Participation
in Chinese listening challenge, September 2024



30 minutes
0.5h

still listening Teatime Chinese. Excellent intermediate program. Thanks again Ollie!

180 minutes
3.0h

early morning listening Teatime Chinese virtual reality 播客。

60 minutes
1.0h

Winding up the day, preparing for sleep.

120 minutes
2.0h

Light fun listening- Martin Papp, Kenan Heppe, even watching Russian Ballet (silent) while listening to chinese 播客。hahaha Good night everyone 祝福。 It has been a pleasure. Special thanks to Ollie. I learned so much.

370 minutes
6.17h

Teatime chinese listening and reading transcript, and Bear Talk/ Teatime Chinese. partly while doing reviews. Now dinner.

90 minutes
1.5h

Listening in Chinese, and writing in English (a gratitude piece for Ollie). No distractions because the only possible distraction is the Chinese material. If you try this, choose high quality, really well produced speech material. Most actors have really poor speech these days. If you can, choose a speaker who is professionally trained, or at the very least has beautifully enunciated speech. Which is rarer than you would think. Because when you are working at multiple levels at the same time, it helps. Li Can on Dashu Mandarin (or his own channel Eazy Mandarin) has decent produced and expressive speech . Also Bear Liu, Bear Talk, who I am currently listening to. Also news readers because they are fined if they produce any incorrect pronunciation. But they drink a lot of coffee and this speeds everything up beyond native level. Best. Janette

120 minutes
2.0h

more multilevel learning. (Listening and study) also listening and relaxing. Same material throughout. Quality audio a prerequisite. (especially as I do not have a transcript). Babies do not have a transcript either- yet learn to navigate a sea of incomprehensible material.

90 minutes
1.5h

more multilevel learning. ( I just invented the term). Simultaneous listening. Acquired new understanding of 压力 (stress, pressure, overwhelm) in context, and new character 滑 huá (slide)。This is applied to a new poem I am writing. 现在饿了。。。

60 minutes
1.0h

one hour of parallel listening to a many times repeated episode of too difficult Bear talk while reading an article in engl Ollie- intermediate learning time machine, and learning/logging a new word in context from the podcast 自控烈的。。 (self control). It amazes me that all three work together pretty effortlessly. And there is no question of any form of distraction, because distractions are already built in to the model and are productive.
Think about a baby , doing one thing and simultaneously hearing largely incomprehensible content, while simultaneously picking up on patterns and isolated known elements and building a language model. All effortlessly and at the same time. While also processing food with an immature digestive system hahaha..
Now, here is the crux... (new word 关键 from yesterday's passive/active listening).. who thinks a baby is a poor learner?
I am completely convinced this is a 好办法。 Amongst others, of course.
It certainly racks up mileage. And today I am USING vocab passively and actively acquired yesterday, while writing in english and listening in Chinese. 祝福, Janette

60 minutes
1.0h

early morning. Checked out Learning Chinese through Stories. Annoyed by short episodes and ads. Back to Bear Talk and a Teatime Chinese episode. Anyone got good suggestions for add free 免费 (free) intermediate listening? Cheers.

1 minutes
0.02h
59 minutes
0.98h

easier listening Teatime Chinese before bed. I started out with a goal of 30 hours listening. I more than tripled that. I learned to find tiny parcels of otherwise overlooked time. Like when doing a search for a movie or doc, and run a 播客 recording at those times. Since a surprising number or such small times exist, over time they added up. I learned about the Forking Path model of decision making (from Ollie, thank you!) which is about leveraging tiny decisions to achieve great results... and began to apply that.
I also launched my own private investigation. I thought about how babies are constantly immersed in a sea of largely incomprehensible language. And somehow their minds put together a language model. So I chose one piece of advanced material at native speed, that was absolutely incomprehensible to me and played it over and over while doing reviews, editing my Chinese poetry, and even writing this. I noticed that my brain was pretty easily keeping track of both (with varying levels of conscious attention), and with some vocab learning around some expressions, gradually the material becomes more approachable and better understood. Plus I am now acclimated to faster speaking I am generally more 放松和舒舒服服。And that, in itself is a huge win.
All in all I would say that I learned to play with listening in different ways.A huge shout out of thanks to Ollie who put this amazing challenge challenge together.
Ollie in doing this, you gave me a precious 礼物。 I return it with wishes for your wellbeing, and Grace. Blessings 祝福您, Janette

You're inspiring Janette, I'm following your good example to see what results it brings me over the next few months.

