The Career Path of Medicine

The Career Path of MedicineWhile several universities offer programs in the field of medicinal chemistry, it may be hard to find a good salary to match the degree program. However, this is the most promising career path available to today's medical professionals. If you are interested in pursuing a PhD in the field of medicinal chemistry, there are a few important things you will need to do in order to be successful.To start with, you must get your degree. This is a vital step in order to ensure that you get a top graduate position within the company that you are looking to work for. Being able to graduate from a top school is key. The medicine field is one of the toughest fields to get into, so there are many opportunities for students who have their PhDs.Universities that offer jobs in the field of pharmaceutical sciences often require applicants to also be licensed as pharmacists or chemical engineers. Your degree is your ticket to the best job opportunities. It will offer you the edge over other candidates when you apply for jobs. You must be ready to take the necessary steps to make sure that you get the position you want to.In order to maximize your chances of getting hired in the medical science field, you should research the best schools and programs available to you. In some areas, the government has provided funding for the schools. However, you may not have enough money to pay for school by yourself.Even if you have some good financial resources, you still need to invest some time in finding the right school and program. To be successful, you must take the initiative and pursue the right course. There are many excellent online schools available for you to take advantage of.Getting your degree will give you the edge over other candidates and can also help you secure a job that will give you a future position. By going to medical school, you will have an edge over other candidates because you have the experience. The competition for a good job in the f ield of medicinal chemistry is very high. If you are willing to go through the steps required, you will be much better prepared to be successful.There are many programs and colleges available that offer PhD programs in the field of medicinal chemistry. As you search, be sure to take advantage of the opportunities that are available. Taking the time to search will ensure that you get the job that you deserve.

Who, Whom or Whose Video and Exercise 1

Who, Whom or Whose Video and Exercise 1 Ask a native English speaker when it is correct to use Who, Whom or Whose, and they probably wont be able to give you a good answer, especially if they are from the United States. Here, we dont use Whom very often anymore, at least not in spoken English. The difference may seem confusing to non-native speakers too, but it is actually very easily explained, as youll see in our video non Who, Whom and Whose below.See if you can choose Who, Whom or Whose correctly below, then watch the video and try the additional exercises.1. (Who/Whom/Whose) rides the bike?2. (Who/Whom/Whose) does the dog love?3. (Who/Whom/Whose) bike is green?Watch the video below to see the answersWho, Whom or Whose video:Choose the correct word below. If you write your answer in comments, we will respond.1.  (Who/Whom/Whose) dog is that?2.  (Who/Whom/Whose) did he give the dog to?3.  (Who/Whom/Whose) was the last person at the office?4.  (Who/Whom/Whose) won best actor at the Oscars?5.  (Who/Whom/Whose) performance do you think was best?6.  (Who/Whom/Whose) do you think the audience liked best? Marie-pierre Kretz Tabellion WHOSE DOG IS THAT ? WHOM DID HE GIVE THE DOG TO ? WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON AT THE OFFICE ? WHO WON BEST ACTOR AT THE OSCARS ? WHOSE PERFORMANCE DO YOU THINK WAS BEST ? WHOM DO YOU THINK THE AUDIENCE LIKED BEST ? LOIEnglish Excellent! Licia Sorry, I dont understand. I know that he/she are SUBJECT pronouns and him/her OBJECT pronouns, isnt it? Thank you for your video and your answer!! LOIEnglish Yes you are correct he/she are SUBJECT pronouns. The SUBJECT pronoun does the action. He jumps off the building. Him/Her are object pronouns. The OBJECT pronoun receives the action. He gave the gift to HER.When using who/whom, who replaces SUBJECT pronouns and who replaces OBJECT pronouns.Hope this helps! hangpham 1.Whose 2.whom 3.who 4.who 5.Whose 6Whom LOIEnglish Nice work! lucia 1.whose dog is that? 2.whom did he give the dog to?3. who was the last person at the office?4.who won best actor at the Oscars?5.whose performance do you think was best?6. whom do you think the audience liked best? LOIEnglish Lucia good work!

