Steps (mostly writing it out so I make sure I got it right): 1) Find a piece of media that you enjoy with audio, length depends on level. From 2 min to 10 min. 2) Write down what you hear. 3) If you have a transcript compare it or ask a native speaker to verify what you caught. 4) Make sure that you understand all of the words and what's being expressed.
Thanks so much for that wonderful and encouraging feedback Jaylen! Seriously, reading comments like that really do keep me going and excited to make more videos 😄💪🏼 it must be quite a journey going through all my videos and experiencing all those seasons with me!
This is such a good example of the enjoyment of learning. We should slow down and stop punishing ourselves for " not knowing " We will NEVER know it all . Enjoy the pleasure of gaining knowledge of your target language. Savour every word . Thanks Robin !
This is something I need to focus on, listening to casual everyday speakers and understanding in 'real time'. Looking forward to whenever I get over the translating in my head stage because it really slows me down! Going to try the method you discussed yesterday :D
What makes written language different from spoken language is that spoken language often combines words, making more than two words or more sound as if they were one. What works for me, is listening to audio with transcription.
I'm going to give this a try and hopefully it improves my listening comprehension of Italian! I struggle with listening and understanding so much. Hopefully after a few weeks of trying this out I'll see an improvement in my listening comprehension! Thank you!
I remember being in an intensive German language class in Germany many years ago and we had transcribe what we heard in German into German on paper. It was insanely difficult.
Completely agree! This is what I have been using at the moment to perfect my French language. To be honest I had tried to use this technique several times and I could never stick to it regularly because it was so painful to start with. The time-consuming process and a lot of boring repetitions were not fun. Well but at the end I have found a right balance that suits me better after giving up multiple times - short 1-2 minute + interesting/attractive comprehensible content. Now I'm getting used to the process and I'm just so excited learning so much each time. I am pleasantly surprised by the progress I'm having now! Thanks for sharing Robin!
It's Saturday morning and I switched on my tablet to see that someone had liked my remark about one of Robin's videos. It's number 013 and he made it on a Saturday ! So I've just watched it again. So true Robin, calibration. Now after three years of constant italian I find I'm understanding so much with podcasts. My speaking isn't great yet but I know I will get there. Oh, the beauty of slow but sure ! Thanks again Robin !
Your content is AWESOME!!! I'm a German language learner and I am completely stuck at an upper intermediate level (B1/B2 trying to reach an advanced or fluent level). Your content has really helped me find new ways to try and break through... it's slow going, but I'm working on it.
Thank you for this video!! I'm learning French and while I understand a lot when reading, I've been really struggling with my listening skills and that kinda demotivates me to continue learning French. I've watched many videos about improving listening comprehension but these didn't really cover my needs , but I think your video will help me improve, so I'm excited to try this method! 🙏🏻🌸
I like these daily videos it helps to improve English and German (it is applicable to other languages as well :D ). Keep it up! Greeting from the Czech Republic :))
Heyy Radek! Thanks for commenting and I'm very happy you are liking these daily videos :D Keep up the great work with your English and German and thank you for supporting me! :)
I discovered your channel last night & I’m hooked, this video was fantastic & so helpful, I’m definitely going to use this technique. I’m looking forward to watching more of your videos!
I found your channel yesterday and I'm very excited about it, for you teach exactly the stuff, that my intuition and curiosity lead me with learning English. I'm learning French now, and i feel like boosted by your teachings! Thank you very much 💕 (Oh yeah, I'm German, and please feel free to contact, if you are lacking a native speaker) xx
Training your ears to “hear” the language 5:29 Transcribe the language 6:29 Find a transcript for what you’re listening to 8:18 Learn the words that were new to you 9:02 Repeat and listen to certain parts you didn’t hear well 10:40 Advice
Another great video, Robin! I have tried a few of the individual bits and pieces to this process, but I have never tried combining them into a single, full-fledged process as you described here. As luck would have it, earlier this week I ran across a video in my target language that would work great with this process. It was hand-captioned with the actual script, so I will be able to check my transcription against an accurate source. Time to brew a fresh cup and get on it! (Maybe this will become my second language sprint...) Thanks for answering my question! (I'm famous, woot!)
