- Podcast Transcript Episode 32 How To Improve Your Listening JENNIFER:. DAN: A podcast for English learners, who want to take their language skills to the next level, brought to you by me Dan from England. JENNIFER: And me Jennifer, from the United States. DAN: We are both English teachers and together we have over thirty years of teaching experience. JENNIFER: join us every week for a mix of chat, fun and language improvement. JENNIFER: Hello, hello and welcome back to another exciting episode of English across the pond our dear listener. Remember this podcast is going to help you connect with native English speakers, help you learn how the language is actually used and most importantly teach you how to use it. This episode is extra exciting because it's our first ever how to episode. Yes that's right. We're teaching you how to improve your listening today. So you can follow along with the episode and take home some actionable tips to start improving your listening today. If you want to follow along and read with us you can download that episode guide for free and review the ways that we are teaching you to improve your listening today. Additionally if you want to follow along with exactly what we say we recommend getting the transcript. The transcript of this episode is available through our members section so you can subscribe for membership today. Head over to our website www.englishacrossthepond.com to get your episode guide or even better, subscribe to membership. Alright, are you ready to learn how to improve your listening skills? Let's go. JENNIFER: Hello Dan, hello Ponders. Is that what we decided they're called? DAN: I think Ponders is good. Hello Jennifer, hello America, hello our English across the pond listeners. How is life in the United States my friend? JENNIFER: Life in the United States is trucking along. How is it going for you? DAN: Yeah, rocking and rolling, ducking and diving. It's cold, it's always cold but it's--
JENNIFER: It's always cold. I think maybe there is like a week, that you're like wow sunshine and it's hot. In my bathing suit at the beach, no? DAN: It's less than a week. You were being a bit optimistic. No, it is often nice. When this podcast goes through the spring and the summer it will be absolutely gorgeous. We're just in the middle of winter you know. Life's hard. JENNIFER: Life's hard. I mean we are in the middle of winter here as well, as you know. But I for the past couple of days have gone for a walk outside in a T-shirt. DAN: If you went for a walk outside in a T-shirt here, the police would arrest you. JENNIFER: Oh. I'll keep my jumper on. That's what you call it right, a jumper? DAN: Jumper, pullover, sweater yeah. JENNIFER: Sweater. So talking about listening today. DAN: Yeah, we've had some questions from our beautiful listeners about how to get more out of listening and how they feel they are not making so much progress or they don't know what to do. So we thought we d put this podcast together in order to try to help some of our podcast listeners. JENNIFER: Yes. So this is really kind of our first how to episode. DAN: Yeah, how to improve your - yeah and we'll be doing more of them. This is number one really of our series, how to improve your - JENNIFER: Listening DAN: Listening is what we're starting with. Have you got any advice? JENNIFER: I do. I have lots of advice. And I'm going to start with, to improve your listening you need to be listening every single day. DAN: Every day? JENNIFER: Every day. But I don't mean to make it sound overwhelming because it's not like you have to listen all day every day. A little and often is what you want to strive for, what you want to work for. DAN: I think that's a very good recipe. And what do you mean by - you said every day. How long is a little, would you say? JENNIFER: I think most importantly connecting back to our past episode about setting realistic timelines, setting realistic goals and you as a listener, as an English learner have to think about what's going to work for you in your daily schedule. If you're working thirteen hours a day and you have a family and you are going to school, your little bit might be, 5 to 10 minutes. If you're a full time student studying English then you're little bit maybe one hour. So the key is you want to think about your schedule and realistically think how much time can
