Chinese Audiobooks

[Eunice]

Hi All! 

 

I'm Asian American and have been learning Chinese since I was little but still hardly fluent. 

I've been thinking about purchasing Chinese audiobooks(fiction) to improve my listening skill but wonder if it would actually help. 

 

My question is, have you guys tried learning Chinese through audiobooks? Was it helpful? What kind of book do you usually read? What usually draws you to listen to that specific Chinese audiobook?

 

I also noticed that there aren't a lot of Chinese audiobooks that are fiction, mostly just language learning, Confuscius or poetry...etc. Would you start listening to them more if there were more? 

 

Thanks! 

Eunice 

[Silent]

I guess listening audiobooks will never hurt. How effective it is will depend on your level, the audiobook and how you go about.

 

If you listen intensively and rewind when things are not or not well understood as often as needed to understand audiobooks may greatly increase your listening skills in a very short time. If you just listen to them as 'background noise' you will probably gain only very little to nothing.

 

Depending on your level it may be very handy to have a transscript so you can verify you heard things right when in doubt. A transcript may also help figuring things out when encountering unknown vocabulary and grammar.

[metal.lunchbox]

I would highly recommend reading along if you can find the book in written form as well. Much more effective. There are many audio bookstore apps with free audiobooks for andriod or ios. try 掌阅听书 and 懒人听书， or just search for apps with 听书 in the title. 小米多看 also has some books with recordings, so you can read along. Many of the titles you find will be classics, poetry, or the traditional 三百千. I don't use this method much, but you might try it and see if you like it.

 

I agree with Silent above, you need to listen carefully or not at all. once you aren't listening closely you should stop, or go back and begin again. I found it best to read the passage first, so that I was able to keep up with the audio, and then read and listen at once again. The repetition doesn't hurt.

[Olle Linge]

I would ilke to point out that there is a very broad range of listening modes between "listening very carefully and rewinding when you don't understand" and "listening as background noise". The general rule is of course that the more you pay attention, the more you will learn, but any listening you do is bound to be much better than nothing.

 

One of the cornerstones of my English learning has been to listen to audio books (and I never played anything more than once). Of course, that won't work if you only understand a small fraction of the book, but it works well if you're listening is already okay. I have tried to repeat this with Chinese and it works reasonably well. The difference is that the range of books I can choose from is more limited. I have tried several books and some are relatively easy and I understand everything except occasional words I'm not familiar with. I have also tried listening to some novels that are recorded in a more dramatical way (bordering on a drama, but still read by one person) and understood almost nothing because the pronunciation was so exaggerated and also contained quite a bit of regional Chinese I wasn't familiar with.

 

I think audio books are great. The more you understand, the more you will learn, so it will be harder in the beginning. If you think your listening is up to par, try a few books. If you can't understand one, don't give up, it might just be that narrator or that particular author. Try another. If you find someone who just reads at a reasonable pace and you still don't understand, you probably need to find other methods to improve your listening first before you try audio books again.

[makochan]

If you know the book your looking for, there are a number of Chinese streaming audiobook websites.  Just google 有声小说 or 听小说 and the name of the book.

 

For example, depending on the level of your listening skill, you could start with novels for children or preteens:

Charlotte's Web

http://www.yscn8.com/source-1993.html

Chronicles of Narnia

http://www.ysts8.com/Yshtml/Ys12070.html

Harry Potter

http://www.ting56.com/mp3/3519.html

 

I too agree with others that you probably get more benefit from focused listening sessions.  You could even use the Listening-Reading technique and get even more benefit out of it.  You can follow the text for something like Chronicles of Narnia while you listen, and even try to shadow and mimic the second time around.

[simc]

Another option is to buy them from shops like amazon.cn, Dangdang or chinabooks.ch. Search for 有声小说, 有声读物 or 道听途说 (a audiobook publisher) and see what titles appear. If you live in an area with many Chinese immigrants you might want to see if there are any in the local public libraries.

I basically agree with the other posters here when they say unless you are already quite good you might not get that much out of simply listening to audiobooks. I basically study the novel like it is an advanced textbook and treat the audiobook like the accompanying CDs.

[Silent]

 

I basically agree with the other posters here when they say unless you are already quite good you might not get that much out of simply listening to audiobooks.

Personally I think, though the basics are needed, level is not really that important. If you take a fairly easy book and are willing to put in the time needed to loop through the audio and learn the vocabulary and grammar along the way it will take time, but is doable. Persistence is more important then level. If you want to listen and enjoy the audio book then of course it's a different matter.

[Shelley]

I would recommend Slow Chinese. This is various articles read in Chinese and as the name suggests slowly. Transcripts are available if you want them.

 

There is also help on the website for each reading.

 

I find it rewarding to be able understand relatively easily and beneficial to my learning.

 

Have a look here http://www.slow-chinese.com/