Comments on: Chinese listening ability, a matter of practice?

By: Diversified learning is smart learning | Hacking Chinese

Diversified learning is smart learning | Hacking Chinese — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 10:02:53 +0000

[…] when I cook, when I wash the dishes afterwards, before falling asleep in the evening. And so on. The more the merrier. Of course, I don’t listen very attentively all the time, but that’s not the point. Here […]

By: Is Chinese difficult to learn? | Hacking Chinese

Is Chinese difficult to learn? | Hacking Chinese — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 11:11:46 +0000

[…] everything I’ve written about listening ability here on Hacking Chinese, improving listening ability is still mostly a matter of practice. Sure, you can use different methods to improve faster, but the results will be more dependent on […]

By: How I Taught Myself Chinese – china

How I Taught Myself Chinese – china — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 21:32:15 +0000

[…] China, traversing the country numerous times (more than 120 cities!) in 2003. I learned to speak, listen (understand), and read (using a Bible, dictionary, maps, menus, signs) Chinese naturally that way, […]

By: 7 ideas for smooth and effortless Chinese listening practice | Hacking Chinese

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 08:34:12 +0000

[…] good news is that the solution is easy to describe: listen more; quantity really is king. The bad news is that just because the solution is easy to describe, it doesn’t follow that […]

By: Peter Moffitt

Peter Moffitt — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 15:31:45 +0000

I will use my Cubase to slow down Mandarin newscast, sountracks from tv episodes, etc. I can slow down wav files without lowering the pitch!
I am excited to see if this will help me break the log-jam and internalize connections between words, ideas!
D’oh! Of course!!

By: The 10 best free listening resource collections for learning Chinese | Hacking Chinese

Tue, 11 Nov 2014 12:09:09 +0000

[…] As I have argued elsewhere, improving listening ability is mostly a matter of practice; you need to listen a lot. In this article, I want to suggest some resources to make that easier. […]

By: Hint

Hint — Fri, 31 May 2013 20:28:29 +0000

I improved my listening by … listening a lot. You just do it a lot and you just get used to this language. I also recommend to listen to language while you’re sleeping – not too loud, but be sure you can hear it even if you move a little. Few nights with listening to some recordings maybe won’t change you’re listening skill dramaticaly but it’s worth trying I think (5 nights = about 40 HOURS of listening)

By: Listening strategies: An introduction | Hacking Chinese - 揭密中文

Listening strategies: An introduction | Hacking Chinese - 揭密中文 — Fri, 31 May 2013 15:59:14 +0000

[…] directly related to listening ability: Listening ability, a matter of practice? Make sure listening isn’t a practical problem Listening to the listener How to find more time to […]

By: Olle Linge

Olle Linge — Sun, 12 May 2013 01:59:56 +0000

In reply to Adam. Great suggestion! I used to do this a lot. I used to take news broadcasts and transcribe them. Audacity was my best friend, especially the "change tempo" function (note that if you change speed, the pitch will change, too).

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 11 May 2013 22:22:41 +0000

I highly recommend listening at different speeds. I can listen to my native language at double speed, but in certain circumstances can’t keep up with Chinese (for example, listening to the news); a great hack is to download audio & slow it down using Audacity. I wouldn’t recommend slowing down *everything* because you do want to push yourself to get faster over time, but it makes listening much less frustrating & studying easier.

Audacity – http://audacity.sourceforge.net/