wants me to listen. Comprehend. "Comprehension". What is that? Well, a

lot of lessons... and before I get started, I want to say something. This

listening... this lesson is about listening comprehension. I want to work

on it from a beginner standpoint, to intermediate and advanced. So, yes, I'm

speaking slowly right now; but if you're intermediate and advanced, don't click

away yet. Once I finish doing the lesson here; and in fact, part of this lesson

is for you — then we're going to speed up and we'll do the second part, which

will greatly benefit you in my... my belief. So, I put here: "Beginner". This

is a beginner lesson at the beginning for this first part of the lesson; but

note: If you're advanced or intermediate, this can help. So, if

you're struggling, or you're advanced and intermediate, and you still don't...

you're still not able to comprehend or take in information — the input — when

people are speaking, pay attention. All right. So, E's telling me: "Listen,

man", because he knows that listening is only half of it. You can listen, but do

you hear? My job today is to help you with that. Why is it important?

Obviously, because you want to hear what people are saying. But the other thing

is: Our listening — our input skills — help to... us to produce sound for

speaking. And the more input you can get in that's comprehensible — that you

understand — the better you will be able to speak later on; output, express

yourself. So, a vital lesson. Okay? So, first, I'm going to say right off the

bat: You need at least 250 hours to 300 hours of study, four or five hours a day

for 15 weeks before you have enough input in your brain to really start to

push a lot of the things I'm going to suggest. So, just because you do this

for two days, I'm not saying you will all of a sudden understand all of the

English people. First of all, there are different dialects from different areas,

so that's not going to work. Scottish does not sound the same as Australian,

or as American English. Heck, not even the same as some Canadian English. Okay?

So, we know this is going to take time; about 15 weeks, but try and follow these

procedures. And you might find that you jump from beginner to intermediate and

advanced in a lot faster fashion.

So, the first thing I'm going to see, if you're a beginner — and that means you

don't understand; you're about ten to twenty, to maybe 30% of what you hear

you understand. For me, that's a beginner. You're the first 30%. Okay?

And that's why I'm speaking so slowly. Surprise, for most of my students. Okay?

You need to get materials that you can understand 90% of. You're like:

"That's... that's like, what?" I'm like: "Yeah, that makes it difficult." Sorry,

that's just the way it's gonna be. Children's programs, like "Sesame

Street" in Spanish, or... sorry. It would be in English, because they speak

slowly and they have really good examples, so the context is there. And

you're on the internet, so you can find materials, where there will be

something, like: "The boy eats the apple." And you know: "boy", you know:

"apple", you know: "eat" — so, okay, I just don't know article "the". Okay? So,

you want to look for stuff that you can get 90% that you can understand — it's

out there — you'll have to work; that's part of your job.

Next, slow it down. So, you're going to listen to this material. And I know on

YouTube — and I have a video, so you can check it out — where I explain how you

can use YouTube to slow down videos to make even me sound, you know... go

slower; half speed to a quarter speed. Right? So, YouTube has that capability;

Netflix does — you can slow down videos. There are even apps you can use to slow

it down. And then once you slow it down, imitate the speaker. So, I want you to

copy me. I want you to copy me. Just like that. Imitate what they say. This

is going to get your body involved. There are three types of learning,

basically. There are more than three types, but the basic three teachers are

usually taught are: kinesthetic, which is body, how the body moves; audio,

people are better at listening. I know, it sounds obvious. But if these people

who are audio people don't hear things properly, they don't understand. You can

put it on paper as... it's not completely like that, but they have a

difficult time learning. Kinesthetic people, if you let them do it, do

something, write out the vocabulary — they'll understand faster than if you

explain or show a picture. Audio people need to hear it, so you can put it on

the paper, but they're like: "Say it to me" and visual people will look. Okay?

So, what I'm trying to do here is to increase your comprehension; that it's

not just an audio facility. It's not just audio. When I'm speaking, even, I'm

moving my hands and you're watching that; you're watching my movements,

you're listening to me. And you... sometimes you're moving your body with

me, or you're watching my body, seeing me and hearing me — all of these senses

improve our comprehension. Okay? So, you want to imitate the speaker, because

even in different cultures, they move their hands differently — this will help

you get more into the language, because language isn't just something that comes

out of our mouth. And even so, we have to move our mouth, which is physical.

You hear it, and we move our bodies with it. All right?

Next, listen and read at the same time. Whoa, we're getting complicated. I've

got you slowing it down, copying them, and reading. But I want you to read

first with your own language subtitles. So, if you're watching "Friends", for

example, if it's, you know... something you can do — put it in Turkish, put it

in Spanish, put it in Russian, put it in German. Yeah, put it in your language

and watch it. This is what we call: "prepping your brain". It's like when

you're going to make food at home, and you cut the onions first and the

tomatoes, you cut the... you get the chicken ready. You get it ready before

you cook it because it's very hard to cook and move everything at the same

time. So, how do we prep your brain? Because you're looking at the subtitles,

the... the TV program, or movie In English, and you're reading in your

language, you basically know what's going on, so your brain has less of a

job about trying to understand what's going on. And then it can work on the

vocabulary and the grammar. And believe me, your brain is doing that, even

though you don't think it is. It's a marvelous machine; it keeps your heart

pumping, your lungs going, and you watching this video. It's going to help

to do the translation, even though you're not actively doing it. Okay?

