full speed lower intermediate material?

[edelweis]

cslpod intermediate is the right level for me, but I'm afraid I'll never get used to listening to people speaking at a normal speed...

So are there online audio resources with lower-intermediate vocabulary and grammar but spoken at a normal speed?

[Daniw de Leon]

If you mean native conversation speed then 8'd suggest popupchinese.com. Even their beginner lessons are often in native speeds。

[edelweis]

thank you for the suggestion! I listened to an intermediate dialogue and it sounds nice - faster than cslpod but slower than radio.

[Meng Lelan]

Chinese Pod - look at the Intermediate lessons they made earlier on, about a few years ago. They're recorded at a leisurely pace not the squirrely hyperactive fast that the later Intermediate lessons are done.

[Scoobyqueen]

but I'm afraid I'll never get used to listening to people speaking at a normal speed...

I think you are being too hard on yourself and I think you will be able to achieve this. You must continue to choose material one or two levels above your current level at least for some of the time and then take it in small doses, continue to rewind to catch everything. It will come eventually. Everyone I think feels like you. It takes perseverance though which I think you probably have (in abundance).

[edelweis]

@Meng Lelan: actually I find the cslpod intermediate files are too slow... but I like the all Chinese format.

Listening to the radio is too hard right now both because of level and speed.

I will check out Chinese pod, thanks

[edelweis]

@scoobyqueen: thank you for your encouraging words.

I just only realized that the cslpod lessons, although very good overall, do not help me improve normal speed listening comprehension because the dialogue and explanations are spoken slowly (the dialogue is repeated faster at the end of the track but that's only 5% of the lesson). The "Chinese with ease" tracks are even slower... I think perhaps some of the hanyufeng books audio tracks would be suitable but I am using those for reading practice.

Trying to parrot a radio recording was a very sobering experience (both the speed and vocabulary were way too difficult) which made me realise I really need some resources at cslpod intermediate difficulty but faster speaking speed

[马盖云]

On the topic of slow speed versions of CLSPOD dialogs (and I have noticed the same with PoPup chinese and Chineseclass 101 as well as the Chinese Breeze Book/CDs) The slow speed version is just the original file digitally slowed down in an audio editor. This does not make for a good listening experience. Some of the stuff that happens when you speak fast (slurring words together, etc.) do not translate well to a slowed down version. I'm sure it is nominally cheaper to produce (3 minutes of voice-talent salary - big whoop!)but I'd much rather have a version respoken slowly with the words distinct.

anyone else?

Oh, and back to the OP's topic, have you checked out "Slow Chinese"? I know it sounds counter intuative to your request, but it is actually just interesting essays read out in a decent, normal voice. It is not "slow" by any means.

Also, the news reports put out by iMandarinPod (under Podcasts, then click: special chinese) are pretty good for nicely read essays.

EDIT:

Sorry, I may have been mistaken on my including PopUp and Chinese Class101 in my rant, Trevelyan says they do not slow it down electronically.

[Kiz]

You can watch 非诚勿扰.

it's a very popular Chinese TV show, although it's quite 俗. You can google it or just go to youku.com(China's online video website, quite like Youtube). It meets your requirement of vocabulary and grammar, but the speed might be a little fast.

Hope it helps.

[BaoMiHua]

+1 for 非诚勿扰, I've been using it for listening practice too, it has wide variety of different people talking, and except for 乐嘉, most people don't speak too fast. Plus there are subtitles to help if you don't catch all of the talking.

Mostly quite simple topics and talking is happening most of the time, unlike normal TV series where there might be dramatic pauses or other silent moments.

[chinopinyin]

You may useful the VLC media player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/), since it allows you to adjust the audio speed (both slowing down and speeding up are possible)

[edelweis]

Hello all,

thank you for the recommendations . I will definitely be checking out 非诚勿扰 and trying Slow Chinese again.

I was not aware that cslpod tracks were artificially slowed down, speeding them up is one of the things I'm going to try...

@chinopinyin: I had heard about using sox to speed up audio tracks, but vlc definitely easier to use. thanks.

[trevelyan]

On the topic of slow speed versions of CLSPOD dialogs (and I have noticed the same with PoPup chinese and Chineseclass 101 as well as the Chinese Breeze Book/CDs) The slow speed version is just the original file digitally slowed down in an audio editor.

Just to chime in, while other programs might do this, I can confirm we don't with either Popup Chinese or ChineseClass101. Podcasters will often repeat the dialogues at a slower pace during the line-by-line, but there's no audio manipulation. ChineseClass101 has a slower dialogue version, but it is the usual voice actors recording at a slower pace.

It can actually be tough to get people to slow down and keep natural rhythm (most native speakers can't do it), so I can understand why some programs might want to do it. But in about three years of audio production to date, we've only tweaked the tempo three or four times -- and all on isolated lines in our Cantonese podcasts where voice actors were speaking too quickly the first time around and weren't around to retake.

[马盖云]

不好意思！

Sorry, Trevelyan, I have ammended my post. Thanks for the clarification.

[wrbt]

I liked the content of SlowChinese as well but wanted closer to native speeds so I used some free tool I downloaded to speed the audio up 20%. It sounded surprisingly good!

Did the first 30 (which I still have if anyone interested) when I went to do more found out the free download is past its trial period, so when I get around to it need to go dig into the registry to clean that out.