Thanks so much! Finding content has been difficult because I'm learning a minority language but this is encouraging to try all the more because, especially during Covid-19, the distance game is key.
You'd be surprised how well I speak and write Dutch, but how often I have to ask people to repeat what they've said haha. I work in Dutch and use it daily, but my listening comprehension is still not perfect. Nothing that a few questions won't solve though. It's the same case with Spanish. I understand spoken Spanish well, face-to-face, but watching movies and series is still difficult without Spanish captions to help me out. I'm getting better at it though hehe.
Thank you Robin for another great video. I have been trying to learn Arabic for some years but it’s been an on-off thing. But this video on developing listening skills, transcribing what you hear, deciphering the gaps, has put me back on track. I am so excited that I can now look forward to reaching a respectable level of fluency with your tips. Shukran.
Yeah. I'm from Wales and have spent over a year learning my native language: _Cymraeg._ I've tried listening to songs, Welsh Radio and Television and have tried talking with native Welsh speakers but my comprehension speed has always been far too slow for me to feel like I've made ANY progress, no matter how much knowledge I've actually gained. I'm sure there are some TH-cam videos and podcasts that I can listen to over and over again to improve my listening ability. I'll try that. Thank you.
Robin this is a brilliant idea!! I find I am getting much better at reading my target language, but when I hear it I feel like I know the sound but there are just too many words in such a short time for me to understand. Interestingly, I recorded myself reading text (that I understand when I read it) and I can't even understand myself talking!! weird. I will definitely give this a go as I need to improve my listening/comprehension skills :)
Oh it's a massive leap. It's another one of my methods where it's quite a bit of effort up front but the rewards are HUGE and once you do it a time or two you get into a beautiful rhythm. With the example I used in the video from when I was learning French, this method took me from kind of being able to follow but with lots of gaps and sometimes losing track of the story, to being able to follow the story perfectly every time and able to listen confidently, even if there were words I didn't know in each new episode. Same thing happened with Japanese. By the way, one of my upcoming short documentary-style videos is planned to be documenting myself going through the entire process of becoming able to understand Chinese podcasts, and you'll see the whole story in that single video 😄
Robin MacPherson good morning Robin. I have just stumbled across you and what a find! Everything that you say makes perfect sense. I will practice with the telephone messages from my French friend and the missing bits I’ll ask her to transcribe. I’ve been stuck at a B1 level forever and desperately want to enrol for B2 this year. Thank you so much.
Yes it did bring clarity ! Everyone points towards 'active listening' without really delivering it in a way in which I can identify with the mental process involved...you and this video are the exception . Thank you . P.s anyone that is trying to improve their Spanish hit me up and share some resources!
Hi Robin. I got pleasantly surprised! Because I know how amazingly you speak Japanese.(around 7:55-8:00 in the video ) I am from Japan and have been learning British English. You are a great help. Thanks a lot.(^_^)
Hi Robin! First of all, congrats for your last serie of videos. They are very interesting, specially the last ones. I would like to ask you about language exchanges. Do you have any special tip in order to really improve your spoken abilities in those language exchanges? What I mean is if you have any advice on how to improve those conversation practice sessions. Regards!
I listen to various short videos in Brazilian Portuguese and stop after a sentence or two then I say it to Google translate to see if it understoods then translates BP to English.
