Listening to French without the headache

Listening is the muscle most of my students are missing. They read well, write correctly, and drown the moment someone from Marseille speaks quickly.

The good news: it improves passively. The bad news: not with just anything. A podcast that's too hard doesn't build the muscle, it discourages you.

My rule: pick something where you understand roughly 70% of what's said. Enough to follow, enough unknown to learn from. If you understand everything, go up a level. If you lose the thread after a minute, go down.

Twenty minutes a day beats a whole film on Sunday. Ears need regularity, not heroics.

And above all: listen again. The same episode, two or three times in a week. The second listen is where the words separate.