A whole lot of time...but not a lot of structure

[刘慧婷]

Hi everyone, I'm relatively new to Chinese-forums and I'm looking for some advice on the direction of my Chinese studies.

Context: I'm an Australian uni student who has decided to suspend their studies for this semester due to anxiety issues but I want to maintain my Chinese level in the immediate future so that I can:

1. continue to progress along my Chinese classmates

2. survive when I participate in a one-month intensive Chinese program at Fudan University at the end of this year. (November-December, 20 hours/week).

According to my uni, my Chinese is at an intermediate level (I know maybe just over 1000 words and our class is studying from Integrated Chinese Level 2 Part 1) but I really lack confidence in my speaking and listening ability. In general, I am a slow learner but I love Chinese and I'm willing to invest in at least 2 hours a day to studying Mandarin. However, I am limited financially so please provide affordable options for me.

I don't have a good system of learning so most of this 'learning' (i.e. short-term cramming) occurs when we have to prepare for an assessment but I want to change this habit. I've tried to list my own ideas below of how I can improve in the different learning areas but if anyone has further recommendations or more specific advice for me (this may include how to prepare for living in Shangai for a month), the help would be really appreciated!

 

Listening

- Melnyk's free mp3s?

- Peppa Pig episodes (I know it sounds silly but the voices are really clear and I actually understand most of the content unlike other movies/dramas I've tried to watch)

 

Speaking (my parents are Cantonese but I grew up speaking English all the time and when I go to the Asian grocery they're not very keen to slow down and try to make sense of my broken Chinese)

- I've seen audacity mentioned a few times on this forum and I'm thinking of using it to improve my pronunciation but it looks really complicated and I'm not very tech savvy. Is there an easy to follow tutorial or should I just not use it?

- I may hire a tutor if I can find an affordable one to converse with face to face

 

Reading

- I'll still follow along using IC Level 2 Part 1 for the vocab and grammar. My friend also let me borrow his NPCR so I can cover content I haven't learned from IC

- I have an e-book of 'The Secret Garden' (Mandarin Companion) that is easy to read but I can still use it to improve my reading speed

 

(Hand)Writing/Character Learning

- create Anki SRS flashcards with all the characters I should know already

- pen and paper learning to increase writing speed (as a left hander, do you think it would be good for me to learn to write horizontal strokes from left to right as opposed to right to left? My cursive comes out differently when I attempt to write faster so I'm worried teachers/other people can't make sense of the characters. Also, Skritter marks it wrong if I go from right to left)

 

 Do you think these are good ideas? What's reasonable without overwhelming me?

I'll probably have to spend a week or two revising all the content I've already gone through in class (since I've forgotten a lot of it) before moving onto new stuff

 

**Sorry for the chunky text. My perfectionist tendencies didn't want to leave anything out and I just feel really stressed not being at a level I think I ought to be at already :c

[jiasen]

You sound like me when I was at university in Australia (for example, see this thread: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/29358-overcoming-the-plateau/#comment-232231).

 

University is good for helping you to learn basic grammar patterns and build a foundation. The pace, however, is very slow and I don't think you will fall behind from missing one semester. It is also a really bad way to improve your listening skills! I expect that Fudan University will tailor its lesson plan to your level, so don't worry about that. Also I think you will pick up Chinese a lot quicker than the other students when living in China, given your Cantonese background.

