30 MORE Awesome Graduation Songs to Sing Along With

30 MORE Awesome Graduation Songs to Sing Along With Sign up successful If youre a singer, you may even be  asked to perform at a graduation ceremony or party. And the toughest part isnt  getting up there on stage â€" its  choosing what  to perform for the audience! So, how do you choose the best graduation song to sing? Here are my tips: Consider your audience.  Is it at a more formal institution? You want to select something more traditional, or even classic pop.   Are you performing at a friend’s party after  the big ceremony? Well, maybe current pop may do the trick! Consider the message.  Whether it’s formal or informal, youll want a song that inspires both grads and family! Some of the themes that work include lasting friendships, new beginnings, hope, and confidence. To get you started, here is my list of 30 fantastic graduation songs that you may want to consider for 2016 Traditional Songs 1. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from “Carousel” 2. Homeward Bound  by Marta Keen 3. “An Old Irish Blessing” 4. “You Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban 5. “The Prayer” by Josh Groban 6. “The Impossible Dream”  from “Man of La Mancha” 7. “Amigos Para Siempre”  by Andrew Lloyd Webber 8. “Time to Say Goodbye”  by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman Newer Pop Songs (90s to current ) 1. “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars 2. “Brave” by Sara Bareilles 3. “Now and Forever” by Carole King 4. “You Were There” by Michael Jackson 5. “Firework”  by Katy Perry 6. “Dare You to Move”  by  Switchfoot 7. “Best Day of My Life” by  American Authors 8. “When You Believe”  by  Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey 9. “Hero”  by  Mariah Carey Classic Pop Songs (80s and older) 1. “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong 2. “Make Your Own Kind of Music” by Mama Cass Elliot 3. “One Moment in Time” by Whitney Houston 4. “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles 5. “That’s What Friends Are For”  by Burt Bacharach 6.  â€œIn My Life” by The Beatles Broadway and Movies 1. “No Matter What” from “Whistle Down the Wind” 2. “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked” 3. “Any Dream Will Do” from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” 4. “Dream For Your Inspiration”  by The Muppets 5. “Go the Distance” from Disneys “Hercules” 6. “Our Time” from “Merrily We Roll Along” 7.  â€œYou’ll Be In My Heart” from Disneys “Tarzan” Final Tips for Singing at Graduation Events Not only do you want to choose the right song, but you want to be sure you’re super prepared for your big performance. Your voice teacher can help you make sure that the song is suitable for your level and voice type, as well as help you polish it. No voice teacher? No problem! TakeLessons  can help connect you for in-person or online voice lessons. Break a leg! Readers: Know any other good graduation songs to sing? Leave a comment with your suggestion! Post Author:  Molly R. Molly R. teaches online and in-person singing lessons in Hayward, CA. Her specialties include teaching beginner vocalists, shy singers, children, teens, lapsed singers, and older beginners. She joined TakeLessons in November 2013.  Learn more about Molly  here! Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher Photo by  Fort George G. Meade Public Affairs Office

