When you were a baby, you heard language all around you. You didn’t understand it to begin with, but gradually it began to make sense.

Now you are an adult, and you’re learning a different language. Hearing the language spoken by native speakers is really helpful. Even if you don’t always understand everything you hear, you become accustomed to the sounds and rhythms, which may be very different to your native language.

An easy way to do this is to listen to the radio! You can do this while you’re doing other things, – cooking a meal, going for a run, driving to work. Just tune in to an English-speaking radio channel (the BBC have a huge selection) and let it play in the background. If you do this for just ten minutes every day, within a month you’ll be amazed how much more you understand.