EnglishSprint

Wrong Way To Improve Your Listening - Transcript

How do you improve your English listening skills? If you ask this question to English teachers, they
will tell you the same thing. They will tell you to go watch movies. They will say that watching movies is a
great way to improve your listening. But there’s a problem. A lot of English learners watch movies with
subtitles. Some people use English subtitles. Other people use subtitles in their native languages. Now, it
doesn’t matter what kind of subtitles you use. Watching movies with subtitles is a really bad way to
improve your listening. And in this video, I’m going to explain to you why it’s such a bad idea. But first, let
me share with you my personal experience. So back when I was in senior high school, I wanted to improve
my English listening skills. So what did I do? Well, I started to watch movies with English subtitles. I thought
that was the best way to improve my listening. I was really optimistic. I thought that in two or three years,
I would be able to understand native speakers. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. After six years of doing that,
I still could not understand native speakers. I still needed subtitles when watching a movie. I was really
disappointed.

I watched a lot of movies, but I still could not understand native speakers. At the time, I didn’t
know why it didn’t work. But now I do. So let’s talk about that right now. First, there’s one thing about
listening that you need to know. Listening and hearing are not the same. If you want to improve your
listening, make sure that when you practice listening, you’re really listening and not just hearing. So
what’s the difference between listening and hearing? Well, the difference is whether or not you’re paying
attention. If you’re paying attention, then you’re listening. If you’re not paying attention, then that’s just
hearing. So let me give you an example. If you turn on the radio and pay attention to the sound from the
radio, then that is listening. But if you turn on the radio and then you do something else like reading a
book, then that’s just hearing. You can hear the radio, but you’re not paying attention to it. You are not
listening. And again, if you want to improve your listening, make sure that you’re really listening and not
just hearing. You need to make sure that you’re paying attention.

Now let’s talk about watching movies with subtitles. What’s wrong with it? Why doesn’t it work?
As you might have guessed, it doesn’t worl because you’re not listening. You’re just hearing. So let me
explain. When you watch a movie, your brain is trying to undertand the movie. But there isn’t just one
way to do that. There are two ways or two options. The first option is to focus on reading the subtitles.
The second option is to focus on listening to the sound. Now I have a question for you. Which option do
you think your brain will choose? Reading or listening? Well the answer is obvious. Youe brain is going to
focus on reading the subtitles. Why? Because it’s much easier. The text on the screen is clear. So it’s very
easy for your brain to process. The sounds of people talking, on the other hand, are not that clear. So it’s
much more difficult for your brain to figure out what people are saying. As a result, your brain will pay
attention to the subtitles and not the sounds.
 So when you watch a movie with subtitles, you’re not really improving your listening. You’re
actually improving your reading. And that’s what it doesn’t work. So the best way to improve your listening
is to just listen. Don’t read and listen at the same time. If you watch a movie in English, remove the
subtitles, so that your brain will have to focus on listening. If you do that, your listening will improve much
faster. That said, there is still a problem. If you remove the subtitles, then you won’t understand the
movie. And if you don’t understand the movie, then it’s going to be boring.

So what should you do? Well here’s my suggestion, don’t try to improve your listening by watching
movies. Just watch movies for fun. There’s a better and faster way to improve your listening. And that’s
the subject of the next audio. In the next audio, I’ll share with you the method I personally used to improve
my English listening skill. So I’ll see you again in the next audio.