LEARN ENGLISH PODCAST: THE MOST POWERFUL THING YOU CAN LISTEN TO AS AN ENGLISH LEARNER (SUBTITLES)

- [Jack] Here's a question that I received

on the last podcast episode.

Now, listen to this carefully and see if this is something

that you've been wondering about too.

Okay, "Hi. I find your podcasts are useful and valuable.

I'm really keen on them.

However, there's one thing that I always wonder.

I mean you speak pretty slowly and there's not many

advanced vocabulary in your podcasts,

I could mostly understand your content.

Therefore, will they help me to improve my listening

or have I to listen to a difficult audio?"

So, this person is asking if my podcasts are useful for her

because she can understand nearly everything

or mostly understand the content.

And doesn't feel like there are many advanced

vocabulary items in there.

So I'm gonna talk about this today because I think

it's something that a lot of people think about and wonder

if listening to a podcast

made for English learners is valuable.

Firstly, let's talk about the pace of my podcast.

When I am given a podcast,

whether this is for English learners or on my other channel,

which talks about marketing,

I tend to talk in a presentation style.

And if you think about TED Talks

and the way that people speak in a TED Talk,

it's fairly similar to that.

I try to keep it a little bit more natural in the podcast,

but it's still a presentation.

And when you are presenting things,

you don't just talk like you're having a conversation.

It's a different type of way of speaking.

However, on my YouTube channel,

I'm sure you have watched some of the conversations

that my wife and I have had,

where we just discussed various topics.

And those ones are different

because we're having a conversation.

And the way you speak in a conversation is different

to the way you speak when giving a presentation.

And secondly, when it comes to advanced vocabulary,

when I talk about how to learn English,

most people already have learned the words and phrases

needed to think about and talk about

and listen to that topic.

Because if you are an English learner,

then you will have researched and listened to podcasts

about how to learn English, how best to learn English.

Therefore you've had the repetition

of the phrases and vocabulary

and you're probably more familiar with this type of topic

than if I started talking about vocabulary

about ping pong, for example.

And if I talked in a very similar way,

but talked about ping pong, which I don't know

if I could make a podcast on that, but let's say I did,

then you wouldn't be able to understand as much

because it's more of a specialized topic.

So those are my initial thoughts about this

but I do want to talk about this further

because it brings up a really important point.

When we're talking about what to listen to

when learning English, what type of things

should you listen to when learning English?

Okay and before I go into that, I just want to say, hi,

my name is Jack from To Fluency.

If you are new here, welcome to you

and feel free to subscribe to whichever podcast app

you're using or if you're on YouTube,

click that subscribe button and the notification bell.

And then also take a look at the description

for some resources that will help you learn English,

including my book, which is free to download,

"The Five Step Plan for English Fluency."

Now, to help me talk about inputs

and the type of input you need,

the person that I think is so important here

and somebody that I have followed for a long time

is Dr. Stephen Krashen.

And he talks a lot about comprehensible input,

comprehensible input, which basically means

input that you can understand.

Okay, so I found this article

which summarizes this quite well.

And it's saying, "Comprehensible input in English

is English language that you can understand,

language inputs of things that you hear, like podcasts,

the radio, conversations, as well as things that you read,

like books, article, English blog articles, et cetera.

And Krashen specifies that you can't just read or listen

to anything and improve your language.

You have to read or listen to things you can understand.

Language acquisition happens best, he says,

when the input is just slightly more advanced

than your own level."

So for this episode, we'll focus on listening,

but you can apply this to reading as well.

And the key point here is that you need to find resources,

things to listen to that you can understand.

You have to find things that you can understand

but also find things that challenge you

a little bit as well.

And I think this works really well

because when you understand something, you can enjoy it,

you can get the repetition of sentences

so that you acquire the language.

Now, acquiring a language and learning a language

is seen to be different because you can learn grammar rules.