90 minutes
1.5h

evening Bear Talk

90 minutes
1.5h

afternoon listening Bear talk。

90 minutes
1.5h

morning study session focus on vocab content of an advanced (to me) 播客。

90 minutes
1.5h

early morning Bear talk

90 minutes
1.5h

post lunch (and Chinese lesson) listening. Snapping up every possible moment. Ollie I really like your notes on the Forking Path decision model. Everyone talks about long term plans, no one talks much about the tiny decisions that add up over time, making a world of difference. I am applying this model both to Chinese learning and voice training. Thanks again. I am so glad I am here to benefit from your wisdom.

I checked out the Forking Path decision model, thanks for sharing, I'm planning on utilising this also, Best to you

Glad you found it helpful! It's a completely different approach to thinking about the challenge of "doing something more" and quite helpful! It can be combined with more traditional methods, too! :)

120 minutes
2.0h

early morning listening and studying new vocab content。 BearTalk . Getting more comprehensible (this is advanced material for me. I have listened dozens of times now. It is cool to hear now known words coming up as I listen even casually.

120 minutes
2.0h

bear talk

120 minutes
2.0h

early morning Teatime Chinese

184 minutes
3.07h

AFTERNOON LISTENING IN EVERY SINGLE SPARE MOMENT

420 minutes
7.0h

long night. Bear Talk

120 minutes
2.0h

busy day. Teatime Chinese/ Bear Talk

90 minutes
1.5h

early morning Bear Talk

150 minutes
2.5h

evening Bear Talk, lesson.

90 minutes
1.5h

POVERTY- building the vocab and mind map- Bear talk

150 minutes
2.5h

Early morning Teatime Chinese and Bear Talk

90 minutes
1.5h

lesson and bear talk.

90 minutes
1.5h

after lunch listening Bear Talk

90 minutes
1.5h

before lunch listening- bear talk. I am building a mind map about poverty.

180 minutes
3.0h

bear talk -early morning

60 minutes
1.0h

1000 Li of Rivers and Mountains -Wang Ximeng- ballet docs.

60 minutes
1.0h

Bear Talk- Poverty.

90 minutes
1.5h

bear talk

240 minutes
4.0h

Bear Talk

135 minutes
2.25h

FIRST TV W.O. SUBTITLES

210 minutes
3.5h

listening while doing marathon boring task

300 minutes
5.0h

night, early morning listening, Bear Talk.

84 minutes
1.4h

Bear talk. before choir rehearsal.

60 minutes
1.0h

lunchtime Beartalk with some light study. Brain practicing pattern recognition, and acquiring new vocab.Enjoying challenge Ollie!

135 minutes
2.25h

Beartalk episode on strategies for learning language he has applied to learning english in New Zealand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S_t5yUKVBk Some interesting strategies including psychological aspects from the point of view of a professional tech. team member. I recommend it.

135 minutes
2.25h

Bear Talk 。 I recommend this podcast. Advanced level . Design, AI, Self development. Technology. Many interesting topics. I wish there were transcripts.

124 minutes
2.07h

two more hours of morning listening to Teatime Chinese with some shadowing.

120 minutes
2.0h

Early morning Bear Talk. Gender discrimination episode.

190 minutes
3.17h

I have learned a new passive listening technique. Comes from listening to material that is too hard, but really well spoken with beautifully enunciated sounds. I am using 声动。 Thank you Ollie. I leave it on playing softly in the background when studying, reviewing, learning new hanzi, writing Chinese poetry etc. I think this is like a small child who is surrounded by language that is largely incomprehensible and ever present. This gives me an opportunity to get out of the way and allow my brain to do what it does best, assemble patterns. So far I am quite impressed After a few hours of listening and shadowing this morning my speech and pronunciation definitely sharpened up. Spent an hour talking with ease.

82 minutes
1.37h

early spring morning listening in New Zealand. Teatime Chinese and 声动。Easy and advanced (acclimating)

You might need to update your goal. ;)

1 minutes
0.02h

Actual time spent 97 mins. Logged as one min because of a double entry error. (Three in total) all three are now rectified. Teatime chinese. Relaxing morning listening.

1 minutes
0.02h

37 MINS LISTENING REPORTED AS 1 MINS. rectifying accidental double logged times. Only one hour of double logged time remaining. I will rectify that with under logging tomorrow. Phew. What a mess.

