How I can improve my listening skills?

[Tdaw2019]

Hello everyone  , when I stated learning Chinese the only thing I was thinking about is when I can speak Chinese,  so I focused on speaking more than listening,  so now I have problem with listening,  so any advice How I can improve my listening skills?  

[Shelley]

It has been said many times by various people but mostly @imron practise what what you want to learn, so if you want to improve your listening, listen more. It seems simple but really it is common sense.

My advice would be to use the listening material that comes with your course as this with be at your level (and because you are at a beginner level its easier to find appropriate material using your textbook). If you do not have a textbook/course then I strongly suggest you start one. I recommend New Practical Chinese Reader, I have done a review and my methodology using NPCR in my Blog - link at the bottom of the post. This will let you see if its suitable for you. NPCR comes with audio for each lesson. Work your way through each lesson. Listen to the audio as many times as necessary to really understand it.

 

You can also find other listening material and do some passive listening, just have it on with out too much expectation of understanding it but use it more to tune your ear, to get used to the rhythm and cadence of Chinese speech. If you listen enough you may find yourself understanding more and more.

 

So listen and listen some more ? 

 

 

[Publius]

Do transcription exercises. Start with the audios that come with your textbook. Once you can get >95% right, move on to the next level / more challenging materials. Stop if you can't understand the text even if it's written down. Make it a habit. Keep doing it until you have reached upper-intermediate level and it starts to feel like a waste of time. And good luck.

[pon00050]

Yes, I agree with Publius! Transcription exercises rock!

[mackie1402]

I saw in another post that you're using Hanyu Jiaocheng books. They also have listening books that go along with them. The chapters are vaguely related. It'll be familiar topics and vocabulary. 

 

But yeah I second transcription exercises. Also kill 2 birds with 1 stone and do some shadowing, but without looking at the text. Listen and repeat, again and again. 

[Guest realmayo]

5 hours ago, mackie1402 said:

They also have listening books that go along with them

 

As well as buying the Student's book you can also get the Teacher's book too, which will have a full transcription of all the audio.

[Flickserve]

I think transcription exercises are a big step up. I remember being in the same position as the OP and the problem of transcription at the time was that I felt intimidated by my own lack of vocabulary. 

 

A step that I found useful was to match sentences of MP3 to its subtitles. It was part of the process of making anki cards. I was using workaudio book app to subtitle MP3s from a transcript. I ripped the MP3 from the “growing up in China” series. The dialogue is quite short which makes it manageable but the natural speed of dialogue also means you have to concentrate quite hard. The transcript was from the pdf that I found from the cctv website. I did about 40 episodes over two months. Because I had to match the times up carefully, it meant I would repeatedly listen to a sentence and read the words many times to be accurate.

 

I found listening had improved. I didn’t practice any speaking with tutors in those two months but when I came back to lessons , a few of the online tutors commented my speaking had improved. I myself felt no different but they (so more than one) noticed something different. Maybe I had been unconsciously shadowing some of the simpler sentences during the act of subtitling. A wechat friend also said that my expression in writing sentences had become more chinese like in my messages. 

 

[Shelley]

I also think transcription might be a bit more than is required at this point in the OP's learning. 

It is quite stressful trying to write down what you are hearing and then you realise you have missed the last bit of the sentence and it can all become very clumsy. Unless you are studying with a view to being a translator this is not something you would do in normal life, you need to hear and understand. I also find that you need to start thinking in Chinese to help with this process. If you are writing a translation as you listening you are still going through your first language to get to your target language. Unless you are writing in Chinese, characters or pinyin which would be even more stressful when you are starting to practice listening.

 

Reading while listening is a good when you first start, but not until you have listened to it enough to have the sounds clear in your head.

 

One other thing you could try is Slow Chinese, these are Podcasts that present you with a short article, it varies from news items to fiction etc. As the name suggest it gives the audio in a slowed down version as well as the correct speed, also included are transcripts. It used to be free now it is a free service with paid premium material. The free material is useful and if you think its useful to you can buy the further resources. You also get access to the whole library so there is lots to choose from.

 

https://www.slow-chinese.com/

 

 

EDIT - Please see Publius's post below and my reply. I misunderstood what was meant.

 

[Publius]

@Shelley There must have been some misunderstanding, I'm afraid.

 

What I'm talking about is an exercise like this: You are given a short audio/video clip, this one for example, and are asked to produce a transcript. Take whatever time you need. Pause/rewind how often you need. Put it on loop, slow it down, do whatever you feel is necessary. Use dictionaries, search engines, any tool you like. Write it down on paper or type it up on computer, whichever way you like. Characters are preferable but pinyin properly spelled will do too. The only requirement is that you produce a transcript as accurately as possible by yourself.

 

So I don't see how you can miss the last bit of a sentence, and frankly where did "start thinking in Chinese" come from?

 

It is a stressful process, no doubt. But it forces you to focus on details and not fool yourself "yeah, I understand xx% of that." It benefits you in more areas than listening, and is especially useful for language learners who do not have an immersive environment. Try it. It's for free.

