Why Are Some English Speakers Hard To Understand?
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Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast. Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 206 of the Listening Time Podcast. I hope you're all doing great. I hope that your English learning is going well and that your listening comprehension is improving. So

Speaking of which, the topic of today's episode is why are some people hard to understand? You're an English learner if you're listening to this podcast, so you might ask this question, why are some people hard to understand when they speak English, whereas other people are much easier to understand?

There are different reasons why this is, but I think that one of the best explanations for this is

is the fact that we all have different idiolects. So I talked about this recently with Brian in a U.S. Conversations podcast episode. I had him back on for another conversation. It was my second conversation with him. And he brought up this term idiolect and idiolect.

After that, I said, I got to talk about this in an episode because it's a really important thing to understand because so many people ask this question. Why are two people who both speak English so different in terms of how easy or hard it is to understand them?

And this all really boils down to their different idiolecs. When something boils down to something, we're saying that this thing has this element as its most essential element. I'm actually going to cover that phrasal verb, I think, in the next phrasal.

phrasal verb episode or maybe it was the one before this episode. I don't know. I think it was the one before this one. So you guys probably already know that one by now. But the reason why different people

are different in terms of how easy or hard their speech is to understand depends on their idiolect. It boils down to their idiolect, which simply means the specific way that one person speaks. It's not a dialect. A dialect encompasses everything.

A whole demographic of people, like people who live in a certain region or something like that, in idiolect refers to just the specific way that one person speaks.

So currently there are billions of idiolects around the world because everyone who can speak has their own way of speaking, which is different from other people's ways of speaking. It's pretty obvious, but it's something that we forget sometimes, especially when we talk about language learning and dialects and languages.

comprehension, and things like that. So I think this is a fascinating topic and it's what I want to talk about today. And of course, before we continue, I want to remind you to check out my advanced podcast episodes in which I speak at normal speed. I speak fast. So if you want those, the link to sign up is down below and check out my U.S. Conversations podcast and

You'll definitely want to listen to that conversation that I had with Brian. It was super interesting. We talked all about language learning and different related subjects. So if you want to access that as well, the link is down below. All right, let's get started. Are your ears ready? You know what time it is. It's listening time.

Okay, let's talk about idiolex and why some people are harder to understand than other people. So idiolex,

Each person has their own preferred vocabulary that they use. Pronunciation, how they pronounce words might be different from how their neighbor pronounces those same words. Their grammar preferences even, they might use different structures. They

Then other people, some people might use more formal structures and some people might use less formal structures, for example. And just overall linguistic idiosyncrasies like little details of the language. We all have our own little differences in terms of the little details

the things that set our speech apart from other people's speech. So these are different elements that make different people's idiolects different. So me, for example, I'll give you a few examples of my particular idiolect, things that I thought of.

One thing is that I prefer to use the word horrible rather than terrible. But other people might use the word terrible more than horrible.

That's just a difference in idiolect, a difference in our preferred vocabulary. Nowadays, these two words are kind of interchangeable. In the past, not as much, but now, yes. So you can really choose either one and use the one that you want. And I've noticed that I tend to say horrible rather than terrible.

Another example is my pronunciation of the word caramel. Some people pronounce this word as caramel, and I, on the other hand, say caramel. This is just a choice. This is a difference in idiolects. So that's another example. One other example of my particular idiolect is that

I tend to enunciate significantly more than other people. When you enunciate, this simply means that you pronounce things in a clear way. So I probably enunciate

more clearly and distinctly than a lot of other people and that is my particular element of my idiolect so all the different choices that I make in my particular speech make up my idiolect and this is different from every other person's idiolect from all around the world and

And I speak differently from other native speakers in Southern California. Even though we might share the same dialect, we do not share the same idiolect. So just because you can understand me doesn't mean that you can understand someone else living in Southern California. Yes, our speech probably sounds similar, but

For example, if you compared my speech to my brother-in-law's speech who lives in Ireland,

By the way, if you want to hear us talk, I actually recorded a conversation with him last year. So that's an episode of my US Conversations podcast. That was the only episode in which I talked to someone not from the US. So go check that out and you'll hear the difference in our speech. So

So my speech is obviously much closer to someone else living in Southern California, but there are still significant differences in the different elements of our different idiolects.

