What audio-only program is suitable for intermediate students?

[Friday]

There are many situations, such as when walking to work, when I could study from audio only, increasing the amount of time I am studying Chinese.

I looked through many audio courses at Amazon, but I don't know if any are suited for intermediate students. Also, several textbook series come with audio CDs, but I don't know if any of these audio CDs are suitable for study independent of the textbooks.

- HSK 1-3 material is really easy for me.

- Much of the HSK 4-6 vocabulary and grammar is unknown to me.

- I don't really need any materials for improving comprehension fluency, so am looking for materials that will add to what I know about the language, such as new vocabulary.

Does anyone know of any audio program for intermediate students?

[ChTTay]

Check out the thread on Glossika on this forum. The fluency 1 level is around HSK 3-4.

[simc]

Have a look at ChinesePod and/or Popup Chinese.

[Mr John]

Both of the suggestions already made are good. I'd only add that I find Popup Chinese more natural sounding than Chinesepod (although, that's more a comment about the voice acting than the content itself).

 

I'm also somewhere between HSK 3 and HSK 4 level, but I still prefer listening to the advanced podcasts of each, as I feel I'm more engaged by the content - even if I only understand parts of what are being said. The reason I say this is that it might be worth sacrificing some comprehension if it leads to greater engagement with what you're listening to.

 

Based on the same logic, I'd also like to recommend the talk show  锵锵三人行. It's not easy, but they cover a wide range of topics and there's also good variety in terms of accent. If you're interested, there's a thread which talks about how to download the mp3s for the show called "QQSRX".

[XiaoXi]

Try the Upper intermediate or Advanced Chinese pod with Chinese only. Best to go with the advanced since its Chinese only. Anything lower than that is full of English and it almost seems like they deliberately waffle on too much in English about a word's meaning just to annoy you.

[Michael H]

You might find iMandarinPod useful. Each episode consists of a short passage preceded by some introductory remarks, and followed by a discussion of what was said in the passage and explanation of some key vocabulary words that came up in the passage. It's Chinese only, but spoken slowly, and understandable at an intermediate level.

[Friday]

I searched for previous threads to learn about Glossika. Some old comments say it uses a mix of a non-native speaker and Taiwanese. Is this still true or has the program been since updated?

 

 

I tried some samples of ChinesePod. Some recordings were just dialogues only in Chinese. This would not be of much help, as I need to learn new words and phrases. Some recordings mixed Chinese and English, but probably had 1:5 Chinese and English, with the English-speaker dominating the conversation too much. These are really interesting at least, so I'll definitely subscribe, but not sure it is exactly what I am looking for.

 

Do any of these programs, by any chance, mimick Pimsleur, but at an intermediate level? These have about 1:1: Chinese and English, seldom giving long explanations and offering many pauses in which I can think of my own answer.

[ChTTay]

Read this thread on Glossika

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/44440-glossika-method/page-23

I think you just looked at the older posts. They re-released the course with a choice of either Mandarin or Taiwanese speaker. If you buy the course you get both and can just use whichever you want.

There is an English native speaker...but they just speak the English parts.

Glossika includes questions/answers/sentences. You have to shadow/mimic these. There is space to do so within the audio.

Also go to www.glossika.com

[edelweis]

Have you tried FSI?

You could also search the forums for gradint, it's a tool to make your own lessons. A bit time consuming though.