The Chinese word for to listen is
听
tīng
Chinese Definition
Translations for listen and their definitions
| 聽 | |
| 1. usage. 耳王十四一心 is a phrase used to remember this character, based on the order of the strokes. | |
| 2. to listen; to hear; to listen to (radio etc.) | |
| 請 仔細 聽。 — Please listen carefully | |
| 3. to obey; to heed | |
| 聽話 — obedient; to obey | |
| 4. to allow; to let | |
| 5. (Wenzhou Wu) to smell | |
| 6. (Cantonese) to pick up the phone | |
| 聽tìng政 — to handle matters of state |
| 听 | |
| 1. to listen; to hear; to listen to (radio etc.) | |
| 請 仔細 聽。 — Please listen carefully | |
| 2. to obey; to heed | |
| 聽話 — obedient; to obey | |
| 3. to allow; to let | |
| 4. (Wenzhou Wu) to smell | |
| 5. (Cantonese) to pick up the phone | |
| 聽tìng政 — to handle matters of state |
Pronunciation
tīng
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Contents
- 1 Hardest Words In Chinese
- 1.1 Chinese characters and their numbers
- 1.2 Compendium of Chinese word list
- 1.3 The Chinese Symbol for Listening
- 1.4 Conclusion
- 1.5 Start Learning Chinese Characters Today!
- 1.5.1 Sign up our free trial to learn Mandarin and download the Chinese App for more Chinese language materials and to learn Mandarin online.
Chinese is spoken by almost 25% of the world population. But, despite its many speakers, Chinese has been labeled by some as the hardest language to learn. Any language that is foreign or is not your mother tongue can always be classified as hard. However, not all foreign languages are complicated for language learners.
A French national may find it easy to learn Italian and vice versa. However, Chinese is in a league of its own. The basis on which the Chinese language is learned and practiced is hard for both the Chinese and foreigners alike. Therefore, this article explores and exhaust the most complicated Chinese words.
The intonation of Chinese sounds is in a manner that is distinct from English. The difference in the resonance of the two languages distinguishes between English and Chinese when either of the two. They share a similarity. Because both enable expression of feelings considering the sound produced.
Chinese is therefore not hard to learn because words in Chinese make sense despite employing wrong tonal variation. The characters beget intonation in Chinese which determine to understand articulated words. However, today we are going to explore the hardest words in Chinese. This CHinese words will include the hardest Chinese word to pronounce as well as Chinese words that are commonly mispronounced.
Chinese characters and their numbers
Current data are insufficient in giving how many Chinese words in the Chinese language are there but points that, the Chinese language had 54,678 Chinese characters. The numbers are high considering, a word like listen to consists of only six characters. Currently, the official number of the characters has been reduced to around 7000 characters. The reductions were caused by constant revision of the Chinese language and its components in the Great. So luckily, the most complex Chinese character is not used as frequently as it once was and the hardest Chinese words aren’t so hard anymore.
Compendium of Chinese word list
A cocktail of complex characters makes Chinese a complicated second language to learn. The characters’ pronunciation forms a specific sound which when pronounced the wrong way, distorts even the central importance of a word. It is paramount therefore to master pronunciations for effective communication. Hence, characters are the essential components of learning Chinese.
The hardest Chinese characters in the literature include biáng, zhé and nàng. Biáng and zhé which are pronunciations of words in Chinese templates. These words in the Chinese template no longer exist in the modern standard Mandarin.
Evolution has made some of the characters obsolete, and nowadays, many are just words in Chinese template. But of great historical value. The characters’ complexity is high that to write a single character like zhé requires 64 strokes to write a simple word like scary. The complications are visible for all to see. Biáng, a simple text yet the longest character in Chinese, becomes complete only by fusing 64 strokes. If that is not hard, what is?
The Chinese Symbol for Listening
Chinese symbol for listening when looked at, as a word in Chinese template. It does not appear like a text comprising of as many as six characters namely, eye, ears, king, heart, undivided attention and you. Contemplate writing a single word using six separate components to mean a single word to insinuate active listening in English.
The Chinese characters for listening constitute, have the following underlying meanings:
- You – as the listener, one need to participate actively to ensure quality communication, failure to which the message risk getting lost or being distorted
- Eyes – you listen with your eye to maintain eye contact. Eye contact encourages speaker by staying interested on the topic. In the process, you learn a lot by observing the talker.
- Undivided Attention– commit to listening to the speaker and shun distractions from passersby
- Heart – listen with your heart and apply logic in your thinking. Listen even if you are not in agreement.
- King – accord the listener the respect of a monarch because you are not aware of the essence of what is about to be said.
- Ear – use your eyes to pay attention, listen to every single word and the mood of the situation.
Chinese like all other languages cannot stand the tests of time and remain pure like it was when it was conceived as a language. Do not be surprised to walk through Beijing; you would not help but notice words in Chinese template feature prominently, acting like banners. Conservation of the Chinese culture is experienced on everywhere around you.
Conclusion
Fusion of Chinese language with other languages to develop Chinese slang words, serve as an example that as younger generation come through. That language gets distorted to establish phrases very informal and restricted to a certain age. The number 520 is among Chinese slangs. For instance, 520 means, I love you. The pronunciations of the number and I love you are so close that they are substituted to mean the other.
As I wind up this paper, I pose, is Chinese hard to learn? My answer is simply that learning Chinese as a second language requires undivided attention. The answer to the question posed above is yes it is hard, but not as hard you might think. After all, Chinese is a language like any other.
The fact that Chinese use it is reason enough to conclude, Chinese is not as difficult as perceived. It is stereotypic to think so. To learn Chinese, you only require unwavering commitment and continuous learning.
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to listen to; to hear / to heed; to obey / a can (loanword from English «tin») / classifier for canned beverages / to let be; to allow (Taiwan pr. [ting4]) / (literary) to administer; to deal with (Taiwan pr. [ting4])
HSK 1
to listen attentively
HSK 6
to depend on / to comply with or listen to sb / according to / in the light of
to monitor; to listen in; to eavesdrop
to hear (sth said) / one hears (that) / hearsay / listening and speaking
to listen to stories / to listen to performance of 說書｜说书 storytelling
to listen to (a radio broadcast)
hearing / listening ability
to listen (respectfully)
to listen and obey / to comply with / to heed / to hearken
to hear (news); to listen to
to bend an ear (to) / to listen
ability to have one’s say and be listened to; influence; clout
(literary) to hear; to listen
to listen / to hear what sb says / news one has heard
pleasant to listen to
to attend a lecture / to listen to a talk
audition / to give sb an audition / to check by listening
listen to both sides and you will be enlightened; heed only one side and you will remain ignorant (idiom)
to listen to information / to get the news / to believe what one hears
selective listening / to hear what one wants to hear
not to overlook, nor spare (idiom); unwilling to forgive / to treat severely without listening to excuses
to block one’s ears and not listen (idiom); to turn a deaf ear
to listen carefully
hiding a sickness for fear of treatment (idiom); fig. concealing a fault to avoid criticism / to keep one’s shortcomings secret / to refuse to listen to advice
to listen with respectful attention / (a polite request to sb to speak) / we are all ears
to prick up one’s ear / to listen attentively
to refuse to listen
nice to hear / worth listening to
to listen carefully (for tiny sounds)
lit. the eyes observe all sides and the ears listen in all directions (idiom) / fig. to be observant and alert
selective listening (linguistics)
place where the emperor listened to lectures (traditional)
to listen to the next chapter for an explanation
to prick up one’s ear and listen carefully
to listen attentively
Don’t spread abroad the shame of the family, don’t believe rumors lightly. (idiom) / Don’t wash your dirty linen in public, don’t listen to others’ gossip.
refusing to listen to advice or remonstrance / incorrigible
to watch and listen attentively
lit. the eyes watch six roads and the ears listen in all directions / to be observant and alert (idiom)
not to listen / to be deaf to
to hold audience / to advise on state affairs / to administer state affairs / audience hall / to listen in
listening comprehension
listening to the words of a wise man can be superior to studying ten years of books (proverb)
to eavesdrop / to listen in secret to sb’s conversations
listening, speaking, reading and writing (language skills)
to listen to the ideas of others with an open mind (idiom)
to whisper and chat (instead of listening during a meeting or lecture)
In this article, I will share the best free Chinese listening resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced students. I have spent years collecting resources and these are the best free ones I’ve found!
Listening and reading and are the most important aspects of learning Chinese. Without enough input, you’re not going to perform well in other areas of the language either. Lots of listening and reading will help you develop a feel for how the language is used. Speaking is the tip of the iceberg, visible over the surface; listening is the bulk volume under the surface that makes it float.
Tune in to the Hacking Chinese Podcast to listen to the related episode:
Available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Overcast, Spotify, YouTube and many other platforms!
Skip directly to the overview by clicking this link (but I strongly recommend you don’t, because there are some important things I want to say first).
You don’t listen to enough Chinese
Students don’t listen anywhere near as much as they should. It’s not enough listening to your teacher, the texts in your textbook and a podcast here and there. Your total time spent listening should be equal to or greater than all other types of learning combined.
This is not because listening is more important, but because it’s so easy to do compared with any other type of practice. You can listen while walking, commuting, cooking and exercising. If you struggle finding enough time to practise listening, try the advice I offer here: 7 ideas for smooth and effortless Chinese listening practice.
7 ideas for smooth and effortless Chinese listening practice
Free Chinese listening resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners
Below you can find an overview of the best free Chinese listening resources. They have been separated into three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced (links go to discussions about each level and for general advice about learning Chinese on that level).