And so some idiolects are easier for foreigners to understand and other idiolects are harder for foreigners to understand. And certain idiolects will be easier for certain foreigners to understand and other idiolects will be easier for other foreigners to understand. Maybe your native language is

more similarities to a certain person's idiolect and then another person who speaks a different native language, maybe their native language shares more similarities to someone else's idiolect in English. Maybe

Maybe because of certain pronunciation differences in English, for example. Maybe someone from Southern California and their particular idiolect is easier for a certain person who is learning English to understand, but then another person who's learning English might think that someone who is from Boston is easier to understand because the sounds are

in their English are a little bit more familiar or understandable to that other foreigner, for example. So different idiolects are more understandable or less understandable to different people. And sometimes there are major differences in understandability.

You might listen to one person and understand 98% of what they're saying, and then you listen to another person and you understand 70% of what they're saying, even though both people are speaking English and they're both from the same country. So that shows that there are big differences, and this is a major factor that

when it comes to being able to understand people. Let me use myself as an example. I think that many of you feel like you can understand me really well.

even in my advanced episodes. I know some of you feel like you can understand me here and you can even understand me in my advanced episodes and maybe even in my U.S. Conversations podcast when I'm talking to other native speakers. You can understand me really well, but the

You can't understand other people. I'm sure many of you feel like this. Many people have told me this. And in all honesty,

I'm pretty confident when I say that I'm one of the easiest people to understand because of my distinct idiolect and also because I'm a teacher. Usually English teachers are easier to understand than non-English teachers, of course, because we modify the way we speak and

even subconsciously or unconsciously without realizing it. So that definitely plays a role. But even amongst English teachers,

If we all spoke fast, I might be even easier for you to understand than other people. Sometimes people tell me that I'm the most understandable person in the world for them in English. Like they can understand me, but basically no one else. So sometimes

I get that many of you probably feel like that, and you were probably surprised when you first came across this podcast or my YouTube channel, and you didn't think you could understand English well.

and you listened to an episode or watched a video and you felt like you understood someone speaking English for the first time in your life. I know many people have that experience with this podcast or with my YouTube channel and a lot of that is due to my particular idiolect, the specific way in which I speak.

Again, it's also due to the fact that I'm an English teacher, of course, and I'm

Obviously, in these normal episodes, I'm not speaking normally. I'm speaking slowly and clearly. But you might even listen to my advanced episodes and think that it's easier to understand me there than it is to understand other native level content. Or a great example is if you listen to a U.S. Conversations podcast episode, you

You might feel like there are certain guests that I invite on whom you do not understand very well, but you understand me in that same conversation, even though we're both speaking at normal speed. We're both from the US. We're both native speakers. And that might surprise you. Like, why can't I understand these other people better?

as easily as I can understand Connor. And if you've been listening to me for a long time, you're probably very familiar with my idiolect, the way I speak, the words I choose to use, my particular pronunciation. So after listening to me for many, many hours, this probably amplifies the difference it probably makes

increases the difference between the way that you can understand me or how much you can understand me versus how much you can understand another person. So idiolects are great in my opinion. I think that they add a lot of variety to just the world of language and

I like variety. I think that it's cool that people have their own distinct ways of speaking. I think many of you would agree. Uh, I think a lot of you like to feel original, uh,

in the sense that you speak in a way that other people can't replicate 100%. You have your particular words that you like to use and the structures you like to use and you pronounce things the way you like to pronounce them. I think that most of us can agree that this is pretty cool. This is interesting.

But unfortunately, this variety actually makes it much more challenging for language learners. And you've probably experienced this. You don't just get to learn a set of vocabulary, a specific pronunciation, and then you're guaranteed to understand everyone because everyone uses those vocabulary words and pronounces things differently.

with that specific pronunciation. That's just not the case when you're learning a language. You don't get to just learn one variety and then you understand everyone else. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.

and throughout your life you're going to encounter new styles of speaking all the time. Again, everyone has their own particular idiolect. Some people's idiolects are pretty similar,

but other people's are very different. And you're going to spend your whole life encountering new styles of speaking if you continue learning and speaking English throughout your life. And I can identify with this feeling of not understanding some people, but understanding other people in my own language learning experience as well.

For example, when it comes to Spanish, there are different idiolects that are much harder to understand than other ones. Even now for me, even at this level where I would consider myself fluent, there are still some people who, when they talk to me,

I understand them, but I'm kind of like, whoa, this person's kind of hard to understand. Like, I understand them, but not as much as I would expect to understand a person speaking in Spanish. And a good example of this in the past for me was my father-in-law, my wife's father. So years ago...

