- 8 months ago
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00:00when i first started learning english i tried to master everything vocabulary pronunciation
00:05reading and listening and i was completely overwhelmed looking back i wish i had focused
00:11on just one skill the one that makes everything else easier and the thing is most language
00:17learners just don't spend a lot of time improving this skill and this skill is listening and that
00:24is why i created a free downloadable guide that walks you through everything it tells you how to
00:29build a consistent focused and enjoyable listening practice all you need to do to get the guide is
00:35click the link in the description share your email with me and i will send you the guide straight to
00:40your inbox so let's start and talk about why listening is the most important skill and why it
00:47is also the foundational skill that other language skills build upon i think this very common problem
00:54that i see nowadays when it comes to learning a language is that a lot of people think it has to
00:59be difficult if you're not struggling when it comes to your language learning you're not actually
01:05improving but that is obviously not true yes all of those skills like your pronunciation your
01:11memorization skills your vocabulary they are all important but i would say there is one core fundamental
01:19skill that we really need to develop when we're learning a new language and to be honest with
01:24you guys there is a lot of debate online about what is the most important skill to master the two most
01:30common answers are usually speaking and listening but in my personal experience when i was learning
01:36english and then i was learning chinese in college and now i'm learning spanish the most important skill for
01:42me has always been listening and it's not just my opinion it's backed up by research and even famous
01:48polyglots like steve kaufman you can even read his article on media there he says i believe that listening
01:55comprehension not speaking is the most important skill in language learning if you can achieve a high
02:01level in comprehension all other skills will follow the speaking will come the grammar and correct usage
02:10will come and i think as a language learner it is so important to hear this because we're all busy
02:16you know we all have work family responsibilities hobbies we're interested in and for me personally i
02:22can't say that language learning is the biggest hobby of my life sure i do love learning spanish but
02:29it doesn't mean that i want to study spanish like 10 hours every single day it is absolutely not realistic
02:35i don't have 10 hours every single day to dedicate to spanish and i really do want to focus on a skill
02:42that i know will translate to all of my other skills in this language and that is why every single time
02:48i sit down to practice my languages i try to focus on my listening comprehension because if i'm listening
02:55to a material that i can mostly understand that is just a little bit difficult for me that i am truly
03:02interested in i know that my pronunciation is improving in the process because i'm listening to a native speaker
03:08i'm also repeating a few phrases after them i'm noticing some interesting grammar patterns i'm memorizing
03:14new vocabulary and practicing what i already know so for me listening is the skill that i always prioritize
03:25and yes when you're learning language you can just wait for your skills to magically develop
03:30you have to intentionally build them whether it's improving your listening skills or even developing
03:36better habits the key is to treat learning as a process not just something you do and then forget
03:42about and that is why i love skillshare it's an amazing online learning community designed specifically
03:48for creatives freelancers and lifelong learners and i want to say a huge thank you to them for sponsoring a
03:53portion of today's video whether you want to get better at time management master a new hobby or even
03:59start a side hustle skillshare has thousands of classes to help you get there for example i have
04:05been recently working on optimizing my daily schedule and reducing distractions and i have found an
04:11incredible class on skillshare called chaos to come google calendar workshop for creatives it completely
04:17changed the way i structure my day now because instead of feeling overwhelmed by my endless tasks i now use
04:23a system that works for me and that is what makes skillshare so different the classes aren't just about
04:30passive learning you actually get to put what you learn into practice many classes even have projects
04:36where you can apply what you have learned and share it with a creative community so it's not just about
04:41consuming knowledge it's about making real progress if you're an artist or a writer or someone who just
04:47wants to be more creative in their daily life like me investing in your creativity becomes super
04:53important and skillshare makes that easy by giving you access to high quality expert-led classes that
05:00fit into your schedule if you have been thinking about learning something new there is no better time
05:05to start the first 500 people to use my link in the description will get a one-month free trial of
05:10skillshare that means you can take as many classes as you want and see for yourself how powerful it is to
05:16invest in your learning all right so let's get back into the video and talk about how you can
05:21actually improve your listening skills as a language learner so the first thing that i do is i combine
05:28listening with reading i love reading books i usually read before i go to bed it's a part of my nighttime
05:35routine and so what helps me stay focused when i'm reading a book is actually listening to an audio book
05:42at the same time because sometimes the language is a little bit too difficult the words the author is
05:48using in a particular book might be weird or interesting or new to me and i want to make sure
05:55i know how to pronounce them and i also want to make sure that i don't get bored and i don't get distracted
06:02the way i usually do it is i use my ipad because it's bigger reading on my phone is a little bit more
06:09difficult but right now i'm using my ipad for the script so that i can see what i need to talk about
06:15in this video so i'm going to use my phone to show you guys how i do it so i go to my books app and i
06:23choose the book i'm currently reading right now the book that i am reading is how not to age so i click on
06:32it and then i go to audible because i use audible for all of my audiobooks the next aging pathway is
06:42inflammation in recent years one of the most medically important discoveries was recognizing
06:46the potential role of inflammation in many chronic diseases including at least eight of the top 10
06:51leading causes of death okay so basically what i do is i listen to the audiobook and i read i kind of
06:57skim with my eyes at the same time but i make sure that i understand like all the words everything the
07:03author is talking about especially in this book i'm not gonna lie it's pretty complicated and so
07:08sometimes i'm like what is happening here what is he talking about and i think without the audiobook i
07:15would just lose the train of thought very quickly so the audiobook really helps me stay focused and
07:21engaged with the book i'm currently reading the next super interesting approach you guys can
07:26use if you want to improve your listening skills is you can record audio messages and then listen to
