How to fine-tune all your five senses. How to improve the perception of information? Visual information is best absorbed

Every person who speaks a language other than their own has an accent. This is due to the articulation and pronunciation of the words of the native language, which a person subconsciously transfers to English.

A native Englishman, at your first sentence, will tell where his interlocutor comes from. But in this case, we do not need a native speaker - let's leave him alone. We need just those who learn English as a foreign language.

The stronger the accent of the speaker, the more difficult it is to understand him. The leaders in terms of accent can be called the Chinese and Indians. Their native languages are so different from English that they can only speak with the wildest accent as a result.

Communication with such a person is an excellent training in listening comprehension, logic and extrasensory abilities.

First, you must correctly understand what the interlocutor is saying. Because of the accent, it won't be easy.
Secondly, if individual words cannot be parsed, it will be necessary to connect logic and recreate their most probable meaning. This requires not only excellent knowledge of the language, but also the ability to build logical chains.

It will be very difficult at first. And you will have to ask every 2 minutes for the interlocutor to repeat the phrase. But when you learn to freely understand an interlocutor who speaks with a strong accent, then parsing pure English speech will be easier than ever.

You can find an interlocutor with an accent very quickly - there are many video chats on the Internet where you can chat with foreigners. Just choose those who have a stronger accent - and practice.

Evgeniya Prytula

28 years old, photographer

“I have been learning English for 3 years. I reached the Upper-Intermediate level, but there were problems with listening. If she understood slow and clear speech normally, then in a live conversation she was lost from the very first sentence.

The teacher at the courses advised me to communicate more with foreigners in online chats. This is where my "luck" kicked in. For 3 months of communication, I consistently got into Indians, Japanese, Mexicans - yes, anyone, but not native speakers.

It was tough at first. I almost had to explain myself on my fingers. But then I got used to the accents and began to understand little by little. And as I was not surprised, but the method still worked. Now I understand English speech much better than before.

Develop an ear for music

In a conversation in English, you must first hear the interlocutor and only then correctly understand the meaning of the speech. But when the opponent speaks quickly and with an active change in intonation, all sentences merge into one big word, and it becomes difficult to understand anything.

To better perceive spoken language, you need to develop sensitivity to hearing. And the best way to do this is through music.

Playing musical instruments, singing and theoretical musical disciplines greatly improve the perception of sounds. The ears of musicians perceive a wider range of sound waves and better sense intonations.

An ear for music will help you catch subtle changes in the intonation of the interlocutor, with which a person highlights the ending of words in a conversation. Therefore, it will become much easier to perceive even fluent speech.

Remember that listening to music will not improve over several sessions. It will take at least six months to notice improvements. And it is important to study music - on your own or with a teacher - and not just listen to popular tracks on headphones. It is important that classes are fun - then they will definitely bring results.

Viktor Osadchy

32 years old, school teacher of English language EnglishDom

“I have been teaching English for 9 years. And during this time I noticed several interesting trends.

Listening and speaking are the most weak spots which develop slowly in almost all students. There's nothing you can do - you need a lot of practice. But I noticed that students who study music develop English speech perception skills 1.5-2 times faster.

If an ordinary student needs at least 40 hours of listening practice, then 20 is often enough for a “musical” student. The results are almost the same.

In general, students with an ear for music perform better in any listening exercise and better understand speech that is not very intelligible or speech with a strong accent.

Repeat phrases out loud and write them down

Psychologists say that a person perceives the sound of his own voice much better than the voices of other people. This feature can be used to improve your English listening skills.

Do you watch the original movie? Repeat all the phrases of the main character! Are you reading a book in English? Read aloud! You can even not the whole book, but only the dialogues between the characters. Are you listening to the song? Sing along!

Saying the phrases you hear is useful for understanding the language. Most importantly, do not do this in a crowded place, sitting in headphones. Otherwise, someone kind can call doctors with a straitjacket. And they will have to explain this training technique.

You should also record your speech on a voice recorder and listen to it later. We guarantee that the perception will be very different from a live monologue. But you know the peculiarities of your intonations, so it will be much easier to listen to the recording of your voice than the speech of a stranger.

Think in English

In our native language, we think several times faster than we speak. Therefore, speech recognition takes place almost automatically - we make almost no effort for this.

And when we study a foreign language, we think in it many times slower than speech. Many even first compose a sentence in their native language, and then translate it into English.

As a result, when we hear fluent speech, the brain simply cannot cope with the volume of incoming information. Therefore, we can catch only individual words or phrases - but not the whole conversation.

In order for the brain to understand speech in English, it is necessary to speed up thinking in this language. In other words, think more in English.

It's easier than it seems at first glance.

Mentally answer questions, conduct dialogues with yourself and comment on what is happening in English. At first, it will be very unusual and uncomfortable, but after a month the brain will get used to processing information in English, and it will be easier for you to understand even fluent speech.

