5 minutes at a time

[winterpromise31]

I was reading an article on Hacking Chinese that was talking about the importance of having study resources available that require various amounts of time. I have two textbooks (Beginning Chinese/Reader by DeFrancis) that work great when I have 15+ minute blocks of time. But what do you study when you only have five minutes? This would be in addition to an SRS tool. I use Anki and complete my cards daily. 

 

Is there a good book? An app on the phone? A game that requires only a few minutes? Any suggestions? 

[stapler]

5 minutes sounds perfect to listen to some kind of small Chinese dialogue from a podcast or a textbook. If you're not living in a Chinese speaking country listening is definitely something you will neglect without serious conscious effort to do more of it.

[Michael H]

There are various apps with short articles that you can read or listen to, such as The Chairman's Bao and Du Chinese. There are also apps with subtitled video clips such as Fluent U or Yabla.

[ChTTay]

Second "the chairmans bao"

[Shelley]

You could try Hello Chinese - have a look here http://www.hellochinese.cc/

 

Here is the topic on the forums http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/49944-hellochinese-%E2%80%93-new-chinese-mandarin-learning-app-learn-chinese-speak-chinese/

 

It says 10 minutes a day to improve your chinese, so it might be the sort of thing you are looking for.

 

I use it and like it a lot.

[eion_padraig]

Slow Chinese - short mp3

 

Skritter - mobile phone writing app

[winterpromise31]

Thank you so much for the suggestions! Right now I am doing The Chairman's Bao and an app I found called MandarinReading. It solely tests reading of hanzi. The app isn't perfect and I'm not sure how long I will use it but it's great for a couple minutes while I'm waiting for my daughter to get out of school. 

[eddyf]

I know you said in addition to an SRS tool, but for me SRS on my phone is the perfect way to study 5 minutes at a time. If you're currently during SRS in 15 minute chunks or more, maybe you can switch to doing it during your spare 5 minute chunks of time, and reserve the larger blocks of time for other kinds of studying.

 

I don't know about The Chariman's Bao. Maybe it's just me but it usually takes me longer than 5 minutes to read an article. Especially if I'm trying to pick up new vocab and not just skip over it.

[AaronChina]

Hi, 

 

 

I get the chance to practice daily with Chinese friends of mine. However when I commute I like to use Memrise, this app recounts the origin of character in a quite funny way. 

Other than that : read Chinese characters wherever you are and try to understand them on the fly depending on the context : Don't smoke signs and so on. 

Listen actively to what you hear on the subway and link it to Chinese characters.