If you have read some of the posts I wrote about improving your comprehension through listening intensively, you are ready for the next step. To do nothing. That’s correct. Nothing at all. You actually need to listen to recordings daily for a while until your internal language machine takes over. Have you ever used voice recognition software? (Dragon Speaking Naturally, for example). You actually have to train the software to recognize your own unique voice. Until it does, it cannot type out what you speak.
This is exactly what you are doing here. You need to hear French or Chinese intensely until your brain, ears and mind automatically accept it as meaningful sound. Until then, it is only noise to your nervous system and it tries to escape from it and return to English, away from the awful, exhausting and meaningless chatter.
I remember going through this process when I came to the US at the age of 13. As I watched the Felix the Cat cartoons I initially could only understand two words: Felix and Professor. After a few months of intense television watching I understood fluently and could understand all the subtelties of the Flinstones and the Twighlight Zone. Of course, I was also going to school and working really hard to integrate into American society, but the comprehension piece came from listening over and over, not from interacting with the natives. I used to record my favorite shows and movies on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and I listened to them until I had them almost memorized. Focus and enjoyment are powerful means.
So listen and then listen again. Every day. The trick is to have fun and to watch/listen to things you enjoy. Let your mind totally focus on the flow of language. Understand whatever words or phrases you can catch. Let your unconscious recognize, identify and understand.
After a while you will notice that even when you don’t understand, you hear everything. You hear the words that you cannot recognize. If a word keeps coming up, your brain/mind will begin to assign a rough meaning to it.
Listen to texts you know, and texts you have never heard. You will notice that you gradually hear and understand more and more. Let it be part of your daily routine. You automatically listen every day. There is no choice or decision involved. You will be pleasantly surprised as you break through the sound barrier.
copyright 2009 Jean-Paul Setlak
Our other blogs: www.intensivefrench.org and www.teachyourself-spanish.com