Transcript: “Listening Time” Episode 51

Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. Hey everybody, this is Conner, and you're
listening to Episode 51 of the Listening Time Podcast. I'm super excited for today's episode,
because we're going to talk about becoming an advanced listener in English. So, I know this is a
topic that's going to be really helpful for all of you, because I assume that all of you want to
reach an advanced listening comprehension level. And the reason I decided to record this
episode is because I have some other exciting news, which is that I'm starting an advanced
podcast. A lot of people have asked me for this. I've gotten many requests for an advanced-level
podcast, similar to the normal Listening Time podcast, and now you've got your wish. I'm
starting an advanced podcast, and this will be for Listening Time Family Members.
So, remember that there are three levels of membership that you can sign up for. There
are Listening Time Members for $2 a month, Listening Time Super Members for $3 a month,
and Listening Time Family Members for $4 a month. So, if you become a Listening Time Family
Member, you'll have access to this new advanced podcast on the fifth day of every month. I'm
going to release new episodes on the fifth of every month. So, for example: April 5, May 5, June
5, etc. So, in the episode description below this episode, you'll see the link there: it's
www.patreon.com/listeningtime
And you can click on that and become a Listening Time Family Member to have access
to my advanced podcast episodes. And some people have had trouble finding the links for the
episode transcripts. All of the links are in the Description below each episode. So, depending on
which platform you use to listen to this podcast, it might be labeled something different, like
"Episode Description" or "Episode Notes", but they're below every episode. So, you just need to
go down and sometimes you might need to click on the little thing that says "See More", and
you'll see all the links below each episode. I put the links to the episode transcripts and the links
to the Patreon membership website so you can become a member.
So, in each advanced episode, I'm going to talk for a shorter amount of time, about 10 to
12 minutes, probably. And I'll be speaking at normal speed. So, I'm going to try not to slow down
much. I want to speak exactly how I would normally speak with other native speakers. And so,
I'll probably define fewer words. I won't stop as much to define the new words or phrases that
I'm saying. I'll definitely define some of them, but the pace will be faster than these normal
episodes. So, I won't slow down too much. I won't define as much. I'm just going to talk, talk,
talk. And so, with these episodes, the transcript will be very useful for you because I'm sure it
will be harder for you to understand those episodes, but that's good. This is the way to
challenge yourself, to actually improve your listening level even more. And you can use
repetition to help you understand the whole episode and learn all those new words and become
accustomed to all these different sound patterns in English.
So, remember: this advanced podcast is available for Listening Time Family Members
on the fifth day of every month. If you're already a Member or Super Member, you can also
change your membership and become a Family Member to have access to this advanced
podcast. Okay? So, remember to go down and click on the link in the episode description.
www.patreon.com/listeningtime Alright, let's get started.
Okay, in this episode, I'm going to talk about the three things that you need in order to
reach an advanced listening level. Okay? So, we're going to go over each of these three things,
and I'm going to give you some tips and advice on how to actually use these three things and
reach an advanced level. So, the first thing that you need is some type of content that's
understandable for you, but a little above your level. So, the most obvious choice for this is
using the Listening Time podcast.
 So, most of you can understand most of what I'm saying, or you can understand the
context of each episode of Listening Time, so this would be a great tool for all of you to use for
this first category, for the content that's understandable for you, but still a little above your level.
Of course, I use words and phrases that you haven't heard before, and I help you understand all
of those expressions. And of course, there are some things that you might not understand when
I'm speaking, or you might not catch all the words that I'm saying, and that's okay, because for
most of you, this podcast is understandable.
So, the key here is that you understand what I'm saying because studies show that when
you actually understand the context and the message of something in a foreign language, your
brain acquires more of that language. Remember that the word "acquire" just means "get",
right? "Gain". So, your brain gets the language and absorbs it when you actually understand the
message of what is being said in that foreign language. So, if you can understand the message,
or the main idea, of everything that I'm saying in this podcast, then your brain is acquiring
English. It's acquiring grammar, it's acquiring vocabulary, it's acquiring sound patterns. It's
acquiring all this, and you don't even realize it. That's the cool part. Your brain is doing that, but
you don't even know that it's happening.
So, this is much different from listening to English content that's way above your level
and really, really hard, and you can't even understand the context. In that situation, your brain
doesn't acquire much. It doesn't really benefit much in that situation. So, the key is you want to
be able to understand the content, and then, you can acquire the language. So, your first tool is
this Listening Time podcast that you're all listening to.
