Why you don't understand native speakers in English

hey there and welcome back to my YouTube channel  English can sometimes be a tricky language to  

understand especially when it's spoken by native  speakers at their natural pace but fear not  

I've got you covered with some useful tips and  insights so let's Dive Right In one of the main  

reasons why you might struggle to understand  native English speakers is because of their  

different pronunciation English has a wide variety  of accents and dialects which often makes it quite  

challenging for language Learners however guys  I don't want you to worry because with exposure  

and practice you will become accustomed to all  of those variations so my main tip here is if  

you struggle with understanding different accents  in English different dialects you should surround  

yourself with different accents and that's  exactly something that I always talk about  

this kind of strategy is something that helped  me improve my English a lot you should focus on  

something you're not very good at I remember the  time time when my listening skills were extremely  

bad and what did I do I decided to focus more on  my listening skills it's pretty simple of course  

I know that sometimes you might feel a little  bit shy or weird or embarrassed but again guys  

to feel more confident you should just watch more  videos where people speak with different accents  

in English and as always I want to recommend  a great tool to use there is a YouTube channel  

called Jubilee and they have this YouTube series  called Middle Ground where two different groups  

of people opposed on their beliefs try to come  together empathetically and find Middle Ground  

so I'm gonna play this video right now for you  guys it's titled seniors versus children Middle  

Ground the reason why I decided to choose this  specific video is that people there have quite  

different accents and also oftentimes for people  it's hard to understand children very hard to  

understand the way they speak in English so  this video has like a nice Contour address  

right adults and kids that's wonderful but what  if they did not treat you nicely so you guys how  

she said treats you nicely she didn't say treat  you nicely this is called connected speech she  

connected treat and you treat you and she added  this quick cheer sound well they're still my  

family I still gotta level up that's right I still  gotta love them this is an amazing example of just  

completely dropping some of the sounds first of  all instead of saying I still have to love them  

the girl said I still gotta gotta right I think  you guys know this instead of saying have to in  

a lot of different situations native speakers  would just say gotta I still gotta love them  

so instead of saying love them she said love  them and this is something that happens a lot  

in speaking many native speakers would say love  them instead of love them but again same love them  

is absolutely okay too I am very fortunate I've  been married to this lovely woman for 63 years wow

wow I've been married to this lovely woman  for 63 years first of all here you have this  

amazing example of a great adjective in English  fortunate right instead of saying oh I am very  

lucky you can say I'm very fortunate this word  is definitely more advanced also you see a good  

example of using grammar in English for example  I've been married to this woman so here the guy  

is using present perfect I've been married to this  woman married to someone as you can see when you  

watch this authentic content in English and by the  word authentic I mean content that is intended for  

native speakers like this is not stage I mean  people are just sharing their opinions their  

points of view usually what happens is you get to  learn a lot of Great Expressions in English that  

native speakers actually use and obviously you get  to improve your listening skills and you become  

more accustomed to hearing different accents in  English the main takeaway from this tip is try to  

be intentional when you watch something don't  just turn on a video and forget about it it's  

important to be intentional to pause the video to  maybe repeat some of the expressions or phrases  

and maybe even save some of them because this is  the best way to learn the second reason why you  

might struggle understanding people in English is  because of connected speech native speakers often  

speak at a faster Pace because they use this  concept called connected speech where words  

basically blend together I know that this can  be quite overwhelming for English Learners and  

it can make you feel like you don't know anything  about English you feel like you can't understand  

anything and guys I hear you here and there is  a way for you to spin the situation around and  

actually start understanding native speakers when  they use a lot of rules of connected speech and  

the main tip here is you should learn the rule  rules of connected speech and it's extremely  

easy to do guys again right now you have so many  wonderful materials out there for example YouTube  

there are a lot of videos teaching you guys all  the rules of connected speech obviously when it  

comes to learning more about connected speech it's  very important to listen to something in English  

in your preferred accent for example American  accent and then see the text right so maybe it  

can be like a podcast right where you can download  the transcript that could be like amazing or a  

book where you can read a book and also listen to  the audiobook if you don't know what resource to  

use I can recommend my real English workbook which  is perfect for intermediate Upper Intermediate and  

advanced students and this is actually the  first time I talk about my workbook on this  

YouTube channel guys if you didn't know I recently  launched my very first workbook that I created  

together with a native speaker from the United  States all the conversations in this workbook are  

recorded by a native speaker and she's actually  a voice actor so she has a very nice voice in  

