How do you study Chinese?

[han4wluc]

Hi all!

My name is Luciano, I come from Italy. I have been studying Chinese for 3 years.

I am HSK 6 now and I have learn Chinese in a variety of ways, including following online websites, going through books, downloading various apps. And then I studied 1 year in Shanghai.

I talked to many other students, and realise that there are so many ways out there that you can learn Chinese now. I have become very interested in the answes.

It would be great if you could answer the below questions and share your experiences! Thank you!

 

• What is your HSK Level (approximately)

  

• Where do you study Chinese? (which school?)

   

• How many hours do you spend studying Chinese per week?

   

• What apps/websites do you use for studying Chinese? What do you use them for?

   

• Apart from textbooks do you use any other learning materials (eg. worksheets) to study? What do you use and why?

   

• How do you keep studying interesting?

   

• Have you tried to learn Chinese by using Chinese songs/books/articles/movies? How did it go? If not, why not?

   

[i__forget]

How did you get to study in Shanghai? University exchange? gap year?

[TonganRambo]

• What is your HSK Level (approximately)

  6, Oral-Advanced

• Where do you study Chinese? (which school?)

  Self-studied for 2 years in England/America, currently studying at BYU (USA).

• How many hours do you spend studying Chinese per week?

  Active studying (learning/reviewing vocab, classes, homework): 15 hours

  Passive studying (reading Chinese for pleasure, reading Chinese friends' posts on social media, watching Chinese shows, listening to music/background listening during commutes, having all my electronics in Chinese): 10-30 (this category is the most variable because some weeks I binge-watch/read and others I don't depending on my free time). 

• What apps/websites do you use for studying Chinese? What do you use them for?

  Anki - reviewing grammar and vocabulary

  Pleco - dictionary, creating vocab lists that will eventually be created in Anki

  Du Chinese - Nice app for reading articles, really short articles so it is easy for me to do 2-3 every day

  Hacking Chinese - Recently I haven't used it that often but it was EXTREMELY instrumental for me in making quick beginner progress and getting into the intermediate stage and then was also helpful to break out of the intermediate wasteland. I used it last week to learn how to use Audacity incidentally.

  Chinese-Forums - overall great resource for discussing language-learning theories and schedules, finding new resources, etc. 

• Apart from textbooks do you use any other learning materials (eg. worksheets) to study? What do you use and why?

  No, all of my studying is from using the language and picking out unfamiliar things in what I read or hear.

• How do you keep studying interesting?

  I don't really look at what I do now as studying so much as it is just living my life in Chinese. I read the NYTimes all the times and switching it over into Chinese was a simple way to "study" more while not interrupting my normal schedule. I use my computer all the time to use Wikipedia and now I just switch the article into Chinese. My phone and computer are in Chinese. For some reason, Chinese has fascinated me ever since I started studying. The more I learn the more I want to learn. Practically though: GOALS, GOALS, GOALS. Recently I have wanted to improve my reading speed. I found my baseline and then set weekly goals. I am fiercely competitive and so goals are a perfect motivation for me. As long as I am working toward a goal that I really want to achieve, my studying isn't boring. Aside from that, Chinese has a direct impact on my work so that is always a good motivator. 

• Have you tried to learn Chinese by using Chinese songs/books/articles/movies? How did it go? If not, why not?

  Yes. The songs and movies are just a way to get more Chinese in during the day during my "relaxation". For example, when I get home from work or school I want to unwind and instead of watching a movie in English, I'll watch it in Chinese. When I workout instead of listening to English music, I listen to Chinese music. I'm not sure how much "learning" I get from those that can be tangibly counted -- I don't listen to music or watch movies with a pencil in hand, ready to write down any new word... most of the time ;) -- I read a ton in Chinese, books, articles, websites, and that has helped A TON. It is a really good way to get natural repetition of new words and grammar as well as developing your "Chinese sense" that only comes from sheer exposure. In English, I can read a sentence and while it might be grammatically correct, I can tell if it sounds awkward or unnatural. This is only because I've spent decades being exposed to English. Sometimes I'll be writing an essay for my Chinese class and I won't know why, but one of my sentences will sound awkward. I'll work it around until it "sounds right". Several times my teachers have talked to me after correcting it and let me know that my initial "sense" was spot-on. 

[盛玉兰]

HI, Luciano! I also want to share with you my studiyng Chinese's experience! 

 

---What is your HSK Level (approximately)

Should be between levels 4 and 5

----Where do you study Chinese? (which school?)

at university

---How many hours do you spend studying Chinese per week?

About 20 hours per week

---What apps/websites do you use for studying Chinese? What do you use them for?

