Well hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!
I think that working on your listening skills is one of the hardest parts of becoming fluent in a new language.
嘿，我是Emma，歡迎來到Emma的美味英語！
我覺得提升自己的聽力水平是流利地講一門新語言最困難的部分。
It's like all of the rules that you learnt in a classroom, they just disappear when you start talking to native speakers because they start using slang words, they push words together so fast when they speak, that you can't even recognise them.
And there's nothing that makes you feel more frustrated and more deflated when you're talking to someone and you're unable to understand them, when you want so much to be a part of the conversation but you get stuck.
就像你在教室學到的所有的規則，但是當你開始和母語者談話的時候，突然就消失了，因為他們開始使用一些俚語，他們會說的很快把單詞都擠到了一起，你根本就沒法聽出來。
沒有比和某人談話但是卻無法理解他們更加令人沮喪，更加令人灰心喪氣的事情了，你那麼融入一個對話，卻被困住了。
It's the worst feeling. I actually, I can feel that feeling now in my gut.
沒什麼比這種感覺更差了。我真的，可以完全感同身受。
It's awful but today we're going to talk about why it's so difficult to understand native speakers and what you can do to become a better English listener. . . . . . .
這種感覺確實很糟糕，但是我們今天要討論一下為什麼理解母語者這麼困難，以及要做什麼才能成為更好的英語聽力專家。
So why, why is listening to native English speakers so hard? Firstly, there are so many versions of English and this is true for most languages.
那麼為什麼聽英語母語者說話這麼困難呢？首先，英語有很多版本，大多數語言都是這樣的。
There's regional dialects and accents that make it hard to listen and understand.
But to put it in context, there are some English accents that I have trouble understanding.
有地區方言以及口音，讓語言變得很難聽懂。
但是聯繫一下背景，其實有很多英語口音我聽起來都很困難。
All English speakers, all of us, we're all trying to understand and communicate with each other, even if it is our own native language.
Sometimes we use different words or different grammar rules to each other and that makes things really tough for you.
所有的說英語的人都得特別努力地理解他人，和他人進行溝通，即使這是我們自己的語言。
有時候我們會使用截然不同的詞彙和語法規則，這讓聽英語對你而言更加困難了。
Now there are also significant differences between formal and informal spoken English.
Informal English includes slang and common expressions that are unique to a particular region or even a particular group of people within a community.
正式和非正式英語口語之間其實差別非常大。
非正式英語裡包括俚語和一些常見的表達，這些都是某個特定的區域或者是特定群體的人所獨有的。
You come into the cricket and you bowl and conditions are alright there's probably bit of movement that was a bit off the pitch and the batter's got no idea.
I mean, I have no idea what my brother said just then and we speak the same language.
你去打板球，情況還不錯，可能有點出乎預料的動作，球員完全不知道發生了什麼。
我的意思是，我自己也不知道我哥哥剛才說了什麼，雖然我們說的是同一種語言。
We learnt it from the same people!
Another reason why listening is hard is because you're used to the English that you hear from your English teachers and that can be a little different to real-life English.
我們都是從同樣的人那裡學的！
為什麼聽力如此困難的另外一個原因是你太習慣於從英語老師那裡聽到的英語了，而這和日常生活中的英語是有點點不同的。
Now think about the way that you speak or you chat with your friends in your own native language and then think about how you would present in front of your colleagues at work.
The words you use would be slightly different, you would maybe speak a little more clearly, maybe more formally.
想想你用自己的母語說話的方式，或者是和朋友交談的方式，然後再想想在工作場合給同事作報告的時候又是什麼方式。
你使用的詞彙可能會有些微差異，你可能會說的更加清楚一點，可能更加正式一點。
And this is exactly the same difference that I'm talking about.
Your English teachers are trying to express themselves clearly so that you can understand them.
這和我正在談論的區別是一樣的。
你的英語老師儘量清晰地表達自己，這樣你們才能理解他們。
Right, that's all so interesting but what can you do to improve your listening skills? Right now, I'm going to go through a few things that will help you to take action and start improving your English listening skills.
好的，那非常有趣，但是你該怎麼做才能提升聽力技能呢？現在呢，我要帶大家看一些能夠幫助你們採取行動，開始提升英語聽力技能的方法。
What and how are you practising? This is a really important question for you.
你現在在練習什麼，是怎麼練習的呢？這對你而言是一個非常重要的問題。
So there's listening as a verb, you're doing that right now.
But practising listening is a completely different exercise and when you're practising listening, you must pay attention to what you're listening to and how you're listening to it.
這裡的聽是一個動詞，你現在就正在聽呢。
但是練習聽力是完全不同的練習，當你練習聽力的時候，你必須要注意你聽的內容，以及聽的方式。
So if you're listening to this video right now and you're understanding about half of what I'm saying, it's a little difficult to keep going, right?
