Why you can’t understand native speakers (and how to fix that)

I have spent the last 10 years of my life learning  different foreign languages such as French English  

Chinese Spanish ASL and one thing that all of my  experiences had in common is that I could barely  

understand native speakers at the very beginning  who am I kidding I still don't understand what  

this guy says here looking for a dog yes great  dog that's your brilliant Theory good excellent  

yes where should we start so that's why I decided  to make this video we're going to talk about why  

you don't understand native speak ERS and I will  give you a few actionable tips that hopefully will  

help you fix this situation number one speed of  speech so the first obvious reason is the speed  

of speech native speakers talk fast and there's  nothing we can do about it you know like I know  

I'm doing what I want to do if it freaks them  out and then I thought what if I don't want to  

do what I want to do because I want to do it but  because they don't want me to if you think about  

the way you speak your native language you're  probably talk talking extremely fast too when  

I speak Russian I'm like a chatter box I talk  I talk I talk I talk extremely fast I'm pretty  

sure if a person who is learning Russian is going  to listen to me speak Russian they're going to be  

like why why have I chosen to study Russian of  course this rapid Pace can make it difficult for  

us language Learners to process and understand  every single words so so the solution I can  

give you here is the following if you have this  problem when you watch movies and shows I would  

highly recommend turning on subtitles there is  absolutely nothing wrong about using subtitles  

in fact they can be very beneficial and help  your comprehension a lot guys even my American  

friends native speakers of English Okay native  speakers of English use English subtitles when  

they watch something in English for me when I  first learned about that I was like interesting  

why because it's not something that we normally  do in Russian it's not very common but I guess in  

every single culture and every single language  it's a little bit different and actually even  

if you're a native speaker and you're watching  something in your native language using subtitles  

is extremely beneficial I also recommend checking  out this video I posted a few months that already  

has almost a million views which is crazy by the  way but there I talk about whether you should be  

using subtitles while watching movies and TV shows  another solution is to just slow down everything  

you're listening to start with slower recordings  and work your way up to faster ones as you become  

more and more comfortable do it gradually yes at  the beginning it's difficult to understand native  

speakers everyone every single language learn  learner has this problem so don't worry about  

it and just keep on practicing the second reason  is slaying an informal language when I think about  

slaying an informal language I immediately think  about the show Breaking Bad and when I decided  

to watch it when I was I would say at about  intermediate in English and I was like yeah it's  

a good idea for me to watch Breaking Bad right  now I was so wrong and let me tell you something  

else this in chemistry okay this is Art cooking is  Art and the [ __ ] I cook is the bomb so don't be  

telling me you cook yes native speakers swear a  lot they use slang and informal Expressions that  

language Learners just never learn in class so  the solution I came up for myself here is making  

sure that I expose myself to authentic materials  as often and as much as I can what are authentic  

materials you might ask me that's a great question  by the way authentic materials are basically  

something that was created for native speakers  like movies and show and different podcasts  

in your target language and also make sure that  you're staying very active when you're listening  

to something you know don't just put it in the  background and forget about it of course nothing  

is going to happen you're not going to improve  your listening skills this way I know that when I  

cook and I listen to a podcast often times I don't  have maybe enough time or I don't have access to  

my phone because my hands are wet for example so  I use Siri right I ask her or it it's AI I don't  

know basically I ask Siri to help me to save this  word because I want to memorize it later and so  

if you hear a new phrase an expression you like  don't hesitate to write it down and think about  

how you can use it in your conversations how you  can use it in real life is IR relevant to you if  

you never swear and someone used a cool expression  with swearing I mean I guess understanding it is  

great but you know don't bother actually trying  to come up with all these crazy sentences because  

I barely swear in my native language I barely  swear in English and I know here in Mexico Mexico  

City a lot of people swear a lot so for me just  understanding what those EXP expressions mean is  

enough I don't need to actually use them myself I  think understanding all these reasons is obviously  

important but working on your listening skills  learning new vocabulary getting used to the way  

native speakers communicate with each other is  far far far more important and I'm really happy  

to tell you guys that there is an amazing resource  that can help you do just that and it's lingopie  

and I want to say a huge thank you to them for  sponsoring today's video lingopie is a platform  

form where you can learn foreign languages by  watching original TV shows movies music videos  

and Netflix originals with just one subscription  you can learn nine different languages such as  

Spanish French German Italian Russian Portuguese  Japanese Korean and Chinese the show I'm currently  

watching on lingopie is called insanely just and  it's so much fun if any of you guys are learning  

