When I'm reading a written text or an article, I have no problems at understanding it. But when I am listening to a live, English conversation, I don't understand it. They speak too fast. How to improve myself?
2007-02-11 20:23:27 · 7 answers · asked by ciomlol 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Listen to librivox's audiobooks, you can listen at the same time you read the text linked at project Gutenberg.
http://librivox.org
listen to radio NPR and/or BBC, where they speak very clearly and carefuly, if you can read, you should start understanding after awhile.
http://npr.org
http://bbc.co.uk/radio
Learn phonetics:
http://faculty.washington.edu/dillon/PhonResources/
If you have not yet chosen an accent, I recommend American which is easier to find listening materials.
Extra tip: when watching TV (or talking to people), paying attention to the lip movement will help you understand better.
2007-02-11 22:39:09 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
In any language, reading it always seems to be easier than listening to it. I have found that to be very true of French and Romanian even though I am an English speaker. I can read these languages much better than I can understand them when a native speaker is talking in them.
However, if you listen to a foreign language long enough, and converse in it long enough with native speakers, your ear will eventually adapt to it and, little by little, you will be able to discern all of the words you are hearing. The mind is an interesting thing. A lot of our learning on any subject goes on subconsciously.
2007-02-12 14:28:42 · answer #2 · answered by Brennus 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Watch movies in English. There are quite a few out there, you know. Or get some spoken word albums - comedy CDs and the like.
Either way, since it's a recording, you can listen through, stop, rewind, go over parts you didn't understand, etc. If your TV can do it, you can turn on captions and read (when necessary) to figure out what is being said.
2007-02-12 04:32:01 · answer #3 · answered by Doc Occam 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would think that it is not just the speed that is confusing for you, but also the figures of speech that are used in conversational English.
My friend, who is learning English, takes every opportunity to listen to English radio, watch English films, listen to English music and speak English with English people.
The best for him is to talk to me. If he doesn't understand something he will stop me and ask, and I make sure that the conversation speed is OK for him.
Do you have an English friend you can practice with ? That is all it is - just practice...........it will come eventually.
2007-02-12 05:47:09 · answer #4 · answered by the_lipsiot 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have the same problem with mandarin..If you start out by just trying to pick out key phrases that are being said..it's a little easier to do. Don't try to understand it sentence by sentence. and if you don't get it all right just try for those key phrases. It will come. And just a word of advice..don't ever try to learn a foreign language by listening to a news broadcast. Those people are hired for their ability to speak rapidly :). Just keep listening and trying ...and ask people to slow down if you have to...I find listening to be the most difficult of all..I can speak, read, write chinese...but the listening is the hardest of all for me. I am currently going to school just for that. To learn how to listen to chinese.
2007-02-12 05:18:42 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Keep listening to the conversations and try to get hang of all the words. U keep this going and u'll surely improve. I learnt Malayalam just like that... :-)
2007-02-12 04:30:59 · answer #6 · answered by Swathi Rao 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
as i have always suggested, you ttry to talk on line, chat with english speaking people, then on you can converse well fast..good luck
2007-02-12 04:28:27 · answer #7 · answered by eilisha19 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