Independent Study Routines

[icebear]

Perhaps too similar to threads like this and this in the past, but I've had a PM going with Wang7 who was curious about more details from my routine (hinted at in this thread) and I thought it might be worthwhile to share publicly and see if anyone else has certain routines that have worked from them.

To put this in context, I've been studying independently since 2006 - sometimes in China, sometimes outside of China, generally with relatively limited study time due to work and academic demands and with increasing amounts of motivation as the years have gone on (I was incredibly lazy the first year or two). Recently my routine is:

• Monday-Friday -
  
  • Complete all reviews (or max 60 minutes) in Skritter first thing in the morning, which includes new words added from the night before
    
  • Read/skim an article, usually from China Digital Times (中文) sometime throughout the day
    
  • In the evening listen to a new ChinesePod, either Elementary or Intermediate level (typically just the dialogue, quite easy at this level). Listen to my playlist of recent ChinesePod dialogues (see below). Go through expansion and grammar sentences online, add new lesson for the next day to Skritter (to be studied tomorrow). Altogether this takes about 30 minutes.
    
  • View the video for this week's chapter of NPCR on YouTube, once. Read through current chapter for NCPR once or twice during the week, as time is available.
    

  [*]Weekend -

  • Friday night add an upper intermediate lesson to Skritter for the next day, same on Saturday night
    
  • Saturday and Sunday morning similar to weeknights with regard to listening to ChinesePod lessons and recent lesson dialogues, but at Upper-Intermediate I also listen to the actual lesson, so it takes a bit more time.
    
  • Sunday night add vocabulary for a new chapter of NPCR.
    

  [*]Playlists (I use ChinesePod - but in general for podcasts/MP3 lessons) - I download two files for each lesson, one is the lesson with all the explanations, the other is strictly the dialogue (ranging from 30-150 seconds). I think its worth listening to the dialogues a few times to reinforce the lesson, whose main points I generally understand the first time around and thus don't need to trudge through again (or so I've convinced myself). To make this easy and streamlined I use Smart Playlists in iTunes which only sync "dialogue" lessons to my player if they have 5 or less plays. That way I get the most recent lessons, which I listen to once a day for 5 days, and always have old lessons cycling out and new ones cycling in. If I'm slowing the pace down for whatever reason - i.e. adding less new lessons per week - I will adjust the playlist to also pick one or two old dialogues (i.e. listened to more than a few months ago, or with more than X plays) to randomly include with the recently added ones to ensure I'm still listening to 5 dialogues a day.

In general I think the most important part of my routine is its automation. I'm extremely busy with my masters degree (unrelated to Chinese) and don't have much time to spare, and this amount of automation (Skritter and ChinesePod interacting for very fast flashcard adding, iTunes autosorting lessons to review based on plays) makes it possible to more or less fully utilize that time studying as opposed to maintaining some flashcard deck, figuring out what to study, etc.

Of course this schedule isn't ideal for learning Chinese when in China, since it's entirely listening and reading focused, but we make the best with what resources and time we have available; once I'm back in China the routine shifts towards more spoken practice (socially and with private tutors or language exchange), and not necessarily at the expense of the first since I generally have more free time there.

[JenniferW]

Thank you for starting this thread.

I'm also studying independently - have been for around 4 and a half years now. I did an introductory level Mandarin course back in the 1970s as part of a linguistics BA, then never did anything more till I went to work in China in 2000, so went to classes in China (a short course) as a typical sort of false beginner. I worked in China for 6 years but was very unsystematic about studying in 5 out of those 6 years - by the time I'd finished work, I couldn't motivate myself to do a lot more than learn the essentials for getting by in my daily life there. When I retired in 2007, and was back living in the UK, I decided to carry on studying Chinese - and suspect I might now never give up.

But I live somewhere the only classes available have been beginner level, so mostly I've been studying on my own - with short periods of some classes on trips back to China. Although I'm retired, I have limited time and energy available for Chinese because of other commitments and other interests. So, reading what other people are doing, and how they're doing it feels 100% relevant - and encouraging.