Difference between SEEM, LOOK and APPEAR - Confusing Words

Difference between SEEM, LOOK and APPEAR - Confusing Words Today were going to look at 3 confusing words in English Seem, Look and Appear and understand what is the difference between Seem, Look and Appear.  In this post I have for you a short video lesson that explains the difference between them in detail. If you scroll down, you will be able to read a full transcript. Enjoy! Difference between Seem, Look and Appear - Video Lesson Hi there, I’m Harry and I’m here to talk to you today about some English words and vocabulary.And the words I’m looking at today are SEEMS, LOOKS and APPEARS. And all the differences and how we use them.So SEEMS S E E M S, LOOKS L O O K S and APPEARS A P P E A R S.Ok.On the first look at these words, they have the very same meaning. And if you’re learning English at the beginner’s level, or at intermediate level, really I would explain to you that there is no real difference and you can use one instead of the other, you can interchange them as much as you wish.As you get on to learn English at a more higher level, upper-intermediate and beyond that, then they can be some subtle, but small differences to them.So for example:It looks as if he is not coming around this evening.You’ve organised a dinner, your friend is invited, you’ve got some other friends there. And you’re looking at the watch, and it’s gone 8 o’clock and he hasn’t arrived yet so you turn to yo ur other friends and say:Hmmm, it looks like as if Sean isn’t coming.It seems as if Sean isn’t coming. I invited him but he said he would be here.It appears as if Sean isn’t coming. He would usually be here by now.So in that example it’s a party, he hasn’t arrived when you’d invited him.It looks as if he is not coming.It seems as if he is not coming.It appears as if he is not coming.They all have exactly the same meaning. Difference between Seem, Look and Appear - Image to share Don't keep this to yourself. Tell the world! If there is any difference between them, when we look at looks and appears, we’re talking about something visual. Something that we might see.It looks as if Mary is upset.It appears as if Mary is upset.So when we see Mary, she’s sitting there, she is maybe a little sad or a little melancholic. Perhaps, she might be crying but she certainly looks upset.So we can say:She looks upset.She appears upset.SEEMS is an opinion.We use LOOKS and APPEARS when we’re physically looking at something (or somebody). But seems when we’re just giving an opinion.It seems as if the weather is going to change.I was reading in the paper yesterday that there is a cold front coming. So it seems as if the weather is going to change.But if you look out the window,Oh, it looks like it’s raining.OrIt appears to be raining from here. I can’t really see.Well, that’s it for today. But remember to subscribe to my channel and join us on www.englishlessonviaskype.com.And before I forget, if you look at t he link below, you’ll get access to all of our wonderful courses about Grammar, and other aspects of English. And we’ve just launched a really great course about Common Mistakes in English and How to Avoid Them. And it’s really getting a lot of coverage so you can get in there and buy it. So I’ll catch up with you again soon.

Will having a criminal record stop me from teaching abroad

Will having a criminal record stop me from teaching abroad Wondering whether a conviction is a barrier to teaching abroad? Keep reading to find out! Can I teach English abroad with a criminal record? No one is perfect. In fact, as humans, we’re all fundamentally flawed. We all make mistakes. If you’re reading this, it’s likely you made a mistake in the past that has, unfortunately, resulted in a criminal record. If you do find yourself in this position, you might be concerned about how this could affect your prospects as a teacher overseas. It’s definitely not all doom and gloom, so there’s no need to stress. Where you’ll run into trouble are visa restrictions imposed by countries barringanyonewith a criminal record from obtaining a work permit. Although blanket exclusions are relatively few and far between, some countries and employers may always be off limits to you unless you can get the offense expunged from your record (more on that below). Despite this, there should still be more than enough options open to you to travel and teach abroad. The first thing to bear in mind is that, nowadays, most government programs, international schools and ESL companieswillcheck your personal information against national criminal databases. Popular countries to teach in Asia, likeJapan,China,South Korea,Thailand,TaiwanandVietnam, for example, all conduct background checks on anyone looking to obtain a visa to teach there. Criminal record checks are also common practice for both certified and ESL teaching jobs throughout the Middle East. However, this doesn’t mean that having a criminal record automatically disqualifies you from any teaching jobs in these places. More often than not, it’s not so much a question ofwhetheryou’ve committed a criminal offense in the past, but whichkindof criminal offense. The guidelines for which crimes will prevent you from teaching will vary from country to country, as well as from employer to employer. Minor or non-serious offenses such as misdemeanors probably won’t keep you from landing that teaching position. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that you will likely in the running alongside other candidates with similar credentials who do have a clean record. In these cases, it really comes down to your potential employer’s personal judgment and that’s ultimately something that’s out of your control. In general, however, there tends to be a higher level of understanding for bad choices made when you were a teenager or in college. Most of us can remember the questionable decisions we made in our younger years. As a result, some employers are more likely to look past something that can be chalked up to youthful indiscretions, such as underage drinking, marijuana possession or shoplifting, if their perception of you is otherwise positive. But serious felonies (like murder, sexual offenses and domestic violence) are likely to be hard-and-fast dealbreakers. Teaching in Asia with a criminal record. One salient point to bear in mind is that popular English teaching government programs likeEPIK in KoreaandJET in Japanwill typically screen out applicants with a criminal record. Similarly,HESS, the largest private language institution in Taiwan, do not employ applicants without a clean criminal record. Maybe you’ve heard anecdotes of a friend of a