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Learning a language using a book or a mobile app is all well and good but sometimes, what we learn by simply reading from a page or screen doesnât necessarily reflect how that language is spoken in real-life. This is especially true for a complex language like Mandarin Chinese.
No matter how well-versed you think you are in written Chinese, you could be in for quite a shock when you listen to native speakers for the very first time! If you want to fully master Chinese or converse with locals, then youâll need to hone your listening and comprehension skills.
To get you started, here are 15 brilliant tips on how you can improve your Chinese listening skills.
The difference between active and passive listening
Before we get into ways to improve Chinese listening and comprehension, we need to understand the difference between active and passive listening.
In short, active listening is a targeted and dedicated exercise where you focus fully on what youâre hearing in order to improve your language proficiency. An example would be listening to a recording repeatedly until you can fully understand everything, or recording new vocabulary that you hear for the very first time.
Passive listening, on the other hand, is simply immersing yourself in Chinese media. You donât need to be actively tracking every word you hear. Instead, passive listening helps you get a better feel of the language â understanding conversational nuances and getting acquainted with Chinese accents, for example. Ideally, you would engage in passive listening as a hobby or while youâre doing something else.
To improve your Chinese listening skills, it is imperative that you practice both active and passive listening. With that out of the way, letâs get down to business (some of you sang that in your head, didnât you?) and discover the best ways to improve your Chinese listening and comprehension!
Active Chinese Listening Practice
1. Master Hanyu Pinyin and expand your vocabulary
One of the most crucial ways to improve Chinese listening actually lies outside the scope of audio recordings and mock conversations. As most Chinese learners know, Hanyu Pinyin, the romanized pronunciation of Chinese characters, is one of the most fundamental components of the Chinese language.
Mastering this romanized system helps you to pronounce and listen to Chinese characters accurately, even if youâre not entirely sure how to write them. A strong foundation in Hanyu Pinyin makes every aspect of learning Chinese much easier, especially when it comes to Chinese listening and comprehension.
Whatâs more, as you study Hanyu Pinyin, youâll also inevitably expand your vocabulary which helps you better understand the Chinese audio recordings youâre listening to. There are a variety of ways to learn and practice Hanyu Pinyin but speaking from experience, the best way to learn using a variety of Chinese textbooks.
2. Use audiobooks or textbooks with audio for listening exercises
Speaking of Chinese textbooks, one of the most direct ways to improve Chinese listening is simply studying with audiobooks or textbooks that come with audio recordings.
Most of these books are structured in a way to gradually expose new learners to different aspects of the language, building their language proficiency with holistic lessons on vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and more.
One particular focus of these books is listening comprehension. Using the CDs that often come with the books, learners will listen to an audio recording (usually narrated by native speakers), and answer questions based on what theyâve just heard. For those who like to study Mandarin independently, this is one of the best ways, especially in the early stages, to improve your Chinese listening skill.
3. Learn Mandarin using audio-focused courses
A step up from audiobooks and textbooks is an online course that relies heavily on audio lessons.
An online language course functions very much like conventional language lessons, albeit with more emphasis on audio lessons than on reading from a book. Thereâs usually an introduction for beginners, some lessons on fundamental grammar rules and vocabulary, and then a well-structured curriculum that gradually increases in difficulty as your language proficiency improves.
Online courses like Pimsleur, Rocket Chinese, and Glossika are a good start in this regard. Both apps offer short, effective lessons (around 30 minutes each) that are primarily made up of audio recordings and transcripts to help learners practice their Chinese listening skills and comprehension whilst deepening their knowledge of the language overall.Â
4. Use apps with recordings to hone your pronunciation
A fun, easy way to actively practice Chinese listening is to use your mobile phone! More specifically, by using Chinese learning apps that specialize in listening and pronunciation lessons.