Learn to Develop Your Interpersonal Skills

Learn to Develop Your Interpersonal Skills Here’s How â€" and Why â€" You Should Develop Your Interpersonal Skills ChaptersWhat are Interpersonal Skills?Why is it Important to Develop Your Soft Skills?How Can You Develop Your Communication Skills?Online Resources to Help You Develop Your Interpersonal Skills!The world these days â€" particular the business world and the world of employment - is loud with the language of interpersonal skills. Whatever you want to call them â€" social skills, personal skills, verbal communication skills, or soft skills â€" employers love them.In fact, beyond all academic achievement or knowledge of relevant hard skills, employers want to know that you can effectively communicate and interact with colleagues, clients, bosses, and customers.This is the reality of the workplace of today, in which teamwork and collaboration, agility and autonomy are the keywords. The days of quietly sitting down to trudge through your work are over. Sociability, cooperation, and networking are the names of the game.Of course, this is precisely the reason why interpersonal skills are ha ving their moment in the sun â€" with listening skills, body language, conflict resolution, and adaptability being now taught all over the world.Here, we going to show you the things you need to survive in this business environment â€" and we’ll show you just what your strong interpersonal skills can do for your life, job prospects, and personal development.Let us show you around the new world of interpersonal skills. TraceyPersonal development Teacher 4.93 (9) £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors NatashaPersonal development Teacher 5.00 (7) £55/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors AntonellaPersonal development Teacher 5.00 (1) £15/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors IsamPersonal development Teacher 5.00 (3) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors CarriePersonal development Teacher £24/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors AndriyPersonal development Teacher £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors MichelePersonal development Teacher 4.73 (7) £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors FlloydPersonal development Teacher 5.00 (11) £40/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutorsWhat are Interpersonal Skills?Interpersonal skills are the competencies, qualities, and personality traits that allow people to interact with others and communicate effectively. Really, they are the social skills that you learn as you grow up and which allow humans to build relationships, to get along, and to work collaboratively.Yet, with the business world’s ability to turn natural character traits into virtues, and its tendency to theorise and quantify the most basic social interaction and ways of being, interpersonal skills have become identified as a particular skill set that you really can’t do without.And, honestly, they are important. When big teams of people come together to work, good communication is crucial for conflict management and a generally harmonious atmosphere.Here, we’ve supplied some examples of the life skills that you can’t take for granted in business â€" and in the wider world. Because good interpersonal skills are not just useful to advance your career, but they are good to know for better relationships in general. Become a leader with your new interpersonal skills!Emotional IntelligenceThe major interpersonal skill that people refer to â€" and that you will need to ensure that you have â€" is emotional intelligence. This generally refers to your ability to be aware of and manage your emotional responses to things.You can see how in a work environment this might be important. When you are giving and receiving feedback or when you are managing people more generally, keeping your emotions in check is crucial â€" for the benefit of the team.Effective CommunicationAnd emotional intelligence is at the heart of effective communication in general.Communication is often misconstrued as the ability to speak, and write, clearly. Yet, that’s only half the story. Effective communication is the result of that â€" which is indeed a skill â€" and the abilities to listen and understand.Effective communication is usually broken into three parts: verbal communication, non-verbal communication, and listening. B ecause even when you are speaking, you are communicating a huge amount through your eye contact, facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice too.Leadership SkillsYou don’t need to be a leader to need leadership skills, which are usually described as the abilities to inspire and motivate, make decisions, and support and instruct.Actual business leaders need these for sure. However, in all interactions with colleagues they are helpful too.Teamwork.And alongside leading, working alongside others is crucial. Taking other people’s ideas on board, finding compromise, giving and receiving constructive criticism â€" all of these are elements of effective teamwork.If you want to find out more about the different types of interpersonal skills, check out our article, What are Interpersonal Skills? Communication is essential in the business world - as well as outside it.Why is it Important to Develop Your Soft Skills?There are plenty of reasons to develop your interpersonal skills â€" not least because they help you in all aspects of your everyday life.Whilst we don’t have the space to consider all of the different benefits of enhancing your communication skills right here, you can check out our article on the reasons to develop your soft skills to find out more.Employers Value Good People Skills â€" and You’ll Boost Your EmployabilityThe most obvious benefit in this context is that, as we’ve already mentioned, employers love people with great communication skills.This won’t only make you more attractive in a job interview. Alongside this specific context â€" in which you can demonstrate your self-awareness, your strong work ethic, and everything else â€" interpersonal skills are the fuel that help you to network, meet others, and sell yourself as an expert.In terms of your career, good interpersonal skills are crucial.You’ll Gain Trust and Respect in Your Working Environment and ElsewhereIf you are already in work, the benefits of your interpersonal skills don’t just disappear. Rather, an essential part of success at work is your ability to gain and give trust and respect.To be trusted with greater responsibility, and to treat others with respect, will change your experience of work â€" as others will treat you as you have treated them.They’ll Help You to Learn and Grow YourselfAs we can say a hundred times, interpersonal skills are not only useful in the workplace. And the ability to regulate your own emotions â€" or to really take on criticism â€" are such powerful skills to have in your armoury outside of work.This is because they help you become a better person in general â€" and will help you develop too.How Can You Develop Your Communication Skills?Whilst we now know why interpersonal skills are crucial, what many people want to know is how to improve their own aptitude in this skill set.Obviously, this is a legitimate concern and the rest of this article is dedicated to answering that question.Firstly, there are some simple tips for you to start improving your interpersonal skills straight off the bat. For more, check out our piece on developing your interpersonal skills.Practise Active ListeningActive listening is one of the most concrete part of the interpersonal skill set. It refers to a particular repertoire of actions and responses that demonstrates that you really are listening when people are talking to you.Keeping eye contact, nodding, and repeating back the words of the person speaking show that you are engaged.Keep a Positive AttitudeAt the heart of effective interpersonal skills is a positive attitude â€" a refusal to get down in the dumps, complain, and moan.People love a self-starter, someone who contributes their all and is happy to do it.If you are going to make one change to your attitude to int erpersonal skills, it should be this one. And it will make you feel better about life too. You can't get by in business without some interpersonal skills.Remember the Value of Being EmpatheticEmpathy is crucial in interacting with others â€" as it allows you to see to why others might be struggling, not performing at their best, or feeling the way they do. This basic understanding will inform all of your other interactions with them.So, just practise it. Try a simple thought experiment. Imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes â€" and you’ll be much better at understanding their perspective in the long run.Stick to Your ValuesWhat people value as much as understanding is integrity. And if you are hoping to be noticed for your own interpersonal skills, standing by your values is the number one rule.Stand up for what you believe in â€" and this will inform all of your other interactions.Online Resources to Help You Develop Your Interpersonal Skills!Believe it or not, there are many different resources online through which you can find guidance on your interpersonal skill s.From online tutorials to blog articles and exercises, the internet holds an awful lot of potential for you to learn about effective communication.Here are some of our favourite resources â€" and you can find more in our article on developing your interpersonal skills online.Try Udemy for Online Courses in Communication SkillsUdemy is a massive provider of online courses. For people looking to build their communication skills, there are all sorts of resources available for you.Take video courses in leadership skills, negotiation skills, or public speaking â€" and then get out into the world to put your new skills to use.Check Out the Range of Blogs that Help with Your Interpersonal Communication Skills.The internet is also simmering with blogs, articles, and feeds sharing information about effective communication.Try Mark Sanborn’s blog on leadership and public speaking â€" or follow Jolynn Chow for guidance on all things nonverbal communication.

