Why it is hard for us to understand foreign speech by ear and 8 ways to fix it

Experts estimate the skill of understanding foreign speech at the hearing as the most difficult. Many language learners "blown away" here. Why? People respond in different ways.

• I still distracting.
• I do not understand the interlocutor accent.
• I do not understand half of the words in a conversation.
• Understand foreign speech at the hearing - it's not mine.
• I do bear's ear come.

You know yourself?

We step by step Let us examine all of the major reasons why there is so difficult to understand a foreign language, and find optimal solutions for you.

1. Environmental conditions

This noise, technical problems, all that does not depend on us, and the interlocutor. What prevents effective communication.

Imagine that you are traveling by car to the cottage, and talking on the phone. When you go out of town, interrupted communications. What will you do? Usually we warned his interlocutor that the signal will be gone now, and please call back later or send a message.

What do we do when in a similar situation do not understand the interlocutor in a foreign language? Usually, once we solve the problem in us. The vast majority of those who are just starting to learn a foreign language, are embarrassed to ask again. Or do not know how to do it.

Solution 1. "Repeat, please, one more time"

When we live communication sometimes distract other sounds: the noise of the street, office, talking around. Even in their native language, we can not always hear each other from the first time, and that's fine. However, when communicating in a foreign we just forget about it.

What to do if you interfere with other sounds in communication, and without them you are not very well understand a foreign language? What should I do if the external environment does not allow you to capture the voice of the caller at 100%?

1. Tell the other party about it!
2. Ask again, even if it seems that you understand everything.

Solution 2. "Method of Stephen Covey's"

This is a more advanced method than to ask again. principle author - an American psychologist and best-selling author Stephen Covey. Applied his method to the study of the language I started recently, and the results of my students are very inspiring.

1. After listening to the interlocutor, retell in your own words the meaning of what he heard.
2. Do this for as long as the other party can not confirm that his words were understood correctly.
3. You can ask again as the value of the individual words and the meaning of whole sentences.

For example: "I understand you correctly, I need to come on Monday, 15 hours for a test on the Chinese?" Furthermore, since the pumped allocate skill in the heard thing.

2. Features speech interlocutor

May obscure dialect, accent, slang. And any individual characteristics of speech interlocutor - pronunciation of certain sounds, intonation, rate of speech.

A couple of years ago I had to translate for the Australian company at the exhibition. It took me a whole day to begin to understand the Australian dialect, even with my level of English at the carrier level. And then another half a day to learn how to mimic.

How to cope with such situations without too much stress? After learning all the dialects unrealistic. Almost every German village speak their dialect, and individual characteristics have each interlocutor.

My translation practice has led me to two effective life hacking. First, a "strong position", can be applied, if the conditions allow you to control the course of the conversation, for example, when you want to sell something. Second life hacking is better to use, if you own something you need from the source, but "strong position" until you can not handle.

Solution 1. "The strong position"

It consists of three steps.

1. Establish a framework for the interlocutor - insist on the literary language in conversation. For example, in Germany, almost all the inhabitants speak "hohdoychem» (Hochdeutsch), the lingua franca. Sometimes, with the exception of the elderly or young people not wanting to give up the slang.
2. Identify patterns in the course of the conversation, determine what the familiar sounds are pronounced differently. If the conversation does not allow to do it fast, please ask them to specify them. For example, it may be a vowel "o" instead of "a" and the English "spider" (spider, "spider") would sound like "spoyder". Typically, each carrier aware of these laws, and will be happy to help if it is polite to ask.
3. Practice to hear these patterns. Modern video and audio courses include a variety of entries in the learning process. Men's, women's and children's voices, we older people, talking in dialect - all can be found.

Solution 2. "Shura"

Useful in the following situations:

• interlocutor speaks very quickly;
• we listen to the news in the media;
• we have only just begun to learn the language, and any question to us sounds like news in the media.

Remember drunk Shurik from «the Caucasian captive" and "Slow down, I write?" This life hacking is ideal for beginners to listen and hear a foreign language. With him not scared to show his ignorance, and sometimes even profitable! In a conversation, you can select the steps that fit the particular situation of communication.

