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:
Podcast#11: Spanish Study Woes
Oh woe is me! Do you know that expression? It’s a rather over the top, funny way to say how sad or disappointed you are. You typically use it when you feel sorry for yourself. You know, those times where something bad has happened and you spend your time thinking...
What Happened When Leo Listening Went Live?
Last Friday, I organised a live listening event in Besançon, the city where I live.But wait a minute, you’re an online teacher! What did you do that for? Let me explain (or lemme explain as we say in spoken English). And after you can join in the fun too!Why Live And...
Podcast #10: Interview with Leandra
I celebrated my ninth year in France last week. My life here has changed A LOT since that first week in back in 2007. I feel integrated into the culture and I speak French almost perfectly. I've come a long way. I know you don't have 9 years to perfect your listening...
How 1 Student Discovered A New World With My Listening Lessons
...I was blocked at one place and a door is open and I can see behind the door. Meet Martine. An English teacher friend of mine referred her to me almost a year ago. I was a beginning online teacher and needed clients. Even though Martine and I live in the same...
Podcast #9: The Glasgow Nickname Game
I don't know why, but Glaswegians (people from Glasgow, Scotland) love giving nicknames to official places. These could be monuments, buildings, statues, or even other towns nearby. The point is that these names are light-hearted: they're chose for fun and to make you...
A 5-minute guide to YouTube’s best kept listening skill secret
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a detailed blog post about videos and transcripts, interactive or not. A big chunk of the post was about where to find and how to use YouTube interactive transcripts. After I wrote the post, and added a ton of images, I thought - why...
Podcast #8: What It Sounds Like To Be Scottish
The Scottish accent. The one that you find pretty much incomprehensible. I'm here to tell you that it's not that bad. There are in fact many variants of the Scottish accent across Scotland. In this podcast episode, I introduce you to four typical Scottish accent...
Podcast # 7: 4 Scottish Ways With Words
Did you know that I’m in fact Scottish? You may have seen on my About Me page that I’ve lived in both Scotland and England, but I was actually born in Scotland and my parents have moved back there to retire. I was in Scotland just last week and yesterday I spoke to my...
How to make the most of Cara’s Fast, Natural English Podcast
Did you know that in addition to my blog, I also have a podcast? Cara’s Fast, Natural English podcast is a short (5 to 10 minute) podcast for English learners who want to listen to and understand spontaneous, conversational English. There is only one accent to deal...
Podcast # 6: My Brexit Day
In today’s podcast, I’m going to talk to you about what happened to me on the 24th of June which was the day the British people and the world discovered that the United Kingdom would leave the European Union following a referendum on EU membership on June 23rd. I've...