List of Listening Resources for Advanced Chinese Learners (July 2019)

August 2, 2019 at 10:19 AM

To Chinese Forums,

I have been intensely studying Mandarin on my own for the past 2 years, and since October 2017 have lived in Beijing. I am now reaching the stage where I mostly use native materials to read and listen extensively and intensively.

The purpose of this post is to make a list of native listening resources which can be used by upper intermediate or advanced language learners to practice their listening ability., sorted by availability of transcripts and availability to download the audio. It seems to me that language learner material for beginners is pretty well-documented on many sites different sites, but I myself had to find most of the advanced materials through my own effort, scrounging through many different places in order to find them.

Over the past year, I have spent many days scouring around both the English and Chinese web to compile this list. This list began as my own pet project, and I now wish to share it with you guys. I owe much to the good advice and tips from the online language learning community, and perhaps this Hopefully it will decrease the time you need to spend preparing to practice a language, and increase the time you can spend actually practicing.

Allow me to clarify a few notes on the layouts, offer you some important tips to help increase your efficient use of these resources, and admit some caveats before I list out all the resources.

Notes on the Layout

After compiling all of the resources for the list, I then divided all content based on the answers to two very important questions.

1^stQuestion: Is a written form of what is said available?

2^nd Question: Can I download the audio directly from the site?

After asking the first question I had four categories of content, three of which I then split into can be downloaded and cannot be downloaded categories. So you have this:

(1) 有实录 (Has a transcript of embedded text)

① 能下载

② 本能下载

(2) 有字幕 (Has subtitles)

① 能下载

② 本能下载

(3) 有书 (Audiobooks) - All sites here allow you to download the audio.

(4) 没有实录、字幕、书 (Does not have a written form available)

① 能下载

② 本能下载

If any one folder still had a lot of items in it (10+ items), I further subdivided the folders based on content type (i.e. TV show, podcast, radio broadcast, etc.).

In an effort to save time for those of you who want to quickly get in and start using the best of these resources without sifting through a swamp, I created a fifth category, simply labeled 快点儿/ Top 12 , wherein I list what I consider to be the top 12 coolest resources, based on content and lack of awareness alone. That is to say, the criteria I asked to include the resources in this list was first to ask Is the content here very interesting, of high production quality, and regularly pumped out? followed immediately by the question Does this resource seem to be overlooked by many learners? For this section alone, I also wrote a short description for each resource included.

For the sake of convenience I list the Youtube link for video series that cannot be download directly from its website, and the Player FM link for audio series that cannot be download directly from their website. The rationale for this being that Player FM always you to directly download an MP3 file from its website, and that most people will find it very easy to convert Youtube videos into MP3 files if they have an inclination to do so.

I tried only to include material which is free to view and or listen to. In the rare cases where the content requires payment, I will list a $$$ (price of subscription) to the side of the name.

Each entry includes a direct link to the website. In the future, if anybody notices any broken links, update the community quickly and we can try to find the new location For the websites whose content hasn’t been updated in sometime, I would highly encourage you guys to save the content to your own hard drives, if possible.

The list is written in 汉字. If you are wanting to use these resources, a fine prerequisite would be that you are able to read the list in characters without aid.

If you wish to inform many of any resources that we could add into here, please let me know.

Important Tips

All entries in the list are native resources, that is to say, they are content produced for native speakers. I did not include in materials made for language learners which can still be used at advanced levels (i.e ChinePod Advanced lessons, Mandarin Corner, Learning Chinese Through Stories, etc.) I would suggest that any learner interested in using these materials listed below for intensive study should already have reached a B1 level, and for extensive use a B2 level.

For the materials which do not either transcript or subtitles, a fellow member of this forum has alerted me to the presence of a website which is an absolute godsend. It’s a transcription website, ostensibly meant to be used by native speaking professionals like IT, medical, law, etc. But the uses of this for us language learners are obvious. The service is not free,. but for machine transcription the rates around 0.33Y per spoken minute of audio. That equals out to about 10Y per half-hour and 20Y per hour. I have already had it transcribe four different podcasts. Obviously, the more standard the accent the better transcription, but all of the podcasts that I had transcribed featured non-standard accents (from Taiwan, Shandong, Wuhan, and Beijing respectively) and the machine still was hitting 95% - 99% accuracy on all of them. The biggest glitch actually was that on one of the shows （马丽欧陪你喝一杯） the two people were throwing in a lot of one-off English words and acronyms, which the machine mistook as mandarin syllables. Anyways, website is a highly recommended cheap way to get transcripts of any of the resources I list under 没有实录、字幕、书。

Website Name: 讯飞听见

Website Address: https://www.iflyrec.com/

For the few websites which do not allow downloads directly from the website and do not have their content available on another compendium podcast or video website for free download, the easiest route to obtaining an mp3 is to record the audio you want to download while it is playing on your device, using either a built in recorder (must smart phones have these) or a free program like Audacity. If you wan to use the above-mentioned transcription, strive to obtain as clean sounding a recording as you can.

