7 — This Is Your Right Hand Man

When I practiced my English, I didn't spend a dime. I used the Walkman and the pair of cheap headphones that I already had .

Today, you're lucky. You can use your cell phone and a pair of cheap headphones. If you drive a car, link up your cellphone with your car via Bluetooth and use the speakers of the car. If you don't have a cellphone, that's fine. You can use an MP3 player or other playing devices.

When I practiced my English on subway trains, the subway trains were so loud that I had to turn up the volume. I remember so clearly that I turned the volume up to 10 and the highest volume on that Walkman was 10. In noisy areas, a pair of noise-canceling headphones is a good choice since turning the volume up too high can damage your hearing.

There are two new technologies available today. One is over-the-ear noise-canceling headphones, and the other is in-ear isolation headphones.

Over-the-ear Noise-canceling headphones filter out what you don't want to hear and let you hear what you do want to hear at low volume. The headphones detect outside noise and generate sound waves in the opposite frequency, flattening the outside noise, making it inaudible to you.

I own a pair of Audio-technica headphones I bought on Amazon. These headphones can block off about 70% of background noise, making my audio clear enough to keep the volume low even in noisy areas. The headphones can be found on Amazon at this shortened URL . I've also checked out a pair of high-end Bose headphones that were described as much better in performance. According to the report, the headphones can block off about 90% of background noise. However, these headphones cost three times as much as the Audio-technica headphones. The Bose headphones can be found also on Amazon at this shortened URL . I've also tried a pair of low-end headphones that a coworker had at Boeing. The price was $30 cheaper than my Audio-technica headphones, but the quality was bad. It only blocked off about 40-50% of background noise.

In-ear isolation headphones are small, light, and easy to take with you. They're good for outdoor activities. These headphones are, by far, cheaper than over-the-ear noise-canceling headphones. Here is a pair of decent ones on Amazon for a fraction of the price of the over-the-ear noise-canceling headphones: .

Make sure you hear me: use these noise-canceling headphones or noise-isolation headphones ONLY if you absolutely need them. You can practice much better with no headphones or with a pair of regular headphones. You can speak much better if you can hear what you say.

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