Please note that people’s ideas of “beginner”, “intermediate” and “advanced” vary wildly. Typically, beginner content is harder than advertised and advanced content is easier compared with other languages:
- Listening resources on the lower levels are harder than advertised. You’ll find content labelled as “absolute beginner” even though it’s not beginner-friendly at all. This is probably because it’s hard to create actual beginner content.
- Listening resources on the higher levels are easier than advertised. Or, in other words, actually not “advanced” according to most international frameworks. This is because Chinese is hard to learn and creators want to encourage student to feel that they have reached a higher level.
I’ve done my best here, but note that each resource often has multiple levels within it. Thus, check a few episodes/videos/lessons before passing discarding a resource!
Some of the resources listed here have premium content. However, my evaluation for the purpose of this article is based solely on content that’s freely available. Creating good listening content, especially for beginners, is not easy, so many of the best resources will inevitably cost money.
If you have some money to invest into your learning, explore the free options below and pay for those you find helpful. I’ve written more about resources worth paying for here, but not everyone can afford to pay for their learning, so the rest of this article will focus on free content!
These are the best resources I know of! I will update this article with better resources if I can find them. If you know of a good one I haven’t mentioned here, please leave a comment below!
- Beginner
- Slow and Clear Chinese
- Mandarin Click
- Mandarin Bean
- Bumpy Chinese / Comprehensible Chinese
- Chinese Tools – 40 lessons
- ChineseForUs
- Du Chinese
- Popup Chinese
- ChineseSkill
- Mandarin sound and tone references
- Intermediate
- Learning Chinese through Stories (听故事说中文)
- TeaTime Chinese (茶歇中文)
- Maomi Chinese
- Slow Chinese (慢说中)
- Mandarin Bean
- ChinesePod
- Du Chinese
- Learn Taiwanese Mandarin
- TV and movies
- Music and songs
- Advanced
- Video-sharing platforms
- Science in Chinese with 李永乐老师
- 锵锵三人行/圆桌派
- Audiobooks
- Podcasts for native speakers
- Sports and game streaming
- Good old radio
- TV and movies
- Lectures and academic content
- News and current affairs
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
If you’re after reading resources instead, check out this article: The 10 best free Chinese reading resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners
The 10 best free Chinese reading resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners
What to listen to, how to do it and how much you should be listening
Here are some of the most important insights into improving listening ability in Chinese, with links to further reading.
In general, three factors determine how much you learn: content, method and time, or otherwise what you do, how you do it and how much of it you do. This can be applied to listening practice as well:
What should you listen to? You should listen to Chinese at roughly your own level that contains the kind of language you want to learn. This sounds obvious, but can be very difficult in practice, especially for beginners. For example, podcasts in English (including my podcast) don’t count as listening practice, but neither does English spoken in learner podcasts. For the purpose of this article, I discarded a vast majority of podcasts I found because they simply contain too much English! If in a ten minute episode for beginners, there’s a twenty second dialogue played a few times, and then some vocabulary or grammar, but the rest is in English. If you listen to this for an hour, you’ve actually only spent ten minutes practising your listening! I wrote more about this problem here: Can too much guidance make you learn less Chinese?- How should you listen? The goal should be both quantity and quality (not necessarily at the same time), but since the next point is entirely about quantity, let’s talk about quality first. You learn Chinese when you connect form (spoken or written words in context) to meaning and function. If you don’t understand what you’re listening to, you won’t learn much, but the more you understand, the more likely you are to pick up the few things you didn’t already know. You want comprehensible input. Furthermore, fluency development is important, so even listening to relatively easy Chinese is beneficial. The answer to the question of how you should listen is that you should vary your approach depending on circumstances. Do active listening when you can, but otherwise passive listening is good too, and when you can’t do that either, it’s still often possible to have something on in the background.
- How much should you listen? As much as possible! I’ve already said this, but I think a reasonable goal is to listen as much as you do everything else related to Chinese combined. This includes all types of listening, including listening to Chinese music while working and the like. I’ve already linked to my article about 7 ideas for smooth and effortless Chinese listening practice, but if you struggle to integrate large amounts of listening in your life, you might benefit from shaking up how you think about time management a bit. This is beyond the scope of this article, so I will just provide a few links I think are extra important: The forking path: A human approach to learning Chinese, The time barrel: How to find more time to study Chinese and How to find more time to practise Chinese listening.
What should you listen to? You should listen to Chinese at roughly your own level that contains the kind of language you want to learn. This sounds obvious, but can be very difficult in practice, especially for beginners. For example, podcasts in English (including my podcast) don’t count as listening practice, but neither does English spoken in learner podcasts. For the purpose of this article, I discarded a vast majority of podcasts I found because they simply contain too much English! If in a ten minute episode for beginners, there’s a twenty second dialogue played a few times, and then some vocabulary or grammar, but the rest is in English. If you listen to this for an hour, you’ve actually only spent ten minutes practising your listening! I wrote more about this problem here: Can too much guidance make you learn less Chinese?
How should you listen? The goal should be both quantity and quality (not necessarily at the same time), but since the next point is entirely about quantity, let’s talk about quality first. You learn Chinese when you connect form (spoken or written words in context) to meaning and function. If you don’t understand what you’re listening to, you won’t learn much, but the more you understand, the more likely you are to pick up the few things you didn’t already know. You want comprehensible input. Furthermore, fluency development is important, so even listening to relatively easy Chinese is beneficial. The answer to the question of how you should listen is that you should vary your approach depending on circumstances. Do active listening when you can, but otherwise passive listening is good too, and when you can’t do that either, it’s still often possible to have something on in the background.
How much should you listen? As much as possible! I’ve already said this, but I think a reasonable goal is to listen as much as you do everything else related to Chinese combined. This includes all types of listening, including listening to Chinese music while working and the like. I’ve already linked to my article about 7 ideas for smooth and effortless Chinese listening practice, but if you struggle to integrate large amounts of listening in your life, you might benefit from shaking up how you think about time management a bit. This is beyond the scope of this article, so I will just provide a few links I think are extra important: The forking path: A human approach to learning Chinese, The time barrel: How to find more time to study Chinese and How to find more time to practise Chinese listening.I’ve written dozens of articles about various aspects of improving listening ability in Chinese, some of which I have provided links to above. For more about listening ability in general, please check out the main page for listening here on Hacking Chinese.
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
A few practical tips for improving listening ability in Chinese
Here are a few practical tips for how to get the most out of the resources I have recommended below:
- Listen before you read – If there are transcripts, turn them off and listen first. Listen more than once, and only look at the written version once you’ve exhausted your listening ability. When you have exhausted your reading ability, look at the transcript if you must, but you’d be better off switching to a resource you don’t need to use the transcript to understand.
- Make the audio easy to access – Many of the resources recommended below have audio that is embedded in a way that makes it hard to access easily. If there is a podcast, use a dedicated podcast app to listen, as this is both practical and easy. If there are videos, extract the audio and put it on your phone for listening (search online for how to save mp3 from YouTube, while staying clear of illegal behaviour, of course). More advice for smooth and effortless listening can be found in the article linked to above.
- Build your own audio library – Save everything you listen to and like. After doing this for a while, you’ll have plenty of old audio to listen to when you do’t feel up to listening to something new. Reviewing old audio is almost as valuable as tackling new content. By making sure this is easy to do, you can maximise your listening.
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The 10 best free Chinese listening resources: Beginner
As a beginner, you are mostly limited to Chinese spoken specifically with language learners in mind. Anything else will flood you with new vocabulary and will make it impossible to understand without a ton of dedicated studying.
The problem is that creating this kind of content is not easy,and there aren’t that many good resources available. Many podcasts, for example, are much harder than advertised, so even if you’ll find some episodes from the recommended resources that are for “absolute beginners”, they are sometimes quite hard.
Click here for advice about how to learn Chinese as a beginner
For more about beginner listening specifically, also check: Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how
Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how
Slow and Clear Chinese (YouTube)
Level: Beginner
Topic: Listening
Type: Resource collection
Slow and Clear Chinese offers beginner-friendly listening practice without using any English. They are able to do this even for absolute beginners by using gestures, images, body language and props in their videos. This is one of very few resources I’ve found that you can use right from day one without relying heavily on English translations and explanations (also check Bumpy Chinese and Mandarin Click). Excellent!
Pros: Only Chinese, well-produced content, clear audio
Cons: Only on YouTube (and the channel is no longer updated)
Sample video 1: Immersive Series Lesson 1 (Absolute Beginner)
Sample video 2: Life of a University Student
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Mandarin Click (YouTube)
Level: Beginner
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection
Mandarin Click is one of the best channels on YouTube for beginners. They offer many videos completely in Chinese, spoken in a slow and clear manner, with supporting images and body language. If you really want it, they also have translations to English (but you should turn subtitles off). Feel free to explore the channel, but in my opinion, it’s the playlists called Slow Chinese Stories that are the best. Also check Slow and Clear Chinese and Bumpy Chinese.
Pros: Only Chinese content in most cases, clear pronunciation, supporting images and body language
Cons: Only available on YouTube
Sample video: 我感冒了
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Mandarin Bean
Level: Beginner, intermediate
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection
Mandarin Bean offers a large number of beginner-friendly texts with audio, Pinyin you can toggle on and off, as well as a pop-up dictionary that shows you meaning, pronunciation and HSK level of the words used. If you register and log in, you can also find exercises and translations. There are more than a hundred clips available for free, directly accessible on their website!
Pros: Easy to access and download, only Chinese in clips, easy to look things up
Cons: Somewhat stilted audio recordings in some cases
Sample episode: 最近怎么样 (How is it going recently?)
