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:
Why Learning More Slang, Idioms or Phrasal Verbs Won’t Improve Your Listening Skills
They’re all over the internet - lists of English slang words, English phrasal verbs, idioms in English to learn about everything from automobiles to zoology. A colleague even told me about a student of hers who was making herself sick with worry and stress trying to...
3 Reflection Questions to Help You Choose the TV Series Or Movie That’s Best For You
Now, there’s a content piece that’s really popular in the English learning world, whether on YouTube or other English learning blogs. Maybe you’ve seen it around too. Maybe you even like this type of content and are searching for it. What is it? Well, it’s those lists...
Why Your English Is Probably Rude
Did you know that your English is probably rude? Now, you might be shocked by this suggestion. I'm sure you're thinking to yourself - but I'm such a polite and respectful person! Well, what's polite in your language might not be in English as you'll soon find out. And...
How to Hack The 10,000 Hour Rule To Improve Your English Listening Skills 5 x Faster Or More
Have you heard of the 10,000 hour rule? It was popularized by the author Malcom Gladwell in the 2008 book Outliers - The Story of Success. He reported on a study by Anders Ericsson, to explain what separates top performers in certain fields from the rest. And it seems...
How to Improve Your English Listening Skills Intentionally
Do you know what it means to learn a language intentionally and holistically? And how this can help you improve your English listening skills? Well, in this interview I talk to Angel Prétot from Frenchfluency.net about the concepts he uses to teach the native English...
How To Survive Video Conferences & Video Calls In English
Do you suddenly find yourself on Zoom/Skype/Facetime (insert video conferencing platform of your choice) all day long? Do you need to do conference calls or video calls in English? For work? For connecting with friends and family? These types of calls can be...
How To Use Detailed Listening To Get Off The Intermediate Plateau
When I was learning to drive, I didn’t realise that I’d hit so many plateaus along the way. In other words, periods where, no matter what I did, I didn’t improve. I would master something, and things seemed to be going great, for it all to stop and for me to get very...
Why You Should Stop Listening to Slow-Talking YouTube Teachers
Want to understand fast-talking native English speakers? Then stop listening to slow-talking YouTube teachers. Find out why and what you should listen to here.
How To Fit In With Americans: An Interview With Expat Inés From Spain
Do you dream of moving to the USA? And living the American dream? Well, in this post I’m interviewing a real life expat - my friend Inés who moved from Madrid to Austin, Texas, in January 2017. She’s a Spanish teacher at yourlifeinspain.com where she teaches Spanish...
One Quick Trick To Transform Your English Listening Skills Instantly
Now I know this headline sounds a bit spammy And I’m not a fan of instantaneous wonder tricks. If I believed in that, I would have given up teaching and learning a language a long time ago. Because I believe anything worth having in life, that transforms your life,...