Tips on being able to understand spoken Chinese better?

[eric]

news broadcast easy? hell no!

they speak 2x faster than anyone else!

childrens shows.. that's where it's at. maybe if you watch a movie with subtitles.

[geek_frappa]

niii haaaaoo!!!!

(ahh... that's more relaxing)...

[geoffkhan]

Ah, very relaxing indeed, Frappa! I think I can follow you so far...

What I've been doing is going to online chats in chinese. That has dramatically improved my conversational chinese.

I've also been listening to more chinese pop stuff. I love the music (and try not to sing along TOO loudly), and someday I might even be able to understand the lyrics! (oh my, won't that be the day)

[geek_frappa]

this summer, i'll put together a lyrics search engine for learners like us...

i love listening to music. it's really helped my accent.

also, i imitate chinese voices; i don't have my own yet.... even after 3 years...

[adambsmurf]

After four years of listening to Chinese and now being able to understand much of what is being said to me, I find that learning a dialect is an important element to improving your understanding.

You don't have to learn to speak it well, just learn the differences from Mandarin, and maybe some set phrases and such. Plus, it comes something you can talk about with people. A good "table topic."