I have been listening to Chinese podcasts.
I am keeping my ear up if nothing else.
I listen at ChinesePod, a language learning site based in Shanghai. The company, Praxis Language, has newer parallel sites in Spanish, Italian and French.
The level of professionalism, linguistic interest, cultural insight, and pedagogy is quite high.
The lessons and discussions are free. There are membership levels up to someone calling you everyday to tutor you. I listen to the lessons, read some of the discussion, use my dictionaries to absorb character uses. I find myself absorbed in it for an hour or two each time.
The visual language was what first attracted me to study Chinese. Now I find myself wanting to get to the depth of the culture through the language. I want to study again. I would like to learn the language like a child is taught in school. Writing and reciting from classics while practicing the colloquial language every day.
