Video 1 - "What's your Name?" pretty easy, but there is still a disconnect between exactly what is said and the meaning in my brain. I can't hear every word, but I know what they are saying. Hmmmm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=e3U5lJWrPOE
Video 2: "Making Plans for Fun" I am getting what they are talking about, but miss many words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=79&v=8IjHPiYgLgw

New Practical Chinese Reader video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=277&v=7CGg2iqyPjQ Talking about school. Lots of shadowing to hear every word.

This video is from the New Practical Chinese Reader series. Getting to know professors and students at school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=FMSV71VTGsI Can understand almost everything.

This is a dialogue from the New Practical Reader: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=319&v=R6hR0_-QOWo When I first listened to it without the text, I did not realize that the two people were talking about a third person. It's a basic listening skill to understand pronouns, but I was so focused on the verbs that I missed the overall context of the conversation. In a conversation, it is essential that you get to know WHO or WHAT is being talked about.

Another BBC video on ordering at a tea house: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=286&v=KoFqEpZ4DBs
Easy to understand, but uses some new expressions for ordering.

This is a BBC video on ordering drinks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=466&v=KoFqEpZ4DBs. Really simple, but drinks I never heard of before.

Listening video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lr3bnLxEa0 This was really weird. A commercial for a TV channel that looks like Nicklelodeon with featuring a cell phone that is competing for food with an overweight girl - really mindless and for American taste a bit offensive. The dialogue was not any fun listening to.

Today's listening video is entitled "Talking to a Cabbie": https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=R6hR0_-QOWo This one was fairly easy compared to the other videos I've been watching for this challenge. The pronunciation was pretty clear and I am familiar with almost all the words.

Today's listening video is formal introductions, produced by the BBC. I know all the words, but the pace is really fast.
However, after several repeats, the dialogue seemed to be slower and better pronounced than I had first thought. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=396&v=kLcpBWD6RV0

Today's video comprehension is the kids program Sesame Street segment on the mystery word, yu2 鱼. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=205&v=avN9KM2yrAE I should be able to get this, but I need to repeat the video many times. Some words were completely distorted, from my ears point of view and did not sound anything like I expected. Oh well. It's amazing how preschool Chinese kids can follow this.

Today's listening video is a Post-It commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAM2DyMMZs8. I can say all the words and understand the phrases, but when I listen to the real thing is still hard to catch every word.

Today's listening video is "Do you think your girlfriend is pretty?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=-_ohIe6xThE Although this was basically only two questions, "do you think your boyfriend is handsome" and "do you think your girlfriend is pretty?," the interviewer spoke really fast. After twenty minutes of repetition and shadowing, it got pretty clear.

I did two more videos for listening comprehension: A Taiwan Beer commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTV1f8MBEhE and a Cold Noodle commercial for Family Mart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=o4bemDoYwQo. Upon initial listening, I could catch only 25% of what was being said even though the vocabulary is not very difficult. I kept repeating the videos and then read along with the scripts and then made myself concentrate on what the actors/narrators were saying character for character. Did shadowing to get the rhythm and elisions between characters down correct.

I'm planning on listening to short videos with transcriptions. I will repeat each video until I can distinguish each word or phrase. The first video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=r2PoBAZeWPo. This contains a lot of kid speech which is really hard to hear, but after several listenings over the 20 minute period, things begin to get clearer. Just as hard as I thought. These are from a pay-for website FluentU which allows me to replay the audio in sections over and over again with or without subtitles. I try to shadow the dialog as it is spoken. A little tricky but doable in 20 minutes.