Wanna open your mouth and effortlessly speak fluent Indonesian? Getting to that level is always a challenge.
Many Indonesian language learners think the way to get there is to immediately practice their conversation skills a ka to talk constantly.
Talking helps, but listening can help you even more.
You probably don’t remember, but listening is the first language skill you honed as a baby. It’s how we all first learn our native language. Because of the way we develop as humans, it’s the only thing we can do for the first year or so of our lives. Sure, we can make little sounds, but we’re nowhere close to fluency. Then, suddenly, after a long time of absorbing the language, we start talking.
Remembering to take some quiet time and absorb the language is incredibly important in your language acquisition. Good thing is that these days there is an overwhelming amount of resources on the internet you can utilize to improve your listening.
A Step-by-step Guide of How to Practice Listening
When you first getting started on practising your listening skill, remember to be proactive while you listen. Here is how to approach listening practice when you are a beginner:
- Find an audio track or video that also comes with the transcript. First, listen to the track without reading the transcript. Train your ears and brain to hear the words and visualize them at the same time.
- Now read the text out loud to see what you missed.
- Listen to the audio again, this time reading the transcript out loud while it plays. This will help you recognize words you didn’t quite hear the first time and see how words sometimes blend together.
- Next, put the transcript away and grab a blank sheet of paper. Listen to the audio again. This time, try to write down the transcript as you hear it. Listen a couple of times if you need to.
- Finally, fill in the gaps of your writing with one more listening and reading of the transcript. The more you listen and recognize the words, the more they’ll be committed to memory and hearing them won’t sound so new to you.
If you are not a beginner, you can immediately try to listen to the audio with no transcript. Instead, try to write the transcript yourself as you hear it (step #4).
GREAT ONLINE RESOURCES FOR LISTENING
Here are some great sites or online programs to go for your listening practice.
(1) Youtube Videos
We post several listening practice videos on our Youtube channel. It’s free, it is interactive and it is perfect for beginner Indonesian. Each of our listening practice videos on Youtube has 2 parts: the first has no transcript, and the second part has Indonesian transcript (subtitle) AND also English translations. Each video is short (under 5 minutes), and you can replay the video multiple times if you need to.
(2) Indonesian Listening Comprehension Lesson
If you like our listening practice videos, you may want to consider taking our listening practice program for beginner. In our paid program you’d get vocabulary and grammar notes for every video lesson, as well as quizzes to refresh your memory and test your comprehension right after you take the listening practice. With only $27 you will have a lifetime access to practice your listening skill anytime anywhere you want. There are currently 30 listening practice videos available.
(3) Media Interviews
Do you follow any influential Indonesian figure? Perhaps the President Joko Widodo? He gave a lot of media interviews, and though the vocabulary may learn towards to the advanced Indonesian, but it is still a practice that you can utilize to practice your listening skills. Here are some of his videos that have transcription / Indonesian subtitles.
Truk-truk angkutan proyek masih hilir-mudik saat saya datang berkunjung ke lokasi pembangunan Simpang Susun Blang Bintang. Simpang susun ini berada di ruas jalan tol Banda Aceh-Sigli yang menghubungkan Indrapuri dan Blang Bintang.Inilah jalan tol pertama di Provinsi Aceh, yang akan terhubung dengan jalan tol trans-Sumatra.
Posted by Presiden Joko Widodo on Tuesday, 25 February 2020
Yang telah memiliki nomor pokok wajib pajak (NPWP), mari laporkan SPT. Yang telah punya penghasilan namun belum memiliki NPWP, silakan buat NPWP. Ayo lapor pajak. Lebih awal, lebih nyaman. Pajak kita untuk Indonesia Maju.
Posted by Presiden Joko Widodo on Sunday, 1 March 2020
Dalam satu kunjungan ke Aceh, saya begitu menikmati kari kambing yang sungguh enak. Makannya di hotel. Kari kambing itu rupanya dari Rumah Makan Hasan di Banda Aceh. Pemiliknya Pak Hasan, lelaki berkumis lebat yang begitu bersemangat. Apa rahasia lezatnya kari kambing Rumah Makan Hasan? Tak ada rahasia di racikan masakannya, rupanya. Tapi semua dimasak di tungku dengan kayu bakar. Bukan kari saja, tapi nasi, kuah, dan masakan lain dimasak dengan kayu bakar.Begitulah. Mau menikmati minuman nira espresso? Datanglah ke Ring Road Coffee, warung kopi yang dikelola modern. Saya pernah ke kafe ini. Selain kopi gayo ada menu khas: nira espresso, air buah kelapa ijo dicampur dengan kopi espresso. Saya masih merindu masakan Aceh. Saya ingin datang ke Banda Seafood, rumah makan seafood yang laris di kota itu, menikmati terutama ikan steam Aceh andalannya. Semoga ada waktu.
Posted by Presiden Joko Widodo on Saturday, 22 February 2020
(4) TV Shows
Learn Indonesian while having fun is definitely one of a good advice to follow. If you have any Indonesian TV show that you are interested to watch, that’s great! You can start from there. If you have no idea which Indonesian TV Show pick, click this link below:
(5) Movies
When you are about to pick which Indonesian movies to watch, our advice is to pick movies that depict everyday lives. Your listening practice will be more useful and practical that way, as compared to let’s say listening to conversations of people who live in the Middle Ages. Below are some of the best movies you can watch on Netflix to boost your listening skills.
8 Indonesian Movies to Watch for Indonesian Language Learners
Last Words..
If you have tried to listen to conversations on Indonesian TV Shows, Media Interviews, Movies, and find yourself feeling overwhelmed, it’s an indication that you need to step back a little bit and start your listening practice with simple videos like the ones we have in our online listening practice program.
Don’t feel discouraged. It’s good that you know what it is exactly that you need right now.
Once you have the solid foundation to understand simpler sentences, you can proceed to challenge yourself to listen to more complex sentences at a faster speed.
Sign up for only $27 and get your listening practice moving today.