So, of course, with this podcast, it's good to use it with active listening and passive
listening. So, when you listen actively, this means that this is the only thing that you're doing in
that moment. You're not multitasking. You're just paying attention to what you're listening to, and
you're actively listening. So, when you actively listen to the Listening Time podcast, it's good to
use repetition. And so, I always recommend listening to the same episode multiple times...
maybe three times, at least. And for example, the first time you listen to the episode, you can
listen without the transcript and see how much you understand. And then the second time, you
can listen with the transcript, and you can see all of those words and expressions and sounds
and grammar that you might've missed the first time around. So, this will help you better
understand what was said. And then, you can listen one more time, a third time, and this time,
you can listen again without the transcript. And when you listen this third time, you'll see how
much better you can understand the episode than you could the first time you listened.
So, this repetition will really help the acquisition process. It will help your brain acquire
more, and you'll draw your brain's attention to more patterns. In English we use the phrase
"draw someone's attention" to something. This just means that you're putting the person's focus
on that thing. Okay? So, when you use active repetition like this, you'll be able to draw your
brain's attention to new words and new phrases and new sound patterns. So, this is a great way
to use this podcast for your active listening. And the goal with active listening for this podcast is
to understand everything I'm saying after you listen a few different times. So, once you can
understand everything I'm saying... every word, no problem, without the transcript, then you
know that you've really mastered that episode, and your brain is definitely acquiring this
listening ability.
And of course, it's also important to use passive listening with this podcast or other
listening resources that you have. So, with the Listening Time podcast, you can passively listen
to it while you're doing something else. You can multitask. So, for example, while you drive to
work, you can listen to this podcast in your car. Or while you clean your house, you can put your
headphones in and listen to this podcast. The word "headphones" in English just refers to the
things that you put in your ears so that you can listen to something on your phone or your
computer. There are a few different words for this in English, but the word that I usually say is
"headphones". So, it's good to passively listen to these episodes as well. And it's okay if you're
not 100% focused on your listening while you're passively listening. That's normal, of course,
because you'll be multitasking.
The key with this is to just get more time with the language, right? You're going to
maximize the time that you spend listening if you're always passively listening in the background
while you're doing other tasks. In English, when we say that you do something "in the
background", it means that it's not your main activity. You're doing something else, but you're
doing this other thing in the background. You're doing it while you're doing the other activity. So,
if you do this, you're going to end up listening to a lot more English every day, right? Probably
hours more. So, it will definitely speed up the process of becoming an advanced listener.
And one thing that people ask me is how many times they should listen to each episode
actively or passively. As I said, for active listening, three times is great, right, the first time
without the transcript, the second time with the transcript, the third time without the transcript.
Passively listening... you can listen as many times as you'd like. I would recommend that once it
starts to get boring, like you know exactly what I'm saying, nothing is new for you, it's really easy
to understand... then, you can stop listening to that episode, and put a different episode on...
one that's more recent or that's new for you or something like that. But I think you can cycle
through different episodes. Like... if you have an mp3 player, you can download 10 or 20
episodes, and then you'll listen to different ones throughout the day. And then, once you've
already heard all of those episodes, many times, you can switch them out and download other
episodes. When we say "to switch something out" in English, it just means change it. Okay? So,
you can change these episodes. Alright, so now let's talk about the second thing that you need.
The second thing that you need is some type of guided content, but at normal speed,
alright? So, where the person is speaking normally without slowing down. So, this is what I'm
trying to create with my advanced podcast that I told you about. So, with this content, it will be
less understandable, because, for example, in the advanced podcast that I'm doing, I'm going to
try to speak at normal speed, so it'll seem pretty fast for a lot of you. And so, it's okay if it's not
that understandable or if it's less understandable than this podcast. And your goal is to make it
more understandable. Right? So, when you start out, it'll probably be hard to understand, and
your goal will be to try to make it as understandable as possible. So, you're going to do the
same type of listening practice with this content that you do with the normal listening time
podcast.
So, you're going to need to do active listening, of course. So, you'll do this the same
way, probably. You can listen the first time without the transcript, the second time with the
transcript, etc. And instead of just listening three times, maybe you need to listen five times, or
something like that. And this will be okay because the episodes are shorter. As I mentioned, the
episodes will be 10 to 12 minutes, maybe. So, it will be more manageable for you to listen many
times. Right? So, I would say that you probably need to listen more times with the advanced
podcast because it'll take you longer to really understand everything I'm saying, all the words I'm
saying.
And you might not reach the point where you can understand every single sound that I'm
saying in just five listens, but you might be able to, and if not, you'll probably get pretty close if
you really use the transcript well, right? if you really study it and listen with and without the
transcript and really try to understand the sounds as I'm speaking. You can probably reach the
point with each advanced episode where you understand almost everything that I say, right? But
it requires a lot of repetition. Okay? So, that's how you'll do your active listening... the same way
but more repetition.
