Dictation: The Boring Trick That Trained My Ears

Right, I'm going to be honest with you.

好吧，我跟你說實話。

When my tutor suggested dictation, I literally rolled my eyes.

我的導師建議做聽寫時，我真的翻了白眼。

Dictation? Seriously? That's what kids do at school!

聽寫？認真的嗎？那是小孩子在學校做的事耶！

At the time, I was studying in Manchester.

當時，我在曼徹斯特唸書。

My reading was fine, and so was my writing.

我的閱讀沒問題，寫作也沒問題。

But in lectures, I was completely lost.

但是上課聽講時，我完全跟不上。

People spoke so fast, and the words just blurred together.

大家講得太快，單字全都糊在一起。

Oh no, I thought. What if I fail the whole course?

糟了，我心想。萬一整門課被當掉怎麼辦？

So... a bit reluctantly, I gave it a go.

於是……我有點不情願地試了試。

Here's how it works, if you've never tried it.

如果你沒試過，做法是這樣的。

You play one short sentence,

你播放一個短句，

you pause it, and you write down every word.

按下暫停，然後把每個單字都寫下來。

Then you check your version against the transcript.

接著把你寫的內容跟逐字稿對照檢查。

Wow. My first attempt was absolutely shocking!

哇。我第一次嘗試簡直糟透了！

I'd written 'a lot of' as one word.

我把「a lot of」寫成了一個單字。

Ugh, and I'd missed nearly all the tiny words,

唉，而且我漏掉了幾乎所有的小單字，

like 'to', 'of', and 'have'.

像是「to」、「of」和「have」。

But then, it suddenly clicked!

但後來，我突然開竅了！

Native speakers don't pronounce every word clearly.

母語人士不會把每個單字都唸得很清楚。

They link words together and swallow the small ones.

他們會把單字連在一起唸，還會吞掉那些小單字。

Ha! 'What do you want' sounds like 'whaddaya want'.

哈！「What do you want」聽起來像「whaddaya want」。

Dictation forced me to actually notice those sounds.

聽寫逼著我真正去留意那些發音。

I did ten minutes every evening for two months.

我連續兩個月，每天晚上練十分鐘。

And honestly? The difference was massive!

說真的呢？差別超大的！

I could follow my lectures without panicking.

我上課聽講時不再慌張，跟得上了。

I even started getting the jokes on the radio!

我甚至開始聽得懂廣播裡的笑話了！

So, if your listening feels stuck, try this.

所以，如果你覺得聽力一直卡住，試試這個。

Keep the clips short, ten seconds at most.

片段要短，最長十秒。

Don't skip the checking part — that's where you learn.

別跳過核對這一步——你就是在那裡學到東西的。

It's a bit boring, I'll admit.

我承認，這有點無聊。

But boring tricks are often the ones that work!

但無聊的方法往往才是有效的！