a problem in understanding native speakers

[Imagination]

native speakers usually speak quickly, so we can't understand the some single word.
we may know the main subject of the speakers.

all the listening tests in this forum are so clear and it benifit it .
but the slang is another problem for us .

what way should we go through to get used to listen to such conversations( slang ones)

what about Toefl ? are the conversation in the listening test clear or in slang. please help
thanks again for many exercises and tests.

[OxfordBlues]

your best option would simply be to read as much as you can. This is the way that native speakers expand their inventory of vocabulary and patterns. After a while of seeing the same patterns you will find that it's easier to comprehend what speakers are saying and that the speech won't seem as fast to you as it does today.
_________________
There's no such thing as an exception to the rule...

My blog: http://calleteach.wordpress.com

[Enhancer]

You could try watching more tv shows or movies with eng subtitles as I do, so in case you hear some new words you can clearly hear and see the way they're spelled and written. Also when listening songs, check out the lyrics, and yeah plus reading, all those ways together should help u a lot..

I guess, that it also depends on your goals, afaik there're a few kinds of slangs: aussie, american, british, NZ, canadian, jamaican... So if you're going to live in any of those countries you might have to learn a bit about the slang of the chosen country. And then there's a common slang, I suppose, certain words and phrases(idioms ?) which have the same meaning everywhere..I assume, you mean exactly that..

To me it's about the same problem, you see, English is that language where many words have similar pronounciation but the meaning is different, so when I hear an unknown word or a phrase, I can't know for sure how it writes or sometimes, when there's a phrase then I might completely missinterpret it and to me it would be just a couple of unknown sounds..Should I mention there's also a dialect factor, when you got used to hearing words one way, and then there's some guy talks completely "new" to u so you try to get used to his way of speaking but it's not always that easy..

A copule of examples: Often there happen to be some sort of a reference to a certain audience, like a reference to an artist you don't know about and you try guessing who's that or what was the actor/actress trying to say. OR there's also names of beverages and stuff you can't know for sure because you don't live in the country where the film was shot...do I still make any sense, lol?

ANyways, hard and diligent studying should fix all those issues.. we're having.. ANd I'm sure TOEFL or any kind of test doesn't include those slang words, it's not about flunking you after all...

[Imagination]

thanks .
yea i mean the most common idioms and expressions .

[Blue113]

even "native speakers" have problems understanding each other. the difference in accents between countries can be quite pronounced sometimes.

for example, i have a colleague who is scottish and no one in the office can understand what she is saying most of the time. however, after hearing her speak for some time, i can now make out what she is saying. it is like an acquired taste

i can now recognise the following accents quite easily - american (i still can't differentiate the different parts of america), british - rp,scottish,welsh (still cant figure out the accents from different parts of england though..eg liverpool vs london), carribean, irish, bermudian, jamaican, hong kong, african (still can't differentiate between the african countries), malaysian, singaporean, australia, new zealand...that covers most of the english speaking world doesn't it? lol

[Imagination]

thanks Blue113.
There are other countries use Enlgish in official dealing in banks , universities and so on.
nowadays many sciences are taught in English all over the world especially in the Middle East and Gulf countries . But the problem is that the speakers' native language (Arabic ) and the way they speak has an effect on pronouncing English letters .
e.g . some pronounce the word that as /zat/, father as /fazer/ lol