My Uni Post 2 - Listening Test
maxiewawa
October 08, 2007, 01:24 PM posted in General DiscussionI've been at 上海外国语大学 for 3 weeks now. Everyone knows each other quite well, and my Korean classmates don't just look at me blankly when I try out my Korean on them (they laugh loudly, slap me on the back, and say "what the hell are you talking about").
My favourite subject is definitely 报刊 (newspapers?). We learn about some of the things unique to Chinese newspapers. This subject is about language as it is used in contemporary China. A lot of "study" is about passing tests, learning what some bloke thought of a midsummer's night four hundred years ago... Newspaper (i don't know how else to translate the name of this course) just seems more real, in the present.
My least favourite subject would have to be 听力 (listening). All we do in listening is listen to tapes and complete exams, stopping to explain answers. The exams are terrible. It's not that they are difficult, it's just that they test you on skills that aren't useful.
Usually a long passage is read to us. Then a question is read about the passage and we have to answer it. The questions refer to a single 词 in a passage of perhaps 5 paragraphs.
By one of our teachers‘ own admission, unless you take shorthand notes while the passage is being read, you won't be able to complete the exercise successfully. My question is that why have we got a language test where being able to write shorthand is required???!!!
I understand what's being said in these passages. I can read each of the multiple choice answers. But retaining the entire passage in my memory until a question is asked about it is beyond me.
Maybe I'm just not good at listening, and need a chance to whinge about it!
My question is this:
What can I do to improve my listening skills?
No hang on, I'm quite happy with my listening skills. My question should be:
What can I do to get better at listening tests?
goulnik
October 08, 2007, 02:40 PMI wish I was there, and that's going to make me a good while, but I do feel the need to absorb lotsa vocab too. It just takes forever to sink in in my case, but it does seem to work ever time when it eventually gets compiled to long-term memory
henning
October 08, 2007, 03:26 PMIt's all about vocab volume. It was a frustrating experience for me that I still cannot follow dinner table conversations. As long as I lead a point-to-point conversation on a familiar topic communication goes reasonably OK, but as soon as a conversation really gets off the leash I'm quickly left behind in the dust. This includes even basic expressions. Made aware by Goulnik's thread (sorry "Sputnik", I stay with your old name), I found that conversational Chinese consists to 70% or more complements. I am still weak with those.
Kyle
October 08, 2007, 02:34 PMMy experience has been that to really get to that next level (of listening OR speaking) you have to digest massive amounts of vocabulary. That's at least where I am.