CCTV9

A long break in blogs reflects a long break in my Chinese studies. But I'm back on the ma3.

I've taken to watching CCTV9 (available free-to-air on Hotbird for Europeans) these days. Even if the speed at which presenters speak is well beyond my abilities, the fact that very often there are hanzi subtitles provides a huge opportunity to reinforce what I've learned. Tuning in for 10 minute spells at a time, but regularly, gives me a chance to see some characters that I might have recently learned, and revisit the old familiar ones too. It's made all the more useful when you try to hear the sound that corresponds to the character. And finally, it is simply a good thing to hear the cadences of the Chinese language, even you don't understand them (something that I've heard Ken on Chinesepod say a number of times).