Organizing full-time Chinese studying

[mtpastille]

I'm currently in a position where I can study Chinese full-time for about a month, 8 hours a day (or more) if I'd like to, albeit on a rather slim budget. I started teaching myself the language quite recently and have blasted through some 2000 characters, leaving the actually useful skills of the language behind, i.e. reading, listening, writing and speaking. I have been working on those areas for about two weeks now but I feel that I'm progressing quite slowly. I know maybe 500 words, but that doesn't take me very far. The characters were learnt Heisig-style, meaning-only, but I'm finding that this problem is solving itself the more I expose myself to listening material.

Currently, my studying routine is very much based on flashcards, mostly characters and words, but also some sentences now. I just got a subscription at Popup Chinese so that I can do some listening with transcripts, and hopefully this will lead to an improvement in listening skills over time. But my studying is inherently disorganized. I don't have a plan, no goals, no fixed daily schedule. I just want to improve as much as possible before I move to China.

How would you organize your studies if you had a lot of time? Would you spend a lot of time flashcarding sentences? Or would you attempt to read as much as possible? Consuming authentic material is pretty much out of the question since I can't even understand the gist of it.

[icebear]

At an early stage like this I'd suggest following a structured textbook series, like the volumes of NPCR. At 8 hours a day you'll easily [perhaps not efficiently] scream through a chapter a day and finish 3-4 volumes in a month if you really are reviewing seriously (otherwise you may loose ground faster than you gain it), and still have time for other listening exercises like the podcasts. Maintaining that level once you finish the intense month though will be another task entirely (fast in, fast out); that is assuming you don't go burn out during the 4 weeks. While this won't help your listening or speaking much, if at all (look to podcasts for that before arriving), it will give you some structure to follow and measure yourself against (i.e. what grammar rules are making sense, and if you're forgetting words by the time you get to review-chapters each ~10 lessons, etc).

[T-revor]

I realize this is not always possible (money wise sounds like you are on a budget), but it's very useful to sit and talk to someone in Chinese a few times a week. When I was in college I got one of the student teachers to sit with me for 1/2 hour once a week ($10 a pop). She would ask me questions and it was really really difficult at first. And your tutor will have to start slow.

But I'm convinced that the primitive part of your brain's language acquisition function is geared to learn super-effectively when you are actually struggling to understand and be understood.

Oh, and +1 for the textbook idea from icebear.

[imron]

But I'm convinced that the primitive part of your brain's language acquisition function is geared to learn super-effectively when you are actually struggling to understand and be understood.

I've also found this a key part to my learning, and one of the reasons I'm a huge fan of using native content wherever possible - it's the struggle to figure something out that makes it stick in my mind.

[roddy]

For that kind of one month "surge", resist the temptation to cram as much in as possible. You'll forget it. Split your time between new study and review and consolidation.

[mtpastille]

Thanks for the replies! I will definitely not forget reviewing, and using flashcards is a large part of my studying routine. I think the major problem with having this much time is that it's simply too much and that's it's difficult to stay focused for such long stretches of time. Maybe I should schedule intensive periods and fixed breaks to do non-Chinese stuff.

About the native content, Chinese TV-series and so on just go too fast for me. Is this a plus? When did you start consuming authentic content?

[drungood]

Keeping the 2000 characters/500 words you've already learned in your brain is first priority.

Like you, I blasted through 1500 characters in a short period of time. But then I stopped reviewing them. Stupid mistake, so be better than me

[cilver]

I recommend checking out a public library near you. Many now have databases online so you can reserve a copy of a Chinese book you want! Some libraries even give you a free pass to check out books from nearby college or university as well. Libraries are an extremely valuable resource many language learners neglect, so I reccommend you check them out!

Another recommendation is to download iTunes from apple.com and download many podcasts that teach Chinese!

I agree with icebear with the suggestion of getting the NPCR books. They are a neat resource and you can pair it up with yellowbridge.com which has flashcards for all the books as well as videos corresponding with each lesson (actors perform the lesson you read in chinese) or Anki which may have user generated flashcards.

Good Luck!!

~Cilver

[feng]

It is easy to study chinese in a solid 1/2/3 hour block, but extending intense study throughout an entire day can be difficult. I struggled with this early on.

