I remember when I wasn`t able to understand English when when watching films and series, no matter how much I used to get myself to listen. Then I decided that I would just keep tryng and wait until it`s time to my brain finally get it and meanwhile I would practice my pronunciation by doing shadowing. I didn`t know the name o f that exercise was shadowing, I thought I had invented that myself, but after doing that just 1 time, about 3 hours of practicing, I started to understand a lot more than I did before. It was crazy. I wasn`t expecting this result, but it makes sense. When we`re trying to reproduce the sound we are learning more about it. Our braing is capturing the patterns that drives tha way the natives connect the words the way they do and it happens in a subconscient level. When I started doing that my listening comprehension started getting better almost insttantaneously.
We all go through the same things Fabiano but we don't always think that at the same time as ourselves millions of language learners are suffering the same agonies . We should give ourselves a big pat on the back for running this marathon. By the way, your English is very good ! Remember " no man ( or woman ) is an island !
Can you give more details on your method? Cuz I REALLY need to develop my listening skills, i get frustrated because my englieh is kinda great (in my opinion at least) but still this damn hurdle of understanding movies and TV series annoys me especially hard accents like British. Thank you.
With pleasure! So... there are some steps. Before the first step you need to have a movie or series with English subtittles in a player in which you can co back few seconds easily, like VLC player, for example. Fist step: I play the video in a sentence and try to understand without looking at the subtittle. I do it several times, until i make sure there is nothing more I can get without reading. Second step: I read de subtittle and many times at first the subtittle doesn't look like it's really refering to that line of speech. So what I do is I start playing that part several times, again and again, paying attention on the details until I can notice how the sound and the text relate to each other, until the noise starts to become words. When I get there, I go to the next step... Third step: I try to repeat exactly the way the character say it. Same inflection, same intonation, same emotion, even the same facial expression. The first iterations are the most dificult ones, I fail a lot until I can do it in a satisfatory way, but evantually I get there. Forth step: In the previous step I hit play and repeat right after that, again and again, in this step I try to do ir at the same time as the actor say their line, until it sounds like when a singer record one's voice twice and play together to have a cool effect. It tooks a lot of time to complete this cycle with just one sentence, but it's worth it, because after just one section you see the difference in your comprehention. At least it's like that with me.
Thank you for saying it takes "thousands and thousands of hours" of listening to authentic content..,, it's so refreshing to hear brutal honesty, I have been listening so much, and I get discouraged when I still can't understand a lot of spoken native Italian., so hearing you say that it is a long process is motivating, as I know it's not just me.,, thank you Luca
I disagree that it takes thousands of hours. At least not Italian, if you are an English speaker..no way. Maybe you aren't actively listening. Meaning deciphering what is being said. Write down words you don't know. Your brain will remember automatically if you hear the words over and over and over again. Maybe you've been passively listening?
Yup. Listening is key. In German I used to force myself to listen to a myriad of podcasts to give myself the feeling of being in Germany, and I initially learned a lot of expressions while of course being exposed to the real language (e.g. a native speaker talking to an intended native audience, two natives speaking to each other, etc.) I realized that every day speech is typically a bunch of fluff and doesn't really get to the nitty-gritty (e.g. "Oh hey, how are you...Fine, and you? Oh good. Um let's talk about the weather or something"), and podcasts, watching videos on RU-vid in X language, etc. allow you to get past that without actually being in the respective country of X language. For those who think it's too hard, it is somewhat difficult at first and may make people aware of certain limitations in their skills, but it eventually becomes second nature. The more, the merrier! While living abroad, I had trained myself to write down words and expressions I didn't know and to eventually use and incorporate them myself. After moving back to the US and with the intention of not wanting to let my German go dormant, I started listening to podcasts...within a year, I realized that I had learned more in the year of being in the US while listening to podcasts than the year I had spent in Germany without podcasts. Incredible, and it was all thanks to listening in the comfort of my home. Anything is possible. Good video, Luca!