Your first reaction might be to put the subtitles on which is great for helping you to understand but not really a great way to practise your listening skills.
如果你現在正在聽這個視頻的話，你能夠理解我說的一般內容，有點點難以繼續下去，對嗎？
你的第一個行動可能就是打開字幕，這能夠很好地幫助你理解，但是並不是練習聽力技能的很好的方式。
So when you're practising your listening skills, instead of turning on the subtitles, slow down the speed of the video, alright?
This gives you a little more time and space to help hear the sounds that I'm making and then connect them to the words that you recognise.
所以當你練習聽力技能的時候，不要打開字幕，而是要放慢視頻的速度，懂了嗎？
這會給你更多的時間和空間來聽清楚我的發音，然後和你知道的單詞聯繫起來。
And you can use this trick on any YouTube video. This one or a more challenging one.
其他的油管視頻都可以使用這個小妙招。這個或者是更有挑戰性的。
So you can click that button just down there and slow down the speed. Okay then you'll hear the things that I'm saying more clearly.
你可以點擊下面的按鈕，放慢速度。好的，然後你就可以更加清晰地聽清楚我說的是什麼了。
Now slowing down the speed is not cheating, it's a really great way to start hearing the sounds and recognising words as they're spoken and listening to common patterns in English.
Then at any time you can speed it back up to natural pace and hear it as a native speaker would say it.
放慢速度並不是作弊，這是開始聽清楚發音，認出來單詞的很好的方式，而且能聽到英語中常用的一些結構。然後在任何時刻你都可以調回原來的自然的速度，聽聽母語者是怎麼說的。
Now there are a few of you who complain that I speak too slowly in my lessons.
But you can actually use this same tool to increase the speed of the video too and this is a really great feature to start getting into the habit of using, right?
你們其中可能有些人會抱怨我在課程中說話語速太慢了。但是你們也可以使用相同的工具來給視頻加速，這可以幫助大家養成使用這個功能的習慣，對吧？
You can do it with audio books, you can do it with other video platforms as well, get into the habit of it.
Now if you're watching this video and you can understand most of what I'm saying without the subtitles on, awesome!
有聲書也可以這麼做，其他的視頻平臺也可以這樣，慢慢形成這個習慣。
如果大家在看這個視頻，而且能夠不開字幕理解我說的大部分內容的話，那就太棒了！
But now I want you to try and challenge yourself a little.
So challenge yourself by listening to some videos by native English speakers who aren't teachers, right?
但是現在呢，我想讓大家試著挑戰一下自己。挑戰一下自己去聽不是老師的英語母語者的視頻吧。
So use the same technique that I mentioned just before, slow down the speed when it's difficult to hear before you turn on the subtitles.
So to summarise, listening to complicated movies in English with the subtitles on, is not the best way to practise your listening skills.
使用我剛才提到的相同的技巧，如果聽不懂的話，在打開字幕之前，放慢視頻速度吧。總結一下，看複雜難懂的英語電影的時候打開字幕並不是練習聽力技能的最佳方式。
In fact, subtitles don't really help you with your listening skills much at all.
Start with material that you can understand and from there, increase your difficulty.
其實呢，字幕根本不能幫助你提升聽力技能。
從你能夠理解的語料開始，然後慢慢地增加難度。
And just to be clear, when I say difficulty I'm talking about different accents.
I'm talking about the context so lots of background noise makes it challenging to listen.
說清楚一點，我說的困難指的是不同的口音。
我說的是整個語境，可能有很多背景噪音，所以會聽起來比較有挑戰性。
I'm talking about more informal conversations, you know, that often use slang or different expressions that might be new. All of these things increase the difficulty of listening to someone in English.
我說的是不那么正式的對話，你懂得，經常會使用俚語以及一些新的不同的表達。這些都會增加聽某個人用英語講話的難度。
So these are the things that you should challenge yourself with. Listening to speech is different than reading text.
這些都是你應該挑戰自己的部分。聽人說話和看書實際上是不一樣的。
I mean, people speak kind of differently than they write. Well, like yeah all of these words are exactly what I'm talking about.
我的意思是，人們說話和寫作的方式其實是有點不同。就像所有這些單詞就是我在講的。
Every language has their own fillers that people use. Now fillers are little words that don't mean much.
每個語言都有大家會使用的一些填充詞。填充詞都是沒什麼具體意思的小單詞。
People usually add them to their speech without even thinking about it.
They're words like um, uh, well, I mean, actually, like.
