tips on speaking better chinese

[赫杰]

Hi all,

After working hard this past six months on getting my listening skills caught up with my speaking skills, I have recently noticed during conversations my listening skills have not only caught up with my speaking, but passed it. (So happy) So now I got good confidence in my speaking and listening, I am ready to turn the emphasis back to speaking. I find that my ways to express myself has also improved, but I have lost a little of that "fluidity" that I had previously (due to countless hours of watching tv and news and not interaction).

I have seen some great suggestions on the site, most notably finding a "brutal" chinese friend/tutor to correct you, also saw some more good study material from Roddy.

So besides these methods and the obvious need to talk as much as possible with peeps, what other tips do you guys suggest? Here are some of my thoughts:

Despite being fortunate enough to pick up the basic speaking aspect quickly early in my studies, I personally believe speaking (as well as writing papers) will eventually prove to be the most difficult aspect to really grasp for all chinese students, because it is more of a "thought" problem, I must admit I usually do use chinese to think these days, but that does not mean I think in authentic chinese, so when I speak even if the grammar is correct, it still just sounds weird...and I think my thoughts in chinese are too "simple" when I speak my thoughts I always want to expand them to make it sound better...ughhh...which sometimes leaves me at a loss...

I was thinking of making a small list of topics, nothing too deep, just conversational material and then spend everyday just speaking my thoughts (to myself) on the topic and coming up with counter questions or something, just trying to find a feeling that I don't know how to express in Chinese, and trying to use appropriate and authentic expressions to express myself.

What do you guys think?

:help

Thank you

HJ

[WoAiJolinTsai]

Can you explain how you improved your listening skills? I'm in the same boat as you were.

Thanks

[adrianlondon]

I have great listening skills; I just don't understand what's being said :-)

OK, crap joke, but ... simply listening to other people chat in Mandarin, even if you don't understand what they're on about, helps. You'll suddenly get taught something which you heard one of your friends say in conversation, and you'll therefore know what it sounds like when spoken at "normal" speed. Also, you get to pick up certain phrases after a while and, if you think you can parrot it back, can ask your friend what it meant.

[赫杰]

Improved listening by basing studies first around news radio and then cctv.

please see

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/6967-will-this-work-to-develop-listening-skills&page=4&highlight=cctv

no tips on speaking? 555:cry:

[Long Zhiren]

(1) Watch some movies or documentaries in Chinese. I like the IMAX documentaries (can talk all about Alaska, polar bears and glaciers in Mandarin! woo-hoo!) However, I'm O.D.'d on movies now and can't watch any more.

(2) Join an appropriate Toastmasters group.

(3) Practice tongue twisters, singing, etc. http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/zh.htm

[xiaojiang216]

If you have some free time on your hands, why not go on www.chinesepod.com? You can listen to some of the broadcasts that may be above your comfort level. If you listen to them a few times, you will definitely get much more comfortable with the content.

I hope John Pasden does some more podcasts! I love his charisma!

[imron]

The best way I've found to improve speaking, is to record myself and compare it to a native speaker saying the same thing.

As your listening skills are already quite high, I'm sure you can tell when someone is speaking good Chinese or bad Chinese, and so why not apply this on yourself

So, first, download a program like Audacity which allows you to record/edit yourself on the computer.

Then, take a sound recording of a native speaker that you have and that you are already quite familiar with - for example, the CRI broadcasts, or if you think they might be a bit too formal for speaking practise then you could try recordings from one of the TV shows.

In the beginning, just take a small portion of it (maybe even 5-10 seconds), and record yourself saying the same thing - without using the script as an aid. Make sure you understand what you're saying and try to match it as close as possible with speed and tone to the native speaker. Then, compare your recording with the original version, making note of where your recording was different and how to correct this difference. Then continue recording, comparing and correcting until you decide that your Chinese is close enough to what you define as acceptable.

Then gradually start to increase the length of time of your recordings, 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes etc.

As the length of time increases, and because you're not using the script as an aid, you'll be starting to internalise various speech patterns, and this will then be reflected in the way you speak about other things.

[赫杰]

Thanks imron! I like this idea! I am scared to listen to myself speak though haha:oops:

Another exercise that I remember that helped my speaking back when I was based my studies around conversations, is reading aloud texts and dialogues and trying to match the speed and rhythm of like the news reporters and stuff. This seemed to help a little, and definately helped my listening.

