Now, you are about to discover the importance of Chinese listening. Do you want to speak like a native Chinese speaker? Can you understand Chinese but are unable to talk in it? Do you want to improve your spoken Chinese skills? Then congratulations! You landed in the right place. Here in this video, we will share some valuable tips that you can use to get better and more fluent in the Chinese language.
If you are continuing this video, that means you aren’t a native Chinese speaker. You want to improve your language skills. So, don’t worry, we hold your back. We have got some precious pieces of advice for you; if you act on them, you would indeed be speaking like a pro in no time.
So as our video title manifests. This video is purely based on the importance of listening. Here, We will be sharing some tips with you.
Chinese Listening The Best Way To Learn
One cannot deny The significance of listening to Chinese in the process of learning. Listening holds a key role in learning the language and speaking it fluently.
Listening enables you to speak Chinese fluently and helps you in the pronunciation of the words. It trains your mind to speak whatever came into your thoughts. You just think, and you utter through your mouth. It also improves your self-esteem, and you become better at conveying your thoughts and ideas through wordplay.
One cannot disregard The importance of the Chinese language in the present times. All the big entertainment industry, knowledge, skills are available in the Chinese language. The official work of a large number of countries is done in Chinese. It is the international language that all the executives, government heads, business owners use for the ease of conversation and better understanding each other when meeting with people across the globe.
Learn Through Eyes Vs. Learn Through Ears
In all of our schooling years, we learn by eyes. We master grammar rules, know the correct punctuation, memorize the challenging vocabulary, which even native speakers might lack. But what advantage do all those learning years have if we can still speak the language confidently and fluently. In our schools, while teaching a foreign language, the practicing part is often ignored. They just focus on teaching the language and pay less attention to actual practicing, understanding, and speaking it.
In the whole of our schooling period, we learn Chinese with our eyes. We read from the books through our eyes. Let’s try learning through the ears. Yes, stop learning through the eyes. You have spent enough time learning by looking at the books. Now let focus on our ears.
Gone are the days when only books and the written material were the sources of learning and knowledge.
Difference Between Hearing And Listening
Both words seem the same. But there is a thin line between them that separates the two. Hearing is just the reception of the sound. While listening is actively hearing and understanding what is being said.
If we practice listening effectively, we will see that our communication skills have also improved.
What To Listen To?
Now as we have got a profound idea regarding the importance of listening in the learning process. Now we would see what the sources through which we can learn Chinese more effectively are. Especially those which serve us our need for listening.
The first rule of thumb is that the process of learning Chinese shouldn’t be tiresome. But instead, it should be entertaining that hooks your attention the entire time. That’s why we say watching movies, listening to songs leaves a considerable impact. It eases the learning route and brings in joy and entertainment.
So here is the list that we suggest you start incorporating into our daily routines.
The first one is:
1. Watching Chinese Movies Or TV Series
When we watch the movies, at the start, we don’t understand all the words. That is most probably because of an unfamiliar accent. But we might get an idea about what is being conveyed. Slowly but gradually, our ears become habitual to that accent. Since natives have different accents, so we have difficulty understanding their unique speaking styles. Australians accent differs from the American, and the American accent differs from the British.
But as we start listening, we start understanding their words. And it improves day by day as we practice more and more.
2. Listen To Chinese Songs
If you truly want to master the language and speak like native speakers. It is advised that you should expose your ears more and more to the Chinese language. You don’t pay much attention to the song’s lyrics, even at times, but your mind is being trained and becoming used to the foreign language. It subconsciously keeps absorbing in your mind. And listening to songs also provides you entertainment. You just don’t get bored, and in this way, you spend more and more time listening. You can try this at any time, like driving, walking, jogging, doing dishes, etc.
3. Listen To Audiobooks
Books have massive value in terms of learning. We have read plenty of books our whole life. But just only reading doesn’t polish our listening and communicating skills. So why not shift to the audiobooks? You can hear as well as see the transcript to realize if you understood each word correctly.
4. Consume Chinese News And Podcasts
Adopting these habits of listening to news, chinese podcasts, audiobooks; not only will refine and upgrade your knowledge, but you also get to better your language command along the journey. So listen to the news in the Chinese language. If you want to watch any podcasts of your preferable topic, try to find that in Chinese.
The idea behind this whole thing is to consume Chinese media as much as you can. At first, you would have difficulty in understanding. But gradually you would improve. You, your brain, your ears will become used to the accent and the speaking style.
5. Listen to Chinese Stories
And last but not the least, we have a recommendation for you that will aid you in your learning journey. I will provide a link in the description of that TPRS Chinese course
Do you want to practise Chinese and you have no one to practise with? Do you wish to self-assess yourself to check on which level you stand? No worries! We hold your back.
There would be a link in the description below. Just click on that link, and it would lead you to the empowering Chinese learning site. Where you would learn and see yourself continuously growing.
We have interested Chinese audio stories designed to improve your listening and speaking skills, and each level is focused on a particular grammar subject. Also, those attention-grabbing stories keep you focused the entire time.
After you finished listening to the mini-story, there would be a questionnaire session about the story. You would be asked questions, and you would be answering them in Chinese. This will help you better your speaking skills.
Tips For Learning Chinese Easily
Some other tips that are extremely necessary are:
- Keep your learning experience pleasurable and joyful. Otherwise, soon you will lose interest and get bored. Eventually, you would stop learning. This is a long process that demands consistency, self-analysis, and motivation from within.
- Start with a positive mindset. Learn optimistically for the sake of earning and understanding.
- Choose diverse materials to learn Chinese. Don’t just only stick to news, or only audiobooks, or only movies. Try all the sources as mentioned earlier. Hop among all to get a change of taste.
- At the initial stages, you just understand the overall meaning. Don’t force yourself and just focus on the bigger picture for some time. Then start looking at the minor details. As time passes by, you start getting to understand all the words.
- And the golden rule is only practice and practice. Listen as much as you can and practice along with it consistently. Remember, slow and steady wins the race. Focus on “steadiness,” not on your pace.