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Bumpy Chinese / Comprehensible Chinese
Level: Beginner, intermediate
Topic: Listening
Type: Resource collection, Podcast
This is one of the best comprehensible input channels I’ve found so far! That means that she gives you plenty of listening practice without spending five minutes speaking English for every one minute she speaks Chinese. In fact, there is often no English spoken at all. This channel has less content than some of the others I recommend in this article, but feels more engaging, so is well worth checking out! Available as a podcast, as well as on YouTube. Also check Slow and Clear Chinese as well as Mandarin Click above.
Pros: Only Chinese, engaging, clear pronunciation
Cons: Some videos have to be watched (she refers to images shown on screen sometimes)
Sample video: Self-introduction in Chinese | my mum and my boyfriend
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Chinese Tools – 40 lessons
Level: Beginner
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection, Courses and textbooks
As the name implies, Chinese Tools is mostly about tools for learners and teachers. However, they also have 40 lessons for beginner students of Chinese. This is not a stand-alone listening resource, but since all lessons have easily downloadable mp3 files, it works well as a complement to whatever else you’re studying. The only downside is that the website is badly organised and, to be honest, rather ugly, but don’t judge a book by its cover!
Pros: Easy to access, only Chinese in audio clips, somewhat structured, comes with supporting content and tools
Cons: Audio quality not the best, very short dialogues
Sample lesson: Conversation 3 : What time do you have a break?
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ChineseForUs
Level: Beginner
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection, Courses and textbooks
ChineseForUs offers a large number of free videos on YouTube. The most basic lessons are much like other lessons found on YouTube, but if you skip to HSK 2 or so, there’s a surprising amount of Chinese-only content which is great for listening practice. You can ignore that it says “intermediate” on these lessons, because it’s still very much on a beginner level.
Pros: Clearly spoken, mostly in Chinese
Cons: Only available on YouTube
Sample video: Listening Practice I.I
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Du Chinese
Level: Beginner, intermediate, advanced
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection, Tools and apps (iOS and Android)
This is a well-designed app for iOS, Android and the web, providing lots of easy-to-texts with audio on various levels. New content in the app is free, so if you check regularly, you can keep listening, but you need a subscription to access the archive of over a thousand articles. The app features a pop-up dictionary and many other features.
The app is very well-designed, but not built primarily for listening. You can check out many of the free lessons online on their website, which also clearly labels what is premium and what isn’t. Even if most content isn’t free, the free parts in Du Chinese still makes it a good listening resource.
If you want to access the paid content, the code HACKINGCHINESE will give you 10% off!
Pros: Well-designed app, lots of content, text/audio syncing
Cons: Not primarily designed for listening, free content cycles (so no binge listening)
Sample clip (elementary): The Nose
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Popup Chinese
Level: Beginner, intermediate
Topic: Listening
Type: Resource collection
This is a traditional learner podcast, which means that beyond the Chinese content, they also speak English explaining the words and talking about the content. The Chinese content appears early, though, and is repeated many times, so it’s easy to ignore the English if you want to. The recordings are of good quality overall and quite natural. I suggest skipping the earlier absolute beginner episodes as they contain mostly explanations in English.
For some reason, only the absolute beginner category works, but you can still access the other episodes by using a service like The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Here’s a link to the elementary episodes where the audio is still available. There are about 350 episodes in the beginner categories combined.
Pros: Good content, natural audio
Cons: Short bits in Chinese, too much English, site not fully working and not updated, (and as a result) no transcripts
Sample episode: A strange telephone call
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ChineseSkill
Level: Beginner
Topic: General
Type: Tools and apps (iOS and Android), Courses and textbooks
ChineseSkill is an app for iOS and Android that is similar to Duolingo, but is tailor-made for students of Chinese. This makes a big difference, because many of the grievances Chinese learners experience with Duolingo are handled much better here. ChineseSkill is not a listening resource per se, but I include it here anyway because if you know no Chinese at all, starting here is not a bad idea.
Once you’ve worked your way through the free sections of the app, you should be ready to move on to the other listening resources shared above! As far as I know, you can’t choose listening only here, so you need to work your way through the written language as well.
Pros: Interactive, built-in repetition
Cons: Repetitive, short chunks (mostly words), not mainly for listening
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Free Mandarin sound and tone references
Level: Beginner, intermediate, advanced
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Information and advice, Tools and apps
This entry is not a resource in itself, but rather a collection of resources related to Mandarin sounds and tones that I have collected over the years. While you can’t use most of these for extensive listening on your commute, it’s still important to be able to look things up and learn more about the sounds and tones of Mandarin.
Here are my top picks:
- AllSet Learning Pinyin Chart with audio – If you want to check what a certain syllable with a certain tone sounds like, this should be your go-to reference guide. You can also find many other useful things on the Chinese Pronunciation Wiki.
- The Hacking Chinese tone training course – This is a free tool I built with Kevin Bullaughey for a research project. It will present single tones to you in a systematic and carefully planned manner that is meant to help your brain sort out the differences between the tones. It only works for single tones, so this is for those of you who struggle with the basics.
- Free and easy audio flashcards for Chinese dictation practice with Anki – If you want to drill listening, but don’t have access to high-quality premium audio or a real teacher or native speaker, you can create fairly good audio flashcards in Anki completely for free.
- Text-to-speech (speech synthesis) – While synthesised speech is remarkably good these days, it’s not good enough to rely on for pronunciation practice and mimicking. However, it’s good enough for extra listening practice when you really want to listen to a text and don’t have anyone around who is willing to read it for you. Search for plugins for your browser, operating system or stand-alone software for this.
- Forvo – This is a crowd-sourced pronunciation dictionary that covers a very large number of words and phrases in many languages. It’s useful for looking up pronunciation of words when you want to get a feel for how different people speak Chinese. Please note that many of the recordings here are decidedly not standard, which is the reason I list it here. You can, for example, check out 42 different pronunciations of 你好, including information about where the speaker is from.
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Help! Do you know of any great free Chinese listening resources for beginners?
When writing this article, spent a dozen hours looking for additional beginner podcasts and audio lessons that are both free and contain mostly Chinese, but I couldn’t find anything better than those I have listed above. I’m sure there are excellent beginner resources out there that I have missed, so if you know of one, please leave a comment below! Please also include why you recommend it.
It has to meet the following criteria:
- Free, or have a large free component that is worthwhile on its own
- Mostly in Chinese, so most learner podcasts are disqualified
- For beginners (although not necessarily total beginners)
- Enough content to be worthwhile (I’ve found many channels that have one or two good videos, but that’s not enough)
Thank you in advance!
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The 10 best free Chinese listening resources: Intermediate
The 10 best free Chinese listening resources: IntermediateWhen you reach the intermediate level, finding good listening material becomes easier. There are fewer students on this level, but it’s also easier to create content when you can assume that the listener understands basic words and phrases. A skilled teacher can speak Chinese using mostly words and grammar their students know, which is the best kind of listening practice.
Of course, “intermediate” covers a broad range of learners, from those who have just graduated from the beginner level to those who are almost ready for authentic content produced for native speakers. This means that the resources I recommend herre often contain a mix of levels, so don’t discard a resource because you checked one example and found it too hard or too easy. Instead, look around and see if they offer slightly harder or easier listening depending on what you want.
As before, the labels used vary a lot. It’s very common to call intermediate content “advanced” in order to encourage students, so don’t be scared by something the creator has slapped an “advanced” label on, as it might be just the right resource for you as an intermediate learner!
Click here for advice about how to learn Chinese as an intermediate learner
Learning Chinese through Stories (听故事说中文)
Level: Intermediate
Topic: Listening
Type: Resource collection, Podcast
Learning Chinese through Stories is probably the best podcast around for learners in the intermediate range, from low intermediate up to high intermediate. The structure is straightforward: They present a story of some kind and then, in a parallel but separate episode, they discuss that story, all in Chinese. While the stories are not spectacular, the fact that they discuss words and grammar almost entirely in Chinese in a comprehensible manner is great. They are also quite good at doing this without throwing in unnecessarily difficult words.
Please note that while almost everything on their website is premium content, you can still access all the podcast episodes for free through the podcast platform of your choice! Of course, if you like the show, you can consider signing up, but this article is meant to focus on free content, and if you want that, listen to the podcast.
Pros: Good at keeping things in Chinese, dual structure of episodes, generally quite interesting
Cons: Hard to access on their website (find the podcast instead)
Sample lesson: 2.1.35《活鸟还是死鸟》
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
TeaTime Chinese (茶歇中文)
Level: Intermediate
Topic: Listening
Type: Resource collection, Podcast
TeaTime Chinese is an excellent resource for intermediate learners. The host, Nathan, speaks slowly and clearly about recent and/or interesting topics. He speaks almost exclusively Chinese and only adds occasional words in English if it’s something learners can’t be expected to know, but is crucial for understanding. He also explains words and grammar in Chinese.
It’s worth noting that this is one of the few learner podcasts with a male host, which is great for listening variety and for mimicking purposes for those with deeper voices than the average Chinese teacher.
The best way to access the podcast is through the podcast provider of your choice or on YouTube.
Pros: Interesting topics, teaching new things in Chinese, male host
Cons: None, really
Sample episode: 第49集：中国的“四大发明” The “Four Great Inventions” of China (Spotify, Apple Podcasts)
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
Maomi Chinese
Level: Intermediate
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection, Podcast
This is another great podcast for intermediate learners which is almost exclusively in Chinese. There are some occasional words or phrases in English, but you can count on training your listening muscles every minute of this podcast! I think one of the best things with this podcast is that the topics are rather interesting. Browse through the catalogue of episodes and see if you find anything interesting.
