Name: Listening Skills | Why You Don’t Understand Movies, TV Shows, & Native English Speakers
Uploaded: 2018-05-23T04:31:05.000Z
Duration: 18 min 44 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...

hey guys what's up Stefanie the English
coach here from EnglishFullTime.com

Present continuous

in this video we are going to talk about
how to improve your listening skills in

English and the reason I'm making this
video is because this is one of the most

frequently asked questions that I get
you guys say Stefanie I don't

understand what's going on I understand
you perfectly

but then when I watch TV shows and
movies in English I have to turn on

subtitles because I feel like I don't
understand anything okay so we're going

to talk about this and how you can
improve your listening skills and what

some of the reasons might be that you're
not understanding other people in

English but you understand me perfectly
fine okay so to begin one of the reasons

why you understand me so well is because
I speak well I have very good speaking

habits because as I was growing up I
competed in speech competitions poetry

competitions I did public speaking I
did acting classes I sang in choirs I

sang in jazz groups okay there are so
many things that I did growing up that

really focused on helping me improve my
voice and have a strong voice and the

voice that I have and also as I've
become an adult I've really focused on

my voice because your voice is something
that everyone has to listen to not just

you okay have you ever made a video and
you're like oh I hate my voice well

think about it if you hate your voice
what do other people think about your

voice because everyone has to listen to
your voice right so I didn't want to

hate my voice I focused on improving my
voice and I really just started

listening to my speech my patterns my
speaking habits the tone of my voice

okay the sound the volume everything and
I started paying attention to it anytime

you start paying attention to something
and you're actively trying to improve it

and thinking why don't I like this what
can I do to improve it you're gonna

start noticing things like if you listen
to my voice and you ask yourself okay

why do I like Stefanie's voice you're
gonna be able to identify specific

things about my voice that you like
maybe it's the fact that I go up and I

go
when I speak or something like that and

then you're gonna be able to incorporate
that okay you you don't need a teacher

or somebody to show you how to do all of
these things you can just identify what

it is and then start imitating the way
that I speak or the way anybody speaks

whoever speaks in a way that you like
maybe it's a famous actor or someone on

TV you can analyze their voice what do
you like about it what do you not like

about it and then you can start to
imitate them so going back to the good

speaking habits I was telling you guys
about one of the things that I do is I

enunciate and I'm very expressive so I
speak not just with my vocal cords and

my tongue and my mouth but I speak with
my eyes I speak with my facial

expressions I speak in a way that
communicates to you and helps make me

more understandable also the way that I
pause when I speak or the words that I

emphasize when I speak all of that helps
you focus on what I'm saying and be able

to listen to me for a long time
and like I said I enunciate I don't

mumble
I have good pronunciation habits again

these are just things that I learned how
to do growing up because of the

experiences that I had I never had a
teacher that really you know taught me

how to do all of this it just was
something that I sort of had to do

because of the activities that I was
involved in and I also taught in

classrooms for several years and I don't
know if you have experienced you know

presenting in front of huge groups of
people but if you're not entertaining or

if you don't speak in a certain way
people will not pay attention to you and

so I have had to learn basically because
of survival that if I want people to pay

attention to my message I have to
deliver it in a way that's gonna hold

their attention right so just life
experience has taught me how to present

in certain ways and this is why I
present the way that I do and not

everybody's gonna like it and that's
totally okay but a lot of you have

commented on my videos saying wow wow
wow we understand you what's going on

okay so that's one of the reasons now
the other reason you might understand me

more than you know TV shows and series
and stuff

that is because maybe you're more
familiar with my accent I grew up in

California so I speak like the way
people speak in California and this

means that if you watch TV shows that
are based in the US a lot of times these

shows have my same accent the people in
there speak the way that I speak so

you're just very familiar with my
dialect of English okay with my way of

speaking now if you watch I don't know
the news in Ireland or in the UK or in

Australia maybe you're not as familiar
with those accents because you have not

consumed as much material from those
regions okay with their specific English

dialect and way of speaking another
reason that you might understand me a

lot more than other people is because
when I make youtube videos or videos in

general I am presenting so it's not that
I'm trying to slow down I'm not slowing

down as you guys can see I'm speaking
rather quickly right now actually right

now I'm speaking more quickly than I
would in a natural conversation in a

natural conversation you guys I take my
time I'm pretty slow I relax but when

I'm presenting all of a sudden I don't
know what happens something inside of me

just wants to go faster and that might
be you know me just wanting to keep

everyone's attention but as I go faster
I'm also taking special care to make

sure I'm pronouncing words well so you
guys can understand me

even though I'm speaking faster and I
notice it because when I present in

front of a large group for an hour or an
hour and a half oh my gosh my voice is

so sore and that's when I realize wow
that I'm really putting a huge effort

into the way that I'm speaking so that I
can be understood in natural

conversation I go slower I don't support
my voice as well so when we say support

we're talking about the volume of the
voice okay I'm really using my diaphragm

and my muscles in my diaphragm to
project my voice and even though I'm the

only person in this room right now I'm
speaking in such a way where if someone

was you know 50 feet away they would
probably still be able to hear me that's

supporting your voice and projecting
that's what I do it when I make these

videos because
I am presenting and it's just this state

of being and it's just the way that I
present it's how I do it so that's

another reason why you probably
understand me so well now when you're

watching TV shows you're not watching
people present you're watching people

act so people are acting but they're
pretending to be in their natural normal

environment they're not projecting
they're not pronouncing words in a way

so that anybody could understand them
they're just talking okay this is also

why I've been making a series on my
youtube channel about fast speech to

help you guys get more familiar with
these ways of speaking with how native

speakers combine words in English so
that you can start understanding us more

so yeah in these TV shows people are
using slang they're using idioms maybe

they are mumbling they're speaking in
ways that you don't necessarily

understand and you will learn to
understand people in these shows I

promise you will but it really takes
time you have to consume hours and hours

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Listening Skills | Why You Don’t Understand Movies, TV Shows, & Native English Speakers

literally

specific

pronunciation

struggle