Welcome to the Leo Listening Blog
Regular articles, tips and advice on understanding spoken EnglishRead by topic:
Understand native speakers: hard to understand aren’t they? Here’s why & what to do about it
Understand English movies: understand movies and TV shows without subtitles
Listening tips: improve your English listening skills with these tips
Podcast: improve your listening in English with my podcast episodes from the archive
Interviews: expert interviews on listening skills, language learning, living abroad and more
Motivation and Mindset: boost your motivation to understand fast English
Latest posts:
What Does It Mean To Be Subtitle Free?
Isn’t it annoying when people have different definitions of the same thing? Take “fluency” for instance. This simple word is the origin of a lot of angry tweets and comments. Benny Lewis’s definition (his site is called Fluent in 3 Months, which upsets a...
5 Myths Stopping You From Being Subtitle Free
Would you love to watch your favourite TV series without the subtitles? In this golden age of TV, it’s no surprise. From the incredible camera angles, to the gripping storylines and the credible characters, TV shows are the new films. If you’re still...
How Veronika Broke Free From Subtitles
Have you been learning English for years? Can you speak or write well? Then you turn on the TV to sit down and watch your favourite film or series. But you understand one word out of two. You sigh and turn on the subtitles to “read” what you’re...
7 Steps To Successful Shadow Readings In English
Learners often ask me : how can I improve my speaking? If you hadn’t noticed, my website is called Leo Listening. And all the blog posts are about understanding conversational English. Speaking isn’t my zone of genius. But, there is one activity...
The Feel Good Guide to Texts and Transcripts
Listen to this article as a blogcast or continue scrolling to read it.Do you remember those times at school where you were allowed to listen to a recording in English and read along with the transcript at the same time? If you answered no, then I’m not...
10 Ways to Use a Transcript to Improve Your Listening Skills
Transcripts are powerful tools. More powerful than you might imagine. One of the problems of the spoken language is that once the words have left someone’s mouth, they’re gone. The only trace is what you managed to catch through your ears and transform into...
How To Improve Your Speaking Skills With A Podcast Partner
Today, I’m excited to introduce my colleague, Annemarie Fowler from Speak Confident English. You may already know her from the fluency lessons she shares online. I spoke with Annemarie about how to use podcasts as a way to start discussions with a speaking or...
The Blogcastastic Way To Improve Your Listening Skills
I recently found out about a new invention in the internet world: the blogcast. A mixture of the words ‘blog’ and ‘podcast’. In a blogcast (sometimes called an audio blog), the writer of a blog post records themselves reading it aloud. So you can listen...
4 Listening Resources For Literature Lovers
Tell me, which do you prefer? Reading an email from a colleague in English or talking on the phone with them? Relaxing in the evening with a book in English or a film without subtitles? Reading a blog post or listening to a podcast? If you learned...
4 Lessons From Origami To Help You Understand Spoken English
Have you ever done any origami? It’s the Japanese art of folding paper. I got into it at school when I was about 9 or 10. We had an origami book in the classroom. Our teacher would let us try making different things. I guess we had a pretty cool teacher....