Meet the Tutorfair Foundations 1,000th volunteer!

Meet the Tutorfair Foundation’s 1,000th volunteer! Last week the Tutorfair Foundation placed its 1,000th volunteer. What a remarkable thing! These 1,000 people have been a vastly talented and experienced group, coming from all walks of life and from all over the globe. They’ve all taken time out of their schedules, shared whatever they could with less advantaged students across the country and asked for nothing in return. Not all heroes wear capes! With such a huge number, it’s so easy to forget that each one of them has had a unique experience â€" all coming to us from different places and hoping for different things. To remedy this, we want to take a moment to introduce the world to our most recent fantastic volunteer â€" our 1,000th recruit, Janet. Tell us a little bit about you… “Hi, I'm originally from Liverpool but have lived in London area since I was a student. I have a BSc in maths and astrophysics and a Ph.D in astronomy. My thesis was on the evolution of supermassive black holes in galactic centres.” When you’re not thinking about supermassive black holes, what do you get up to? “I worked in IT for 25 years, final role was as project director for a successful outsourcing bid to run the IT and telecoms for a UK bank. I then took early retirement and have been spending my time since then volunteering in science education for a number of charities, coaching and playing badminton and monitoring butterflies and moths for nature organisations.” What do you do when you’re volunteering with the Foundation? “I’m tutoring in Oaklands School in Bethnal Green. I go in on a Wednesday afternoon to work with two small groups of Year 13 Physics students.” What made you decide to get involved? “I came across the Foundation after a Google search for volunteering opportunities. This particular opportunity fitted in well with other tutoring I am doing in central London. I spend a lot of time down in Devon now but come up to London each week during the winter months so finding several tutoring roles within the same timeframe is very time efficient for me and rewarding as well.” So you’ve done lots of tutoring in the past? “I have tutored both secondary and primary school students in central London in maths and physics for the past five years. I’ve also been tutoring online for the past couple of years.” What are you hoping to get out of your experience with the Foundation? “I want to feel that I have helped them in achieving their academic goals and see some hard evidence for this.” Finally, what do people need to know about volunteering with young people? “It’s very rewarding but it can be daunting initially. You need to be patient, particularly with younger students, and be prepared to do some preparation in advance of the tutoring sessions. This is particularly important if you’re working with older students, in order for them to get the most out of the sessions.” Want to get involved? Sign up today with the  Tutorfair foundation.