Sergei Rozhkov

38 years old, designer

“I started learning English already at a mature age, so it is difficult for me. I could not get rid of the habit of building phrases in my mind in Russian, and then translating them into English. Yes, I understood fast speech with a creak.

I began to practice the exercise "Mental monologue" - this is when you speak English to yourself in your mind. The brain resisted strongly, I had to force it. Gradually, the habit of mentally discussing facts or events took root - on the way to and from work I constantly train.

There are results - in 2 months of such training I can express my thoughts in English almost without problems and understand speech even without subtitles. Great exercise, highly recommended."

Study in English

If you're a designer, learn an interesting new tool or style of work. If a programmer, learn how to make an interesting feature in the programming language you are working with. The profession is not important - the desire to learn something new is important.

This method allows you to kill two birds with one stone.

First, you develop professionally. And there are much more video courses for development in any specialty in English than in Russian.
Secondly, you learn to perceive English in all its profile latitude.

True, for a start it is worth learning a little professional vocabulary. Otherwise, half of the words will remain incomprehensible.

Then you just need to watch the video and learn. Do not worry if one fragment has to be reviewed 5-7 times for a complete understanding - this is normal. The main thing is that you can understand more than 90% of all the information presented in the video.

The trick is that when viewing lessons on a professional topic, the brain first of all tries to figure it out in the training materials. At the same time, he seems to ignore the language in which they are served. If the lecturer speaks clearly, then the language itself fades into the background. Over time, the brain learns to perceive absolutely any information on the machine. And that's what we need, right?

Few conclusions

Exists great amount ways to improve your listening comprehension of English.

Watching original movies and listening to podcasts still works great, but don't get hung up on them too much. You should not perceive the language as a set of formal rules and figures of speech that you need to remember. Everything is much simpler and more interesting.

When learning is interesting, then results can be achieved much faster. There is a passion with which you can overcome all difficulties. And if on this path you are accompanied by pleasant and understanding teachers, then the stars themselves favor you in learning English. Learn with pleasure, and over time you will be able to fully understand even the fast speech of a native speaker. Good luck with this!

Watch my finger... And what do you see now?" The student came closer to the finger and began to look carefully. "Yes," he said, "finally, I see. The Master's finger is dirty."

What we point to...

This is where we point...

This is what we indicate.

By expanding perceptual positions, we can create transformational viewpoints. Sometimes I use the following symbol to represent this process: a dot inside a circle that expands into a ring of circles. A visual image is a moving image, an expanding image, an endless process, just like the wave that occurs when a raindrop falls on the surface of a pond. The symbol of a small circle within a large circle denotes the ability of a person to change the position of perception and literally expand.

By adopting a position of perception that expands our ability to see any problem, any question, or any goal, we increase our ability to respond effectively. This allows us to further construct the next effective estimator and choice point.

Looking through the eyes of a wider perspective

Let's look at some of our perceptual abilities. Thinking in terms of perceptual positions is a valuable resource for developing your field of awareness. Note that in this case the first perceptual position, looking at the world from one's own eyes, which is our usual way of interacting with the world, is only one of a large number of possibilities. The second position, creating your own "as if" internal visualizations from the eyes of another person (the other with you) is another such possibility. We have already begun and can now continue to enlarge our visual "viewpoint container" by moving outward to another viewpoint from which the perception becomes even larger, more inclusive and more abstract.

Increasing the viewpoint container suggests that eventually we will be able to assume a perceptual position that contains all possible perceptual positions. Indeed, the idea of "we all embrace everything with all possible ways and at all times" brings us to the valuable idea of a universal perceptual position. For many people, this is an amazing idea that enriches their access to information tremendously. Let us explore this idea of "embracing everything" first simply as a set of perceptual positions. You are inviting your unconscious mind on a journey of expansion.

With some practice, we can quickly learn to accept different perceptual positions and move easily from one to the other. When we learn to move into different perceptual positions, we gain flexibility in developing our creative mind. Now we can explore certain aspects of transitions between perceptual positions. For example, we can enlarge the auditory area by moving towards global or even universal "listening positions". We can do the same kinesthetically, moving towards a global or universal "feeling and feeling" position.

Try to explore this with the example of vision. Suppose you could expand your vision to the limits of the planet and then go even further to include all solar system, our galaxy and even more. Explore how it will feel in the body. Imagine how it will feel when your body becomes gigantic, when it becomes larger than a hundred thousand suns - so big that it will contain the stars like microscopic cells. Such a huge body will have a vast space around and between all the cells. What is this feeling like? This perception of a giant body is a well-known practice of Tibetan Buddhists, a perceptual position for meditation.

Thinking in terms of perceptual positions as a transformational process

To learn how to easily expand perception, let's first try to practice these five positions separately, noting how each of them organizes our attention. The first three are well known to people who study consciousness. And they can simply be called the first, second and third positions.

