Listening is *the only* skill you need to become fluent (here's why)

when I first started learning English I tried to  master everything vocabulary pronunciation reading  

and listening and I was completely overwhelmed  looking back I wish I had focused on just one  

skill the one that makes everything else easier  and the thing is most language learners just  

don't spend a lot of time improving this skill and  this skill is listening and that is why I created  

a free downloadable guide that walks you through  everything it tells you how to build a consistent  

focused and enjoyable listening practice all you  need to do to get the guide is click the link in  

the description share your email with me and I  will send you the guide straight to your inbox  

so let's start and talk about why listening is  the most important skill and why it is also the  

foundational skill that other language skills  build upon i think this very common problem  

that I see nowadays when it comes to learning  a language is that a lot of people think it has  

to be difficult if you're not struggling when  it comes to your language learning you're not  

actually improving but that is obviously not true  yes all of those skills like your pronunciation  

your memorization skills your vocabulary they  are all important but I would say there is one  

core fundamental skill that we really need to  develop when we're learning a new language and  

to be honest with you guys there is a lot of  debate online about what is the most important  

skill to master the two most common answers are  usually speaking and listening but in my personal  

experience when I was learning English and then  I was learning Chinese in college and now I'm  

learning Spanish the most important skill for me  has always been listening and it's not just my  

opinion it's backed up by research and even famous  polyglots like Steve Kaufman you can even read his  

article on media there he says "I believe that  listening comprehension not speaking is the most  

important skill in language learning if you can  achieve a high level in comprehension all other  

skills will follow the speaking will come the  grammar and correct usage will come and I think as  

a language learner it is so important to hear this  because we're all busy you know we all have work  

family responsibilities hobbies we're interested  in and for me personally I can't say that language  

learning is the biggest hobby of my life sure I  do love learning Spanish but it doesn't mean that  

I want to study Spanish like 10 hours every single  day it is absolutely not realistic i don't have 10  

hours every single day to dedicate to Spanish and  I really do want to focus on a skill that I know  

will translate to all of my other skills in this  language and that is why every single time I sit  

down to practice my languages I try to focus on my  listening comprehension because if I'm listening  

to a material that I can mostly understand that  is just a little bit difficult for me that I am  

truly interested in I know that my pronunciation  is improving in the process because I'm listening  

to a native speaker i'm also repeating a few  phrases after them i'm noticing some interesting  

grammar patterns i'm memorizing new vocabulary and  practicing what I already know so for me listening  

is the skill that I always prioritize and yes  when you're learning a language you can't just  

wait for your skills to magically develop you have  to intentionally build them whether it's improving  

your listening skills or even developing better  habits the key is to treat learning as a process  

not just something you do and then forget about  and that is why I love Skillshare it's an amazing  

online learning community designed specifically  for creatives freelancers and lifelong learners  

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get back into the video and talk about how you  can actually improve your listening skills as  

a language learner so the first thing that I  do is I combine listening with reading i love  

reading books i usually read before I go to bed  it's a part of my nighttime routine and so what  

helps me stay focused when I'm reading a book is  actually listening to an audio book at the same  

time because sometimes the language is a little  bit too difficult the words the author is using  

in a particular book might be weird or interesting  or new to me and I want to make sure I know how to  

pronounce them and I also want to make sure that  I don't get bored and I don't get distracted the  

way I usually do it is I use my iPad because it's  bigger reading on my phone is a little bit more  

difficult but right now I'm using my iPad for the  script so that I can see what I need to talk about  

in this video so I'm going to use my phone to show  you guys how I do it so I go to my books app and  

I choose the book I'm currently reading right now  the book that I am reading is How Not to Age so I  

click on it and then I go to Audible because I use  Audible for all of my audio books inflammation the  

next aging pathway is inflammation in recent years  one of the most medically important discoveries  

was recognizing the potential role of inflammation  in many chronic diseases including at least eight  

of the top 10 leading causes of death okay so  basically what I do is I listen to the audiobook  

and I read i kind of skim with my eyes at the  same time but I make sure that I understand like  

all the words everything the author is talking  about especially in this book i'm not going to  

lie it's pretty complicated and so sometimes I'm  like what is happening here what is he talking  

about and I think without the audio book I was  just lose the train of thought very quickly and  

so the audiobook really helps me stay focused  and engage with the book I'm currently reading  

the next super interesting approach you guys can  use if you want to improve your listening skills  

is you can record audio messages and then listen  to them as your own podcasts for example you need  

to remember something in your current language  maybe it's a grammar rule or maybe it's a few  

words you can just record like a voice note of  yourself going through all of this vocabulary  

or maybe this grammar rule and then when you  have some free time when you're commuting when  

you're washing the dishes when you're mopping the  floors or vacuuming the floors you can listen to  

your own podcast like with all of the words all  of the grammar rules that you have to remember  

i think it works especially great when you're  trying to prepare for a test like when you  

actually have to memorize a very specific piece  of information and you have a deadline and you  