Adversity Score

Adversity Score In May 2019, the College Board announced a plan to provide college admissions officers a dashboard that gives context to an applicants neighborhood and high school with that students SAT score reports. Dubbed the adversity score by news outlets, the metricactually called the Environmental Context Dashboard (ECD)was intended to allow colleges to incorporate a students school and environmental context into their admissions process in a data-driven way. The ECD was designed to allow admissions officers the opportunity to view a students academic accomplishment in the context of where they live and learn. Introducing Landscape In August 2019, the College Board shared its plans to improve upon the idea of the Environmental Context Dashboard by revising and renaming the tool Landscape. Landscape will provide information about a students neighborhood and high school, helping colleges consider the context in the application review process. The revised resource is intended to help admissions officers fairly consider every applicant. It does not replace the individual information included in a students application (such as GPA, personal essay and high school transcript). It also shows how an applicants SAT or ACT score compares to the scores of other students at the same high school. Heres a quick summary of the information presented in Landscape: High school data, including city/suburban town types and rural town type Senior class size % of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch Average SAT scores at colleges attended by the three most recent cohorts of college-bound seniors at the applicants high school (who took College Board assessments) Advanced Placement exams (participation and performance) SAT and ACT test score comparison (of the student vs. average scores at their high school) Neighborhood and high school indicators, including: Predicted probability of students from the neighborhood/high school enrolling in a four-year college Household structure (married/coupled families, single-parent families and children living under the poverty line) Median family income Housing stability (vacancy rates, rental vs. homeownership, mobility/housing turnover) Education level Crime The College Board explains that colleges have long considered context about students high schools and neighborhoods when making admissions decisions. Landscape is intended to make this process easier and help admissions offers gather consistent information. Learn more about the new Landscape tool and how colleges will use it at www.collegeboard.org.

