Hey all,

So life got pretty busy outside of my Chinese learning, so my progress took a hit.

I finished chapter 3 of HSK5 in the last few days. I'm feeling pretty confident about my ability to memorize these character and also use them in context. Taking the workbook exercises at the end of this week, I hit about 60%, which would be a pass rate. It may seem low, but considering I'm still a 3 months or more away from actually sitting the exam, that is much higher than expected at this stage.

Part of the progress has been my listening practice. Honestly, reading has always come much easier to me. It's easier and more interesting to practice in my opinion. I think because there is less pressure and time constraint on reading compared to listening. However, I've started listening to a podcast that I've found really helpful, called Tea Time Chinese (not a sponsored link by the way).

Overall I'm finding the process of mnemonic learning very effective. Though my theory so far is that it's the process of checking the character, figuring out the radicals and meanings of them and creating a story that is helping more than having the story stored in my mind. It means I'm taking a while to study and review the characters and meanings quite deeply in some cases. In other cases the character is simple for me to remember based on already knowing the radicals / characters, for example 工人 or 人生. Whilst its personal based on what you know, the meanings of these are very obvious to me.

My advice to anyone reading who is at a lower lever would be to dig into the meaning of the radicals, it will help you a tonne later down the line. Especially as Chinese seems to love reusing radicals for implied meanings in more advanced words.

That all being said, it's just my opinion. I'm sure there are many much more advanced users on this site that know much more about it than me.

Anyway, peace and love to all, you can find out more about me at my other blog if you're so inclined.

See you next week.