Let's start exploring the expansion of perceptual positions by taking the first position, feeling your current view of the world "from the inside". This is familiar territory. At any moment, I can look inside at the other person sitting across from me at the table. We are all our home when it comes to "looking out" from our own eyes.

The first position easily extends to the ability to get into the second position: I can in my imagination jump into the shoes of another and imagine how I look at myself from there. Notice how with each developmental study the capacities of our mind expand, how they become deeper and more coherent. You can notice how second position helps build rapport, especially when you move quickly from one viewpoint to another; for example, from your position to mine and vice versa. Having you as a partner in a joint venture, I can envision some space of "dual unity". We both explore and try on each other's perceptual positions. The capacity of the mind is expanded when we consider the perception that is constantly going on in us and that which can arise between us.

Third position of perception

The third perceptual position is often called the camera position, or meta position. We may assume a camera position in some physical space when we step out of action, perhaps a fly-on-the-wall position where we can see everyone in the room. In a meeting, we can imagine that we are sitting on a chandelier and looking down at a group of people below and at ourselves among them. Try it! What does your head look like from up there? Can you see the shape of your head and your hairstyle? Stay in this position for a while. This visual gymnastics allows us to unleash our imagination and practice "stepping into meta" (meaning "one step out"), into a richer realm of visual, auditory and kinesthetic abstraction, to a broader perception of what can be seen, heard and feel.

With practice, you will notice that this third position is multi-dimensional and multi-functional. You can easily see the whole group and can watch it from different angles. The third perceptual position, if adopted in a group, is also interesting for other reasons. The third position allows you to abstract into the broader and deeper values that permeate your visual perception. Can you imagine how to think through the "mind" of the entire group? From this idea comes a fundamental understanding of what happens when we generalize. Can we accept the position of the General? I think that third position practice will quickly expand your ability to take an effective coaching position with a group. You will notice that this is a perceptual goal that can give us a lot. creative ideas in the study of the direction of the group and its goals.

Fourth position of perception

This position leads us to the useful category of "review over time". This is easily achieved by working with timelines and spatial markers in "ritual space" exercises, which require approximately six square meters of floor space. Once you define and "set" a frame for the "whole", you can explore any part within that frame.

Through ritual space exercises, we can learn to quickly expand our perceptual position. For example, we can form the position of a coach and from there observe our life on the timeline. Using the perception of the timeline before us, we can ask our unconscious to consider and integrate the perception of many events from the past, present and future. After that, we can ask our unconscious to add our creative abilities, taking them from different life events, and then enhance them. In this way we can make available to our unconscious mind multiple directions and multiple choices. This new "review" pattern can be used to make our creative development in any field more holistic - both through and through the development of ideas.

We can learn to use the tools of the fourth position - time lines and state lines - to develop the ability to carry out actions aimed at achieving goals. I call the following exercise the "coach position on the line" development technique. We can use the position of the coach on the line to integrate the experience of observing a whole life with the ability to effectively organize our specific actions. Our goal may be to create suitable concrete actions now. We can use the fourth position to develop the awareness of seeing, seeing, and acting immediately, all at the same time. This is a very important and useful ability, as it gives us all sorts of enhanced capabilities. With visualization like this, we use our brain and our mind in a very different way. Each of these levels is a cohesive, integrative ordering system and can give a higher order to thinking about setting goals and ranking them.

Fifth position of perception

The fifth order of the idea of perceptual positions is the idea I mentioned earlier: "we all embrace everything in all possible ways and at all times." This is a very exciting job and it requires some effort. Here we develop a new "muscle" in our brain - the simultaneous ability to expand both analogy and abstraction. In doing so, we use all the inference structures at our disposal, and we need to learn how to use them all together. When we play the piano with both hands, beautiful music is produced.

Remember, perception doesn't just mean visual perception. It also includes the auditory canal and kinesthetics. Just ask your unconscious mind to turn on these channels.

Exercise "Expansion of attention and development of creativity"

Developing expanded attention gives us multiple viewing positions that increase our creativity. All of this is further enhanced when we direct our gesture of perception, our "point" of focus, to become a "repository of values" for broader understanding and deeper wisdom. We are asking our unconscious mind to expand the box to include more elements, and to raise the level of abstraction to include more values and choices. We increase both the scale of the frame and the level of abstraction at the same time.

Can you imagine the wisest and most creative moments and ideas in the lives of all people stand out and come together in the vantage point container you hold in your hands? Your unconscious can easily imagine such a possibility. For example, on a scale of one to ten, ask your unconscious mind to give you a number that measures your current ability to "keep some important values and ideas in mind." Then ask your unconscious mind to increase that number by one each time so that you can consider and explore the possibilities for integration. With the help of the scale, you can easily strengthen this ability.

You can also create your own abstract symbolic representation to represent this process. Then this symbol will become your anchor for using this approach, a way of even deeper work of the imagination.

