no memory for mandarin

[jimba_the_hut]

I am currently back at school, doing a double degree in Commerce/Asian Studies (mandarin). I study quite hard, I have an excellent tutor but I simply find it impossible remembering even the most basic of characters.. I will write them down 50-70-100 times...

and forget them soon after.

Also, does anyones brain actually hurt after a tuff Mandarin session... i find it a real mental workout...

Lastly, I am going to Beijing next year on exchange, do u think this will improve my mandarin drastically or only as much as the foundation laid now?

Cheers

Jimba

[Xiao Kui]

One of my music teachers once told us that to remember song lyrics we should (for right handers) write them with our left foot (left handers=right foot) Fine for English, but a real workout with all those strokes in Chinese. Don't think you have to write it pretty, or even necessarily use a pen, but go thru all the stroke motions with your foot. It's a left brain/right brain thing.

What I did was visualize a black wall in my mind and then spray paint the character slowly with pink paint for characters that I found difficult to remember. But I found as I got more familiar with the characters and got all the radicals down this was unnecessary. I'm sure there are some characters you remember. At least for 1,2,3 !

My mom, who was a language major, gave me this advice. Write the words five times each. But for Chinese I think you need to do that on 2 or 3 occasions before you can remember.

[spencer4554]

I think maybe you need to learn more about the characters, and maybe get to know them a little. If you go to zhongwen.com you can look up the characters and find out why they are the way they are. I think while learning characters you have to let yourself, and try to understand how this is a good form of writing. I dont think our letters are so much better, and chinese has been around for a very long time.

Paul

[nipponman]

I wrote this thread: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/56-what-is-your-chinese-name33 for people who have trouble learning characters, hope it helps.

nipponman

[Taibei]

You titled the thread "no memory for mandarin" but you wrote of not remembering characters. Mandarin is a language; characters are a script. They're very different things.

My advice is simply to skip characters until you have a better foundation in the language, assuming that whatever academic program you're in will allow you to do so. Use Pinyin for now.

As for the question of whether going to Beijing will dramatically improve your Mandarin, the answer is very likely yes.

[atitarev]

You titled the thread "no memory for mandarin" but you wrote of not remembering characters. Mandarin is a language; characters are a script. They're very different things.

My advice is simply to skip characters until you have a better foundation in the language' date=' assuming that whatever academic program you're in will allow you to do so. Use Pinyin for now.

As for the question of whether going to Beijing will dramatically improve your Mandarin, the answer is very likely yes.[/quote']

I've been doing the same thing, only I am learning the characters as well but not as fast as I am learning the words. It's like 2 different tasks for me. Some teachers insist on learning to speak/read/write together. I think the progress is much slower then. A lot of characters I just learn to recognize, not trying to write all of them, will get back to them when I am more comfortable with simpler or very frequent characters.

It's good when you have both pinyin, character text and the sound recordings, learn the words using pinyin, listen to the tape/CD looking at the characters. The final task would be to try to write the text in characters just listening - efficient but very time-consuming.

[Anna]

The trip to Beijing will help only if you won't hang out with expats or other english speacking folks. Try to find some Chinese firends who don't speack English at all.

Anna.

[Jasel]

Hey there. I'm new to the forum and am a beginner myself. For me using this book

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0804832064/qid=1123210629/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_ur_2_1/102-2142736-3538527

and working on 7 or 8 chars a day has helped.

Basically I keep a notebook and write down a character or radical horizontally about 20 times. I write the pinyin spelling above it and if it's a radical I put it in parenthesies with the racial number ie:

rén (man 9, H23)

人人人人人人人人人 ...etc

It's a pretty decent book and I'd check it out. good luck with your studying.

[poohathart]

I studied Chinese at the Univ. of Kansas for two semesters and then went to Beijing to study for a year. I found that learning the characters was the hardest part of learning the language but after 6 months of being there I actually started to see real progress. I would write notes in Chinese and everything! From my experience, studying there will really intensify your learning. Best of luck to you!

[Long Zhiren]

I began studying the Chinese language at age 17. I'm not sure of the pedagogical reasons, but the methods that were effective to me through age 24 or so have far less yield for me now at age 37. They were the same methods that I learned to study español and français. I can easily remember how to write all of the 1000s of characters that I learned before age 24. However, it's a very different struggle now to learn and remember anything that I've learned since, even with what seems to be identical discipline and methodology. I've learned to switch tactics and try different methodologies. By opening new studies like tiếng Việt, עברית and Ελληνας, somehow it feels as though many linkages in my mind have been restored, and suddenly many of the previous methods are beginning to work again for me.