As usual, this podcast is best accessed through the podcast platform of your choice, but their website is also good and provides transcripts and easy access to the audio itself.
Pros: Easy to access, some support for free, interesting topics
Cons: None, really
Sample episode: #87 What is Chinese horror like? 什么是中式恐怖？
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
Slow Chinese (慢说中)
Level: Intermediate
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection
Slow Chinese was a podcast aimed at the intermediate level, talking about topics relating to culture, language, society and more. The podcast is no longer being produced, but the more than two hundred episodes that were produced are still available online, completely free and easy to access. As the name implies, the reading speed is slow, but still not ridiculously slow. A variety of people worked on the podcast, so you can look around for someone with a voice you like. No frills, no ads, no English.
Pros: Interesting topics, good content, easy to access, completely free
Cons: Not updated anymore
Sample episode: 145 – 李小龙与中国功夫
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
Mandarin Bean
Level: Beginner, intermediate
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection
I have already recommended Mandarin Bean for beginners, but it’s worthwhile for intermediate learners as well. You get several hundred episodes completely for free, with Pinyin you can toggle on and off, as well as a pop-up dictionary that shows you meaning, pronunciation and HSK level of the words used. If you register and log in, you can also find exercises and translations.
Pros: Easy to access and download, only Chinese in clips, easy to look things up
Cons: Somewhat stilted audio recordings in some cases
Sample episode: 刻舟求剑 (HSK4 story)
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
ChinesePod
Level: Beginner, intermediate
Topic: Listening
Type: Resource collection, Podcast
ChinesePod has been around for so long that I had access to it when I started learning Chinese more than fifteen years ago. There’s a vast archive of content, most of which is freely available through the podcast platform of your choice. No need to sign up, log in or jump through hoops.
The reason I only mention it here on the intermediate level is that I don’t think the beginner content is very good compared to the content I have recommended already. However, the episodes labelled upper intermediate and advanced are great for intermediate learners!
For the more advanced podcasts, just ignore the dialogues they have created and focus on the language surrounding the dialogue instead. The hosts speak only or almost only Chinese, which is what you’re after. I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of ChinesePod and the catalogue has expanded dramatically since 2007. Most is accessible as a podcast on the major platforms for podcasts. You can check my full review of ChinesePod here: ChinesePod review: Your companion to Mandarin fluency
Pros: Enormous library, natural style between hosts, easy to access via podcast
Cons: Intermediate episodes still contain too much English
Sample episode: 在中国上大学 (Spotify, Apple Podcasts)
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
Du Chinese
Level: Beginner, intermediate, advanced
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection, Tools and apps (iOS and Android)
This is a well-designed app for iOS, Android and the web, providing lots of easy-to-texts with audio on various levels. I already recommended it for beginners, but it works well for intermediate learners too! New content in the app is free, so if you check regularly, you can keep listening, but you need a subscription to access the archive of over a thousand articles. The app features a pop-up dictionary and many other features.
The app is very well-designed, but not built primarily for listening. You can check out many of the free lessons online on their website, which also clearly labels what is premium and what isn’t. Even if most content isn’t free, the free parts in Du Chinese still makes it a good listening resource.
If you want to access the paid content, the code HACKINGCHINESE will give you 10% off!
Pros: Well-designed app, lots of content, text/audio syncing
Cons: Not primarily designed for listening, free content cycles (so no binge listening)
Sample clip (elementary): Piecing together holidays (拼假)
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
Learn Taiwanese Mandarin
Level: Intermediate
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection, Podcast
This is a relaxed podcast where the host, Jiayu, talks about Taiwan and life there. She also occasionally brings in guests. The podcast is entirely in Chinese, spoken in a fairly standard Taiwanese Mandarin accent. Please note that if you’re after intermediate listening, skip the first three episodes as they use a completely different style and are for beginners.
The website features an episode gallery which makes it easy to navigate, and for each episode, you have transcripts with a pop-up dictionary, all for free! I also like the podcast because it’s very practical in many cases. Check the sample episode below, for example, which is not only good for teaching you the language, but also has some great tips if you’re looking for an apartment in Taiwan. I’ve lived in five different apartments across Taiwan, and I would have benefited immensely from this episode back then!
You can access the podcast both on the website or through the podcast provider of your choice.
Pros: Clearly spoken, extra support available, easy to access
Cons: None, really
Sample episode: 在台灣租房子
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
TV and movies
Level: Intermediate, advanced
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Information and advice
As an intermediate learner, you are in a great position to learn Chinese through TV and movies. Sure, there are some specific shows that work for beginners as well, but generally speaking, watching something where you understand almost nothing has almost no benefit.
As an intermediate learner, you have the basics of vocabulary and grammar down to make sense of TV and movies. Naturally, you still need to choose your shows, but there’s plenty of great content to choose from. If you want suggestions for what to watch, including an indication of how difficult it might be, I strongly suggest you check out Graded Watching, which has more than a hundred TV shows analysed by difficulty.
There are also many articles about TV series and movies here on Hacking Chinese:
- Improving your Chinese while watching TV shows
- A learner’s guide to TV shows in Chinese, part 1
- A learner’s guide to TV shows in Chinese, part 2
Improving your Chinese while watching TV shows
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
Music and songs
Level: Intermediate, advanced
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Information and advice
Just like TV and movies, music can be used to learn Chinese at a beginner level too, but again, the songs you can choose from if you want it for listening practice are rather limited. From a listening perspective, songs in Mandarin also have the downside that tones are often completely ignored, which is okay once you have a good grasp of them, but not very good when you’re struggling to learn them in the very beginning.
Music has great potential for background and passive listening, though, because the more songs you listen to and learn in Mandarin, the larger your personal playlist becomes. Put these songs on in the background when you do other things and you will soon find that you know the lyrics by heart!
While it’s hard to quantify the impact of lyrics on my English, I probably know the lyrics of several hundred songs in English, without even having tried to learn them. I haven’t learnt that many in Chinese, but I can still identify many words and expressions I know that came from a specific song I have learnt. I’ve written more about learning Chinese through music here:
- Why learning Chinese through music is underrated
- 12 songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons
- 13 more songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons
- 14 extra songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons
Why learning Chinese through music is underrated
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
The 10 best free Chinese listening resources: Advanced
Now that you’ve passed the dreaded intermediate plateau of learning Chinese, you should switch mainly to audio produced for natives by natives. This means that your options are virtually unlimited and it is in fact very easy to find free materials. Naturally, you will need to provide your own scaffolding, as none of these resource come with transcripts, vocabulary lists and so on.
As was the case for the intermediate resources, difficulty can vary hugely between resources or even between texts within the same resource. Thus, don’t give up just because one article turns out to be difficult!
Click here for advice about how to learn Chinese as an advanced learner
Free Chinese listening via video-sharing platforms
Level: Advanced, Intermediate
Topic: Listening
Type: Resource collection
Most high-quality listening content produced today is embedded in video of some kind. Sure, there are podcasts, audiobooks and other audio-only formats, but video is the medium of the century.
There’s a virtually unlimited amount of content shared online for free just waiting for you, the only question is where to find things you really like. Let’s start with the major platforms so you know where to start. These sometimes work well for intermediate students as well, but as I haven’t curated specific content, I chose to put this in the advanced category.
- 西瓜视频
- 优酷
- 哔哩哔哩
- 斗音
- YouTube
While YouTube is blocked in China, it’s still an excellent platform for learning Chinese, especially if you’re using YouTube in your native language anyway. There’s a plethora of content there, and here are some of my favourites, including some I’ve mentioned separately above:
- 李永乐老师 (link to my article about it)
- 锵锵三人行 (mentioned above)
- 圆桌派 (mentioned above)
- TESTV (review channel done right)
- 柴知道 (popular science)
- 手工耿 (hilarious mechanic/inventor/entertainer)
Also, check the #1379号监听站 hashtag I also mention audiobooks, which collects almost five thousand clips on YouTube, many with audio only.
Pros: Infinite and varied content
Cons: Often in video format (although you can rip the audio or just listen), can be hard to find high-quality content you actually like
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
Science in Chinese with 李永乐老师
Level: Advanced
Topic: Listening
Type: Resource collection
李永乐老师 is a science teacher at a prestigious school in Beijing, but also has a popular channel on YouTube (2 million subscribers) and 西瓜视频 (15 million fans). To date, he has published almost 400 videos, mostly dealing with mathematics and the natural sciences, but also other topics such as finance, biology and statistics. Most of these are available for free.
I like 李永乐老师 a lot and find almost all of his videos interesting in some way. In content, it’s similar to many big YouTube science channels in English, such as Veritasium, although the style is very different. I’ve watched or listened to almost all videos on his channel, so I’ve probably spent more time with this resource than any other specific recommendation on this list! I wrote an article about 李永乐老师 in which I go into much more detail: Learning science in Chinese with 李永乐老师
Learning science in Chinese with 李永乐老师
Pros: Very good content, interesting ideas and pedagogically excellent
Cons: He speaks really fast, his handwriting will be illegible for most learners
Sample video 1: 1. 外星人存在吗？人类为什么看不到外星文明？李永乐老师讲费米悖论
Sample video 2: 2. 我们为啥摆脱不了贫穷?穷人富人有啥差别?诺贝尔经济学奖解读
Sample video 3: 3. 烧脑面试题：老鼠和毒药问题怎么解？二进制和易经八卦有啥关系？李永乐老师告诉你
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
锵锵三人行/圆桌派
Level: Advanced
Topic: Listening
Type: Resource collection
One of my favourite listening resources used to be 锵锵三人行, hosted by 竇文濤, and it still is, even though the show was closed down a few years ago. The program aired daily for over fifteen years, so there’s a virtually unlimited amount of content still available, most of it easy to access through podcast platforms such as Spotify, and many episodes can also be found on YouTube.
