Improving Listening for Tones at Conversational Pace
Hi all,
I have been studying/speaking Mandarin on and off over the past five years (planning to take HSK5 in 2021). However, when it comes to hearing tones at conversational pace, I am still struggling and it is causing me to lose motivation to continue learning. When I have a conversation in Mandarin, I can only understand the other person (or people) from the context i.e. if they intentionally incorrectly pronounced several tones in a sentence, I would not be able to recognise they were doing so.

As English does not have tones as a means to differentiate words, I'm just wondering if there are any advanced Chinese speakers (or listeners to be precise!) who can share some advice on how to improve? In particular, if anyone can share some resources (free or paid) which offer a structured method for developing the skill, that would be great!

Thanks,
Stephen

Question

Improving Listening for Tones at Conversational Pace
Hi all, 
I have been studying/speaking Mandarin on and off over the past five years (planning to take HSK5 in 2021). However, when it comes to hearing tones at conversational pace, I am still struggling and it is causing me to lose motivation to continue learning. When I have a conversation in Mandarin, I can only understand the other person (or people) from the context i.e. if they intentionally incorrectly pronounced several tones in a sentence, I would not be able to recognise they were doing so.

As English does not have tones as a means to differentiate words, I'm just wondering if there are any advanced Chinese speakers (or listeners to be precise!) who can share some advice on how to improve? In particular, if anyone can share some resources (free or paid) which offer a structured method for developing the skill, that would be great!

Thanks,
Stephen

Answer

wave your hand to mark the tones
so
when you say or read, for example:
我的  词典  在  哪儿?
move your hand following the tones:
V.   /V   \   V.
and thus your voice will cope with the proper pronunciation
thus
after you memorize how to say
your ears will easily catch the tones from other speakers
it's "speak to train listening" technology

Answer

Thanks Juan, I think you're right. For now I should focus mostly on building up vocabulary and communicating.

Answer

Distinguishing a single tone is not so hard for a HSK5, the problem is when many tones combined together or many different words in same spelling and tone.

It sounds a such frastrating task to learn these above, any how, the real amount of vocabularies in daily life is not much, the combinations make it more easily to be identified. Just focus on a limited words and combinations would solve your problem. For HSK5 , it is  about  reading and writing, the vocabularies and complex sentences is not relevant  in daily talks.

Answer

Thanks Ethan. Do you know of any good youtube videos or other resources that explain cross-talk? Prefereably in English as well as Chinese?

Answer

Hi, Stephen. I think the tiktok in Chinese version, we call it “douyin”, is the best way to learn some jokes here. Especially the comment section often give me good laughs.

Answers · 8

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