Complicate situation

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Thomas1990
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Complicate situation

Postby Thomas1990 » Tue Aug 30, 2022 8:18 pm

For work, I need to improve my English. I can read most English (professional) texts easily (with a dictionary), but my listening is very low. I can understand only 10-20% of the words. However, I will have done 300-400 hours of listening to audio with subtitles. I think my method is wrong. In May I have a job interview in English and I really don't think I can do it. I cannot devote more than three hours a day to English.
Should I give up?
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Le Baron
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Re: Complicate situation

Postby Le Baron » Tue Aug 30, 2022 8:43 pm

May is nine months away!
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Re: Complicate situation

Postby DaveAgain » Tue Aug 30, 2022 9:02 pm

Thomas1990 wrote:For work, I need to improve my English. I can read most English (professional) texts easily (with a dictionary), but my listening is very low. I can understand only 10-20% of the words.
How much of your (professional) reading can you understand without a dictionary?
Should I give up?
No! :-)
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Thomas1990
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Re: Complicate situation

Postby Thomas1990 » Tue Aug 30, 2022 9:17 pm

I don't think I can do miracles in 900-1000 hours of listening. I would need 1500-2000 hours of language immersion but that is impossible for me.
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Re: Complicate situation

Postby galaxyrocker » Tue Aug 30, 2022 9:39 pm

I'm going to plug my own post on listening comprehension again, mainly because it worked so well for me (and has worked what little I tried to use it with French): https://gaeilgechonamara.com/how-to-bes ... any-level/

On top of transcribing and checking your transcriptions, turn off the subtitles and focus on listening. Subtitles just distract you and make you read as opposed to listen, even if they're in the target langauge. Plus, they're often not one-to-one with what is actually said. That was some of the best advice I'd gotten for French (from this forum!) and it's done me wonders.

That said, in 9 months you can easily get a lot of listening hours in, and with 3 hours a day focused on transcripts you can see great leaps and bounds; I did just within 10 hours of doing it at a B1/B2 level. And the perk with English, you can use anything, as long as there's a transcript. Audiobooks work great I'm sure.
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Re: Complicate situation

Postby LupCenușiu » Wed Aug 31, 2022 5:47 am

One guaranteed way of failing is to give up. More complex projects are brought into this world in that time interval. Improving listening skill in a language you are already familiar with, and is not even excruciatingly difficult , while being able to dedicate few hours daily? Should be totally doable. You can also squeeze in extra time throughout the day by listening to audio courses, or podcasts, or audiobooks, depending of your mood and hobbies.
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BeaP
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Re: Complicate situation

Postby BeaP » Wed Aug 31, 2022 6:34 am

Don't give up. You can't have any information about the other candidates' knowledge or the priorities of the selection committee. I know that I might be afraid of actually getting chosen (because the job seems a huge challenge, linguistically or not). Improving your English will surely be beneficial in the future, so I say go as hard as you can, and you'll see what happens. You can always make a choice (give up, try something else) later.

Audio with subtitles is a very good way to improve listening, but it's slow and time-consuming. For a job interview you also need to able to speak. If you have 3 hours a day, I think it's enough to improve to a solid B2 with the right method. Try to find a textbook that concentrates on your field. I'm thinking of titles like 'English for business', 'English for law'. There are even books to prepare job interviews in English, search for them in google. Make sure that the book contains listening exercises with key and gives you prompts to practice speaking.

I'd start with this plan: 1 hour audio with (or later without) subtitles, 1 hour textbook, 30 min presentation (talking about a professional question to myself - first with notes, later without notes)

In bocca al lupo!
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Re: Complicate situation

Postby rdearman » Wed Aug 31, 2022 7:40 am

Thomas1990 wrote:For work, I need to improve my English. I can read most English (professional) texts easily (with a dictionary), but my listening is very low. I can understand only 10-20% of the words. However, I will have done 300-400 hours of listening to audio with subtitles. I think my method is wrong. In May I have a job interview in English and I really don't think I can do it. I cannot devote more than three hours a day to English.
Should I give up?

One thing I would like to point out is that it is much easier to understand a person speaking to you than to understand TV and films. In an interview you are talking about yourself, a subject you should know about! I would advise you to try conversation exchanges as well as listening to canned audio. When I speak to Italians face-to-face i understand probably 99% but Italian podcasts I probably understand half at best.

Face-to-face conversation is slower, you can read body language and the topic you normally know.
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Re: Complicate situation

Postby weissnichtgenau » Wed Aug 31, 2022 1:28 pm

Don't do "passive" listening practice. Find a native speaker who can speak with you. Tell them to speak at natural speed (not slower for you) and I'm sure you'll improve your listening quickly (and, as bonus, your speaking too!)
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