Tips On How To Improve Your English Listening – By Jin Lee

Dear Jin,

I’m writing to give you the tips to improve English listening skills because I heard your pet peeve in English is listening. I also had similar experiences to you and I have tried to overcome it. I’ve outlined my solutions.

The first way is to listen to news or politician’s speeches. The upside that this way has is that you can get information about diverse fields, so it broadens your outlook. However, the downsides are that sometimes it includes a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary and it naturally makes you bored if you’re not interested in the topics.

The second method is to watch movies or TV series without subtitles. The benefit of this method is that you can choose what you like and enjoy it. It can not only interest you but also strengthen your concentration. Moreover, you can find good expressions for conversations. On the other hand, the drawback is that the stories are too long to focus on English.

Finally, my personal preference is to watch YouTube channels such as “Ted Talks” or “School of Life”. Its pros is that they are shorter than movies or series, so you don’t have to concentrate for a long time. Furthermore, you have a choice in subject. If you choose what you’re amused at, you can easily understand what they explain. The cons is that sometimes a topic is not good but you can avoid bad topic, so it’s not a big matter for me.

Even if you understand nothing or a little in these ways, don’t worry and just try again. As well, you can use English subtitles. It sheds light on what they talk about. Without question, the most important thing for listening is repetition. I hope my solutions are helpful to you.

Regards,

Your secret friend