Here, I also recommend 圆桌派, which is the spiritual sequel of 锵锵三人行 with the same host and a similar style, although with different and maybe less sensitive content. The show is still going strong as of 2022 and is excellent for advanced listening practice! You can easily find the show on YouTube or any of the Chinese video streaming sites, as well as various podcast providers.
I’ve written an article about why 锵锵三人行 is great, and it mostly applies to 圆桌派 as well.
Chinese listening practice with 锵锵三人行
Pros: Huge catalogue of old episodes, variety of guests and topics, interesting content
Cons: 锵锵三人行 is no longer being produced (but 圆桌派 is still running)
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
Audiobooks
Level: Advanced
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection
Breaking Chinese down into bite-sized chunks is great for beginners, but when you’ve reached an advanced level, switching audio clips every few minutes becomes annoying. If you want to listen for hors, you need some continuity where you can get into something and stay there. This also allows you to adapt to language in a certain style and genre.
Audiobooks are the perfect solution. A book is typically somewhere between eight and fifteen hours, which means a lot of listening practice. Unless your Chinese is awesome, you probably want to relisten to parts of it, maybe more than once, so you can get many hours of learning from a single book. I’ve written more about how to use audiobooks for learning Chinese here, including tips for how to find them.
Learning Chinese through audio books
Take care when choosing an audiobook for Chinese listening practice
When choosing an audiobook in Chinese, try to choose a book you really want to listen to, and that you choose something which is not outrageously difficult. I can’t say what will work for you, but you should try several books before you settle on one. It’s usually easier to find excerpts in text format online, which is good enough to tell you if the book is at an okay level.
You can often find audiobooks on major streaming sites. For example, this hashtag on YouTube has almost five thousand videos, many of which are science fiction audiobooks.
Pros: Hours of listening with the same voice and coherent content
Cons: Written Chinese read aloud is much harder than spoken Chinese
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
Podcasts for native speakers
Level: Advanced
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection
I spend roughly half of my listening time on audio books and the other half on podcasts, but I’ve started listening more and more to podcasts in recent years. The great thing about podcasts is that they are easy to access through a variety of platforms and apps, all which are highly suitable for listening.
What do I mean by that? Many of the other resources I have recommended here come with videos, can be hard to access on the move, and come with several other restrictions, such as not being available when you turn your phone’s screen off or require you to download them in advance.
Podcast apps are great, because you never run out of content, you can adjust playback speed, archive episodes for later, download what you need in advance with just a few taps and much more. As I’ve argued in the introduction to this article, making listening easy is very important if you want to listen a lot, and podcasts are a great way to achieve this.
Pros: Infinite and varied content
Cons: None, really, this is one of the best ways of practising listening ability
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
Live streaming of games and sports
Level: Advanced
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection
In order to be able to listen as much as you should, it’s essential that you are able to channel your interests to access content in Chinese. Streamed commentary of games and sports is a great example of this.
Practising sports is great for learning Chinese, but watching games can also be great. I’m more interested in practising myself than watching, but I have watched a lot of gymnastics in Chinese.
Video games are great for improving Chinese listening ability
The same is true for video games, which I enjoy watching more for some reason. I’ve watched a few hundred hours of mostly Starcraft 2 and Valorant matches in Chinese. I’ve written more about games in general and Starcraft 2 in particular.
In order to channel your other interests to learn more Chinese, you need to focus on things you are truly interested in. It must be something that’s so interesting that you’re willing to increase the effort required and still have enough motivation to feel a strong urge to continue. Of course, it gets easier after a while, but it can be hard when you watch your first match.
I can’t really suggest specific channels to follow since it’s so dependent on what you want to watch, but YouTube is a great place to start; simply use Chinese to search for the game/sport you’re interested in! YouTube will also help you find more related content once the algorithm understands that you like this stuff. You can of course also use the other video-sharing platforms I’ve mentioned above.
If you have specific suggestions for how to watch a lot of sports in Chinese, please leave a comment below and I’ll consider adding your resource here.
Pros: Combining a hobby with learning Chinese is great
Cons: Steep learning curve at first, can be hard to find exactly the content you want
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
Good old radio (analogue and digital)
Level: Advanced
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection
In this digital era, the line between radio and podcast is rather blurred, as many radio programs are also available as podcasts and you can listen to radio shows digitally. One meaningful difference is that radio stations program their content and provide you with a mix of content, topics and voices, whereas when it comes to podcasts, you normally choose exactly what you want to listen to (and don’t listen to anything else).
For language learning purposes, radio has some advantages over podcasts (just like a printed magazine has advantages over reading online), which is why I’m recommending it here. Content is juxtaposed in a way you would never encounter if you chose all the content yourself, so you might have a program about the life of ants followed by a newsreel followed by a program helping you improve your singing.
While you could recreate this with handpicked podcasts, it would be hard. Radio is a way of breaking out of your filter bubble a little bit, both linguistically and otherwise. For the purpose of classification here, radio is where you can tune in (analog or digital) to stream. If you pick your own programs, see the podcast entry instead.
- 北京广播网
- RTI中央廣播電臺 (Taiwan)
Pros: Varied content, no need to actively look for new material
Cons: Increased variety means it’s more challenging too
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
TV and movies
Level: Advanced, Intermediate
Topic: Listening, Reading
Type: Resource collection
I mentioned TV and movies on the intermediate level as well, but in my opinion, it’s at an advanced level where these turn into truly amazing resources. As an intermediate learner, you have to study a lot to be able to make full sense of what you’re watching, but even if there might be things you don’t get immediately as an advanced learner, it’s much easier to enjoy watching something if you don’t have to look up every other word.
Where to find Chinese TV shows and movies for listening practice
If you’re in China, you can watch TV the good old-fashioned way, but for most people (including most who actually are in China), watching online is easier. Here are some popular websites you can check out:
- 爱奇艺
- 芒果TV
- 乐视视频
- 台灣電視線上看
Also remember that the video-sharing platforms I mentioned above often have TV shows and sometimes full movies as well. If you have a specific recommendation for how to watch ordinary TV channels internationally, please let me know!
Even if this is more relevant for intermediate learners, I still want to mention IGraded Watching again, which has more than a hundred TV shows analysed by difficulty.
Further reading and recommendations about Chinese TV series and movies
There are also many articles about TV series and movies here on Hacking Chinese:
- Improving your Chinese while watching TV shows
- A learner’s guide to TV shows in Chinese, part 1
- A learner’s guide to TV shows in Chinese, part 2
Pros: Infinite and varied content
Cons: Often in video format (although you can rip the audio or just listen), can be hard to find high-quality content you actually like
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
Lectures and academic content in Chinese
Level: Advanced
Topic: Listening
Type: Resource collection, Information and advice
A common misconception about language learning is that academic lectures, articles and textbooks in the target language make up the hardest content there is. Tthis is simply not true. Consider the fact that in science, being clear and consistent is a virtue, whereas in literature, consistent is another word for boring. In my experience, academic content in Chinese is considerably easier than literature and fiction, even though you do of course need a certain amount of prior knowledge in a relevant area.
The best way to approach academic Chinese is to do so with a topic you’re already familiar with. This way, you know most of what they are talking about already, and so your main challenge is to figure out how this is done in Chinese. Once you’re familiar with this, you can learn new things as well.
When it comes to listening, there are many lecture series, presentations and seminars available online, for free. As is often the case when it comes to advanced content, interest should be the main factor when you choose what to focus on, so I can’t help much there. If you’re like me and like science fiction, you can check out the lecture series linked below.
Lectures and academic content for advanced Chinese listening practice
Here are some platforms you can use to find interesting content (if you know of more or better ways of accessing courses in Chinese, please let me know by leaving a comment below):
- Courses from Chinese universities at Coursera
- 臺大開放式課程 NTU OpenCourseWare (Taiwan)
- 國立清華大學開放式課程 OpenCourseWare (Taiwan)
Pros: Interesting if you choose the right topic, learn more than just the language
Cons: Some effort required to get started, requires certain basic knowledge in a field
Sample lecture series: 科幻概論 by 鄭運鴻（國立清華大學）easily accessible on YouTube
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
News and current affairs in Chinese
Level: Advanced
Topic: Listening
Type: Resource collection
News in Chinese is a tricky beast for several completely unrelated reasons. On the one hand, if you’re interested in current affairs and want to follow what’s going on in the world, it would be natural to incorporate this into your Chinese learning routine at an advanced level. I have listened to approximately 5,000 hours of The Economist, and while it’s hard to say how much that has improved my English, it’s likely to be quite a lot.
Problem number one is that there aren’t many Chinese-language news outlets of high quality that aim at an international audience. If you’re only after the language, this is not a problem, but if you also want to learn more about the world, you should be mindful of what channels you choose. Simply replacing your English-language media with Chinese-language counterparts as I usually suggest is not unproblematic here. Listen as much as you can, but add a healthy dose of critical thinking.
Problem number two is that news is hard in Chinese, much harder than in English. This is probably because the formal, written Chinese used in news articles and broadcasts are further from the colloquial spoken language than in English. The step from classroom English to real news is not that big if you choose your news outlet carefully, but the step from classroom Chinese to real-world news is very big indeed.
