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Unfamiliar audio: Your approach?

  Tags: Listening
 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
13 messages over 2 pages: 1


DavidStyles
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 Message 9 of 13
23 February 2014 at 1:04am | IP Logged 
Without a particular language in mind, I'd not have a ready method, since my method would depend on the language.

Lizzern wrote:

I'm studying Japanese at the moment and it's definitely different from doing the same thing with Italian audio...

Liz


Both relatively straightforward to transcribe, at least, unless the speaker is being really unclear. Assuming heavy use of the pause button if they are going too quickly. I say this in the sense that both those languages are very clear and consistent in their pronunciation rules.

Might be a tiny bit of a pain looking up Japanese words via romaji instead of kanji et al, but probably not insurmountable. Perhaps a few errors if mishearing consonants as singles or doubles, for instance.

If it were Danish on the other hand, I'd look to a friend competent in Danish who'd transcribe such a thing for me, or at least help with the parts I missed. Or Chinese, since I'm still at the stage of struggling with tones.

If it were a language I don't understand at all, then depending what the source is, I might just go out of my way to find a transcription.

Like the Hungarian's story in Chicago's "Cell Block Tango", which part is seemingly never subtitled, presumably to underline the fact that nobody understands what she's saying. But Google brings it up instantly:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299658/trivia?item=tr0793834

Edited by DavidStyles on 23 February 2014 at 1:06am

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Serpent
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 Message 10 of 13
23 February 2014 at 7:09am | IP Logged 
If this was something I truly care about, like an interview with a celebrity from L2 country, I'd ask a fellow fan to tell me at least the gist of it in English, and then I'd look up some relevant vocabulary. When I wasn't actually studying Finnish yet, I would also just take a sheet of paper and write down any words I heard, without looking them up or double-checking or whatever. And in a chaotic order, kinda like those tag clouds.

Also if you want to use it so desperately, generally your overall knowledge should help. There's also nothing wrong with learning rather specialized vocabulary if it's currently more useful to you than the usual tourist stuff.

But yeah, in Danish and some other languages it's a difficult thing to do. BTW be sure to learn how to share the link to a specific moment from a youtube video.

Edited by Serpent on 23 February 2014 at 7:16am

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Iversen
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 Message 11 of 13
23 February 2014 at 10:14pm | IP Logged 
If I'm on the brink of understanding something then I try following the stream of words closely instead of trying to understand everything - a technique I have called "listening like a bloodhound" because it reminds me the image of a bloodhound following a trail with its snout centimeters from the earth.

There is a competing method, where you try to pick single words and and combine them with some clues from intonation patterns and external clues to a realistic guess about the meaning. I may use this method if I have to understand something in an unknown language or dialect or under adverse conditions, but even in this case it would probably be more efficient to follow the discourse and let the meanings pop up by themselves. And it would be even better to listen several times using different approaches, but you may not have this option.

My hunch is that the two methods are irreconcilable - it's either one or the other..

Edited by Iversen on 23 February 2014 at 10:15pm

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Michel1020
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 Message 12 of 13
23 February 2014 at 11:05pm | IP Logged 
Now and then you could listen to the file at slow speed. VLC helps a lot with that.

You could also work with frequency lists and build your own podcasts from those lists and some audio sources like forvo.

Coming back later help a lot too.
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Serpent
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serpent-849.livejour
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 Message 13 of 13
24 February 2014 at 6:31am | IP Logged 
Or listen at a fast speed and then the normal one will feel much slower.


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