#88 Cara Leopold on Fast-Talking Native Speakers

02/28/22 • 49 min

Listening expert, Cara Leopold, talks with Benny Lewis and Shannon Kennedy about how she helps people improve their ability to understand fast-talking native speakers.

For the majority of people, listening is the first language skill we develop - it actually starts before we’re born! Cara explains how visual context, transcripts, and relevant content are all crucial for effective listening development. She also talks about how English changes when it’s spoken quickly, and gives advice for using subtitles effectively to learn a language by watching movies.

Mentioned in this Episode

Episode Overview

Some of the topics brought up during the interview are:

The stress of classroom listening activities at school
Why our listening ability may be behind our other language skills
Overcoming the fear that comes with not understanding when someone speaks
Visual clues playing an important role in listening
How to improve your listening comprehension
Ways to use TV and movies as tools to improve listening
Different ways to use subtitles effectively
Being an eco-friendly language learner

Podcast theme: “A New Beginning” by Shannon Kennedy

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Listening expert, Cara Leopold, talks with Benny Lewis and Shannon Kennedy about how she helps people improve their ability to understand fast-talking native speakers.

Mentioned in this Episode

Episode Overview

Some of the topics brought up during the interview are:

The stress of classroom listening activities at school
Why our listening ability may be behind our other language skills
Overcoming the fear that comes with not understanding when someone speaks
Visual clues playing an important role in listening
How to improve your listening comprehension
Ways to use TV and movies as tools to improve listening
Different ways to use subtitles effectively
Being an eco-friendly language learner

Podcast theme: “A New Beginning” by Shannon Kennedy

Join Our Patreon

Enjoy the podcast? Subscribe to our Patreon to get access to bonus content and monthly exclusives.

Previous Episode

#87 John Fotheringham on “Anywhere Immersion”

Language Mastery creator and author, John Fotheringham, joins Benny Lewis and Shannon Kennedy to discuss “anywhere immersion”, learning difficult languages, and finding the fun in language learning.

John has a wealth of experience learning Japanese and Mandarin, which he shares with us in this episode. If you’re interested in learning either of these, or any other “difficult” language, this is the episode for you.

Featured Resources

Mentioned in this Episode

Episode Overview

Some of the topics brought up during the interview are:

Learning “difficult” languages like Japanese and Mandarin
How to immerse yourself in a language at home
Practising your language with Alexa
Learning languages through activities that you love
Living abroad and creating memories in the local languages
How to choose language learning tools and methods suited to you personally
Fun ways to learn languages
Experiencing languages as a learner, teacher, and mentor
Recommended books for language learners

Podcast theme: “A New Beginning” by Shannon Kennedy

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Enjoy the podcast? Subscribe to our Patreon to get access to bonus content and monthly exclusives.

Next Episode

Ask Benny: How Do You Gather the Courage to Speak?

In this episode Benny gives a pep-talk to help you find motivation and courage to start a conversation in your target language. It can be so tempting to avoid speaking, whether it's because you're shy, embarrassed, or scared of making mistakes. But if you can bite the bullet and take the leap, you'll be surprised by just how much you can achieve. Listen to this episode if you need a bit of a confidence boost!

To ask Benny a question, leave a comment on Instagram (@languagehacking) or Twitter (@fi3m), or you can email [email protected]

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Enjoy the podcast? Subscribe to our Patreon to get access to bonus content and monthly exclusives.