Motivational Blog

It is often seen a successful writer is always an avid reader, similarly a dynamic and flamboyant speaker/orator has to be a great listener. This modern age is governed by communication. Without communication, there would not have been any job opportunities, trades, relationships, businesses dealings  across the world. But to initiate a successful trade/communication between two parties, the recipient must also respond successfully as per the expectations. So listening skill is indispensable requirement to succeed in any sphere of life. I am speaking about English language as this is the international language for communication. Thus here in this article I will discuss the following steps needed to excel and improve your listening skills.

#1 Listening to podcasts

In this digital age, podcasts and audio books are very much in demand. Thus listening to your favourite podcasts, audio books are great ways to improve listening skills.  Apply this listening routine and estimate your ability to comprehend the content of the audio. The more you understand the content, the more you get better with listening. Try it out and you won’t be disappointed. You can spot the differences within a month. 

#2 Positive Mindset

Approaching any activity with positive mindset makes any task easier to accomplish. It’s absolutely fine to be a non native English speaker. But if you believe in yourself that you can be a good listener and good orator, then nothing can stop you in achieving. If you don’t have a positive mindset, you can’t learn anything. Just pay close attention to what you hear anywhere, television, debates, conferences, lectures and try to get the crux of discussion. You are all set to be a good listener.

#3 Listen at different speeds

In order to improve your listening skills, try listening to any audio at different speeds. The more you understand the speaker , the better will be your listening power.

#4 Take Notes

This is a diligent way to improve your listening skills. We often forget to take important notes during a meeting or conference. This is often called  as minutes of meeting. In any conference, a speaker addresses the audience by his powerful speech. The speaker expects the audience to be active listeners but a small bit of ignorance/negligence from the audience can move them off track from the topic of discussion. That’s the reason; important notes have to be taken immediately when the speaker is giving speech to the audience. The notes will help you recollect the important points discussed in the conference. This can also improve your listening power. Here the speech doesn’t only test your listening skills but also your memory skills.

#5 Be patient :

Patience is an important virtue to test your listening skills. Just that you have a mindset to listen doesn’t mean you can understand everything you hear. If you are not patient enough to hear the entire speech or lecture, then why wasting your time there as a listener. Patience gives you clarity  and calmness to hear and comprehend every minute details of the speech and presentation.

Patience gives clarity and calmness to improvise on your listening skills. Share on X

#6 Maintain etiquette while listening

There is some etiquette that needs to be followed stringently while you are sitting as an audience. Whenever a speaker or orator is giving his presentation or speech, it is imperative that as a listener you may have some queries and feel like asking questions to the speaker on the flow. But that should not be the case. Follow these simple rules when you are an audience to maintain the decorum of discussion.

• Never interrupt a speaker in midst of his speech/presentation.
• Ask questions only when he/she is done with the presentation.
• Don’t try to cross question the speaker.
• Engage with the speaker in friendly discussion.
• Take notes during the presentation.

When you are following these rules, there will be a real conversation between you and the speaker. And this can happen only if you listen carefully to the entire speech without any interruption or distraction.

#7 Listen to different genres of speech

In order to sharpen your listening skills, try listening to audio of different genres of speech. I mean listen to different speakers from any niche. If you are able to grasp everything whatever they are saying, then you doing really good at listening. Let me add one more way – probably a bit harder but I promise if you are able to do that, you will be a master listener.

I am pretty sure everyone loves songs. Try listening to hip hop/rap songs of eminent artists and try to understand them. You must hear different genres of artists for example- Eminem, Jay-Z, Flo Rida, LL-CoolJ, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Pitbull, Ludacris and there are so many. Everyone has their own style of songs and dialect. Now if you are able to comprehend these artists’ lyrical flow of words being a non native English speaker, you will be a master listener.  

Comprehending lyrical flow of words of hip hop songs can boost your listening skills. Share on X

Conclusion

There are many ways you can hone your listening skills but as said, it’s your will power and mindset which can enable you to be a silent and powerful listener.