How closely should I be listening to the accelerated listening exercises? I can listen intently for a minute of two but then just sort of zone out for the remainder of the exercise. I am guessing that it isn’t very helpful to listening like that and I should focus harder on listening closely. Anyone have any tips to keep my focus on them?
The trick - though it sounds counter-intuitive - is NOT to focus intently on them at all, just listen but don’t try and understand them. The acceleration is there to build up the brain pathways (which will happen even if you’re not conscious of it). After doing the accelerated exercises for a while, you’ll notice that normal speech (face-to-face with fluent speakers or radio/television) will seem slower than it did before the exercises and therefore easier to understand and keep up with. Just let the magic work!
Absolutely! You will even ‘notice’ that the listening exercises themselves seem to slow down. It’s so weird (in a wonderful way).
Thanks, I will stop worrying about it and just let it happen.
Yes, the trick is to hover somewhere between concentrating on it and thinking about something completely different. You want to aim for a sort of ‘zen’ state somewhere in the middle where you’re aware of the words flowing over you, but not really focusing on them.
And they can start to feel as if they’ve slowed down. I’ve had people absolutely certain that each repetition is a little bit slower, but it’s just their brain starting to process faster.
I have got the thinking about something completely different part mastered, lol.