English hey Stacy how's it going I saw your  stories on Instagram the other day and I didn't  

know you had a dog hi Jake yeah I rescued him from  a local animal shelter when he was just four weeks  

old the best part about the workbook is that it  is divided into 10 lessons or 10 conversations and  

each conversation is connected to a specific Topic  in English so you have a conversation you have the  

audio to this conversation you also have a Quizlet  set with all the new useful vocabulary and this  

way you're learning new words you're listening  to the native speaker and you're improving your  

pronunciation and also your listening skills  because the audience then by native speakers  

so she knows the best how to pronounce all the  sounds in English so if you want to get your  

hands on this workbook all you need to do is click  the link in the description the third problem why  

so many people don't understand native speakers  is because native speakers often use idioms and  

phrasal verbs that you guys don't know and guys  I'm sorry to break it to you but this is actually  

how native speakers talk in real life they use  phrasal verbs all the time different like slang  

expressions or some Expressions that became  extremely popular on Tick Tock collocations I  

don't know idioms this is something that you can  always find in their conversations so obviously  

the tip here is try to learn common idioms and  phrases especially those that native speakers  

use in conversations and before you Google like  a list of common phrasal verbs and idioms that  

native speakers use please just go on YouTube and  watch a vlog by a native speaker the reason why I  

always tell you guys is you know looking up lists  of all of this vocabulary is so useless is be  

because it is the most effective way of learning  a new language is first learning everything in  

context and second using authentic materials and  luckily you have YouTube for that let me show you  

guys one video I watched recently because I follow  this girl on YouTube She's a native speaker from  

the United States and recently she posted a video  announcing her pregnancy or doing like a pregnancy  

q a and then also that night I just randomly got  this urge going to throw up and I sprinted to the  

bathroom okay so she's saying and I sprinted  to the bathroom this is like a great verb in  

English instead of saying I ran to the bathroom  right because she really needed to throw up she  

said I sprinted to the bathroom which means to  run very fast the last 500 yards this can't be  

real like there's no shot that this is actually  real this can be real there's no shot that this  

can actually be real here she's using the word  shot instead of using the word possibility right  

like it's not possible that this pregnancy test is  positive there's no shot as you can see learning  

phrasal verbs or informal expressions in English  is not that complicated as long as you're using  

the right resource unfortunately this resource is  YouTube something that you guys all have access  

to since you're watching my video right now and  I believe that even from my video there are so  

many amazing words and expressions that you can  learn and obviously all of these tips that I'm  

sharing with you guys I really hope they will be  super beneficial too reason number four why many  

people struggle when it comes to understanding  native speakers is because native speakers often  

use cultural references when they speak for  example they often mention cultural events or  

famous people and obviously if you didn't grow up  in this particular country it would be a little  

bit challenging for you to understand all of those  cultural references so honestly the best tip here  

I guess is you should become interested in this  culture right if you're interested in the culture  

then you will be motivated to learn more about  it maybe you'll want to Google some like famous  

politicians but not just Google them but actually  follow the news if it's like a famous musician or  

an actor a again follow their lives maybe follow  them on Twitter for example or Instagram to keep  

up to date and also recently I actually realized  that one cool resource that you guys can use is  

a stand-up shows usually when it's a stand-up show  the comedian uses a lot of cultural references and  

at first it might be a little bit challenging  for you guys to understand everything because  

understanding jokes and English is definitely on  another level however if you want to improve your  

English and become more advanced it is something  you should be doing there's a great comedian that  

I personally really like his name is Jimmy oh Yang  and you can watch his stand-up Show on Netflix and  

through a lot of videos by him on YouTube as well  oftentimes he jokes about being an Asian American  

so there are a lot of jokes about you know  growing up Chinese in the United States so let's  

check out this short video that I found because  there he's going to be referencing an American  

actor I'm very proud to represent Asians but  at the same time there's so much pressure like  

nobody ever wanted to Matt Damon be like  hey man thanks to represent the whites  

so now let's pause the video and try to Google  this guy's name right because he just made a  

cultural reference so Matt Damon is an American  actor Phil producer and screenwriter so now you  

can oh you see his face you're like okay I  think I you know watched some of the movies  

where he was starring and this is exactly  how we're gonna learn more and more names  

again gradually while consuming content and  the final reason why it might be hard for you  

guys to understand native speakers it's just  because you lack listening practice you don't  

listen to things in English enough or when you  are listening to something English you're not  

intentional enough if there are words you don't  understand and you don't look up their meaning  

well how are you gonna learn them how are you  gonna understand what they actually mean you  

always have to be responsible and intentional when  it comes to language learning so if right now it  

is a little bit hard for you to even watch  YouTube videos in English let alone you know  

movies and TV series and you're struggling you're  really struggling with your listening skills but  

you really want to improve I can recommend this  one podcast for you guys it's called six minute  

English from the BBC the host of the podcast speak  with the British English and each episode only  

lasts for six minutes so it's a perfect little  chunk for you if you're struggling to find time  

or motivation to listen to something in English so  I found this cool episode on their website called  

doomscrawling why do we do it do you guys know  what Dooms crawling is if you want to find out  

make sure to click the link in the description and  guys as usual all the links to all the resources  

I've mentioned in this video are going to be  in the description so so as you can see guys if  

you listen to this episode they will explain  what these words and expressions mean Dooms  

crawling feel ache on tap make up for something  romanticize something that people nowadays love  

to use online on Tick Tock and YouTube and this  cool idiom in English or saying in English what  

doesn't kill you makes you stronger so yeah  guys I think it's gonna be it for this video  

If I had to recommend just one resource of course  I would recommend my real English workbook again  

the link is in the description I really hope now  you feel more confident and you know that if you  

don't understand something in English like if  sometimes you don't understand native speakers  

it's okay it happens to all of us if you want  to continue watching more videos on my channel  

that can help you become Advanced make sure to  click on this playlist if you like this video  

make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to  my channel and I'll see you guys in my next video