Caveats

There do exist other websites which have attempted to compile lists of learner resources, to varying degrees of comprehensiveness (most notably Hacking Chinese Resources, Ling Ling Chinese, Chinese Podcasts and Mandarin Society, and a few forum posts on Chinese Forums), but all of these have failed to meet my needs;mostly due because they either haven’t been updated for a while, fail to separate resources based on if the content has a transcript or not, and I myself have found several very cool resources not listed on any of those sites.

As the list was already getting very long at near 125 items, I did not include many so called podcasts who appeared to have stopped producing content and/or who had only produced a few episodes (less than 20) and then stopped broadcasting.

I specifically tried not to include too load the list with too many TV shows or movies on this list, because I have seen these well documented in these forums. Furthermore, if you are living in the mainland I can heartily recommend that you just download and buy a year’s subscription to 优酷 and/or 腾讯 and just browse around until you find what you like.

I specifically was trying to avoid short form content (defined here as an average episode length runs below 15 minute). While there are some producers of this type of content mixed in here, the majority of these shows are long form.

Special thanks to Imron Alston, whose writes very concisely and with a inclination for the truth, a trait which I admire greatly in today’s world. If you have not, I highly suggest reading his articles on Chinese the Hard Way.

Warmest,

孙博运

P.S. As this is my first time posting on here, I was unfamiliar with the posting interface. It seems that if I copy and paste the list directly into the posting box, I will lose the formatting of Word Document. So in an effort to avoid that, I am just going to post the Top 12 list into the forum, and attach the complete list of 125 - 150 links (or thereabouts) as a Word Document here.

高级听力材料的列举.docx

August 2, 2019 at 10:22 AM

快点儿 / Top 12

①　一席

The best Chinese version of TED Talks out there, by a long shot.Very interesting topics, updated bi-weekly, sporting a clean interface, painless to download, and contains transcripts for all shows. I cannot believe I never heard about this from other learners.

https://yixi.tv/

②　163 Courses

Tons of free courses spanning a range of subjects, all of them (that I have seen) with subtitles。 No registration needed. Tip, in some of the videos there is actually a built in (very basic) pop-dictionary within the video player.

https://open.163.com/cuvocw/

③　希望之声

Non-profit Chinese news broadcasting company. A whole lot of articles here, the majority with transcripts and able to be downloaded.

https://www.soundofhope.org/gb/2019/08/01/n3076028.html

④　华语环球

Like the Mainland version of NPR podcasts. Check out 非常记录 and 会客厅 for starters. Currently only 3 or 4 are producing new episodes, but the backlog here is quite extensive.

http://chinese.cri.cn/media/index.html

⑤　故事FM

Each episode tells a different story of an ordinary person from the Mainland. Some of the stories themselves are ordinary, some are extraordinary, and all are interesting. Very good production value here.

https://player.fm/series/1496859

⑥　臺灣故事島

Same as 故事FM above, but from Taiwan.

https://storytaiwan.tw/default.html

⑦　中央广播电台

This is the single best producer of Mandarin speaking radio content, bar none. No download or transcripts however.

https://cn.rti.tw/radio/programList/program_category_id/1

⑧　玛丽欧陪你喝一杯

Very nice host who drinks and converses about a smorgasbord of topics with a different guess every episode. Very informal, great for getting used to Taiwanese accents.

https://player.fm/series/series-1920692

⑨　观点

Some people in a studio giving opinions on topics, usually big, sometimes small. Again, production quality here is very weel done.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeQNWQtmrc98TFUJNrFOdfQ/playlists

⑩　狗熊有话说

Very relaxed dude, very relaxed podcast.

http://voice.beartalking.com/

⑪　文昭谈古论今

One guy - who I believe is a professor - giving his take on current events, politics and life.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtAIPjABiQD3qjlEl1T5VpA

⑫　圆桌派

Perhaps not as good as 锵锵三人行 but still very interesting. If you haven;t noticed, I tend to like barebone productions such as this - a few people, some microphones, and ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xmIquqwnBQ&list=PLwmPBqRou8APdG6K-Ks0lV2yL0yqCFHOu

August 2, 2019 at 12:56 PM

Thanks for sharing. This is a very valueable sharing for those who have reach an upper intermediate or advanced level. Appreciate the effort, thanks

August 2, 2019 at 01:17 PM

Wow, thank you for this great resource list!

Which of your 快点儿 / Top 12 are audios on the web, rather than videos? You imply that it's fairly easy to convert a YouTube video to an MP3, but I have never done that and would need to first research how that's done. (Unless someone else here would like to explain.)

Thanks again.

August 2, 2019 at 01:41 PM

3 hours ago, 孙博运 said:

Special thanks to Imron Alston

You're welcome

Thanks for putting together this list.

