i'm not gonna lie you're slacking you're slacking on starting that business you've been holding off on it's just living in your head and if you don't act now that idea is gonna leave or maybe someone's gonna take that idea and there's a tool that i personally use and that is
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Establish in 2025 has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash sonoro, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash sonoro to start selling with shopify today shopify.com slash sonoro Este episodio de Mordamamis es presentado por los nuevos Mac Crispy Strips de McDonald's. Y no estamos hablando de cualquier pollo, estos strips... son crujientes, jugosos y tienen ese toquecito de pimienta que los hace
irresistible. Y lo mejor es que viene con sus propias sales a la nueva Creamy Chili Mac Crispy Strictly. Una cremita sazonada con ese balance justo entre dulce y picante. Literal, está... hecha para el dipping. Pero bueno, aquí viene la gran pregunta. ¿Hasta cuántas veces se puede hacer dipping antes de que te juzguen? Una vez, doble, triple, cuádruple, depende si estás en confianza. Yo digo que no hay límite, especialmente si tienes a la mano salsas como la barbecue.
La sweet and sour de McDonald's. O incluso la mezcla que no falla. Bueno, en mi casa la llamamos salsa rosada. Pero es una de mis favoritas. Yo soy Tim de Mezclar. Cualquier salsa. La que más nos guste. Pero sí quiero probar esta. La nueva Creamy Chili. Así es. Pruébelo. Y después nos cuentan los nuevos Mac Crispy Strips. Más la Creamy Chili Mac Crispy Strip Dip. Pollo hecho para el dipping. Solo en McDonald's. Dad-a-pop-pop.
The new mcrispy strip is here, dip approved by ketchup, tiny barbecue, honey mustard, honey mustard, sprite, McFlurry, Big Mac sauce, double Buffalo and Ranch, Moore Ranch, and Creamy Chili McCrispy Strip. 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.
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 the fact that we all have different ideologies. 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 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 ideologies. 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 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. dialect encompasses a whole demographic of people, like people who live in a certain region or something like that. 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 comprehension, and things like that. 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. 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. you want to access that as well the link is down below alright let's get started Are your It's listening time. Okay, let's talk about idilects and why some people are harder to understand than other people.
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. than 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 video. 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. All the different choices that I make in my particular speech make up my ideology.
And this is different from every other person's idiolect from all around the world. 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 ideology. 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 versus, 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 U.S. Conversations podcast. That was the only episode in which I talked to someone not from the U.S. So go check that out, and you'll hear the difference in our speech. 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 ideologies. And so...
Some idiolects are easier for foreigners to understand, and other idiolects are harder for foreigners to understand. 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. has 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 because of certain pronunciation differences in English, for example. Maybe someone from Southern California and their particular idyllic is easier for a certain person who is learning English to understand, but then another person who's learning English. my think that someone who is from Boston is easier to understand because the sounds in their English are a little bit more familiar or understandable to that other foreigner.
for example. So different idyllics 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 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
You can't understand other people. I'm sure many of you feel like this. Many people have told me this. I'm not going to lie. You're slacking. You're slacking on starting that business you've been holding off on. It's just living in your head. And if you don't act now, that idea is going to leave or maybe someone's going to take that idea. And there's a tool that I personally use. And that is.
shopify you don't need to be a web designer you can just start moving zooming in adding the text you need adding pictures you need and shopify has so many templates you can use from get it out of your head and onto a website with
Shopify. Shopify makes it simple to create your brand, open for business and get your first sell. They make it easy to manage growing your business. They help with details like shipping, taxes and payments from one single dashboard, allowing you to focus on all the important stuff like growing your business. With Shopify, your first sale is closer than you think.
Established in 2025 has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash sonoro all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash Sonoro to start selling with Shopify today. Shopify.com slash Sonoro. Crispy Strips, ¿listos para aventurarse? La barbeque que quedó en el fondo de la cajita What's Sunday? And another creamy chili mid crispy strip dip. Los nuevos. Ahora me danos.
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.
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.
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 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 US Conversations podcast episode, 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?
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 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, any election...
are great in my opinion. I think that they add a lot of variety to just the world of language. 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. I think a lot of you like to feel original. 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.
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 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 ideal. 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 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... 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. And then if we go outside of Mexico, there are many different dialects of Spanish in other countries. 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. 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 ideologies. 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 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 mean you're not as good as you think you are in English, okay? This is going to happen in your language learning journey. You're going to come across people. that are hard to talk to because you can't understand them as well because they're idiolectic.
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. 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 gotta keep on working at your English. And just know that you're probably never gonna reach the level where every English speaker in the world is easy for you to understand. 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 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 herself. a lot. I have to ask her that all the time and I don't have to do that with other people that we're friends with. This just shows the difference in that can really affect someone's comprehension, even a native speaker, 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. 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. I'm still part of that.
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 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.