During the initial stages of my relationship with my wife, even maybe early

Up to the point when we got married or even a little bit after then, I had a lot of trouble understanding my father-in-law, even though I spoke Spanish and I could understand my wife and her mother. I couldn't understand her father. And it was super frustrating for me. And I always...

felt a little bit anxious whenever I had to talk to him face-to-face, especially if it was just us, because there were so many things that he said that I couldn't understand. And this is the case with a lot of older men in Mexico. If you have ever learned Spanish or you're learning Spanish, you might think,

have had this same experience that I've had where you find that the whole demographic of older men in Mexico is probably the hardest demographic to understand in terms of Mexico, right? And then if we go outside of Mexico, there are many different dialects of Spanish in other countries and

And then within those dialects, everyone has their particular idiolect. So you can imagine that there are a ton of different people saying different things, different words with different pronunciations, different slang, different idioms, different regional words. So obviously, if I just travel throughout Latin America...

there are going to be plenty of people who I find to be harder to understand simply because they speak differently from what I'm more accustomed to. Right.

Another example would be people in small villages. So if you are in the city, you're probably going to have an easier time understanding different people than when you go to remote small villages that have a certain dialect that's different from the city. And then within that dialect, everyone has their own idiolect.

I've experienced that in Mexico. I've been to small villages and it was hard to understand people. It was frustrating for me. And again, I'm a fluent Spanish speaker. So,

That's a little bit strange, of course. When you're fluent, you expect to be able to just understand what you hear, but that's not always the case because of these different idiolects. So thinking about your own English learning journey,

you need to remember that some people will just be harder to understand than others. That's unavoidable. And don't let this discourage you. I know that you might feel discouraged when you think that you're making progress, you feel like your English is improving, your listening comprehension is improving,

And then you go to a certain store and the cashier is just so hard to understand when he speaks in English. And then you say to yourself, wow, I thought I was better than this. I thought my listening was better. Why couldn't I understand that guy? And I know it's easy to think like that, but just because someone is hard to understand doesn't

doesn't mean you're not as good as you think you are in English, okay? This is gonna happen in your language learning journey. You're gonna come across people

that are hard to talk to because you can't understand them as well because their idiolect is just harder to understand. And then that makes you question how good your comprehension is. That's something that basically all of us deal with. That's normal. But

I don't want you to question your level of comprehension in a negative way just because that happens to you. It's going to happen and you need to accept that and you just got to keep on working at your English and just know that you're probably never going to reach the level where every English speaker in the world is easy for you to understand because

And I can say this with some certainty because I'm a native speaker. And if I talk to people from certain English speaking countries, they're harder to understand. And I'm a native speaker. So don't hold yourself to a higher standard than me, a native speaker. Okay. I just remembered that

We have this friend who is from Australia and she speaks really fast. That's one of the little quirks, the little elements of her idiolect. And she speaks faster than any of our other friends. And my wife has a hard time understanding her sometimes. My wife is not a native English speaker and

And my wife will tell me like, oh man, it's hard to understand this friend. And I tell my wife, I have trouble understanding her. I have to ask this friend to repeat yourself again.

Okay.

This is just part of the variety of language learning, the world of languages. Just accept it, okay? I know that it's not fun to have that experience where you can't understand someone very well even though you thought your comprehension was really good, but don't worry about that.

Just keep on going. Keep on improving. Just know that everyone deals with this. This isn't your specific problem. And finally,

I think one last thing I wanted to add is that I am a very understandable person in English. And so a lot of you have probably gained a lot of confidence listening to my podcast, even my advanced episodes, because you feel like you're understanding me really well. And I'm super happy about that.

I also, though, want to challenge you to start to listen to some other people besides me. And a great way you can start with that is with my U.S. Conversations podcast because I'm still part of that conversation.

conversation that you're hearing. It's me and then another person from another part of the country usually. And so it's still going to be a little more familiar to you, but you get that other person and you get that experience listening to me talking to someone else.

who's probably a little bit less understandable than me. But that's great practice. This is what's going to help you progress with your listening comprehension, getting more variety in your listening. And that's one of the reasons why I do my U.S. Conversations podcast. So make sure to check that out and subscribe.

Also, make sure to check out my advanced episodes if you've never done that, because that will be the next step for you to start to listen to someone speaking at normal speed in English. So you can check that out. That link is down below along with the other link. And as always, I want to remind you to give this podcast a five star rating and write a review if you can. That really helps me out. I really appreciate that.

Thank you, and thank you all for listening to this episode, and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.