are just tired of cramming everything into your  brain what you can do is you can use your phone  

the voice memo app or something like that and just  record yourself speaking it can be about anything  

if you don't really have a test if you're learning  a language for yourself maybe it's the words  

you're trying to memorize right now maybe it's how  you've been feeling lately and you can use this  

audio recording as your own podcast to listen to  over and over again the next fun and unique thing  

you can do if you want to improve your listening  skills is you can create fake interview clips of  

yourself so you're just going to pretend that  you're a guest on a podcast and you're being  

interviewed in your target language let's say  you're trying to learn English and somebody is  

going to ask you "Tell us about your daily routine  what do you love about your hometown describe your  

dream vacation." You can honestly talk to Chad GBT  about it because you're going to be improving your  

listening skills and also your speaking skills or  as I said before you can just record yourself and  

then use your recording as a little podcast to  listen to and to actually analyze your speech  

when you listen back you're going to notice  all the mistakes you've made some of the clunky  

phrases you used and that is absolutely okay  like even when I am re-watching this YouTube  

video I'm recording right now when I'm editing  it I can notice some of the you know phrases  

that I have used that I no longer like and that  is absolutely okay the thing here is to become an  

active listener to actively listen to everything  you're consuming not just you know put it in the  

background forget about it and think that somehow  you're magically learning a language no if you're  

not understanding if you're not paying attention  most likely you're not learning the next thing  

you can do if you want to improve your listening  skills is you can do weekly recaps the same thing  

you're going to be recording yourself it can be a  video it can be an audio message it doesn't have  

to be you know on camera every Sunday you're going  to record a one minute recap of what you have  

learned this week three words or phrases you want  to remember maybe you're going to have a whole  

list of all of the vocabulary you want to remember  but instead of like reciting all of these words  

and being like "Okay here's the word I want to  remember here's the second word here's the third  

word." Try to maybe create sentences like create  some context around all of this vocabulary so that  

when you're actually listening to your recording  you also listen to the context that surrounds  

all of these words not just a list of some random  vocabulary and the final thing you can talk about  

here is how you felt using the language this last  week so maybe you have encountered some challenges  

maybe you decided to talk to a native speaker  but forgot a certain word talk about it express  

your concerns what happened to you have you even  practiced the language this week because maybe  

you haven't and finally of course I understand if  you're trying to improve your listening skills you  

actually need to listen and watch but the reason  why I decided to mention all of this at the end of  

today's video is because I think you guys already  know that so I wanted to give you some other  

creative and new ways to help you improve your  listening skills and when it comes to this the  

final tip that I want to give you guys I always  say that you have to choose content that you like  

and that you can mostly understand like if it is a  YouTube video that is so freaking complicated that  

you cannot understand anything maybe just a few  words you're not there yet and that is absolutely  

okay like one day you will be able to understand  this video maybe you can save it as this big goal  

you can always go back to it and check your  progress and see how much more you can understand  

right now language learning doesn't have to feel  hard to be effective i would even say it has to  

be easy so that you can find it interesting so  that you can sustain that interest turn it into  

curiosity and continue improving the way in which  I usually search for content online on YouTube to  

watch when I want to practice Spanish for example  is I ask myself this question what are my hobbies  

like what am I interested in in life and right  now I'm very interested in yoga for example  

or maybe I am planning a vacation and I want to  see like another person exploring this city this  

town so I'm just going to search for this type of  content content on YouTube and I'm going to watch  

all of those videos but in the process of watching  those videos I'm going to see if I actually like  

the video if it's too difficult for me if I can  understand most of the information and then some  

of the words that I can't understand i'm going  to pause i'm going to write them down save them  

in my notion i usually use notion to keep track  of all of my language learning my templates like  

what I actually use on notion is available on my  website if you guys want to check it out the most  

important thing is I try to be very intentional  about my language learning because intention  

goes a long way not how hard you're sweating  in your one single language learning session  

how much you are hating the process and how much  you just want to quit no like all of this is not  

sustainable it is not going to lead you to good  quality sustainable results what it will lead you  

to is hating language learning and thinking that  you're just not good at languages that's it and  

you're just going to give up and obviously that is  not what I want for you guys so I think it's going  

to be it for this video i really hope you liked it  if you did don't forget to give it a thumbs up and  

subscribe to my YouTube channel just a reminder if  you guys want to get my free intentional listening  

blueprint you can do so by clicking the link in  the description i will send you the guide all  

the information to your inbox for those of you  looking to improve your creative skills maybe  

you want to start a new hobby I highly recommend  Skillshare if you are one of the first 500 people  

to use the link in my description you will get  one month of Skillshare completely for free at  

the very beginning of this video I said that there  is this debate online about whether listening is  

the most important skill when it comes to learning  a language or maybe it's speaking and I know that  

a lot of you guys want to improve your speaking  skills if that is the case I highly recommend  

this video right here in this video I talk about  why your speaking skills are not improving and  

what you can do to change the situation so  just click right here and keep on watching