5 Ways to Improve Your Listening Skills in English and Understand Native Speakers Part 3

hello guys and welcome back to my youtube channel  today i wanted to share some tips with you that 

will help you improve your listening skills  in english so listen when i was in high school  

my listening skills in english were absolutely  horrible and naturally i felt very insecure about  

it i didn't have any confidence in my english  skills whatsoever but you know what i decided to  

do i decided to focus all my attention all my time  on listening so instead of doing something else  

i just listened listened and listened because  i'm a true believer that if you're really bad  

at something like listening for example it only  shows you that hey you have to practice listening  

as much as you can i totally understand the fact  that if you're not good at something obviously you  

don't want to do it because you feel like you're  not good at it so i don't want to feel bad about  

myself but guys this is exactly how you grow you  grow by doing something you're not very good at  

so if you're ready to embark on this journey of  improving your listening skills in english make  

sure to check out another video on my channel all  about listening i made this video a year ago and i  

was talking about improving your listening skills  in english as well so let's move on to the tips  

and the first tip that will help you improve your  listening skills in english a lot is listening to  

podcasts please can we talk about podcasts can we  please i love podcasts i don't know guys i love  

talking about podcasts i love listening to  podcasts and i listen to them like every single  

day and the ones that i really like are stuff you  should know and the ellen fisher's podcast the  

reason why i love listening to podcasts is that  they allow me to learn more about the world for  

example if i talk about the podcast called stuff  you should know recently i listened to an episode  

about whether fish ever feel thirsty like have you  ever thought about it like fish live in the water  

but do they drink water do they ever feel thirsty  so yeah that's why i love listening to podcasts  

and i love the ellen fisher's podcast because  she always invites knowledgeable people she even  

sometimes holds debates and i love listening to  smart people this is like the best thing in the  

whole world so if you have a high level in english  these podcasts will become like a treasure trove  

of information for you but if you don't  have a high level in english do not worry  

guys do not fret about anything do not worry  about it it's okay because right now we have  

so much information we have so many great  resources to help you improve your english so  

if you feel like for you listening to podcasts  for native speakers is a little bit too hard  

you should focus on listening to podcasts for  non-native speakers and my favorite podcast  

by far is called all ears english i always  recommend this podcast to everyone because  

they teach you a lot of things while also teaching  you english for example in one of the most recent  

episodes they talked about sub-zero temperatures  like for example when it's very cold outside  

do you say it's minus 10 or do you say it's  negative 10. a very interesting question  

and they answer this question in their podcast  also guys i want you to know that this podcast  

is in american english and if you really really  want to improve your listening skills in english  

you need to listen to different podcasts where  people have different accents and dialects so  

another podcast that i can recommend you guys is  actually a whole series of podcasts from the bbc  

they usually speak in british english there and  what's more they always have transcripts which is  

extremely nice and i think all of their episodes  are very short here guys before i move on i really  

want to talk about passive listening and active  listening sometimes people just put something  

on the background when they're doing like their  house chores like washing the dishes or cooking  

and they don't even pay attention to the podcast  guys this is not how you're gonna learn if you  

cook and listen to a podcast please make sure to  be present make sure to actually listen to what  

the people they are talking about because just  having a show a movie a podcast on the background  

it's not really gonna help you unfortunately  tip number two that i actually kind of started  

talking about already is exposing yourself to  different accents and dialects i used to struggle  

with this problem a lot so that's why guys you  really have to listen to me when i tell you that  

it is important to listen to different accents  because i used to be obsessed with the american  

english and i used to only watch movies in  american english listen to podcasts in american  

english listen to american music so i struggled  a lot when it came to listening to something in  

british english for example or even in australian  english and can you guess what i did i decided  

to focus on something i wasn't good at so i  wasn't good at understanding the british english  

and the australian english so i decided to start  following a bunch of british australian youtubers  

and slowly but surely i became more and more  familiar with their accents and i became more  

confident while listening to them i think my  story is showcasing pretty well how practice  

makes perfect and guys you have to understand  that even native speakers struggle sometimes  

because there are so many people in the world who  speak english and naturally you know different  

people have different accents and sometimes it's  really hard to understand certain dialects and i  

think you might also notice that it's easier for  you to understand non-native speakers when they  

speak english especially people from your country  because you are familiar with this accent and  

usually non-native speakers speak slowly so it's  totally okay it's totally okay if you understand  

