A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
芭比的公司，想做电影和游戏
Barbie's Company Wants to Make Films and Games
About this story
Mattel, the toy maker behind Barbie and Hot Wheels, has a new chairman from magazines and music who wants more films and games, while Barbie sales fell 10 percent in the third quarter of 2026. HSK 3 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 3 Chinese listening episode that runs about 2 minutes. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 12 key vocabulary words such as 玩具、老板、杂志 and walks through 6 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
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原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
Mattel has a new boss, and he didn't do toys before.
You may not have heard the name Mattel, but you have surely seen the things it makes.
Barbie dolls are its.
Hot Wheels cars are its too.
And Fisher-Price, those toys for very young children.
I had a Barbie when I was little, and I cut her hair very short.
First, how it sold this year from July to September, compared with the same time last year.
Hot Wheels was up 6 percent.
Barbie was down 10 percent.
Fisher-Price fell the most.
15 percent.
Of the three, only one is going up.
So the company changed its forecast for the whole year downward.
That means this year will be worse than it first thought.
Right at this time, the new boss came.
He started in October, and he is also the company's chairman.
Before, he ran a magazine company.
Before that, he worked at a platform for listening to music online.
Magazines and music are both things for people to read and listen to.
Actually, after the previous boss left, where he went was a film company.
See, one came from magazines to toys, and one went from toys to films.
The new boss wants Mattel to make more films and more games.
Barbie has already been in a film once.
In 2023, the film Barbie came out.
That year, the best-selling film in the whole world was it.
But even with the film selling so well, Barbie dolls this year still sold 10 percent less.
On the games side, a rival has already shown how it's done.
Hasbro is also a toy company, and it is Mattel's rival.
In 2023, it turned Monopoly into a mobile game.
Lots of people played it.
It was very successful.
Mattel actually has mobile games too.
Since 2018, it has made them together with NetEase.
So when the new boss came, he actually had quite a lot to work with.
There's Barbie, there's Hot Wheels, and there are people to make mobile games with.
The hard part is that the only thing still going up now is the little cars.
Very small cars.
A magazine man running dolls and little cars, I'd really like to see how he does it.
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 3. 做玩具 means to make toys as a business. 玩 is to play.
HSK 3. The person in charge of a company. 换了一个新老板 means the company got a new boss.
HSK 3. 杂志公司 is a magazine company. The new boss ran one before Mattel.
HSK 1. 电影公司 is a film company. 上电影 means to be made into a film.
HSK 3. A company you compete with. 孩之宝 is Mattel's 对手.
HSK 3. Can stand alone after 很: 很成功 means it went very well.
HSK 3. What a company expects ahead of time. 把预计往下改 means to lower the forecast.
Beyond the HSK 1 to 5 lists. Here it means a doll, as in 芭比娃娃. It can also mean a baby.
Beyond the HSK 1 to 5 lists. 手机 is mobile phone and 游戏 is game. Hasbro made 《大富翁》 into one.
Beyond the HSK 1 to 5 lists. The head of a company's board. The new boss is also the chairman.
Beyond the HSK 1 to 5 lists. An online service people use, such as 在网上听音乐的平台, a music platform.
Beyond the HSK 1 to 5 lists. 汽车 is car. Here it means the small toy cars of 风火轮.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法跟 + Noun + 比
Compares two things or two times. 跟去年同一段时间比 means compared with the same months last year.
先看它今年七月到九月卖得怎么样，跟去年同一段时间比。
只有 + Noun
只有 means only, and points to the one thing that is different from the rest.
三个里面，只有一个在往上走。
Subject + 被 + Person + Verb
被 shows that something had an action done to it, and by whom.
我小时候有过一个芭比，头发被我剪得很短。
想让 + Person + Verb
Says what someone wants another person or a company to do.
新老板想让美泰多做电影，多做游戏。
把 + Object + 做成 + Result
把 brings the object before the verb. 做成 means to make it into something new.
二零二三年，它把《大富翁》做成了手机游戏。
可是……，还是……
Says the result stayed the same even though something should have changed it.
可是电影卖得那么好，今年的芭比娃娃，还是少卖了百分之十。
Proper nouns
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