One app that comes to mind as I write this is Mondly, an engaging language learning app that offers bite-sized lessons on a daily basis. It covers a wide range of topics and themes, ranging from rudimentary grammar rules and vocabulary to common conversational phrases that learners can use in real-life situations.
More importantly, it features audio recordings by native speakers, which you can use for Chinese listening practice and to hone your own pronunciation!Â
5. Connect with native speakers to practice in real-time
If repeating conversational phrases back at your phone sounds a bit boring, take it up a notch by engaging in a real-life conversation. After all, improving your listening skills often means concurrently improving your conversational fluency.
I understand going up to random strangers to strike up a conversation is a nerve-wracking experience. Thatâs why I recommend using language exchange apps to find conversation partners to practice Mandarin instead!
And by practice, I mean by actually engaging in audio conversations, not just by texting. Youâll be surprised how quickly your Chinese listening and comprehension improve once you start having regular conversations in Mandarin!
Another useful platform is The Mimir, which allows you to set up debates (after careful reading of materials) with fellow learners, all in Chinese. How’s that for challenging and fun?
6. Sign up for virtual classes
A different approach to Chinese listening practice in real-time is to seek out virtual classes or tutoring sessions online. Unlike self-learning from a textbook or online language course, a virtual class offers you the opportunity to interact with native speakers and other learners in a structured, controlled environment.
Some of the best resources online to look for language tutors and classes include italki, Preply, and TutorABC.
These platforms are two of the most popular sites where you can arrange and attend comprehensive classes and converse with your tutors in real-time. Not only will you be able to improve your Chinese proficiency under the tutelage of certified teachers, but youâll also be able to practice your listening and conversation skills! Â
7. Study using beginner-friendly Chinese podcasts
If you consider yourself to be a disciplined learner, then I recommend using Chinese podcasts that cater to beginners to actively practice Chinese listening.
Why the specification of beginner-friendly podcasts? Simply because Chinese podcasts that are better suited to intermediate and advanced-level learners are often better used as resources for passive listening since they often focus on social issues and hot topics that beginners probably wonât be able to follow effectively given the level of vocabulary.
On the other hand, beginner-friendly podcasts are recorded at a slower pace and focus mainly on rudimentary issues like grammatical errors, pronunciation guides, or thematic vocabulary lessons. Use these podcasts to expand your word bank, and improve your listening and pronunciation skills.
8. Watch videos with Chinese subtitles
Watching a TV show, movie, or Youtube video should be a recreational activity, and I recommend that they be treated as so. However, if you wish to actively practice Chinese listening, simply switch on the Chinese subtitles, and read the words as you watch along.
Whatâs more, if youâve only recently started learning Chinese, chances are you wouldnât be able to fully understand what youâre watching without subtitles anyway. So watching videos with Chinese subtitles is a great way to actively practice both your listening and comprehension skills, as well as learn new vocabulary.
Pro tip: You can use apps like Lingopie and FluentU to learn Chinese through movies, TV shows, music videos, and other entertaining content. Both have clickable subtitles!
Passive Chinese Listening Practice
9. Watch videos with English subtitles
On the flip side, if you want to relax and just watch a nice Chinese drama or movie, switch on the English subtitles to practice passive listening.
While youâll be falling back on the familiarity of the English language to understand whatever youâre watching, youâll still be listening to Chinese audio and subconsciously picking up words and conversational nuances. Thatâs why most Korean drama fans are able to recognize and use certain words despite never even learning Hangeul!
10. Listen to Chinese songs
Another way to passively improve your Chinese listening is to enjoy some of the most popular songs. While you probably wonât be able to rapidly improve your fluency by doing so, you will no doubt catch a few phrases that help you better appreciate the language.
Case in point: I remember a friend of mine in high school who wrote a beautiful essay that our teacher wouldnât stop praising. I took a look and realized that a good chunk of it was simply paraphrased lyrics from Jay Chou songs!