non-native speakers but have trouble understanding  native speakers again it just means that you have  

to listen to native speakers more my third  tip is try reading and listening at the same  

time how can you do that when you watch a movie  you can turn on subtitles when you read a book  

you can also listen to the audiobook so at the  same time right you listen to a sentence and then  

you pause or maybe at the same time you listen  and you read the same thing with podcasts you can  

download transcripts you can listen to the podcast  and also read the transcript at the same time an  

even better approach would be to pause after every  single sentence and repeat the sentence out loud  

this will help you work on your pronunciation in  english and will make sure that you have the right  

intonation which is also very important when  we speak english for example i'm using the same  

approach right now because right now i'm studying  spanish and when i watch peppa pig because i'm a  

complete beginner so that's why i watch peppa pig  first of all i always watch it with subtitles i  

pause i read the sentence i repeat it out loud and  then i keep on watching it does take more time but  

it's just so valuable in your language learning  journey my tip number four is try experimenting  

with different audio speeds so this tip really  needs explaining you know sometimes when you  

watch a youtube video for example right now  you're watching my video and there is like this  

button where you can change the playback speed  you can make the vehicle faster or slower so  

this is really something you should be using and  the same thing when you listen to audio books or  

podcasts it's very interesting because do  you know how native speakers use this feature  

they kind of compete with each other but they  also compete with time because time is our  

most valuable resource and that's why a lot of  people just listen to everything at like 2x speed  

and they think this is something amazing of course  i understand that they want to save up as much  

time as they can and finish the book as fast as  possible but for me listening to podcast is more  

like a learning experience that's why i never  like to rush things and i want to memorize as  

much information as possible but i think this  playback option is very useful for non-native  

speakers because if you think right now i'm  speaking too fast you can make this video go  

slower or if you think i'm speaking too slowly you  can make this video go faster and this is like a  

great resource that we have and right now let's  move on to my last tip which is change the way you  

practice active listening in english so i already  talked a little bit about active listening when  

it comes to listening to audiobooks or podcasts  but imagine you're having a conversation with any  

person with a non-native speaker or with a native  speaker in english most of the time a conversation  

is like a back and forth one person is sharing  something and then the other person responds  

and then you ask questions and like it's like this  kind of like back and forth right but sometimes i  

know you've had this experience when a person is  just talking non-stop and you feel like they're  

not letting you say a word and sometimes during  these situations you zone out meaning you just  

lose focus completely and you can't you know  you're just not interested in the conversation  

and you just want everything to stop and you want  to stop talking to this person so if you end up in  

these situations try changing the way you listen  so instead of listening passively just like being  

yeah because sometimes we're not having this  dialogue it's more like a monologue because  

one person is talking non-stop so the first thing  you can do is you can let this person know that  

you are listening to them for example you can use  such expressions as i see what you mean i hear you  

right of course sure okay gotcha i get it  so let's look at these examples you can say  

i hear ya i can't sleep on planes either i see  what you mean i also didn't really like that movie  

i hear you well i had to give it a shot oh yes i  see what you mean second if you don't understand  

something you can ask the speaker to rephrase  the sentence or maybe to repeat it one more time  

you can use these expressions could you repeat  that i didn't catch that can you say that again  

what was the last thing you just said let's look  at these examples could you repeat that i'd like  

to write it down sorry i didn't catch that there  is noise in the background can you say that again  

could you repeat that i'm impressed excuse me  i didn't catch that a very useful thing is when  

you ask a person to clarify something if for  example you're repeating the same thing that  

they've just said and then you're saying something  like could you clarify this for me and also you  

can use these expressions so you can say if i'm  understanding you correctly something something  

or let me make sure i got that right or you can  also say correct me if i'm wrong but something  

something so let me give you one example correct  me if i'm wrong but isn't that place closed now  

i'm not sure we can have the event there correct  me if i'm wrong hobbs but we had a deal so yeah  

as you can see guys all of these expressions are  great when you want to show the other person that  

you're actively listening that you're involved in  the conversation instead of just constantly saying  

yeah because you know guys it's always better  to use words instead of sounds so yeah guys i  

think it's going to be it for this video i shared  five amazing tips that will help you improve your  

listening skills in english again you can  check out part one by clicking the link in  

the description thank you guys so much for  watching this video make sure to subscribe  

to my channel and follow me on instagram  and i'll see you guys in my next video bye

you