@@jhonacuna7962 Thanks, and in terms of the podcasts I listened to that year, I don't remember, only a few but I listen to a boatload right now : Beste Freundinnen, Bayern 2 Radio Wissen, Sozusagen, Ach Komm, Apfelfunk, Wirtschaft in Zeiten von Corona - alles ist anders, Das Coronavirus-Update von NDR Info, Beste Vaterfreuden, Die Zeit - Verbrechen, Mordlust, Anekdotisch Evident, etc. That's pretty much everything I listen to for German Podcasts...another popular German podcast that I don't listen to is Gemischtes Hack. Those podcasts obviously have different topics, especially Bayern 2 Radio Wissen (Every podcast is pretty much a new topic), and allows me to tune in and not only to be able to learn new things about a variety of topics, but it allows me to do it in German, which I rarely even think about anymore because I've been doing it for so long that they are just podcasts I listen to for the content and not necessarily for the language. None of them are intended for people who learn German but for native speakers, which is IMHO the best way to go after a certain point in language acquisition. I still jot down things that I don't understand to continue building up my vocabulary but on a much more rare basis thanks to the thousands of hours I've listened to in terms of podcasts alone....Reading is vital as well, and obviously speaking and writing :)
as a Hungarian I'm kind of disappointed what happened to you..I don't understand why some Hungarians are rude when foreigners don't speak our language, especially if you don't live in the country and you're only a tourist. / Invece, quando sono stata in Italia per tre mesi e non ho parlato l'italiano bene, gli italiani erano sempre molto gentili con me. / Mindenesetre, nagyon hasznos videó! Köszi Luca!
Cara Flora, l'Ungheria è un paese meraviglioso e sono sempre stato trattato bene. Ogni tanto si incontrano persone sgarbate, è la vita. Spero di tornare a Budapest fra maggio e settembre 2021, come faccio tutti gli anni =)
I lived in Budapest, Hungary for 19 years, most of which I taught American Studies in a university. I can definitely connect with your experience and it gave me a chuckle. I sent this video to a number of friends who can also relate.
I really appreciate how you laid everything out so clearly. This will serve as an extremely useful guide for me in my pursuit of Italiano. Molte grazie, Luca Where can I find your articles and other materials?
That's true and that's the reason why I always start to learn a language through the listening and, eventually, writing if the language allow me(it's difficult to do it to Chinese for example). That's was my first lesson learned when I had to shift from Russian to Portuguese when I moved to a speaking Portuguese country, and thankfully I kept the habit.
When I visited Spain a number of years ago, my Spanish was weak. I was traveling with a group and one of the other member lost her contact lens. In the process of searching for it, we were separated from the rest of the group. We looked at each other and because my frond didn't speak any spanish at all it was up to me to communicate. I asked "donde esta la salida de personas olivdas?"(where is the exit for forgotten people?) when I meant to say sala de personas perdidas (room for lost people) Fortuantely , even my incorrect sentnece was understood somehow and we were reunited with the rest of the group!
Ann, I think " Where is the exit for the the forgotten people? could be a wonderful tittle for a new Almodovar 's Film.. Don't you think so?. I' m very glad to know you found your forgotten friend by the door of the exit room of the forgotten people. Greetings from Spain
10 ways to improve your listening comprehension 1:52 Misunderstandings are inevitable 2:23 Some people are rude 2:41 We are self-conscious How to develop excellent listening comprehension skills 3:19 Be Patient 4:09 Read and listen simultaneously 4:50 Just listen 6:04 Be consistent 7:15 Work on the pronunciation from the get go 8:42 Focus on the big picture 10:00 Seek different experiences 11:13 Smile and be honest 12:10 Read a lot 13:10 Get massive exposure 14:06 Summary
I remember building up the courage to speak Portuguese to a native for the first time at a local Brazilian Cafe. I asked the owners how they were and where they were from. I only got a smile in return. It was a bit of a shock cause I planned this whole conversation in my head. Definitely killed my motivation for some time but Luca is right, this happens a lot
It's great to have an approach like that, but when your walls come tumbling down it can be a real kick in the teeth " if you let it get to you " but as Luca said , smile , be polite and carry on. Life eh ?
