Introduction

Before starting a conversation the most important thing is listening. Without proper listening, you won’t be able to communicate with the person and it might get you to an awkward situation. So listening is very much important in every aspect both in communication as well as learning a new language. So today I am going to talk about some useful ways from which you can improve your listening skills in Chinese. 

1.Always Set Chinese Listening Goals 

Goals are what take us forward in life. That’s why it’s crucial that you realize the significance and importance of goal-setting and apply this to your language learning. Start with a small Chinese listening practice goal. By implementing short-term goals like this thoroughly, you’ll see huge progress in your listening and speaking skills in a short period of time. 

2.Listen To Chinese Actively, Not Passively 

Active listening is where you make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but try to understand the complete message being sent. In order to do this, you must pay attention to the other person very carefully. Active listening means paying careful attention to what you hear and not getting distracted by what’s going on around you. Without a doubt, active listening has a more positive impact on language learning.

3.Aim to understand basic conversations 

At the beginner stage, learners generally would know a limited range of vocabulary and sentences. Therefore, to avoid confusion caused by having too many extra words and complicated sentence structures, it’s suggested that learners focus mainly on understanding the words and phrases that they have learned. 

4.Audio learning 

Audio learning is especially useful in balancing your ability between reading and listening. When learning new words, learners usually start with reading, while the listening part may be neglected. So, the suggestion is that you learn with both textbooks and audio. You can start with listening to the text once, then read it to learn the new words. 

5.Real life one-on-one practice 

To further enhance your listening skills, practice is essential. As a beginner, being able to practice the content you’ve learned would build a stronger base for improving your listening. Therefore, we suggest you find a well structured course, you can check it out here.

6.Watch Chinese videos and shows with subtitles 

At this point, you may want to get away from purely text-based studying, right? It’s a good idea to now learn from things that are close to daily living. Why not try to watch Chinese shows, movies, or video clips, with the help of subtitles? This will not only hone your listening skills, but you may be able to learn some new words and phrases.

7.Get immersed in the Chinese environment 

To do so, it’s highly recommended that you immerse yourself in a complete Chinese-speaking environment for a certain period of time. Relocating to China is a good option but not everybody can do this under the circumstances. So, create it with other learners! 

8.Be selective on listening topics 

You should improve your listening topic by topic. When listening to something incredibly broad like a radio broadcast, it is incredibly difficult to discover the topic and the conversation can shift once you have some idea on what the hosts are talking about,instead, prioritize listening activities where it benefits you.

9.Choose your listening environments wisely.

Let’s say you are learning from China, try frequenting areas where you are likely to listen to a topic that you want to learn. Let’s imagine your goal is to improve your listening skills while shopping. The best way to do this in China is to visit busy shopping areas and listen to locals. Find areas where you are likely to immerse yourself in a topic of use and interest to you. 

10.Use tools like ChinesePod as a primary resource for listening to content 

Relying solely on your textbooks will only introduce you to a small sliver of content you should be learning. For exposure to a vast amount of listening content on relevant topics, try out ChinesePod.ChinesePod’s learning approach is also really effective in allowing you to choose what you want to learn at your own level and pace. It also mimics the way we learn our first language by focusing on listening rather than reading. 

11.Focus on listening to content suitable to your level 

If you are a beginning learner, you are not at all likely to improve your listening, let alone understand anything when watching a film in Chinese. All of this amounts to wasted time. Therefore, prioritize content that is specific to your listening level.

12.React to what you hear 

Listening isn’t enough. You also need to “react” to what you’ve listened to. This reaction gives you the opportunity to make sure if the information you got was correct, and understood correctly, and whether you could give an appropriate response in the situation.