When you're listening to English, what do you find hardest to understand? And why do you think this is? (accents, speed, unknown vocab, other reasons?)
Some ideas could be - TV shows (dramas? sitcoms? soap operas?), film dialogue (what type of films are hardest to understand?), podcasts, vloggers, live videos, the radio, native speakers chatting in a group, a native speaker chatting to you one on one, phone conversations, documentaries, the news?
Thanks for sharing your struggles.
Maykel,
I sometimes cannot easily understand song lyrics, even though I am a native English speaker.
So, I think your issue is quite normal.
The thing that makes a particular piece in English hard to understand is probably speed, second thing would probably be slangs or, you know, using dated, archaic or other sorts of "less usual, less formal" english; then third would be unknown vocabulary (they appear sometimes, like wild Pokemon).
Accents: anything that is less mainstream than the standard British and Eastern American accents, probably, except the Upper Midwestern one.
I agree with Rafael Araujo that oral comprehension is the hardest skill to learn when dealing with a second language, specially if the text to be understood is not aimed particularly at you (as a conversation is, for example).
Well,
the hardiest to me is the stand up comedies, specialy because they use a lot of phrasal verbs, slangs and situation that is only known by the people who lives there.
I still have troubles with songs, I guess that is because the singers put a lot interpretation on it, but if I read the lyrics some times, I'm able to associate the word with the sound.
Movies / TV Shows / News I'm getting better and better, currently I'm living in a country where english is the official language, so I think that I'm getting used to it :)
To me News is the easiest, because normaly who is giving he news wants to be understand talking in a very clear way.
Regards.
