Chinese as a Hobby

[dakonglong]

I have a pretty random question, but I'm curious. For how many people here is Chinese their primary hobby, versus one of many? If one of many, what are your other hobbies?

 

Compared to other common interests, learning Chinese to an intermediate/advanced level is so time consuming over so many years, it makes me wonder how much time and mental energy is left over for other activities. Also, what other types of interests are common among those that study Chinese seriously (since it seems like a pretty niche hobby that appeals to a distinct type of person).

[Tomsima]

In my experience, learning Chinese starts as a hobby, then later becomes a gateway into many new hobbies. Either it's a hobby that you can only enjoy through knowing Chinese, or it's a hobby that's available in your own language, but you experience it in a totally different way from a different perspective with fellow hobbyists that happen to be from China. Name any hobby you want - maybe even learning another language through Chinese

[889]

Fine for developing interests in Chinese paintings or ceramics, Chinese movies or TV, Chinese cooking or tea, Chinese history or politics, etc. Chinese travel and literature too, of course.

[PerpetualChange]

A faltering hobby for me.  I started in college and continued in graduate school but once I realized that it wasn't going to be a career I fell back to my old hobby of playing guitar. It's a bit depressing because for a long time I felt like Chinese was important and that if I knew it well or understood China I too could be important.  

 

Right now I'm taking a guitar lesson and playing in a band as well as working on my original music. I don't regret learning Chinese at all, and I still read novels and watch movies, but I don't feel that drive to continue with it like I once did. I routinely "quit" for weeks or even months at a time, so that I can let myself do new things.   Part of the problem with Chinese is that I just can't find any way to naturally use it and reinforce it other than reading novels, which gets old. 

 

Quite a change from my 2nd-4th years of study where it felt like my whole life was centered around Chinese.  At least then it felt like there was some synergy, the graduate work I was doing was directly related to Chinese culture and language. When I decided not to do a PhD, I lost my center. I'm sure I'll circle back more seriously at some point.

 

 

[Woodford]

I have several minor hobbies, but Chinese is my major one right now, by far (I also play guitar, run, research pet topics, and engage in graduate studies). It takes around 3 hours of my time each day, and this level of intensity has persisted for about four and a half years. To be honest, I'm starting to think more and more about my "end game," when I'll devote half that time (or less) to Chinese. At some point, I think I'll stop drilling new vocabulary altogether. If I continue to read novels, I hope to do so at a slower pace. I want to dabble in online videos, news, blogs, and social media--effectively moving from "dry, difficult, and time-consuming" to "fun, moderate, and casual." I thought that maybe I could "master" modern Chinese literature, but now I'm seeing that such a task would take many, many years of soul-crushing practice. No matter how good I get at reading, there's always something harder out there. And Chinese people really don't use that highly literary language on a daily basis, anyway, so why should I invest the bulk of my time there? It's better for me to read Zhihu, follow the headlines on Xinhua, watch Chinese videos on YouTube, and have speaking sessions with iTalki or local friends.

I appreciate those people above who have noted that Chinese can be a gateway for hobbies that actually don't require knowledge of Chinese. It's funny--I often consume certain Chinese content that I really wouldn't care about in English (because my primary purpose is to practice Chinese). Because of that, my horizons have been broadened, and I've learned so much about so many new topics, like science, music, history, politics, etc. I rarely ever watch English videos on music theory, but I've learned a lot about it from "Feng's Music Channel" on YouTube.

[matteo]

I never thought that Chinese would be my career, but I did think it was very important in my life for a good while. 

I was planning to live and work in China for an extended period of time before the pandemic, and when the pandemic happened it really shook my motivation.

Not to say that I won't do it anymore sooner or later but it was definitely pushed over to "Plan B" by other things!

 

I still study Chinese, albeit less intensively than before, and I try to keep at least a little motivated going by reading novels and watching the occasional tv series.

Like many things in life, I find that studying Chinese has its ups and downs, and I reckon very few very motivated people can keep it up at a very intense level for many many years.

Anyways, even at the peak intensity of my Chinese studies, I've always found time to rock climb and play guitar (this last one on and off).  

I've always loved reading and keep doing it, only now I spend 90% of my reading time on Chinese books.

I recently started spearfishing and enjoy it, hopefully I can keep it up at least in summer. Very exciting (had two close shark encounters last month) plus gets you dinner!

 

 

 

[Publius]

On 2/14/2022 at 11:33 AM, Woodford said:

"Feng's Music Channel" on YouTube

叨叨冯聊音乐？ You really surprise me!

