How to do Listening-Reading

Advantages

  • Hear 1000’s of words and sentences (speaking speed) per hour, while understanding their meaning. 
  • Build an intuition in a way that’s in line with research about language acquisition. Language is often too complex for explicit explanations of grammar.
  • Research confirms that it is simply not possible to really speak a language without exposure to Communicatively Embedded Input.
  • Experience the language how it’s actually used by real people. 

Apps and classes cannot teach you this.
  • It can even feel good. It’s a bit like meditation, it can feel nice to tune out everything. 

Not for everyone

  • You are able to read at normal speed. 
  • You can focus for 30 minutes, like a fitness session, which you can support with a timer.
  • You can deal with uncertainty. No instant progress. Feel results only after watching 3-5 videos. But it will come!

The problem:

Without subtitles, it’s hard to recognize sounds and words.
And with always new input we can’t build deeper knowledge of vocabulary and structures.

The solution:

Repeatedly watch a few videos and understanding most of what is being said.
Then later on enjoy YouTube or Netflix shows made for native speakers. Now it’s enjoyable to practice listening.

Watch our video about L-R 

Useful tools and practices

After watching a few videos on repeat and understanding most of what is being said in a foreign language, you can move on to YouTube or Netflix shows made for native speakers. Enjoy engaging with interesting content within the new language system.

Language Reactor can turn any YouTube video into a video with two subtitles.

But we have created our own content for beginners where we mark certain aspects. Also, we have 30 minute follow along videos where we show you step-by-step how to do this.

Known and loved by experienced learners

Polyglots swear by this method. There’s an online community of people that love learning languages. Almost all of them know this method because it works. 

There’s an Italian woman that got to B2 in 40 hours of listening-reading with to the Harry Potter books. It allowed her to learn at her personal maximum speed, and benefit from her knowledge of Latin in High School. 

Alex even worked with a Polyglot from Brazil, speaking only in German, and all he did was listening to interesting videos for half an hour each day during one year.