Kannada is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in the south western region of India. The language is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala and Goa; and also by Kannadigas abroad. The language had roughly 43 million native speakers by 2011. Kannada is also spoken as a second and third language by over 12.9 million non-native speakers in Karnataka, which adds up to 56.9 million speakers. It is one of the scheduled languages of India and the official and administrative language of the state of Karnataka.  Kannada was the court language of some of the most powerful empires of South and Central India, such as the Chalukya dynasty, the Rashtrakuta dynasty, the Vijayanagara Empire, and the Hoysala Empire.

While you might be on a roll with the rest of the skills such as writing, reading, and speaking, you could be having issues in listening to Kannada. No worries, because I have managed to find 12 ways to improve your Kannada listening skills.

• 1. Listen to the natives

  Listening to the natives talk their language will give you a clear idea of their accent and pronunciation of each word.

  2. Watch movies

  Watch Kannada movies with English subtitles. This should help you further understand complicated sentences and phrases.

  3. Listen to songs

  Listening to Kannada songs will immune your brain to listen to the same verbiage over and over constantly.

  4. Listen to podcasts

  Listening to Kannada podcasts has a pretty similar effect to that of listening to Kannada music. It’ll immune your brain into understanding the accents as well.

  5. Watch known videos

  Watching previously viewed videos in Kannada without subtitles will start to help you get accustomed to the language.

  6. Listen to audio books

  One of the best ways of improving your listening skills would be to listen to Kannada audiobooks. This step should be used once you harbor the basic knowledge of Kannada.

  7. Record and Listen

  Once you’ve reached a point where you believe you understand and can speak decent Kannada, start recording yourself and listening to it. You can register your daily chores or your to-do lists and listen to them when in need.

  8. Make friends

  Let go of that anxiety and make friends with other students. Interacting with other learners will help you not only improve your speaking skills but by listening to their Kannada, you can also improve your listening skills.

  9. Listen to news

  Listening to the news is already a pretty good habit to develop. It helps you stay up to date with current affairs. Listening to that news in Kannada will help you also improve your listening skills.

  10.Seek expert guidance

  Here, no grammar-translation takes place, at all. Listening and speaking start first. A language is taught even to grown-ups the same way as it is taught to a toddler. It is a natural learning process, wherein reading and writing come at a much later stage.

  11. Electronic devices language

  Once you feel you’ve started to develop your listening skills to an appropriate level, go ahead and change your language settings on your electronics to Kannada. This would force you to constantly read and listen to Kannada on a daily basis.

  12. Practice

  Finally, practice on a daily basis. No language can be learned overnight, and the language of love is no stranger to that notion. So, pick random words, phrases, or sentences and don’t just write and speak them after reading them. Record yourself and listen. If you feel you need improvement, then work on it.

Follow any three or four tips from the above list and you can improve your Kannada listening skills easily. 

Keep learning!!! 

All the best!!!