 And then your passive listening will be similar too. I always recommend using an mp3
player that's small and that won't bother you throughout the day because of how big it is in your
pocket. I have this really small one that I use that you don't really even notice when it's in your
pocket. And then, throughout the day, you can just put your headphone in whenever you want to
passively listen. And so, I recommend doing this for all of the content that you passively listen
to, and the goal is similar. You want to get more exposure to this advanced content, and you
want to spend more time listening to it. In English, when you say that you get "exposure" to
something, this just means that you have the experience with this thing, right? So, when I say
that you're going to get more exposure to this advanced content, it just means that you're going
to experience this more, you're going to have more of it in your life.
So, you can use these advanced podcast episodes, and download them onto your mp3
player, and listen throughout the day. And you can use both the normal Listening Time podcast
and the advanced podcast and have both types of episodes that you listen to passively. Of
course, there will be many more normal episodes than advanced episodes, but that's okay. I'm
sure one episode per month will be a good start just to help you have more time with advanced
content. And you'll have plenty of time to use this repetition method, and you'll get a new
episode every month. So, that's the second thing that you need.
And the third thing that you need is some type of super interesting native content. So,
you need to find something, whether it's a podcast, a YouTube channel, whatever, that's really
interesting for you, something that you would normally listen to in your own language. And so,
this needs to be native content. It needs to be content made for English speakers, not for
English learners. So, this content will be even less understandable for you. Right? You're not
going to have an easy time understanding this, probably. It will probably be much harder to
understand this content than it is to understand this podcast, for example. And with this super
interesting native content, you probably won't have the transcript available. So, you have fewer
tools with this content, but that's okay.
So, what you're going to use this content for, is to get your brain really interested in
something in English, right? So, with my podcast, I try to talk about interesting topics and I try
not to make it boring for you. But of course, you're not always going to be super interested in
every topic that I pick. But if you find some really interesting content on YouTube or another
podcast made for English speakers that you would normally listen to in your own language, your
brain is going to be really interested in this content. And as I've talked about before, the more
interested that your brain is in some content in a foreign language, the more your brain actually
acquires.
So, even though you don't realize it, your brain is acquiring more vocabulary, more
grammar, and more sound patterns with that super interesting content, than your brain would
acquire with boring content of the same level. Okay? So, this is really important. You need to
find some content that you really like. And as I mentioned, you're not going to understand a
whole lot of it at the beginning. In English, when we say "a whole lot of" something, this just
means a big amount of something. Okay? So, you might not understand a whole lot of it at the
beginning, but your goal will be to make it more understandable as time goes on.
So, your big advantage here is your interest. Okay? So, your brain is going to want to
understand that content. So, you'll be able to keep your attention focused on what you're
listening to, and you'll be able to stick with it even if it's hard. In English, when we say "stick
with" something, this just means you continue and you don't quit. Okay? So, this is the big
advantage that you'll have. For example, I listen to a French podcast about business. And I'm
really interested in the topic of business because I'm trying to grow my business. And so, when I
listen to this podcast, I'm not even really focused on the French aspect. I just want to know what
the person is saying because I want the person's advice on business.
 So, my brain is acquiring a lot of French when I listened to this podcast, and I don't even
realize it. And when I started listening to this podcast, it was hard. It was a very high level for
me. But now, when I listen to these episodes, it's much more understandable. And my brain kind
of did this on its own. Obviously, I look up many words and I repeat the episodes many times.
But really, there's not too much effort involved if I'm really interested in that topic, right? It
doesn't require too much effort to repeat, and to keep listening again and again, and look up
those new words because I'm really interested in that content.
And so, you'll use the same active and passive listening with this content. However, as I
mentioned, you might not have the transcript available, so your active listening won't be as easy
probably. But you can still use repetition and try to look up new words. And really, the goal with
this content is to just have fun with English and get your brain interested in some type of native
content. This is really important. It's important to have some of this type of content in your life,
okay? It's really going to help you start to understand native speakers because at some point,
you need to listen to native content that's not made for English learners. And so the best way to
do this is to find content that you really like. Okay, so now you know the three things that you
need in order to become an advanced listener. Okay? So, these are the three different types of
content that you want to have and that you want to listen to on a daily basis.
Okay, so remember to sign up to become a Listening Time Family Member. Go down
into the Episode Description below this episode, and click on that link: www.patreon.com/
listeningtime and sign up to become a Listening Time Family Member, and you'll receive my
advanced podcast every month... on the fifth day of every month. Okay? So, make sure to sign
up today. And of course, you have the transcript available as well. That's also below in the
Episode Description. Alright, well, thank you all for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you
again on Episode 52 of the Listening Time podcast.

*Click on this link to become a member, and you’ll receive my Listening Practice Seminars and
extra podcast episodes: www.patreon.com/listeningtime