News sources for advanced Chinese listening practice
That being said, here are some news sources you can checkout. Please note that I have chosen these purely from a language-learning perspective. Please also note that you can find lots of news on video and podcast platforms as well (see the other categories in this article).
- 中国中央电视台
- 新浪新闻
- 搜狐新闻
- Various news channels (Taiwan, via wwiTV)
- 8视界 (Singapore)
You can also check out 新浪网新闻中心 and 中廣全球資訊網 that I recommended in my article about the best reading resources.
Pros: Interesting topics, wide variety of topics and language, more formal language, enormous amounts of content available
Cons: Difficult (especially if based on written sources), hard to find high-quality content, often in video format even if you only want the video
Back to free Chinese listening resources index
500+ Chinese learning resources sorted and tagged by level, topic and type
I have spent many years building up a huge library of resources hor learning Chinese, including those mentioned in this article. If you’re looking for more listening resources or resources for other areas of learning Chinese, head over to Hacking Chinese Resources! There, you can find articles sorted by difficulty:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
But also by topic:
- Listening
- Speaking
- Reading
- Writing
- Chinese in context
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
…and more!
What’s your favourite free Mandarin listening resources?
This article is based on a lot of research and took dozens of hours to compile, but I’m sure that I missed good resources and new resources might have popped up recently too. What’s your favourite free listening resource? Please leave a comment below to let me and others know! Don’t forget to mention why you like it!
Editor’s note: This article, originally published in 2014, was rewritten from scratch and massively updated in October, 2022.
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By
Last updated:
January 18, 2023
When you’re studying Chinese, learning to listen can be a bumpy road.
If you struggle with listening in Mandarin, you’re certainly not alone. But you’re also not out of luck!
This handful of stellar Chinese listening practice resources can completely change your Mandarin listening abilities.
Each resource has been tagged with a difficulty level and the corresponding HSK levels so you can easily find the right resource for you!
Contents
- Coffee Break Chinese Podcast
- FluentU
- Learn Chinese—Easy Situational Mandarin Chinese Audio Lessons
- Slow Chinese Podcast
- Learn Mandarin Now Podcast
- Learn Chinese Insights Podcast
- Learning Chinese Through Stories Podcast
- Top Chinese Songs 2021 YouTube Playlist
- “42 Essential Sentence Patterns—Intermediate Chinese Listening Practice”
- “35 Minutes of Chinese Listening Comprehension for Beginners”
- TiffwithMi
- Easy Languages Mandarin Chinese
- Slow Chinese Listening & Reading Practice
- Learn HSK Vocabulary While You Sleep
- “Living Language Mandarin Chinese”
- “Pimsleur Chinese”
- “Learn Mandarin Chinese with Paul Noble”
- “Chinese Flash Cards Kit Volume 1”
- “Learn in Your Car: Mandarin Chinese – Level 1”
- “Chinese for Kids”
- Chinese-Tools.com
- HelloChinese
- Nemo
- Melnyks Chinese
- 50Languages
- Viki
- AsianCrush
- How Can I Use These Resources to Improve My Chinese Listening Skills?
- How to Nail the HSK with Chinese Listening Practice
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Coffee Break Chinese Podcast
Difficulty Level: Beginner to Intermediate (HSK 1-4)
Available: Website, iOS, Android and Spotify
Designed for learners, this 40-episode podcast is ideal for beginner and intermediate Chinese speakers. Each episode is hosted by Mark, the founder of Coffee Break Languages, and Crystal, a native Chinese speaker. During the episodes, Crystal answers Mark’s questions about Chinese and corrects his pronunciation.
The episodes are 15-20 minutes long because they’re structured more like lessons than regular podcast talk shows. But if you want to improve your listening and learn how the language works at the same time, Coffee Break Chinese is a great place to hang out.
Each episode is free and makes for perfect on-the-go learning material, but Coffee Break goes even further and offers courses based on their episodes on Coffee Break Academy. These courses feature video and audio lessons, a lesson guide and transcript and a bonus audio episode.
FluentU
Difficulty Level: Beginner to Advanced (HSK 1-6)
Available: Website, iOS and Android
FluentU is a website and app focused on providing authentic, immersive video content. You can choose from hundreds of engaging videos on various topics such as culture, politics, science, tech, movies and music. These videos were made by natives, for natives, so you know you will be learning Chinese the way it’s actually used.
All the videos have expert-vetted, interactive subtitles. When you hover or click on any word, you can see its definition, audio pronunciation, example sentences and clips from other videos where the word is used. These definitions are contextual, which means you’re getting the definition of the word as it’s used in the video.
Save words from any video as flashcards—or search for a word to see its flashcard and videos where it appears. Then, make flashcard decks for the specific level of the HSK and target your practice with personalized quizzes.
You can toggle Chinese, simplified Chinese, pinyin and English in the subtitles or any combination of them. Alternatively, you can turn them off completely to focus on your listening skills.
Learn Chinese—Easy Situational Mandarin Chinese Audio Lessons
Difficulty Level: Beginner to Intermediate (HSK 1-5)
Available: Website, iOS, Android and Spotify
Listening skills are so important if you want to be able to hold a conversation with a native speaker. This podcast from Melnyks Chinese is a perfect tool to reach this goal. Each podcast covers situational dialogues that you may have to use at some point if you travel abroad. The speaker pronounces each word slowly and clearly, and leaves time for listeners to repeat.
Members can access PDF transcripts of each episode, plus worksheets to help further improve comprehension skills. These podcasts are suitable for almost all levels of learners, though advanced learners may find some of the dialogues too easy to understand.
For a little culture mixed in with your Chinese listening practice, try out the episodes “Visiting Hot Springs” and “Expressing Condolences.”
The first 100 lessons are free, but you’ll have to sign up for an account to access the rest.
Slow Chinese Podcast
Difficulty Level: Beginner to Intermediate (HSK 1-4)
Available: Apple Podcasts, Podbean iOS and Android
If listening to native Chinese speakers talk at their natural speed stresses you out, you’ll love the Slow Chinese Podcast. While the podcast is made by native speakers, they intentionally talk at a slower rate so Chinese learners can keep up. An authentic podcast that’s not only designed for learners but also doesn’t contain any English? That’s something you don’t see every day!
The lessons are two to three minutes long on average, making this podcast perfect for shadowing or transcribing material. It was last updated in 2018, but with over 200 episodes, you won’t be getting bored anytime soon.
Learn Mandarin Now Podcast
Difficulty Level: Beginner (HSK 1-3)
Available: Podbean iOS and Android
Learn Mandarin Now is another great podcast for Chinese listening practice, which ran until 2017. This Podbean podcast features a ton of Chinese language content, including how-to guides, Chinese language lessons and even success stories from other Mandarin learners.
This is a strong resource for beginners because it features a lot of inspiring listening content to get newbies motivated when the going gets rough.
I recommend listening to “How to talk about success in Mandarin Chinese,” a thought-provoking episode that explores what it means to be successful and how to talk about these concepts in Chinese. If you’re learning Chinese for business or just want to learn technology-related vocab, “Fixing technical problems in Mandarin Chinese” is a good listen.
Learn Chinese Insights Podcast
Difficulty Level: Beginner (HSK 1)
Available: Website, iOS and Android
This entry is a little different from the previous podcasts I’ve mentioned.
There isn’t a ton of spoken Chinese in every episode. Instead, the purpose of Learn Chinese Insights is to interview people who have learned Mandarin as a second language and explore the approaches they took to improve their language skills throughout their own journey.
Much of what you’ll hear from interviewees involves perfecting listening skills. Sometimes, a little advice from the ones who’ve made it can go a long way!
This podcast resource last updated in 2016 but there are plenty of episodes available for Chinese audio practice. I suggest listening to the Alex Trup and Xiao Fei interview episodes.
Learning Chinese Through Stories Podcast
Difficulty Level: Beginner to Advanced (HSK 1-6)
Available: Website, YouTube and Spotify
Learning Chinese Through Stories is another resource with exclusively Chinese audio to help you hone in on your listening skills.
Each episode is led by two narrators who read and discuss one short story or song. They speak at a natural pace, which may be slightly intimidating for complete beginners, but the content or discussion is never more challenging than the given level. Their discussions are also very conversational.
Speaking of levels, the episodes are also divided into nine levels, from Low Novice to High Advanced, to accommodate all learners across the proficiency spectrum.
While you’re following along with the story, I highly recommend that you add words to your personal flashcard set when you listen through the website. To access vocabulary annotations, full transcripts and other handy extras from each episode, feel free to support the podcast on Patreon.
Top Chinese Songs 2021 YouTube Playlist
Difficulty Level: Intermediate to Advanced (HSK 4-6)
Available: YouTube
If you need some help finding Mandarin music, here are nearly 60 music videos waiting for you to explore. These songs aren’t great learning tools, they’re also relevant and popular. The advantage of this is that you’ll be learning with and listening to music that’s up-to-date and that you can talk about with Chinese friends or language partners.
It’s also important to note that since this is a playlist of recent music videos, it’s subject to change and is regularly updated. But the good news about this is that you’re consistently being exposed to new Chinese jams!
Plus, many Chinese pop songs are slow, making them perfect shadowing material.
“42 Essential Sentence Patterns—Intermediate Chinese Listening Practice”
Difficulty Level: Intermediate (HSK 3-4)
Available: YouTube
It’s crucial to learn sentence patterns when studying Chinese, especially as a novice learner. Once you have sentence patterns down, you’ll have some grammatical context to work from when learning vocabulary words throughout the rest of your language learning journey.