I had a landlord in France and her friend laugh at me when i finally broke down after trying to say the name of the restaurant and showed it to them on my phone 😢..( practiced with my husband. Before I went to them to ask about the restaurant) And my daughters mother in law literally asked me to stop trying to speak Portuguese 😢😢 Devastating… Now I’m trying Ukrainian .. But this time my goal is to just understand listening and reading … I don’t really expect to have the opportunity to speak it … But I have fallen in ❤ with the melodic sound of the language … and want to understand and be able to sing along to the songs by myself . I swear I think this language has touched my soul as if I had a previous life or something. I feel like Gomez adams when Tish speaks French 😂
And I (Brazilian) afraid of talking to an American and the same thing happens.... we have to find someone with a different language to practice. Only then will we reach perfection...
To exercise the listening, during just a few minutes can help the comprehension capacity in a language. I am improving a lot my listening through of videos on YT and podcasts etc. I recommend to do this for anyone wanna understand more. Sorry for some wrongs words, i'm learning english yet.
I've gotten fairly comfortable listening to Spanish language videos meant for learners, especially if they have subtitles, so I started listening to a local Spanish radio station. It's almost like starting over, but the benefit is they repeat their slogans, ads, and songs. And then the songs repeat choruses and sometimes stanzas. Sometimes I can only parse a line or two in a song, but that's enough to google the lyrics and youtube a video to better absorb when it. if you're looking for content for native speakers, I'd give a radio station a try.
Thanks for this video, Luca! I would like to share a story about listening comprehension that motivates me a lot. I taught my friend Dutch after he had been studying it on his own with Assimil. I gave him your video "Is living in a country necessary to learn a language?", he watched it for a moment and said: "He says that he learned Dutch ten years ago. Of course, he is fully proficient and that's why I can't understand him!" Then we had a month of everyday lessons: speaking, listening, reading a textbook and news, chatting with a friendly native speaker. And a lot of pleasure of learning this beautiful language. Finally, I let my friend listen to the same video and he just opened his mouth: "Now I can understand everything! But why?!" I think that your today's video perfectly explains why!
For me when Luca talks it's like Jesus is talking. I absolutely know what to do now. I'm back in the country of my target language now (Brazil) and although I communicate quite well, understanding natives is still a huge problem and I admit that sometimes I fake it. But, I've downloaded a bunch of podcasts along with the transcripts and I have purchased many graded readers and bilingual books. All that's left is to use it exactly the way that Jesus (Luca lol) just told me to use it. I cannot say enough about how valuable Luca is to the overall language learning community. Thanks Luca! You set the standard by which others are measured.
If you liked the video, there is more! Download my FREE guide AVOID THE 10 MOST COMMON MISTAKES LANGUAGE LEARNERS MAKE and become a master language learner! 👉www.lucalampariello.com/newsletter/
Hi Luca ,in my opinion your English is not good enough and this is the reason why I'm here you know I'm the master of polyglots ..so if you wanna improve your english just go to my channel ,subscribe and share my videos on tik tok and then I'll give you the magical solution to became fluently in 3 days 😎🤳
@@riccardo4694 E gli rispondi pure? ;-) Mannaggia anche a me che gli ho risposto, ma ogni tanto cazzeggiare rispondendo a qualche scemotto su internet è divertente e liberatorio lo ammetto :-D
Hello, Lucas I have just discovered your work and explanation about langage learning.I have listened to your conversation with Steve Kaufman it is really interesting.Thank you, it helps me.Serge from France.
I am learning German right now and I have a very big problem in listening comprehension and then this video popped out of my phone, so I watch it. Thank you for giving advices.
I'm trying to break into a hard-to-break-into culture right now. It's tough because I'm thin-skinned but I'll keep trying till I'm in and fluent. It's also a language with very little learning resources. Thank you, Luca, for the motivation boost as always!
