Slow Chinese

I also just found CSL Pod.

Here is a sample lesson.

Ignoring the colour scheme, does anyone else think the layout looks remarkably similiar to CPod's?

You don't need any speaking skills for Latin or Old Norse either, (I guess.) If studying a language is purely a kind of intellectual exercise with no direct connection to living humans, one might just as well study those. (I much prefer Virgil and Ovid to Li Bai anyway.)

Power to your brainbox Simon. After a year here I was only just starting to get the hang of it. I was pretty busy teaching most of the time though.

I've come across it, but I don't agree with the "slow language" proponents. Slow language destroys the natural prosody, which is what you really need to practice in order to get good listening comprehension. It's better to listen to an audio clip with natural speed several times, than to listen to a longer clip in slowed-down speed.

simonpettersson

(apologies first: I hate this threading, so I'm only going to use that to reply to old comments)

I don't think I've ever heard the word 'prosody' before, although I pretty much understand from the context.

I am gradually picking up comprehension from the Cpod dialogs, but for the life of me I can barely utter a sentence in real time. People here have talked about mimicry of Chinese speakers, and I want to model myself on someone who talks at a rate I might be capable of.

If that site was the only source of listening material, you would have a point. But I can't see that studying from both Cpod and that site can do any harm.

As an aside, how many people here would rate their speaking ability way below their listening ability, as I do. (To be fair, lets not include Chinese residents)

"Slow language destroys the natural prosody (sentence rhythm)?"

Then every Newbie/Ele lesson here destroys the natural prosody. You are really kidding. If you're able to follow fast speech, do it. But I wonder if that's the case.

I agree with Simon. Newbie and Ele lessons here are used as stepping stones towards the higher levels. At the upper-intermediate level of CSL pod, they still play the dialogs in chinesepod newbie-speed. At that level you should already be able to have conversations with native chinese speakers on quite a broad range of topics, you should be able to watch chinese movies and have an idea of what is going on. This is done in a much higher speed than what they are teaching. So much higher that it's almost like a different language. Don't forget that even Chinesepod's upper intermediate level is still a bit slower than the real thing.

I would probably rate my speaking ability below my listening ability, if I'd ever spoken Chinese with somebody else but me. So I don't know if I'm even able to make myself understood to anyone but myself.

For learning to speak at a natural pace (it seems really quick to the learner, but it's just regular speed), I'd recommend doing shadowing. I think it's really helpful; it has certainly allowed me to speak at the same pace as natives.

Shadowing is listening to the audio in earphones and trying to keep up with it with your own speech, lagging as little as possible behind (usually about half a second or so). Working with the same audio over and over again, you can get there, but it's really hard in the beginning. Very good practice, in my opinion. It will force you to speak at the same pace and rythm as a native speaker, with the same prosody, with the same tones. That's my tip, anyway.

I visited both sites. Liked the clear pronunciation of slow-chinese, however the material is beyond me at this time.

CSL Pod has been designed with some likeness to Cpod, including the line by line dialogue. Sounds like it caters to Japanese audience as well as English. The pronunciation feature from slow to natural speed could be useful for learning pronunciation... have bookmarked it. Thanks!

I agree with what you are saying in principle...but from my experience of trying to have simple conversations with natives is (depending on your skill) that it is "sometimes" better to talk a bit faster as you can get away with dropping a few tones or messing them up and still be understood.

When you talk a bit faster, the person you are talking to tends not to focus on every word and tone you are saying. I'm also 90% sure that the natives consistently drop tones, especially mid sentence without even realising. (Or perhaps my listening skills are not good enough yet)

I recently started to listen to intermediate lessons and the jump up is quite large, but despite not yet always understanding the lesson I think my familiarity with the language is increasing more quickly.

Maybe this is to do with the "music" of the language or maybe its because in straining to understand the bits i know I'm actually picking up more.

I now have a Satellite tv card in my computer and I often leave it on PCNE tv in the background just to listen to the stream.

When I first got my 550cc motorcycle opening the throttle wide open from standstill used to scare the living daylights out of me. After I'd been riding it for six months I'd open the throttle and wonder why acceleration was taking sooooo long. After a while you acclimatise and it becomes normal, if you always listen to slow Chinese you'll probably only ever be able to understand slow Chinese.....

I agree. The main problem for me when I started Intermed. was the non-lesson dialogue used by the hosts; however, I got used to that after a couple of months with the aid of a magical online translating machine. The more recent lessons also seem to be more user-friendly in terms of the commentary than the lessons from a year or two ago, so I'm working backwards from the most recent. I'm also walking backwards for Christmas, but that's just a whim.

Thanks for posting those 2 sites Bob, I've bookmarked both and intend to use both for my personal/private study when I have the time.

It seems to me all you 'my speaking is way below my listening' people lack one thing mainly. Namely, real contact with Chinese speaking people in a situation where you can't just fall back on English. I'd have to say that it's living in China which has really increased my speaking ability, (I'm talking about being able to sustain any kind of meaningful conversation here, not just 'shadowing' or drilling oneself on tones or pronunciation from a recording.)

Obviously living outside China this is not perhaps an easy thing to arrange, but if one takes lessons from a tutor, (you do Bob, don't you? I never have,) I think there should be a period during each lesson when the tutor will just speak only Chinese to you, will 'tutor' you in simple conversation.

Simon, you're coming to China of course, but if you've really never opened your mouth to speak Chinese before, I think you're going to find it pretty hard going for a while, no matter how many CPod lessons you've got under your belt, and no matter how skilful a linguist you are, (and I do respect you Scandinavians and others who seem to have a brace of languages in your heads before you're "out of short pants", and seem to find picking up new ones pretty straightforward.)

Of course, when one is outside of China, one doesn't NEED any speaking skills.

Anyway, yeah, I'm convinced speaking with natives will be pretty tough. Everyone says so and I've never said otherwise. Especially since Guangdong people are likely to have a pretty strong accent, and probably a lot of local words loaned in from Cantonese that I can't learn from neither ChinesePod nor native media. I'll deal with it when I get there. It might take a couple of months before I can speak freely. I've got a year, so no biggie.

I read up about shadowing last time it was raised here. It makes sense, but I'd only be able to do it inside my small unit - I'm not the type who could do it out on the street surrounded by strangers, or even in a quiet park knowing that someone might walk by.

You say it has allowed you to speak at the same rate as natives. But surely that is only when you mimic the voice on the tape. If you were to have a real conversation with someone (and you say you haven't) you have to actually think - first what did he just say, second what do I want to say in response, third how do I make a sentence out of it. I'm wondering how fast you would be able to talk then. I also wonder why there is a need to talk at the pace of a native.

When Chinese people come out here (ones that haven't reached a high English language standard) and they try to talk too fast, they are difficult to understand, and I'm sure the reverse is true. I would rather speak slowly and deliberately, and make myself understood. And if someone is talking too quickly, I would just ask them to slow down. If they don't, then I would ask the next person - there is no shortage.