[ex-Hongtongxian]

I find that I can easily get sidetracked by tasks that seem more urgent if less important, so I admire that kind of routine and discipline.

I wonder whether a conversation partner via Skype would be helpful. You can find one at the Mixxer (language-exchanges.org). That site also lets you blog in the language you are studying, and native speakers may send you corrections and suggestions.

It may also be helpful to sometimes listen to normal spoken Chinese, especially when you can easily find the corresponding English. For example:

http://www.rcinet.ca/chinois// (from Toronto)

http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/ (from Washington DC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/ (from London)

Even if you can't understand everything, I think it's useful to just try to get the main idea. And you'll pick up some vocabulary about current events.

加油！

[icebear]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Actually, I already listen to VOA and Skype with China friends occasionally, but both are pretty sporadic, due to my motivation after all other obligations as well as seriously limited free time besides what I've mentioned already; in the list above I included just the activities that I've managed to develop a solid routine/habit around.

When my non-Chinese schedule starts to loosen up in the spring I'll look into those other services you suggested for practicing speaking and writing while outside of China.

[icebear]

Time for an update... I figure this may be helpful to those who aren't in a structured learning program and/or studying on a limited budget - either time- or money-wise. Welcome comments and questions, as I'm always out to improve the process a bit more myself. 

 

Weekdays:

• Reading
  • 30-90 minutes of Chinese articles per day, generally a series of shorter (<1000 characters) economics and business pieces, although occasionally much longer government policies. Add all articles to Instapaper, for weekend routines - see below.
  • 1 Caijing article per day - I subscribe to the magazine's iPad app, which makes it easy to copy into Pleco for quick skimming, and email to myself for similar weekend routines.
• Viewing
  • I watch 2-3 episodes per week of whatever series I'm on at the moment, currently 爱情公寓 season 2. Normally at the gym while on the running machine.
• Textbooks/reference
  • 成功之路 - somewhere in the middle of the series, will do a full lesson every couple of weeks.
  • Common Chinese Patterns - will do a pattern (page) every few days either first thing in the morning or before bed.
  • 1700 Groups of Frequently Used Chinese Synonyms- Chinese Reference Series for Foreigners - consult as I encounter troublesome words in my flashcards, or randomly just read a few new entries. Cross off any entries I've read in the table of contents.
• Listening
  • Automatic playlists for ChinesePod (basic) and Popup Chinese (free) - listen to these as they are added, normally on my commute.
• Flashcards
  • Pleco - automatically adds 10 new flashcards per day. No single character flashcards. Only clear 30 cards at a time, 3-4 times throughout the day - any additional roll over to the next day.
  • Skritter - add 5 characters per day. Only study characters. Don't add new characters if the queue requires more than 5-8 minutes to clear.

Weekend:

• Review - I'll skim a couple of the most important articles from the week. This is very brief, maybe 5 minutes per, so isn't much of a review for Chinese, but more to remind me of the structure/content (which are work related for me). I don't do any review or study related to the viewing, listening and textbook components.
• Extract - copy and paste all article text from Instapaper and email (from Caijing iPad app) into a text file that I analyse using the Chinese Word Extractor. Use two filters, my Skritter and Pleco lists, to avoid duplicates in extraction. Copy the 50 most frequent words within the text (not from a corpus!) into Pleco to be added randomly going forward. 
• Cleanse - delete any leeches from Pleco, which I define as having a 50% or higher fail rate in the first 8 reviews.

This has been a very stable and reliable routine for me for some time - under constant refinement, but more or less like this for close to a year now and I've found it very efficient. The advantages of this is that none of it really feels like work - I only occasionally sit down and crack open a text book, and am getting so much exposure from articles, TV and podcasts that most of what I see in the textbook is at least vaguely familiar rather than completely novel.