When I was young a used to listen english radio on AM frequency, there were no internet, audiobook, podcast.😉 And listening was a little bit like that : “And now, frszzshhh, sonhgs of the group fsggh” “Arsenal on the ball, and kssszzz, the score is x nil” “Tomorrow kkksfscchh with gggth in the afterssn”
This is excellent advice, I'm looking for Bulgarian resources now to give transcribing them a go! I'm at exactly that place in my learn where I know enough grammar and vocab to start speaking, but am a bit daunted to take the next step. Feel free to put your coffee cup down though, your arm must be getting tired ;)
hi, i really like the daily videos i hope you do another series like that, i have a little question, when you said to transcribe, you meant to write it in the language of the content or in my language? thank you
Hey robin! Im from Asia and naturally I love my thai and viet iced coffee. Im curious to know your thoughts on condensed milk in coffee beverages? Some westerners find it strange! Loving these daily videos BTW. Cheers Xx
I repeat and re-watch/re-listen to things constantly. I love to do this, I find that I can extract such an incredible amount of value from “mastering” a small handful of pieces of content.
Hey Robin, I really enjoyed this video, and just wanted to ask is it advisable to start with something simple like songs for comprehension? Thanks in advance!
Quick question what accent of mandarin have you chose to emulate? I'm guessing Taiwanese accented Mandarin since you use traditional characters. I have a mixed accent since I studied southern accented and i speak with northern accented people
Uh, so I'm new to German. But what I did was watch an A1 movie. Then learned German for a month and a half (still at A1) now I'm able to understand most of the movie. I'm wondering if listening to A2 stories, podcasts or even the radio will help. Please let me know.
For me, it's the boring test voice that I have a hard time understanding. Any advice for this? I can usually understand when people are speaking normally, but when I get into a test, the voices are so boring and it's hard for me to stay focused or even want to learn the content.
Thanks a lot! Good lesson and a good teacher. I found out your lessons only recently and I will continue to listen to them. I have a little question for you Robin. When I study some podcast I like to close my eyes and use only my ears. My understanding of the material is better as a result of it. I discern more tiny details of the audio. Is it a usual thing for many?
Can I know the exact name of that French Podcast? I'm really intrigued about it but couldn't make out the name in this video no matter how hard I tried.
Hahaa! I'm learning French as well, and I managed to find it :-) (proud) - have to say though, I had to turn the speed to half of normal. It is "chemin d' écrivains"
my problem is when I listen podcast from joe rogan on spotify, And I can't understand better. But When I watch the Joe Rogan Podcast I can be able to understand much better, because I can see the moviment of the mouth lol
Steps (mostly writing it out so I make sure I got it right):
1) Find a piece of media that you enjoy with audio, length depends on level. From 2 min to 10 min.
2) Write down what you hear.
3) If you have a transcript compare it or ask a native speaker to verify what you caught.
4) Make sure that you understand all of the words and what's being expressed.
5) repeat the video a couple of times to tune in to the finer details
You're one of the best channels in the community. I discovered you a few days ago and I've been binge watching all your videos.
Thanks so much for that wonderful and encouraging feedback Jaylen! Seriously, reading comments like that really do keep me going and excited to make more videos 😄💪🏼 it must be quite a journey going through all my videos and experiencing all those seasons with me!
Are you still watching his channel?
This is such a good example of the enjoyment of learning. We should slow down and stop punishing ourselves for " not knowing " We will NEVER know it all . Enjoy the pleasure of gaining knowledge of your target language. Savour every word . Thanks Robin !
In order to become fluent one needs to understand very well a language. Amazing tips! Professor X here. Stay safe.
This is something I need to focus on, listening to casual everyday speakers and understanding in 'real time'. Looking forward to whenever I get over the translating in my head stage because it really slows me down! Going to try the method you discussed yesterday :D
What makes written language different from spoken language is that spoken language often combines words, making more than two words or more sound as if they were one.
What works for me, is listening to audio with transcription.
I'm going to give this a try and hopefully it improves my listening comprehension of Italian! I struggle with listening and understanding so much. Hopefully after a few weeks of trying this out I'll see an improvement in my listening comprehension! Thank you!
I remember being in an intensive German language class in Germany many years ago and we had transcribe what we heard in German into German on paper. It was insanely difficult.
Another excuse for picking up audiobooks, especially of my favorite stories, in other languages!
