and over again the brain is picking up less  and less and less hi there steve kaufman here  

today i want to talk about listening skills  listening skills how to get better at listening  

how to use listening to learn a language remember  if you enjoy these videos please subscribe click  

on the bell for notifications so as you know i  consider input listening and reading to being  

to be the keys to learning a language you have  to get the language into you it has to come from  

outside you have to get your brain used to a new  language this is best achieved through listening  

and reading reading helps you acquire more words  but listening gets your brain used to the language  

and of course listening comprehension is a  tremendously important skill because if you're  

speaking to someone and we all want to speak  in the language if you can't understand what  

they're saying what the other person is saying  then it's very uncomfortable and you can't have  

a very meaningful conversation so how do you  use listening to get better in the language and  

what are the tips to get better  at listening first of all

it depends on each each person but i cannot  sit down and just listen if i were to sit  

and i've tried it so i have whatever lesson i'm  listening to and i sit down in a comfortable chair  

and i say i'm going to spend half an hour  listening to this podcast or whatever it  

might be i'm incapable of doing that my  mind mind wanders so i can't concentrate  

if i have dedicated study time then i'm going to  read or i'm going to work on my ipad with link  

so where does the listing  come in listening has the  

tremendous advantage that we can do it wherever  we are i don't have my air pods handy but  

i have my airpods and i recently bought a new  kind of airpod that sits outside the ear and  

they work really well i went jogging yesterday  and i could hear very well and i don't have  

these things actually plugged into my ear but  i can listen first thing in the morning i get  

up i have a little seven minute exercise routine  i listen i make breakfast i listen if i exercise  

during the day i listen if i'm in the car i listen  so you've got all this time to listen all right  

so then people say well when you're listening do  you always focus all right it is impossible to 100  

focus while listening you have to like so much in  language learning you have to accept imperfection  

so when you speak you're going to make mistakes  when you listen there's going to be lots of areas  

you don't understand there are also going to  be moments when you are not focused on what  

you're listening to you lose track you your mind  wanders off somewhere else that's fine as long as  

you come back and so let's say for a period of 30  minutes that i'm in the car listening to something  

maybe i'm only focused on what i'm listening to  for half that time or i don't know what the number  

is because i don't worry about it but i know it's  not a hundred percent of the time but for whatever  

percentage of the time i'm listening i'm exposing  my brain to the language and i am getting used to  

the language now one of the things that's very  important is you cannot continue to listen to

your target language and not understand anything  or only understand five percent that is very  

inefficient in my experience so if i listen to  something obviously at the early stages in the  

language i don't understand anything but then i  will read it i will look up the words i'll review  

them in link read it again then i'll listen and  i still don't understand even though i understood  

kind of when i was reading and looking up words  when i go to listen i don't understand but that  

doesn't bother me i know that from personal  experience that in time what initially is just  

noise for me by a process of reading and listening  and going back and reading again and looking up  

words again and listening again eventually  more and more of this becomes comprehensible  

don't listen to the same lesson over and over  and over again at one sitting in other words  

the brain as i've said many times requires  repetition and novelty so you can listen  

to an item a few times then move on to the  next item even if you don't fully understand  

the first so you have lesson one and you listen  and you listen and you read it then you listen  

again and you understand twenty thirty percent  move on to the next one don't try to you know  

master any particular lesson or content item it's  all exposure it's all helping the brain get used  

to the language remember you need repetition  and novelty after a while if you're listening  

to the same thing over and over again the  brain is picking up less and less and less  

so you have to move to the next lesson and to  the next lesson so keep pushing yourself forward  

maintain that balance between repetition and  novelty and there's all kinds of research into  

how the brain learns that sort of block learning  that third fourth fifth time we read something  

or we listen to something we are in fact learning  less and less so you have to keep moving forward  

now so don't worry about losing focus  don't worry about what you don't understand  

keep challenging or rewarding your brain with  new material but do have enough repetition  

so that you start to notice certain things  that you didn't notice the first time  

and this is the next point about listening i  can listen to a mini story that i've listened to  

30 40 times before so i know the mini story and  yet i will suddenly notice a structure a verb  

pattern verb form that i hadn't really noticed  before even though i knew the rule vaguely but  

the 31st time that i listened to that i notice it  in a different way so give yourself a chance to  

notice things when you go back for that additional  pass through the same material so you're again  

you're maintaining that repetition and novelty but  when you're on your in your repetition activity  

allow yourself to notice certain things you don't  have to notice everything you can lose focus but  

there will be times when you notice certain  things in there that will help you in your  

gradual acquisition of the language and remember  that listening comprehension here is the goal  

it's not going to be perfect but it will  gradually improve and the better your listening  

comprehension the better your ability to have  conversations but again give yourself you know  

a variety between repetition repetitious material  and new challenging material combine reading with  

listening try to focus in on certain aspects of  pronunciation that you maybe didn't notice before  

be aware that some of the things that  you didn't notice on the first time  

listening or the second or the fifth or the tenth  time you may notice the 20th time you listen  

so the the process of acquisition of a language is  gradual so if you listen and you don't understand  

don't get frustrated if you listen and read  and listen and read and still don't understand  

don't get frustrated that's normal and at least  in my own case i prefer to be listening and doing  

something else cleaning up the garage whatever it  might be listening fading out focusing in again  

that works better for me than trying to sit  down and say okay for the next half hour i'm  

to listen to this all right  the exception of that of course  

is if you're watching a movie which is a form of  listening but you're watching and listening at  

the same time and it's rewarding because it's fun  to watch a movie and you can see the people you  

can almost feel as if you're participating with  this family that's why series you know on netflix  

are so great if it's if it's the same group of  people interacting all the time in the series  

and you watch them and you feel you're a part of  them and you're getting that sense of being in  

that cultural you know uh sphere um all of that  is good but i wouldn't you know i consider the  

the sort of video movies tv series that's more  of a reward that's fun you have to develop the  

ability to be able to listen without seeing what's  going on uh initially sort of repetitious material  

like the many stories eventually audiobooks where  just hearing the words conjures up meaning for  

you so that you're automatically converting you  know words in the target language into meaning  

and so as you build up to that level of of  listening comprehension you are preparing yourself  

to become fluent in the language so that's my  advice treat listening and listening comprehension  

not only as a primary goal in language learning  but as an important way of helping your brain  

become accustomed to the language so i hope  that was helpful thank you for listening