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Listening English
Do you feel frustrated in listening? Does it feel you cannot follow a native speaker when they are talking?
There are basically 3 reasons why we struggle with listening:
1. We don’t know the vocabulary
2. The accent of the speaker is too strange
3. The speed of the speaker is too fast
So, what can you do about it?
First of all, take it easy. Listening skills take a long time to develop, and there is no short cut. But these tips might help you along the way:
– Don’t practice listening to the news, like CNN, BBC or ICRT. News English is just too fast and not practical. Remember, in a news story, they have to tell a whole story in 20 seconds! Therefore, news English use specific words, is based on preconceived knowledge, and usually contains a lot of names. All these will make listening difficult.
– Rather, practice your listening with something more practical and useful, like a conversation. For example, choose a movie that you like, watch it completely any way you want, but then choose one “2 minutes" conversation for your listening practice. Remove the subtitles, and play the movie. Write down EXACTLY what your hear. You can take your time, play, pause, play. But write down word for word. Then, go back to the beginning of the conversation, and choose the English subtitles, and check if you have written is the same.
We will talk more on improving your listening later…
Improving your listening – 2As we have mentioned before, there are basically 3 reasons why we struggle with listening:
1. We don’t know the vocabulary
2. The accent of the speaker is too strange
3. The speed of the speaker is too fast
As for the first reason – we don’t know the vocabulary, that is an easy fix! Just learn more words! Some statistics say that we forget about 80% of all the new words we learn. Bad news, right? That means we have to do more constructive effort to learn new words. Have a separate notebook for your new words and review them regularly. Also, set a goal for yourself, for example: 20 new words a week.
If you find accents to be too strange, the best solution is experience. This means you have to get used to that kind of accent. Try to find a way to listen to that accent. Download YouTube videos from that country, watch foreign movies and listening to the music. Either way, the more you get used to the accent, the easier it is to decipher it!
If the speed of the speaker is too fast for you, the above suggestion might also help. Experience helps a lot to improve listening. The more you listen to it, the easier it will become, just don’t give up!
Learning English
One of the best ways to improve your listening, is to try to have as much as an English environment around you as possible. We are deeply influenced by what is around us. Try to have more English in your life, even if you don’t always focus on it. the more you see, the more you hear and the more you experience English, the better you will become.
Think of English learning as a pyramid with three sides and the top of the pyramid is the goal [Fluent English]. Then the three sides are:
– reading
– writing
– conversations [Speaking and Listening]
Follow a balanced way to this pyramid, and practice all the sides, then you will see your progress!
Here is the illustration of how our brain works to learn a new language.
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以上為一些常用提問，回答之應對句子，有空時可以先背先來，再來閒時自己多練習，等真正需要使用時就可以得心應手地說出來了！
1. Asking better questions:
- Ask to know more:
- This point [about…] is interesting. Could you elaborate on that, please?
- What is your opinion about / on?
- What do you think about?
- Could you share your views regarding?
- Can you clarify your statement for me, please?
- Can you tell me more about [topic]?
- Ask to confirm my message:
- Should I rephrase that?
- Should I try it again?
- Were you able to follow me?
- Was everything clear to you?
2. Give better answers
- If you don’t understand the question?
- Could you please repeat your question?
- Am I right that you are asking about [paraphrase question]?
- That is a good question; can we discuss it during tea time?
- Give your opinion
- I think…,
- In my opinion…,
- I’d like to…,
- I’d rather…,
- I’d prefer…,
- The way I see it…,
- As far as I’m concerned…,
- I’m pretty sure that…,
- I’m convinced that…,
- I honestly feel that,
- I strongly believe that…,
- Disagreeing:
- I don’t think that…,
- Don’t you think it would be better…,
- I don’t agree, I’d prefer…,
- Shouldn’t we consider…,
- But what about…,
- I’m afraid I don’t agree…,
- Frankly, I doubt if…,
- Let’s face it, The truth of the matter is…,
- The problem with your point of view is that…
- Giving Reasons and offering explanations:
- To start with,
- The reason why…,
- For this reason…,
- That’s the reason why
- Considering…,
- Allowing for the fact that…,
- When you consider that…
- Agree Strongly with an Opinion.
I couldn’t agree more!
That’s absolutely true!
Absolutely!
I agree with your point.
I’d go along with you there.
I’m with you on that.
That’s just what I was thinking.
That’s exactly what I think.
That’s a good point.
That’s just how I see it.
That’s exactly my opinion.
- Agree with an Opinion.
1. Yes, perhaps, however …
2. Well, yes, but …
3. Yes, in a way, however …
4. Hmm, possibly, but …
5. Yes, I agree up to a point, however …
6. Well, you have a point there, but …
7. There’s something there, I suppose, however.
8. I guess you could be right, but …
9. Yes, I suppose so, however …
10. That’s worth thinking about, but …
- Disagree Politely with an Opinion.
1. I am not so sure.
2. Do you think so?
3. Well, it depends.
4. I’m not so certain.
5. Well, I don’t know.
6. Well, I’m not so sure about that.
7. Hmm, I’m not sure you’re right.
8. I’m inclined to disagree with that.
9. No, I don’t think so.
- Disagree Strongly with an Opinion.
