Let me guess. You can understand English
speakers perfectly well when they talk at this speed. However, when ..... It's
harder to understand them. Let me help. [Music] Good morning, good afternoon and good
evening. Welcome to Smashing English! Before we start this video, be sure to subscribe
because we make new videos all the time, and I don't want you to miss any. So, with
that said, let's get on with the video. Okay, let's really learn how to understand
English native speakers, I have some tips that will help you. Okay, tip number one. I bet
you can understand this person. "People often ask me why I'm so interested in the mental health
of children and young people, and the answer is quite simple. Because I think that every child
should have the best possible start in life." And I'm pretty sure you will find it much harder
to understand this person. "I know other girls in relationships let these things slide, and
you know, let their boyfriends text every Tom, Dick and Harry." Let's try another example.
Can you understand this person? "The goal, the objective of economic policy should be collective
well-being. How happy and healthy a population is, not just how wealthy a population is." I'm just
guessing, but I think you can understand that person pretty well. But what about this person?
"That thing, I've not been able to sit back and enjoy it because you're always on the move
to the next thing, and on the move, the next thing. I think that's why, during lockdown, I
really struggled as well, because it was like, on to the next thing, and there is no next thing
now because we're all in Covid." Much harder? Let's figure out why. I gave you four examples
there. Two of them were quite easy to understand, and two of them were more of a challenge. Okay, so
the two examples that were easier to understand, they were talking in a public setting. They had
something that was prepared. They had a script or a speech written, and they were presenting to
a large group of people. The other two examples featured much younger speakers using a dialect
that maybe you are not familiar with. They were speaking in a setting where nothing was planned,
nothing was prepared, and they were just talking to one, maybe two people in quite an intimate
setting. So, my first tip is diversify your listening practice. Stop watching TED Talks.
Stop watching members of the royal family. TED Talks are great. I love TED Talks, but they are
presenting. They have written a script. They have planned and practiced what they are going to say,
and they want a large group of people to be able to understand them. So, of course, you'll be able
to understand them. That's their main goal. So, when you are doing English listening practice,
make it your mission to find things that are unscripted. Reality shows, podcasts, chat
shows. Diversify the listening practice, because then your ear is like a muscle. Your ear
will become so flexible, so adaptable. Your ear will be ready to listen to any voice, any dialect.
So, when you talk to someone, it's like you've done the hard work. This conversation is easy. I
can understand you. Moving on to my next tip. Keep watching for an in-depth analysis of the sounds
that make English speakers so hard to understand. My next tip involves a strategy that humans have
been using since the dawn of time to understand each other, and that is talking to another human
being. So, I want to recommend a resource that I myself have used for the last three and a
half years. Without a doubt, one of the best and most effective ways to improve your English
listening quickly is by actually speaking to an English native. It's authentic, it's real, and it
works. So, as most of you know, I teach and learn on iTalki. ITalki is an online learning platform
that offers one-to-one customised language lessons in over 150 languages. Although, just guessing,
you're probably going to go there for English lessons. But hey, I'm just assuming. There's
absolutely no subscription involved. You just pay for the lessons you want, 30 minutes,
45 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half, whatever suits you, boo. And the prices start at
only five dollars, which is amazing. Like I said, I teach English on italki, and I have done
for over three years, so clearly, I'm a fan. Aussi, j'apprends le Français sur iTalki.
And it's great because I'm able to choose from a huge variety of teachers. They are
different ages. They have different accents, different speech patterns, different specialties.
So, if you're struggling with a particular accent, find a teacher on iTalki with that accent, and
you will notice how quickly that accent becomes less and less confusing because you are actually
interacting with it. When you actually engage with a human who is using their authentic accent,
pace, and speech patterns, it's so much easier to decipher what they're actually talking about. And
luckily for you, I have an excellent offer. Use the link in the description to start browsing
for a teacher that suits you, and if you buy ten dollars worth of iTalki credits, you can get
another five dollars for free using my exclusive promo code. You are welcome. But go quickly
because this amazing deal is only available to the first 50 users that get it. So go, go, go,
go. Okay, tip number three. Let's talk about the practicalities here, because I truly think that
this, this is the main reason why understanding fast English is so hard, and it's all because of
linking. It's because of those annoying linking sounds that everybody does. So let me talk you
through some of the most common linking sounds and how to understand them. I believe that the best
way to understand something is to be able to do it yourself. So, learn these linking sounds like
you are going to do them. Try to make them with your own mouth. Try to actually do them because if
you understand the mechanics of how you make the linking sounds, it will sound a lot less alien
when you hear someone else doing those linking sounds. Okay, so let's look at this sentence here.
I actually saw a dog in his window on Tuesday. I actually saw a dog in his window on Tuesday. Now,
can you see how that could be quite confusing if I say that really quickly? I actually saw a
dog on his window on Tuesday. It's crazy talk, crazy talk. And it's because it's like I'm saying
one big word. There are no gaps in the middle. It's just one long word. So, let's talk through
the linking sounds. So, the first one we've got, "I actually." Now, no one says, "I actually."