This video from Mandarin Corner is an excellent crash course in 42 essential sentence patterns in Chinese. The comments section is loaded with happy learners who found this video to be quite a lifesaver.
It would be wise to watch this video as a beginner or intermediate learner, especially if you’re learning these sentence patterns in an already established course but are struggling to keep up when you hear them in real life.
“35 Minutes of Chinese Listening Comprehension for Beginners”
Difficulty Level: Intermediate (HSK 3-4)
Available: YouTube
Visual learners, you’re in luck. This half-hour video guide from ChineseClass101 is an incredible condensed lesson on listening comprehension in Chinese.
While the video is marketed toward Chinese beginners, many learners in the comments section have noted that the dialogues are notably more difficult than advertised. I recommend checking this video out if you’re an upper-novice to upper-intermediate learner.
TiffwithMi
Difficulty Level: Intermediate to Advanced (HSK 4-6)
Available: YouTube
These Singaporean YouTubers are extremely entertaining, addicting to watch and subtitle their videos in Chinese and English. Their channel is full of challenges, pranks, vlogs, travel videos and much more. Needless to say, it’ll take a while before you get bored with their content.
If you want to learn some useful Chinese vocabulary and phrases, their vlogs are packed with unintentional learning material. And the fact that there are Chinese and English subs make it even easier to recognize grammar patterns and learn new words through meaningful context.
Their videos are about 10-15 minutes long, so they aren’t ideal for shadowing, but if you want to chill in bed and binge-watch YouTube while feeling productive and improving your Chinese, this channel will suit your fancy!
It’s also worth noting that they haven’t uploaded any new vlogs in a while (though there’s still plenty of content to work with on their channel).
Easy Languages Mandarin Chinese
Difficulty Level: Intermediate to Advanced (HSK 4-6)
Available: YouTube
The YouTube channel Easy Languages is known for turning unscripted interviews with native speakers into valuable language lessons. The channel has playlists for many languages, from Hungarian to Vietnamese, but their Chinese playlist is among the largest.
Each video features a new topic, such as “What do you like about Taiwan?”, “Politics and elections in Taiwan,” “What does freedom mean to you?” and much more. Plus, each video is subtitled in English, Chinese characters and pinyin, so you’re bound to pick up some new vocab.
The videos are recorded in Taiwan, so if you want to study Taiwanese Mandarin and the Taiwanese accent, in particular, these videos are the perfect study materials. However, the difference between Standard Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin isn’t huge, so Standard Mandarin learners will find them just as beneficial.
Slow Chinese Listening & Reading Practice
Difficulty Level: Beginner to Intermediate (HSK 2-5)
Available: YouTube
This playlist by Everyday Chinese is a compilation of stories told in Mandarin. Not only are they good for practicing your listening skills, but they’re also very entertaining and give deep insights into Chinese culture.
Many of the videos are labeled “Beginner” or “Intermediate/Advanced,” so you know exactly which videos to focus on. Some are even labeled with their corresponding HSK level!
Similar to Easy Languages Mandarin, each video in this playlist is accompanied by English, Chinese characters and Pinyin subtitles.
Although these stories are great for listening to at any time of the day, I recommend you listen to each story twice in one day: once in the morning, and then once more right around bedtime so you can learn Chinese in your sleep. This brings me to the next point!
Learn HSK Vocabulary While You Sleep
Difficulty Level: Beginner to Intermediate (HSK 1-4)
Available: YouTube
If you haven’t tried to learn while you sleep, it’s about time you did.
Despite sleep learning being a controversial subject with research indicating varying levels of effectivity, lots of educators seem to be on board with it. This clip is just one of the many videos on YouTube teaching common Chinese vocabulary words in your sleep.
On the other hand, one study demonstrates that language learning while sleeping only improved information recall, meaning that new information couldn’t be retained but previously learned vocab and structures were reinforced.
Only you can be the judge of whether it works on not, so it doesn’t hurt to give it a shot. As long as you treat sleep learning as a review session rather than a new listening lesson, you might even see some benefits!
“Living Language Mandarin Chinese”
Difficulty Level: Beginner to advanced (HSK 1-4)
Available: Website, CDs and coursebook
“Living Language Mandarin Chinese” isn’t just audio—it’s actually a multimedia package that includes coursebooks, a Chinese character guide, online learning and, of course, audio.
This package is the complete edition of “Living Language Mandarin Chinese,” so it offers three coursebooks for beginners through advanced students. In total, there are 46 lessons accompanied with cultural notes, exercises and more.
Online learning activities include flashcards, games and quizzes to reinforce your learning.
And if you’re looking for audio, this program offers plenty of it. In fact, you’ll receive nine CDs, which feature audio exercises, vocabulary, dialogue and more. You can listen to them while you’re using the printed material, or use them separately for hands-free learning.
If you don’t have a CD player anymore, don’t worry! Downloadable audio is also available with your purchase.
“Pimsleur Chinese”
Difficulty Level: Beginner (HSK 1)
Available: CDs
If you want to learn Chinese with an audio course, “Pimsleur Chinese” is a great choice.
This conversational course focuses exclusively on audio. The audio CD language course offers eight hours of audio-only instruction.
This course is designed for beginners and features 16 lessons that introduce basic vocabulary, structure and conversation. You’ll learn useful vocabulary related to greetings, numbers, shopping, asking for directions and more.
The course places particular emphasis on pronunciation and comprehension, which are great foundational skills you can build upon down the road.
“Learn Mandarin Chinese with Paul Noble”
Difficulty Level: Beginner (HSK 1)
Available: CDs, audiobook
Looking for a more relaxed approach to learning Chinese? “Learn Mandarin Chinese with Paul Noble” could be your perfect fit.
This course may have a laid-back vibe, but it doesn’t skimp on Chinese learning content. In fact, it offers over 12 hours of audio content intended to help complete beginners learn Chinese skills they can use in real life.
“Learn Mandarin Chinese with Paul Noble” is available via CD or you can search for it on Audible, making it a convenient choice if you have specific audio preferences.
If you like “Learn Mandarin Chinese with Paul Noble” and want to continue your study, or if you’re already at an intermediate level, you might try “Next Steps in Mandarin Chinese with Paul Noble,” which is a follow-up course.
“Chinese Flash Cards Kit Volume 1”
Difficulty Level: Beginner (HSK 1-2)
Available: Flashcards
Why would anyone use a flashcard set if they’re looking to learn Chinese with audio? Well, this isn’t an ordinary flashcard set!
In addition to 349 flashcards and a 32-page study booklet, this set provides audio of over 2,000 words and phrases. The audio comes on a CD with native-speaker pronunciations, so you can listen from a CD player or rip it to have it handy on your favorite device.
This kit was developed specifically with an eye on HSK (Chinese Proficiency Test) and AP test prep, so it can be a particularly useful tool for students considering taking these tests. However, the kit is at an HSK 1 or HSK 2 level, meaning it’s best for beginning students.
“Learn in Your Car: Mandarin Chinese – Level 1”
Difficulty Level: Beginner (HSK 1-2)
Available: CDs and downloadable lessons
Make the most of your commute! “Learn in Your Car: Mandarin Chinese” is designed for hands-free learning wherever you are.
This program offers 28 downloadable lessons that teach the basics related to popular themes, such as transportation, money, hotels, directions, numbers and so much more. Lessons range in length from about two minutes to nearly 20, so you’ll have plenty of material to help you learn Chinese while you’re on the go.
You can download each lesson individually, buy the whole album or search for it using an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. Want to try it out a different way? You can also find “Learn in Your Car: Mandarin Chinese – Level 1” on Spotify.
If you like the series and want to continue, or if you’re already at a more advanced level, you can also check out additional works in the series, “Learn in Your Car: Mandarin Chinese – Level 2” and “Learn in Your Car: Mandarin Chinese – Level 3.”
“Chinese for Kids”
Difficulty Level: Beginners (HSK 1-2)
Available: Books
Whether you’re a kid or a kid at heart, “Chinese for Kids” can be a great tool to study beginning Chinese.
“Chinese for Kids” is intended for early beginners between the ages of three and eight. However, the same learning principles that help kids can also help adult learners.
This set includes 10 reader books, and each book highlights 10 vocabulary words, teaching you common words on themes like colors, animals, clothing, family and more. Texts feature both pinyin and simplified Chinese. English translations are available at the back so you won’t be so tempted to lean on English too heavily.
Plus, all this comes with online audio by a native speaker! You can listen online or download the audio for easy listening on the go.
Chinese-Tools.com
Difficulty Level: Beginner to intermediate (HSK 1-3)
Available: Website
Want to take a beginning Chinese course without spending a dime? Head over to Chinese-Tools.com.
Chinese-Tools.com offers 40 online lessons. The lessons teach pronunciation, common characters, vocabulary, grammar and basic Chinese skills.
Each lesson offers audio examples to reinforce what you’ve learned. And because the audios are MP3s, you can choose to listen online or download them to enjoy the audio even when you don’t have internet access.
Chinese-Tools.com is designed to be used for just 10 minutes each day, making it a great choice for Chinese students with limited time available to devote to studying.
HelloChinese
Difficulty Level: Beginner to advanced (HSK 1-4)
Available: iOS and Android
HelloChinese is a super popular Chinese learning app for beginning students.
And it’s popular for a reason! It offers tons of great features for students learning Chinese, including speech recognition to practice your pronunciation, handwriting to help you learn characters, videos to help you practice real-life conversations, games for a fun learning break and more.
But let’s get to the audio! The app weaves audio by native speakers throughout the activities. Plus, new podcast lessons are added weekly to provide you with additional audio learning content.