1. I disagree.
2. I disagree with your idea.
3. I’m afraid I don’t agree.
4. I’m afraid your idea is wrong.
5. I can’t agree with you.
6. I couldn’t accept that for a minute.
7. You can’t actually mean that.
8. I wouldn’t go along with you there.
9. You can’t be serious about that.
10. You must be joking.
11. It’s possible you are mistaken about that.
Copyright © 2012 by the Unna Education Ltd. Co.
All rights reserved. No part of this text and document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Unna Education Ltd. Co. - Ask to know more:
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How to handle small talk
These tips will come in handy whenever you are in a situation where you need to have a chat with people. Try to practice these principles, so when you need to use them, you are comfortable and can control the conversation.
1. Always establish common ground
It is important to listen to the other people in the conversation, and to ‘link’ with what they are talking about. This establishes some common ground, and it is polite. It shows you are interested in what the other parties are talking about.
For example:
Speaker 1: Hi, where are you from?
Speaker 2: I’m from New York.
Speaker 1: New York? That’s great. I have never been there, but I sure would like to visit there. What is it like living in New York?
2. Never boast
We are sometimes seduced into boasting about our country, our job or our experiences. Rather, keep humble in your comments and never boast.
3. Be brief
Nobody likes to listen to someone who overshadows the conversation. Sometimes if we are nervous, we make up for it by talking too much. Rather, keep your comments and answers brief, and stick to the topic and what is relevant.
4. Never talk about these 3 topics…
We must try to avoid talking about these 3 topics. They can be dangerous and detrimental to our conversations. Never talk about religion, never talk about politics, and never talk about … the weather.
The weather, you might ask? Yes, talking about the weather is a conversation killer. It is boring and obvious.
5. Talk about these topics
Talk about current affairs and news that is general and not sensitive. Many news events are linked with politics and religion, but try to stay clear of making personal comments about that.
Also, talk about your owns stories. Tell your experiences about everyday events. But remember, keep it short.
6. Free information
It is always difficult to assess what kind of questions might be too personal to ask. This is a great tip: listen for free information.
Free information refers to information given by the speaker, that the asker did not ask for directly.
For example:
Speaker 1: What do you think about Taiwan?
Speaker 2: I love Taiwan, I wish I can share it with my family one day.
The second part in Speaker 2’s response, was not asked by the first speaker. Speaker 2 gave his answer, and then he gave additional, extra and free information.
This free information is the key to a good conversation. Listen carefully, it will guide you to what questions we can ask or how to follow up on conversations. We will not share this free information if we are not willing and comfortable to talk about it. As to our example, Speaker 1 can now ask: So, you have a family. Please tell me about them?
I am sure these will help you when making small talk.
Good luck!
Copyright © 2012 by the Unna Education Ltd. Co.
All rights reserved. No part of this text and document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Unna Education Ltd. Co. -
Tips for improving English – Building a vocabulary
One if the problems we find with learning English, is that, even though we learn many words, we rarely use them. We always go back to our ‘default’ words. The ones we always use. A key point in improving English, is not only learning new words, but also using them.
Have you ever described something, and then use the word beautiful? We all do that. But did you know there are more than 35 widely used words with a similar meaning as ‘beautiful’. When we use the same word, like ‘beautiful’ every time, it loses its power. It becomes common. If you can replace it with another word, we add some color to our description and, maybe even, can use a better fitting word than the original ‘beautiful’.
So, what can we do about this?
Here is a very effective tip for widening your vocabulary and using your new words: synonyms. Let’s use ‘beautiful’ again. Depending on what you describe, maybe you can use the following: pretty, fair, handsome, striking, attractive, alluring, charming, bewitched, cute, foxy, good looking, appealing, delightful, and many more.
The same goes for ‘happy’. We love to say: ‘I’m happy’. But try to change the default ‘happy’ with another word that might be more suitable, for example: pleased, joyful, elated, blissful, thrilled, satisfied, glad, cheerful, content and many more.
Okay, so where to find the synonyms?
I would suggest to buy a thesaurus. A thesaurus is a dictionary – like book. You can look up a word and it will provide you with words that has a similar meaning. Another way is to use Microsoft Word. Select a word, right click and choose ‘synonym’ and it will give you a list of words.
Now, practice it!
A good way to use this is to practice it often. A good exercise I personally like and do often, is to take an article, choose a few sentences in that article, and try to replace the words but to keep the same meaning. Here is an example of a sentence I read in the New York Times:
Families involved in the study couldn’t park their cars in their garages because they were too jammed with things. Our fondness for stuff affects almost every aspect of our lives. Housing size, for example, has
ballooned in the last 60 years.
Right, let’s try this. Replace [almost] every word (you can keep articles and determiners the same) with another one. Here is my take:
Relatives caught up in the research couldn’t store their vehicles in their parking areas because they were too full with stuff. Our love for objects influences almost every facet of our lives. Accommodation size, for instance, has grown in the last 6 decades.
Copyright © 2012 by the Unna Education Ltd. Co.
All rights reserved. No part of this text and document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Unna Education Ltd. Co.
