Quote:
Originally Posted by seeker5  I've got a friend who isn't from the U.S. but is taking classes in the U.S. He can converse ok in English, but he doesn't understand half of what some fast-speaking professors say. I was wondering what to suggest to him to help him catch up on his ability to understand fast speakers of American English so he'd be better at understanding these professors. Should I suggest to him to watch TV shows were people speak fast without looking at the sub-titles? (if so what shows?) What's the fastest and effective way to learn to understand fast-speaking American? |
You might want to encourage subtitles, since it'll help with pattern recognition. This will take a while to develop, though, and might even require a certain talent theme... maybe.
Suffice to say some people will be more efficient at information processing than others. E.g. I generally pay more attention than most people and tend to notice more. I've worked hard to cultivate awareness like this, but I think my natural ability augment the work I did. In other words, I already had a natural advantage and ability to learn quickly in this area.
Let your friend use his feelings guide him, providing he's cultivated enough internal self-awareness. That should help him see what methods are drawing on his talents and will thus produce better, faster, exponential learning, and what is mostly a draining waste of time. (Draining wastes of time for me include trying to input something I don't care about. It's like everything I listen to drains through in a sieve-like manner. But if I care about what I'm inputting, I become a generalisation machine.)