They don't put a gap in the middle. What we do, definitely in a lot of accents in the UK,
definitely in standard English, most of these links are based on standard English, but a lot of
them are international. Lots of different dialects use these linking sounds. So, when you've got an
I actually, how are we going to link that? So, what we're going to put in the middle
is we're going to put a "y" sound. So, it becomes "I actually." Why do we say "Y"? Let me
tell you. So, this is a vowel-to-vowel link. Okay, so we've got an "I" and then we've got an "ah." "I
- ah." All right? So there's two vowel sounds, so we have to create a link because they don't really
link together without putting something in there. "I" ends wide. Because when we do "i," it's like
we're ending on a smile. And this is the same for "a" and "e." So, when you've got this wide vowel,
smiley vowel, let's call them smiley vowels, then to get to the next word, if it starts with a
vowel, you have to put a "yuh" because it's easy to. Because our mouth is already wide, and when
we do "yuh," it's a wide sound as well. "I" smile "yuh." "Actually." "Yuh." And you just release
it. "I actually." "I actually," Like that. Okay, moving on to the next linking sound in this
sentence. "I actually saw a dog." Hold on a second. I definitely just did an "r" sound. "I
actually saw a dog." I can't see an "r" there. Can you? Am I? I can't see an "r." But I said
an "r," and that is because we have the feature called an intrusive "r." Now, if you are only
concerned with understanding American speakers, don't worry about the intrusive "r." But if you
want to understand a lot of people from Britain, you need to understand what the intrusive "r" is.
So, the intrusive "r" is when we insert an "r" to link to the next word, even though there's not
an "r" that is written there. We just put one in, and this can be extremely confusing when
you're listening to fast English because you've definitely heard an "r." Hold on, there was an
"r" there. What's going on? But there isn't. We've just put one in to help with linking. So, let's
look at the example. "I actually saw a." So, the reason why we're doing an "r" here is because we
have the "or" sound of "saw" and then an "a." We have another open vowel sound. "Saw a." So, if we
didn't have the linking "r," the intrusive "r," it would sound odd. It would sound like "I actually
saw. A." We would have to put a gap in there, but we don't like putting gaps in when we speak.
It's annoying. So, actually, "saw" feels like it should rhyme with "door," right? It's the same
sound. "Saw," "door." Look at the word "door." There's an "r" on the end. Okay, so actually, this
sound feels like it ends in an "r." The word "saw" kind of sounds like it ends in an "r," and that
is why we are using the "r" sound. In a lot of UK dialects if you have a word that could end in
an "r," it sounds the same as a word that ends in an "r" followed by a vowel, we're probably going
to put an intrusive "r" in there. For example, my name is Laura. Laura. It ends on a schwa,
but what other words end in a schwa in English? We have mother, father, water, better. Oh, look,
R, R, R, R, R. So, that schwa sound sometimes is spelled like "er." So, if I have to link my name
to something else that's a vowel, I have to put an "r" in there. So, I say, "Laura is." "Laura is
great." So, push yourself. Try to do the intrusive "r." Try to make that sound. Get familiar with
it. Get comfortable with it. Learn how it works. Imagine you are an actor learning an accent for a
role or something, and if you can do it, you will definitely understand it when you hear it. So,
now we have this. Okay, "I actually saw a dog." "In." Now, the next link is a little bit easier
because we have a hard consonant, "dog," and then a vowel. When you've got that hard consonant
followed by a vowel, just push the two together like it's one word. So, instead of saying,
"dog. in," you're going to say, "dog in." So, it's like the second part of that sound is "gin."
You've put the "g" in front of the next word. It's one sound. "I actually saw a dog in." Now, the
next linking sound is kind of UK-specific as well, because a lot of the time in the UK, we will drop
our "h's." You will hear this in parts of London, places like Liverpool, Birmingham. Sometimes, we
just don't like the "h." So, for example, here, instead of saying, "in his," we're probably going
to say, "in is." "In is." "In is." We've taken away that "h" completely, and we've made it into
one word. "I actually saw a dog in his." We just smush everything together. Everything's just
connected. "I actually saw a dog in his window on Tuesday." Didn't stop once. So, how can you
practice this? How can you learn how to do this? I have one very simple technique for you. I want
you to say a sentence like a song. When you listen to singers, everything is connected. Everything
goes like this. It doesn't stop. It just goes like this. There are no gaps in there. So, if we
sang this sentence, "I actually saw a dog in his window on Tuesday," it doesn't have to be a tune,
or anything. It can be straight. "I actually saw a dog in his window on Tuesday." Make it one
continuous sound. Don't stop the sound. So, practice speaking in songs. So, read a book,
but sing it. That's my best advice for you. Sing. Connect things together. You've got to
become best friends with linking sounds if you want to understand fast English. Okay, moving on
to my next tip. If you want to understand fast spoken English, especially with speakers from the
UK, you have to be prepared for the schwa. Okay, the schwa is everywhere. It's the most common
vowel sound in British English. It happens all the time, and if you're listening to someone
speaking, it might just sound like you're hearing the same sound over and over again,
and it can be very hard to differentiate. Okay, so that was a schwa, but it's an "o." That was
a schwa, but it's an "a." That's all over the place. Okay, so if you are not familiar,
a schwa sounds like this: uh, uh, uh, uh. It's not a very cheery sound. It's not
very happy. It's pretty miserable. Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Staying alive, staying alive. It's
just neutral. Nothing happens with the mouth, nothing happens with the tongue. "Uh." In
a standard English dialect, this sentence would sound a little something like this. "I was
a doctor for two years, a teacher for four years, and then an administrator because I love change."
