Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning Mandarin

Articles in the ‘Listening’ category Page 11

  1. 14 extra songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons

    This is the fourth and possibly final article about Chinese music. As before, the goal this time is to expand your horizons a bit and help you find music you like. Music is useful because it’s fun and is a relaxed way of learning. We need learning of all kinds if we want to learn fast, so music fulfils a really important function.

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  2. The Cthulhu bubble and studying Chinese

    The Cthulhu bubble and studying Chinese

    What does learning Chinese have to do with the Cthulhu Mythos? Quite a lot, actually. This article is about your bubble of safety and what happens when monsters (weird, difficult cases) appear and what you should do to avoid insanity. In short, don’t poke the monster in the eye; when encountering strange cases, either ignore them or memorise them, don’t waste time understanding everything you hear or see.

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  3. Measuring your language learning is a double-edged sword

    Spaced repetition software offers a great way of measuring progress, every step forward is recorded and clearly visible. However, this is also a trap, because even though SRS is useful, it’s just a tool, not a comprehensive strategy. Measurable progress is a great help, but only if you use it correctly.

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  4. RTI, my favourite radio station

    If you want to improve your listening ability, always having something to listen to is essential. Preferably, it should require effort to NOT listen to Chinese. Only have Chinese audio on your phone, set a radio station on autostart on your computer, etc. This article is about RTI, an excellent source of listening material. It’s good mostly because of its diversity and ease of access, meaning that you will never run out of things to listen to.

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  5. 13 more songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons

    This is the third article in a series about using music to learn Chinese. The goal this time is to expand your horizons a bit and help you find music you like. While you probably won’t enjoy all songs presented here, it’s fairly likely that you will find at least a few you like!

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  6. Vocalise more to learn more Chinese

    Do you know how to make your passive learning more active and thereby learn a lot more Chinese? This article is about how you can increase your awareness of the language around you, process it more actively and therefore also learn more from the experience.

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  7. 12 songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons

    This is my second article about Chinese music. The goal this time is to expand your horizons a bit and help you find music you like. You will probably not like all songs presented here, but it’s fairly likely that you will find at least a few!

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  8. Learning Chinese with StarCraft 2

    If you enjoy playing computer games, why don’t enjoy them in Chinese? I’ve played a lot of StarCraft 2 in Chinese and even if I don’t play any longer, I still watch several matches online each week, with live commentary in Chinese. I have learnt and still learn tons of Chinese from this and enjoy every minute. As the title implies, this article is about playing or watching StarCraft in Chinese and improve your Chinese at the same time.

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  9. Why learning Chinese through music is underrated

    Learning Chinese through music is underrated. Music is a very efficiently way of improving your Chinese in an enjoyable way that won’t interfere much with other things you’re doing (simply decrease your exposure to music in English and replace it with Chinese). This article contains five songs I like, but there will be much more in future articles.

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  10. Chinese listening strategies: Diversify your listening practice

    It’s essential that you diversify your listening practice, otherwise you run the risk of performing below your actual level, not because your listening ability is poor, but simply because you’re not used to different people speaking Chinese. The only way to acquire a complete listening ability is by listening to as many different speakers as possible.

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