 

On the flashcards front I find this method far more useful than adding words from textbooks or podcasts. The reason for that is that with this method most of the words I add each weekend I've already seen in context at least 15 times (e.g. in multiple sentences in one or several articles) - I know that number because the extractor provides that information, which is how I prioritize.

 

A few more points:

• Great method for those that want to improve vocab in a specific area (e.g. business), but could also be adjusted to accommodate conversational vocab - just use short stories or chapters from a ebook instead of articles, which can then still be analysed for frequent words you don't yet know. Once I start to feel pretty satisfied with my econ/business passive vocab I'll shift towards other content in my free time.
• This routine doesn't do anything for your spoken Chinese, but I do have other routines that support them, including 3 hours a week with a private tutor. Previously I used Skype tutors. Both are very affordable at this frequency.
• I also live in China and have plenty of local friends with no interest in English. If you don't have this type of access you may have to reconsider how to adjust for your circumstances.
• I doubt I'll renew ChinesePod the next time my subscription comes up. Early on I found the service a blessing for improving 听力 and supporting my own ventures into 口语, as well as a great maintenance method while outside of Chinese, although their upper level lessons are very diverse and thus require a lot more commitment to get value out of, especially compared to my low-effort method above.
• I'm on the fence over whether I'll renew Skritter when it expires next summer. I'm currently at about 2300 characters, which will be closer to 3000 by then. My feeling is that the characters I've been learning since 2200 onward have been of much less value and are much harder to remember (due to lower frequency in the real world). I hardly ever handwrite and don't know that I'll ever have to handwrite anything more than a brief note with simple text. But I do find that the character handwriting does help a lot with distinguishing similar ones, which is also a rising problem. We'll see how I feel in 6 months.
• This routine doesn't do anything for composition, but it could. My plan is add a semi-regular lang-8.com component, although this is a harder one to habituate.

Edited December 22, 2013 at 06:47 PM by icebear

[sparrow]

This is a great routine. About how long do you spend per day total, including the multiple flashcard reviews each day?

 

 

Cheers.

[icebear]

Reading + viewing = 60-120 minutes per day

Listening = 30-45 minutes per day (round trip commute)

Skritter review = 5-10 minutes per day

Pleco review = 5-15 minutes per day

Total = 100-190 minutes per day, broken into little sessions all throughout the day (single articles, 1-3 minute flashcard sessions, etc)

[sparrow]

Thanks, icebear. I always find hearing about others' routines interesting!

[Guest realmayo]

Yeah me too. I imagine it's like how say motorbike enthusiasts check out each other's rides. 'Ah nice I see you've gone for the chrome triple-gearing above the brocket.' 'Yes, and I particularly like how you've got that flashcard & 听力 alloy working for you there'

[jefflau]

icebear - what kind of level are you at?

 

At an intermediate level would you say textbooks are still pretty useful or do you prefer real content?

[APWiseman]

-Every week I pick 2-3 songs to listen to and understand/try to memorize the lyrics. (Helps to maximize listening in a 10-15 minute train ride, while walking, etc.)

 

-1 Episode of a TV show per week, and about 30 minutes (each day) working on the grammar, vocabulary or repetitive listening at a targeted scene in the episode.

 

-30-60minutes of random hanzi/radical practice each day (I am at peace that I will learn, forget, and relearn characters over and over again)

 

-(5-10 mintues) I use Hanping pro and cycle through my starred words while I am waiting for a train/friends everyday.

 

-I read 2-3 magazine articles per week (to passively learn words and get exposed to grammar/syntax). I don't really stress memorization of things in the article, just comprehension mostly,  and for exposure to written/formal words sometimes, but find this largely an inefficent use of time.

 

At about 1900 words memorized, while being exposed to 5000+, I feel it's first a battle to incorporate as many useful-colloquial words as you can, second to comfortably use as many grammar constructions that become natural to you. My goal is to watch a chinese tv drama and not have to use my dictionary to look up a single word and feel/understand Chinese jokes. I don't really like using textbooks anymore, they are great for grammar though and the tv shows reinforce the useful grammar constructions.