人們通常沒經過什麼思考，就會在說話的時候加上這些詞。
比如說恩，呃，好的，我指的是，其實，比如這些詞。
They're all examples of filler words and all they're really there for is to give the speaker a little more time to think about what they're going to say next.
Now it's really natural for native speakers to use them.
它們都是填充詞，它們的存在是為了給說話的人更多時間來考慮接下來要說什麼。
母語者使用這些填充詞是非常自然的現象。
They don't even think about it. But it can be really tough for you while you're listening to a native speaker and their speech is full of these extra words that don't really mean very much.
他們甚至想不都會想。但是當你聽母語者說話的時候，這對你而言可能會比較困難，因為他們說話的時候都是這些額外加上的詞彙，沒什麼具體的意思。
Learning them, becoming familiar with the ones that are commonly used will help your brain to sort of skip over them while you're listening so you'll train yourself to ignore them and listen for the more important things that they're saying in the sentence.
So these are really commonly used by native speakers in lots of different English-speaking countries but there might be some more specific ones in certain areas.
學習這些詞彙，熟悉那些經常用到的能夠幫助你的大腦在聽別人說話的時候自動跳過它們，這樣你就可以訓練自己忽略它們，去聽句子裡面更加重要的信息。
這些都是不同英語國家的母語者常用的詞彙，但是某些特區可能會有特定的表達。
So if you're watching this as a native English speaker and you've got a couple of fillers that you want to add to this list that are commonly used where you're from, then please do.
I'd love to have you help my students here on the mmmEnglish Channel.
如果你是英語母語者在看這個視頻的話，你有一些你們國家常用的填充詞想要加入其中，那就請大家這麼做吧。
我很喜歡讓大家幫助美味英語的學生。
But I always find it really interesting to hear the different fillers in other languages too because they can be quite different and they sound quite strange if you try and use a filler from another language in English.
No one will recognise it as a filler.
但是我覺得聽到其他語言不通的填充詞也非常有趣，因為它們非常不同，聽起來有點奇怪，如果你試著用英語說其他語言的填充詞的話。
沒有人能夠認出來這是個填充詞。
Right so you need to study connected speech. Just as grammar is the path to better writing and confidence is a big step towards better speaking, understanding connected speech is the key to better listening skills in English.
好的，所以大家需要做的就是學習連讀。正如語法是提升寫作能力的道路，自信是提升口語能力的一大步一樣，理解話語連讀時提升英語聽力技能的關鍵。
Connected speech is the way that sounds and words link together, they blend together or maybe the sounds even change completely as we speak a word out loud.
Native speakers don't pronounce every word separately.
連讀指的就是將音節和單詞連接起來，它們會融為一體，如果我們說的聲音比較大的話，可能聽起來語音完全改變了。
母語者並不會把每個單詞的音都給發出來。
Instead, we push words together, some of these sounds disappear or they change and it all happens as we speak out loud. So knowing what connected speech is is the first step but you need to practise it as well.
相反的是，我們會把單詞擠到一起，有一些音就會消失，或者是改變，我們說話的時候都會這樣。知道連讀是什麼是第一步，但是你也需要進行練習。
Now this is a great place to start.
There is a whole playlist of mine on connected speech right there. How to use it in naturally spoken English.
這就是一個超讚的開始。有一整個播放列表都是關於連讀的。
如何在自然英語口語中使用連讀。
So I go over a lot of detail there step-by-step. There's lots of examples and there's lots of opportunities to practise as well.
我在這些視頻裡一步步地帶大家過了很多細節。有一些例子，還有很多進行練習的機會。
Now I'm going to link that at the end of this lesson so don't go anywhere just yet alright?
Because I'm not quite finished yet.
我會在本節課程的結束放上連結，所以大家可別換臺哦？
因為我還沒有結束呢。
Listening's great because you can do it while you're multitasking.
You can listen to music while you're driving a car. You can listen to a podcast while you're walking, you can watch TV while you're cycling at the gym.
聽力其實是很贊的，因為你在多任務工作的時候也可以聽。在開車的時候就可以聽音樂。
在散步的時候可以聽播客，在健身房蹬自行車的時候可以看電視。
Awesome! But if you want to improve your listening skills, you need to do more than just listen.
太贊了！但是如果你想要提升聽力技能的話，你需要比聽做得更多。
You need to be actively listening, right? To do that, the best thing you can do is have a goal.
你需要積極地去聽，懂了嗎？要那麼做的話，最好的事情就是定下一個目標。
Set a specific goal or a challenge that you need to accomplish through the listening practice.
So you could challenge yourself to recognise ten new words from a podcast and write them down as you're listening to them.
在聽力練習的過程中要定下一個具體的目標，你需要完成的或者是挑戰。
所以呢大家可以在聽的時候可以挑戰自己從一個播客裡面認出十個新的單詞，然後寫下來這些單詞。
Maybe even try and guess the meaning from the context of the discussion. You can look them up after to check if you're right.