Completely agree! This is what I have been using at the moment to perfect my French language. To be honest I had tried to use this technique several times and I could never stick to it regularly because it was so painful to start with. The time-consuming process and a lot of boring repetitions were not fun. Well but at the end I have found a right balance that suits me better after giving up multiple times - short 1-2 minute + interesting/attractive comprehensible content. Now I'm getting used to the process and I'm just so excited learning so much each time. I am pleasantly surprised by the progress I'm having now! Thanks for sharing Robin!
Can you write exactly what you did to improve your listening skills please?
It's Saturday morning and I switched on my tablet to see that someone had liked my remark about one of Robin's videos. It's number 013 and he made it on a Saturday ! So I've just watched it again. So true Robin, calibration. Now after three years of constant italian I find I'm understanding so much with podcasts. My speaking isn't great yet but I know I will get there. Oh, the beauty of slow but sure ! Thanks again Robin !
Your content is AWESOME!!! I'm a German language learner and I am completely stuck at an upper intermediate level (B1/B2 trying to reach an advanced or fluent level). Your content has really helped me find new ways to try and break through... it's slow going, but I'm working on it.
Thank you for this video!! I'm learning French and while I understand a lot when reading, I've been really struggling with my listening skills and that kinda demotivates me to continue learning French. I've watched many videos about improving listening comprehension but these didn't really cover my needs , but I think your video will help me improve, so I'm excited to try this method! 🙏🏻🌸
I like these daily videos it helps to improve English and German (it is applicable to other languages as well :D ). Keep it up! Greeting from the Czech Republic :))
Heyy Radek! Thanks for commenting and I'm very happy you are liking these daily videos :D Keep up the great work with your English and German and thank you for supporting me! :)
I discovered your channel last night & I’m hooked, this video was fantastic & so helpful, I’m definitely going to use this technique. I’m looking forward to watching more of your videos!
I found your channel yesterday and I'm very excited about it, for you teach exactly the stuff, that my intuition and curiosity lead me with learning English. I'm learning French now, and i feel like boosted by your teachings! Thank you very much 💕
(Oh yeah, I'm German, and please feel free to contact, if you are lacking a native speaker) xx
You have made such a positive difference for me in my journey learning Hungarian! Thank you so much!
Training your ears to “hear” the language
5:29 Transcribe the language
6:29 Find a transcript for what you’re listening to
8:18 Learn the words that were new to you
9:02 Repeat and listen to certain parts you didn’t hear well
10:40 Advice
Thanks I always get lost, would be nicer just straight to the points.😊
it's my first video yours, backing for the previous one, sounds fantastic so far, thanks
I have been doing something simillar to this with songs lately and im not kidding when i say it really works
Another great video, Robin!
I have tried a few of the individual bits and pieces to this process, but I have never tried combining them into a single, full-fledged process as you described here.
As luck would have it, earlier this week I ran across a video in my target language that would work great with this process. It was hand-captioned with the actual script, so I will be able to check my transcription against an accurate source. Time to brew a fresh cup and get on it! (Maybe this will become my second language sprint...)
Thanks for answering my question! (I'm famous, woot!)
Thanks so much! Finding content has been difficult because I'm learning a minority language but this is encouraging to try all the more because, especially during Covid-19, the distance game is key.
Just out of curiosity, what are you learning?
VERY helpful. You are awesome in this gift you have. Thank you for sharing it with us!
Siempre veo uno de tus videos antes de comenzar a estudiar para así motivarme más, gracias por tu contenido.
You'd be surprised how well I speak and write Dutch, but how often I have to ask people to repeat what they've said haha. I work in Dutch and use it daily, but my listening comprehension is still not perfect. Nothing that a few questions won't solve though. It's the same case with Spanish. I understand spoken Spanish well, face-to-face, but watching movies and series is still difficult without Spanish captions to help me out. I'm getting better at it though hehe.