Now, the second time you listen to this, now listen with English subtitles. Once

again, I want you to read it, imitate them. So, now you're putting the

visual... Remember we talked about visual? The visual of what the word

looks like with what it sounds like. Some of you read a lot. You'll go: "Oh,

those words I know already." And you do; you've just never heard them. Or vice

versa, you know the words; when you see it, you'll go: "That's what it looks

like?" And your brain is getting both auditory and visual. And remember: This

lesson... this lesson isn't just listening; it's about comprehension. So,

it's going deeper in your brain that that action, that word, that sound mean

this. And you'll notice the way I'm trying to teach it to you because you're

not doing it once, but twice — your brain is going: "Okay. This is the

concept. This is what I'm getting." We're breaking it for you; breaking it

into pieces. Now, also, you can also read a summary. So, not only watch it

with the different subtitles. Before you even get there, to prep your brain even

more — Netflix does this — there are summaries on the... on... in Wikipedia,

there are summaries on... in Google. You want to watch an "Avengers" movie? You

put in: "Avengers movie", they'll put the IMBd. And they'll say: "This is what

the movie is about. These are the characters. This is the plot." So,

you'll have an idea, even if you've never seen it: "This is what's supposed

to happen. These are the main characters." So, you'll have an idea;

one less job for your brain to do. Because it has less jobs to do, it can

actually focus on the movie or television program for you. All right?

So, now, we've done all that, what are you going to do? Go out and watch ten

hours of "Avengers Marvel Cinematic Universe" or, you know... a "Star Trek"?

Or you're gonna watch... I don't know. Anime. No. 20 to 30 minutes. They have

found that if you study for 20 to 30 minutes and stop, you have a greater

ability to keep the information you've just learned. If you go beyond that,

you're really kind of making your brain tired, and you're getting less and less

for the longer you spend. I know some of you have deadlines, and you have to do

something in a short period of time, but comprehension isn't something you get

just today; you study for one week and get it. I already told you fifteen

weeks. Fifteen weeks of study. Breaking it down, that's five hours a day, four

or five hours a day, over five days a week. You'll get there. You'll get there

and it will happen. When it does, it'll be like magic. But I'm going to say: You

put in fifteen weeks and 300 hours — there was no magic; it was just work.

So, in saying that, break your sessions into 20 or 30 minutes, then take a

break. Okay? Take a break. Breaks... Go for a walk; get out in nature. You need

to move your body, let your brain actually relax. So, you know, a

five-minute walk you; come back, you'll find that you're like: "Oh, I'm ready.

I'll do another session" and it'll, you know... it's better to do that than one

hour straight. You're going to get less out of it than if you do an hour and ten

minutes — 30 minutes listening, ten-minute walk, 30 minutes listening

again — you'll be fresh; you'll get more. Promise you, Okay?

And do the material at least twice a day. So, do the same thing — that video

you're watching. Maybe watch the clip for fifteen minutes with subtitles in

your language, then watch it fifteen... the same fifteen minutes again with

subtitles in English. Okay? And then that's half an hour. Maybe you wait

later on in the day; you watch that same thing again. Do that. If you get 80%

comprehension the first time you do it — hey, you're free; go. But if you don't,

do it at least twice a day, and try and get 80% by doing it twice. Because the

first time you might just, what we call "skim" — you'll get the surface; maybe

get 60% of it. And then after the second time, you're like: "Oh, I understand

it", because not only do I understand the context because I've watched it

enough; but now I picked up the words I didn't get — those grammar words, and

that vocabulary, and I'm putting it together in my brain and I can actually

now take out individual words. But more important, I understand the message of

what's being told, even if I don't understand everything. So, I can learn

English, and maybe not understand everything you're saying to me, but I

can understand what you're saying to me. And that's cool, and that's power. So,

here's the cool thing about this: You should understand 90%. So, what I'm

saying: As a beginner, we're only looking at adding an additional ten

percent. But that ten percent will add up quickly. And in a fifteen-week

period, you'll be surprised how far you can go. And if you want to see how far

you can go, which I know you do — and my other advanced students are like:

"Finally, he's going to speak normally" — you're going to come back to the

second part of this lesson. We're going to do the advanced/intermediate level,

and explain... and give you strategies on how to improve your comprehension.

And do so in... well, a hard way... or an easy way, and a hard way but it's

really fun. Okay? Looking forward to seeing you on the other side. (snaps

fingers)

And we're back. Now, I'm going to speak a little faster. So, you beginners, if

you're still here, hang with me; this will be part of a comprehension exercise

for you. And advanced and intermediate, some of this is going to seem very

familiar. And, in fact, some of you are going to say: "You just taught that."

I'm going to go: "Yes, I did, but I'm going to be dropping stuff that they

should do that you don't have to do, and I'm going to go faster, so we won't stay

here as long." Got it? Good. Let's go to the board. So, starting off advanced and

intermediate. For me, basically, you're going to be almost the same. You're

clearly not, but these methods or methodologies will work for you both.

Now, I call this the "baby-steps method" and I call it "three 'i'". You're gonna

say: "What's three 'i'?" Well, it's: "immerse in input". And, again, that's

"immerse" — put yourself, like, your hand in water — "in input"; "input" is

information coming in. So, we're going to flood our brains with a lot of

information. As I said, in the fifteen-week period, 250 to 300 hours.

You will start, if you put yourself in that much... in concentrated and more of

a passive way of taking in information, you'll start to find the natural

comprehension happens as the brain has enough information that it can start to

do things by itself. Okay? So, it's like trying to swim. You can learn from a

book how to swim, which is just listening; you're not gonna learn how to

swim. You got to get in the water. It's gonna get a bit messy; it's gonna be a