Dictation: The Boring Trick That Trained My Ears

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

好吧，我跟你说实话。

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

当我的导师建议做听写时，我真的翻了个白眼。

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

听写？认真的吗？那是小孩子在学校里做的事！

At the time, I was studying in Manchester.

当时，我在曼彻斯特读书。

My reading was fine, and so was my writing.

我的阅读没问题，写作也没问题。

But in lectures, I was completely lost.

但是在讲座上，我完全听不懂。

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

大家说得太快了，单词全都糊在了一起。

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

糟了，我心想。万一整门课都挂了怎么办？

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

于是……我有点不情愿地试了一下。

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

如果你从没试过，它是这样的。

You play one short sentence,

你播放一个短句，

you pause it, and you write down every word.

暂停，然后把每个单词都写下来。

Then you check your version against the transcript.

然后你把自己写的和文本对照检查。

Wow. My first attempt was absolutely shocking!

哇。我第一次尝试简直糟透了！

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

我把“a lot of”写成了一个单词。

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

唉，而且几乎所有的小词我都漏掉了，

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

比如“to”、“of”和“have”。

But then, it suddenly clicked!

但后来，我突然开窍了！

Native speakers don't pronounce every word clearly.

母语者不会把每个单词都读得很清楚。

They link words together and swallow the small ones.

他们会把单词连起来读，还会吞掉那些小词。

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

哈！“What do you want”听起来像“whaddaya want”。

Dictation forced me to actually notice those sounds.

听写逼着我真正去留意这些发音。

I did ten minutes every evening for two months.

我坚持了两个月，每天晚上练十分钟。

And honestly? The difference was massive!

说实话呢？差别太大了！

I could follow my lectures without panicking.

我听讲座时不再慌张，能跟上了。

I even started getting the jokes on the radio!

我甚至开始听得懂广播里的笑话了！

So, if your listening feels stuck, try this.

所以，如果你的听力感觉停滞不前，试试这个。

Keep the clips short, ten seconds at most.

片段要短，最长十秒。

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

别跳过核对这一步——你就是在那里学到东西的。

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

我承认，这有点无聊。

But boring tricks are often the ones that work!

但无聊的方法往往才是管用的！