We all have "Achilles heel", Isabel says!
She really thinks that her major obstacle during her college days has been developing her listening skills.
At the beggining of her journey learning this new language she was a little afraid she would take a long time to be able to understand what somebody else could be telling her. But as she advanced she understood that the best she could do was for her to stop being afraid, less nervious and try and try until she got the sentence right!
Now, to be able to get acostume to a new language, Isabel decided to take extra classes in a different place during the weekends. And it sure helped her to the point that after a few months she could understand and held a basic conversation.
The time pased and by the time she finished her first year she was an advanced student, she could understand and have a broad conversation, but she faced a new problem and that is ACCENT!
Accent varies depending where one is from, and as speaking to people overseas it took her a little more than expected to develope even more sharped listening skills, in order to remember therefore to understand how English is being differently spoken.
Isabel has also listened toa lot of songs in English, and saw more TV shows in English aswell.
She expressed that even though she is about to complete her education in College she still has troublel when bumping into new words. But she understand that it is a necessary for English or any other language students to read and learn as much new words as possible to enhence the vocabulary in order to manage the language.
"We are not perfect, but we can be our best at everything that we learn with passion, dedication and determination" She expressed at the end.
Good job! It's a very nice piece of data what you have obtained from that interview Guadalupe. I must say that listening was a pain in the neck for me too; nevertheless, throughout my years in college, I learned how to cope with it. Listen to music in Eglish is pretty useful, especially if you like what you're hearing. Our brain gets better trained in that way (through watching movies, tv shows, etc)as she said. Personally, I found podcasts as a nice option , and, for sure if you have the chance to listen to native speakers,, it's even better. Fabulous!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I am in agreement with Isabel, listening is one of the most difficult skills to reach...but as she said, it is only with practice and giving the chance to ourselves in order to prove us that we are capable to learn, practice, and reach our dreams.Remember that the more you talk, the more you learn...I really convinced that we are not going to have tons of vocabulary in the tip of our tongues...but, it is not impossible for us to maintain a conversation and to share our own point of view...so keep practicing!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt may sound repetitive but yes, listening is one of the hardest skills to be developed. I consider that for us to be in an enviroment in which the target language is barely use, whe have to take into consideration some other sourses like videos, music, television as george was saying. Personally I have always be atracted to English, so since I was little I started to see cartoons in English, even music...I guess I we want to improve any of our skills, practice is the key..!!!!
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