Of course, as a language learner, you may not be able to turn legendary Mandopop songs into moving pieces of writing, but simply having Chinese songs playing in the background while youâre reading, working, or napping will help you immerse yourself in a Chinese-learning environment. Believe it or not, it will also make active listening practice immensely more effective.
11. Tune into Chinese radio and podcasts
If songs and movies arenât quite your thing, perhaps you can tune into Chinese radio or listen to podcasts that discuss current social issues.
This way of passive listening is best suited for those who already have a firm foundation in the language. While itâs perfectly fine for beginners to also have the radio on in the background as they go along with their daily tasks, chances are, you wouldnât understand most of what is being said on air. So even if you remember certain words, you may not fully comprehend the context.
However, if you already have a good enough understanding of Mandarin, then this method of passive listening is one of the best ways to help you advance to the next level.
Additional tips on how to improve your Chinese listening
In addition to active and passive listening exercises to improve your Chinese listening, there are also some important tips to take note of.
12. Master qiao she yin (retroflex consonants)
In languages like Spanish and French, you sometimes have accented alphabets that may confuse English speakers. In Mandarin, you have retroflex consonants â qiao she yin which is essential to master if you want to accurately understand and engage in a conversation.
The good news is that there are only a handful of retroflex consonants in Mandarin and they all appear in the beginning: zh-, ch- sh-, r-. For the uninitiated, a retroflex consonant in the case of Mandarin is simply a character that you pronounce with your tongue slightly curled back. When someone says that a Chinese speaker has a thick accent, what it usually means is that the person is pronouncing their qiao she yin with extra emphasis.
But the importance of qiao she yin goes beyond just its sound. You need to master this in order to accurately listen to and understand what a native speaker is saying because unsurprisingly, many characters in the Chinese language sound the same. For example, zang (è) and zhang (ćŒ ) sound almost completely the same but the first means dirty while the latter means a sheet.
13. Take note of ending consonants
Another aspect of Chinese to master to improve your Chinese listening skills is ending consonants. The good news is that there are only two ending consonants in Mandarin: -n, and -ng.
These are much easier to pick up since most native speakers pronounce them quite clearly. However, you would need to practice listening to Mandarin regularly to get used to it. After all, you wouldnât want to accidentally interpret çŒæ„äș (lang lai le â the wolf has come) as 篟æ„äș (lan lai le â the basket has come)!
14. Get familiar with Chinese contractions
For language learners (and sometimes even native speakers!), one of the most confusing things about Chinese listening and comprehension is when you run into a contraction.
Chinese contractions are quite complicated to understand as there are no official rules. Sometimes, words that have seven to eight characters turn into just two (such as ć„„æćčć èżćšäŒ â The Olympics, being shorted to just ć„„èż) while other times, native speakers just combine two characters into one sound, like æäčæ · (zen me yang) being shorted to ćæ · (za yang).
Whatâs more, Chinese contractions are often the result of colloquial Chinese. Someone could use a unique contraction for a conventional word one time, and suddenly everyone is using it. So, unless you consume Chinese media regularly, you wonât be able to pick up or understand these fleeting sounds when you hear them.
15. Be selective of your listening topics
Finally, the most obvious tip for improving Chinese listening â pick the right topics to listen to. Or rather, pick the right level of Chinese to listen to. If youâve just had two lessons about how to introduce yourself in Mandarin, then listening to a two-hour lecture about the Warring States Period probably wonât do you any good.
My advice is to set your own pace and pick topics that are relevant to your level of proficiency. Chinese is a language that takes a long time to master, so donât feel pressured to rush anything. Take it slow and steady and eventually, youâll be able to listen to and respond masterfully in Mandarin.
Also read: 50 Language Exchange Topics for Fun Conversations
Conclusion
And there you have it, 15 ways to improve your Chinese listening skills! You can check out our extensive list of Chinese learning resources. If youâre in the mood for even more language learning, try mastering your Spanish listening skills too! Â
well done