The higher the level of abstraction, the greater the leverage. We easily access the deeper meaning of such symbolic "conscious abstractions" because we naturally embrace the idea of expansion in and of itself. Abstraction is the home of the unconscious, it allows you to add "many more than seven" components to the developing dream. Let's look at some of the implications of this.

First, from early childhood we are familiar with the meaning of counting and scales. Small child who is learning to count to one hundred stops at 101 and thinks when he sees the numbers go on ad infinitum. Numerical infinity easily becomes a model for an infinite expansion of perception and easily leads the child to the very idea of abstraction. Later in life this idea of abstraction becomes the main idea of our thinking. We do this in spite of the fact that we rarely consider the realm of the abstract as a singular quality, as a pure idea in itself. With the idea of expanding perception as applied to other people's values, experiences, and knowledge, we can begin to expand beyond ourselves indefinitely. We can do this both from our perceptual position and without it, with our "frame of understanding". Start training from the second position. When we act as if we could look at the world through the other's eyes and think about their inner feelings and comments, we may be able to truly help each other from within the action, even if it's only metaphorically. Now compare this ability with the ability of the ever-expanding frame and shifting positions, and you can progress through such explorations. In this way, we can gradually, step by step, learn to perceive something integratively and separately at the same time.

Team mindset development

When individuals think of a team or a group, their ability to think in terms of the whole begins to develop. Sometimes people think that about a nation. Now, on the threshold of the 21st century, an increasing number of people think about problems as if they were thinking on behalf of the entire planet and all its inhabitants.

By using perceptual shifts, we can become a more effective coach for the group. With the idea of perceptual expansion in relation to other people's values, experiences, and knowledge, we can begin to expand beyond ourselves indefinitely. We can do this both from our perceptual position and without it, with our "frame of understanding". Start training from the second position. When we act as if we could look at the world through the other's eyes and think about their inner feelings and comments, we may be able to truly help each other from within the action, even if it's only metaphorically. Now compare this ability with the ability of the ever-expanding frame and shifting positions, and you can progress through such explorations. In this way, we can gradually, step by step, learn to perceive something integratively and separately at the same time.

When people get used to look very carefully from the first position and at the same time learn to think creatively on behalf of the whole, then their development is extremely enriched. On the other hand, people who are accustomed to taking a position of perception of others and excluding themselves, it is very useful to learn to expand the ability to take their own position; here, the fourth position is used to determine their goals and values. This includes finding helpful steps for your own creative development and expanding the internal skills needed to carry out their own projects.

I have found that developing the ability to be in different perceptual positions quickly increases the flexibility of the mind in all areas - and, in particular, the ability to cognitive abstract mapping. This is the key ability that connects the emotional and mental functions of our brain. If at the beginning of life people fail to develop these abilities in themselves, then later they often get stuck and stop in their development.

It takes about three weeks of daily practice to develop a new habit. Practice this skill different ways at least three different types situations; To do this, you can hang reminder notes at home or at work on mirrors, doors, or other places. Practice this skill every day for three weeks. Try to practice in slightly stressful situations - such as important business meetings or family gatherings - so that your ability to use this skill in different contexts gradually expands. You will quickly find that the flexibility of your mind has greatly increased.

Field of View exercise

This is an exercise in connecting peripheral and focused vision in one field of consciousness. It can be done with both peripheral vision and peripheral sounds.

For a moment, wherever you are now, expand your peripheral vision to both sides beyond the normal 180-degree field of view. Try to expand your visual receiver to the extent that it holds 190-200 degrees of viewing space. You can practice this by stretching your arms out to the side and moving your fingers so that you can barely see them while keeping your focused vision on something in front of you. Now that your visual perception has expanded to both sides, try to expand your vision outward in all directions so as to cover the entire space of the room while keeping your focused vision in front of you. Continue expanding your visual field outward in circles. Imagine your peripheral vision expanding beyond your visual space, into streets, buildings, gardens, and so on. Let the container of your imagination continue to expand. Go even further - ten kilometers in all directions, twenty, fifty, one hundred ... Keep expanding your field of view receiver until it covers the entire globe, the entire planetary system, the galaxy ... Pay attention to that "sense of space" that you have at the same time.

Position of perception and awareness of unity

Our ability to explore perceptual positions leads to our ability to realize unity. It gives us the strength to really consider the ability to develop the next level of our human "being". We can bring to life all that for which we have distinctions.

Exploring the world through shifts in perceptual position allows us to direct our judgments towards "truth," self-consistency, and "core beliefs" and simultaneously expand and develop our perceptions in the direction of wholeness. This allows us to effectively evaluate and at the same time integrate into ourselves the richness of what we perceive "at another level of abstraction." Our conscious mind can "frame attention" and can "think about presenting it" while the unconscious mind just does it.

If we can shift perceptual positions, then we can appreciate our growing ability to express the totality of the moment. Through the conscious use of attention, we can make metaphorical connections to a larger perception of our overall wholeness. And, as we accumulate practical experience, we gradually begin to feel very deeply who we are. The unconscious understands abstractions very well. In order for the universe to exist, observers are needed.