Thank you Robin for another great video. I have been trying to learn Arabic for some years but it’s been an on-off thing. But this video on developing listening skills, transcribing what you hear, deciphering the gaps, has put me back on track. I am so excited that I can now look forward to reaching a respectable level of fluency with your tips. Shukran.
I can help you improving your arabic if you want
Thank you very much, I'm just practicing this technique to improve my listening skills in English for two weeks, I hope to get a great progress.
Love your content dude!
I've been doing this method for more than 2 years for Italian with dialogs and songs and it's amaaaaazing
Yeah. I'm from Wales and have spent over a year learning my native language: _Cymraeg._
I've tried listening to songs, Welsh Radio and Television and have tried talking with native Welsh speakers but my comprehension speed has always been far too slow for me to feel like I've made ANY progress, no matter how much knowledge I've actually gained.
I'm sure there are some TH-cam videos and podcasts that I can listen to over and over again to improve my listening ability. I'll try that.
Thank you.
I wonder why your channel doesn't have many suscribers because the content of your videos are practical
Great topic! Can you write down the name of french podcast, please?
Robin this is a brilliant idea!!
I find I am getting much better at reading my target language, but when I hear it I feel like I know the sound but there are just too many words in such a short time for me to understand.
Interestingly, I recorded myself reading text (that I understand when I read it) and I can't even understand myself talking!! weird.
I will definitely give this a go as I need to improve my listening/comprehension skills :)
I can't wait to try to utilize this. How much of a leap in listening comprehension did you experience from this method? Thanks for your hard word!
Oh it's a massive leap. It's another one of my methods where it's quite a bit of effort up front but the rewards are HUGE and once you do it a time or two you get into a beautiful rhythm. With the example I used in the video from when I was learning French, this method took me from kind of being able to follow but with lots of gaps and sometimes losing track of the story, to being able to follow the story perfectly every time and able to listen confidently, even if there were words I didn't know in each new episode. Same thing happened with Japanese.
By the way, one of my upcoming short documentary-style videos is planned to be documenting myself going through the entire process of becoming able to understand Chinese podcasts, and you'll see the whole story in that single video 😄
@@RobinMacPhersonFilms That's going to be amazing! I'll definitely stay tuned to see that! Good luck with everything!
El Niche thank you!! Good luck trying out this method and please let me know how it goes!!
Robin MacPherson good morning Robin. I have just stumbled across you and what a find! Everything that you say makes perfect sense. I will practice with the telephone messages from my French friend and the missing bits I’ll ask her to transcribe. I’ve been stuck at a B1 level forever and desperately want to enrol for B2 this year. Thank you so much.
Yes it did bring clarity ! Everyone points towards 'active listening' without really delivering it in a way in which I can identify with the mental process involved...you and this video are the exception . Thank you . P.s anyone that is trying to improve their Spanish hit me up and share some resources!
I will definitely give this another try. Thank you for explaining things so well for me and inspiring me to get back into this method. :)
Hi Robin.
I got pleasantly surprised!
Because I know how amazingly
you speak Japanese.(around 7:55-8:00 in the video )
I am from Japan and have been
learning British English.
You are a great help.
Thanks a lot.(^_^)
It was fun noticing the coffee level in his cup get lower over time. You don't see him drink it, so he must have edited out the sips, LOL.
Hey Robin ! This is a great video thank you :)
Loving your daily drops of content. Keep it up! Great tips. 🙌🏼 abraço do Brasil.
Very helpful video🌹 Thank you for sharing🙏
Hi Robin! First of all, congrats for your last serie of videos. They are very interesting, specially the last ones. I would like to ask you about language exchanges. Do you have any special tip in order to really improve your spoken abilities in those language exchanges? What I mean is if you have any advice on how to improve those conversation practice sessions. Regards!
Agreed! Do you have a fav listening resource to improve our German listening skills? great videos btw! :)
I listen to various short videos in Brazilian Portuguese and stop after a sentence or two then I say it to Google translate to see if it understoods then translates BP to English.