可能甚至是試一下從討論當中猜一下是什麼意思。大家可以在後面檢查一下是不是對的。
Another idea is to use a video with a transcript. A TED talk is perfect for this.
另外一個好主意就是使用有字幕的視頻。TED就很完美啦。
So listen and after you listen, try and explain the author's or the speaker's opinion about a particular issue.
And then use the transcript to go back and see how much of it you got right or how much of it you understood.
那就聽唄，聽完之後試著解釋一下作者或者是演講者對於某個問題的觀點。
然後用字幕回去檢查一下你對了多少，理解了多少。
If you're lucky enough to have a language exchange partner, someone who's learning your native language and who's helping you to practise your English skills, then practise telling each other a story, maybe about your childhood.
Then try to summarise it back to them so that they can tell you how accurate you were with your listening.
如果你足夠幸運有一個語伴，那就是正在學習你的母語，並且能夠幫助你練習英語技能的人的話，那就練習互相給對方講故事，可能是關於童年的。然後你試著去給對方總結一下，這樣他們就能夠告訴你你聽對了多少。
Another awesome technique is to combine different English skills so combine listening with speaking or combine it with reading or writing.
Like I said earlier, if you hear an expression that you don't know, try and guess the meaning from the context and just make a note of it so you can check it later.
另外一個很贊的技巧就是結合不同的英語技能，把聽力和口語技能結合，或者是把聽力和閱讀或者寫作結合。
正如我之前說過的，如果你聽到一個不知道的表達的話，試著從語境中猜猜是什麼意思，然後記錄一下，這樣後面就可以檢查一下了。
While you're listening, read the transcript but don't just read it in your head, read it out loud, practise your pronunciation, you can imitate or shadow the person who's speaking.
So you're copying their tone and their stress patterns.
當你在聽的時候，讀一下字幕，但是不要只是在腦海中讀，要大聲讀出來，練習你的發音，你可以模仿或者是跟著某個人讀。
這樣的話你就可以複製他們的語調以及重音模式。
It's a brilliant way to develop your pronunciation skills and your listening skills.
All of these things are going to help you to improve your listening skills but they require extra work.
這是提升發音技能和聽力技能的很棒的方式。
這些都能夠幫助你提升聽力技能，但是需要額外的努力。
It's not just listening to English but it's practising listening to English. And they're two really different things.
不只是聽英語，而是練習聽英語。它們是完全不同的兩件事情。
Don't just hear. Instead, make sure you're listening.
不要只是聽。想法的是，要保證你在認真地聽。
You're thinking, you're comprehending. You're listening again to check.
你在思考，你在理解。你會再聽一遍去檢查一下。
You're writing it down, then you're listening again. Right? You get the idea.
你會寫下來，然後再聽一遍。對嗎？大家看來懂了。
Alright a little pop quiz. I want to see if you've been really listening to what I've been talking about, how much of this video did you understand?
好的，給大家一個小測試。我想檢查一下大家是不是真的在認真聽我說了什麼，你理解了視頻的多少呢？
Were you actively listening or were you just staring out the window of the bus thinking about something else?
To check if you are listening, I want you to answer this question in the comments below this video.
你是在積極地聽還是盯著窗外的公交車開小差了呢？
為了檢查一下你們是不是在聽，我想讓大家在這個視頻下面的評論區回答一下這個問題。
What can you do to increase the difficulty of the audio you're listening to? Can you remember what I said?
你在聽的時候能做什麼來增加難度呢？你能記住我說了什麼嗎？
Were you actually listening? Another question, what is connected speech?
你真的在聽嗎？另外一個問題，什麼是連讀呢？
And how can it help you to listen to native speakers? It's an important one.
這能夠在多大程度上幫助你更好地聽母語者講話呢？這點非常重要。
If you can't remember, maybe you need to go back and watch this video again.
Listen actively this time, alright?
如果你沒記住的話，你可能需要回去再看一遍視頻。這次要積極地聽，好嗎？
Or you can check the answers to these questions on the mmmEnglish blog because there's a full transcript of this lesson and every lesson that I make on the mmmEnglish blog.
The link is in the description and up there.
或者是可以在美味英語的播客裡面檢查一下這些問題的答案，因為美味英語博客會有整節課程以及每節課程的完整字幕。
連結就在描述區，就在那裡。
If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet then please do that right here.
如果你還沒訂閱我的頻道的話，那就快點訂閱吧。
And if you're ready for a listening challenge with native English speakers then let's go check out this video right here.
如果你準備好和母語者進行聽力挑戰的話，那就看看這裡的這個視頻吧。