friend who was able to land a job teaching at ahagwonin Japan or at an ESL language center in China in the past with a criminal history. However, as competition for English teaching jobs in Asia continues to heat up, even smaller ESL schools are setting more rigorous background check policies that prospective candidates will need to abide by. What about teaching in Japan with a criminal record? It really depends on whether your offense was a felony or misdemeanor. TheJET program websitestates the following: ”A criminal record will not necessarily disqualify you [from teaching with the JET program]. However, the seriousness of the crime will be taken into consideration and a final decision will be made whether or not you will be offered a position on the program.” A little vague, but a teaching job with JET is not necessarily out of bounds. And while theSpecialist in Humanities visa(the work permit of choice for English teachers in Japan) does not require applicants to undergo a criminal background check, hiring schools in Japan may still ask for it and reject your application, depending on the severity of the offense committed. Can I teach in Korea with a criminal record? A national criminal record check is required as part of the E-2 visa for teaching in Korea. At present, the country has adopted a zero tolerance policy when it comes to applicants with a criminal conviction. This means, more than likely, Korea is off the cards as a potential teaching destination. Can I teach in China with a criminal record? While you might still be able to teach English in China with a misdemeanor charge on your record, having been convicted of a severe crime (especially against a child) is a surefire bar to obtaining aZ visa. Getting a visa to teach in China with a Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) or Driving under the Influence (DUI) conviction is also highly unlikely. And as much as we hate to break it to you, a DUI will also prevent you from getting a visa to teach in Asian countries such as Japan and Thailand, as well as throughout the Middle East. Which brings is to your next point: Sign up to Teach Away today for access to the latest teaching jobs around the world. Where can I teach English abroad with a DUI? A DUI shouldn’t count against you when it comes to getting a work permit Europe or Latin America. With the exception of international schools in the region, criminal background checks aren’t requested as frequently here - especially for ESL teachers hired as independent contractors within private tutoring centers. I have a criminal history but I still want to teach abroad. What should I do? Your first step should be to request a national or federal criminal record check. If a past conviction does show up, then it may be worth checking with a lawyer on whether it’s possible to have the charge expunged from your record. This may be a possibility if you committed a relatively minor offense many years ago, although there are no guarantees with this route. Note: US teachers can request aCriminal Record Check through the FBI. Canadian teachers can request aCertified Criminal Record Check from the Royal Canadian Mountain Police. Irish teachers can request aPolice Certificate from the Gardaí. Australian teachers can request aNational Police Certificate from the Australian Federal Police. New Zealand teachers can request aCriminal Record Check from the New Zealand Ministry of Justice. Quick word of warning: You will be required to get your background check authenticated or Apostille-certified. For obvious reasons, we don’t recommend any attempts to forge your criminal record check (or using a fake identity) in an attempt to game the system. Embarking on an international job search isn't easy, and it can be especially intimidating if you have a background that is less than favorable. But a criminal record doesn’t necessarily have to stop you from pursuing your dream job teaching abroad.

Online Tutoring Advantages of the New Approach

Online Tutoring Advantages of the New Approach Today we continue to acquaint our readers with peculiarities of the online education. As it often happens with all innovations there are many obstacles on the way of extension of the online tutoring in spite of all benefits it has in comparison with the traditional ways of tutoring. The main of them is a mistrust from the side of parents. If they can’t see a real tutor how can they be sure that their child will get real knowledge?  However  there are the same demands for the online tutors as for traditional ones: professional competence, individual approach for the student, responsibility and honesty. Tutors of the public online schools must be certified. Besides online tutors must be skillful in modern technologies. Electronic books used in online education are rather unfamiliar for older generation. But the youth of today belongs to the network formation and for them the electronic sources of information are even more natural than the paper books. Modern students willingly welcome all high technologies involved into educational process because the achieved skills will help them in further self-development and future career. In our days information technologies penetrated into all aspects of our life and they are the main tool for the majority of the successful people. There are some categories of people for whom the online tutoring is the only one available education. Some of them suffer from severe  allergies or other medical issues. Others can’t bear school violence and bullying. Some students live in remote areas where face-to-face tutors are not available or they may be interested in a rare subjects such as nuclear engineering or Farsi. Online tutoring provides for a safe opportunity for everybody to get education without meeting with that kind of problems. Sometimes students claim that it is difficult to stay focused in the home environment. But in fact even when we go to traditional schools we learn only part of information during the lessons and the rest of work including studying variable informational sources must be done at home anyway. So it’s only a question of the correct organisation of the learning process. The main advantages of the online tutoring are the following: Time saving: modern technologies enable real-time interaction between tutors and students in any time. All materials are available in electronic format and there is no need to spend time for going to a library or a book store. Mobility: students can study in any place and in any convenient time, even during a trip abroad or late in the evening. Internet connection is the only thing which is needed. The length of each lesson