Using of Skritter, Duolingo, Pleco, Chinese Pod, Chinese grammar Wiki, Tandem

[BlackMamba]

Hi,

 

I have been studying Chinese for too long and now really want to quickly reach HSK 6 level (yes i know there are new HSK levels coming. Then the equivalent to HSK6) by the end of next year.

 

 

I have learned with many apps and physical books in a classroom.

 

I think I have now found a very efficient plan for studying.

 

 

When I wake up, the first thing I do is brush my teeth and then go to bed and do a Chinese routine on my phone which looks like this:

 

Skritter: All due words in Skritter till there are 0 left. Upcoming words of Chinese Pod lessons I study here. I add them on the skritter website, a function I only just recently found. 

Duolingo: 1 new Duolingo lesson. I use French - Chinese and not English - Chinese to also learn French on the side.

Pleco: Pleco Flashcard trainer that just shows Chinese characters to learn the pinyin, definition and right tones

Chinese Pod or Chinese grammar Wiki: I learn at least 1 new lesson in one of these 2 platforms.

 

This is a routine I do after waking up but also in the afternoon and evening before I sleep.

 

 

Then I also have 4 calls per week with different Chinese tandem partners that are here in my country and that I found through Tandem (an app like Hellotalk where you find easily language partners that want to learn your native language and speak the language you learn) where I talk normal with them about all kinds of things but then also do Chinese Pod exercises together with them or translate texts from my native language for a website of mine into Chinese together with them.

 

 

I think this is the best procedure I have ever done to study Chinese. What do you think about it? Anything to improve? I am quite happy that I found Skritter and Chinese grammar wiki because they really help me to improve faster in Chinese Pod.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before I used Skritter I always had the problem that I had too many new words / characters in a Chinese Pod lesson / book and then didn't learn well. Now I always learn the new words in advance and only when I know at least 50% of the new vocabulary of that Chinese Pod lesson I do that lesson.

[abcdefg]

 

16 hours ago, BlackMamba said:

When I wake up, the first thing I do is brush my teeth and then go to bed and do a Chinese routine on my phone which looks like this:

 

Why do you return to bed to do this routine? I think I might fall asleep again if I tried to do my homework in bed. 

[BlackMamba]

It works for me and I don't fall asleep but everyone has to find what fits for him. I read that people learn the best in the morning and there are no distractions from other people in the morning as well so I will always learn something early in the morning. I need a slow start into the day so I do it in the bed which is relaxing. It is then still a very productive start into the day and takes 45 to 60 minutes.

[大块头]

Consider taking some practice HSK 6 exams.

 

https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/57686-collection-of-all-hsk-6-practice-exams-released-by-hanban

[imron]

If you are going to be taking an actual HSK, your biggest problem will probably be reading speed.  If that's the case, you should work on improving your ability to read long passages of text at faster speeds.

[大块头]

I agree with Imron, and if you take any of the practice exams you will probably agree too. SRS is great, but not in isolation. It will feel like swimming through molasses at first, but a daily reading habit will increase your reading speed and build your vocabulary.

[PerpetualChange]

What's the point of duolingo in your routine? If you really want to study HSK6 which not just spend time reviewing HSK6 vocabulary? 

[BlackMamba]

Can you also recommend apps/sites for reading texts maybe based on HSK levels and maybe with stories/news about something in real life or something else but not dialogues? In Chinese Pod there are only thousands of dialogues but no texts like stories/news articles. I will look at these HSK 6 exams also. The problems in reading I have when I didn't know a character so I practise that already a lot. As long as i can recognize each character I don't have problems with reading quickly.

 

But what can be done for efficient 听力 practising? What I did till now is listening to Chinese Pod on the computer and if I didn't understood something, I review the pinyin and translation and copy paste these texts into a document to review it and understand it later when hearing it again. And when talking with Chinese via phone they often talk a lot in Chinese and only 50% is understood but it can maybe be because of grammar not learned yet.

 

Duolingo is the least needed. I just thought to use it for learning some new characters and to practise reading.

[roddy]

Sounds like you want Chairmans Bao, paid, but a free month to try it out.

[Larry Language Lover]

On 6/2/2020 at 9:44 PM, BlackMamba said:

 

Duolingo: 1 new Duolingo lesson. I use French - Chinese and not English - Chinese to also learn French on the side.

 

 

You are referring to French for Chinese learners right?   I thought Chinese is only available from English so far on Duolingo?

[BlackMamba]

1 hour ago, Larry Language Lover said:

You are referring to French for Chinese learners right?   I thought Chinese is only available from English so far on Duolingo?

yes French for Chinese learners. You can learn a new language with that or in my case refresh a language and at the same time practise Chinese.

[BlackMamba]

I recently found this Chrome extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/zhongwen-chinese-english/kkmlkkjojmombglmlpbpapmhcaljjkde it is really good. On hover over a Chinese character it shows me the translation and when i click "s" on the keyboard it puts that character into a list of Skritter.

Are there more tools/platforms that one should know?