Thinking in terms of the whole: Perceptual position and memory

So, the assumption when working with the third, fourth and fifth positions of perception requires careful practical work and research. This suggestion concerns the integration of the idea of multiple perceptual positions with the idea of the development of "multiple time". Within the assumption that we can take the position of perceiving the "whole" is the idea that we can also access the memory of the "whole". After all, examining one moment in time from a timeless perspective suggests (simply by abstract analogy) that we can allow for a position where we have access to all memory "of all times". Allow yourself to occupy this idea-space for a moment. Remember, perception does not mean only visual perception. It includes auditory and kinesthetic awareness, as well as the perception of development and evolution. Our brain is multifaceted. It is very useful to perceive the structure of ideas from different angles. Ask your unconscious mind to just turn it on.

People are often surprised that it is very easy for the unconscious to grasp the idea of being connected to a myriad of memories. Thus, using the ability to increase the idea "as if you could", it connects us through our questions to the vast system of the mind that is our natural environment. Through the door of our consciousness, we can further expand our classification abilities to a variety of abstract systems, from mathematics to music; I like to call it "the library of life". Suppose we can create a unified field of awareness and, through practice, do so on an unconscious level. As before, consciousness only needs to establish a frame where we ask our unconscious to expand and become our receiver.

Expansion of consciousness of this kind has been used in spiritual practices for many centuries. This is the kind of meditation that can become a habit. It has been used by many generations of mystics, and it can now serve as an important addition to our imagination.

I believe that this practice of expansion also gives us a way to strengthen our "abstract mind" and the developmental system of the human mind. Can you begin to recognize yourself as the designer of the Internet of Mind? Can you develop the ability to accept multiple perceptual positions as a foundation for understanding who you are? This habit, like all habits, from driving a car to buttoning your shirt, takes only three weeks of daily practice to become your normal ability. Then we can combine the ability of leadership and the wisdom that accompanies such a viewing position. We can then also ask the question, "How can I relive this experience?" Namely: "Where and when can I apply this in my life?" And what if all those systems for which we have now created distinctions can begin to live ... right now?

All phenomena are illusions. Our task as humanity is to explore and understand how to recognize and work with the cards in the "expanded system of illusions". In order to do this, we must first come to compassion and the ability to go beyond personal suffering. This leads us to actively discover how we create mind as more than our individual conception of who we are. When we connect our creativity with reason, the options available to us expand and wisdom comes to us. The wisdom of the whole is the realization of what we can make alive... if we practice.

When the disciples asked the Buddha, "Who are you?" he simply replied, "I am awakened." Can we master this simple tool to help ourselves awaken to our greater selves?

We learn not only to listen, but also to hear the speech of native speakers

For people learning English for communication, developing English listening comprehension and speaking English skills is key. For full-fledged communication, a person needs to be able not only to express his thoughts, but also to understand what the interlocutor tells him.

And if, having little experience (for example, gained in the classroom), you can more or less tolerably express your thoughts, things are not so simple with the perception of the speech of native speakers by ear. We suggest you figure out how you can learn to recognize English speech by ear, even with a small vocabulary.

Assess your level of knowledge

Before choosing material for training and creating a lesson plan, you need to determine your level. To do this, you need to answer a few questions. It is advisable to write them down somewhere. This is necessary so that you can mark how much you have progressed after you started exercising.

Answer these questions:

How freely can I speak at the moment?
How much of what is said by native English speakers do I understand?
What methods do I use to improve my English listening comprehension?
How often do I practice?
What can I do to improve my listening skill?

The answers to these questions will help you not only determine your approximate level, but also the reasons why you are not moving forward. In addition, they will tell you how to develop your listening skills further.

How to choose training material

When choosing a material, it is necessary to focus on the following aspects:

The level of language proficiency in general;
The level of development of the listening skill (which does not always coincide with the level of development of other skills);
personal interests. Only interesting material will encourage you to study regularly. Boring classes will lead to procrastination and sometimes loss of interest in learning the language.
The purpose of language learning. So, if you are learning English, for example, in order to communicate with business partners or learning - you should first focus on material in which the speakers speak with a classic accent and use business or academic vocabulary.
Since initially it is quite difficult to understand English speech by ear (especially if the speaker has a non-classical pronunciation), choose for the first lessons small videos or audio. You can opt for short speeches, for example, at TED, videos of English-speaking bloggers, special training videos. Short audios are also suitable - these can be special recordings for language learners, radio programs or audiobooks that are broken into small chapters. You should train a lot, and on such materials it is most convenient to do this.
Beginners will benefit from listening to audio recordings designed for their level, short animations (for example, The Flatmates cartoon from the BBC), the Extra series, educational dialogues and audiobooks with fairy tales or short stories for beginners to learn a language. When listening to books and recordings of dialogues, we recommend that beginners have the text in front of their eyes. If you are a fan of English-language music, you can try listening to slow songs in English while reading the lyrics to them.
For those who have been studying the language for longer, the choice is much wider: series with short episodes (about 20 minutes), films that you have already watched in your native language, channels of English-speaking bloggers, shows.
The advantage of watching films and series in the language being studied is that what is happening on the screen, as well as the gestures and facial expressions of the actors, serve as a hint of what the characters are talking about. However, there is a downside to the coin: audio only allows you to listen to speech, thanks to which the listening skill is trained much more intensively than when watching movies.

