Hello everyone! I've been learning Chinese for a year now and am currently preparing for the HSK Level 4 exam. I find the listening section the most difficult, especially when speakers talk quickly. Does anyone have any good practice methods or resource recommendations?
I currently listen to Chinese radio for 30 minutes every day but don't feel significant progress. Do I need a more systematic training method?
Starting a new series today to share interesting Chinese idiom stories. The first idiom is "画蛇添足 (Huà Shé Tiān Zú)".
The story takes place during the Warring States period. A nobleman in the state of Chu gave his retainers a pot of wine after a sacrifice. The retainers discussed: "A pot of wine isn't enough for several people, but more than enough for one person. Let's have a competition to draw snakes - the one who finishes first drinks the wine."
One person finished drawing the snake quickly and picked up the wine pot to drink. Seeing others hadn't finished, he proudly said: "I can even add feet to the snake!" While he was drawing the snake's feet, another person finished their snake, grabbed the wine pot and said: "Snakes don't have feet by nature - adding feet makes it no longer a snake!" With that, he drank the wine.
This idiom means doing unnecessary things that end up spoiling the result.
I've tried many apps during my Chinese studies - here are the ones I find particularly useful:
1. HelloChinese - Great for beginners with gamified learning
2. Pleco - Best Chinese-English dictionary with OCR recognition
3. Du Chinese - Graded reading materials with audio
4. Anki - Create your own flashcards, very effective for vocabulary
Does anyone have other recommended learning tools? Especially apps for practicing speaking.