you put in one day. And maybe split it up. A little bit in the morning and a little bit in the evening. DAN: If you had asked me this question I would have answered it in exactly the same way. JENNIFER: Nice. Great minds think alike. DAN: Yeah. And as you said, as Jennifer said I think don't make it overwhelming and set a realistic goal and you yourself know how much you should do how much you can do. If you set yourself 20 minutes and you still feel fresh then of course you can do a little bit more. A little and often is the perfect answer, I think. JENNIFER: Yeah. I'm going to agree. I'm going to agree that is the answer. Two minds thinking that it is makes the yes it is. DAN: It's guaranteed. JENNIFER: Is that how it works? DAN: I think so. JENNIFER: So where - some people might be thinking - I don't know where I can listen. DAN: Yeah. I think if it was me learning a foreign language like it was Italian or Arabic it may be tricky to find a place for authentic material. But nowadays of course with the internet it's a lot easier than it used to be. Regular listeners will know we have recommended a couple of places already. I did, one of them is a US website called Story Corp and its British equivalent The Listening Project. JENNIFER: Yeah. DAN: Both of them we we ll link again in our episode guide. But with podcasts Jen if somebody wanted to find out. How do people discover podcasts? Is there a simple way to do it? JENNIFER: Well, I feel like we need to have my husband on. Who is a podcast expert, he is always listening to podcasts and I think it comes from recommendations. So you're listening to a podcasts and the podcaster says hey you heard about this? Or maybe there is a guest from another episode. They might talk about, casually in a conversation, oh I was listening to podcast xyz and I heard. And then there is also the Google search bar, there is itunes or Stitcher search. itunes I know has the recommended podcasts. DAN: And I recently was talking to a friend and I was telling them that there is a podcast app on her iphone. She had no idea that this app even existed, the purple icon. And so she opened it up and was really surprised and excited and I showed her that you can search in there. So you can search English language show or if you are taking an IELTS exam you can search for IELTS or, you can find the English to suit your needs. And once you found one, then there are links to other ones similar to it. So podcast is a great way forward and you can look on your iphone. If you have an iphone there is an app on there called podcasts. Or if you are on android then the app that you need is called Stitcher.
JENNIFER: Yes. So you had mentioned, when you go into that podcast app or you're searching you look for English learning show or English podcasts or IELTS or TOEFL. You can also listen to authentic native speakers, whether it's an American or an Australian or a British lad. You can listen to an authentic podcast that's not even aimed toward English learners. It can be a podcast about cats. DAN: Cats? JENNIFER: Like I listen to Cattitude which I would never recommend, it's not good. But one time because I love cats. DAN: Yes. So you're not stuck listening to something, for example maybe you don't really like current affairs, you're not so keen on the news. It's depressing but you feel you have to listen to it because you want to access English. That's not the case. You can find many, many podcasts on all sorts of different topics, things that you are interested in. So don't be afraid when you're searching in Google or if you're searching on a podcast site, then put in what you want to learn. Don't put in I must learn English. Put in I want a podcast about cooking or JENNIFER: Well maybe don't type in all of that, maybe just type in cooking. DAN: Yeah if you're using a podcast app yeah. JENNIFER: Yeah. Awesome, so we have this idea of listen a little and often maybe start with podcasts because they are readily available on your phone, on your ipad or even on your computer. So then, where are some places that people can listen in terms of in their lives? Where can they put English, where can they put this listening a little and often? DAN: Well the beautiful thing about podcasts, the amazing thing about podcasts is, you don't have to stop what you're doing or you don't have to change your timetable particularly. It can be on the drive to work or on the bus to work, the bus to school. So podcasts are great because of course you're listening but you don't have to use your hands, you don't have to use your eyes, it s not so distracting. Unlike YouTube of course where it takes all of your attention, a podcast is perfect. So you could do it while you're cooking for example, you could listen - JENNIFER: While you're loading up your dishwasher. DAN: What about in the shower? Is that possible do you think? JENNIFER: Absolutely. Bring some speakers in there and while you're scrubbing that hair you can listen to Jennifer and Dan, talking about English. DAN: Don't electrocute yourself though. JENNIFER: No. DAN: Be careful, be safe people. JENNIFER: Yes. Maybe while brushing your teeth.