is also individual. Economy and ecology: both tutors and students stay beside their computers, they don’t use the cars and so they save fuel and don’t pollute the environment. Besides they don’t need to buy paper textbooks which saves both money and trees. Many electronic materials are free of cost. Sometimes programs and computer equipment are also provided for free. Internationalization: students get access to a great number of professional tutors living all over the world. The language barrier doesn’t exist anymore. English language is widely spread in all civilized countries and online translation services are available. Tolerance: interaction via Internet neglects ethnic, income, class, sex and all other differences between students and tutors because visual and voice contact is possible but not necessary condition. Safety and comfort: some people feel uneasy in crowded places and prefer to study at home; others can better concentrate in the open air with a plenty of oxygen. Only online tutoring can allow each of them to study in the most convenient surroundings. There is no physical contact so it also eliminates any threat of physical violence. No strangers visit your home and your property and life are absolutely safe. Privacy: tutor and student may not know the real names, appearance and location of each other. In some cases it can be also important. Parent control: online tutoring usually takes place at home so parents have better chances to control the process. Combination of all these favourable factors of course contributes into better mastering of the new information. Besides students can record a tutoring sessions and listen them several time for better understanding and memorizing of the studying material. The list of benefits of the online tutoring is impressive.  However  the fair analysis must include also all disadvantages and dangers of the new educational approach. We will scrutinize the weak sides of the online tutoring in one of our next articles. Online Tutoring Advantages of the New Approach Today we continue to acquaint our readers with peculiarities of the online education. As it often happens with all innovations there are many obstacles on the way of extension of the online tutoring in spite of all benefits it has in comparison with the traditional ways of tutoring. The main of them is a mistrust from the side of parents. If they can’t see a real tutor how can they be sure that their child will get real knowledge?  However  there are the same demands for the online tutors as for traditional ones: professional competence, individual approach for the student, responsibility and honesty. Tutors of the public online schools must be certified. Besides online tutors must be skillful in modern technologies. Electronic books used in online education are rather unfamiliar for older generation. But the youth of today belongs to the network formation and for them the electronic sources of information are even more natural than the paper books. Modern students willingly welcome all high technologies involved into educational process because the achieved skills will help them in further self-development and future career. In our days information technologies penetrated into all aspects of our life and they are the main tool for the majority of the successful people. There are some categories of people for whom the online tutoring is the only one available education. Some of them suffer from severe  allergies or other medical issues. Others can’t bear school violence and bullying. Some students live in remote areas where face-to-face tutors are not available or they may be interested in a rare subjects such as nuclear engineering or Farsi. Online tutoring provides for a safe opportunity for everybody to get education without meeting with that kind of problems. Sometimes students claim that it is difficult to stay focused in the home environment. But in fact even when we go to traditional schools we learn only part of information during the lessons and the rest of work including studying variable informational sources must be done at home anyway. So it’s only a question of the correct organisation of the learning process. The main advantages of the online tutoring are the following: Time saving: modern technologies enable real-time interaction between tutors and students in any time. All materials are available in electronic format and there is no need to spend time for going to a library or a book store. Mobility: students can study in any place and in any convenient time, even during a trip abroad or late in the evening. Internet connection is the only thing which is needed. The length of each lesson is also individual. Economy and ecology: both tutors and students stay beside their computers, they don’t use the cars and so they save fuel and don’t pollute the environment. Besides they don’t need to buy paper textbooks which saves both money and trees. Many electronic materials are free of cost. Sometimes programs and computer equipment are also provided for free. Internationalization: students get access to a great number of professional tutors living all over the world. The language barrier doesn’t exist anymore. English language is widely spread in all civilized countries and online translation services are available. Tolerance: interaction via Internet neglects ethnic, income, class, sex and all other differences between students and tutors because visual and voice contact is possible but not necessary condition. Safety and comfort: some people feel uneasy in crowded places and prefer to study at home; others can better concentrate in the open air with a plenty of oxygen. Only online tutoring can allow each of them to study in the most convenient surroundings. There is no physical contact so it also eliminates any threat of physical violence. No strangers visit your home and your property and life are absolutely safe. Privacy: tutor and student may not know the real names, appearance and location of each other. In some cases it can be also important. Parent control: online tutoring usually takes place at home so parents have better chances to control the process. Combination of all these favourable factors of course contributes into better mastering of the new information. Besides students can record a tutoring sessions and listen them several time for better understanding and memorizing of the studying material. The list of benefits of the online tutoring is impressive.  However  the fair analysis must include also all disadvantages and dangers of the new educational approach. We will scrutinize the weak sides of the online tutoring in one of our next articles.

