Studying hard, but fearing burn out.

[M.E.Townsend]

I think the question is back to how you normally handled learning something or doing something. Did you do the same thing before and how long did you last? I mean if you're that kind of person who can keep on doing what you decided to do for a long time following the same intensity, no problem. But for me, what you described is certainly too much for me. Try set up some targets for a period of time. Certainly it seems to me that you have quite clear targets. Then break them down into small milestones. Put them in your schedule and follow the plan.

Having the targets would make sure you won't spend too much time on unrelevant issues.

Having small milestones would give you the sense of achievement which can help you go on.

Share your thoughts with people doing the same thing. For example, here with us. You would receive some friendly comments and feedbacks which again would keep you on the track, not losing interests.

Finally, wish you all the best. I was told that learning a language is the start of a journey. I hope you enjoy it.

[rob07]

If you allow a generous 10 hours a day for sleeping, eating, washing etc, you still have 14 hours left. If you don't have family/work commitments, the only real limitation on how much of that you can use for studying Chinese is motivation.

Gato has given the example of PhD students (although he probably means only at very prestigious universities). All the PhD students at Ivy League universities are extremely smart and very passionate about their subjects. But the number of tenure track positions available at Ivy League universities is much less than the number of PhD students. Given the quality of the competition, to get a tenure track position at at an Ivy League university and hence win the opportunity to keep doing what you are passionate about until you are the absolute best in your field requires working as hard as it is humanly possible to work for extended periods of time, intensely concentrating on extremely difficult issues. If you look at the people that get tenure track positions at Harvard or Yale, some of them will have tested the physical limit of about 14 hours a day over extended periods of time. They will have done of of the coursework that Gato describes, and more besides, to give themselves an edge.

It is not just academia. If you want to work in corporate law or investment banking in New York you are looking at working 12-16 hours a day on a regular basis, concentrating intensely for most of that time. The way those industries are set up is that people are paid vast amounts of money to work as hard as it is humanly possible to work all the time, and if they don't do it they lose their jobs.

If you are passionate about Chinese, and (most importantly) absolutely need to study Chinese for at least 10 hours to qualify for your course, and doing your course is absolutely what you want to do with your life, then you should have enough motivation. If you have enough motivation then 10 hours a day is not a long time.

[renzhe]

An important point, though, is that many of these people -- whether PhD students or Wall Street bankers -- do burn out, and burn out hard. I haven't met a PhD student who hasn't burned out badly at least once during their studies.

Avoiding burnout is very important if you want to maintain motivation and progress. It must be sustainable. It must be enjoyable. Especially if it's a hobby.

[gato]

On the one hand, you do want to avoid something you loved initially from becoming a chore. On the other hand, you do need to start developing the stamina and the attention span needed for that level of work.

It's kind of like training for long distance races. You need runs that are at least as long as the race during training to be able to perform on race day. If you gradually increase the work load, then it shouldn't be too hard. There is probably an upper human limit to how much one can work in a day on a regular basis, but 10 hours a day should be safely within that limit, particularly for something like language learning, which isn't all that stressful. Even fooling around with girlfriend is part of the studying. That can't be too hard. ;-)

Like long distance running, long hours may not be everybody's cup of tea, but it may be fine for the OP. He might as well try out this form of endurance work now since it's something he wants to do in the future.

[kongli]

Hmm, well it is nice to hear that it can and is often done. Having been doing pretty constant studying for the past week or so, I have noticed I have really weird spurts of energy and then extreme fatigue/muddled headedness.

@Gato, wow, that sounds like an incredible amount of work. I guess it is good that I am practicing now hehe.

Anyway, I figure if people can do programs like IUP for a year, then I should be able to keep up a pretty strong study pace. I just hope I can get to where I need to be in a year....