TrainChinese, BKRS, ITalki, Pleco, HSK apps

---Apart from textbooks do you use any other learning materials (eg. worksheets) to study? What do you use and why?

Apart from textbooks, I watch video on YouTube or listen to Chinese podcasts , chat with natives etc.

---How do you keep studying interesting?

just choose videos and articles to practise , that are interesting personally for me. If you are interesting in smth, so you naturally are motivated to go on. 

----Have you tried to learn Chinese by using Chinese songs/books/articles/movies? How did it go? If not, why not?

Surely I did, sometimes it's difficult to hear distinctly or undertand the meaning of a word,but...it's pretty useful, your language skills really boost!

[edelweis]

On 11/22/2018 at 9:45 PM, 盛玉兰 said:

listen to Chinese podcasts

Interesting, which podcasts?

[pon00050]

• What is your HSK Level (approximately)

  I know all the vocabs upto HSK Level 4.

  I have never taken the HSK test.

   

• Where do you study Chinese? (which school?)

  I have never studied Chinese in a classroom setting.

• How many hours do you spend studying Chinese per week?

  If casually chatting with friends counts as studying too, I spend at least 10 hours per week.

   

• What apps/websites do you use for studying Chinese? What do you use them for?

   

  I currently use no app or website.

   

• Apart from textbooks do you use any other learning materials (eg. worksheets) to study? What do you use and why?

   

  None.

   

• How do you keep studying interesting?

   

  I no longer try to make it interesting. I am in no short of people to talk to.

   

• Have you tried to learn Chinese by using Chinese songs/books/articles/movies? How did it go? If not, why not?

   

  I tried using a Chinese drama as the main study material.

  I stopped doing it after some time because I got lazy.

   

  Here is the post on this website for that.

[fabiothebest]

Hi Luciano, I'm Italian too. We can exchange our wechat if you want and talk about Chinese language.

• What is your HSK Level (approximately)

            I passed HSK 2 a couple of years ago and the next level I will attempt is HSK3 or HSK 4.

• Where do you study Chinese? (which school?)

   

  I don't study at school. I study by myself and I studied on and off, not continuously.

   

• How many hours do you spend studying Chinese per week?

   

  Lately I'm studying 10+ hours per week, but as I said I didn't study always. There were periods where I studied intensively and months without studying, although I always kept the interest for Chinese language but not always studied actively in a systematic way

   

• What apps/websites do you use for studying Chinese? What do you use them for?

 

          - Pleco: dictionary, OCR, reader, flashcard system. I also use it for seeing the correct stroke order for writing

          - Tandem: talking to Chinese native speakers

          - HelloTalk: talking to Chinese native speakers

          - HiNative: asking native speakers about the meaning of words, difference between similar words, asking people to correct my text, asking if my sentence sounds natural

        - Lang-8: similar to HiNative

        - Memrise: flashcard system

        - The Chairman's bao: articles based on HSK level

        - Skritter: web/app for learning characters and words. It can be used to learn meaning, pronunciation and writing but I use it mainly for writing anyway

        - ChinesePod: Chinese podcasts

        - Italki: website for finding language partners, teachers and correcting my texts

        - Chinese-forums: forum about Chinese language

        - Hackingchinese: blog with many articles about how to learn Chinese

        - Chinese zero to hero: website with many videos useful for preparing to HSK exams based on the BLCU HSK books

        - Coursera's HSK courses: course about HSK by a Chinese university

        -Hanzicraft: website for looking up characters and performing character's decomposition

• Apart from textbooks do you use any other learning materials (eg. worksheets) to study? What do you use and why?

           Apart from textbooks I use websites and apps. For practising writing I just use a normal notebook and pen or Skritter with a stylus pen.

• How do you keep studying interesting?

   

  My goal is being able to become fluent in Mandarin..not matter how long it will take..I may not to study for long time sometimes, but I always come back to study Chinese eventually and still have some progress. Lately I'm studying hard again and I try to study every single day. I hope I'll be able to resist. I'm seeing some improvements, especially in writing that was a skill I didn't practice enough in the past

   

• Have you tried to learn Chinese by using Chinese songs/books/articles/movies? How did it go? If not, why not?

   

  I listened to some Chinese songs, but I don't listen to music often even in my own language..I purchased a couple of Mandarin Companion books, a book from Chinese Breeze..sometimes I may read short paragraphs of articles in Chinese..I sometimes watched Chinese movies about Kung fu or comedy movies..some are in Cantonese though..I'd also like to create wordlists based on the subtitles in the future. I didn't try it yet.