Trying to improve listening comprehension / speed

[Silent]

Hour-for-hour passive listening is an inefficient way to learn a language, but if you're doing something else (reviewing hanzi characters in Anki for example), it's still very beneficial to have some Chinese audio on in the background imo.

In my perception really passive listening alongside other activities has very little added value as it just changes into background noise. Passive listening while doing other chinese study activities is imho even counterproductive. It potentially distracts and may result in different sounds being connected with the hanzi you study/read.

Passive listening as in watching a movie or actually really listening and consequently trying to understand does have its advantages and is a good immersive way to relax between actual study.

[icebear]

@ Silent - agreed on your second point, although that's drawing a fine line between passive and active listening. Personally I think passive is anything I can do whilst doing something else, and still pull off reasonably. For example, podcasts on the walk to school - it's not that I'm ignoring them into just background noise, I pay attention, but its easy enough to walk around at the same time while still getting most of the gist I would get if I was just sitting down, fully focused on the podcast (which might bore me anyway... I tend to nod off even for English podcasts if I'm not in motion). The same standard doesn't apply for TV, which is why I consider it active 'input'.

Agreed with all that any additional input/distraction during a flashcard session (which realistically should be brief enough that you can devote to fully) detracts from recall and committing to memory.

[drungood]

In my experience listening to Chinese in the background is helpful - the effect is most noticeable in being able to recall commercials I hear repeated many times on Radio Beijing China for example. But I can only speak for myself, and anyone who doesn't enjoy it probably isn't benefiting from it. Just like some people enjoy listening to music while studying and others don't.

[Olle Linge]

I think the difference is what you call passive and what you call active. I think that if you notice anything whatsoever, it's better than not listening at all, provided that you're not disrupting whatever you're doing at the same time (for instance, I don't think reviewing characters and listening at the same time is a very good idea). I almost always have the radio on in the background. Do I learn anything? Not if you compare with what I would learn if I sat down and listened attentively. That's obvious.

However, even if I'm doing other things that require almost 100% of my attention, Is till hear words now and then. I might notice how a certain word is used or how an expression follows another. At least this is free reviews, but I do learn new things this way too. I know this because it happens daily. Regardless of how focused I am on something else, II still have pauses where I don't think and then the Chinese sips is. Sure, this is nothing compared to active listening, but that's not the point. The point is that I had something else to do that precluded active listening, but I still learnt some Chinese.

[Guest realmayo]

If I'm prepared to listen intently, radio/podcasts are best. But that's a lot of effort. If I'm not prepared to listen intently, radio/podcasts just tend to fade into background noise so for me they're a bit of a waste of time (less so when I was starting out and needed exposure to the new sounds of a new language). When I haven't got the energy to listen hard (which is most of the time) I watch TV.