Okay, you can learn sentence structure

and pass a test to say, "Okay,

I now know how to form the present perfect

using different pronouns, et cetera, and objects

and to do different types of verbs."

And then you can pass a test to say you've done that.

But acquiring this is where you reach a stage,

I've talked about this in my last episode,

where it just feels natural to you,

where it just feels natural to you, okay?

Where you say and use the present perfect

in a natural way because it just feels right.

You don't have to think about the rules when you're speaking

and getting lots of input helps you with this

because you're going to listen to the present perfect

again and again and again, you're going to read it

again and again and again if you read books as well.

And by doing this, you're going to acquire

the grammar in a natural way.

You're going to learn this in a natural way

but only if you can understand what you're listening to.

If you don't understand what you're listening to,

then you're not going to acquire the language

with the same efficiency, it's not going to be as good.

And by listening to things you understand,

you're also going to understand the context

because learning grammar is not just

about sentence structure and conjugating verbs,

it's also about knowing when to use that grammar.

So if you keep hearing people talk about

how many times they've been to a foreign country,

how many times they've been to this, et cetera,

then what you're going to do is you're going to understand

when you can use this and say things like,

"Oh, I've been to Italy twice,"

or, "I've been to the US once,"

and you'll be able to use the right structure

and use the present perfect in the right situation.

So that's one reason why getting lots of comprehensible,

understandable input is important.

And by the repetition that you get,

you're going to acquire the language

and just really, truly understand grammar

and when to use it correctly.

However, if you just constantly listen to things

that you can understand,

then you're not going to learn new things.

And I think that whenever you listen to one of my podcasts,

let's say that you understand 80% of what I'm saying,

then you're going to learn new things

because you can understand the majority of what I say.

And then you can more or less guess the new vocabulary

or if you're listening on YouTube, watching on YouTube,

you can turn on subtitles and see the words

and phrases I'm using and look them up.

But the key here is that you need to have

that base of understanding something

and then you can learn new things from context.

You can understand a new word or an adjective,

for example, because I'm using it in a certain way.

And you understand what I'm saying.

Therefore, for most people listening to this,

I think my podcasts and other English learning podcasts

are great for comprehensible input.

Don't always think that you have to learn new vocabulary,

that you have to listen so that you can learn

more advanced vocabulary.

Because there are certain words and phrases that we use

again and again and again, okay?

And we have these high-frequency phrases and words

and idioms that people use on a constant basis.

So it's better that you master those phrases,

especially when it comes to what you normally talk about.

So if you need English

to give presentations about financial things,

then you can learn English for finance

because those are the words and phrases

you're going to use again and again.

But you're also going to have to learn the basic phrases

for small talk, conversation, negotiation,

talking about your past, talking about what you like,

the usual topics that you learn as a learner.

And by listening to things that you already understand,

you're going to get that comprehensible input,

which is a repetition you need to acquire a language,

not just know the grammar,

but acquire it so that you can speak naturally

and understand people when they talk.

So before I talk about the resources you can use,

I just wanna go back to this question again,

where they're saying, "Is this useful?

Will it help me improve my listening

or do I have to listen to difficult audio?"

I think the best thing to do

is to get lots of comprehensible input,

listen to things you understand

and constantly increase the level of what you listen to.

So challenge yourself at times.

I know I have done this

when I was really focused on learning Spanish.

What I did was I started by listening to the news

and I followed the news, therefore,

I could understand the news stories,

especially international news stories.

And I learned new vocabulary

because I already knew what the story was about.

So there are different things that you can do

to constantly improve what you're listening to

and the level that you're listening to.

And I think the key here is to go slowly,

to go slowly, okay?

To really just build up your comprehensible skills

so that you can improve your comprehension

and the way that you can listen to people when they speak.

So here are some resources that you can use.

And firstly, know the difference between resources

made for English learners and also resources

that aren't made for English learners.

And you might want to focus more on one or the other

depending on your level.