Once you have the full course downloaded, you can access materials without internet access, making it a perfect tool to use on a plane or wherever you can’t access Wi-Fi.
Also, the main course is free! But if you want access to games, you’ll need to purchase a premium subscription.
Nemo
Difficulty Level: Beginner (HSK 1)
Available: Website, iOS and Android
Nemo is a Chinese phrasebook that features audio by native speakers.
Online, you can use Nemo to study 100 common words and phrases. Each entry is accompanied by Chinese text, pinyin text, English translation and audio.
While the website is great, the app is where Nemo truly shines. The app features downloaded audio, so you can listen offline, whether you’re on a plane or just don’t have access to Wi-Fi. The app also has a speech study that invites you to record yourself speaking to compare your pronunciation to the teacher’s.
And if you’re using the iOS app, you’re in luck! It even offers a hands-free mode, enabling you to use the app when you’re cooking, exercising or driving.
Melnyks Chinese
Difficulty Level: Beginner (HSK 1)
Available: iOS and Android
Melnyks Chinese is a downloadable audio course you can put on your computer or your favorite device.
The lessons are designed for absolute beginners, so you’ll receive plenty of useful information, like common vocabulary, basic grammar, dialogues, language structures and cultural information. Lessons focus on realistic situations to provide practical vocabulary and communication skills you can use in real life.
You can listen to the audio lessons wherever it’s convenient for you, whether that’s the car, the gym or on public transportation. However, if you have time to do a little reading, Melnyks Chinese also offers PDF transcripts and review worksheets that accompany audio lessons.
50Languages
Difficulty Level: Beginner (HSK 1)
Available: Website, iOS and Android
Want to build your Chinese vocabulary quickly? 50Languages is a great tool that can help beginning learners build a strong vocabulary foundation to build on down the road.
50Languages provides 100 lessons to teach basic vocabulary with the goal of giving students the ability to form basic sentences. You’ll learn words related to common themes, such as numbers, people, family members, school, feelings, animals and so much more.
One of the highlights of 50Languages is that it offers downloadable audio files that you can use on any device. This makes it easy to listen to audio every day and go back and re-listen to previous lessons for additional reinforcement.
Viki
Difficulty Level: Intermediate to Advanced (HSK 4-6)
Available: Website, TV and streaming apps, iOS and Android
One of the most popular resources for streaming Asian movies, dramas and game shows, Viki is the perfect place to find entertaining Chinese media for improving your listening skills.
You can even choose from Mainland Chinese films and Taiwanese films. Plus, each movie and drama allows you to add or remove subtitles in multiple languages, so whether you want to follow along with the Chinese subs or none at all, you can do so.
AsianCrush
Difficulty Level: Intermediate to Advanced (HSK 4-6)
Available: Website, iOS and Android
Who doesn’t love dramas and movies? Watching entertaining content is a fantastic way to work on your listening skills, especially if the content in question is heavy in dialogue.
AsianCrush is a free streaming website for movies and shows complete with Chinese, Japanese and Korean content. There are quite a few genres available on this site, so you’re sure to find something that suits your taste.
Luckily, AsianCrush usually provides subtitles in both the native language and English for their videos. For beginners, I suggest putting on English subtitles to help you with listening comprehension. For intermediate and advanced learners, Chinese subtitles would be preferable to help you associate spoken words with their written counterparts.
Some videos don’t have subtitles, which would be useful for advanced learners who really need to hone in on their listening skills overall.
How Can I Use These Resources to Improve My Chinese Listening Skills?
- Use these resources daily. Remember, practice makes perfect! But it’s important to do more than just recite Chinese words daily. Utilizing these resources—even just one or two of them—on a daily basis with your study routine can help you attain your larger Chinese-learning goals.
- Incorporate them into your regular Chinese-learning plan or routine. The beauty of these resources is that they can accompany an already established learning schedule. Whether you’re taking a college course or trying to learn Mandarin online with a self-made plan, these resources can complement what you already have in place.
If you’re still searching for a primary resource, many of these programs can work as your main learning materials, which you can base your study routine on, too.
- Quality over quantity. Fifteen resources for Chinese listening practice is a lot—I get that. You don’t have to use all of them! First, I recommend trying as many of these resources as you can, to see which ones resonate with your learning style. Then narrow your personal list down to two or three resources and use them daily. Once you find the right resources for you, they can have lasting value throughout your language learning journey.
- Practice the shadowing technique. The shadowing technique involves listening to audio materials in Chinese and then repeating after the native speaker almost instantly. Not only does it improve your listening comprehension skills, but it also improves your accent, pronunciation and speaking skills.
While shadowing might be a bit overwhelming for beginner Chinese learners, it’s the perfect challenge for intermediate and advanced speakers. Plus, you get to use your favorite Chinese audio sources as practice materials! From movies and TV shows to entertaining vloggers, anything you can listen to, you can shadow.
- Use Chinese subtitles instead of English. Something else you should be doing if you’re an intermediate Chinese learner is becoming less and less reliant on English subtitles. There are several Chinese resources out there that not only allow you to completely remove the English subtitles but also allow you to replace them with Chinese subtitles. (FluentU has that feature!)
The advantage of using Chinese subtitles is that it becomes easier to learn new vocabulary and recognize grammar patterns in your audio. Plus, if you still don’t feel 100% confident in your listening skills, following along with Chinese subtitles gives you the reassurance that you haven’t missed anything important.
- Transcribe everything you hear. Similar to shadowing, “transcribing” refers to writing what you hear almost instantly after hearing it. Instead of repeating after the native speaker, try writing on a sheet of paper what you think they said. The best resources to use for this exercise are songs and podcast episodes that include transcriptions of the show. The first step is to listen to the song or podcast and write down what you hear.
After you’ve finished, look up the actual lyrics online or refer to the podcast transcription to compare your transcribing to what was actually said. Correct yourself where you were wrong, then listen to the audio again while reading the right transcription to correct your hearing.
How to Nail the HSK with Chinese Listening Practice
Imagine watching Chinese-language media without English or hanzi subtitles.
Now imagine communicating effectively with native speakers.
Those are just a couple of reasons why you have to practice Chinese listening, a vital language skill to master if you want to make your way up to fluency.
It’s also necessary if you plan on taking the HSK or the 汉语水平考试 (hàn yǔ shuǐ píng kǎo shì). The HSK has 6 levels that measure your reading, writing and listening skills.
In terms of listening skills, this is what you’ll need to pass each level:
HSK 1
- Recognize familiar everyday expressions and basic phrases
- Can answer personal questions about age, nationality, where you live, what you have, etc.
HSK 2
- Understand expressions related to basic topics like family, shopping, jobs, etc.
- Communicate in simple exchanges
HSK 3
- Answer questions and draw comparisons
- Understand expressions and ideas related to work, school, travel
HSK 4
- Understand main ideas on concrete and abstract subjects
- Understand native speech with little to no difficulty
HSK 5
- Understand the news and other settings where formal language is used
HSK 6
- Understand all spoken Chinese and effectively express yourself
However, these testing standards will be changing in the near future.
For starters, new levels (7-9) will be introduced to test advanced fluency. These levels will be going through their first trial in December 2021 and possibly be available to the public by March 2022.
Levels 1-6 are currently undergoing some changes as well to increase demands for proficiency and update language so that it’s applicable to the modern world. The new model will also measure all related language skills. On top of reading, writing, listening and speaking, it will also test handwriting and translation skills.
Even if you have no plans to take the HSK, it’s good to know what listening skills are expected now and what will be expected in the future to give you a sense of your own proficiency level. Many books, apps and websites use HSK levels to gauge difficulty, so knowing your levels will help you find your way among learning and listening resources.
Here’s what you need to know about the New HSK listening portion:
New HSK 1
- Slow speaking speed (around 100 characters/min)
- Understand simple dialogues using basic words and simple sentences
- Understand basic information with the help of pictures
New HSK 2
- Relatively slow speaking speed (around 140 characters/min)
- Understand simple sentences and some compound sentences
- Recognize basic information with the help of gestures and facial expressions
New HSK 3
- Relatively normal speaking speed (around 180 characters/min)
- Understand long simple sentences and simple compound sentences
- Observe details with the help of voices, intonation, changes in speaking speed, etc.
New HSK 4
- Understand both informal and formal dialogues and speeches
- Normal speaking speed with natural and authentic intonation (180-200 characters/min)
- Understand inflections like humor and sarcasm, cultural knowledge, etc.
- Recall accurate information in audios, regardless of unnecessary pauses and redundancies in speech
New HSK 5
- Understand both informal and formal dialogues and speeches
- Normal speaking speed with natural and authentic intonation (200-220 characters/min)
- Understand cultural implications
- Recall details, regardless of unnecessary pauses or redundancies in speech
New HSK 6
- Understand both informal and formal dialogues and speeches
- Normal speaking speed with natural accent and non-exaggerated intonation (220-240 characters/min)
- Understand others despite speech impediments or differences in proficiency level
- Recognize speakers’ intentions and related cultural factors
New HSK 7
- Normal to slightly fast speaking speed
- Understand facts and perspectives accurately and any related social and cultural implications, regardless of environmental disruptions
New HSK 8
- Normal to slightly fast speaking speed
- Summarize audios
- Understand details and know their logical order, regardless of environmental disruptions
New HSK 9
- Slightly fast speaking speed
- Analyze and make observations and speculations
- Understand social and cultural implications correctly
With so many resources online, the road to Chinese fluency won’t seem so grueling anymore. Once you improve your skills through Chinese listening practice, you’ll be able to sit back and enjoy the ride!
Most recently updated by Sheena Dizon on 10/14/2021.
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