Benny the Irish Polyglot releases his new book! Fluent in 3 Months

Benny the Irish Polyglot releases his new book! Fluent in 3 Months We are happy to announce that our good friend and supporter, Benny Lewis, who writes a very well known blog called Fluent in 3 months, has just released his new book  Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World!  Benny has been an italki user for a while now and uses italki regularly to learn new languages.  In fact, italki is mentioned in his new book as one of Bennys go-to resources when learning a new language. We just wanted to support Benny in letting you all know that his book is now and has already hit the #1 spot in Language Learning on Amazon.com.   If you are serious about learning a language and want to know the real secrets of how to effectively learn a new language from a true Language Hacker whose entire life is dedicated to learning languages, you must buy this book! Below is a description of his book (taken from his  website): Benny Lewis, international language hacker and author of  Fluent in 3 Monthsâ€"the most popular language blog in the worldâ€"delivers an unconventional guide that allows readers to push past common barriers and start speaking from day one. You don’t learn a languageâ€"you get used to it. Self-taught polyglot and perhaps the world’s most beloved traveler, Benny Lewis is living proof that anyone, at any age, can learn to speak any language from anywhere in the world. Throughout his travels, Benny has developed faster, easier, and more efficient ways to learn languages, using techniques far different from traditional programs that focus on studying grammar and memorizing vocabulary.  Fluent in 3 Months  breaks down language-learning myths and replaces them with practical “language hacks” that take advantage of the skills we already possess: universal phrases, perceptive observation skills, and body language shortcuts. With Benny’s insight and proven methods, readers can master language immersionâ€"without buying a plane ticket. In the book learn about:: Why you  definitely can  learn any language, at any age, from anywhere in the world (no need to be a baby or pre-voting age, or buy a plane ticket!) How to get from  zero to fluency  and on to  mastery  in a language How to speak  multiple languages  and how to pass yourself off as a native speaker! VIEW AN EXCERPT! Click here to learn more and Buy the Book! Benny the Irish Polyglot releases his new book! Fluent in 3 Months We are happy to announce that our good friend and supporter, Benny Lewis, who writes a very well known blog called Fluent in 3 months, has just released his new book  Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World!  Benny has been an italki user for a while now and uses italki regularly to learn new languages.  In fact, italki is mentioned in his new book as one of Bennys go-to resources when learning a new language. We just wanted to support Benny in letting you all know that his book is now and has already hit the #1 spot in Language Learning on Amazon.com.   If you are serious about learning a language and want to know the real secrets of how to effectively learn a new language from a true Language Hacker whose entire life is dedicated to learning languages, you must buy this book! Below is a description of his book (taken from his  website): Benny Lewis, international language hacker and author of  Fluent in 3 Monthsâ€"the most popular language blog in the worldâ€"delivers an unconventional guide that allows readers to push past common barriers and start speaking from day one. You don’t learn a languageâ€"you get used to it. Self-taught polyglot and perhaps the world’s most beloved traveler, Benny Lewis is living proof that anyone, at any age, can learn to speak any language from anywhere in the world. Throughout his travels, Benny has developed faster, easier, and more efficient ways to learn languages, using techniques far different from traditional programs that focus on studying grammar and memorizing vocabulary.  Fluent in 3 Months  breaks down language-learning myths and replaces them with practical “language hacks” that take advantage of the skills we already possess: universal phrases, perceptive observation skills, and body language shortcuts. With Benny’s insight and proven methods, readers can master language immersionâ€"without buying a plane ticket. In the book learn about:: Why you  definitely can  learn any language, at any age, from anywhere in the world (no need to be a baby or pre-voting age, or buy a plane ticket!) How to get from  zero to fluency  and on to  mastery  in a language How to speak  multiple languages  and how to pass yourself off as a native speaker! VIEW AN EXCERPT! Click here to learn more and Buy the Book!

Columbus Day

Columbus Day On Monday October 14th we will celebrate another Columbus Day. Although Columbus Day is actually the 12th, we celebrate it on the 14th so we get another three day weekend. Yeah, lets hear it for more holidays. Now I do not want to be one of those American history haters, although I was disappointed when I learned, in college, half the stuff I learned as a child was made up. It’s kind of like politics now, and then. In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue …   yada   yada   yada…. Well OK what is the historical Columbus then? I’m glad you asked, but I will leave out the gory details. For starters, as we all know, his first trip of discovering America was actually to find a route to the markets of eastern Asia.   His success of this new route would have made him very wealthy. Of course what he did discover was the Caribbean, which at the time didn’t offer much in the way of riches in gold or trades. Because he didn’t really know where he was, the populace of the new world were called Indians, old Columbus thought he was in India. Columbus called the island (in what is now The Bahamas) San Salvador. What ever actual island in the Bahamas he landed on is an unresolved topic; some possibilitys are Samana Cay, Plana Cays, or San Salvador Island (named San Salvador in 1925 in the belief that it was Columbus San Salvador). Since he ended up where he did, he had a theory, which he held onto his entire life, that was, not only is the earth not flat (not news by then) but it was pear shaped. This would explain his misguided adventure to the new lands. As we know he made a total of four trips to the new world, with colonization along the way.   Including some raping and pillaging here and there. Columbus has been vilified and praised depending on whom and where, in history, you ask. He was a bit of both seemingly. He was an amazing sailor and navigator. He was a great captain and a horrible governor.   He was kind to some Indians and horrible and cruel to others, as slavery was one of the profit ventures he partook in. Many of the things he was blamed for had nothing to do with him though. The looting and slaughtering of thousands’ of natives of the Aztec and Inca nations were done by Conquistadors that had merely followed in Columbus footsteps. So the whole thing can be confusing as to celebrating Columbus Day. But this depends on your own point of view. I’d love to share mine, but won’t. Either way it’s a day off. And that is worth celebrating!

