In general, aim for quantity first and worry about tweaking what you’re listening to later. What I mean is that finding the right listening material shouldn’t stop you from listening, because something is always better than nothing. If you are already in the habit of listening regularly, the next step is to have a range of listening materials, from things you find rather easy and that you can listen to even if you’re a bit tired and distracted, to things that are challenging and requires your full focus. If your level is around B2, I would say that the lower bound of your range should be somewhere in the middle of the intermediate level described in this article (also linked to in the challenge article above), and your upper bound is the advanced level, so explore those too. Note that the ordering in the list is not random, but I have made a pretty serious effort trying to rank the recommendations by difficulty. Good luck!

Hi Rui,

Welcome to the challenge! These challenges are fairly simple: you just set a goal for how much you want to listen to and then record your progress. You can also comment on other people’s activities and get inspiration from them. You choose what to listen to yourself, but there are plenty of recommendations in the article itself. If you’re a beginner, check the beginner options, but also read (or listen to) this article: Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how. Good luck and 加油!

Best wishes,

Olle

I sign up for your 2024 january challenge … but i dont think i understand how it works!!!
What am i suppose to listen? where are the audios? how do i choose my level (very very veeerrryyyy beginner) ?
Regards,

That’s a great question! In general, the more you pay attention, the better, but as long as you are paying some attention at least some of the time, it’s worth more than nothing, even if it’s clearly worth less than when you focus fully on what you’re listening to. The challenge doesn’t capture this very well, as there would need to be an intensity/focus parameter as well, which would make things too complicated for most people. I would say that the best approach is to think about what you want to improve. Do you find it hard to remember to put something on in the background? Then include that. Is the problem that you’re not listening enough while doing things when you can concentrate on the audio somewhat at least? Then count that. The challenge is for your own sake, and you aren’t competing with anyone, so try to figure out which aspect you want to improve and make sure you count time in a way that encourages you to do that!

I’ve followed your blog posts where you suggest listening to podcasts etc.. in the background while doing other work and this is now something I do quite regularly, but I wouldn’t normally count it as “listening time” seeing as I’m not actually understanding most of it.

Have you tried following the instructions? If so, what didn’t work?