What level would you consider this?

[jgraham11]

Hey everyone, so I'm uploading a youtube video here. First off I apologize if youtube videos aren't allowed (to the moderator) I don't know the rules with this, but anyway here it is.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Z1145x6Pk

 

I understand about 80-90% of what the teacher is saying. Of course you can't hear whatever the student is saying, but what level would you consider this at for listening comprehension? The video is 11 minutes long, I don't expect everyone to watch all of it, but a minute or two and you'l get the jist of it

 

I personally don't feel like it's a huge accomplishment cause I feel she's speaking somewhat slowly and not using advanced vocab.. At the same time I want to give myself a pat on the back for understanding haha

 

Thanks!

[WenLei-William]

Hello!

 

Congratulations on being able to understand Chinese spoken at this level with only learning one year of Chinese. This is an accomplishment on its own.

 

I would say that the teacher is speaking rather slowly and using simplified vocabulary, so maybe an advanced beginner or very-low intermediate level. If you can understand what she is saying at just one year into learning, then you are definitely doing better than most people, especially if you are not in China at the moment.

 

Good luck with your studies!

[miss-kapa]

Quite a good lvl, intermediate probably. The teacher is using simple words so it's easy to understand for a student.

 

 

[Flickserve]

I get most of what she is saying. Also 90%. I have 2.5 years of irregular learning. Non-immersive and skype.

 

I am not sure if I could have ubderstood her six months ago.

 

I would grade myself at borderline beginner to low level intermediate. On a recent trip to Guangzhou, I was at the wrong counter for the ticket but not able to understand the directions  to the correct counter. Until I can  handle basics like this, only then I can classify myself at intermediate.

[Daniel Tsui44]

Most of the time, the teacher speaks at a regular speed of her. It's like a casual chating. If you can understand 80%, there is not much difficult to chat with a native chinese now.

[abcdefg]

>>" On a recent trip to Guangzhou, I was at the wrong counter for the ticket but not able to understand the directions  to the correct counter. Until I can  handle basics like this, only then I can classify myself at intermediate."

 

Flickserve, Good for you for trying, and I definitely feel your pain! How did you finally figure out where to go?

 

What I've done in similar situations is once I realize she was saying, "Go to A8; it's straight ahead and around the corner to the right," then I would stop at 3 or 4 or 5 other counters and ask the same question that initially threw me for a loop, so as to have the immediate benefit of hearing several other people say the same thing in slightly different words.

 

And I would repeat it back to them each and every time so that I would get practice in not just understanding it when spoken, but also could practice producing the words and phrases myself. And they would correct me when wrong; splendid immediate feedback. When I get to check in and can sit down, I'll write it out in my pocket notebook three or four times using the Hanzi that I've looked up on my phone's Pleco. This three-pronged attack cements if for me: I will own it forever.

 

In the same block of time, still at the airport, I would change it up a little and ask people at the information desk for something similar. Instead of "Where do I check in for the 2 o'clock China Eastern flight to Shanghai?" I would ask "Where do I check in for the 3 o'clock China Southern flight to Beijing?" Then I would complicate it a bit and try out asking something about checking my luggage or changing my ticket for a later departure. Each time, the thrust of it would be understanding directions to go to some new place or other. 

 

The whole world thus becomes my classroom. Everyone becomes my teacher. It's a game and a sport and a drill. But I'm also dead serious about it. If some helpful person says, "Come along, I'll take you there." I demur and insist on directions instead. Being taken in tow would be cheating. It would deprive me of a great learning opportunity.

 

All it takes is a little energy and a little time; it also requires not minding if you are perceived as stupid or silly or odd. Persistence and fearlessness carry the day.

[LiMo]

@Flickserve

 

I wouldn't be so discouraged. The better I get the more holes I notice in my vocabulary, especially around practical matters. While I can now read many things quite comfortably, there's still a lot of what might be considered "basics" that I would have trouble with, perhaps both through lack of study and lack of opportunity to use them in real life.

[Flickserve]

1 hour ago, abcdefg said:

Good for you for trying, and I feel your pain! How did you finally figure out where to go?

 

This was in 广州东站. I was trying to buy a direct ticket to HK but was at the wrong counter. With a big queue behind me, a hangover from too much 白酒和啤酒 from the night before, I took the easy option and bought the ticket to Shenzhen, transferred at Lowu into HK.

 

BTW, good learning strategy. I figure I need to have a voice recorder on all the time to record anything that is said to me and decipher them later.

[jgraham11]

I've actually just started this new way of practicing that I think is pretty cool. I live in a small apartment so everything in my apartment now has like these flashcards with the name of the items the cards are on. Whenever I have people come over I take them off of course, but it's starting to work. I'm one of those people who needs interesting ways to learn or I can lose interest

[imron]

8 hours ago, jgraham11 said:

I'm one of those people who needs interesting ways to learn or I can lose interest

This is a habit you should try to break out of.  Reaching a high level of Chinese will almost certainly require a fair amount of grind.

[jgraham11]

Well interesting to me is as easy as having a conversation in Mandarin. I just can't do books

[Flickserve]

42 minutes ago, imron said:

This is a habit you should try to break out of.  Reaching a high level of Chinese will almost certainly require a fair amount of grind.

 

Disagree with first sentence

 

Agree with second. But grinding, interest and satisfaction are not mutually exclusive.

[stapler]

The speed isn't too slow (except for when she's explaining things). Anyone who can understand this comfortably after a year of study I would say has done very well. Grading Chinese fluency is always difficult but I'd say someone who can understand this comfortable is around A2 on the European framework for languages.

 

Personally I'm very much like Flickserve (god I ****ing hate flickserves ugghhhh. But that's another topic ^_^). I think I would have only been able to process this comfortably after about 3 years of learning irregularly and not in a Mandarin speaking environment.

[GotJack]

Quote

BTW, good learning strategy. I figure I need to have a voice recorder on all the time to record anything that is said to me and decipher them later.

 

Ive been thinking alot about doing this recently. Do you find it works though, in terms of memory space and battery on your device?