Does anyone listen to the dialogues/audio at 1/2, 1/4 speed?

he2xu4
 October 26, 2011, 08:50 PM posted in General Discussion

I find it is very useful to get the tones and to understand the longer passages. Is there any harm in doing this?

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pretzellogic
 October 27, 2011, 02:10 AM

I never listened to upper intermediate dialogues at 1/2 speed, even when I first started listening to them, and I could only follow about 20% of what was being said. I just listened to them over and over. My take is that there's no harm in listening at slower speeds, as long as you eventually listen at full speed. It would be an interesting experiment to listen at 125% or 150% of full speed, and see if you still catch everything.

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he2xu4
 October 27, 2011, 02:52 AM

I listen to the dialogue at speed repeatedly as well. I think that helps me understand people when they talk fast and that is a big big help.

But to get the initial comprehension, I think listening at slower speeds helps me understand the meaning quicker and then I go back to regular speed.

I'll try speeding it up. That should be fun. Chipmunk Chinese.

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martijn819
 October 27, 2011, 12:02 PM

For Upper Intermediate lessons with a lot of new vocabulary I work through the texts first, and spend some time on the vocabulary.  

This way I have the context of what I am listening to.