- How do you improve your English listening skills?
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- If you ask this question to English teachers they will tell you the same thing.
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- They will tell you to go watch movies.
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- They will say that watching movies is a great way to improve your listening.
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- But there's a problem.
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- A lot of English learners watch movies with subtitles.
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- Some people use English subtitles.
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- Other people use subtitles in their native languages.
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- Now it doesn't matter what kind of subtitles you use.
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- Watching movies with subtitles is a really really bad way to improve your listening
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- and in this video, I'm going to explain to you why it's such a bad idea.
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- But first let me share with you my personal experience.
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- So back when I was in college I wanted to improve my English listening skills.
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- So what did I do? Well, I started to watch movies with English subtitles.
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- I thought that was the best way to improve my listening.
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- I was really optimistic I thought in two or three years.
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- I would be able to understand native speakers.
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- Unfortunately it didn't work.
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- After six years of doing that I still could not understand native speakers.
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- I still needed subtitles when watching a movie.
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- I was really disappointed.
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- I watch a lot of movies.
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- But I still could not understand native speakers at that point.
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- I didn't really know why didn't work.
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- But now I do so let's talk about that right now.
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- First there's one thing about listening that you need to know.
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- Listening and hearing are not the same.
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- If you want to improve your listening make sure that when you practice listening
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- you are really listening and not just hearing.
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- So what's the difference between listening and hearing?
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- Well the difference is whether or not you are paying attention.
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- If you're paying attention then you are listening.
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- If you're not paying attention then that's just hearing.
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- So let me give you an example.
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- If you turn on the radio and pay attention to the sound from the radio then that is listening.
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- But if you turn on the radio and that you do something else
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- like reading a book then that's just hearing.
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- You can hear the radio but you're not paying attention to it.
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- You are not listening.
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- And again, if you want to improve your listening,
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- make sure that you are really listening and not just hearing.
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- You need to make sure that you are paying attention.
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- Now let's talk about watching movies with subtitles.
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- What's wrong with it? Why doesn't it work?
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- As you might have guessed, it doesn't work because you're not listening.
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- You're just hearing, so let me explain when you watch a movie.
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- Your brain is trying to understand the movie
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- but there isn't just one way to do that there are two ways or two options.
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- The first option is to focus on reading the subtitles.
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- The second option is to focus on listening to the sound.
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- Now I have a question for you.
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- Which option do you think your brain will choose reading or listening?
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- How the answer is obvious your brain is going to focus on reading the subtitles?
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- Why because it's much easier that takes on the screen is clear?
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- So it's very easy for your brain to process.
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- The sounds of people talking on the other hand are not that clear,
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- so it's much more difficult for your brain to figure out what people are saying.
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- As a result, your brain will pay attention to the subtitles and not the sounds,
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- so when you watch a movie with subtitles,
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- you're not really improving your listening.
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- You are actually improving your reading.
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- And that's why it doesn't work.
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- So the best way to improve your listening is to just listen.
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- Don't read and listen at the same time.
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- If you watch a movie in English remove the subtitles,
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- so that your brain will have to focus on listening.
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- If you do that, your listening will improve much faster.
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- That said, there is still a problem.
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- If you remove the subtitles then you won't understand the movie
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- and if you don't understand the movie that is going to be boring so what should you do?
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- Well here's my suggestion.
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- Don't try to improve your listening by watching movies just watch movies for fun.
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- There's a better and faster way to improve your listening and that is the subject of the next video.
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- In the next video,
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- I'll share with you the method I personally use to improve my English listening skills.
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- So I'll see you again in the next video,
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- and if you don't want to miss that video,
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- make sure you subscribe to this Engfluent channel.
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- And if you want even more advice on how to improve your English,
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- go to Engfluent dot com and sign up for the newsletter
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- or just click these two boxes.
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