I had a landlord in France and her friend laugh at me when i finally after trying to say the name of the restaurant and showed it to them on my phone 😢..( practiced with my husband. Before I went to them to ask about the restaurant) And my daughters mother in law literally asked me to stop trying to speak Portuguese 😢😢 Devastating… Now I’m trying Ukrainian .. But this time my goal is to just understand listening and reading … I don’t really expect to have the opportunity to speak it … But I have fallen in ❤ with the melodic sound of the language … and want to understand and be able to sing along to the songs by myself . I swear I think this language has touched my soul as if I had a previous life or something. I feel like Gomez adams when Tish speaks French 😂
I've been preparing routine 5:00 a.m 1 hour shadowing technique with multfilms and 1 hour reading skill.Approximately I using these method 1-2 months.🇰🇿
I've noticed a book in Russian on your desk. Can you give some advice on reading books in a foreign language, especially for beginners? Thanks in advance
I've been seeing videos about to how improve the listening comprehension and I understand a little more of this. Thank you so much for make this videos, this help me much :)
Thank u Luca. Now I'm in plateau state but fortunately I got a notification from youtube about ur new video upload. Now feeling happy that I can achieve!!
You don't have to read from the beginning. Totally fine to just listen at first and add in reading later. You can also do what Luca says and read while you are listening. Definitely don't read only from the beginning without listening though!
I have started to read every day some sentences in german. Where do I find real and natural expressions which would be used often? at twitter!!! It has also shown me a lot of words I didn't know and slang commonly used.
This is the perfect timing. I'm super confident with my reading now with Turkish but when I watch Turkish RU-vid videos, I have to slow the speed down to make sure I hear properly!
Your advices are truly phenomenal. It has given me great guidance on how to go forth on continuing to learn Russian as I'm pretty much still a beginner. Thank you for all the advice you've given us!
You're starting to sound more and more like Steve Kauffman :D I like reading + listening, then practicing the words I learned with flashcards, then relistening to the content I read, then speaking along (some would say shadowing) when I have the time/space to do so. Maybe my practice isn't exactly comprehensive, but it gets close, since I get to practice reading, listening, and speaking this way. BTW, nice shirt :) I'm glad to see that you took a liking to Poland
Luca I had the same experience in Greece. I arrived in Athens airport early in the morning and needed a train ticket to Chalkida. The ticket clerk was rude. I bought the ticket and got my train. When returning from Chalkida to Athens, the ticket clerk spoke some English with me. He was polite but soon got tired of speaking English so I continued the rest of the conversation in Greek and my Greek boyfriend at the time assisted me.
I adore to listen you. I find your English to be very elegant. Though I understand every word you say I wish my English was as good as yours. Thank you for the great content!
Luca, my issue is that I have to be more organized. Even rereading my comment to this episode I found out that I had left unnecessary words after rewording the message a couple of times 🤪
Is that a Kazimierz Dolny tshirt? AWESOME! Pozdro z Polski :) i dzięki za Twoje rady, za dwa dni zaczynam naukę francuskiego i na pewno z nich skorzystam! Jesteś świetny!
Sensible list on how to improve listening - yes - all these aspects are critical. The reading and listening and then the just listening is key, though finding transcriptions is not easy, especially in the areas of applicable and practical conversation. I just moved to Paris a couple weeks ago (probably already have an A1 level of reading but an A0 in listening, and yeah, I'm doing all the things on the list already, so from my recent experiences, the "INCREDIBLE" list is missing the essential parts of: #1) knowing the meaning of the words and conjugations for the verbs (which I guess goes without saying, but STILL critical #2) understanding the words in the context by which they are spoken. but where my acceleration in learning comes is having a teacher. For example, in French, toujours means always; it also means "still." For a long time, I didn't know the latter definition, so when I'd hear the word toujours, I automatically went to "always," until my iTalki teacher Marine pointed it out for me. Doing the 10 things on the list wouldn't have been amazing enough to improve my comprehension until I implicitly learned that toujours had a secondary meaning (which I didn't know after a few years of casually learning French. I'm making this comment not to discourage people from being inspired by your "10 Amazing Ways" but that for people to be aware that when learning a language, having a teacher or a friend who will be there to constantly help you (because it provides content and also practicality) is massively important, and hope that new language learners don't just dive into someone's Study System on-line (yours or anyone else's on-line program) or top ten list of "amazing" answers; The idea of "amazing" will just get them to is going to lead to a lot of unnecessary frustration due to an inaccurate view of learning the language. At the end of the day - yes, do all the things on these 10 "INCREDIBLE" ways for sure, but must augment vocabulary, understanding of sentence structure and verb conjugation as well as how the prepositions are being used, AND having a teacher or friends who will work with you consistently. In other words, there is NO incredible. There is the time, dedication you put in and the right support system.
