Having recently switched from Android to iPhone, I have been browsing the Chinese podcasts to see if there were any ones useful for listening practice.

At first there seemed to only be two types of podcasts: ones intended for casual language learners of Chinese that were far too simple, or ones intended for a native Chinese audience that were ridiculously difficult to understand. But after some browsing I found one that was in between: "慢速中文 - Slow Chinese".

These podcasts are great, they are read by a native Chinese speaker at a nice pace (not annoyingly slow, but just slow enough that it doesn't sound like a Chinese news report). The topics are usually general things in Chinese culture and a full transcript (简体) of what was spoken is included in the description. I try not to look at the transcript until I have listened several times because it is listening that I am trying to practice, not reading.

If you want to check them out, here is the creator's website with all the podcasts streamable from there:

http://www.slow-chinese.com/

Or, you could just go into iTunes and find them (keep in mind you don't need an iphone or ipod to listen to podcasts).

These podcasts may be far above or below your level depending on where you are in your Skrittering, but I recommend checking them out. Listening is something we don't get enough of on Skritter.

It's definitely at a good speed for complete comprehension. I can definitely relate to recordings either sounding like a machine gun of words or so slow I feel like I must be in a hospital rehabilitation program haha

Sounds too unnaturally slow to me. We obviously need something slower than a native speaker would listen too, but if he's assuming we already know the vocab he is using, I　would think he'd be going a little faster.

Wooden Frogs thanks for passing on this website. I think it is a great link especially for me since I am working on reading characters and it is slow enough for me to keep up listening and reading the characters I don't know at the same time. I think it is a useful way to stretch yourself by hearing new vocabulary even if you don't already know the vocabulary.

@孟志书 Have you got any good suggestions for those of us who still need the 'hospital rehabilitation program' level (or more formally HSK2-3!) of speech?

@Catherine, Most of the stuff I have from that level I found on CD's included with random books I picked up at the store. For awhile I had an obsession with buying Chinese books that were on sale. As far as free downloadable material I always found the FSI Language Course in Chinese to be useful and full of common phrases. Not the slowest spoken, but the phrases and sections are short enough as to not overwhelm. They are a little outdated, but still free. You can find them at:

http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Chinese

Very good links, I´ve been searching just for that. Listening podcasts has been one of my key tools in learning spanish. The way to listen real-life podcasts in chinese is still very long, though.