Name: How to Understand Fast Native English Speakers During Conversations
Uploaded: 2018-09-26T04:43:01.000Z
Duration: 6 min 42 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Do you feel a little stressed out about trying to understand what fast talking Americans

Most non-native speakers stress out a little bit before interacting with native English speakers

because they're afraid they're not going to catch every single word.

I'm going to give you my tips on how to handle interactions with fast talking Americans so

that you can feel more confident in conversations in English.

Before we get started, I want to let you know that I do feel for you.

After all, it can be really awkward to admit that you don't necessarily understand every

Because listening skills often develop more quickly than speaking skills, you may feel

like the fact that you missed a word reflects on your ability to speak English.

The reality is that sometimes we just miss words and this happens for native speakers

In this video, I want to put you at ease.

I want you to understand that missing certain words or feeling a little lost when a native

speaker is speeding up and speaking incredibly quickly is completely normal even for native

speakers, so I want to give you the skills you need in order to handle these situations

Let's talk about why native speakers speed up and speak so quickly anyway.

By understanding why we speak so quickly in the first place, you'll feel more prepared

when you're interacting in a social situation.

First things first, in any language, most of us speed up when we're feeling excited,

enthusiastic, passionate, or emotional about a certain topic.

So if you hear a native speaker starting to speak really, really quickly, there's probably

something going on that you need to pay attention to.

When someone's speaking passionately and emotionally about a topic, it can be a little stressful

Are you really going to interrupt somebody and say, "Excuse me, could you slow down and

That will probably interrupt the flow of conversation.

So if you're in a situation where the other person is speaking very emotionally about

a topic, pay attention to the reason why.

What's the underlying emotion you can distinguish from their tone?

The intonation will convey a lot of meaning even if you can't understand every single word.

You also need to understand that native speakers don't necessarily speak quickly for them.

In English, we use word and sentence stress in order to draw your attention to the most

If we're speeding through a certain word, it's probably not important.

What I want you to listen for are the words or even better the syllables in these words

that are the longest, the loudest and the highest in pitch.

When we stress words, we make one syllable of a word longer, louder and higher in pitch.

When you're listening to an American who is speaking really quickly, pay attention to

the words that are longest, loudest, and highest in pitch.

These are the words that carry the meaning of the sentence.

By tuning your ear to focus specifically on these particular words, you're going to get

the meaning of the sentence without hearing every single detail.

In my experience, most non native speakers stress themselves out trying to catch every

We listen for the words that receive the most stress in the sentence.

To understand someone who's speaking quickly, pay attention to these words.

This will enable you to follow along with the key points of the sentence.

After you focus your attention on tone of voice and you've been able to identify the

meaning behind the words and you've paid attention to word and sentence stress in order to hear

the key words in the sentence, I encourage you to focus your attention on words and ideas

If you're listening to someone speaking passionately on a topic, they're probably going to come

back to their main ideas again and again.

In the most typical American communication style, we tell somebody what we're going to

say to them, we say it and then we repeat ourselves again once we finish.

If you miss the point at the beginning of the sentence, try to tune your ear to the

What's the underlying idea or theme that you hear throughout the person's speech?

It's OK if you miss a few details as long as you understand the underlying meaning.

If you feel like you have missed a key point in the person's speech, don't be afraid to

In fact, clarifying what you heard and confirming your understanding are two of the most essential

conversation skills in English in my opinion.

If you want more guidance on these conversation skills, be sure to check out my video on the

five most essential conversation skills in English.

But let's talk a little bit more about it right now.

If you feel like you've missed something important, you can ask the person to repeat themselves.

You can say something like, would you mind repeating that for me again?

Would you mind going over that one more time?

Could you clarify what you meant by your last point?

I need a little more clarification on your last point.

As you can see, all of these questions show that you're listening carefully to the other

person, but they enable the other person to repeat themselves.

You want to jump in and ask for clarification right after the point that you missed.

If you understood the rest of the sentence, there's no point in asking them to repeat

In fact, when you ask them to clarify a specific point, you may actually help them be more

Sometimes it's not the fact that you didn't understand, it's that the other person needs

Subtitles ListPlay Video

How to Understand Fast Native English Speakers During Conversations

awkward

specific

essential

subtle