Start listening to small portions of information, gradually increasing the load. There is no opportunity to engage in active listening for a long time? Listen "passively", without delving into the essence of individual words, and without analyzing the vocabulary.

Instructions for effective work with audio / video

The result will be, even with daily listening to English speech, without additional work with the text. However, the study of the text will give a faster effect from the lessons. If it is not possible to constantly work with texts, combine different types of listening. For example, work out today by doing extra work, and tomorrow just listen to a recording or watch a movie. Or disassemble part of the text, and just listen to part.

Effective training system

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the training scheme, which will help increase the effectiveness of training, and bring the desired result in a short time. Thanks to this system, you will not only train the ears, but also expand vocabulary and improve your pronunciation.

Choose the material you will be working with. If it is voluminous, divide it for convenience into several small parts.

Listen once or twice without text. Try to get the general meaning. Useful advice: do not try to translate what was said in your head, get used to perceive a foreign language as something separate, do not perceive it through the prism of your native language. When you stop translating in your head, you will be surprised that much more has become clearer, because while you are translating one sentence, the speaker already has time to say two new ones. In addition, listening and understanding (without translation) perfectly develops a sense of speech.

Listen again, but this time follow the text with your eyes. At this stage, you can already write out phrases that you do not understand from the context, or whose meaning you would like to clarify. Useful advice: write out not only an expression or a word, but a whole phrase, so that you always have the opportunity to peep it in context. This will also help you remember faster.

Understand new expressions. It is advisable to use explanatory dictionary if the level allows. Useful advice: you can check whether you understood the interpretation correctly by translating the word into native language(but only for verification purposes).

Make up your own examples of using the new vocabulary.

Listen to the recording again. Helpful tip: for a more productive workout, listen to a recording with lyrics, and then without it.

To practice spoken English, retell the information you heard or express your opinion about it. It is desirable that someone listen to you and help correct mistakes in speaking.

To practice pronunciation, repeat sentences after the speaker, trying to imitate his intonation.

Time for training

It will take about an hour to train according to the scheme described above. But it will be a huge mistake, deciding that today there is no time to study, not to devote to studying foreign language time.

It is better to work out at least 10 minutes than not to do at all. There is no time - just listen to the text, minding your own business.

It will be better than skipping a workout. The fact is that the acquired knowledge is easily erased from memory. You can successfully pass an international exam, gain experience of living and learning a language abroad, but if you abandon classes after that, you will have to start from a lower level. Therefore, make sure that the language you are learning is present in your life every day.

We hope these tips will help you improve your English listening comprehension and finally overcome the notorious auditory barrier 🙂

We learn not only to listen, but also to hear the speech of native speakers

Assess your level of knowledge

Answer these questions:

How freely can I speak at the moment?
How much of what is said by native English speakers do I understand?
What methods do I use to improve my English listening comprehension?
How often do I practice?
What can I do to improve my listening skill?

The answers to these questions will help you not only determine your approximate level, but also the reasons why you are not moving forward. In addition, they will tell you how to develop your listening skills further.

How to choose training material

When choosing a material, it is necessary to focus on the following aspects:

The level of language proficiency in general;
The level of development of the listening skill (which does not always coincide with the level of development of other skills);
personal interests. Only interesting material will encourage you to study regularly. Boring classes will lead to procrastination and sometimes loss of interest in learning the language.
The purpose of language learning. So, if you are learning English, for example, for the purpose of communicating with business partners or teaching, you should first focus on material in which the speakers speak with a classic accent and use business or academic vocabulary.
Since it is rather difficult to understand English speech by ear at first (especially if the speaker does not have a classical pronunciation), choose small videos or audios for the first lessons. You can opt for short speeches, for example, at TED, videos of English-speaking bloggers, special training videos. Short audios are also suitable - these can be special recordings for language learners, radio programs or audiobooks that are broken into small chapters. You should train a lot, and on such materials it is most convenient to do this.
Beginners will benefit from listening to audio recordings designed for their level, short animations (for example, the cartoon The Flatmates from the BBC), the Extra series, educational dialogues and audio books with fairy tales or short stories for beginners to learn the language. When listening to books and recordings of dialogues, we recommend that beginners have the text in front of their eyes. If you are a fan of English-language music, you can try listening to slow songs in English while reading the lyrics to them.
For those who have been studying the language for longer, the choice is much wider: series with short episodes (about 20 minutes), films that you have already watched in your native language, channels of English-speaking bloggers, shows.
The advantage of watching films and series in the language being studied is that what is happening on the screen, as well as the gestures and facial expressions of the actors, serve as a hint of what the characters are talking about. However, there is a downside to the coin: audio only allows you to listen to speech, thanks to which the listening skill is trained much more intensively than when watching movies.

