where to get some listening exercises

Miguel   Wednesday, April 17, 2002, 17:59 GMT
I'd like to know where to find some listening exercises in order to improve my comprehension.
Michal Ryszard Wojcik   Friday, April 19, 2002, 18:58 GMT
What do you mean by "listening exercises"?

Perhaps watching English TV or listening to English radio can be a good listening exercise for you. If you do it regularly, it will certainly improve your comprehension.

And you can become interested in English audio books.
Neil Gratton   Friday, April 19, 2002, 22:07 GMT
DVDs are useful: you can turn on the subtitles (either in English, or sometimes in your own language) if you are not sure of what someone said or hear a new word.

Also, AudioScriptures International supply MP3 files or Real Audio files of scripture readings in assorted languages: you can listen to it in the language you want to learn and if you need to compare the same file in a language you already know well.... the URL is http://www.gospelcom.net/asi/index2.html (click on "Audio Resources" at the top, then MP3 or Real Audio on the left).
Miguel   Sunday, April 21, 2002, 15:25 GMT
I live in spain so I cannot watch movies and listen radio in English.
I wanna buy a DVD to be able to see movies in English language, I'm sure it will be a good improvement in my English comprehension, however thanks for your help.
Isidro   Monday, April 22, 2002, 21:20 GMT
I think listening is very important ´cause a part of comprehension
so I want you to tell me how can I get some DVD´s to improve
my English.
Neil Gratton   Monday, April 22, 2002, 22:22 GMT
www.amazon.co.uk is a good source of Region 2 (European) DVDs, and www.amazon.com is a good source of Region 1 (North American) DVDs.

If you want to find details of what subtitles the disks have on them (it's important to check, because some disks might not even have English subtitles! And it can be useful to also have subtitles in your own language) useful sites for information are www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk or www.dvdtimes.co.uk

With a DVD drive in your PC, you should be able to watch DVDs from any region: however if you are using a stand-alone DVD player make sure it can play disks of the region you are buying from.

Miguel: within Spain, www.fnac.es sells DVDs and its website includes information of the audio tracks and subtitles on each disk.
Ricardo Guerra   Monday, May 06, 2002, 19:18 GMT
Miguel , I got the best results by watching Cable TV programs that have the "Caption" feature, in case you have them on your country. Sorry if you don´t like this kind of program, but you can try the several comedies on the Sony TV Channel. Some of them offers "caption", with the text that appears in the low part of the screen being very accurate . In fact, they have more fidelity to the original speeches than all the Spanish and Portuguese translations that I have seen in movies . I even suspect that the caption is used for the translators here in Brazil , because when a phrase is missing in caption, it lacks also in the translation, but this occurs very rarely.

Additional hint : some series make a lot of humour with cultural and local circumstances, so they´re very difficult to understand , even when you have the plain text to read . One example of this is "Frasier" , which plays very much with the names of personnalities and recent facts on the USA media. The series is great, but is better to watch and laugh in your own native language !

On the opposite side, good teaching series are "Friends" and "Becker" . Both are excellent for learning phrasal verbs , casual and familiar talking , slang , and even unpolite words... It´s surely the most funny way to learn American English. Good luck!
Miguel   Thursday, May 09, 2002, 19:06 GMT
Ricardo, thanks for your information but I only can watch a few series in english language as I don't have cable tv in spain, I've never watched "friends" and "becker" in english but if they are good for learning phrasal verbs I'm very interested in watching them. Do you think is better to watch american movies with subtitles for learning? I've bought some american movies with subtitles (speak up movies) and I cannot read and paying attention on what they are saying at the same time as my English is not good enough for that,
Mohammed Asad Khan   Friday, May 10, 2002, 03:03 GMT
Excuse me, Sir, watching flicks with subtitles is a bit easier way than understanding people conversation. They speak so fast even you can not pick a word in the whole sentence. You know flicks are basically made for native speakers, so actors and actresses speak naturally.

I understand most of the part when I`m reading subtitles on the Tv screen.
I would not rather understand most of the part when I`m listening.
The conclusion is that my listening progress is not as good as reading .
That`s my weak area where I have to work on.
The simple theory is that every thing looks harder before going to easier.
You have to find out what are the weak areas do you have, All you need to do just figure out the ways that how can you minimize your weaknesses.

when I listen to a complete news about an event on the international news channel. The anchors speak so fast, except for, my mind works so fast to understand the whole speech, regarding this, someone asks me what do you understand about the news then I can not transfer the whole news in my own native language. It makes me a bit up to the wall.
why is it the case with me? Any comments?
Miguel   Friday, May 10, 2002, 16:36 GMT
Mohammed, I must be the exception but that's my case, when I read subtitles I cannot be concentrated on nothing esle which means that my attention on listening is much less, on the other hand sometimes subtitles are good for learning new unknown sentences structure.
Mohammed Asad Khan   Friday, May 10, 2002, 17:34 GMT
Miguel, what my small mind understands, you're case is listening to music in order to improve your listening power.

Different music cd's are available in the market, go and buy them.
The beatles, personally, I used to hear songs of britney spear, jennifer lopez and Madona. They're truly cool singers.

Listening to one song by trial and error, having said that, you'll reach at some point where you are able to understand most words of the song.
Thereafter, this habbit will become your natural one. That's your main goal has to be fixed. you got me ?

Don't tell me the same mantra, you certainly have music shops in spain.
Miguel   Friday, May 10, 2002, 18:08 GMT
Mohammed, I don't know what mantra means, anyhow I've never said that there are not music shops in spain, What I was trying to say is that reading and listening at the same time is not easy for me, and What I first meant was that I didn't know where to get some listening exercises in internet for free (not only samples).
Mohammed Asad Khan   Saturday, May 11, 2002, 08:36 GMT
-I live in spain so I cannot watch movies and listen radio in English.
How's it that? could you please explain it?

I'm belonged to the most poorest country of the world. The so called civillized countries consider our country is a third world country.
By the way, we people can have easily access to cable channels, such as
m, m-m, star-movies, hallmark, cnn, bbc, sky news, fox sports, comedy channels, discovery, national geography & a few of them indian and pakistani satellite channels.

well, you know having connection of cable channels is the most cheapest stuff, I have ever seen in my country.
120 Rs =2 Us dollars for a month.
I guess every poor can get access to the real world.

you don`t need to worry about the understanding the whole picture, just keep your concentration straight, try to listen to the conversations of a movie, see the whole movie. that`s your work has to be.

your listening power will increase slow and steady. our main problem is that we are impatient students. we want to do all things on the spot.

I never understood a word of a news 2 years ago, but I`ve been watching the channels, I have been able to understand most part of the news.

I've been improving my writting and listening power gradually.
Miguel   Sunday, May 12, 2002, 11:27 GMT
How is that? it's easy to explain as I'm jobless now and I cannot afford paying a cable channels at the moment, I have to cut down on expenses, moreover, I don't know in your country but in spain it is expensive.
Mohammed Asad Khan   Monday, May 13, 2002, 12:55 GMT
Miguel, why are we making your problem more complicated?
You wanna get some listening excercises.
If you have a Pc, and internet service. Don't you worry about anything else?
Please, download a real player, Have a cup of tea, chilling out yourself,
listening to cool music stations, sports news, whatever!