Or, for example, 'And which office is that again?' Break it down into smaller questions and the other person will naturally start answering them. Gabriella: Ah, well, you only start the summary, so you might say, in German in your case, 'OK, so the first thing I have to do is …?' and make it a question. Presenter: But how can you do that if you didn't understand what they said? Gabriella: The other strategy is to summarise what they said. Presenter: I hope you've got the answer, Gabriella, because I'm coming out in a cold sweat just thinking about either of those situations! But imagine you're at a government office or a bank, trying to find out what paperwork you need to get your ID or open a bank account. I mean, if you're just chatting with a stranger at the bus stop, it doesn't matter. Gabriella: But, obviously that's not going to help if it's a conversation with high stakes. One is to pretend to understand and get out of the conversation as fast as you can. Gabriella: They do, don't they? In real life, you've got two strategies. And people out there listening, I hope you don't do this – quite often the person just repeats what they said equally as fast and I'm still lost! Presenter: Right, but in real life I feel stupid always saying, 'Sorry, can you repeat that, please?', especially if I still don't understand even when they repeat it. You usually have just one or maybe two opportunities to listen to the dialogue and then it's gone. Of course, exams are a different situation from real life because in an exam you can't ask for something to be repeated or explained. You know, in exams most people do pretty well in speaking compared with listening. Am I just really strange and bad at listening? Tell me, honestly, I can take it.
But listening … woah … people speak so fast and it's like my brain just shuts down. Most people say speaking is the most stressful part of learning a new language but, for me, with my B1 German, speaking isn't so bad. Presenter: So, I have to confess today's topic is something I am really bad at: listening. Gabriella, hi and thanks for joining us today. Presenter: So, today's expert teacher is Gabriella, a university English teacher from Leeds.
0 kommentar(er)
