Listening Skills

[Coys1991]

I am having a bit of trouble with listening skills in Chinese and also my grammar.  What are the best ways to tackle this approach?  Any shows I should be watching that are more of beginner to intermediate?  Thanks everyone! 

[imron]

Check out the Grand First Episodes Project, in particular the TV Series Recommendations and Index (both of which are stickied in the Chinese Television sub-forum).

 

For specific learning recommendations and approaches, consider first searching the forums.  A search for "Listening Skills" brings up a whole host of threads discussing various different learning strategies.  Likewise for grammar.

[rollo]

If you're looking for something shorter and lower level, then weather reports on youku are a good example of something useful.

I find short video ( pref with subtitles) is really good as you can go back to the start lots of times without it taking too long, and it gets you identifying the same specific words each time.

Weather reports are just an example. Youku has loads of stuff. The trick is to keep it bearable for whatever your level is...

[TheBigZaboon]

Let me put my two cents in here. I'm not criticizing, and I have no idea of your real level of listening comprehension, but I want to get some ideas about this subject based on my experience in learning languages on paper.

 

You mention beginner to intermediate in the original post. And you ask if there are programs you should be watching. If you are ready for the excellent store of soaps and dramas that people have put a lot of time into compiling for this site, then by all means, jump in and enjoy. You won't find better introductions to this stuff anywhere. But if you're not quite ready, you might be discouraged by the difficulties you encounter trying to understand real Chinese spoken fast enough for native speakers, not limited to the vocabulary in the last few chapters you've studied, and covered by background music used to enhance the dramatic effects of whatever is going on in the drama. This can be a real kick in the head to your self confidence. If you've tried, and you don't feel ready for the simplest of the programs mentioned in the links above, all is not lost, you just have a little more work to do to get ready before you are able to post your own First Episode someday.

 

The first question to ask is, "Have I exhausted the stuff at my level?" By this I mean can you understand the things in your textbook when you listen to them or hear them without the book in front of you? I don't know your actual level, or what kind of materials you used to get where you are, but it seems to me that many people go through a textbook, chapter by chapter, struggling with the admittedly heavy burden of vocabulary and grammar, coupled with introduction of the reading/writing system. When they finally reach the end of the book or the series, they ask "What's next?"  Maybe I'm wrong, but mastery of listening materials seems to be left out in favor of using the recorded material in a textbook as support for pronunciation practice and learning to sight-read characters when you are asked to read them by the teacher or TA. But I think that the first order of business from a listening point of view is to really be able to understand the stuff in your textbook as spoken or narrated Chinese, not just as a pronunciation guide. It may be a bit artificial, but it is designed to cover the basics (and most books have the same or similarly titled chapters). Listen to it again and again until you understand it. Really understand it.

 

 

In any case, after mastering what you've already studied to some degree in getting where you are, it seems to me the next logical step is to use what your teachers or their superiors have provided for you.  Most universities in the US (Rutgers, Ohio, Hawaii, UCLA) and England (Oxford, SOAS) provide vast amounts of additional listening practice material (with vocabulary and transcripts, and maybe, just maybe, translations) for their students, keyed to the level of the class you are currently taking. This stuff is often made available to anyone over the Internet. There are a number of threads on these forums introducing this stuff.  

 

Aha, you say, I'm not in a university course, I'm studying by myself, or studying in a community college or adult education course on top of an oil platform or on a reindeer farm. I don't have Internet access or my service won't support downloads, yada, yada, yada...

 

If that's the case, there are a lot of level-appropriate materials at affordable prices that can be used for a gradual climb up the listening ladder. First there are all of the graded reader series, starting at about the 300 word vocabulary level. These serve not only as readers (sometimes with vocabulary and pinyin), but also have all of the content recorded, often at both a normal and a slow speed, making them perfect for use as a tool to improve your listening. Also, there are a couple of textbooks (maybe accompanied by workbooks) called "Making Connections" (Cheng and Tsui publishers, in both 1st and 2nd editions, and simplified and traditional character versions). In addition to providing recorded materials that increase in difficulty, they teach you a systematic process for approaching audio stuff for the first time (preliminary preparation of a little required vocabulary without which you won't understand much; listening for that newly acquired vocabulary on the first pass through; listening for gist on the next couple of passes; and finally listening for details). My understanding is that this stuff will work well alongside a textbook series like Integrated Chinese, but it will work without that book just as well.