Halloween is coming

Halloween is coming Halloween is coming! It is right around the corner. The coolest and scariest holiday of the year is almost here. Every one can enjoy it, for adults it is an opportunity to get dressed up and have fun at Halloween parties all night long. For kids it is an opportunity to get dressed up like their favorite  super hero, or cartoon hero and have as many candies as they want. In this article I have collected the most interesting and fun facts about Halloween which you might not know: 1. Halloween is over 2000 years old. It borrows traditions from a Celtic Harvest Festival Samhain that was held to celebrate the end of the harvest season. 2. One thread that runs through all Halloween legends is the belief that the night of October 31 st is the time when the spirits of the dead are freed to travel once more among the living. 3. The modern name of Halloween comes from All Hallows Evening. Hallow is an old English word for holy person and All Hallows Day is  merely another name  for All Saints Day. Thus, the correct spelling of Halloween is actually Hallowe’en. 4. The first Jack-o-lantern  were in fact  made from turnips. 5. The story of the Jack-o-lantern  comes in many variants. But they  all basically have the same gist:  once a man named Jack tricked the Devil. And the  Devil  agreed never to take his soul. When Jack died he was barred from hell but he couldnt go to heaven either as he had a life full of sins. So he was stuck on  the Earth and began wandering for a resting place. To lighten his passage  Jack used  a carved out turnip with  the ember (a small piece of burning coal in a dying fire) inside. 6. The function of the costumes and masks on Halloween is to hide the face of living from the ghosts and spirits of the dead. 7. Trick-or-treating originate from the ancient Celtic tradition of putting out treats for supernatural beings  in order to  appease them. 8. Stephen Clarke holds the Guinness World record for the world’s fastest pumpkin carving time: 24.03 seconds. 9. The record for most lighted Jack-o-lanterns  was set at Pumpkin Festival in Boston, Massachusetts  when people lighted 30,128 carved pumpkins. 10. Simple references to Halloween traditions can cause panic among  people who have Samhainophobia. 11. Americans spend more than $6 Billion on celebrating this holiday. Find out  some of the most weird, fascinating, and odd facts about  the history of Halloween with  history tutors on TutorZ.com! Happy Trick-or-Treat Weekend! Happy Halloween! Halloween is coming Halloween is coming! It is right around the corner. The coolest and scariest holiday of the year is almost here. Every one can enjoy it, for adults it is an opportunity to get dressed up and have fun at Halloween parties all night long. For kids it is an opportunity to get dressed up like their favorite  super hero, or cartoon hero and have as many candies as they want. In this article I have collected the most interesting and fun facts about Halloween which you might not know: 1. Halloween is over 2000 years old. It borrows traditions from a Celtic Harvest Festival Samhain that was held to celebrate the end of the harvest season. 2. One thread that runs through all Halloween legends is the belief that the night of October 31 st is the time when the spirits of the dead are freed to travel once more among the living. 3. The modern name of Halloween comes from All Hallows Evening. Hallow is an old English word for holy person and All Hallows Day is  merely another name  for All Saints Day. Thus, the correct spelling of Halloween is actually Hallowe’en. 4. The first Jack-o-lantern  were in fact  made from turnips. 5. The story of the Jack-o-lantern  comes in many variants. But they  all basically have the same gist:  once a man named Jack tricked the Devil. And the  Devil  agreed never to take his soul. When Jack died he was barred from hell but he couldnt go to heaven either as he had a life full of sins. So he was stuck on  the Earth and began wandering for a resting place. To lighten his passage  Jack used  a carved out turnip with  the ember (a small piece of burning coal in a dying fire) inside. 6. The function of the costumes and masks on Halloween is to hide the face of living from the ghosts and spirits of the dead. 7. Trick-or-treating originate from the ancient Celtic tradition of putting out treats for supernatural beings  in order to  appease them. 8. Stephen Clarke holds the Guinness World record for the world’s fastest pumpkin carving time: 24.03 seconds. 9. The record for most lighted Jack-o-lanterns  was set at Pumpkin Festival in Boston, Massachusetts  when people lighted 30,128 carved pumpkins. 10. Simple references to Halloween traditions can cause panic among  people who have Samhainophobia. 11. Americans spend more than $6 Billion on celebrating this holiday. Find out  some of the most weird, fascinating, and odd facts about  the history of Halloween with  history tutors on TutorZ.com! Happy Trick-or-Treat Weekend! Happy Halloween!

