As a teacher, I can tell you that students often miss the point to listenings.  The most important thing is understanding the gist, then the detail.  First time through you are not supposed to understand ANYTHING.  You are getting used to the flow and warming up your brain to listening - the accent, the rhythm.  With long passages or reports that you only hear once - expect it to be hard and try to enjoy it!  It's important to do it but everything is learnt in time.  The more you listen, the more you will understand.  Imagine the listening tasks as a big jigsaw puzzle.  Every time you listen to something and learn even one word or phrase you are slotting another piece into the big picture - language.  Think about how big the language is and how many pieces there are.  Give yourself time and don't allow yourself to be overwhelmed.  Each piece is vital.  Trust your brain to spot the right pieces to build it!

I have a controversial approach to listening that maybe sounds very strange but I find that it works for me.  That is... DON'T TRY TOO HARD.

Let the words wash over you and if your brain focuses in on a specific part, that's the bit you need to know next.  Normally it is a sentence that you already know most of the words in - your brain recognises that there is a strange, unknown word or that the words are used in a different context than the one it is familiar with.  If you try to learn every word in every sentence you will probably overload and learn nothing that you will be able to remember.

at first i listened VOA special English, but now i listen to VOA standard english,i think special english is too slow ,but strandard english is hard for me

i have a question,i have listened to  VOA English for months,but when i listen to Family  Album,U.S.A  i find there are still many sentences i can not listen clearly ,and i also don't understand  what they said when i  chatted with foreigners, what shall i do to improve my listening ?