When I was young a used to listen english radio on AM frequency, there were no internet, audiobook, podcast.😉
And listening was a little bit like that :
“And now, frszzshhh, sonhgs of the group fsggh”
“Arsenal on the ball, and kssszzz, the score is x nil”
“Tomorrow kkksfscchh with gggth in the afterssn”
This is excellent advice, I'm looking for Bulgarian resources now to give transcribing them a go! I'm at exactly that place in my learn where I know enough grammar and vocab to start speaking, but am a bit daunted to take the next step. Feel free to put your coffee cup down though, your arm must be getting tired ;)
hi, i really like the daily videos i hope you do another series like that,
i have a little question, when you said to transcribe, you meant to write it in the language of the content or in my language? thank you
Thank you for this video ,it's going to help me so much
Thank you I’m learning Italian
Hey robin! Im from Asia and naturally I love my thai and viet iced coffee. Im curious to know your thoughts on condensed milk in coffee beverages? Some westerners find it strange! Loving these daily videos BTW. Cheers Xx
Condensed milk+coffee/tea= God's gift to Earth
Do you ever repeat the videos within the week or just anki it?
I repeat and re-watch/re-listen to things constantly. I love to do this, I find that I can extract such an incredible amount of value from “mastering” a small handful of pieces of content.
Hey Robin, I really enjoyed this video, and just wanted to ask is it advisable to start with something simple like songs for comprehension?
Thanks in advance!
Quick question what accent of mandarin have you chose to emulate? I'm guessing Taiwanese accented Mandarin since you use traditional characters. I have a mixed accent since I studied southern accented and i speak with northern accented people
Very useful 👌👍
Uh, so I'm new to German. But what I did was watch an A1 movie. Then learned German for a month and a half (still at A1) now I'm able to understand most of the movie.
I'm wondering if listening to A2 stories, podcasts or even the radio will help. Please let me know.
First! Great topic! My goal in learning.
Thank you Aleksandra!! I'm really glad you liked it! I absolutely love this topic 😄
Genius technique
Thank you ❤
For me, it's the boring test voice that I have a hard time understanding. Any advice for this? I can usually understand when people are speaking normally, but when I get into a test, the voices are so boring and it's hard for me to stay focused or even want to learn the content.
Thanks a lot! Good lesson and a good teacher. I found out your lessons only recently and I will continue to listen to them. I have a little question for you Robin. When I study some podcast I like to close my eyes and use only my ears. My understanding of the material is better as a result of it. I discern more tiny details of the audio. Is it a usual thing for many?
Amazing video
Robin keeps holding the coffee...and yet doesn't take a sip
Can I know the exact name of that French Podcast? I'm really intrigued about it but couldn't make out the name in this video no matter how hard I tried.
Hahaa! I'm learning French as well, and I managed to find it :-) (proud) - have to say though, I had to turn the speed to half of normal. It is "chemin d' écrivains"
@@birgitbrodde7547 Oh! Thank you so much. You have no idea how happy and relieved I am right now.
je vous en prie
What was the name of the French podcast mentioned? 💛
How much transcribing should you do? Eg. 10mins worth of audio? 5mins worth?
what's that french podcast you mentioned?
Hi Robin, I'm really enjoying these daily videos. What is the name of the French podcast you mentioned? Merci mille fois!
I would like to know too
Me three... 😊
Chemins d’ecrivains
Im feeling fluent cuz Im undestanding you and Im brazilian lol
Please put down your coffee! I'm constantly worried you're going to spill it, so I can't focus on what you say :D
my problem is when I listen podcast from joe rogan on spotify, And I can't understand better. But When I watch the Joe Rogan Podcast I can be able to understand much better, because I can see the moviment of the mouth lol
I need motivation
So jon jones wants to learn a new language now 😠😠😠 he should give dom a rematch first
(MMA joke, not everyone will get it)
U are god .....Where were you till now....Why his videos are not trending till now
Be careful you going to spill your cafe
do you ever put your coffee down?
I hate this jazz piano in the background... Otherwise good info