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