DAN: Yeah, any moment where you're getting from A to B. Be that actually sort of like physically, geographically getting from A to B as in from home to school or getting from A to B as in getting from my bed to sort of ready for work; getting dressed and having a wash or cleaning your teeth, having breakfast. Anytime you can just flick on your favorite podcast. JENNIFER: I love that, because I, as much as I say you should listen brushing your teeth that you should do here. I have never really thought about setting up a routine where your alarm goes off, you wake up and the first thing you do is you hit play on a podcast. DAN: It would be good for your brain I think. JENNIFER: And then you just carry it with you as you go into the bathroom, the shower, the brush your teeth, the breakfast, it kind of goes with you throughout the morning. So it could become easily a morning routine. DAN: I'll tell you when it will be awesome as well, like if you're exercising and if you're going for a walk, a power walk or you're running or something. That would be great as well. You're then killing two birds with one stone. JENNIFER: Love that. [Advertisement] JENNIFER: So they are listening often they ve got their podcasts, what else can they do to improve their listening? DAN: Well what would go along really nicely if you can access the podcast, especially if it's an authentic podcast with native speakers, would be a transcript to go along with it. I think transcripts can be really helpful. JENNIFER: A trans what? DAN: A trans what? A transcript is basically it's the words that are spoken by for example Jennifer and I, is what we say, written down. That's what a transcript is. JENNIFER: So they are basically like the subtitles for this entire episode on one piece of paper. DAN: That's a very clever way of explaining it. JENNIFER: Yeah. You know when you watch TV the sub-titles go on the bottom and you can read it as they talk. Well transcripts you can basically get everything that was said during an episode and have it in front of you all the time. DAN: And as we've said it's great to listen to authentic native speakers. That can be very challenging of course. I can only imagine myself listening to a Japanese native speaker, but with the transcript it creates a kind of like, safety net. It gives you some sort of what's the word? JENNIFER: Support.
DAN: Yeah thank you. Some sort of support and makes you maybe, less afraid to listen and there are so many different things you can do with a transcript. Of course one thing you can do is read along. And as you are reading along you think, oh - JENNIFER: That's what that crazy guy said. DAN: Yeah. And so it again as you said, as Jen said, offers support. How else could we use transcripts Jen? JENNIFER: So, along the same lines of what you've said, as you listen and read along. You might just practice just your listening comprehension. So maybe you have your transcripts to the side, you're not reading them at the same time, but you're hearing a conversation and then you miss something. You don't catch what someone said. So you can pause the podcast, pause the audio, grab that transcript and then check for what you heard or look up that word that may be you quite didn't catch. And so then you can identify, did I not understand that word because it's a new vocabulary word or may be is it pronounced in a different way? Like it s linked or it's contracted or it's shorter or you know what I mean, is there some kind of pronunciation area that I need to work on? DAN: Yeah. Perfect. Another thing would be of course just to listen to the podcast and try to understand as much as you can. Then listen and read along with it, you know in conjunction have the two with you simultaneously and then go back to listen again without the transcript, your understanding will have improved dramatically from the first listen which was without the transcript and the third listen without the transcript. Because you used the transcript in the middle, you'll feel so much better and so much more empowered. Transcripts can do this. JENNIFER: Yeah so, I have a little idea like a little sample week study plan. Do you want to hear it? DAN: Yeah. Love to. JENNIFER: Okay. This is for you, English Ponder. So you have our podcast. Well let's start with our podcast because you're already listening, you know you love it, you can expect it every Friday and we also have transcripts. So every Friday, as you know we release that new episode. So as Dan said, the first time give the podcast a listen without the transcript. So have a listen, all of those places that we talked about, on your way to work or wherever, wherever. And this is something you can do passively. You know, as you re doing other things. Then when you have a moment to really sit down and study some English, then maybe sit down and write on a piece of paper some of the things that you remember hearing from the podcast. What's some things that we talked about? What was the general idea? What were the main points? Then listen again with the transcript. And double check you know, did you write down the same things that you're reading now on the podcast. So did you understand and listen accurately? And then a couple of days later or the next day then you go back to listening to the podcast alone without transcripts and checking how you feel now that third time. So that's really one podcast, one episode every week that you can do across multiple days. DAN: Perfect, it is a beautiful plan. Thank you teacher.
