Name: Why You Can't Understand Some Native English Speakers
Uploaded: 2016-06-19T16:46:49.000Z
Duration: 15 min 38 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Modal verbs - A2

Hey! How's it going? "Why is it that I can understand some native

English speakers and not others?" This is a really common question that I've

been getting over and over from you, members of the Go Natural English community.

And I think it's a really good question to discuss in this episode.

Don't you think so? So, why is it that you can understand some

native English speakers, like me. I know that a lot of you while I've received

many, many, many emails saying, "Oh my Gosh, this is so exciting!"

"Gabby, I can understand every single word you're saying."

Or "Wow, I can't believe I understand 70% of what you're saying."

"This is amazing. I've never felt this way before."

"I feel so good when I listen to your English, Gabby."

"But why when I listen to other native English speakers, can't I understand them?"

So, let's talk about that. Today, we're going to solve this problem,

and I'm going to share resources, suggestions with you on how to fix this problem.

This is some big deal, because you don't want to feel left out of native English conversation.

It feels horrible. It feels really horrible when you cannot understand

some native speakers, but you can understand others, because it makes you wonder is this

your problem, is that the native speakers' problem, is there something wrong with them

or is there something wrong with you. It's embarrassing when you're in a group of

native speakers, and maybe you can understand some of them, but not others.

Or maybe in the morning, you're watching a Go Natural English video or listening to the

podcast, and then in the afternoon, you go to talk with your native English speaker friend

or your colleges, and you can't understand some of them.

So, in this episode, we're going to solve that.

So first of all, natives talk funny. Native English speakers have different ways

of talking. I'm a native English speaker.

I was born and raised in United States of America, and I speak a very standard kind

of American English. I was born in Minneapolis, so some people

who are really, really good at English know that sometimes, there's a tiny, tiny, incy-wincy

hint of that kind of regional accent in my English.

But not so much. I tend to speak standard English, because

as I was growing up, I actually moved to different states.

I lived in Minnesota until I was ten, and then Hawaii until I was thirteen, and then

Indiana, until I was fifteen, and then Maine until I was twenty, Massachusetts until recently.

So anyway, I'm a very good kind of even English. So anyway, my English is really clear, because

I also have over ten years of experience teaching English as a second language, travelling the

world and working with English-as-the-second language speakers.

Other native English speakers don't have the same experience, they're not English teachers.

So, in order to communicate with people, they just speak like they would speak with other

native English speakers. I'm speaking to you right now like I would

speak to my native English-speaking friends. What I mean is I think I'm more aware of speaking

clearly, I enunciate my words. People that work on the radio or in broadcasting,

or on TV also speak very clearly whether they're English teachers or not.

Other people that are used to working all day every day with other Americans speak pretty

quickly, and they might combine their words more.

So, for example, I might say, "Don't you know how to understand native English?", and they

might say, "Don't you know how to understand native English?"

"Don't you know?" Which is also very Minnesotan of me to say.

If you do know the difference in regional English, sometimes people make fun of Minnesotans

saying, "Ya, don't you know?" Anyway, back on track.

So, the point here is that some native English speakers talk funny.

But it's not funny to other native English speakers.

They'll just say, "Okay, they have a strong southern accent or New York accent."

Or maybe they use a lot of slang, or maybe combine their words a lot, like that example

with "Don't you know." Or, for example, "What are you doing?", they

might say, "What're you doin' or "Watcha doin?" "What's up?"

So, we combine our words really often. So, natives talk in different ways base on

their regional accent, based on where they grew up, based on just their style, whether

they talk more casually, more clearly, professionally, whether they have experience in public speaking

or radio, or broadcasting. So, there are a lot of different ways to speak.

Also, if you think about people from different generations.

Young people will use phrases, like "I can't even!"

And older people don't tend to use phrases like that, that's slang.

Older people may speak less clearly, because they've got so used to speaking with their

own way, their own accent, combining words together.

So, these are some reasons why native can be difficult to understand.

Now, why is it difficult for you in particular to understand some native speakers?

It could be, because you are used to classroom English.

But English classroom is possibly the most dangerous place for you to spend your time

if you want to become fluent in real natural English.

Danger! Danger! Get out of there! Come on-line and watch or listen to more Go

Natural English, because in the classroom, you have an English teacher who is used to

working with English learners (and that's a good things), but you're not exposed to

real natural English as much as you're out in the real word or on-line listening to authentic,

real life speed English. So in the classroom, you're also exposed to

a lot of language, such as "Open your book", "Please read page twenty.", "Do you have any

questions?", "Please do your homework.", "Now we're going to learn blah, blah, blah".

This is all classroom vocabulary. And some of it is common in everyday English

life, but some of it is really specific to the classroom.

For example, "You came to class late! Why are you late?"

Or "Open your books." This is a phrase you're not going to hear

very often in everyday English conversation. Do you follow me here?

I hope this is making sense. So, you need to be in an environment where

you're surrounded by the kind of English you want to speak.

So, if you want to be an English teacher, you should spend a lot of time in the English

classroom. You should also spend the time outside of

the classroom. But being in a classroom will give you classroom

English. If you want to be an English-speaking doctor,

well, you should shadow an English-speaking doctor.

So, you need to make sure that you're listening to and watching, and being part of English

word that you plan to spend your time in, the English world that you want to be part

I hope it makes sense. So, let me give you an example.

I'm travelling now, I'm in Thailand. And I was with my friend Sofia.

And Sofia works in finance, she's not an English teacher.

So, it's really funny, because every time Sofia tries to speak to the locals who speak

English, they don't understand. And then, when I interrupt and I speak to

the locals in a way that I know they learned in their English class, they understand.

For example, Sofia said, "Excuse me, should we fill out this form?", but Thai woman didn't

understand. I said, "We write?", and the Thai woman understood.