Spanish I highly recommend checking out this  show right now all shows on lingo Pai come with  

two sets of subtitles you you can click on any  word to get an instant translation the more you  

watch the more you learn you can also save new  words and create interactive flash cards out of  

them to review later to memorize new vocabulary  even more effectively lingopie creates quizzes  

for you to check your comprehension and make  your language learning even more effective and  

only for my viewers lingopie is offering a 70%  discount of their lifetime plan if you decide  

to subscribe just use the link in my description  and in my my pinned comment reason number three is  

difficult accents and dialects approximately 20%  of the world's population speaks English which  

means that around 400 million people speak this  language natively and an additional 1.5 billion  

who speak it as their second language or their  foreign language and yes sometimes because of  

that we have problems with comprehension because  the there are so many different people and every  

single person has their unique accent you know  this unique way to pronounce words their unique  

dialect and stuff like that I don't want it like  that over again son not when they don't even want  

to do it except for the money just in the United  States alone there are roughly 30 major dialects  

so what I can recommend you here is if you're  interested in a specific accent let's say you're  

learning Spanish and you want to move to Argentina  so you need to listen to as many people who speak  

Spanish with this Argentinian accent as possible  watch movies watch shows YouTube videos featuring  

people from Argentina and actors who speak with  this accent Additionally you can find language  

exchange Partners or tutors from different regions  to practice speaking and listening I remember how  

once I got so fascinated with the way people  speak English in South Africa so what I did is  

I found a tutor who was from South Africa and I  spoke English to him as much as I could because  

I wanted to learn how to First understand him you  know ask him different questions about his accent  

why he pronounced certain words in a certain way  obviously I was not really interested in starting  

to speak with this accent because I do like to  speak more with this standard American accent  

but still I just wanted to talk to a person from  South Africa unfortunately right now because of  

the internet we can do it pretty easily the next  reason is cultural differences I know that many of  

you guys here watching this video love the office  if yes please comment down below I know it is a  

very popular show but I personally think that  sometimes it's hard to understand because there  

are a lot of references to American pop culture  and media which can be difficult for non-native  

speakers to understand if I have to do this based  on stereotypes that are totally true that I do  

not agree with you would maybe not be a very good  driver oh man am I a woman yes data speakers joke  

reference cultural events historical figures  or Customs that are unfamiliar to us language  

Learners I didn't grow up in the United States  so some parts of the office just went straight  

over my head I was like why is this funny what is  going on just because culturally I'm a different  

person and it is absolutely okay so the solution  here is you should have been born in that country  

just kidding guys please don't hate on me but  seriously I honestly don't think it's possible  

for non-native speakers to learn everything  about a culture that you weren't born into  

and you didn't grow up in you can of course  learn many things by reading books watching  

documentary and engaging in conversations with  native speakers this way of course you will learn  

a lot of course this will help you understand  context and references and conversations but  

I still think that you will experience moments  when someone made a joke and you were like why  

was that funny uh come again can you explain it  to me please just embrace it I experience it too  

and finally the the reason why you probably don't  understand native speakers is because of lack of  

exposure you might be spending too much time  interacting with scripted or formal language  

in textbooks which is not always accurate and  doesn't really reflect real life conversations  

if you use Tik Tok a lot you have probably heard  of gen Z terms gen Z slang such as No Cap do my  

co-workers understand these geny terms let's find  out do you know what no cap means like not joking  

okay not bad I personally use Tik Tok as a search  engine and on my second Channel I talked about how  

to use Tik Tok to not get addicted and to actually  get some benefits from it so as a search engine  

and also obviously I'm a Creator I make Tik  toks this is my job I make interesting videos  

for you guys to enjoy and when I want to look for  something for example I don't know a new lipstick  

to buy or what are the most sustainable clothing  brands out there I always use Tik toks to find out  

all of this information and maybe learn new words  along the way because I can type these searches in  

English in Spanish you get the point and this way  I practice the language while learning something  

else so I use my language as a tool right as  a tool to learn something as a tool to get a  

new job as a tool to get new know knowledge  not just because I'm learning Spanish or not  

just because you know I'm just learning English  and that's it no for me it's a lot bigger than  

that the solution here is to seek out interesting  resources and surround yourself with the language  

24/7 or as much as possible and of course as  I just said once you start using this language  

as a tool you will improve your comprehension  a lot so that's it for this video I hope you  

enjoyed it and I hope you learned something  new as a reminder only for my viewers linkai  

is offering a 70% discount of their lifetime plan  if you decide to subscribe just use the link in  

our description and my pin comment if you like  this video don't forget to give it a thumbs up  

and subscribe to my channel if you're thinking  about what to watch next you don't know what to  

watch I highly recommend checking out this video  right here just click right here and continue

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