How to learn English? (30/30 Challenge)

[Jadelinna]

OKOK!!! Also, does this have to be a radio station? How about a TV show and I have to summarize the events that occurred?

[Ashvini]

Hi Team,

Listened: Speech of Steve Job at Stanford University (2005):
Keywords: Typography
How much I understood: First time 60%, after listening repeatedly 100%
Sentence (Brief):
Steve shared three stories of his life to motivate students.
First: he told how he has invented the Dot, and used in his first developed Mac computer. He dropped out Form College, which become the reason of inventing Dot.
He also mentioned why he have dropped out.

Second: he told he get fired from his company even though he started the company, but during those day apple was going down and then he realize he was doing mistakes so he apologized from his colleague and again started he with same enthusiasm.

Third: he mentioned about his life, once he caught by a major incurable disease and but after some test doctor was surprise that this can cure by surgery.

My drawbacks in listening:
1- I usually forget to concentrate on grammar of speaker, which mislead me to understand the actual intension of speaker.
2- Phrase (even I do know what to called exactly),

Anyone: Suggestion to improve above two points

Suggestions for improvement in writing and for grammatical mistakes are welcomed.
I will appreciate if you can give the reason and inform me the correct thing with example. Incomplete feedback will be discarded

Regards,
Ashvini

[Ashvini]

Hi Team,

I did not receive any feedback. I was expecting all will be posting their output.
Am I following correct procedure on this forum or I do not need to post in forum.

Regards,
Ashvini

[Torsten]

Hi Ashvini,

Thanks a lot for sharing your listening experiences with us -- I'll give you some detailed feedback soon.
Regards,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Ashvini]

Hi Torsten,

Thank for your support.

Team,
Here is today stuff: count #1

Note**
-I am counting again from one, as I missed days no excuse.
-I tried to listen CNN, but I can not concentrate as news topic get change and advertisements come during 15 minute period.

Listened: Speech of Barack Obama (2008)
Keywords: We can change
How much I understood: First time 20%, after listening repeatedly 90%
Sentence (Brief):
He mentioned that in 9 days, nearly half of the nation joined us to say we are hungry for change and was ready to believe again.
We have to remember that we are not going to change party in white house but we are looking for fundamental status change in Washington.

Note** from this small and short practice, one thing is clear to me that to learn English it compulsory to listen good English not for 15 minutes but maximum time of your day.
What do you say Torsten?

[Torsten]

[M3dic]

Hi Torsten,
I've just read your topic and answered to the question. Do you want to improve your English? ...and Yes, I would like to improve my English. But there is a one big (small) problem ...
... I learn english only 1,5 year and I don't think (after my first 15 mins of listening BBC radio)that I'm able to improve my English by listening a radio at the moment.
Well, I learn english 1,5 year at school and except this I visit some English forums, play computer games (chatting with friends in game) and so on ...
When I moved to the page two of this topic I could see the first report of the listening ...
...“ohh good“ said I to myself and tried to concentrate on the radio too. I always understood a word or two and the rest of the sentence I didn't understand at all. There is a problem that I cannot understand them because of bad word-stock (lexicon ,wordage,thesaurus - sorry I have absolutely no idea how to translate it ^^).
Do you think there is a chance for me how to improve my English by listening ? Do you know anything easier to listen ? or do you think I should continue listen even I don't understand them ?

PS: I'm sorry if there(here) is a similar question about that but I was too lazy read all twelve pages.
PSS: I'm SORRY for my terrible English but we all are here just because of it ^^
PSSS:Maybe I could try to listen “fairy tale “ (story for kids^^) ... don't you know a link for some I could listen online?
Thank you very much ...

[Torsten]

Hi David,

Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences. In order to learn English you need "English input", this means you have to listen to English on a daily basis. That's why we launched the 30/30 challenge. If you understand just one or two words when listening to the BBC, that's great because you will hear those words over and over again and after a while you will be able to use them correctly. Yes, there are audio resources for learners of English on the Internet. For example, google the term "VOA special English" and you will find an excellent site with articles in English. The articles are available both in text as well as audio format.

I think listening to English on a daily basis is the most important activity you should do if you want to learn English.

Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[M3dic]

Hi Torsten,
thank you very much for the tip. The VOA special English is just what I looked for. The broadcaster reads the stories very slow and rather clear. It's much easier to understand. Now I can start the 30/30 challenge.

Thank you once again,
David

[Manal]

Hi Torsten,
I listened to BBC news it is hard to understand the whole topics and phrases, at least I understood some of what they were talking about : Zembabway elections, USA elections and Free market.

Here are some of words I remember:
Bush- Makain- helary...historical argument... current problem ...crisis.. decision

free market exsists and work smoothly...goverment do nothing...goverment banks ...rushly...Adams Smith...is he right.

*Am I on the right way?do I have to report while or after listening?
*Do you recommend listening while watching films or not? it is easy for me, It might be easy because vision and translation help to cheat. what do you think?

* What is wrong with Ashvini's phrase" thank you for your support" is it incorrect or it doesnt exsist in English,if yes what should we say?

Thanks,
Manal

[Torsten]

Hi Manal,

Thanks a lot for sharing your learning experiences. As you know, the 30/30 challenge is called this way because you must listen to an authentic English audio source for at least 30 on 30 consecutive days. How many days have you listened so far? It is very good if you remember certain words and phrases. However, when you post them here on the forum you should try to make sure you write them down correctly. For example, by 'helary' you probably mean 'Hillary'? When you listen, it's important that you catch the phrase exactly as it was said. Your phrase "free market exists and work smoothly" is not the original phrase. The same holds true for "government do nothing". It is important that you listen to English every single day because that's the only way to sharpen you listening skills to a point where you can memorize correct phrases.

Regarding Ashvini's sentence, he wrote "thank for your support" not "thank you for your support". That's exactly what I mean by "trying to copy correct phrases". Ashvini either simply forgot to write 'you' or he changed the phrase. Changing phrases almost always means creating incorrect sentences.

Let me know what you think and I look forward to your next report.

Regards,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Manal]

Hi Torsten,
Thank you for your reply, I am sorry for writting incorrect words. You know, I am listening to new words I don't know before,next time I'll take this into consideration. You missed my question about listening to films and TV programmes. Actually, I started listening three days ago, I concentrated on TV programmes like "Oprah" ,"Dr. Phil" and some films. I enjoyed listening ,I understood most of the speech, it is easier to memorize the words more than the radio, I thought it is cheating because it's visual and translated and I didn't write a report ,so that I started listening to the radio which sounds more difficult.
I prefer to listen and watch, I watch American and British programmes as well, I choose different types of programmes about " society, history, food and other topics . I'll ignore the translation and I'll choose programmes in English channels which is not translated. Will you accept my reports if I listen to such TV programmes.

Thanks
Manal

[Torsten]

Hi Manal,

Yes of course it's perfectly fine to listen to and watch TV programmes or movies. If you get access to DVD's you can watch movies in the original audio version and switching on the English subtitles instead of having a translation. This is very effective because in addition to hearing new phrases you also see how they are spelled. As outlined in the 30/30 Challenge description, you can listen to any audio material as long as it is in authentic English.

Let me know what you think and good luck.
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Curtlv]

ya i quite agree with you that listening is one of the best way to speak good english

[Curtlv]

Torsten,
which other way to learn how to speak good english . apart from listening?