Hey Luca awesome video with very helpful information as usual. You made me realize that i do this thing where if i don't understand a native speaker i never ask them to repeat themselves because often times they will punish me by speaking more slowly and eliminating all the authentic language in there speech. Mind you this doesn't bother me for the languages that i'm still a beginner in but when it happens to me in a language i have tons of experience with i get so frustrated.
Great insight Luca. Have you or can you make a vid regarding when you understand a native speaker %100 but they don’t understand you and proceed to tune you out.
Hi, Luca. Thanks a lot for your videos, man. I really appreciate all of them. I've been learning Turkish for 7 months now, and I've noticed that,unlike my English or French learning journey, it is taking longer for my ears to get used to it. I think it is because it is the first Eastern language I'm learning, and it is quite different from Portuguese, my mother tongue. What do you think?
Hi Hyago. Totally normal! The more distant the language, the longer it takes to "decode" its various features. Just learn every day and do it with passion and for a long time and you are going to be speaking Turkish sooner than you think =)
Hi Luca! Thank you for the video, I am going to be trying out your strategy in my daily learning! I have a question about listening practice. When you are listening to something and reading the text at the same time, do you pause the audio to look up the worda you don't know, or do you skip over the words you don't understand so that you can finish listening to the whole piece? Thank you again for your rich advice 🙏
Hi Alex! Interesting question. Here is what I do: Step 1: I read while listening to the target language, focusing on the relationship between spoken and written language. Step 2. I make sure I understand the text by comparing it with the English version (if there is not one, it is normally easy to create it through Google Translate. I mark words that I don't know and write the meaning on the border of the page Step 3: I listen again while reading. Step 4: I just listen to it. I hope this helps!
@@LucaLampariello Hey Luca! I wanted to let you know since you left this comment a few months ago I've followed your advice and practiced I read while listening at least 10 minutes every day. The result is I've seen a dramatic improvement in my listening comprehension, vocabulary and fluency in speaking (which I wasn't really expecting). I finally feel I'm reaching my goals in a language that's been hard to get to the next level in for a while (Farsi). Thank you for the excellent advice!!
si gusta le recomiendo canales de youtube en español: alejandro diaz villanueva ( periodista, politica y noticias a veces historia) El gato historiador, c de ciencia, cordura artificial ( filosofia, temas para pensar )
Luca volevo chiederti: se tu vedi un film in lingua originale (parlo dell'inglese) capisci tutto quello che gli attori dicono senza sottotitoli? Iltuo livello di comprensione della lingua inglese é pari a quello dell'italiano?
A nice attempt to motivate people ..., I share the opinion with you, no phonethic = no progress but the dialects ... make understanding extremely difficult ... regardless of how well you master standard pronunciation ... Your tshirt is cute, I know this town, it's really adorable ... Love Regards from Vienna GRAZIE LUCA you're GREAT !
I went to Portugal to help with a church building, and one of my bags was missing when I arrived. This was my first time learning Portuguese, though as I already spoke French and some Spanish it was easy to learn. I called the number and asked for irregularidades em bagagem. I got an answer I didn't understand. I asked the missionary to help; he spoke Portuguese with a strong American accent. He asked in Portuguese and couldn't understand the answer either. Finally, in exasperation, he asked for lost and found. It turned out that the airport's computer was down and they didn't know where my bag was. They delivered it to the hotel the next day.
Even if I finished my bachelor degree, I think I haven't reached the level I'm looking for in both Russian and English. Due to that, I always listen podcasts in Russian while going to work. I improved the "connected speech" because as you may know, НЕ ЗА ЧТО turns into NIEZASHTA instead of NIE ZA CHTO 😅
Really amazing video. You give great tips to improve skill and at the sametime you tell true fact about how long it take to have the ability to undertand almost everythings. It's not 100 hours it s even more than 2.000 hours of training listening in order to understand almost everythings. So no rush it s a long road of learning and training after you have a great skill of listening comprehension in any situation.
Hey Luca! Great video! Enhance listening skills is really a matter of time, unfortunately. Consistent active and passive listening in an everyday basis is the key, isn't it? Thanks for sharing it!
