Best Mandarin audio courses?

[erduoteng]

Hello,

 

I have been studying Mandarin for around seven years.

I have repeatedly completed several audio courses but find that they all dont get far enough into the language for my needs.

Could anyone recommend some more advanced audio courses? Preferably ones with english translations which dont require the listener to carry around a textbook.

I just want to reach a good level in speaking and listening for making conversation and to translate reasonably advanced english articles for my students.

Thank you for your time. Any suggestions much appreciated.

 

The courses I have completed so far are as follows:

 

Rossetta Stone

Pimsleur

Chinese Pod

AllTalk

Book2

DorlingKindersly ( All courses )

Foreign service institute

Living Language

 

[Flickserve]

If you finished all of those, really you should be talking and making conversations with people.

 

Have you tried glossika? 

[DavyJonesLocker]

Chinese pod has upper intermediate levels. Some of the older ones included media extracts I think. There must be thousands of podcasts by now. 

If you have covered all these I'd be looking at media broadcasts like, TV, radio podcasts etc

 

[erduoteng]

Thanks.  I will try glossika.

I completed chinesepod a while ago but I felt there was too much English used.

The radio talkshow style format gets really annoying after repeated listenings.

I felt the same way about Pimsleur. Too much English and not enough vocabulary.

 

Ideally I would like to find a course that goes beyond the basics and gets straight to the point ( Chinese vocabulary - English translation - Character by character translation - usage in the context of a sentence ).

 

Any other suggestions?

 

 

[KanaGai]

It's not exactly audio but YoYo Chinese's youtube channel just advertised that their new intermediate course is almost 100% spoken in Mandarin. Might check that out.

[erduoteng]

Thankyou. Could anyone suggest some more?

I really want to advance in terms of speaking and listening.

I find using all my travel time listening to mp3 lessons is a good way to get a lot of practise.

 

Has anyone tried tuttle?

What do you think?

 

Its a shame Rosetta stone only goes to level 3.

It is a very nice course but they should update it to like level 20.

 

I found Book2, iSpeak and AllTalk to be quite good as well.

[edelweis]

On 1/14/2018 at 12:25 AM, erduoteng said:

Too much English

Try imandarinpod : no English.

[Luxi]

3 hours ago, edelweis said:

Try imandarinpod

 

This still is one of my favourites! 

It has a section on the day's news , first read slow and then at normal speed, and heaps of 'Special Chinese' readings at advanced, intermediate and beginners' levels. It is mostly free, and the audio can be downloaded free, and the transcript is . The 'Learning Guide'  pdf requires a subscription to download, but most of the information on them is somewhere on the web page. They also offer the podcasts in DVD or CD.

 

It's delivered as a podcast in iTunes or through this website:.

http://www.imandarinpod.com/hoola/

 

[mackie1402]

I haven't looked at ChinesePod for a few years actually, but the last I remember it had 'Advanced' levels which were all Chinese. 

[Mati1]

Starting with "Upper Intermediate" the Chinese Pod lessons are Chinese only. (Occasionally a difficult word or phrase is also mentioned in English, but the higher the level the less English.) The difficulty is surviving the transition from "Intermediate" (English) to a higher level (Chinese only).

In case you did not know, the Chinese Pod mp3s have the dialouge (not the whole lesson) embedded as text. To see it you need an audio player which can show embedded lyrics.

[Christa]

I used to love working with ChinesePod years ago. Don't know what it's like now but you could try a free trial if they still do one..

[snowflake]

Advance materials tend to have little if any English.  Maybe audios for books that you're already familiar with will work. Here are some suggestions;

1. 八十天环游世界(5CD)     Around the World in 80 Days, for ages 6-12    
2. 海底两万里(5CD)    20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, for ages 6-12  
3. 福尔摩斯探案故事(5CD); Sherlock Holmes stories for ages 6-12
4.  原装正版 边开车，边读书：开车读名著 福尔摩斯探案集 15CD;  Sherlock Holmes stories. I'm guessing this is for an older audience since there's no age range mentioned.

I have #1 to 3.  They are helpful. Mandarin audio readings of western books can also be found on the internet.  

 

If you really need the English, there are English phrase books which have English and Mandarin audio. 

 

[erduoteng]

Hey, thanks for all the suggestions here.

I will try imandarinpod and all the audiobooks too.