Understanding locals

Hi, I am English and work in Indonesia. I have (good) Bahasa Indonesia classes every week and have been learning for about 4 months now. I am gaining confidence in reading (I've recently started reading children's books which has done wonders in building my vocabulary and understanding sentence structures), but I struggle to understand when my colleagues are speaking. I can pick out basic things like numbers and days but I struggle to understand full sentences - even though I know some of the vocabulary. It feels like by the time I've deconstructed one part of the sentence they have moved onto something else and I've missed key parts. This is also affecting my confidence when trying to speak the language and I don't feel that I can have a "chat" with a local because I don't understand what they're saying to me. My teacher said my pronunciation is great and he's really impressed with how much vocabulary I am learning between lessons (thanks to my awesome flashcards from Fluent Forever) but I am getting frustrated with myself with listening comprehension. Why are these words (other than the basics) not sinking in so I can understand them when I hear them in conversation? Can anybody recommend some tips as to how I can improve my listening skills? Working with over 100 locals means I am fully immersed and hear the language every day. So why does it still sound like super fast nonsense?? HELP!

* Originally posted by kirky123.

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2 comments

Fluent Forever
July 20, 2018 23:34

Do you listen to movies and tv series without subtitles?
Doing that was what truly helped my listening comprehension.

* Originally posted by efsalinas00.

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Fluent Forever
July 20, 2018 23:34

@kirky123: Three suggestions!

- FIrst off, just be aware that listening comprehension is one of the hardest things in this whole process, and it seriously takes a long time. If you feel like you're improving with your teacher, then you're improving, and you're going to get to where you need to be.

- Second off, I've been a HUGE fan of bringing recordings into my flashcards, as per this approach: https://fluent-forever.com/italki-tutor-guide/ . I find if my tutor records at full speed, it helps me pick out words at full speed when I hear them spoken by someone else. It will still take time to get comfortable, but it's a faster route there.

- As efsalinas said, movies and TV without subtitles are the most comprehensive listening comprehension exercises you can get...just they're going to be hard at first because they're full speed. I personally feel like the iTalki route (either with your teacher or as an additional source of input) is a more comfortable path for an intermediate learner until they're ready for movies and things.

-Gabe

* Originally posted by Gabriel Wyner.

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