I don't like listening

to people because they will say certain words that will trigger emotions, and right away

I need to react. You said, "Ah, I need to say something right now. I don't have time

to wait." So I don't get the idea and I don't listen longer. So keeping an open mind isn't

just because you are a good person who goes to church and likes all people. It's a rational

or it's an ability you can develop to actually listen longer, get ideas, listen optimistically,

and improve your listening skills. Keep an open mind. When someone says something that

usually makes you feel an emotion, that makes you go from here to here, even though you

should stay here. Just ignore it for the second and go, "I need to finish listening to what

they have to say," and then I can go back to what they mean or the idea. Yeah? Okay.

So keep an open mind. Sorry. Okay. So I use a couple of words here, so let me explain

in case you have problems. A trigger from a gun. The trigger, the trigger, see the trigger?

That's the trigger. You pull the trigger, the bullet comes out. So an emotional trigger

is something that makes your emotions start like that. You hear, "Oh, you have to do something."

It triggers something in you. Ignore it. Pretend it didn't happen. Just go for the idea, go

for the idea. Pretty soon, sometimes, especially when you're learning English, when you have

a limited vocabulary, what you think an English person might be saying might be the exact

opposite because you don't know how we can use a word five different ways. And if you've

looked at any of the other videos I've shown you where we've used words like "pull" or

"push," "pull" can have three meanings, four meanings, right? And with that happening,

or "draw," my favorite is "draw." "Draw" can be to draw a picture or "draw" can mean to

pull. If you don't know that, you get confused. So let your emotions go. Anything you think

will trigger, religion, politics, sexual talk, wait. And wait till you come here. Those are

the topics we always talk about. I lie. Some of you go crazy when I say things like that.

Okay? So, okay, yeah, yeah. Mr. E. Um, he's, uh, gave me, told me. "Judge, content, not

delivery." Okay? What does this mean? Okay. If you've seen most of my other videos, I

speak very quickly, very rapidly. I'm slowing down now because it's a listening video and

I want you to actually hear what I have to say. So, I've changed my delivery. The content

is good, because that's how I am. I'm joking. The content is the information I'm giving

you. The delivery I have changed. Some people are not good natural speakers. They need time

to prepare or they need time to think. And if you're judging the way they speak, because

they speak very, very, very, very quickly, or in my case, I hate people who speak slowly.

I just want to throttle them and then kill all of their babies and eat them. I'm joking.

I don't, I try not to judge the delivery because some very intelligent people have bad ways

of speaking. Now, if you're not a native speaker, of course, it's going to be more frustrating

because you don't understand the language and then this person's speaking quickly. See,

I said a bad word, but you don't know it because I said it softly. Okay? So, don't judge the

delivery. Look at the content. This is the important thing. Judge content. What did you

say to me? What is the information? I'm keeping an open mind. I am listening for a long time

to get the right idea. So, I'm looking at your information. Finally, this one I put

last. When I was studying this lesson for you, it was actually first because it is first.

In North America, this is a very important concept for us. For some of you, you're going,

what did he just write on the board? I'll explain it to you. Most people only care honestly

about what's, that is what is, in, it, for, me. What do I get out of it? What am I going

to receive? Alright? Now, this is so important. I'm actually going to write this one out all

over on the board so you can see it. Actually, you know what? Here. You might have noticed

that today I've been doing a lot of writing and not speaking. There's a reason. Because

every time I write, I know you actually read it to get it into your head. That's another

trick I'll teach you. How to get information to get in your head. That'll be another lesson.

Alright? It's a good trick. You talk, you stop, you write. People pay attention because

you stop speaking. Alright? So, what is in it for me? To be opportunistic means to go

for opportunity. Opportunity is something that benefits you in some way. Anytime someone's

speaking to you, there can be a benefit for you. If you take the time to say, what is

it for me? What am I going to get? How will this improve me? The reason when I was studying

it, they said number one is if someone understands what is in it for them, they will be optimistic.

I'm going to get something. They will listen for the idea. What idea am I trying to learn?

They will listen longer. They'll go, hey, I need to listen here because I'm going to

get a benefit. They will also keep an open mind because they know if they don't listen,

they're going to miss something that might help them. They will also not judge the delivery,

how someone says it. They'll listen to the information because they know it's going to

benefit them. I just put it last because to me it sounds kind of, we say mercenary, like

you're only doing it for what's good for you. But bottom line is, if you don't know why

you're doing it, why are you doing it? If you can follow these six steps, be optimistic,

know you can do it. Listen for ideas. Usually when people speak, there's an idea they're

trying to give you. Listen longer. You need practice. This is not easy. There's no magic

in the world. It's work. It looks like magic when you're done and that's the beautiful

thing. People go, oh my God, in six months, you know, zero English, all of a sudden you're

amazing. You can go, I've worked for it and you can too. Keep an open mind. Don't let

emotional things get to you because of cultural differences or something or someone's not

an eloquent speaker. That means not very elegant or professional type speaker. Keep an open

mind. Listen, don't let emotions get in the way. Judge the content. Here's if you're going

to be like a lawyer. You're going to go, okay, I'm judging this content and seeing whether

it's good or bad. And finally, be opportunistic in two ways. Think first, what am I going

to get for this? Second, take every opportunity to learn to think or in this case to listen

and you'll improve like that. No, not like that. Like that. Okay. Anyway, hope you were

listening. Mr. E is still smiling. He's going to his music right now. I know you want me.

That's his music. Anyway, have a good day. Hope you learned something from this. Hope

you were listening because if you were, I've gone through all of these, you know, you're

going to feel a bit about yourself. You probably learned a good idea. You listened a long time.

It's at least 15 minutes I've been talking here. You kept an open mind. You didn't judge

how I delivered it. You listened to what I said. And because of this, you're being opportunistic.

You can sit down, tell your friends, tell your friends to go to engVid. Give them the

opportunity to learn. All right. Anyway, I've had fun. I hope you have. Oh, I almost always

do this. I forget. If you want to learn more and if you're listening carefully, you'll

go to www.engvid.com where you'll find myself and several other teachers who will help improve

your listening, learning abilities, your IELTS, your TOEFL, maybe even teach you how to make

a good cup of coffee. I like mine with cream and sugar. All right. Anyway, have a good

day. See you soon. Did I forget something? There's a quiz at the end of this. See, you

know, if you're listening longer, you got the benefit. I'll see you later.