oCoder Education - English listening Audios are suitable for learners with different levels of English. Here are some ways to make them easier (if you have a lower level of English) or more difficult (if you have a higher level of English).
You can choose one or two of these suggestions – you don't have to follow all of them!
Making it easier
Read all the exercises before you listen to the audio.
Look up the words in the exercises that you don't know or don't understand in a dictionary.
Play the audio as many times as you need.
Play each part of the audio separately.
Answer all questions in the exercise.
Read the transcript after you have listened to the audio.
Making it harder
Listen to the audio before you read the exercises.
Only play the audio once before answering the questions.
Play the whole audio without a break.
Don't read the transcript.
Now, listen to the audio and do the exercises on the following tabs.
If you do not complete all the question, you can play the audio again.
After that, read the dialog to make sure that you understand all word in the audio.
What does the speaker conclude about studying German?
Having a good German teacher is important.
Her brother has learned more German than she has.
German is easier to learn than Japanese.
She would have preferred learning German in childhood.
Why does the speaker feel she should study German?
All of her family speaks German fluently.
It is her mother's first language.
She used to live in Switzerland.
She is planning to visit Germany.
Why does the speaker mention a Danish and English family?
Because the son spoke perfect Danish and English
Because the son was in her English class
Because the son spoke little Danish
Because the son struggled learning Danish and English
What does the speaker say about Swiss German?
It is very similar to the language spoken in Germany.
It feels very formal.
It has almost disappeared.
It is different from the language spoken in Germany.
How does the speaker describe her experience in a German class?
Her parents never helped her with the homework.
She did not put in any effort.
It was a very expensive class.
She had a very hard time understanding.
5
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I'm not learning to speak German.
I feel I should be.
It's my mother's first language, and, she met my father when she came to England, uh, to try and, brush up on her English.
Um, and he taught her, and then they got married.
It's very sweet.
And they didn't bring us up bilingual, me and my brother.
They, thought about it.
And they thought how nice it would be for us, to have a second language, and be able to speak to all members of our family, properly.
But, they didn't for two reasons.
One, was because they were terribly afraid that we might not get a proper command of both languages.
If we didn't lay them down at the same_ you know, if we'd laid them down at the same time.
And, in fact, we do know a Danish and English family, where, the younger son, continued mixing up the languages, into secondary school.
Which is eleven, twelve.
Which must have been a bit difficult for him, really.
So, I suppose I'm glad about that, that, that didn't happen to me.
But_ ha ha.
The other reason was because, my mother's Swiss, and Swiss-German is, a very different, kind of dialect, from German-German.
And, she didn't feel that teaching me Swiss-German, was really a very valuable thing to do.
Because, nobody speaks Swiss-German, and then I'd sound like I was Swiss-German, instead of having useful German.
And she couldn't speak to her own baby in high German, because, that would be like talking Chaucer.
It would just be completely bizarre.
So, they didn't bring us up bilingual.
I did study German at school.
And I, f- understood it very well, very quickly.
I think i_ because my parents would talk in German to each other to keep a secret from us.
My brother and I both got very adept at learning_ particularly German relating to television, sweets, hidden toys, haha, things of that nature.
Um, and so we were_ both found it quite easy to pick up.
But I couldn't actually bring myself to a_ really, really learn.
Because, I felt that I shouldn't have to put in any effort.
'Cos I could have got this for free, by being brought up bilingual.
You know, it could have been no effort whatsoever.
And so I sort of resent making the effort.
I do want to learn Japanese.
And I keep petering out, because I feel guilty.
I, I should learn German first, because I've got whole family members that I can_ can't really speak to properly, because I don't speak German.
It's a bit of a problem really.
I think I'm going to end up being, just a typical English person, who only speaks English.