Instructions for effective work with audio / video

Effective training system

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the training scheme, which will help increase the effectiveness of training, and bring the desired result in a short time. Thanks to this system, you will not only train your ears, but also expand your vocabulary and improve your pronunciation.

Choose the material you will be working with. If it is voluminous, divide it for convenience into several small parts.

Understand new expressions. It is advisable to use an explanatory dictionary, if the level allows. Useful advice: you can check whether you understood the interpretation correctly by translating the word into your native language (but only for the purpose of verification).

Make up your own examples of using the new vocabulary.

Listen to the recording again. Helpful tip: for a more productive workout, listen to a recording with lyrics, and then without it.

To practice spoken English, retell the information you heard or express your opinion about it. It is desirable that someone listen to you and help correct mistakes in speaking.

To practice pronunciation, repeat sentences after the speaker, trying to imitate his intonation.

Time for training

It will take about an hour to train according to the scheme described above. But it will be a huge mistake, deciding that today there is no time to study, not to devote time to learning a foreign language.

It is better to work out at least 10 minutes than not to do at all. There is no time - just listen to the text, minding your own business.

We hope these tips will help you improve your English listening comprehension and finally overcome the notorious auditory barrier 🙂

Do you want to be able to experience the world as fully as possible? Well-tuned senses of smell, taste, sight, hearing and touch enhance any life experience. For most people, all five senses begin to dull with age, but there are ways to hone your senses. Read on to find out how to enhance your five senses so you can get the most out of your daily life.

Steps

Part 1

Smell

Breathe in strong odors every day. Practicing what some doctors call "aromatherapy" can activate new receptors in your nose, improving your sense of smell over time. Choose a few strong scents that you enjoy and spend a few minutes a day inhaling each one. After a few weeks, your nose will be able to pick up these scents more easily. When you start noticing a difference, try with large quantity odors.

Essential oils are very useful means when it comes to aromatherapy. Choose 3 or 4 oils with your favorite scents, such as lemongrass, cedar, vanilla, and rose.
You can also use raw materials for aromatherapy. Take several small containers and fill each one with a certain strong-smelling substance, such as ground coffee, dried basil leaves, a few drops of your favorite flower shampoo, and so on. Keep the lids on these containers when not in use to keep the scent strong.
When doing aromatherapy, inhale each scent quickly rather than deeply. This way you will avoid odor fatigue.

Close your eyes and inhale. Another form of therapy that can be tried is to experiment with defining various kinds smells with closed eyes. This practice for several months will increase your ability to distinguish different smells. Close your eyes and have someone bring different substances one at a time to your nose. See if you can identify odors.
- Start alternating between completely different scents, like chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon, or whiskey, orange juice and mint tea.
- As your ability to distinguish smells improves, start working on smells that are harder to tell apart, like strawberry, cherry, and raspberry, or lemon, lime, and grapefruit.
Describe scents out loud. When you identify and describe scents out loud, your ability to perceive them is honed. Try talking about smells while experiencing them. Describe them out loud using specific language, as a wine connoisseur would talk about the characteristics of different wines.
- Make it a habit to notice and talk about everyday smells. For example, describe the flavors of your dinner: “I can smell the earthy corn in these tortillas, the sweet and spicy seasoning of the pork, the fresh, soapy cilantro, and the floral citrus lime.”
Work up a sweat. A little exercise can improve your sense of smell. Go for a walk or jog, and then pay attention to the smells around you. It's possible that the extra moisture in your nose that comes out of exercise will help sharpen your sense of smell.

Eat more zinc. Zinc deficiency can lead to dullness of smell and taste. Take supplements or eat foods high in zinc, such as lamb, grass-fed beef, scallops, pumpkin seeds, sesame, or oats.

Check your medications. Some medications have the side effect of dulling the sense of smell. Medicines prescribed for Parkinson's disease, high blood pressure, antibiotics can affect your sense of smell. If you are taking medications with side effect, talk to your doctor to make sure you are getting the correct dosage.

Treat allergies. Clogged sinuses, whether caused by a cold or allergies, will prevent you from smelling properly. The cold will go away, but if you're prone to allergies throughout the year, you might want to get checked out for a medication that will clear your sinuses so you can smell properly again.

Quit smoking. Smoking is the real culprit when it comes to dulling the senses, especially the sense of smell. If you can reduce your cigarette consumption or quit smoking, your sense of smell will improve significantly. Chewing tobacco and other tobacco products have the same effect.

