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Do you struggle with fast speech try this

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
13 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
healing332
Senior Member
United States
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164 posts - 211 votes 

 
 Message 1 of 13
30 September 2009 at 10:27pm | IP Logged 
One of the problems with a new language is the speed. Before I learned Spanish the speed blew me away..i defeated it by repetition but I have found a great paper that gives you different techniques to defeat fast speech until your brain catches up with the speed. I do not use these techniques but it may help someone
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordD etails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue _0=ED413774&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED413774




Edited by healing332 on 30 September 2009 at 10:29pm

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doviende
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
languagefixatio
Joined 5984 days ago

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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese

 
 Message 2 of 13
30 September 2009 at 10:42pm | IP Logged 
I found with chinese, the thing that helped me the most was listening to about 100 hours of a radio show, where the host spoke very precisely but also very fast. It didn't matter that i didn't understand most of what he said...i just had to listen to it lots and lots. Several hours per day, for many weeks. After that, no chinese ever sounded too fast anymore. My only problems were the words that i didn't know, not the speed at which words were spoken.
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JasonChoi
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Korea, South
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 Message 3 of 13
01 October 2009 at 4:46pm | IP Logged 
Oddly enough, I do the exact opposite of what the article suggests:

I take what is already normal speed (i.e. perceived as fast), and then double the speed (using an audio program). After listening to the sped up MP3 several times over, the normal speed feels slow. It's a bit like lifting heavier weights then going back to lighter weights - it feels much easier to lift the lighter weights in this way rather than only lifting the lighter weights.

-Jason
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Al-Malik
Bilingual Heptaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
arabicgenie.com
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1 sounds
Speaks: English*, German*, Spanish, Arabic (Written), Dutch, French, Arabic (classical)
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 Message 4 of 13
01 October 2009 at 4:56pm | IP Logged 
Personally, I've been using this technique (listening to slowed-down audio) for a long time. But, like Jason, I also like to do the opposite (speeding up audio). Usually, I make several versions of a single audio recording, some slower, some faster.
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healing332
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5618 days ago

164 posts - 211 votes 

 
 Message 5 of 13
01 October 2009 at 10:51pm | IP Logged 
I do not speed up or slow down I like massive repeats at normal speed..but i like the tips in this thread and may try some of them.

When I use Lingq (every now and then) I only use their intermediate audio with text. Once i listened to their beginner audio and it sounds so slow that i had to turn it off. This was because I had only heard intermediate for all my input(tv,radio,dvd)
I never use beginner level input

Actually, I got that tip from Kato Lomb's book, she said never start at beginner alway listen to authenic intermediate level input

Edited by healing332 on 01 October 2009 at 10:57pm

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healing332
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5618 days ago

164 posts - 211 votes 

 
 Message 6 of 13
01 October 2009 at 11:45pm | IP Logged 
doviende wrote:
I found with chinese, the thing that helped me the most was listening to about 100 hours of a radio show, where the host spoke very precisely but also very fast. It didn't matter that i didn't understand most of what he said...i just had to listen to it lots and lots. Several hours per day, for many weeks. After that, no chinese ever sounded too fast anymore. My only problems were the words that i didn't know, not the speed at which words were spoken.


Doviende, How long did it take for you to get the breakthrough in Chinese(understanding basic conversation). Also, did you use alot of output, I find i need massive output to make the words "real" in my memory for Swedish and when i was learning Spanish

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doviende
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
languagefixatio
Joined 5984 days ago

533 posts - 1245 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese

 
 Message 7 of 13
02 October 2009 at 12:30am | IP Logged 
I didn't really have a specific breakthrough with basic conversation in chinese, because i was in an intensive immersion program, and then later went to china. When i got to china, i could already understand a lot of words, although usually people had to speak slowly and simplify their speech in order for me to get it.

What i got right away from being in china was the ability to understand lots of different peoples' accents and speech. I was probably over-trained on my teacher's way of speaking, so it took a few weeks of being in china for me to really get what other people were saying. After that, i could always make myself understood and figure out what people were saying if they talked to me slowly.

Later on, i did the intensive listening experiment and it gave me a breakthrough after around 2 weeks of listening, usually for 4-8 hours per day. I wasn't always actively listening, but i had it playing constantly. Keep in mind that at this point, i had already passed HSK3 and probably could have passed HSK4, so my purpose was purely to improve my listening, not necessarily my vocab. I was having trouble hearing the words that i already knew, and i wanted to fix that. as a side benefit, i also learned some new vocab from listening.

The content i was listening too was very quickly spoken, and later on i was able to understand much more of the slowly spoken stuff that i heard. To me, this sounds similar to the people here who are saying that they doubled the speed for a while and then went back to normal speed.

I really like the weightlifting analogy, where you try to lift heavy weights and then the lighter ones feel super easy.

As for output, i definitely needed lots of output in order to "activate" a lot of my knowledge. This was after i had already done enough listening to know when i was saying things mostly correctly. I would go through one of those "spoken language" textbooks and work through the repetitive exercises where they have similar sentence patterns with different things filled in. I'd practice each one slowly, trying for absolutely correct pronunciation, and slowly speed up until i could say them at full speed.

The things i can use the best are the same things that i've had to do many times. Ordering food at a chinese restaurant, classroom stuff, or answering all the "why did you go to china, and for how long?" questions. that stuff has just been drilled from overuse. Any general-purpose everyday words come pretty easily. for nonstandard vocab, i still have to think a lot in order to use it.
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healing332
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5618 days ago

164 posts - 211 votes 

 
 Message 8 of 13
02 October 2009 at 6:07pm | IP Logged 
[QUOTE=doviende] I didn't really have a specific breakthrough with basic conversation in chinese, because i was in an intensive immersion program, and then later went to china. When i got to china, i could already understand a lot of words, although usually people had to speak slowly and simplify their speech in order for me to get it.

What i got right away from being in china was the ability to understand lots of different peoples' accents and speech. I was probably over-trained on my teacher's way of speaking, so it took a few weeks of being in china for me to really get what other people were saying. After that, i could always make myself understood and figure out what people were saying if they talked to me slowly.

Later on, i did the intensive listening experiment and it gave me a breakthrough after around 2 weeks of listening, usually for 4-8 hours per day. I wasn't always actively listening, but i had it playing constantly. Keep in mind that at this point, i had already passed HSK3 and probably could have passed HSK4, so my purpose was purely to improve my listening, not necessarily my vocab. I was having trouble hearing the words that i already knew, and i wanted to fix that. as a side benefit, i also learned some new vocab from listening.

The content i was listening too was very quickly spoken, and later on i was able to understand much more of the slowly spoken stuff that i heard. To me, this sounds similar to the people here who are saying that they doubled the speed for a while and then went back to normal speed.


As for output, i definitely needed lots of output in order to "activate" a lot of my knowledge. This was after i had already done enough listening to know when i was saying things mostly correctly. I would go through one of those "spoken language" textbooks and work through the repetitive exercises where they have similar sentence patterns with different things filled in. I'd practice each one slowly, trying for absolutely correct pronunciation, and slowly speed up until i could say them at full speed.
QUOTE]
Thank you, this is good straight information that should help people learn their language. I was in a hurry to speak like a native and I was speaking Swedish too fast and had people ask me "What did you say? " alot. I had to remember that when i was learning Spanish i spoke slowly at first then after time(repetition) i was speaking at a natural speed. Something that has helped me recently also is to slowly pronounce words (ex. 3 seconds to say a word). Slowly playing with the words have improved my pronunciation incredibly



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