REASON # 1 YOU HAVE A HEADACHE
It’s because you are OVERDOING visual processing.
For example if I was to say “I had lunch with my friend, and then we went to the movies to watch inside out.”
The only things my brain visualizes naturally is a picture of lunch, a picture of a big movie screen surrounded by seats.
However someone who is trying to learn English has this bad habit of trying to visually process every single part of the sentence.
For example the word I…they visually imagine themselves
Had lunch - they imagine themselves eating lunch
With a friend- they imagine themselves eating lunch with a friend
And then we went to the movies - They imagine the walk to the cinema.
To watch inside out - Not only do they visualize the movie screen, they also visualize a T-shirt being pulled inside out. Because the movie is called inside out.
No wonder you have a headache!!!
CALM DOWN. If you don’t visualize every single word and section in a phrase in your native language, why are you trying to force it in your target language? IN FACT DON’T EVEN TRY TO UNDERSTAND. Just listen and let your brain visualize whatever it feels like visualizing naturally. Just let your brain pick up whatever sounds it wants to pick up naturally:
REASON # 2 YOUR BORED AND YOU HAVE A HEADACHE
Because your trying to master one section in one day. And so you listen to it over and over and over again, in that one day PLEASE JUST STOP. Your brain is sitting there going “SHUT UP I NEED SOME BREATHING ROOM. I NEED TIME TO SUBCONSCIOUSLY PROCESS THIS BIG DOSE OF INFORMATION YOU’VE GIVEN ME.”
What you should do instead is take a lesson, or only a 5 minute section if the lesson is big. Quickly learn the vocab enough to recognize it, when you do a quick read over…then listen once while reading along, then listen again without reading along…then leave it for a night, then pick it up the next day and repeat. Basically continue to do this once each day until you have that “aha” moment, I understood all of it, without reading along. Once you’ve gotten that aha moment add it to your known words and choose the next section.
REASON # 3 YOUR BORED
Understanding is good, but exposure is key. So just like in tip number 2 pick one section you want to focus on understanding perfectly over a period of time. So you might just spend 10-15 minutes a day on that section. The rest of your study time will be about exposure.
Exposure is just you briefly learn the vocab, enough to recognize it when you do a quick read over…then listen once while reading along, then listen again without reading along, and then move on to the next section regardless of how much you understood.
If you only understood 5% of it move on,
If you only understood 10% of it move on
20. 50, 70, 90 whatever just move on.
This is about exposure, not about understanding. Besides this exposure isn’t meaningless it will help you have the “aha” moment with the section your trying to understand in tip 2 A LOT QUICKER.
According to a study done in the university of Wellington by Dr Sulzberger passively listening to something even if you don’t understand it creates a neural sound network in your brain, allowing you to absorb vocabulary a lot quicker, and understand what you do set out to understand a lot quicker.
However that is my own words describing what Dr Sulzberger talks about. If you want to hear from Dr Sulzberger himself, check this site out