Part 2
Taste
1. Reduce your intake of salt and sugar. Food loaded with these two ingredients can ruin your sense of taste. They mask more subtle flavors and make it harder for you to pick up the taste of the food. At first, when you reduce your sugar and salt intake, you may feel that your food is lacking in flavor, but after a week or two, you will begin to notice complex flavors that you previously missed.
  - Try to reduce the amount of salt and sugar in all your recipes by a third or half, including baking recipes. You can also replace sugar with a less intense sweetener like honey.
  - There is no need to completely give up salt. A small amount of salt can actually improve the taste of food. It starts to dull your sense of taste when you cover everything with it.
2. Avoid processed foods. Processed foods are often loaded with sodium and sugar, so this is the first good reason to avoid them. They also often contain chemical substances and artificial ingredients that can ruin your sense of taste. The sweet and spicy fast food chicken will make the homemade version tasteless by comparison as you get used to the taste full of chemical enhancers. Retrain your taste buds to capture the subtleties of natural flavors by avoiding foods that are processed and combined with chemicals.
  - Snacks like chips, candy, and soda are meant to be flavor bombs that engage the pleasure center in your brain and stimulate cravings. Try eating homemade popcorn sprinkled with salt and pepper, or homemade soda sweetened with fruit juice.
  - It may be difficult to make the transition at first, but you will eventually be able to enjoy natural flavors more than ever.
3. Add variety to your diet. Stimulate your taste buds by mixing foods in your diet. If you usually eat bland foods, your palatability may be impaired. Use herbs and spices that you don't normally use. Steam vegetables instead of boiling them. Choose foods with different textures and colors so that every meal is a feast of new flavors for your tongue.
  
  Eat more fat. Fat makes food tastier and enhances other flavors. Think about a bowl of steamed broccoli: it's delicious on its own, but how much better would it taste with a little melted butter? There is no need to go too far with fat, but using it is not a large number in cooking will bring out the best in your food.
  - Get creative with your use of fats. There is butter, but you can also use different oils, each with its own flavor profile. Try olive, sesame, peanut, Coconut oil and butter grape seeds in cooking.
  - You can also spice up your meals with a little fat. Try sprinkling chopped nuts on your vegetable dishes, and serving your salads with avocados.
4. Avoid casseroles and stews. Dishes that mix all the flavors together are not the best taste bud stimulants. It is difficult to distinguish one taste from another, and such dishes, in the end, turn out to be tasteless. Keep food ingredients separate from each other for maximum stimulation of the taste buds.
  
  Smell the food before tasting. Your senses of smell and taste are related to each other; when one is sharpened, the other is also sharpened. You will enjoy the taste of your food more if you inhale it before you start eating.
  
  Do not use tobacco products. Tobacco products affect your sense of taste in the same way that they affect your sense of smell. Smoking or chewing tobacco will be detrimental to your palatability, it's inevitable. If you want to get your taste buds back, stop smoking and chewing tobacco.
Part 3
Vision
1. Make sure you have adequate lighting in your work area. If you have to strain to see what you are doing, it can damage your eyesight over time. Invest in good lighting for your office and home workspace to avoid eye damage.
  
  Don't stare at your computer monitor all day. It's important to get up and look outside so your eyes don't strain from looking up close at flashing computer lights. Get up every hour or so and look out the window. Take a look at an object that is several kilometers away from you, if possible. Keep looking until your eyes adjust to the view.
  
  Be sure to keep your eyes moisturized. Dry eyes can cause blurry images. Drink at least 8 glasses of water every day. If you wear contact lenses, be sure to clean them properly and change them frequently. Use saline as a substitute for tears if you are having trouble passing your own.
  
  Do eye exercises. You can sharpen your eyesight by doing a few simple exercises daily. Do them when you feel that your eyes are a little tired and you need a break from the current task.
  - Roll your eyes. Look up, then to the side, then down, then to the other side. Repeat ten times.
  - Focus on the object. Hold it close to your face and then slowly move it back, keeping your eyes focused on the object. Move it closer to your face again while keeping focus. Repeat ten times.
  - Check your peripheral vision. Stand facing the wall, looking straight ahead. Try to determine what is on either side of you using your peripheral vision. Get closer to the wall and keep using your peripheral vision to see what's around. Continue until your side views are blocked. Repeat every few days and little by little you will gain a wonderful ability to see what is in your peripheral vision.
Part 4
Hearing
1. Try drinking red wine. Red wine contains resveratrol, an antioxidant that has been shown to improve hearing in mice. Drinking a glass of red wine every night can improve your ability to hear over time.
2. Eat ear-friendly foods. Foods containing certain nutrients can improve the health of your ears by keeping you able to hear well for as long as possible. Add the following foods to your diet:
  - Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, like fish, will increase blood flow to the ear canals and improve hearing.
  - Zinc-rich foods like lamb and sesame can reduce inflammation in your inner ear.
  - Apples contain quercetin, an antioxidant that repairs free radical damage.