August 2, 2019 at 02:22 PM

3 hours ago, 孙博运 said:

It seems that if I copy and paste the list directly into the posting box, I will lose the formatting of Word Document.

You shouldn't do, but it'll depend on what the formatting is and there may be difference across browsers. If you want to try anything out, try sending me a private message and we'll figure it out. Can't guarantee we can do everything word can, though.

And, obviously, thanks for the post and welcome to the site.

August 2, 2019 at 11:20 PM

Thanks for compiling and posting that list of resources. Very useful!

As to formatting, I nearly always write my Chinese food articles in MS Word (2016 edition) so I can correct errors and edit them. Then I paste them into Chinese Forums. They always lose formatting, but going through and restoring it is not much trouble. That's also the point at which I add pictures.

The latest iteration of the Forums software seems to handle the overall process better than before. Things less often just disappear when they are half finished. (Using Chrome browser.)

August 3, 2019 at 03:08 AM

I think 列表 would be better than 列举? I believe 列举 is a verb.

August 3, 2019 at 03:23 AM

Guys,

Here is the full list. Please note again that, if you want the list with indentions to help quickly identify where section changes, you can download the Word File.

Imron, Roddy, & the rest of the gang: Anytime. It's my pleasure.

Moshen: Check out section 2.1 below. All of these, whether video or audio, can be downloaded directly from the web.

Feihong: I changed the heading to 列表 , but - while formally listed as a verb in my dictionaries - I believe I have heard some teachers/ friends use 列举 as a verb. Anyways, I digress.

Warmest,

孙博运

列表

录表

1. 快点儿 / Top 12

2. 有实录

(1) 能下载

(2) 不能下载

3. 有字幕

(1) 能下载

(2) 不能下载

A. 公开课程

B. 在网上创造的

C. 电视/广播电台

4. 有书

5. 没有实录、字幕、书

(1) 能下载

A. 博客

B. 广播电台

(2) 不能下载

1. 快点儿 / Top 12

①　一席

The best Chinese version of TED Talks out there, by a long shot.Very interesting topics, updated bi-weekly, sporting a clean interface, painless to download, and contains transcripts for all shows. I cannot believe I never heard about this from other learners.

https://yixi.tv/

②　163 Courses

Tons of free courses spanning a range of subjects, all of them (that I have seen) with subtitles。 No registration needed. Tip, in some of the videos there is actually a built in (very basic) pop-dictionary within the video player.

https://open.163.com/cuvocw/

③　希望之声

Non-profit Chinese news broadcasting company. A whole lot of articles here, the majority with transcripts and able to be downloaded.

https://www.soundofhope.org/gb/2019/08/01/n3076028.html

④　华语环球

Like the Mainland version of NPR podcasts. Check out 非常记录 and 会客厅 for starters. Currently only 3 or 4 are producing new episodes, but the backlog here is quite extensive.

http://chinese.cri.cn/media/index.html

⑤　故事FM

Each episode tells a different story of an ordinary person from the Mainland. Some of the stories themselves are ordinary, some are extraordinary, and all are interesting. Very good production value here.

https://player.fm/series/1496859

⑥　臺灣故事島

Same as 故事FM above, but from Taiwan.

https://storytaiwan.tw/default.html

⑦　Radio Taiwan International

This is the single best producer of Mandarin speaking radio content, bar none. No download or transcripts however.

https://cn.rti.tw/radio/programList/program_category_id/1

⑧　玛丽欧陪你喝一杯

Very nice host who drinks and converses about a smorgasbord of topics with a different guess every episode. Very informal, great for getting used to Taiwanese accents.

https://player.fm/series/series-1920692

⑨　观点

Some people in a studio giving opinions on topics, usually big, sometimes small. Again, production quality here is very weel done.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeQNWQtmrc98TFUJNrFOdfQ/playlists

⑩　狗熊有话说

Very relaxed dude, very relaxed podcast.

http://voice.beartalking.com/

⑪　文昭谈古论今

One guy - who I believe is a professor - giving his take on current events, politics and life.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtAIPjABiQD3qjlEl1T5VpA

⑫　圆桌派

Perhaps not as good as 锵锵三人行 but still very interesting. If you haven;t noticed, I tend to like barebone productions such as this - a few people, some microphones, and ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xmIquqwnBQ&list=PLwmPBqRou8APdG6K-Ks0lV2yL0yqCFHOu

2. 有实录

A. 能下载

① 一席 https://yixi.tv/

② 希望之声 https://www.soundofhope.org/

③ 中国访谈 http://fangtan.china.com.cn/

④ 人物对话 http://ent.cnr.cn/rw/

⑤ 历史上的今天 https://fm1047.net/blog

⑥ Skeptoid (中文） https://skeptoid.com.cn/

⑦ Pars Today http://parstoday.com/zh/radio

⑧ SELF/格致论道 http://www.self.org.cn/

⑨ Radio Free Asia https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/