 

If you are at a bit higher level, but still feel that your listening skills don't rate as high as you would like, maybe feel you are ready for an intermediate level textbook, then a two volume intermediate course called "Exploring in Chinese" should meet your needs. This book relies on a series of spontaneous conversations recorded live in Beijing a few years ago. It provides some of the same skill sets, but at a higher level. The books are published by Yale University Press, and written by Cynthia Ning. As this is an American textbook, the Chinese is provided in both simplified and traditional characters. All of the stuff mentioned in the last couple of paragraphs is available on the various Amazon sites around the world. 

 

I'm sure I've told you more than you wanted to know about penguins, but I'm very interested in this subject, and I want to post a bit more on the topic of "listening." There are a lot of excellent and informative posts recently about this subject on these forums, but much of the advice requires software and skills, as well as commitments of time that the ordinary Joe and Jane can't supply. I'd like to think there is a need for some quite specific posts at a more practical level  about "listening," what tools to use, how to practice it, and when to recognize you've got the stuff down enough to go to the next level. There are a number of threads on this from around 2006, or so, but they use news material and news broadcasts in their recommendations and examples, which I personally think is not appropriate for listening improvement in general because the vocabulary bar is far too high.  

 

More to come... 

[Demonic_Duck]

The above post is definitely solid advice if you're a beginner.

 

Now, of course, words like "beginner" and "intermediate" are all open to interpretation. For example, the Chinese courses that I used to take progressed from an "advanced" textbook in one series to an "intermediate" textbook in another. It's arguable as to whether the latter book was actually more or less difficult, but I think it's fair to say neither book deserved to be called "advanced".

 

By far the easiest native-level content I've found is the Chinese version of Dora the Explora (爱探险的朵拉). In this version, 朵拉 teaches Chinese children English, rather than Spanish. However, the vast majority of the dialogue is still in Chinese. It's pretty mindless viewing for an adult, but I could see it being an ideal very first introduction to native content. The characters speak clearly and slowly, with a standard accent, and very simple vocabulary.

 

I'd suggest you check that out, in addition to the advice above. If you find it challenging, consider it a benchmark for entry-level native material. If you find it too easy, there's plenty more native-level stuff out there which isn't too much more difficult - mainly other kids' cartoons and such.

[Coys1991]

Ok thank you all for the answers they have helped me a lot!

[PaulSav]

I've found that talking to live people is extremely helpful for listening skills. I first started doing this through italki.com (which I am not affiliated with) by getting a teacher. They also have some features on the site which try to help you facilitate 50-50 language exchange, but depending on where you live this may be difficult (for example I'm in the states, and have a 13 hour time difference with China). Teachers generally cost $10-$15/hr, and I've yet to work with a teacher who wasn't helpful. I've done that now for ~6 months, and since have been able to transfer to speak to regular (non-teacher) native speakers around town. I view online teachers as a gentle introduction to actually communicating in Chinese.

 

As far as grammar goes, I'd recommend a combination of Yip Po-Ching's "Basic Chinese Grammar" and Chinese grammar wiki (http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/). I like the book because it gives you a good big picture of how things work, along with exercises (with solutions). The grammar wiki is nice because it dives into more granular details of specific uses.

[hedwards]

In my experience it depends a bit on what aspect of the listening skills are a problem.

 

Whenever I take up a new language I spend a few weeks listening to the radio. Preferably high class stuff like news or talk shows. At that point, I'm not trying to understand any of it, I'm trying to get used to the intonation and stress patterns of the language. I'll be listening for repeated patterns and generally trying to get to the point where the language doesn't sound like it's going a mile a minute.

 

After that, I'll generally spend time on a scavenger hunt of sorts listening for words that I recognize and structures. And trying to pick up as much meaning as I can from listening.

 

It's worth noting, that this is on top of any other studying and use that I'm doing. You definitely want to be following the other advice here in terms of speaking and listening as well for optimal results. And, dictations as unpleasant and difficult as they are, will help a great deal with precision of listening.

[roddy]

Coys, how are your listening skills coming along?

[Coys1991]

@Roddy They are going ok. I haven't been able to do much practicing yet due to finals and such, but now that I am out of school I'm working a lot harder on my listening skills and trying to hear the correct tones.  I will be going to China in the summer so this will definitely help hearing Mandarin words from the locals.