1. Inform the other party that you have just started to learn a foreign language.
2. Ask to speak more slowly.
3. Warn that you are recording.
4. Ask value to hear, but misunderstood words.
5. If we listen to the recording, often pause, to facilitate their understanding.

3. the listener's experience and individual characteristics of perception

Reason Three - is ourselves and how we hear, how to interpret it. These are our strengths and weaknesses. For example, to hear and remember city ​​names or surnames can be easy for us, and the numbers - very difficult.

The German cardinal complex, there is one interesting feature - they are called from one. Number 81 German would call in a literal translation of "one and eighty." A French general will say, "Four multiplied by twenty plus one." Imagine my horror when I once early in the morning had to be translated from German into French. And it was about the money and the size of the details. Numbers. Numbers. Numbers.

Solution 1. "Nothing but the truth"

Life hacking - tell the truth. In that situation, the transfer of numbers interlocutors I admitted that my weak spot - the perception of numbers at the hearing, even in their native language. So I offered to write down all the numbers, customers just glad this idea, and conversation even speed without loss of efficiency.

1. Admit to yourself that you are not perfect. Identify your weaknesses in the audition in their native language. This may be the date, name, complex terms.
2. Admit the other party that you do not perceive it by ear. Forewarned is forearmed.
3. Suggest interlocutor alternative way to work with your "bottleneck": for example, to record all the numbers, names - anything that you can not fully perceive at the hearing.

Solution 2. "Broken phone"

If you have weaknesses in listening, hence the strong there. Transfer these skills from their native language into a foreign! In order to train them mentally play with someone in the game of "broken telephone". If there is no interlocutor, you can use TV series, Podcast or video on YouTube.

1. Guessing himself the meaning of what was said, even if you are not waiting to hear it to the end.
2. Highlight the main points.
3. Highlight pauses and accents, remember intonation.
4. Train fast response to a speech.

4. The level of language proficiency

The reason for the fourth and last - is the level of your knowledge. Simply put, how many words and grammar you already know and how often they have heard before. Yes, heard, not just seen or read silently. If you memorized the dictionary 100 words, but never heard, it means that you do not know them at all.

It is very easy to understand by the example of my favorite tongue twisters English: «The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick». Translation sounds fun too: "The sixth sick sheik sixth sheep's sick." Imagine that a set of similar sounding words you hear very quickly. Even if you know all the words in a new sound mix, you can not always make sense. Of course, patter - it is an artificial situation, but it is ideal for training.

In the meantime, we apply the "first aid" to save the conversation, when you hear the unfamiliar words or grammatical structures.

Solution 1. "Guess the context"

Relax, the whole life is not enough to learn all the words of a foreign language. In addition, in different professional fields, there are many terms - medical, technical, economic, political. however you need to know them all, even if you do not know the native language? I do not know the term "on-mountain" in German, but if it is I need in my life, I have to have this dictionary.

1. Learn the words that will be useful in communicating. But teach so to hear them in different combinations.
2. Practice speculate about the meaning of the unknown out of context. Context - all words that are unfamiliar to you next to a word. This speech topic, background and so on. A workout can be used for exercise "broken telephone", as described above.

Solution 2. "Subject and predicate"

Live it much more flexible than written text. And we are always ready to "break" the grammatical structures of the templates that are learned.

1. Be prepared that the other person will say, "not according to the rules."
2. Highlight the heard in the segment or sentence importantly - the subject and predicate.
3. Repeat hear structure. This is a live question and your response to it.

Summary

Understand the ear - is the ability to listen and hear foreign speech. Difficulties can cause both external factors (the manner of speech interlocutor, ambient noise) and internal (especially perception and language skills). But they can and should be overcome - hope, life hacking from my experience will help you in this.

see also

• 8 techniques that will help to learn foreign words →
• 6 different applications to communicate with native speakers of a foreign language →
• Read in English: 16 exciting books for beginners →