My listening experience of FEN
　　　　　　　　　(the Far East Network)
　　　　　　　　　currently called
　　　　　　　　　AFN (American Forces Network)

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Series 7



　　　　　　　　　　　Takao Nakanishi

　　　　　　　　　　　February 15, 2000





　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Contents

　　　　　　　Preface

　　　　　　　1. How to overcome language barrier　　　　　　　　

　　　　　　　2. Hearing comes first before reading 　　

　　　　　　　3. How the ears are developed 　

　　　　　　　4. How I have overcome my first hearing obstacle…noise

　　　　　　　5. How I have overcome my second hearing obstacle…word sounds

　　　　　　　6. How quickly the meaning is injected into the sound of a word　　　

　　　　　　　7. How to sustain a meaningful word in one's memory　 　

　　　　　　　8. Hearing phrases and clauses is not easy

　　　　　　　9. Progressive development of listening ability

　　　　　　10. My learning curve of FEN listening

　　　　　　11. Listening is instrumental to reading, writing and speaking


　　　　

　　8. Hearing phrases and clauses is not that easy

　　　A phrase is a sequence of few words conveying a single thought. It is a group of
　　two or more words that function as a grammatical structure. Hearing a phrase
　　requires the sustenance of memory of grouped words including very obscurely
　　pronounced prepositions. This is not that easy. Suppose that the phrase is made
　　of three words, then we must tackle each word within a time limit from hearing
　　the words to determining their meanings to finally remembering them. If one-word
　　memory is one-dimensional, then three-word memory is two-dimensional. It needs
　　to be semantically compounded. If the phrase consists in three words: A, B and C,
　　we must do the following tasks simultaneously: Catching C while processing B, and
　　remembering A. It is a kind of trick as A has no sooner registered in our
　　consciousness than B has and so on. But this is still just the beginning. When it
　　comes to a clause, it is more than two-dimensional. In the case of a clause, it
　　compasses more than triple the amount of words that a phrase does. This means
　　that the more words a clause has, the longer our memory must last. This is a really
　　hard task. A clause is a group of words containing a subject and verb, usually
　　forming part of a compound or complex sentence. The sentence structure is easily
　　recognized in reading, but not in hearing. The verb portion, especially, is
　　tremendously difficult to catch. As compared with an entire length of a sentence,
　　the verb is usually so short and centrally located that it is easily skipped
　　phonetically from our attention. In addition to this, we are not trained syntactically
　　or semantically to tackle the meaning of a sentence in subject-verb-object order
　　because Japanese structure is formed in subject-object-verb order. Without
　　the sense of the verb in a sentence, it is impossible to know that a sentence is
　　complete. Without grasping the verb, the sentence sounds flat and dull, and not
　　constructive. Words come and go without any sense of its construction or
　　architecture. If compared to a house, clauses are all like unspecified pieces of
　　woods. To make a house they must be put together in an organized way. Pillars
　　and beams, along with joints are necessary to build a house. Likewise, subjects
　　or objects can not make sentences. A combination of a subject, an object and
　　a verb can construct a sentence. It took me a few years before I understood
　　that a verb connects the subject with the object. Since this understanding has
　　occurred I feel that my listening of English has made remarkable progress. Now,
　　each word of a sentence stands on its own capacity audibly and is able to
　　coordinate with others.
　

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　　To be continued