Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • So today, I'm gonna talk about one of the most common questions that I get,

  • "How to improve my English listening skills?".

  • So, yeah, I got asked this question almost everyday! But I have to say, right from the beginning,

  • that I'm pretty sure 70 to 80 percent of the people who watch this video would just

  • stop watching almost immediately.

  • The reason why is because I'm not going to give you the kind of answer that you want!

  • So what kind of answer is it people are hoping to get when they ask this question? Or even

  • this kind of question because "improving listening skills", "improving speaking skills" is all

  • basically the same.

  • The kind of answer people want is a kind of easy, magic solution. They want me to give

  • them some kind of tip or trick which will let them improve their English listening skills

  • instantly and easily without making any effort!

  • To be honest? That is a load of rubbish! These tips and tricks, magic methods just don't

  • exist. They don't work at all. So, I can't give you that kind of answer.

  • It really is a case of just doing it! That is about it. And in fact, I have to be honest,

  • instead of searching for these kind of easy methods, these magic ways to do it easily

  • and quickly without having to do any kind of hard work.

  • Instead of looking for these things, don't waste your time. Just start doing it. I mean,

  • if you want to improve your listening skills, start listening to things.

  • The only thing that I will say is that you should think about what kind of situation

  • and what kind of English you're gonna be listening to. And try and target your practice to that.

  • In my newsletter, I have a story about a friend who wanted to learn to play the guitar.

  • And he thought, "Well, listening to music will make me a better guitar player."

  • So, what does he do? He starts to listen to piano music and he listens to piano music everyday, all day!

  • And of course, his guitar playing doesn't improve.

  • But it's kind of obvious when I put it like that because you know, you want to

  • learn to play the guitar, you should listen to guitar music not the piano.

  • But actually people tend to do this when they are practicing their English listening or something like that.

  • If you are having trouble understanding people in conversation,

  • listening to the news is not going to be that helpful. The reason is because the kind of words that

  • people use and the phrases that people use are quite different.

  • And the style of speaking is quite different, as well.

  • So, yeah, if it's conversation that you're having trouble in, try and listen to a lot of conversations.

  • Even better, make friends and get involved in conversations.

  • If, on the other hand, it's listening to a lecture at your University that you're having

  • trouble with then try to listen to that sort of thing. Get on YouTube, find recordings of lectures

  • and start listening to them.

  • If you come across words that you don't know, just look them up in the dictionary and then

  • everytime you find a word that you don't know and you keep on hearing it again and again

  • and again, just look it up in the dictionary.

  • You'll find that the more you do it, the easier it'll get. So,

  • instead of worrying about it and looking for some kind of easy, magic solution, just start doing it.

  • The more you do it, the easier it will get! The easier it gets,the more you'll want to

  • do it!

  • So, that is it for today's video lesson. So yeah, as always, if you have any questions

  • of your own just let me know in the comments under this video.

  • Recently, I got a lot of comments on my YouTube videos and I don't know if people watching

  • the videos actually know but YouTube changed the comments system recently

  • and I no longer get these comments sent to my email so I missed a lot of them!

  • If I don't reply to your comment or if I don't notice your comment, just keep sending it

  • again or even better, join my newsletter and ask me them.

  • By the way, Congratulations if you are part of the 20 to 30 percent that didn't stop watching

  • when I said I was not going to give you some kind of magic tip, magic method. You are one

  • of the 20 to 30 percent who will probably get very good at English very easily and very

  • quickly because you know, there is no magic method.

  • It's just a case of doing it: work hard, learn English, use English. Easy!

So today, I'm gonna talk about one of the most common questions that I get,

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it