Say What 9 Epic Techniques for Keener Language Listening

Say What 9 Epic Techniques for Keener Language Listening Say What? 9 Epic  Techniques for Keener Language Listening How did you learn your first language? Well, you listened to people talking around you, and it just sort of happened.Your infant brain gobbled all those words and grammatical structures right up before you even knew what language was, and here you are.Sadly, those days are over.No longer will your brain soak up language like a sponge while you chill out and do the things babies do.So now, you have to coax your brain into learning new languages with tricks like translating, watching language learning videos, using metacognition  and so on.Heres the thing, though: You can still learn a lot just by listening. You may not be the language learning baby-genius you once were, but your brain is still wired for listening to language. Even if your brain isnt a language-learning sponge anymore, its still a respectably absorbent paper towel.Understandably, you might be a little skeptical about this idea.After all, building up listening comprehension can be one of the toughest parts of learning a new language.Its one thing to memorize a bunch of vocab words or slog through a translation. But developing the kind of automatic, intuitive fluency you need to decode other peoples speech on the fly is a daunting goal to which there are no sure paths.Still, Id suggest that if you approach learning by listening with the right techniques, youll be able not just to develop the listening comprehension skills youre after, but to actually make your ears your most valuable tool for all aspects of language learning.And heck, Ill do one better than suggest thisâ€"Ill show you some effective techniques you can use to see for yourself! Say What? 9 Epic  Techniques for Keener Language Listening1. The Ultimate Lazy Language Learning Technique: Listening in Your SleepLets start with the easiest way to learn a language by listening: listening in your sleep. This might be the closest you can hope to get to the sort of learning-by-listening-without-trying you did when you were a baby, and its pr obably the only effective language learning technique that requires absolutely no effort on your part.What the Science Says on Sleep ListeningNow, Ill admit that the first time I read about this language learning technique, I checked to make sure it wasnt April 1st.  But it turns out that according to published, peer-reviewed research, you really can get better at a language by listening to it in your sleep.Specifically, Swiss psychologists found that listening to audio playback of foreign vocabulary words while asleep improved peoples ability to later recall those wordsâ€"as long as the people listening in their sleep had previously been exposed to the words.So you may not be able to magically absorb entirely new vocab words in your sleep, but if you look over some vocab words and then play them back while youre asleep, you may learn them much better than if youd just looked them over and left it at that.Interestingly, you may also learn them much better than if youd looked them ov er and then played them back while awakeâ€"the Swiss researchers found that people who were introduced to new vocab words and then listened to playback of them while awake did not get the same benefits as the test subjects who listened in their sleep.In other words, there seems to be something special about sleep that makes the brain more receptive to passive learning. The Swiss scientists titled their paper on the study “Boosting Vocabulary Learning by Verbal Cueing During Sleep,” but they might as well have just called it “Another Excuse to Have a Nap? Great, Ill Take It!”The Sleep Listeners ToolboxThere are a few ways of looping audio so you can play back the vocab words youre learning in your sleep.If you have an iPhone, apps like Audio Loop let you record and loop custom sounds. White Noise Lite lets you do the same thing and doubles as a snazzy white noise machine.For those who want to use a PC instead of a smartphone, software like Ambiloop will do the trick. Audio lo oping software for PCs will tend to have way more features than you actually need for language learning purposes, but on the plus side, you can get fancy and mix in some background music or white noise with your vocab words if you want!The easiest way to pull off this language learning technique is to record the words you want to sleep-learn while youre reading through them and trying to memorize in advanceâ€"that way, the audio will be ready to go when you decide to hit the hay.You dont need to record the English translations of the vocab words, just the words themselves, but you do need to study the words the same day youre going to sleep-learn them for this technique to work!So take your pick of any of the audio looping tools above, record an audio track next time youre poring over a list of new vocab words, and before you know it, youll be sleeping like a baby and learning language like a baby at the same time!2. Watching a Movie with SubtitlesLearning by listening can be a tric ky balancing act: You want to pick content that stretches the limits of your listening abilities but isnt totally incomprehensible.FluentU  is an ideal way to learn through listening because it provides the flexibility of optional, interactive subtitles in both English and your target language for level-specific, real-world videos (like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks).You can use FluentUs learn mode to be guided through videos based on what you already know, and you can also use the clips provided to try out many of the listening techniques listed below.Watching a movie with subtitles is a fun way to work on listening comprehension in a setting that gives you enough context to keep up with whats going on. Switching it up so youre listening in your native language and reading in the language youre trying to learn can also be helpfulâ€"although it wont do much for your listening comprehension, obviously.The best way to improve listening comprehension with subti tles is to force yourself to listen as much as possible and only resort to reading the subtitles when necessary.If you find that as you get absorbed in a movie you start relying on subtitles more than youd like, you can also try switching back and forth by turning off the subtitles to do short bursts of focused listening comprehension, then turning them back on to make