JENNIFER: I thought about that on the fly. DAN: Amazing and we will or would you - I don't know if I should ask but we should put your little plan into our episode guide so that - it's one thing to hear it but I think we've said this before to see it makes it a bit easier. So we'll make a summary of Jennifer's plan in our episode guide for this week. JENNIFER: Jessica? Who is she? DAN: I don't know. I could tell you who she is, but I won't. JENNIFER: You'd have to tell me. DAN: Yeah that sort of thing. JENNIFER: So perfect. Love that. Is there anything else that you could recommend that our listeners do with the transcripts? DAN: Another thing that you could do dear listeners is let other people know or let us know how you are using transcripts and how you get the most out of transcripts. Where could our listeners do that Jen? JENNIFER: In our online forum. So if you go to our website www.englishacrossthepond.com you can either look for the forum button at the top F.O.R.U.M or you could type directly into your internet www.englishacrossthepond.com/forum F.O.R.U.M. And there, there are different, they are called threads or topics, so there is different questions or themes that we have. Like from a couple of weeks ago we said Where should we travel in your city? or country? We've had What's your favorite episode? we have people introducing themselves. So we'll start a new topic that says, How do you use transcripts? And as our listeners know, who are already getting those transcripts that with our transcripts that we send every week, there are couple of listening comprehension questions. So that's one more thing you get with us and our transcripts is we'll give you specific listening practice, right in the weekly email. DAN: Gorgeous. If you are interested in accessing our transcripts then please back to our website www.englishacrossthepond.com and click on subscribe. You'll see there, three levels, number one is free and number two is gold and number three is premium. If you click on number two gold, you will there be able to sign up and access our transcripts every week. There is a free sample there for you to have a look at and there are other benefits from becoming a gold or premium member. So have a look at our subscribe page. Please, if you are serious about your English consider making the investment. It really, really will help to take your English to the next level. JENNIFER: Yes it will, because you also get bonus videos. So as a member you're going to get so much more than just this weekly podcast. So sign up. DAN: Cool cool. JENNIFER: Alright, quick review. How to improve your listening? Number one, listen little and often get it into your routine. Dan, number two?
DAN: Number two is, access podcasts. They are free and they will talk about things that you like and are interested in so you will be motivated. JENNIFER: Awesome. And the last one really try to utilize those transcripts to get even more support for every episode. DAN: Perfect. Sounds good. JENNIFER: Sounds great. So until next time. DAN: Thanks very much for listening everyone. And see you next week. Bye. JENNIFER: See you next week. Bye. DAN: For our language focus today we'll review some of the ways that you can improve your listening. Number one, listen to English every day. The key is to listen a little bit and often. And make a realistic schedule for yourself. So your little bit and your friend's little bit may be different. And begin small. Don't start with too much on your plate. Set a time and if you find you can do more then, carry on. There is a couple of recommendations in our episode guide. They are Story Corp which is an American English and the Listening Project which is British English. These are authentic native speakers talking about important moments in their life. Number two, podcasts of course. You can find new podcasts through recommendations from your friends, search Google, search itunes or search Stitcher if you're on an android phone or press the discover tab in itunes. Number three, listen to English learning podcasts and authentic podcasts. Search for English speakers talking about different topics. Cars, cooking and remember to search for things that you like, because then you'll remain interested and learn more effectively and quickly. Remember you can listen to podcasts anywhere. They are mobile, so you don't have to put down everything that you're doing and stare at the screen. You can listen to podcasts while you're traveling, while you're cooking or doing exercise. You could make podcasts part of your early morning routine. If you need a little help putting these ideas into practice, then this week's episode guide has a plan. We made it just for you. JENNIFER: It's time to review the English expressions and idioms that we learned and used in today's episode. You can learn the definitions and hear some sentence samples to discover how you can start using them in your everyday English conversations. The first expression we have is, rocking and rolling, ducking and diving which is very slang and an expression to say that you are doing many different things. For example Dan said, he was rocking and rolling, ducking and diving in the beginning of this episode. Great minds think alike is used humorously to express that two or more people share similar ideas. For example, Dan and I think podcasts are the best way to improve listening. Great minds think alike.
Next we have, to kill two birds with one stone, which means to do one action and achieve two or more results or benefits. For example, if you listen to this podcast with the transcript, you are killing two birds with one stone. You are improving your listening skills while also improving vocabulary. Along the same lines, means similarly or in the same way. It's used to also connect similar subjects. For example, you can use our podcast to improve listening, along the same lines you can also improve vocabulary skills. To catch what someone says, means to hear and understand what someone has said. For example you can use our transcripts if you don't catch what we said in the episode. Finally, on the fly means spontaneously, in the moment without a plan. For example I created this week's sample plan on a fly.