1 minutes
0.02h

THREE HOURS OF LISTENING, LOGGED AS ONE MINIUTE. Mid day listening 声动 and Li Can (Dashu mandarin). I accidently double logged two entries totalling 4 hours 35 minutes. The entries cannot be changed now so I am performing unlogged listening to rectify the balance to a true balance. Sorry everyone. I do not understand how I made the mistake. I will try not make it again,

1 minutes
0.02h

early morning listening acclimating myself to advanced material. 声动。 Initially just to get the sound and pace in my ear , but 很惊讶, more and more meaning comes. Just using one episode over and over at this early stage. Even leaving it playing in the background when I am updating my flashcards, adding sentences etc. This is surprisingly effective for just letting the sound patterns soak in.

143 minutes
2.38h

early morning listening acclimating myself to advanced material. 声动。 Initially just to get the sound and pace in my ear , but 很惊讶, more and more meaning comes. Just using one episode over and over at this early stage. Even leaving it playing in the background when I am updating my flashcards, adding sentences etc. This is surprisingly effective for just letting the sound patterns soak in.

167 minutes
2.78h

during the day both highly focused listening w shadowing and relaxed listening while sewing (one episode Teatime chinese) . Interleaving with an episode of 声动, advanced listening, high speed beautifulsound production by the presenter. Surprised myself by understanding more than I expected to. funfun. Thanks Ollie for the suggestion which I picked up from your progress report, just to see if advanced listening would kill me. Still alive. 很惊讶。

声动 has many different podcasts, so check out the others if you like what you listened to here! Some of them, like 早咖啡 is very information-dense, so aren't very suitable for extensive listening, but some of the others are not (like the one about AI on 早知道 that I mentioned).

114 minutes
1.9h

Early morning combo of listening and listening and shadowing, Teatime Chinese, 5x same 播客。Repeating the same material definitely improved both fine detail understanding and pronunciation. Better hearing ( in terms of perception of mouth placement) with headphones- definitely. (Ollie this comment is for you). Also headphones allow for semi silent shadowing practice alongside really detailed perceptive listening. Win - win.

170 minutes
2.83h

quiet day sewing and listening.

170 minutes
2.83h

quiet day sewing and listening.

123 minutes
2.05h

大家好, early morning listening 7-9 am To Live, narrated by Nathan Rau, Teatime Chinese, parts 1 and 2 three times each.

105 minutes
1.75h

Dashu and Teatime Chinese episodes later in the day.

105 minutes
1.75h

Dashu and Teatime Chinese episodes later in the day.

150 minutes
2.5h

Early morning 5-7.30am. Some Dashu and Teatime Chinese episodes, most 2 times each.

88 minutes
1.47h

Dashu Mandarin- interesting spisode about the story that changed your life. Mine was The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis.
Li Can chose Alice in Wonderland. Interesting choice for a Chinese National with aspirations to establish himself as a writer.
Do you have a favourite Dashu Mandarin, or 茶歇中文 (Teatime Chinese) episode? My favourite 茶歇中文 is 活着, To Live because it is longer, and a fabulous story. (Also a great film) Here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXM5tyGG4Y4&list=PLhRGJL8iF6uQP3vtAL360i1Jf364CXNih&index=4
For Dashu, I would choose a solo episode by Li Can where he thinks very poetically about the deserted park in winter. It is short and easy enough for a late beginner, and beautiful enough for a learner at any level. Here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYCaBNYSHvQ From NZ, all the best everyone 加油。

136 minutes
2.27h

Early morning listening 5 - 7 am. Teatime Chinese while relaxing. Now ready for the day. Whoo hoo. 祝福大家。认真倾听,认真学习,认真生活。

136 minutes
2.27h

Early morning listening 5 - 7 am. Teatime Chinese while relaxing. Now ready for the day. Whoo hoo. 祝福大家。认真倾听,认真学习,认真生活。

104 minutes
1.73h

I am listening to an episode of Teatime Chinese or Dashu Mandarin per day -three times through the course of the day. While reading the transcript.
Just did my first. Dashu From Zero to Hero.
BTW an outstanding podcast for Advanced and late intermediate learners- BearTalk Podcast
https://beartalking.com/podcast.
I think there are about 700 episodes. Nice speaking, interesting and many tech related topics.
- An iTunes award-winning tech podcast founded in 2012
BearTalk Podcast is a Chinese podcast that shares technology insights, book reviews, and personal improvement tips since 2012. BearTalk Podcast was the Editor's Choice of iTunes China in 2013, which has more than 60,000 listeners.
All the best, Janette NZ




Challenge time progress:100%
Goal progress:155.1%
Score124.09
Rank1st
Hours reported124.09
Goal80h