sure youre still following the plot.3. Context Listening with AudiobooksAh, audiobooks. Best friend to language learners everywhere. So many ways to incorporate audiobooks into your language learning, so little time! (Unless youre listening to War and Peace, that is, and then youve got over 60 hours of time, as it turns out.)On the topic of listen-learning from context, though, theres one way to use audiobooks thats especially helpful: listening to books whose content youre already familiar with.Try finding an audiobook translation of any book youve already read (or listened to) in your native language. Then listen-le arning becomes less of a struggle to decipher something totally mysterious and unfamiliar and more of an exercise in matching new words with meanings you already know. A great way to improve your listening comprehension and revisit an old favorite at the same time!4. Context Listening with the NewsAnd when I say listening to the news, I of course mean watching the newsâ€"the pictures will give you more context to work with! But do listen as closely as possible. Like audiobooks, newscasts are language learning for all starsâ€"and since youll probably have a basic familiarity with the topics coming up in the news, watching it is a great way to listen-learn from context.For ideas on where to catch the news in different languages, check out our blog posts on Spanish, Japanese, French, Chinese  and/or  German news sources.Some of these newscasts are helpfully directed at less-than-totally-fluent listeners. Some of them are the real deal. Of course, if youre listening to a bona fide forei gn language news channel, you might not be able to pick out every word you hear, but youll probably be surprised at how much you can understand with the benefit of context. And honestly, if you hit any rough patches, just remind yourself that sometimes youre better off not knowing whats going on in the world anyway.5. Re-listeningRepetition is essential to learning a new language.Also, repetition is essential to learning a new language.One of the best ways to incorporate repetition into your listen-learning toolbox is to do something Ill call “re-listening”â€"repeatedly listening to a short audio or video clip all the way through without pause, trying to catch more details on each successive listen.Pick some audio content short enough that you can listen through it repeatedly but hefty enough that you wont be able to catch everything the first time aroundâ€"a YouTube  or FluentU clip, news broadcast, audiobook excerpt, etc. Listen through without stopping, writing down everythin g you understand either as you listen or once youre done.Then listen through again, filling in any new details youre able to pick out. Rinse and repeat until you arent getting anything (or much) new. At that point, try looking up any words you still dont understand that jump out at you or resorting to subtitles if theyre available.Re-listening lets you pick apart an audio excerpt in depth without becoming dependent on the pause buttonâ€"that is, without sacrificing a chance to practice thinking on your feet and keeping up with the flow of spoken language.Of course, it probably goes without saying that there is a limit on how many times you can re-listen to audio clips in one day without sacrificing a bit of your sanity. Re-listening is like lifting a heavy weight: Do it in moderation and youll get quick returns, do it to an extreme and youll probably hurt yourself!6. Alternate Listening and ReadingIts worth keeping in mind that listening comprehension and reading comprehension are t wo facets of the same thingâ€"general fluency. So even though they need to be practiced individually, the more closely youre able to tie them together, the more working on your listening comprehension will improve your reading comprehension and vice-versa.Heres one way to connect your listening and reading comprehension practice: Once again, start with a clip that has audio and captioning in the language youre learning. But instead of listening and watching the captioning at once, turn off the captions and listen through, then mute the audio and read through with captions. As with re-listening, you can repeat this several times, looking (or listening) for new details.The point of this exercise is to strengthen the connection between your external listening comprehension and the little voice in your head that helps you with reading comprehension. By syncing up your reading and listening, youll find that you read faster and have an easier time staying on top of spoken language.7. Pass ive ListeningPassive language learning for adultsâ€"learning language simply by listening and absorbing what you hear the way children doâ€"is like turning lead into gold. If you could find a way to do it, youd be set for life, but unfortunately, the whole idea is just a little too good to be true.Still, even if you cant get fluent by kicking back with a margarita and listening to the language of your choice for a few thousand hours, there are a couple ways you can use passive listening to take your language learning game up a notch.You cant turn lead into gold, but you can turn an unattractive hunk of lead into a pretty cool lead sculpture (yeah, different kind of lead, but those things are cool enough that you shouldnt care).Rewiring Your Brain to Hear a New LanguageJust like youd want some basic familiarity with the alphabet before learning to read a new language, learning to hear a new language is much easier once youve internalized the basic sounds the language uses.The more fa miliar you are with a languages phonetic building blocks, the more receptive your brain is to learning that language and picking out words from speech. Babies understand the importance of starting with a solid grasp of the basic speech sounds a language uses, which is why “babbling”â€"speaking strings of nonsense syllablesâ€"is one of the first stages of language acquisition.And it turns out passive listening is one of the best ways to get your brain used to these building blocks. Research has shown that listening to speech in a new language trains your brain to recognize the sounds and combinations of sounds that language is built out of, even if you dont understand the actual content of what youre listening to. Which ultimately makes it easier to learn words and build up your listening comprehension in that language later on.Unlike listening for meaning, passive listening to learn sounds is something you can do right from the get-goâ€"you dont need any knowledge of vocabulary or syntax to do it. In fact, the earlier in your language learning you start, the better.