Smartphone App to

[StChris]

I haven't seen it mentioned here before, so I thought I'd let everyone know about a great app I've been using which is great for anyone looking for free Chinese listening practice. It's called Ximalaya:

 

http://www.ximalaya.com/explore/

 

It contains hundreds of free audiobooks, news programmes, podcasts etc. Here are a selection of my favourites:

 

新闻酸菜馆 - weekly current affairs news programme presented in a really fun and informal way.

 

逻辑思维 - a series of philosophical lectures about a variety of subjects, so the language can be pretty challenging. They also have a youtube channel if you'd prefer to have subtitles to back up your listening skills: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYpYY4G4T1PI-Jug8q6lNGA

 

报刊选读 - a daily current affairs show. Each show spends around half an hour going in depth about a single topic. Recent shows have included the origin of ISIS, David Bowie, and a village which produced a community of scam artists.

 

天天逗文涛 - this was a short daily show with 锵锵三人行's 文涛 giving his views on the day's hot topic. Unfortunately, he seems to have stopped the show in 2016.

 

Audiobooks: There's a great selection of quality audiobooks, including chinese-forum favourites such as 或者, 平凡的世界 and 圈子圈套.

 

You can download anything you like, so it's great for squeezing in some quality listening practice on your work to school or work.

[Luxi]

Fabulous! A treasure trove.

 

It may be just luck but the podcasts I checked seem to be at that difficult to find level between intermediate and advanced, the kind of practice one needs before starting to really understand normal TV and radio. I like the length of the radio podcasts, long enough to challenge my concentration - also useful training. Is it just my impression?

 

Edited to add: the site works fine on a PC too.

 

Amazing how resources for Chinese study at any level keep on coming. Is there a secret plot to have the whole world speaking Mandarin before the end of this century?

[roddy]

No, it's quite public. 

 

Good find, St Chris. 

[StChris]

Roddy, I seem to have made a mess of the title. Feel free to change it to something that makes sense.

[StChris]

Luxi, let us know if you find anything interesting. I'm always on the lookout for good podcasts.

[Luxi]

StChris and all, I've listened to some of the '小编推荐' feature, ('Short editorial') linked on the top left.

There are many different topics and readers, with moderately varied (but most northern) accents, duration and difficulty level.   I wouldn't say they're riveting, but most use fairly direct language and common words, without too many of the usual set-phrases and chengyu.  The speech speed is way below the usual Chinese newscasts - some more than others, without being 'slow Chinese' slow.

 

They seem to be for very young people, probably just about my level. No transcripts - at least I can't find any, but that may be a good thing if one is trying to drop the subtitles' crutches.

[Luxi]

Coming back to this thread because Ximalaya has become one of my fav resources and I've been spending a lot of time on it lately. I won't pretend I understand. Usually I get 15 - 20% on first hearing, maybe up to 30%-40% from repeated hearing, but often I get the gist of it.

 

Today I found a podcast that I may become addicted to. Title for the series is: 百思女神秀 , I don't know how to translate it - literally it's something like '100 thoughts' goddess show.' There must be a better translation for it somewhere.

 

http://www.ximalaya.com/zhubo/4312882/

 

The last podcast is a special New Year episode but there's a link to a page with scores more episodes.

 

It's for a younger audience than me, the sound effects can be irritating, probably too 'girlie' for some, but the language is OK, the accent brilliantly clear and it feels like one may get to understand quite a bit with 2-3 listenings - which is doable. Strange thing for me is, I found myself actually laughing at some of the jokes - without having to analyse subtitles or transcript (there isn't one!) to find the funny point and then I laugh 10 minutes or so too late. I very much liked the irreverent way she treats poetry, so very refreshing!