Best Listening Resources (for Questions)

[Caladriusse91]

Hello, I have been learning Mandarin now for just over 2 months. I learn everyday and would say that I am now just past the A2 level.

 

I have been using a variety of resouces to learn - Chinese Grammar Wiki for grammar, flash cards for the characters, an app for learnng new words, but most of all Pimsleur Mandarin course for speaking.

 

I have very nearly finished Pimsleur Mandarin III and everybody here is astounded by how good my Mandarin is when I am speaking. The course does a fantastic job of teaching you how to speak the language.

 

There is one small problem however!

 

The Pimsleur course always uses an American who speaks in English and asks you to translate something. For example he will say "I have stayed in Shanghai for two weeks" in English. I then have to translate into Mandarin, say it out loud, then 3 seconds later a Mandarin speaker will say the correct sentence.

 

Like I mentioned this is great for speaking, but it is awful for listening! Not once in the course have I been asked a question in Mandarin!

 

Whenever I am on the bus and somebody asks me a question in Mandarin I really struggle! I struggle to listen. If I spot a few words well then I can usually answer them and I can say a good 6-10 sentences if I was just talking. But there are too many times now when I struggle to hear anything.

 

Does anybody know of a good AUDIO listening resource that will help me when it comes to questions and listening.

 

A reverse of the Pimsleur course where one Mandarin speaker fires questions at you, then gives you 5 seconds to respond, would be ideal! It can start with easy questions (name, location, duration etc) and move onto harder ones. But I am not sure if such a course exists!

 

Regards.

[ChTTay]

Glossika (do a forum search) includes questions and answers but it's still repetition.

I'm not sure having audio questions thrown you is really what you need. Sounds like you just need to learn these questions as well as you have the answers. Are you using a textbook? If you're in China, do you have a tutor?

[vellocet]

Everybody here is always astounded by how good your Mandarin is when you're speaking.    That's just a reaction you're going to have to get used to, it'll be a part of your life from now on. 

[889]

"I have very nearly finished Pimsleur Mandarin III and everybody here is astounded by how good my Mandarin is when I am speaking. The course does a fantastic job of teaching you how to speak the language."

 

I bet they say you speak Chinese better than they do, right?

 

Make that: "Everybody here is exceptionally polite and pretends to be astounded by how good my Mandarin is when I am speaking."

[Flickserve]

A2? I can't get past A2. :-(

I asked a couple of native speakers (not teachers) how bad my pronunciation was. Told them to be objective and honest. They said I had a lot of problems.

[Caladriusse91]

@Chttay - Thank you for the Glossika suggestion, I will look into it.

 

I do not have a tutor no. As far as I know there are no tutors within a good distance from here. But I do work in an office everyday and try to speak to five-six native speakers most days (it must be said I do speak to some more than others). I have a couple of textbooks that I use yes including a HSK one.

 

Well the thing is that I do know most of these questions! in the sense that I can ask them! I don't think members of the public are asking me very hard questions! But actually hearing them at normal speed and then being able to process all that is something I am struggling with. It's the listening and processing ability, not the lack of vocabulary.

 

I do know a good bit of French and I never had this problem with French. The listening ability came with the speaking ability so to say.

 

@889 - Geez all I meant was that they think I can speak well considering I've not been learning for long. I do not mean that I can speak better than a native, I'm sure I do make many mistakes.

 

@Flickserve - Yes pronunciation is very hard. One of my colleagues actually told me where to put my tongue when making certain sounds and that seemed to help me improve a lot. I think Mandarin uses much more tongue and mouth movement than English!

[Shelley]

Have to agree, A2 in 2 months seems amazing how have you measured this? did you take an exam? do you know what HSK level this correlates to?

 

Are you using a textbook? You should follow a course of some kind to teach grammar, usage, etc. Listening and repeating is good but you need to round that out with some good lessons. Try New Practical Chinese Reader, it has textbooks, workbooks, audio, and videos on You tube.

[HerrPetersen]

You could try the HSK-Listening portion. A2 corresponds to HSK4. (See here). However you will need to know how to read characters to check for the correct answers:

http://www.confuciusinstitute.manchester.ac.uk/hsk/hsk-learning-resources/past-papers-hsk-4/

Another way are the Chinesepod-lessons, which you should be able to find online. (There are also translations and pinyin available).

 

Finally I can recommend the Chinese Breeze books. While those are mostly aimed at helping your reading; they do come with audio-CDs, which you can use as (relatively easy) listening practice.

http://www.chinesebreeze.net/

[889]

"@889 - Geez all I meant was that they think I can speak well considering I've not been learning for long. I do not mean that I can speak better than a native, I'm sure I do make many mistakes."

 

You're taking that the wrong way. As you'll certainly discover at some point, telling a foreigner, "Why you speak Chinese better than we do!" is a very common form of Chinese flattery, not to be taken at face value. Indeed, no matter how they word it, you should never believe anyone praising your Chinese. It's simply a polite convention in China. Gloat that "everybody here is astounded by how good my Mandarin is" and you're just asking to be brought down to reality.

 

Speaking of polite conventions, remember too that when someone praises your Chinese, you can't just lap it up! And the stronger the praise, the stronger you have to reject it. In most cases, a simple 哪里 哪里 isn't enough.

[ChTTay]

Yeah, essentially if someone says your Chinese it 'not bad' or "alright" you can take it more seriously than if someone says 'wow, your Chinese is great!' as people tend to say this even if all you've said is 'Ni Hao' to them. This is especially the case in smaller cities where people encounter foreigners a lot less.

 

As for native speed, I don't know where your level is but I'd just try working on your listening generally. You could buy a dedicated 'listening' textbook and work through that, check out free podcasts (pop up Chinese for example). The website 'hacking chinese' has a lot of good stuff on how to improve any aspect of your Chinese, including suggests resources and techniques. If you can find a language exchange partner, get them to fire these questions at you at native speed or faster than usual.

 

Which city are you in?