Core Study Sequences: Transcribing Audio

This is part of a series of articles in which I show you exactly how I’m learning foreign languages every day, and today is about transcribing audio.

In these articles, I talk about how I’m using my Core Study Time – a 30-45 minute period at the start of every day which I set aside for intensive study.

Before you read this, you should go back and check out the previous posts in the series:

1. My CRAZY 5am Language Routine
2. Core Study Time In Your Language Routine
3. Core Study Sequences: Listening Comprehension
4. Core Study Sequences: Lesson Preparation
5. Core Study Sequences: Glossika Language Training
6. Core Study Sequences: Studying Dialogues
7. Core Study Sequences: Transcribing Audio
8. Core Study Sequences: Reverse Translation

Transcribing Audio To Improve Comprehension

“Native speakers always talk so fast! I can't understand anything?”

It's a common complaint, with three main causes:

1. You don't know the words they're using
2. You can't distinguish one word from the next
3. The strain of processing the information in real-time is too much

(The StoryLearning method was created to deal with these specific problems!)

In this post, we're focusing on the second of the two: Distinguishing words from each other in speech.

Why does this matter?

Well, when native speakers talk, they don't pronounce each word clearly and separately for your benefit! (You might have noticed!)

What happens instead, is that words run into each other… sounds get omitted (“elision”), and even change when put next to certain other words (“assimilation”).

For example:

• Sounds getting missed out:  don't know > “dunno”
• Sounds changing:  hand bag > “hambag”

This can cause you all kinds of problems as a learner, and so it's well worth dedicating study time to improve in this area.

If all you did with your day was spend time speaking with natives, you'd learn to understand native speakers over time. But, actually, that's a rather inefficient process – huge amounts of uncontrolled input, and a fair number of awkward conversations, until you get to the point where you understand everything!

(The Fear Villain is likely to get you here!)

But rather than relying on the “natural” method (which could take years), you can take a shortcut:

Focus your ears on real spoken language, in great detail, such that you learn to identify and get used to the way individual words sound in speech.

And you can do this by transcribing from audio. You just need to find audio of native speakers talking.

The Process of Audio Language Learning

The process of transcribing audio is really straightforward.

1. Find audio recordings of native speakers talking (ideally 2+ people, but can be a monologue too)
2. Not too long… keep it under 3 minutes
3. Transcribe it, word for word, onto paper

In case you're not sure, transcribing literally means writing down what you hear, one word at a time.

Important: This is a listening exercise, not a vocabulary exercise.

In other words, you're not doing this audio transcribing in order to learn new words. You're doing this to learn to identify words you already know when spoken naturally.

Therefore, try to choose material that's as close to your level as possible – you don't want to be swamped by unknown vocabulary.

(Looking for good material for this? Try Conversations.)

You might need to do some digging around to find the right material for language transcription.

Ideally, you want to find audio that already comes with the transcript. The example I gave in the video was Radio Ambulante, which is a great Spanish language channel.

Apps To Help With Transcribing Audio

Once you get into transcribing audio, you'll soon encounter the fiddly problem of how to listen to difficult sections of audio on repeat.

There are two awesome apps I've discovered that really help out with language transcription. They allow you to loop sections of audio, jump back/forward by a few seconds, and so on.

For Android users, I recommend the Smart Repeat app. I wrote a review of it here.

For iPhone users, I recommend Speater.

The full version of each app costs around $5, but it's well worth it, as it makes transcription a joy!

(If you don't mind sitting at a computer, you could also use Audacity, which is free.)

I often go through periods of transcribing audio a lot, as it really helps me improve my listening comprehension.

It's a great activity to devote your core study time to, and an intensive period of doing this over the course of a few weeks will pay off!

Spend a bit of time finding the best audio for your foreign language transcription, and remember to start small. It's better to start with one short minute of audio and complete it than to aim for 10 minutes and never finish it.

Enjoy!

Would you use this routine of transcribing audio yourself? What problems would you have?

Please do share this post on Facebook or Twitter if you found it useful, then leave me your comments or questions below!

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.