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Using native podcasts w/o transcripts

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


emk
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 Message 9 of 15
13 June 2013 at 9:57pm | IP Logged 
kujichagulia wrote:
MISSION: You have been captured by aliens and given a lot of podcasts intended for native speakers of the language that you are learning. The aliens tell you to use the podcasts to improve your listening comprehension. The podcasts are audio only, with no transcripts. How do you use them to help your listening?

If I were sufficiently advanced, I would just sit there are listen carefully, rewinding occasionally, and trying to puzzle things out from context. This isn't a terribly productive way to learn a language, but once you understand 75% of something, you can often work out more from context. Then multiply that little bit by a whole lot of hours of listening.

If I were a beginner, I would badger the aliens endlessly until they gave me, say, 10,000 hours of television instead. I would start with something really easy, like the Teletubbies (French version), because the language is really repetitive and simple. (Listen to that clip, and tell me whether or not you can figure out the French expressions for "what's that?" and "carpet".)

I would watch the episodes day after day, until I could practically repeat the dialog. And I'd expect to waste about 500 to 1,000 hours trying to puzzle out what an Assimil course would give me in a fraction of the time. Once I had some basic knowledge, I'd gradually move up to harder and harder materials. I'd expect that within a year or two of 16-hour days of watching TV, my comprehension would be very good indeed.

The key here is that I would use the images to help decode the sounds. Below a certain level, I think it's pretty much impossible to learn from adult podcasts. But the right kind of children's TV might be enough to get me started.

(Actually, it would probably be far more interesting to try to chat with the cell guards and learn their language, if my sense apparatus was up to it! Because, seriously, folks: actual alien language.)

Edited by emk on 13 June 2013 at 10:01pm

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montmorency
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United Kingdom
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 Message 10 of 15
14 June 2013 at 2:13am | IP Logged 
I would tend to disbelieve the aliens, and go and search for the transcripts anyway.

Failing that, I would go out and look for some different podcasts that did have
transcripts.

Failing that, I'd go and buy some audiobooks and the corresponding books or e-books.
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kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
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 Message 11 of 15
14 June 2013 at 6:45am | IP Logged 
I should have clarified my original post - sorry about that. The podcasts would not be the only thing you are using. The aliens have allowed you to take with you to your cell all the materials that you currently use to study your language, whether it be textbooks, novels, DVDs, the Internet, Assimil.... whatever you use. They are just telling you to incorporate podcasts into your routine. For some reason, these aliens have a particular interest in podcasts - don't ask me why.

By the way, in case you were wondering, my original post was not based on anything that happened to me in real life. It was just something hypothetical. I am safe and free. I hope that clears up any confusion you may have had.

Edited by kujichagulia on 14 June 2013 at 6:53am

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Serpent
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 Message 12 of 15
14 June 2013 at 2:32pm | IP Logged 
I would ask if they have anything about football or at least quidditch
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kujichagulia
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Japan
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 13 of 15
14 June 2013 at 2:45pm | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
I would ask if they have anything about football or at least quidditch

Quidditch? Whoa, new word for me. :)
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jhaberstro
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 Message 14 of 15
15 June 2013 at 9:28am | IP Logged 
kujichagulia wrote:
Serpent wrote:
I would ask if they have anything about football or at least
quidditch

Quidditch? Whoa, new word for me. :)

It's a fictional sport from the Harry Potter books (though, there are now leagues where you can play a more realistic
version in real-life, particularly popular among nerdy college students :P).
1 person has voted this message useful



VanamoVenlo
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 Message 15 of 15
19 June 2013 at 12:18pm | IP Logged 
I would make sure that the podcasts are on topics that I am quite passionate about as this would ensure that I have a keen interest in listening attentively and trying to understand as much as possible without my mind drifting away too much. Even better if the content of the podcast is something that I particularly want to access and it can only be accessed through that language. I wouldn't even bother trying to listen to podcasts that are on topics that don't seriously interest me. It's unlikely I'd do well listening to such podcasts even in English.


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