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"Making Connections" Listening Comprehension
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CheeSaw2006 -

Has anyone heard of this, its a book with cds focused on improving Mandarin Listening
Comprehension. If anyone has used it, I'd be curious to know what you thought of it. Im debating
purchasing it.



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bomaci -

I have used it. I think it is rather useful in the beginning of your mandarin study, since it lets
you listen to mandarin spoken at a (fairly) natural speed, but using rather simple vocabulary.
However for advanved listening I think you would be better off getting some movies in mandarin and
converting them to mp3s.










wrbt -

I think it's useful in the elementary to lower intermediate range.

IMO listening comprehension is sorely lacking in many structured study programs, despite being the
most important skill for everyday communication. When audio content is provided it's useful for
familiarizing with vocabulary/grammar/usage but won't train the ear well for natural conversation.

Connections is supposedly unrehearsed and it does sound very informal and of a natural
conversational flow. I've got 'em on mp3 if you want I can try to upload a sample here for you so
you can decide if it's for you or not.










wrbt -

Ok I just attempted to attach a snippet from that series, in WMA format. Whether that worked I
dunno.










wrbt -

and further along this line, the ting li series after this one I've been considering is Across the
Straights

http://www.cheng-tsui.com/product.cf...5261&p=77&c=14

Anyone familiar with this one?










Quest -



Quote:

Ok I just attempted to attach a snippet from that series, in WMA format. Whether that worked I
dunno.

This seems 多此一举。Why not just watch TV?










Neil-san -

I don't know that it is superfluous - there is a real lack of emphasis on listening comprehension
in most high school and university courses.

I'm finishing up the first Integrated Chinese course now. The selling point for me is the
limitation on vocabulary: it forces better understanding of the words I already know in proper
grammer structures. TV and radio will come in handy at higher levels, when I know a larger % of
the vocabulary being used. Since my classes move to higher level texts this will grow, hopefully
to the point that TV and radio can assist.

That's a bottom-up view.

Regards,
Neil










wrbt -

Someone at an elementary level just turning on a TV won't get nearly as much bang for the buck
because so much time will be spent with what amounts to white noise. Yeah it'll help them catch
nuances/pace of the language but a good listening course targeted for a certain level will have
enough vocabulary they are familiar with yet some that forces them to stretch a little.

Plus carrying a TV with me when walking or driving is somewhat inconvenient.










Altair -



Quote:

and further along this line, the ting li series after this one I've been considering is Across the
Straights

http://www.cheng-tsui.com/product.cf...5261&p=77&c=14

Anyone familiar with this one?

I have used both Making Connections and Across the Straits and prefer the latter.

My Chinese is all self taught, and I have no convenient Chinese language exposure within my social
and work sphere, other than the Internet. I like Across the Straits, because it gives an
untranslated transcript of the dialog. This is crucial for me to make much progress in an
efficient amount of time.

I do not recall the features of Making Connections as well as those of Across the Straits, but I
do not recall it having a transcript of the speech. I think it had more varied speakers and
situations, but had slightly worse audio quality.

Across the Straits is a series of dialogs between two people: a man from Beijing and a woman from
Taipei. Both speak in fairly standard accents, although there is a distinct difference in the
amount of erhua used. The Taiwanese speaker does use a few different tones and slightly different
vocabulary, but does not have speech that is regionally marked in any other way I can tell. She
uses the standard sh's, ch's, and zh's where you would expect.

The dialogs in Across the Straits are conducted at normal-to-fast conversational speed and cover a
variety of social topics, such as childhood, aging, divorce, marriage and contrast and compare the
experiences of the speakers and their different societies without overt polemics. The style of the
speech sounds mostly unrehearsed and unscripted, but the two speakers do follow a clear interview
format and probably shared some questions and topics with each other beforehand.

The only people I would not recommend Across the Straits to would be people whose grammatical
knowledge of Chinese is still quite limited. The series provides a decent amount of vocabulary,
but no general translation. If you have an intermediate learner's knowledge of Chinese grammar,
you should be fine. The style and vocabulary is simpler than standard newspaper Chinese, but it is
still ordinary speech and not simplified in any obvious way.










wrbt -

Nice review, much appreciated.












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