 

Everyone will have a different view on learning strategies. However this is what I would do in your position:

• Vocabulary: this is the most important part I think. Download the HSK5 vocabulary list for anki and memorise all of the words. Do 20-50 new words a day. Even more if you are capable of retaining the knowledge.
• Listening: find some native materials and try to transcribe it everyday. Once you run out of energy, just listen passively for some time. Peppa Pig sounds great. I used children stories a lot at one stage and it helped me immeasureably. If you are still struggling though, switch to Chinesepod until you are ready to tackle native materials. It's good to be challenged but not overwhelmed by the language materials (i.e. you understand 30-50% of what they are saying already).
• Speaking: I'm a big fan of the input hypothesis (i.e. you learn optimally from spending your time listening and reading). So don't spend too much time on this. For your accent, it's best to find a sound chart and make sure you are correctly pronouncing the sounds. The tones will come with time. You can also join the Chinese language club in your city or try to order in Chinese at your local restaurant. I would only allocate like 10% of your time to this area. When you go to China at the end of the year, your speaking ability will improve very quickly anyway.
• Reading: I actually think using textbooks is not a bad way to go at your level. So keep doing what your doing and focus on the grammar structures those books teach. Also maybe also look online for passages written for Chinese learners, or for Chinese native children's books. It's like listening - try to find passages that challenge you without being overwhelming. As your vocabulary and grammar knowledge grows, you'll be able to move on to harder and more varied texts.
• Writing: This might sound controversial, but I think learning to manually write the characters is a waste of time. The usefulness of the skill is outweighed by the amount of time it takes to learn. It matters for uni and writing essays, but otherwise you rarely use it. And you will easily forget the characters you learned. You are better off spending your time just trying to recognise the characters. For writing skills, maybe chat on http://www.sharedtalk.com/? Otherwise you can write a blog and post it on those online communities for double checking.

Anyway these are just my suggestions. Learning Chinese is a long journey so don't be too hard on yourself! The people I know who became good at Chinese weren't the fastest, they just never gave up.

[刘慧婷]

Thanks jiasen for such detailed advice!

 

I think I definitely need to keep your last piece of advice in mind because when I come across an obstacle I usually do get all scared and give up for a while before I come back to studying Chinese again. 

I'm not sure if I could retain 50 new words a day (unless it's just recognition) but I'll do what I know I am capable of achieving and just a bit more for the challenge.

Hmm I did read somewhere that if you read enough that your speaking will become better but I think I'd still like to do some speaking with a conversation partner.

 

Thanks again and 加油!

[abcdefg]

Hmm I did read somewhere that if you read enough that your speaking will become better but I think I'd still like to do some speaking with a conversation partner.

 

If you want to improve your speaking, you need to practice that skill. Reading is not enough, no matter how much of it you do.

[Yehuda]

Hello,

 

Nice to read your post...the most important thing to do, as some others have suggested, or hinted at, is not to exhaust yourself. Chinese learning, language learning, and most other things, are actually won by the turtle and not the rabbit.

 

It cannot be overstated how important real world experience is. I landed in Taiwan with only the words of Mandarin I had learned on the plane and was functionally fluent in six months. I am a bit of an above average language learner (not a massive 14 fluent language genius, but I had learned a couple languages before I got to Taiwan), and I worked hard.

 

The basic formula you see above is insightful -- but I would add that there is a critical threshold beyond which I don't believe most people can retain vocabulary without context.

 

The best advice is make yourself like a child. Study how children learn and copy it. This is the best way to achieve real fluency, and real authentic mannerisms, accents, cultural cues, etc. If you can manage to forget that you are in uni and just learn language naturally you'll do better.

 

Of course: 1. listen, 2. speak, 3. read, 4. write is the rule of thumb, but with Chinese writing may motivate you to learn vocabulary and eventually help you to retain and be able to read more.

 

Good luck and just stick with it. Make sure to do something each day.

[刘慧婷]

Thanks Yehuda, I think my new motto might be 'slow and steady wins the race' haha.

As I've been studying Chinese I've also come to the conclusion that learning a new language requires humility and childlikeness. They don't pressure themselves to learn something, they do it at their own pace and because they enjoy it

[Yehuda]

Great...another point I thought to pass on is that it always helps me when learning a new language to motivate myself by realizing how beautiful and inspiring it is to be able to start thinking in a different language. It really does give you the ability to see the world in new ways.

 

Be sure to keep us posted on your progress and share your insights.