An interesting approach to learning a new languageI

[rlx02]

Hi everyone,

 

I came across this reference last night.  The author explains his personal approach to learning a new language based on part on cognitive science results.  I needed that kind of stimulus to resume learning Mandarin.  The author provides a sound basis to plan your time.

 

The Word Brain, by Bernd Sebastian Kamps free pdf is distributed on the folloing page

http://freemedicaljournals.com/

 

I am at this point where I need to learn a lot of new words and I need to revise my strategy.  So I record some CCTV broadcasts having Chinese subtitles and I use them as material to apply Kamps' method.

 

To give a bit of background, I am retired and four years ago, I started attending Chinese classes at a local university.  I enjoyed learning the grammar and the basic writing skills, but I am poor at 听力 and I felt that I couldn't master proper pronunciation.

 

So I went for a four and a half month stay in Shandong, Chengyang, Qindao technological institute and I loved it.  I asked CUCAS for speech training but I got the standard program for people preparing for HSK exams.  So I didn't get the pronunciation course I expected but got a lot of tips from students and teachers; I didn't realize before but I seems that Mandarin is a second language for a large proportion of Chinese students.  I met there a retired Japanese researcher attending classes with us.

 

The people there are so friendly, I had a lot of fun and the Qingdao area is very nice for people who love nature.

 

All of this to say that I feel that the standard Chinese teaching program in China is much in line with the reference I am pointing to: learning words and sentences and listening a lot.

 

So enjoy the (2 hours) reading.

 

 

[roddy]

Scanned it. He says if you study a language hard for between 1,000 and 2,000 hours, you'll get good at it. There's nothing new in here.