Alan Palmer's Language Chat Podcasts

hello everybody For my weekend words today, I want to talk about why sometimes it is difficult to understand native speakers, even when you may have been learning English a long time. I discovered a long time ago that the language you hear in class with a teacher, or normally on sound recordings can be easily understood, and yet when you go to the country and listen to native speakers - you may not understand so much. There are many reasons for this, and firstly I want to say - don't worry about it. The more you worry, the more it will either frustrate or annoy you when this happens. Just accept that this will happen, the moment you set foot in the country. Here are some reasons I believe can make listening to native speakers difficult: 1. There is usually some background noise - some examples:street noise, other people speaking nearby, television is on. This makes it difficult to concentrate on the person speaking to you. 2. The native speaker will hear you speak first and assume you know much more th