Swift Stardom How to Improve Your Foreign Language Listening Skills in a Flash

Swift Stardom How to Improve Your Foreign Language Listening Skills in a Flash Swift Stardom: 5 Tips to Improve Your Foreign Language Listening Skills in a Flash So youre cruising down the highway with some good friends when suddenly your favorite song comes on.The atmosphere instantly changes. What was just a moment ago a dull discussion about weekend plans has foamed into chaotic sea of flying hands and ridiculous yelling. The car floor can barely hold out against the rhythmic stomping.And, of course, every passerby is looking in and thinking youre all insane.Fast forward a year or two and now youre in a foreign country. Maybe youve already got the language down a little or maybe youre  just beginning.But after being there for a while youve begun to miss some things. Like understanding the lyrics when  a song comes on the radio or being able to catch the news in your car on the way home.Listening is incredibly important in making our everyday life satisfying, and is in fact the most used language skill.Yet, in our native language, we receive no training in it. Which might leave you wondering just how in the world can you get better at liste ning in a second language.Thankfully though theres nothing all that complicated about making quick progress in your foreign language listening skills. With a few quick tips for how to improve listening skills in a foreign language, youll be well on your way to wowing your foreign friends at karaoke. Swift Stardom: 5 Tips to Improve Your Foreign Language Listening Skills in a Flash1. Mentally Prepare YourselfOne of the biggest hurdles to listening skill mastery can be our own perceptions.Poor mental frameworks can  cause us to pursue time intensive but unrewarding tasks, give up quickly when were faced with a challenge or simply not achieve as much as we would like to.For listening one of the most damaging perceptions is this idea that you have to understand  everything. Your language exchange partner is talking to you at a thousand miles an hour, you feel like you have no clue whats going on and a sensation similar to sea-sickness is beginning to take hold.But  thats okay.When wer e listening to anything, whether it be a conversation with a friend or a television drama, when were starting out we should consider ourselves successful as long as we understand the gist of what were listening to.Another unfortunate belief that has stolen many an hour from language learners is that you can learn from passive listening. By passive listening I mean things like having the radio on in the background while youre focused on writing an essay or listening to music while trying to study for a brutal science test the next day.The audio is there, the sound waves are physically entering your ears,  but its not being processed.Think about all of the times youve watched a foreign movie in a language you havent studied with subtitles. Even if youre physically hearing Chinese when youre watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you probably didnt improve your Chinese listening skills any by the end of the movie.Hence, we must be active listeners.What is active listening? Giving you r full attention to any audio material that youre using to study.For instance, if youre going to watch a drama you should be focused on trying to figure out exactly what is happening in the shows plot line through the characters speech. No talking on the phone. No cleaning your room. Just focus.And if you really want to push your active listening, try writing a summary midway through what youre listening to and then again at the end of it. Or, listen to an audio clip, write down five questions about things you didnt understand and then listen to the file again while trying to answer your own questions.Both options will help you to keep your attention focused on the task at hand.2.  Play with Audio PacingListening is notoriously difficult for a lot of people learning a new language. Unlike reading, the other receptive language skill,  you usually cant do it at your own pace.However fast people want to talk to you is what youre going to get. There are exceptions of course (hopefully y our language partners slow down when they talk to you), but for the most part this is true and often proves to be a substantial hurdle.Thankfully, technology has provided us with a solution to our problem. Now with programs like Audacity,  you can take any audio file and slow it down to something more your speed. Suddenly listening is more like reading.Just find some audio files or movies that you can convert into MP3s, which  you like and dont mind listening to several times. Take the speed down as low as you need to so that you understand everything thats being said. Then gradually adjust the speed until its back to normal.This can be a fairly intensive study method, so if youre using a movie its probably best to break it up into segments and do a little each day.If downloading a program and converting files sounds like too much trouble, you can also try the transcription method.With this method you dont alter the speed at all, but simply try to write down as much as you can of wh at the speakers in the audio file are saying. When you start out there will almost certainly be big holes in your transcription. Thats okay!Replay the audio file and pause often until you can get most of the transcript down. As