My spoken Chinese has got worse.....or has it?

[blahblah]

I always prided myself on studying full on for over 1.5 years while living in China. All aspects of my language learning improved: spoken, listening, reading and writing, but it was not in any way easy, having to dedicate at least 6 hours a day to study in order to make the smallest of gains.

Here's the problem - since I have taken a break from systematic studying over the past half a year my mandarin has seemingly deteriorated to such a degree where I am finding basic conversations - in the taxi, buying from a shop, simply greetings - rather difficult. I am aware of my tones being unintelligible, and my general oral skills suck big time. Why is this the case?

I should add on a personal level, I lost one of my parents in a car accident 2 months ago which has of course left me emotionally quite weak. However I don't wish to focus on this incident as being the be all and end all, though it would be comforting to know if anyone else has experienced a period where there oral chinese skills have gone from 'upper-intermediate/advanced' to post-beginner in a matter of months?

[Shadowdh]

My first question would be have you moved back to your home country? I noticed a serious drop in listening and speaking skills after only a few weeks... (perhaps 6 or so) and even though I have upped my game when it comes to time spent studying and so forth it still seems such a struggle...

[coolplay]

First of all, please accept my condolences. This definitely affected your ability to speak Chinese.

Secondly, have you been keeping practicing spoken Chinese? If you went back to your own country and stopped practising, it may take a while for you to get back to the level you were at.

[roddy]

Chinese skills (any skills, I guess) can drop off if they don't get used regularly, or if you have a blow to your confidence. I suspect that can happen even more quickly if you've learned intensively and a lot of stuff hasn't really had time to bed in and be internalized.

I wouldn't worry about it too much - what's been learned once can at the very least be learned again, more quickly. Do some revision on what you feel you've lost, slow down a bit in conversations so you can pay more attention to the tones, etc, and I suspect you'll find yourself coming back up to speed.

[Senzhi]

Agreed Roddy, intensive studying is not always beneficial, particularly not after we finish a programme of intensive studying. Regularity is key, as well as finding it's own pace, so to let new materials sink into our "non-volatile memory" parts.

I've tried the intensive approach ... and lost more than I gained afterwards. Now I take my time, being careful of not becoming lazy. And I do learn/retain better now.

[renzhe]

Also, people will often get more critical as their level improves. You might be getting better, but your understanding of Chinese has progressed, so you feel like your level is getting worse. Is it just your feeling, or did some external unbiased observer tell you that?

Like roddy said, at the end of an intensive programme (especially if it includes immersion), you will have a really good level, but not everything you've learned will be in long-term memory, so you can lose much of it easily if you don't practice. So practice practice practice.

Once you reach a near-native level, things tend to stick forever, in my experience (not with Chinese though )

[Lu]

I think Chinese skills can be somewhat kept up without intensive studying, but not without regular practice. If the only times you speak Chinese is with taxi drivers and people in shops, and the rest of your life is in another language, then yes, it's not surprising that your Chinese would deteriorate. Try having real conversations with people at least several times a week, that should help. (My Chinese usually starts to deteriorate within two weeks of leaving Greater China, not by large amounts, but it's notable for me.)

[wushijiao]

First, my condolences.

I’d say that in the past I’ve gone through ruts like the one you’re going through. What’s always worked for me was : 1) spend some time per day reading and actively learning new words (maybe 25-50 a day). Reading the paper is good (if you’re at that level yet) because you end up learning new things while reinforcing a much of old stuff , 2) meanwhile, listen to either certain tapes, CD’s, or podcasts over and over again until pronunciations, grammar patterns…etc become second nature. And, as other have said, keep trying to practice your speaking!

[L-F-J]

use it or lose it.