07:32them as your own podcasts for example you need to remember something in your current language maybe it's
07:40a grammar rule or maybe it's a few words you can just record like a voice note of yourself going
07:47through all of this vocabulary or maybe this grammar rule and then when you have some free time when
07:53you're commuting when you're washing the dishes when you're mopping the floors or vacuuming the
07:57floors you can listen to your own podcast like with all of the words all of the grammar rules that
08:03you have to remember i think it works especially great when you're trying to prepare for a test like
08:09when you actually have to memorize a very specific piece of information and you have a deadline and you're
08:17just tired of cramming everything into your brain what you can do is you can use your phone the voice
08:24memo app or something like that and just record yourself speaking it can be about anything if you
08:31don't really have a test if you're learning a language for yourself maybe it's the words you're
08:36trying to memorize right now maybe it's how you've been feeling lately and you can use this audio recording
08:43as your own podcast to listen to over and over again the next fun and unique thing you can do if
08:49you want to improve your listening skills is you can create fake interview clips of yourself so you're
08:56just gonna pretend that you're a guest on a podcast and you're being interviewed in your target language
09:04let's say you're trying to learn english and somebody is gonna ask you tell us about your daily routine
09:09what do you love about your hometown describe your dream vacation you can honestly talk to chat gpt about
09:15it because you're gonna be improving your listening skills and also your speaking skills or as i said
09:21before you can just record yourself and then use your recording as a little podcast to listen to and
09:28to actually analyze your speech when you listen back you're gonna notice all the mistakes you've made
09:34some of the clunky phrases you used and that is absolutely okay like even when i am re-watching
09:41this youtube video i'm recording right now when i'm editing it i can notice some of the you know
09:46phrases that i have used that i no longer like and that is absolutely okay the thing here is to become
09:52an active listener to actively listen to everything you're consuming not just you know put it in the
10:00background forget about it and think that somehow you're magically learning a language no if you're not
10:07understanding if you're not paying attention most likely you're not learning the next thing you can
10:12do if you want to improve your listening skills is you can do weekly recaps the same thing you're
10:18going to be recording yourself it can be a video it can be an audio message it doesn't have to be you know
10:24on camera every sunday you're going to record a one minute recap of what you have learned this week
10:31three words or phrases you want to remember maybe you're gonna have a whole list of all of the
10:36vocabulary you want to remember but instead of like reciting all of these words and being like okay
10:42here's the word i want to remember here's the second word here's the third word try to maybe create
10:46sentences like create some context around all of this vocabulary so that when you're actually
10:52listening to your recording you also listen to the context that surrounds all of these words
10:58not just a list of some random vocabulary and the final thing you could talk about here is how you
11:04felt using the language this last week so maybe you have encountered some challenges maybe you decided
11:11to talk to a native speaker but forgot a certain word talk about it express your concerns what happened
11:17to you have you even practiced the language this week because maybe you haven't and finally of course
11:23i understand if you're trying to improve your listening skills you actually need to listen and
11:29watch but the reason why i decided to mention all of this at the end of today's video is because i think
11:35you guys already know that so i wanted to give you some other creative and new ways to help you improve
11:41your listening skills and when it comes to this the final tip that i want to give you guys i always say
11:48that you have to choose content that you like and that you can mostly understand like if it is a youtube
11:56video that is so freaking complicated that you cannot understand anything maybe just a few words
12:01you're not there yet and that is absolutely okay like one day you will be able to understand this
12:08video maybe you can save it as this big goal you can always go back to it and check your progress and
12:14see how much more you can understand right now language learning doesn't have to feel hard to be
12:20effective i would even say it has to be easy so that you can find it interesting so that you can sustain
12:28that interest turn it into curiosity and continue improving the way in which i usually search for content
12:36online on youtube to watch when i want to practice spanish for example is i ask myself this question
12:42what are my hobbies like what am i interested in in life and right now i'm very interested in
12:50yoga for example or maybe i am planning a vacation and i want to see like another person exploring this
12:58city this town so i'm just gonna search for this type of content on youtube and i'm gonna watch
13:05all of those videos but in the process of watching those videos i'm gonna see if i actually like the
13:11video if it's too difficult for me if i can understand most of the information and then some
13:18of the words that i can't understand i'm gonna pause i'm gonna write them down save them in my notion
13:25i usually use notion to keep track of all of my language learning my templates like what i actually use
13:31on notion is available on my website if you guys want to check it out the most important thing is i
13:37try to be very intentional about my language learning because intention goes a long way not how hard you're
13:44sweating in your one single language learning session how much you are hating the process and how much you
13:51just want to quit no like all of this is not sustainable it is not going to lead you to good quality
13:58sustainable results what it will lead you to is hating language learning and thinking that
14:06you're just not good at languages that's it and you're just gonna give up and obviously that is
14:11not what i want for you guys so i think it's going to be it for this video i really hope you liked it
14:16if you did don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my youtube channel just a reminder
14:21if you guys want to get my free intentional listening blueprint you can do so by clicking the link in
14:26the description i will send you the guide all the information to your inbox for those of you looking
14:31to improve your creative skills maybe you want to start a new hobby i highly recommend skillshare if
14:38you are one of the first 500 people to use the link in my description you will get one month of
14:43skillshare completely for free at the very beginning of this video i said that there is this debate online
14:49about whether listening is the most important skill when it comes to learning a language or maybe it's
14:54speaking and i know that a lot of you guys want to improve your speaking skills if that is the case
14:59i highly recommend this video right here in this video i talk about why your speaking skills are not
15:05improving and what you can do to change the situation so just click right here and keep on watching
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