you practice with more and more audio files, youll find you wont have to replay them so much.3. Listen Everywhere, All the TimeIn language learning circles,  extensive reading is a well-known strategy. If you want to be able to read and comprehend lots of text quickly, you have to read a lot of stuff all the time.Just as important, but less often mentioned is extensive listening. Extensive listening has  a host of benefits ranging from improving how quickly you can comprehend the spoken word to fine tuning your understanding of pronunciation and intonation.There are two key principles to instituting an effective extensive listening plan. Firstly, the things you listen to should be enjoyable. If theyre not, you wont be listening to them for long.Secondly, the things you listen to should be as diverse as possible. You should have newscasts that you can  listen to in the car, movies ready to watch at night, podcasts loaded and ready to go for your coffee break, limitless numbers of songs to make your exercise routine more educational.The more effort you put in to squeezing listening practice out of every available moment, the sooner you can stop worrying about missing important pieces of what your foreign friends are saying to you.4.  Use Visuals for Extra ImpactMovies have never been more popular. Movie festivals have sprung up across the world, many even in small towns. And with that proliferation of film it has become easier than ever to access foreign films.Which is good, because movies are an irreplaceable language learning tool.The visual nature of film serves to support our listening  comprehension and even our vocab recall ability of new words we learned during the film. In other words, you learn more by watching a movie than you w ould have if you just heard an audio clip.Whats more, movies provide significant motivation to language learners. Many people want to learn a new language entirely because of foreign films theyve seen.If your language-learning plans incorporate things that are pleasurable and that you dont feel like you have to force yourself to do, youre much more likely to succeed in the long run. Consequently, a broad selection of movies and TV shows in your target language consumed on a regular basis makes for an excellent listening diet.To ensure you get the most out of your movie viewing time, try to get your hands on the transcript of the movie you would like to watch. Simply Scripts has movie scripts in a variety of languages so its always a good place to start. After that, there are a couple of different ways you can go.First, you could simply read the transcripts, or certain sections of it, and look up any of the vocab you dont know.Then when youre watching the movie and the new words come up, youll be able to recognize and associate them with whatever is happening in the scene youre watching.Another, perhaps more challenging option, is to print out the script, shuffle the pages and then try to put it in the correct order after youve watched the movie.For those of you watching from the computer, there is also the option of pausing the movie when you hear a word you dont understand, taking a screen still that has a clear association to the new word and then using that as a study cue later.Sites like Memrise allow you to upload images for each vocab word youre studying, so it would be easy to incorporate this into a regular spaced repetition study program.5.  Dont Forget to ReadWhile reading and listening may both be receptive language skills, most people might assume their connection ends there.Surprise! Theyre  as closely connected as any sitcom family you can think of. In the conclusion of one group of researchers, reading can actually be more effective for improvin g listening skills than listening itself!Of course, if youre a beginner, youre still going to need lots of listening practice to really get those new sounds and the intonation hammered down, but never fall prey to the belief that each language skill is tightly compartmentalized and should be studied in isolation.Reading, especially extensive reading, is imbued with so many benefitsâ€"perhaps most importantly with increased vocabularyâ€"that it would be criminal to ignore practice with printed texts, even if your goal is nothing more than to talk to other people.So do a little reading. Have some fun with foreign movie nights. Slip foreign language music into your running playlist. Play the news slow and fast, slow and fast until you get the hang of it.A little tinkering here and there to learn how to improve listening skills in a foreign language, and youll have nothing to fear when it comes to listening. And One More ThingIf youre digging these techniques, youll love using FluentU. FluentU makes it possible to learn languages  from music videos, commercials, news and inspiring talks.With FluentU, you learn real languagesâ€"the same way that natives  speak them. FluentU has a wide variety of videos like movie trailers, funny commercials and web series, as you can see here:FluentU App Browse ScreenFluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.Didnt catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.FluentU Interactive TranscriptsYou can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentUs quiz mode. Swipe left or right to see  more examples for the word you’re learning.FluentU Has Quizzes for Every VideoAnd FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.