I discovered its possible to extend the total amount of time you can study in a day by "time boxing". Initially, when doing a whole day, i had to limit my time blocks to 10min chinese, 10min something non chinese related. Before I tried this I could only concentrate for a few hours, after doing this routine I could concentrate for many hours.

Over time my concentration has improved, and I now do time boxing at about 15-20min chinese 2-5min non chinese.

[edelweis]

Hi Mtpastille, I realise you're probably very busy with the studying and moving to China...

anyway if you have a free moment some time, could you update us on your studying methods and progress?

[yialanliu]

Wow, 2k characters is great however your character to word ratio seems a bit weird.

I'd expect an 800-1000 character to 2k word ratio, not the other way around.

I think with 2k characters, you can just start cramming words because it should be enough for you to read newspapers with 2k character recognition but a 4k word recognition.

Other than that, props to learning so much. Your character count is probably just as good as me, and I've studied all through college and am fluent speaking wise.

[mtpastille]

Sorry for not responding! In retrospect, I had too much time, and my expectations were too high. I basically ended up doing my flashcards (adding maybe ~10 words a day) and listening to 1-2 Popup Chinese podcasts every day. If you find yourself in a similar position in the future, make sure that you have realistic expectations of what you can achieve, and try to keep tabs on yourself (unless you're exceptionally motivated). I tried to do too much too fast, and it basically just left me not wanting to do any studying at all.

Also, when you have unlimited time, you get time to do a lot of things. It's easy to just postpone another batch of flashcards to the afternoon-- no I mean evening, er... night! No, wait-- it's 3AM already?! Bummer, I'll just do them tomorrow.

Chinese must be treated tenderly and lovingly over a long time -- she's a lady, not a porn star.

[roddy]

Thanks for the follow-up.

[edelweis]

yes, thanks for reporting in.

Last year I occasionally took one day off at a time, intending to work either on Chinese or some other personal project, and I also had difficulties convincing myself that it was not a holiday.

And, except for the first few months of exceptionally high motivation level, I have found it difficult to study on weekends. I have more time on weekends, so I should be able to study more than on weekdays, right? except that I end up studying less...

Trying to study just as much (and at the same times of the day) on weekends as on weekdays has met some success, but I'm still not studying as much as I could.

[roddy]

A realistic assessment of how much you can do is vital. Set your goals too high and you'll feel like you're failing even when you actually make a decent amount of progress. May well be better to start low (I'll do twenty minutes a day, three days a week) and then build that up, rather than high (I'll do an hour a day, every day). Slow and steady, then build up as and when you can.

[edelweis]

@roddy: if you're referring to my recent, err, lack of motivation, it was due mainly to 'real life' (non-Chinese related) - the usual trio of health, work and family issues with a few medication side-effects and demoralizing news stories thrown in.

Here I think the issue is not about *exactly* about starting small and building on it.

Small and steady, I generally can do it, and I understand mtpastille can do it, but for some reason it's much easier to do it when we don't actually have time for anything beyond "small".

I think routine accounts for much of it - when your day is structured with with meal times, work hours, etc... and you have found a few niches in the day for studying, you tend to stick to these because they don't require making any decision. It's mainly the force of habit. You only need to exert some willpower when establishing the habit, after it's established it becomes easier (I'm a fan of Reinhard Engels everydaysystems website, does it show?)

When routine is disturbed, it's more difficult to keep the pace (unless you're in one of those high motivation periods), even if you have more free time than on routine days, because it requires making decisions and exerting willpower rather than letting habit guide you.

As I mentioned above, trying to make weekends structured a bit more like work days does help with letting habit guide me into studying roughly as on week days.

But I'm still wondering about all the free time I have on weekends when I would be at work on week days. Some of it is consumed by chores, errands, and leisure activities, but there's some left... Building "off day habits" to fill those free moments with studying rather than idly waiting for time to pass seems difficult though.

[roddy]

@roddy: if you're referring to my recent, err, lack of motivation,

Not specifically. Have you been unmotivated? Would you like a pep-talk? I can send Imron round, US$100 a time.

[Guest realmayo]

Why does that sound so sinister?