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Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you how to be a better listener.
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I'm going to teach you three steps, which will really, really help you with your listening.
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So before I teach you how to be a better listener, I want you to think about: What kind of listener
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are you? Okay? So, I have, here, a question. I want you to imagine this. You're talking
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to somebody, an English speaker, and you don't understand what they're saying. Okay? You
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have no idea. I don't understand what they're saying. What do you do?
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Okay? Here are your choices.
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Do you: A) look scared? A lot of students do this.
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Do you: B) Nod and pretend you understand? Nod and say: "I understand",
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but you really don't understand; you have no idea?
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C) Are you honest? Do you say: "I'm sorry. I don't understand"?
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Or, D) Do you say: "I don't understand", and you ask the person to write down what they're saying?
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Okay? So, which one do you do? Do you look scared, do you nod and pretend you understand when
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you don't? Do you say: "I don't understand" or do you say: "I don't understand" and ask
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them to write it down? Maybe you do multiple things. Okay? Which one do you think is the
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best thing to do? If you said: D or C,
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you are correct. Okay? Now, there is a little
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bit of a difference between C and D. It's mainly that D, we use some sort of listening
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strategy. I'm going to teach you some very, very good strategies you can use, which will
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help you be a better listener.
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Okay, so if you don't understand something, very first thing you should do is
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show you don't understand. Okay? You should really let the person know you don't understand.
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There's nothing to be embarrassed about. We all have times where we don't understand what
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somebody is saying, but we really do want to know, so it's very important you let the
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person know that you don't understand.
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So, here are a couple of different ways we can say that. The first one:
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"I didn't catch that.", "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."
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This means the exact same thing as: "I don't understand."
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So you can say: "I don't understand." or "I didn't catch that." You can also say:
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"I'm sorry I don't understand." One thing a lot of students say,
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but it's not a good thing to say: "I no understand."
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Okay? This: "I no understand", I hear many students say it. This, wrong.
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Okay? So you can either say: "I didn't catch that.", "I'm sorry I don't understand.",
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but you cannot say: "I no understand." That one is bad English.
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Okay, so that's the first step.
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The second step is using a strategy. Okay? So what do I mean by this? When you use a
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strategy, you're pretty much asking somebody to help you out in a different way. You're
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asking somebody to do something to help you understand. So, this is an excellent expression,
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very polite. All of these start with: "Could you please". You can ask the person:
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"Could you please write it down?" Okay? So: "I'm sorry I didn't catch that. Could you please
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write it down?" Some... For some people, when they read it, it's easier than listening to it.
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You can also ask somebody to repeat what they're saying. "Could you please repeat that?" Okay?
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That means: "Could you please say it again?" A lot of English speakers and also me, myself
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included, sometimes we speak too fast. So, it's perfectly okay if you say politely:
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"Could you please speak more slowly?" Maybe the problem is the person who's speaking is talking way
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too fast. So just a nice, friendly reminder: "Could you please speak more slowly?"
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And finally, the fourth strategy: "Could you please say it in a different way?"
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This one is very useful because sometimes when you say to an English speaker: "I don't understand",
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they keep saying the same thing the exact same way, and that's not helpful. Sometimes
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you really need to hear it in different words, so it's also a great idea to ask the person:
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"Could you please say it in a different way?" Okay? So these are the first two steps. First,
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show you don't understand; second, use a strategy. Now let's look at the third step.
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Okay, so our third step is: Double check what the person is telling you. Check meaning.
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So, this pretty much means that after you've told them you don't understand and you've
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asked them to use some sort of strategy, the third thing is you're going to make sure you
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really understood. So, how are you going to do this? Well, one thing you can do is you
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can repeat back what the person said to you. Okay? So, for example, if somebody says something
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and you think you understand what they said, instead of just saying: "Yes, I understand",
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you can check by saying: "So what you're saying is..." and repeat what they said.
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"So what you're saying is", you know, "dogs are better than cats.",
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"Okay, what you're saying is the colour blue is fantastic." Okay? Just some examples.
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Another way to do this: "So what you mean is..." Okay? So, these two things mean the
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same thing. "So what you're saying is...", "So what you mean is..." And finally:
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"I think I get what you're saying...". "Get" in English can also mean understand.
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So this sentence means: "I think I understand what you're saying...",
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"I think I get what you're saying...", "What you're saying is..." Okay?
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So, again, there are three steps to being a very good listener. The first one is saying
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and being honest that you don't understand; the second step is using a strategy, for example:
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"Could you write it down please?", "Could you please repeat it?" Okay? And the final
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step is checking to make sure you really understood. "So what you're saying is..."
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If you use these three strategies, they will really help improve your conversation,
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because instead of not
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having any clue what is happening and being very confused all the time, at least you're
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going to be more confident, and you will understand more. You're not going to understand everything,
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that's okay. But these strategies will help you understand a lot more than if you just
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look scared, and nod and say: "I understand" when you don't. Okay?
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So, I invite you to check out our website at www.engvid.com. There, you can find a quiz
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on this material, and you can practice some of these phrases that I've taught today.
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Until next time, take care.