How do I build (French) listening skills?

[aronald]

Listen to podcasts/interviews/youtube channels instead of TV. The information density is much higher and you don't have to worry about other sounds besides the language. When actually listening, try two methods:

1. listen without worrying about catching the meaning of what is being said. Pretend you are saying the words that you're hearing instead of "trying to keep up" with the speed of the language. This will keep your brain moving forward with the language instead of getting caught up with the meaning of the words and feeling like you're falling behind. I accidentally started doing this one day and it was an eye-opener for me.

2. listen while trying to figure out the meaning of what is being said. I'll call this normal listening.

These two methods are on opposite ends of the spectrum and are both helpful.

[luke]

1. listen without worrying about catching the meaning of what is being said. Pretend you are saying the words that you're hearing instead of "trying to keep up" with the speed of the language. This will keep your brain moving forward with the language instead of getting caught up with the meaning of the words and feeling like you're falling behind. I accidentally started doing this one day and it was an eye-opener for me.

That's a very interesting shift of perspective. I'm going to try it.

[FeoGringo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/French/comments/kxrdxo/from_a1_to_c1_listening_in_a_year_my_process

A lot of great advice has already been shared by other forum members. But, for what it's worth, someone posted their road map for improving their French listening skills on reddit.

[Le Baron]

1. listen without worrying about catching the meaning of what is being said. Pretend you are saying the words that you're hearing instead of "trying to keep up" with the speed of the language. This will keep your brain moving forward with the language instead of getting caught up with the meaning of the words and feeling like you're falling behind. I accidentally started doing this one day and it was an eye-opener for me.

What did it do? I've always let unknown words pass by , though it's very difficult to listen to something without extracting or wanting to extract meaning. It's just noise. Some will be repeatable, but unknown words tend not to be. And if you do recognise them you probably also know their meaning.

However I'm jumping forward to judgement. What do you find happened when you do this?

[luke]

Pretend you are saying the words that you're hearing instead of "trying to keep up". This will keep your brain moving forward with the language instead of getting caught up with the meaning of the words and feeling like you're falling behind. I accidentally started doing this one day and it was an eye-opener for me.

What do you find happened when you do this?

I've just started trying this and found it helpful. @aronald, how long did it take you to start "getting good" at this accidental discovery? I can tell it's helpful right away, but it may take some time to turn it into a habit.

[Le Baron]

I've just started trying this and found it helpful. @aronald, how long did it take you to start "getting good" at this accidental discovery? I can tell it's helpful right away, but it may take some time to turn it into a habit.

But what is the 'thing' that happens? How is it helping? I'd like to know, because I have a tendency to miss things.

[luke]

I've just started trying this and found it helpful. @aronald, how long did it take you to start "getting good" at this accidental discovery? I can tell it's helpful right away, but it may take some time to turn it into a habit.

But what is the 'thing' that happens? How is it helping? I'd like to know, because I have a tendency to miss things.

I notice a more focus and higher engagement with the material. I'm telling the story now, even if I'm just listening. I feel the excitement of the author telling the story. It's an anti-distraction, anti-mind-wandering technique. I'm not good at it yet, which is why I was curious if @aronald was able to keep doing it with ease once they discovered the technique, or if they had to remind themselves for a while to build it into a habit.

Not exactly related, but as soon as I do it, I feel myself walking faster and with more purpose. I.E., "going somewhere". (I've mainly tried this while I'm out walking).

[Le Baron]

Not exactly related, but as soon as I do it, I feel myself walking faster and with more purpose. I.E., "going somewhere". (I've mainly tried this while I'm out walking).

The reason I asked was because I wondered if I might have been doing a this a bit already. Subconsciously, because I do tend to listen a lot (mp3 material of all kinds) and after some hours I tend to defocus meaning, yet do mouth along with the words sometimes. Especially if it's a repeated listen.

I'm interested in what it might lead to. I actually care about knowing the meanings, but maybe this does allow pure repetition just for accent/pronunciation work without having to focus on the actual 'content'.

[luke]

as soon as I do it, I feel myself walking faster and with more purpose. I.E., "going somewhere".

I wondered if I might have been doing a this a bit already.

Only you will know how much of it you're doing, since it's a silent activity. Rather than listening to the story, you are telling the story. You are the creator. It's a shift of perspective.

[aronald]

1. listen without worrying about catching the meaning of what is being said. Pretend you are saying the words that you're hearing instead of "trying to keep up" with the speed of the language. This will keep your brain moving forward with the language instead of getting caught up with the meaning of the words and feeling like you're falling behind. I accidentally started doing this one day and it was an eye-opener for me.

What did it do? I've always let unknown words pass by , though it's very difficult to listen to something without extracting or wanting to extract meaning. It's just noise. Some will be repeatable, but unknown words tend not to be. And if you do recognise them you probably also know their meaning.

However I'm jumping forward to judgement. What do you find happened when you do this?

I would actually disagree that it's noise. I think noise is when you can't properly hear the sounds and can't understand the meaning. Using this method actually lets you hear the sounds a lot more clearly (I find that I can say words or phrases without even knowing the language well). If you don't know the words then it's still interesting to listen to. This is how it was for me with Arabic even though I didn't know the meaning of words that I was hearing.

What happened when I started listening in this way was that my ability to hear the words clearly improved considerably. Even within a few hours to a couple days there was massive improvement. The focus is always on the next word and not in the past. Oddly enough my listening comprehension doesn't get worse even though I'm not thinking about previous words. I also notice myself thinking of the meaning of the sentence during pauses between sentences.

PS, the point is to not let words "pass by". You want to absorb each word and imagining yourself saying the word as you hear it really helps this process.