How fast does the audio get in NPCR4?

[trisha2766]

I'm trying to come up with a plan to improve my listening skills. I'm using NPCR3 right now and can see that the audio on the CD's still doesn't get very fast even by the end of the book. Which is ok for now, but eventually I'll need to be able to understand native speakers talking at talking at normal speed.

If by chance NPCR 4 or 5 gets a lot faster, maybe that will be all I need. If not, I need to come up with another plan.

I saw a little of 'Travel in Chinese' from CCTV and parts of it had native speakers and seemed like it would help a lot, but then they took down most of the series from their site. And it seems like it might be difficult and/or expensive to buy it here in the U.S.

I really need something with transcripts. The few DVD's I have in Mandarin either don't have Chinese subtitles or it is hard to read and the speech is really, really fast. Most of what I've seen online (youtube,etc.) seems to be such low quality that I can't read the text.

If NPCR4 doesn't get much faster, does anyone have any other suggestions?

[wrbt]

NPCR is a perfectly good series but if your main goal is to improve your listening skills and want to use a textbook:

http://www.chinasprout.com/shop/BLA077

I also like "Across the Straits" but chengsui has turned that into such an amazing ripoff by publishing the transcript, textbook and audio all separate it's just not worth the money.

[trisha2766]

How fast is the speech? Normal native speed?

[atitarev]

How fast is the speech? Normal native speed?

Perhaps not as fast, it's definitely easier to follow than news broadcasts, not just the vocabulary but the speed. The first text of each lesson is a dialogue and the 2nd is a story/article + the usual 阅读和复述. The 2nd text and the additional texts are usually a bit faster.

I didn't find any big jump from NPCR3 to NPCR4 in difficulty, so don't worry, it's a good buy!

[taijidan]

You can get the transcripts for Travel In Chinese here:

http://www.cctv.com/program/TravelinChinese_newold/02/index.shtml

And they just updated the latest video here:

http://www.cctv.com/program/learnchinese/video/index.shtml

[Hofmann]

You can use Audacity or Audition or whatever to speed it up.

[trisha2766]

Thanks!

If I'm going to get an additional textbook, I would like something that would gradually get me up to understanding normal speech so that I could watch movies, tv, etc.

They don't have all of Travel in Chinese on the CCTV site anymore though, and I have missed most of it.

[renzhe]

Nothing will baby you into watching TV, etc.

Once you can handle the simple stuff, you should have a look at our TV forum (especially the First Episode Project) and try watching some easier shows.

Nothing gets you better at understanding TV and movies than watching TV and movies. Same works for reading. No textbook will really get you all the way there. It's a skill that has to be developed separately.

Once you're going through NPCR4, it's not too early to start watching TV shows. You will be woefully unprepared, but that's OK, you'll be able to understand some things too. Take a look here and pick some shows marked easy or lower intermediate, especially ones with vocabulary lists and English subtitles. That's what I did, and I've enjoyed many great TV shows this way.

[wrbt]

Great post ninja, thanks. I didn't know there was a TV forum.

[trisha2766]

With Spanish anything I tried to watch on TV I couldn't understand at all and wasn't able to focus for more than just a few minutes. The advanced Living Language Ultimate course thing helped quite a bit. The audio isn't quite as fast as a lot of native speech, but is pretty close. After spending a lot of time listening to the audio while following with the text I finally am able to understand more of what I hear. I still don't have real good comprehension but I don't longer feel like I'm just hearing a bit blur of sound - I can actually make out the words.

They don't make an advanced version for Mandarin though, and the basic-intermediate level book uses only pinyin, no characters!

I was hoping to find something in Mandarin that would work like the Spanish LL did for me. Those Mulan subtitles I think will help a lot. If NPCR4 was a little faster, it would work too.

I'm much more visually oriented and really like to read so somehow more challenging reading material doesn't bother me as much. But when I listen to something and can't make out anything its just too frustrating.

atitarev mentioned news broadcast earlier - the weird thing with Spanish is that I can understand the news better than regular shows even though they talk incredibly fast. I think it is because they tend pronounce the words more carefully and precisely, in a way that is more like audio materials for learning spanish.

The little bits of CCTV news like stuff I've heard seems somewhat slow to me and pronounced more clearly, but I haven't found anything with subtitles yet, but then I haven't looked real hard yet.

I loved the opening ceremonies from last year and have the Chinese version of the DVD, but unfortunately it doesn't have subtitles. I love watching that so much I could watch it over and over again but without a transcript or subtitles it would just be a little too challenging right now. Soon though I hope it won't be.

Well, sorry, I've rambled on enough here!

[renzhe]

I'm much more visually oriented and really like to read so somehow more challenging reading material doesn't bother me as much. But when I listen to something and can't make out anything its just too frustrating.

All the TV shows I've linked to have subtitles.

Reading subtitles while listening helps a lot. After a certain point, you don't need the subtitles anymore.