So I think some great things to listen to

and to read as well, firstly, the news,

if you're interested in it,

if you're interested in the news, like politics,

global topics, et cetera, and you already know

what's going on in the world at the moment,

then reading the news and listening to the news in English

is a great stepping stone to moving

onto different types of things.

But also, I think other things that are great,

English learning podcasts, like this one,

presentation style talks like TED Talks.

Personally, this is just my opinion,

I'm not a big fan of TED Talks

but that type of style are great.

Interviews, where you can go on YouTube

and just watch interviews on topics that you like.

Because usually with interviews

they're more of a presentation style

where people are presenting what they believe in,

they're asking questions and they're talking about a topic

that you're interested in and then also graded readers.

These are books that have been adapted for different levels.

So you can say, okay, I'm an intermediate speaker

and listener, I'll find books, graded readers

that are for intermediate learners.

And then you can think, okay, I'm B1, let's try B1.2 or B2

on topics that I already know and understand.

And then find things that are comprehensible,

things that you can understand and then build up

your knowledge and your listening over time.

Because another thing is sometimes when you're listening,

if you're not used to listening to things in English,

but you know the language,

then it can all just happen too fast,

you're thinking in your head and you're missing things.

So it's about reaching that stage where you're just

listening and understanding to what people are saying.

And then, you move on to the next level.

And then just to talk about the other part

with advanced vocabulary.

Again, this I think it's so important to think more about

frequently used phrases that you need to know

instead of advanced vocabulary.

Both are important but I think the frequently used phrases,

this is more important and being sure

that you can quickly understand someone

when they use that phrase.

And again, focus on the type of English

that you're learning.

Think about what am I using my English for right now

or what am I going to use my English for in the future.

And then focus on those words and phrases,

find audio, find books, find podcasts

that focus on those types of topics

and then just acquire language and vocabulary over time.

There'll be some words and phrases in here.

I'm sure that nearly everyone listening to

will have found something new.

For example, before I said, "Quite frankly,"

maybe that's something new to you and you can look that up

and repeat this again and then you can learn it.

So just in summary,

this podcast is made for English learners.

I speak with a presentation style,

which some people find slow, for example.

But I've listened to podcasts

that aren't made for English learners.

For example, someone like Sam Harris,

listen to one of Sam Harris's podcast episodes

and you'll notice that he speaks much more slowly than I do.

But he's not making podcasts for English learners,

that's his style of presentation.

And I like that style of presentation.

Although, sometimes I do speed it up.

And then secondly, comprehensible input, in my opinion,

is so important and it's important to find things

that you can understand so that you can get the repetition

of phrases so that you can really just improve

your comprehension and that you can just acquire

the language instead of learning the language.

But you still want to find something

that is going to challenge you

so that you can learn new words and phrases.

So nothing is lost.

It's better to listen to something that's too easy

than too hard in my opinion because that's the way

that you're going to enjoy things.

It's gonna happen naturally.

You're not stressed about understanding things,

instead you're just getting some great input

and repetition and all these phrases

that you're going to just acquire and truly understand

by listening to things a lot.

But at the same time, do challenge yourself

from time to time, do think, okay, let's try to listen

to this podcast episode that I didn't understand

six months ago, can I understand it now?

Can I understand this TV show that went (swooshes)

over my head a few months ago?

Do challenge yourself and think about listening

to a variety of different things and different accents

so that you can understand different people,

but I would love to know your thoughts.

What kind of things do you like listening to?

Do you enjoy listening to things?

Do some podcasts or some resources make you feel stressed

because you can't understand them?

And what else do you like listening to,

let me know in the comment section

if there is one on the app you're using.

And like I said before, check out the description

for more resources, including my book

"The Five Step Plan for English Fluency"

and also the program that I have at the moment

and any new programs and courses that I'm going to make.

So definitely go check that out.

Subscribe, click that subscribe button right now

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Okay, thank you so much for listening

and I'll speak to you soon.

Bye bye.