Good advices - especially this one hiw not to loose yourself 'n your self-esteem. Especially in such as situations it is easy to get lost and to forget not only thing we need, but also other words 'n phrases, even quite basic ones. Interesting T-shirt from Kazimierz Dolny PL ;)
"Our real strength as a species is collaboration, and collaboration flourishes with transparency and honesty." (12:30) Language learners must proactively embrace vulnerability.
Salam Luca: I think i invent a new type of listening: While listening you write the listened words just in your mind and you see them in your mind at the same time. That help also to improve your writing Because if you can t write correctly a word ,you should stop the video and looking for the dictation of the word. And if you master this technique ,you can also add a shadowing technique . As a result ,you can improve at once the 4 skills of a language (listening speaking writing and reading)with only one audio or video
Thanks for the kind words Naka! No, I am not a linguistics professor, but I consider myself an expert in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) after decades of learning, experimenting, teaching and coaching =)
Hi, Luca! Could you please make a video talking about how to prepare for italki conversations? I heard you talk about it in your interview with MattvsJapan but you didn't go in depth about it. I'm someone very extroverted who likes to talk off script and spontaneously, but I'd like to know your approach to keep this structured and efficient.
@@LucaLampariello Yes! I have that book as well... to prove it, on pg 145, half way down the page he tells of the Germans taking rings, cigarettes, watches and gloves from American prisoners before massacring them at Malmedy. I'm currently liviing in Belgium and have been there twice. btw, THANKS for all the great language learning advice!
Yes, I have enough stories, manly with the hungarian language. I have studied this language for one year and sometimes I'm completely lost even in common daily conversations
I'm at the very beggining of my process of learning french, i'm on my seccond week of it. Since the beginning I am doing something that I didn't do with English or Spanish so early in this process, that is listening autentig material in the target language and trying to grasp as much as I can. I don't know anything about the language, but I already created a youtube account only with content in french of topcs I like and I'm dying to consume that material, because it's all very interesting. I listen to them and I can understand a little bit of the general idea of what they are talking about. Some words are similar to portuguese, some words are similar to english, some other words are similar to spanish, other ones appear along with images or gestures and there are also the words I've been learning in these first days. It's a game I play with myself. Every little word makes a difference for me to win this game, since the begining I'm rtying my brain to decode this language and this is extremely FUN!
I recommend a channel called France Culture. I'm learning with that one. It's great because all short format videos have French subtitles made by them and there are several topics that might interest you. If you're up for some Quebecois, the channel Rad also has great content. Good luck with your journey. Agora que eu vejo o seu nome, o seu idioma nativo é o português, né?
I've been learning Polish for 2 years and sometimes I feel confident and sometimes I don't. My biggest weakness when learning a language is understanding what is being said. If there are any Polish people out there that would like to share advice, I'm all ears. :)
@Alice Spencer That’s awesome, good for you, I really appreciate the advice and will try out your methods. I wish you the best of luck with your other language journeys!
Hello, Luca! I love your helpful videos. You mentioned at 4:42 "ruminization" as a tool for improving listening and reading in a target language. Could you please explain this tool? Thank you.
Romanization is when they write languages that use different lettering systems in our alphabet. Like 과일> Gwail. But I wouldn't suggest leaning on it bc your brain already associate certain sounds with those letters. It will make learning the pronunciation harder. I suggest learning the writing system before you start anything else. Learning a writing system can be intimidating but it's definitely worth it.
Ricordo di quando stavo in Germania in palestra, dopo essermi allenato per 1 ora e mezza, diedi la scheda di ingresso indietro alla receptionist e iniziò a parlare (in tedesco ovviamente) e li fu tabula rasa, non capivo niente, volevo solo tornare a casa, ma lei continuava a parlare, io dicevo si ma era evidente che non capivo nulla (ma lei continuava a parlare). Non ho mai capito cosa volesse, ad un certo punto ho pensato anche che volesse uscire a prendere un caffè 🤣🤣😂 Alla fine con un paio di frasi me la cavai e andai via, con questo video mi sono emersi quei ricordi ahahaha Grande Luca 💪🏻💪🏻
