Like most learners, many of my students have difficulty with listening comprehension in the beginning. If I speak at a normal or slightly faster-than-normal pace, they usually can’t understand what I say.
As such, I have tried different methods for them to improve their listening skills, and the results speak for themselves — the following method is the quickest way my students improve.
Since it’s difficult for non-advanced-level students to clearly distinguish each Chinese word, the quickest way to improve listening skills is to learn to instead listen for the keywords in the topic or sentences.
Here are 3 ways I have used to help my students efficiently pick out keywords.
wǒ shì Dora.
我是Dora。
I am Dora.
“wǒ” means “I/me”, “shì” means “to be”, “equals to”, or “is/am/are”.
We can use this sentence structure to introduce our name, nationality and so on.
nǐ jiào shénme?
你叫什么？
What’s your name? (lit.: “What are you called?”)
“nǐ” means “you,” “jiào” means “to be called,” “shén me” means “what”.
wǒ yào kāfēi.
我要咖啡。
I want coffee.
nǐ shì zhōnɡ ɡuó rén mɑ?
你是中国人吗？
Are you Chinese?
“ma” is a question word that we put at the end of the sentences to make a ‘yes or no’ question.
Normally, nouns and verbs provide the most useful information on a topic.
Nouns have four main characteristics:
yí ɡè pínɡɡuǒ.
一个苹果。
One apple.
Grammar: Number + measure word + noun
1）pínɡɡuǒ hěn hǎo chī.
苹果很好吃。
Apples are delicious.
2）wǒ yào pínɡɡuǒ.
我要苹果。
I want apples.
There are five main characteristics of verbs in Chinese:
wǒ yǒu yì zhī bǐ.
我有一支笔。
I have a pen.
1）wǒ bù hē kāfēi. (CORRECT)
我不喝咖啡。 (CORRECT)
I don’t drink coffee.
2）wǒ hěn hē kā fēi. (INCORRECT)
我很喝咖啡。(INCORRECT)
wǒ yào shì shì zhè jiàn yī fu.
我要试试这件衣服。
I want to try on this dress.
1）wǒ chī le pínɡɡuǒ.
我吃了苹果。
I ate an apple.
2)wǒ chī zhe pínɡɡuǒ.
我吃着苹果。
I am eating an apple.
3）wǒ chī ɡuò pínɡɡuǒ.
我吃过苹果。
I have eaten apples before.
1）wǒ shì zhōnɡ ɡuó rén.
我是中国人。
I am Chinese.
2）nǐ shì měi ɡuó rén.
你是美国人。
You are American.
3）tā shì yīnɡ ɡuó rén.
他/她是英国人。
He/she is British.
1）liǎnɡ wàn sān qiān qī bǎi yī shí liù
两万三千七百一十六
23,716
2）yí yì měiyuán
一亿美元
a hundred million dollars
3）bàn ɡè pínɡɡuǒ
半个苹果
half an apple
1）zhè shì pínɡɡuǒ.
这是苹果。
This is an apple.
2）zhè shì wǒ de nǚér.
这是我的女儿。
This is my daughter.
Of course, if you want to be able to fully understand native speakers, you still need to practice with full conversations in different contexts, using a wide variety of materials like Chinese movies, videos, songs etc. There is no shortcut, but there are highways!
HSK Test
General Chinese (Beginner Level)
General Chinese (Intermediate Level)