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  • Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you how to be a better listener.

  • I'm going to teach you three steps, which will really, really help you with your listening.

  • So before I teach you how to be a better listener, I want you to think about: What kind of listener

  • are you? Okay? So, I have, here, a question. I want you to imagine this. You're talking

  • to somebody, an English speaker, and you don't understand what they're saying. Okay? You

  • have no idea. I don't understand what they're saying. What do you do?

  • Okay? Here are your choices.

  • Do you: A) look scared? A lot of students do this.

  • Do you: B) Nod and pretend you understand? Nod and say: "I understand",

  • but you really don't understand; you have no idea?

  • C) Are you honest? Do you say: "I'm sorry. I don't understand"?

  • Or, D) Do you say: "I don't understand", and you ask the person to write down what they're saying?

  • Okay? So, which one do you do? Do you look scared, do you nod and pretend you understand when

  • you don't? Do you say: "I don't understand" or do you say: "I don't understand" and ask

  • them to write it down? Maybe you do multiple things. Okay? Which one do you think is the

  • best thing to do? If you said: D or C,

  • you are correct. Okay? Now, there is a little

  • bit of a difference between C and D. It's mainly that D, we use some sort of listening

  • strategy. I'm going to teach you some very, very good strategies you can use, which will

  • help you be a better listener.

  • Okay, so if you don't understand something, very first thing you should do is

  • show you don't understand. Okay? You should really let the person know you don't understand.

  • There's nothing to be embarrassed about. We all have times where we don't understand what

  • somebody is saying, but we really do want to know, so it's very important you let the

  • person know that you don't understand.

  • So, here are a couple of different ways we can say that. The first one:

  • "I didn't catch that.", "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

  • This means the exact same thing as: "I don't understand."

  • So you can say: "I don't understand." or "I didn't catch that." You can also say:

  • "I'm sorry I don't understand." One thing a lot of students say,

  • but it's not a good thing to say: "I no understand."

  • Okay? This: "I no understand", I hear many students say it. This, wrong.

  • Okay? So you can either say: "I didn't catch that.", "I'm sorry I don't understand.",

  • but you cannot say: "I no understand." That one is bad English.

  • Okay, so that's the first step.

  • The second step is using a strategy. Okay? So what do I mean by this? When you use a

  • strategy, you're pretty much asking somebody to help you out in a different way. You're

  • asking somebody to do something to help you understand. So, this is an excellent expression,

  • very polite. All of these start with: "Could you please". You can ask the person:

  • "Could you please write it down?" Okay? So: "I'm sorry I didn't catch that. Could you please

  • write it down?" Some... For some people, when they read it, it's easier than listening to it.

  • You can also ask somebody to repeat what they're saying. "Could you please repeat that?" Okay?

  • That means: "Could you please say it again?" A lot of English speakers and also me, myself

  • included, sometimes we speak too fast. So, it's perfectly okay if you say politely:

  • "Could you please speak more slowly?" Maybe the problem is the person who's speaking is talking way

  • too fast. So just a nice, friendly reminder: "Could you please speak more slowly?"

  • And finally, the fourth strategy: "Could you please say it in a different way?"

  • This one is very useful because sometimes when you say to an English speaker: "I don't understand",

  • they keep saying the same thing the exact same way, and that's not helpful. Sometimes

  • you really need to hear it in different words, so it's also a great idea to ask the person:

  • "Could you please say it in a different way?" Okay? So these are the first two steps. First,

  • show you don't understand; second, use a strategy. Now let's look at the third step.

  • Okay, so our third step is: Double check what the person is telling you. Check meaning.

  • So, this pretty much means that after you've told them you don't understand and you've

  • asked them to use some sort of strategy, the third thing is you're going to make sure you

  • really understood. So, how are you going to do this? Well, one thing you can do is you

  • can repeat back what the person said to you. Okay? So, for example, if somebody says something

  • and you think you understand what they said, instead of just saying: "Yes, I understand",

  • you can check by saying: "So what you're saying is..." and repeat what they said.

  • "So what you're saying is", you know, "dogs are better than cats.",

  • "Okay, what you're saying is the colour blue is fantastic." Okay? Just some examples.

  • Another way to do this: "So what you mean is..." Okay? So, these two things mean the

  • same thing. "So what you're saying is...", "So what you mean is..." And finally:

  • "I think I get what you're saying...". "Get" in English can also mean understand.

  • So this sentence means: "I think I understand what you're saying...",

  • "I think I get what you're saying...", "What you're saying is..." Okay?

  • So, again, there are three steps to being a very good listener. The first one is saying

  • and being honest that you don't understand; the second step is using a strategy, for example:

  • "Could you write it down please?", "Could you please repeat it?" Okay? And the final

  • step is checking to make sure you really understood. "So what you're saying is..."

  • If you use these three strategies, they will really help improve your conversation,

  • because instead of not

  • having any clue what is happening and being very confused all the time, at least you're

  • going to be more confident, and you will understand more. You're not going to understand everything,

  • that's okay. But these strategies will help you understand a lot more than if you just

  • look scared, and nod and say: "I understand" when you don't. Okay?

  • So, I invite you to check out our website at www.engvid.com. There, you can find a quiz

  • on this material, and you can practice some of these phrases that I've taught today.

  • Until next time, take care.

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you how to be a better listener.

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