The answer is literally 1 word.

And that word is ‘reference.’

Actually, the term I use with my students is a bit bigger.

Four words in total:

Phonetic frame of reference.

Wait, you’ll soon understand.

Think of any painting.

That painting, no matter how simple, is only a painting because of its frame.

The frame defines how far the paint itself will go and how it will be distributed.

Because of that, it also defines what the paint will mean within those limits.

Without the frame, we would just have a bunch of paint thrown onto a surface with no meaning.

In other words: the frame serves as a reference for you to understand what to make of the paint inside it.

The same happens with our ears.

Why do you think the letter ‘A’ has the sound that you just heard in your head when you read it?

Why didn’t it sound like ‘ya,’ ‘oy,’ ‘eel,’ etc.?

Because it’s the reference you have.

But you weren’t born with it, it was learned.

Just as English speakers learned to associate the sound ‘ay’ with the letter ‘A,’ you did the same with every sound and letter you know.

Thanks to the thousands of sound references your ears received in English, you learned to understand what English speakers say.

In other words, if you have the same references in another language, you’ll no longer struggle to understand native speakers.

Now, a few questions might come up:

1. How do you create this reference from scratch?
2. Why do children pick it up so quickly?
3. If adults can also do it, is there a way to speed up the process?

Let’s answer each one.

1. How to create this reference from scratch.

How about some reverse engineering:

Do you remember how you created this database of sound references in English?

You spent thousands of hours with the language, listening and reading at the same time as a child.

This way, your eyes worked with your ears to assign sounds to the letters that appeared in front of you.

That’s how you learned the sounds of consonants, vowels, syllables, diphthongs, etc., in English.

By doing the same process of listening + reading in another language, you’ll create a database of sound references just like you did in your own language.

1. Why do children pick it up so quickly?

Many adults believe the only time to learn another language is childhood.

It makes sense to think this way because children seem to learn to speak their own language effortlessly.

The problem is that no one explains why it seems that easy.

The reason for it has a name:

Neuroplasticity.

In other words, the brain’s ability to reorganize itself to integrate new information and develop new skills.

Because the child’s brain is still being formed and learning the thousands of things it needs to survive (walking, drinking, eating, swallowing, etc.), nature itself makes it highly neuroplastic to ensure survival.

It’s proven that as we become adults, our levels of neuroplasticity start to decline and continue to do so until the end of life.

“Jesus John, great news huh…”

But here’s the thing.

There are measures that adults can and should take to not only avoid its decline but to stimulate its increase to levels similar to those of a child’s brain!

This leads to the third question:

1. If adults can also do it, is there a way to speed up the process?

Yes, adults can do it.

Yes, there’s a way to speed it up.

The simple answer is to have high levels of neuroplasticity so that your brain can retain new information and make associations faster.

Thing is:

What has been proven to increase adult brain neuroplasticity?

Three things: reading, physical exercise, and sleep.

Reading → I’m referring to the type of reading that stimulates your brain, ideally fiction and non-fiction. No gossip or similar nonsense.

Physical exercise → No need to become a bodybuilder, just exercise regularly, including movements that are challenging enough for your body.

Sleep → It’s during sleep that your brain repairs itself, discards useless information, and keeps the useful stuff. This is when it will store the new sounds and meanings, so sleep well every day!

What I want you to understand is this:

In the end, being able to understand native speakers comes down to listening to the language more while you can read at the same time to check meanings and get used to them.

The issue is that if that alone were enough, anyone who lived abroad would never have problems with the language again, and we know that’s not the case.

And if that’s not the case, it’s because it’s not enough just to listen and read.

You need to listen and read with your brain functioning close to 100% of its cognitive capacity.

This can only be achieved by increasing neuroplasticity.

Hence why I say:

Comfort ≠ Progress.

You’ll need to listen for hours and hours.

You won’t understand much at first.

You’ll feel like you’re wasting time doing it.

But, you’re actually on the right track.

Just be patient and take care of what you can to speed up your learning.

Doing this, understanding all native speakers will just be a matter of time.

Do not forget that.

Good luck, my friend.