So I think I will try this method out, supplement it with that method that I previously said, and start watching a little more of speaking relating dramas and less of investigative reports and news and stuff. hmm, the more I think about the method of creating some common questions the more I like it.

Any more suggestions?

Thanks

[Language Guy]

I remember when I was studying for the French Advanced Placement Test for college. There was an oral part, and fluidity was was more important than correctness.

So what I did is while I was walking around the house or outside, I would talk to myself about what I see out loud and what I think of what I'm seeing. Usually your mind will sidetrack and you'll start talking about other things entirely. All this is great for your vocabulary.

But I must admit, seeing the same thing day after day (like inside your home) or a drive to work or a walk to the store can get very old. When those got old, I would talk to myself about political issues or something, where there are alot of points and information to touch upon.

I hope this helps a little bit with speaking practicing.

[Hero Doug]

I've used this teaching english, but it can be applied easily to any language.

The idea is to get you thinking quickly and speaking very quickly.

Get small pieces of paper, and write a word or phrase on each one, then, make a story using the words/phrases as a guide. You always want to be speaking and never taking a moment to think. Just look at the new word/phrase, and incorperate it in within a few sentences, pick a new word/phrase, and incorperate that as quickly as possible, and so on and so on.

[赫杰]

Okay, in hopes of improving my speaking I have been doing lots of 自言自语 lately. Usually while walking to places and classes I quietly talk to myself, which I am sure makes me appear a little crazy, haha o well. I created a bunch of common questions that, in my experience, is often asked, you know, questions relating to government, law, society, weather, food, stuff like that. So this where I meet a problem:

After I answer the basic question, and say a couple of sentences I just don’t know what to say, which is understandable because there is no one there to ask questions to initiate a response. So I am like, well I will start thinking of what to say in English, that should help...not at all, I just can't think of anything more to say on the topics. And a couple of sentences is not enough, I need an initiator, a spark, to create that feeling of the need to express something, so this is what I was thinking:

Doing some translating from English to Chinese. I was thinking about reading some English articles on the topics and searching for some expressions that I don’t know that I don’t know how to say in Chinese, this way, when those feeling come up in English, I will be prepared to use Chinese to convey the meaning?

Anyone tried this? What do u guys think?

Thanks

HJ

[赫杰]

yeah...so...im back, still working on speaking here, haha, as expected, ok just wanted to add something real quick for those who are still having the problem, like myself. Personally, just to reiterate what Roddy said on the subject three years ago, no matter how much you think about it, or how many different ways you think of to improve your speaking, I think it all comes done to putting yourself in situations that forces you to speak and doing this as much as freaking possible (like many many hours a day in many people's case). But I just wanted to add something,

If you are a kind of naturally quiet introvert person like myself that does not like to keep many friends and usually just likes to listen, then getting better will definitely be a big challenge...on any level. But whatever the case I just wanted to say, be yourself, try to act like your usual self as much as possible.

In comparison to me being with my friends while in America, I have recently realized I act really differently around my Chinese friends in one aspect, I don't make a lot of jokes. It is naturally for me to be quiet, but with my good friends I will often say random things and act like a retard just to get a laugh out of them. But here, perhaps because of the culture difference, it was only until recently that I have started to make jokes, and have realized something, I think all countries like a good retard, haha. Anyway, just be yourself and don’t let the culture change you into something you actually not. If you like to make jokes, than do that, I have also found they will make similar jokes (but of course will seem more funny to them) which is good for you to mimic later when you want to get a rise out of them or something.

Just some quick random thoughts

HJ

[heifeng]

Okay, in hopes of improving my speaking I have been doing lots of 自言自语 lately. Usually while walking to places and classes I quietly talk to myself, which I am sure makes me appear a little crazy, haha o well.

Are you in Beijing b/c I know I saw some foreigner talking to himself last week! hahah

Well other than just talking to people as much as possible, maybe take a class just on speaking. Even something like a class aimed at the advanced HSK speaking portion of the exam may help....

[赫杰]

Thanks Heifeng and no I am still here in lovely Wuhan actually. It's interesting actually to look at those post as they were written around six months ago...somewhere amid all that studying the time just slips away, you know? Since then I am happy to say I had made signifcant progress in all aspects of my chinese, maybe it was from all that 自言自语, I still do that a lot by the way, haha~~

But now I usually listen to talk shows and news reports while walking the roads, wheras last year i would 朗读课文or自言自语 while walking, that takes a lot concentration to do in place like wuhan, lol.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Peace,

HJ