Did you hear that 'uh' all the way through? And a schwa doesn't have to be one letter. A schwa
isn't always an "a" or an "e." It's very hard to spot because they just happen all the time. So,
for example, on a word like "doctor," "teacher," these "er" or "or" ending words, that will be a
schwa. So, "doctor," "teacher," "administrator," that will be a schwa. Also, the word "for," a lot
of the time, we don't complete that sound. We just go "fuh" A doctor for two years, a teacher for
seven years. We're not even completing the word. We're just saying "fuh." Also, the word "was"
can become "was." "Was." "Was." "W-u-z." "I was a doctor." "I was a doctor for two years." "I was
a doctor for two years, a teacher for seven years, and an administrator." "An administrator."
The schwa just takes over. So, you have to be prepared to hear it, and you have to know when
to do it and how to do it. So, do some research, practice. Become, like I said, like an actor
who's learning an accent. Become fascinated by the sounds. If you are not interested in the sounds
that English speakers are making, you'll never understand them when they speak quickly because
you're not curious about the sounds. Okay, moving on to my next tip. So, my next piece of advice
for you is stop listening for sentences. Stop waiting for the sentence to have a nice end. Stop
waiting for the thought to be completed. We don't speak in sentences. Listen to your own native
language or listen to how you speak with people. It's very rare that we have clean sentences that
have a lovely beginning, middle, and an end. It's not the same as writing. We get distracted. We
say the start of a sentence, and then we forget, and then we say something else. So, if you have a
target dialect that you are trying to understand, let's say you really want to understand, um, Irish
English. You're moving to Dublin, and you want to understand the Irish dialect, and you want to
know how to understand fast Irish speakers, then learn what their hesitation sound is.
Because some people go, "Uh." Some people go, "Eh." Some people go, "Mm." Some people go mmm.
Figure out what that sound is." Because you don't want the hesitation sound to confuse you, and try
to follow physical cues. If you can pay attention to the person's face and their gestures, try
to follow their thoughts. Don't just listen to the words they are saying, because most of our
communication comes from non-verbal communication. So, if I'm talking to you, but I stop, and
maybe I move on to this thought, you can tell that I stopped this thought and I moved on to this
thought just by paying attention to my features. So, if you watch podcasts, that's really great.
You know, a lot of podcasts, they have videos now, so you can watch the person who is speaking
and try to follow their train of thought, because we never talk in sentences. It's very
rare. So, this is another reason why I don't want you to watch anything scripted, because
when it's scripted, ah, beginning, middle, end, beginning, middle, end. But that's
not how we speak in everyday life. Okay, moving on. Sometimes it's not that your English
listening is really bad. It's that the person you are listening to is using new words that you've
not heard before, or they are taking words that you think you know, but they've changed it.
So let's talk about contractions, because we love contractions. English native speakers do it
all the time, and I think these might be some of the things that confuse you. So, for example, the
one that everyone knows: "gonna." Okay, instead of "going to," we say "gonna." "I'm gonna love this
film tonight. I really think I'm gonna love it." What about "wanna?" Instead of "want to," we say
"wanna." "I don't wanna go." "I don't wanna go." This one you might not know, "Tryna," instead
of "trying to." "I'm tryna to find my keys." What about "gimme?" "Gimme," "give me that."
"Hey, give me that." "Dunno" instead of "don't know." "I don't know." "I don't know." "Is not"
becomes "ain't." "Ain't." "I ain't going." This one you might not know, "Lemme" instead of "let
me." "Lemme." "Lemme see." "Hey, lemme see." "Init," instead of "isn't it." It's
like a clarification that we use a lot in the UK. So "it's Tuesday, init?"
"Kinda," instead of "kind of." Again, we're turning that "of" into a schwa. So it's
not "kind of," it's "kinda." "I'm kinda hungry." And "dya," instead of "do you." People say, "Dya
want that?" "Dya want to go to the cinema?" "Dya want to go to the cinema?" "Dya want to go to the
cinema?" You've got to learn these contractions. You've got to be familiar with them because they
happen a lot, and I don't want that to confuse you when people are talking in fast English.
So in conclusion, if you want to understand fast English from native speakers, you need to learn
the sounds that they are making. If possible, you should be able to do their accent.
You should be able to mimic their linking sounds. You should know what a schwa is. You
should be able to recognise what a schwa is. You should know the difference between "dad"
and "dead." You should know the difference in those vowel sounds. So you've got to
become fascinated by sounds, consonants, and vowels. Get involved. Do your research, and
you will notice a huge difference, I promise you. Thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed
this video, please give it a like. If you would like to follow us on Instagram, you can do so
there also. Make sure to check out iTalki and my exclusive promo code down below. Thank you so much
for watching, and I'll see you next time, tata!