(Fortunately for all of us, there is no similar research suggesting that babbling, like passive listening, helps build awareness of sounds in adults as well as babies. But you never know. Maybe some future research will force me to write a post titled “Babbling: A Killer New Technique for Your Language Learning Toolkit.”)Passive Listening with MusicPassive listening may rewire your brain to hear a new language, but theres still no evidence that you can actually learn new vocabulary or grammatical patterns through passive listening.Still, theres a general rule of thumb for life that applies to some extent here: #MusicMakesEverythingBetterListening to music activates more parts of your brain than listening to speech. Just think about how much easier it is to get a few catchy lines of a song stuck in your head than a random spoken phrase from a conversation. For the language learner, this “ea rworm” (or, in German, Ohrwurm) phenomenon is a sign that music can be good for getting new vocab and syntactic patterns stuck in your head.The trick is to find some songs you really like in the language youre trying to learn (check out previous blog posts for ideas on Spanish, French, German, Chinese and Japanese songs) and listen to them repeatedly.As you get to know them, youll find you passively learn some of the vocab they use (although you may have to look up words you dont recognize). Perhaps more importantly, though, because the musical structure of the songs lines up with the grammatical structure of the lyrics, youll also find that you internalize the grammatical constructions used in the songs more deeply and develop a better ability to parse the grammar of spoken language on the fly.8. Slow ListeningBecause a lot of the listening material available in a given language tends to already assume advanced listening comprehension skills, getting started working on listening comprehension can be daunting.For beginning and intermediate listeners, one of the best ways to bridge the gap between where your listening is and where you want it to be (to understand the fast-spoken language most movies, newscasts, etc. use) is to listen to content that uses slower language. You can do this either by finding content in slow-spoken language directed specifically at language learners or, if youre feeling resourceful, by taking whatever content you want and slowing it down yourself.News in SlowFor many languages, there are regularâ€"often weeklyâ€"podcasts you can subscribe to that report the news in slower spoken language. Many of these podcasts also include quizzes and other supplements with each episode to test and reinforce your listening.Perhaps most notably, Linguistica 360 provides a “News in Slow” series for Spanish, French and Italian learners. Theres also News in Slow Japanese and Slow Chinese.There might be equivalents in other languages Im not aware ofâ€"and if there arent, Im betting there will be soon because these are a godsend for improving listening comprehension.Slow PlaybackIf you want to create slowed-down versions of other listening material, you can also use the freely available audio editing software Audacity to slow down playback for anything you have an audio file (WAV, MP3, etc.) of. Audacity is very powerful software with many features, but for language learning purposes, creating slowed-down versions of audio files is quick and easy.Besides being able to slow down any audio file you want, making your own slow listening materials also has the benefit of giving you control over how much you want to slow things down. You can try everything from ridiculously slow to almost imperceptibly slowerâ€"heck, you can even make things faster if you want to give yourself a challenge!Many audio and video players, including YouTubes video player, also give you the option of slowing down playback. Its worth playing around with, but keep in mind that these programs tend to be more heavy-handed in the changes they make and often distort the audio so much that the slowed-down version is harder to understand than the original.9. Listening and SpeakingListening and speaking are closely interrelated, and just as linking your listening practice to your reading practice will make you better at both listening and reading, “cross-training” between listening and speaking will make you a more fluent speaker as well as a more effective listener.This cross-training is relatively easy to do: Just pause and repeat what youre hearing aloud sometimes when youre listening to newscasts, audiobooks and so on.Even better, try recording yourself, too, so you can compare with the content youre listening toâ€"its worth keeping in mind that the sounds we think are coming out of our mouths and the sounds actually coming out of our mouths arent always one and the same!No matter what specific techniques youre using to improve your listening comprehension, remember to always listen for the big picture. Try to get the gist of whatever youre hearing, and dont get too hung up on individual words you cant understand.Its the difference between understanding and translating, and the best way to get better at listening is to aim for the former. You might have noticed that many of the listening exercises described above are ways of getting at the big picture.For example, re-listening is a way of starting with the big picture and working your way down to the details later, and using context is a way of drawing on your pre-existing knowledge of what the big picture is to make listening simpler.This “big picture” approach gets at the heart of the difference between learning with the eye and learning with the ear. The eye can look where it wants and focus in on small details. But with the ear, information moves by quickly and youre limited to what you can remember.So youre forced to listen for the big picture and gra b onto whatever details you can. Its a different way of engaging with language, which is why listening comprehension can be so tricky to work on.But if you make your ears your friendsâ€"by using some of the techniques listed here to break the iceâ€"youll find that they add an entirely new dimension to your language learning toolbox.By making listening an integral part of your language practice, you end up with a deeper, more natural grasp on whatever language youre learning!