Bonjour, comment vas-tu?

So tell me, did you start your listening practice routine? What do you listen to and watch? I wanna know   !

Why don’t we take a look now at what you can change while you are doing a listening exercise or activity?!?!
And let’s keep in mind : you are not gonna try to understand EVERY SINGLE thing you hear, it’s not even an objective    .

So just relax, switch your brain and mind to French mode, and think directly in French, without translating.

 

“Une langue différente est une vision de la vie différente.” – Federico Fellini

First thing first : before you discover the audio or video you are going to work on, read the instructions of the exercise or task. Why? Because this way, you can underline the key-words in the questions and filter the information you need to pay attention to and understand. Once again, you are not expected to comprehend everything. Instead, just focus on identifying the content required by the questions of the exercise or task.

Remember : the process will go gradually. You will have access to the general meaning, then more details and finally, you will be able to analyze the message conveyed by the audio or video.

 

Now, you are ready to listen or watch the document. Stay in your relaxed mood, and at the same time take as many notes as you can. 
Guess what? Your notes do not have to be spelt correctly. Yes, you heard me right : you take notes phonetically, meaning that you write down what you think you understand, not what you actually understand at this point. So it does not matter if it is spelt correctly or not.

Make it your new rule : first I take notes, then I understand and create meaning thanks to my notes. And be ok with it   , it is a normal and necessary step to take.

After listening to the audio or video 1 or 2 time(s), you will be able to grasp the general sense : who is speaking? To whom? About what? What is the situation?

 

Here’s what you need to remember from what we said : just receive and absorb the content, rhythm, voices, noises, white noises… of the audio or video, to make it yours. Take all the notes you can, trust your intuition and assumptions; you are starting to understand, even if it does not feel like it YET. After listening to the audio or video 2, 3 or 4 times (or more if you need), with your notes and the progressive questions through the tasks, you will understand what you need to for this specific exercise or activity.
Be patient with yourself, changes will happen a little bit more during each practice, what’s important for now is to anchor the method.

 

You are on the perfect path, your OWN path that you create respecting and honoring yourself.