[Shelley]

@Publius Yes, sorry, big misunderstanding, thought you meant transcribe it into english on the fly.  What you suggest is excellent. Hope the OP sees this and understands my mistake. I won't edit my post because that will be confusing but I will add a memo.

 

[Dawei3]

A very enjoyable way to improve your listening skills is watching Chinese movies with English subtitles.  When I first started watching movies, my comprehension of movies was almost nil.  However, overtime it got better & better.  Also,  watching them really trained my ears.  When I heard a conversation I really wanted to understand, I would repeat that part multiple times.  

 

Some might argue against subtitles, but if you are new, you'll want them.   As your skills improve, you can also critique whether the subtitles are good.   E.g., In a movie, a young guy said to a young women "我喜欢你.", but the subtitle was "I love you."  I discussed this with friends and most said they don't say "我爱你." to their wives.  They say 我喜欢你, but the implication is "I love you."  Without the English subtitles, I would have missed this subtlety.  I would have just assumed he said "I like you."  

(Later, I read the book "Dreaming in Mandarin," which has a whole chapter on the phrase "I love you").  

 

I suggest dramas or love stories because they speak more slowly and they are more likely to use words you'll find valuable  (I find action movies almost worthless in this regard).  In addition, movies can give you insights into Chinese culture.  Yes - they're just movie representations of real life (taken with a grain of salt), but they still can show you how people interact in ways different from your own country. 

 

3 classics I like are "The Road Home," "To live," and "Under the Hawthorne Tree."    If you re-watch them over time, you can see your skills improve.  Also, when the movie is very engaging, you don't even think about how much you are learning.  It's very pleasurable way to learn.    

 

I used to go to a shop where the proprietor would recommend movies.  She was great;  95% of her recommendations were excellent.  Unfortunately, she closed her shop.  Now, i find it much harder to find good movies.    

[Wurstmann]

@Dawei3

I strongly disagree. Don't use English (or even Chinese) subtitles. Just take a look at all those people watching thousands of hours of anime and acquiring almost no Japanese skills at all.

[Lu]

49 minutes ago, Wurstmann said:

I strongly disagree. Don't use English (or even Chinese) subtitles. Just take a look at all those people watching thousands of hours of anime and acquiring almost no Japanese skills at all.

But then look at the Dutch, who almost all speak some amount of English, partly because we are inundated in subtitled television and films. Subtitled content alone won't teach you any language of course, I agree with that. But it can be an enjoyable way to get a lot of listening with some comprehension. Don't do it instead of studying, but it can be very helpful as supplementary material.

[murrayjames]

@Publius would you consider writing a post on how you got your English to such a high level? I bet many of us here would find it useful

[Dawei3]

Wurstman, One of the most important factors in adult learning of a second language is motivation. Sitting for 2 hours watching a movie in which a person understands virtually nothing isn’t going to motivate them to watch more.  It won’t keep their attention. 

 

If you’ve traveled around China, you know that many foreigners speak little to no Chinese even after being in the country for a very long time. They had the language around them, yet learned nothing. Subtitles give a new learner a chance to link what is being said to English. Doing this helped me tremendously. 

 

 The anime example isn’t relevant because the intent of the viewers isn’t language learning. 

 

[Flickserve]

7 minutes ago, Dawei3 said:

Sitting for 2 hours watching a movie in which a person understands virtually nothing isn’t going to motivate them to watch more.  It won’t keep their attention. 

 

I agree with you. It works for some people but never worked for me. I just don’t see the point of sitting down and not understanding anything whereas some people are very good at doing that. 

[Publius]

@murrayjamesThanks for the compliment. But I don't think mine is a success story worth telling. I'm still learning, and as anyone who has learned a foreign language to a sufficient level can attest to it, the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know. It's a humbling experience. Besides, I don't feel it's something special. Given enough time and interest, anyone can achieve advanced level in another language. Not to mention it's English, the lingua franca of our era.

So, sorry for the disappointment. I'm more than willing to answer specific questions about the Chinese language. But strategies and methods are not my forte. There really isn't much I can say that hasn't been said by many people, many times. If you're looking for general advice and inspiration, I recommend @imron's blog Chinese the Hard Way. And to keep this thread on topic, the guy at Hacking Chinese wrote a whole bunch of articles on how to improve Chinese listening ability. Go and take a look.

[imron]

12 hours ago, murrayjames said:

@Publius would you consider writing a post on how you got your English to such a high level?

 

3 hours ago, Publius said:

I don't think mine is a success story worth telling.

 

Since Publius is too modest, here's a post he prepared earlier.  See also another comment he made in the same thread.

[murrayjames]

Thank you @imron. That post is very helpful. 

 

I should try transcription. My Chinese is at the level where I can understand Chinese speech and speak on many topics comfortably, and on less familiar topics, fake it. Still, I imagine transcribing a scene from a Chinese movie would be tricky, because of speed/accent issues. And transcribing from an audio book or news report would be difficult, because of higher rate of low-frequency/specialized vocabulary.

[imron]

I'm sure you'll find it tricky now. 

 

Do it every day for 3 months and it will be far less so.