[icebear]

icebear - what kind of level are you at?

At an intermediate level would you say textbooks are still pretty useful or do you prefer real content?

My tutor thinks I could breeze the HSK5 with a few weeks of practice tests to prepare. Maybe half a year of serious prep to get to HSK6. Both her rough guess, not mine. I currently don't plan on doing either as I find those type of study programs horribly boring. That'd also how I feel about textbooks - once I reached a reasonable level (let's say 1500-2000 characters) I far preferred reading articles and occasional books (and subtitles while watching tv) over textbooks. It was painful at first but soon enough my addiction to news could sustain the habit, rather than just a chore for language. I still go through textbooks occasionally, but at a casual pace that is more for language consolidation than expansion.

Where that level has me in practical terms:

I have a Chinese girlfriend that I only speak speak chinese with - as has been the case since about mid-2012. I have chinese friends that I only speak chinese with since about 2007. While initially (2007) there was a lot of confusion or avoided topics for convenience, slowly what's difficult to address shrinks. There are of course still some difficulties with conversation, although far fewer and not as fundamental. I very rarely feel at a complete loss of words, although sometimes am aware I could be expressing myself more eloquently.

I can watch Chinese sitcoms/dramas without much issue so long as they are sparse with 成语, and even then I can guesstimate enough to enjoy.

I can read Chinese newspapers on general topics or business/economics without issue (except speed, which I continue to improve). I don't read fiction as much, but enough to know I'm fine with translated work (eg 1984) or native content that isn't so 成语 heavy, again.

Composition and specialized vocabulary, as well as a few obvious words that one would learn in a structured program (e.g. learning "purple" 3 years in), are my main gaps. I've lived in China over a few stints covering half the time since 2006, and have never taken formal courses (i.e. in a uni with defined structure/goals). I started taking 1v1 tutoring with regularity (1-5 hours per week) starting the spring of 2012.

[icebear]

At about 1900 words memorized, while being exposed to 5000+, I feel it's first a battle to incorporate as many useful-colloquial words as you can, second to comfortably use as many grammar constructions that become natural to you. My goal is to watch a chinese tv drama and not have to use my dictionary to look up a single word and feel/understand Chinese jokes. I don't really like using textbooks anymore, they are great for grammar though and the tv shows reinforce the useful grammar constructions.

Sounds good. I strongly agree with your last sentence.

Out of curiosity, how do you select the characters/radicals you study? Fully random? Also, the time for characters seems a but heavy to me, unless they are all fully new (which is tough for me to sustain beyond a few minutes).

I've been using a standard frequency list for characters, although I've been thinking of instead mining new characters for Skritter in a similar fashion to how I mine words for Pleco. The advantage is obvious, although the downside is perhaps it makes reading new material outside my comfort zone harder, not easier. Still not sure where I'll land on that one.

Thanks for sharing!

[APWiseman]

I usually just pick words at random from my list, I mean there are still 3000+ words I should know...so I just pick like 5-10 words a day. If a couple stick then it's been a good day. I say you should always read new material (try interviews, their more spoken than articles). I personally believe TV is the best way to learn knew words (up until uppper intermediate). People are hungup on alot of business chinese, but I believe learning to talk and joke around with people is more important. Most business is conducted around the dinner table and with a bottle of baijiu anyways...you're only "formal" when doing first-time introductions.

[icebear]

I say you should always read new material (try interviews, their more spoken than articles). I personally believe TV is the best way to learn knew words (up until uppper intermediate). People are hungup on alot of business chinese, but I believe learning to talk and joke around with people is more important.

I generally agree, although I'd qualify that by saying beyond intermediate everyone should use whatever resources suit their interests/needs best. In my case much of my reading is work related, so it's duel use, if not so conversation relevant (I'm not as worried about that these days, anyway, given the environment I live in also forces me to at least maintain decent conversation skills).