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I can do shadowing, but understanding

K-Frederic
One of my daily routine is doing shadowing listening to English podcast that the hosts talk naturally about many sort of topics. It's not like a textbook-ish talking that has short and organized sentences. I've been doing it over 5 years but my listening skills still suck. But my pronunciation got better so much than before. It's like I can do shadowing well but understanding what they say. The similar happens when I watch youtube videos. I can read the subtitles and do shadowing along with it, but can't get it as a story or explanation. I have no clue how to fix this issue. Any good advice? Thank you!

5 comments

Kakihurai_On_Wed•
My English teacher said that “It is important that connections of each word and pronunciation is provided by shadowing, only when you understand all words in the sentence.” So, i think you should check sentence carefully before shadowing !
AnmysInsurrectionCat•
Wait, just to clarify, is the problem that you're having trouble understanding the meaning of the words? Or is it that you can repeat them, but you can't actually tell what the individual words are? I guess I'm confused, because it seems like you can read subtitles, speak what you hear, and listen to podcasts (unless I'm missing something, in which case, please correct me). Also, your title and the last sentence of the second paragraph are incomplete (what are you trying to say about understanding?)
sleepyhead7311•
I think you can try repeating the whole sentence after hearing it instead. This method requires certain level of understanding in addition to copying sounds.
jistresdidit•
Dictionary. Spend time making notes during the podcast and lookup words, then come back and listen again. Let me know if you hear the difference.
Tainck•
Try not to shadow if you can't understand, that's what I can advise you as someone who has shadowed for the last [600 hours](https://youtu.be/o9Wlb2kYr2k?si=rhaU0IQE2eLW6ZLO)!