Too many sources of material ?

[emuboy]

I've started drilling even more listening content this last week in addition to the stuff I was previously doing. Now each day I listen to a Popup Chinese podcast, do an episode of iMandarinpod every 2 days, do my normal work for tingli class from the workbook, have been watching live streams of LoL (a game I play) and have also started working through TV series. I started trying to watch 爱情公寓 but it was slightly too hard, so now I'm watching a kids show - 大耳朵图图. All of this is active listening in that I'm stopping and re-listening over and over again until I understand it (although not the live stream). My reason for this is based on Imron's post regarding practicing what you want to actually be good at.

 

Anyway, my issue is that I'm coming across heaps of vocab now each day, maybe 20-30 words. I strictly limit myself to 10 new words a day in Pleco. My solution at this stage has been to just do daily review sessions of content I have already covered for maybe the past 2 weeks whilst my flashcards catch up. This allows me to keep progressing with new content which based on a prior post I made last November seemed to be best way to improve listening.

 

Does this seem reasonable or should I be sticking to fewer sources?

[imron]

I think this seems reasonable.  It's good to vary your sources because when you get bored of one you'll have others right there and it won't cause you to stop learning for a few days (which turns in to weeks or months).

 

Review is important - probably just as important as new material, because it consolidates what you already know, but also don't worry about just moving on to new material rather than trying to catch up on all the new words.

 

You don't need to learn *every* new word you come across in a text.  In fact it's often optimal not to.  The reason being that for many words you don't know beforehand which of them are useful and which are not.   By not learning every new word you will be able to devote more of your time to useful words because by definition, the useful ones will reappear soon enough on another days (if they don't reappear, they are clearly not that useful to you) and you can learn them then.

 

 

[DavyJonesLocker]

You can't learn every word you come across or it would be overwhelming. Its very useful to train your ear to pick out the general meaning. After all you will be doing this in everyday speech. 

 

[Shelley]

I think a certain amount of passive listening is good too. Just listening helps tune your ear to get used to the sounds and rhythms of chinese. Its also a good way to take a break from intense listening but still be doing something towards learning.

I actually find it quite restful and useful.

[艾墨本]

Seems reasonable to me.

 

I usually consciously differentiate sources of vocabulary and other sources.

 

For example, I currently am reading a novel, watching a tv series, living life in China, and taking class in Chinese. But I only make notecards and study vocabulary from an HSK 6 textbook I am working on.

 

Most importantly, don't add too much vocab at a time or the backlog of vocab you're learning will no longer have the fresh sense of context from wherever you pulled it from. This is why I don't like generic vocab lists, though I do use them.

 

If you're self studying, I recently fell in love with a book called "language learning strategies" by Rebecca Oxford. Published in the 90's before all these technological solutions which as a result I find more focused on the human side of learning. I like that.

[emuboy]

Thanks for the replies.

 

Some solid advice here. I'll carry on as I am currently and see how I'm going in another month or so then.