Does listening to the radio really help your ability?

[zh-laoshi]

I personally enjoy listening to the radio when I'm beginning to learn a language. It helps me get a feel of the sound system, listening to the local accents, etc.

When I was teaching English in the Soviet Union/Russia back in 1989-93, one of my students requested that I speak only in English to her, and she made excellent progress. But when she came to America, it took her almost a year to understand what others were saying to her as she was used to listening to my voice, my Upstate New York accent. So, listening to a radio to hear how different people say things their way is a good idea.

I still have some trouble with the Shanghai dialect, though. Maybe I should move to China for awhile...

[tigerx9]

listening blindly will probably help u get used to the language, the slight nuances and various pronunciations with different words. but u still need to vocab to be able to put listening to good practice and be able to benefit the improvement in understanding. a newbie will find it extremely challenging to listen to the news and get much out of it.

i find that spanish pronunciation is very easy to pick up, but it's the grammar side of it that's a bit of challenge. there are pretty much only the 5 basic vowels, and consanents are usually as is. whereas english, so much variations of vowel rules, and sometimes doen't follow the rules.

so, combining vocab study and selective listening helps with improvement more than just blindly listening itself.

[Glenn]

I vehemently agree with you. Listening to stuff over your head probably doesn't help all that much, just like trying to learn advanced grammar when you're in the beginning stages doesn't help all that much.

[zh-laoshi]

A beginner really doesn't have to learn vocabulary or try to translate what is being said in order to get the right intonation of the spoken sentence. Listen to how emotion is expressed, listen to how a question is toned. Without these intonation patterns, you start sounding like a monotone robot.

People fail to realize how different emotion and sentence intonation are in other languages, and is also an important part of communication. If someone accuses you of something (shoplifting, for example) and you say in a calm, monotone voice "no, I did not steal anything." - you might not be taken seriously. But in Korean for example, your response will be a little excited, spoken quickly and the last syllable of the sentence (usually -yo) is drawn out a little longer than the normal syllable with a slight dip to it.

Listening to a radio helps you get the right tone of emotion across so you sound a little more natural. As you progress in your language studies, you'll be able to translate/understand what the topics are about.

[heifeng]

What music and talk radio stations do you recommend in Beijing? All content is acceptable...I guess I could search the net for the breakdown of what exists, but I am just curious what people are listening to out here....