Listening comprehension ear fatigue

[mjd550]

Just wondering what your thoughts on this is. Earlier in the day I was understanding like 80% of youtube latin american shows and was very impressed. Then later on in the day when I went back to it everything seemed like a blur.

I used to think my listening comprehension fluctuates. But now I think its ear fatigue. Found a great website that suggests using a timer for 25 minutes 100% concentration at a time. I think this will work for me.

I am a bit confused though because I have always thought immersion is best and it is best to listen to as much foreign language as is possible. Perhaps I am wrong?

[aokoye]

Just wondering what your thoughts on this is. Earlier in the day I was understanding like 80% of youtube latin american shows and was very impressed. Then later on in the day when I went back to it everything seemed like a blur.

I used to think my listening comprehension fluctuates. But now I think its ear fatigue. Found a great website that suggests using a timer for 25 minutes 100% concentration at a time. I think this will work for me.

I am a bit confused though because I have always thought immersion is best and it is best to listen to as much foreign language as is possible. Perhaps I am wrong?

Honestly the 25 min thing sounds like a take off of the Pomodoro Technique.
That said what it sounds like is that you're just getting tired because you're having to concentrate on something that you aren't totally used to or something that is tiring. That's really normal. Is immersion useful if not ideal? Yes, but it's only useful if you take advantage of the opportunities you have while being immersed in the language and culture.

[klvik]

Just wondering what your thoughts on this is. Earlier in the day I was understanding like 80% of youtube latin american shows and was very impressed. Then later on in the day when I went back to it everything seemed like a blur.

I used to think my listening comprehension fluctuates. But now I think its ear fatigue. Found a great website that suggests using a timer for 25 minutes 100% concentration at a time. I think this will work for me.

I am a bit confused though because I have always thought immersion is best and it is best to listen to as much foreign language as is possible. Perhaps I am wrong?

Maybe you should try a balanced diet of listening - some stuff that you understand with 80% comprehension and also a lot of stuff that you find very, very easy. Listen to the harder content when you are fresh and listen to the easy stuff when you are tired or distracted.

[Speakeasy]

mjd550, whilst listening to programmes in your native language, do you experience the same mental fatigue? Probably not. One of the reasons is that, when compared to languages that we have not yet mastered, we are so familiar with the structure, vocabulary, accents and intonation patterns of our own languages, we deploy significantly less energy in extracting and digesting the messages that we receive. We have little need to listen as intently in our native languages as we do whilst listening to languages with which we have less fluency. Whether listening or reading, we tend to “cherry pick” the essential information, thereby conserving our energy. I suspect that this explains your problem of “ear fatigue” in the language that you are studying.

By the same token, were you to find yourself in a situation where you were required to listen "truly intensively" to every word of an hour-long discourse in your native language -- because you were not familiar with the vocabulary, because the speakers spoke with regional accents that were quite remote from your own, and because they deployed a particularly complicated and convoluted sentence structure – then you would likely begin to experience a similar sensation of mental fatigue and you would probably miss some of the content.

[mjd550]

Thanks for the replies. I'm going with the immersion method of listening to as much Spanish as possible. I listen to an audiobook before bed and understand very little as its a novel but I hope to passively pick up something up from out.

Its frustrating though, as the other day I was understanding virtually all of rica famosa latina from youtube and spanish unboxings but now cant replicate that same level of understanding. I am at the breakthrough stage and need more practice.

[lusan]

I have the feeling that you making it very hard. Relax...

[sjintje]

When I began language learning, I used to literally fall asleep after 2 minutes of listening to audio. My endurance increased gradually over the years.

I do find that when I am in the state where the words seem to be rushing past without me understanding, I can make a conscious effort to "accelerate" my brain to the speed of the audio, and then I begin to understand again. Just begin by following the rhythm of the sounds, rather than the meaning. Its like you're out running and think you're exhausted, and someone runs by you going a bit faster, and somehow you relax your body into the same rhythm, and you can keep up. For a while. But its tiring, so you can't keep it up for long.