[Woodford]

On 2/13/2022 at 10:22 PM, Publius said:

叨叨冯聊音乐？

 

Yes, that's the one! I'm surprised at how many great Chinese YouTube channels there are, and they're increasing in number all the time. They're good for my Chinese practice, and they're also fun.

[dakonglong]

Interesting that there are so many guitar players!

 

On 2/13/2022 at 6:46 PM, PerpetualChange said:

Quite a change from my 2nd-4th years of study where it felt like my whole life was centered around Chinese.  At least then it felt like there was some synergy, the graduate work I was doing was directly related to Chinese culture and language. When I decided not to do a PhD, I lost my center. I'm sure I'll circle back more seriously at some point.

 

I can definitely relate to the need for your hobbies to serve some greater purpose. This reminds me of my own experience with programming languages. Prior to getting more serious about learning Chinese, I spent some spare time learning basic web development so that I could build out a few website ideas I had. I learned some simple python and javascript and managed to create a couple of very mediocre/amateurish websites (one example is: https://www.clearflick.com) before I convinced myself that the skills had no practical application in my life and I just kind of lost interest.

 

It's a shame, because I really enjoyed the learning process, I just spent too much time overthinking the usefulness of the skill in my own life. I hope I don't repeat this same mistake with Chinese if I find that the practical applications of the skill don't pan out as expected (though I am still hopeful they will).

 

I guess all an interest really needs to be is interesting to you! (I think I'm trying to convince myself of this as much as you @PerpetualChange).

[Jan Finster]

On 2/13/2022 at 11:16 PM, dakonglong said:

For how many people here is Chinese their primary hobby, versus one of many? If one of many, what are your other hobbies?

 

Well, at least it is a hobby.

 

Most people in my profession and at my age (>35 y/o) are no longer familiar with the concept of a "hobby".

Spare time is typically filled with vegging out on the sofa after work, shopping/running errands, kids, partner time, gym, watching Youtube videos or Netflix, social media, going for a drink or the movies. And, traveling 2-3x a year or reading 1-2 books per month hardly count as a "hobby".... 

 

So,  yes, aside from playing online chess, it is my main hobby nowadays ? 

[PerpetualChange]

On 2/14/2022 at 6:17 AM, Jan Finster said:

Most people in my profession and at my age (>35 y/o) are no longer familiar with the concept of a "hobby".

Spare time is typically filled with vegging out on the sofa after work, shopping/running errands, kids, partner time, gym, watching Youtube videos or Netflix, social media, going for a drink or the movies. And, traveling 2-3x a year or reading 1-2 books per month hardly count as a "hobby".... 

 

So,  yes, aside from playing online chess, it is my main hobby nowadays ? 

 

IMO a "hobby" is more about how you engage than what you engage in. Film, fitness, reading, etc... can all be legit "hobbies" while online chess can easily just be a passive waste of time. No need to knock someone's hobby as not being as good as yours. 

 

On 2/14/2022 at 12:42 AM, dakonglong said:

It's a shame, because I really enjoyed the learning process, I just spent too much time overthinking the usefulness of the skill in my own life. I hope I don't repeat this same mistake with Chinese if I find that the practical applications of the skill don't pan out as expected (though I am still hopeful they will).

 

Yeah... even if I came to terms of the lack of practical applications, some kind of community can help. Learning a language for its own sake might work for some people, but I suspect others need something more than that. 

[alantin]

It's been my primary hobby and pastime for the last two years now. Coincidentally the pandemic has been torturing us for about two years now... There might be a connection. ?

 

For now it is mostly a hobby and I usually either go all in with something or don't do it at all. There is the added bonus that out parent-company is a Chinese one and we have an office in China that need our support, so I get to work with Chinese people more or less regularly. I should have a chance to visit our Chinese office again after the pandemic and I'm planning on staying there for a while to study Chinese there as a prize when the pandemic is finally over someday. Maybe a couple of months studying while working there should be realistic. I'm sure all Chinese I learn before that is going to make the experience only that much more amazing.

 

I also see a lot of opportunities in the future if I can use Chinese professionally. People in my line of work don't seem to speak that much English over there and knowing some has made many things a lot easier already.

[Jan Finster]

On 2/14/2022 at 4:02 PM, PerpetualChange said:

No need to knock someone's hobby as not being as good as yours. 

 

Uff...that was not my intention at all...

 

On 2/14/2022 at 4:02 PM, PerpetualChange said:

IMO a "hobby" is more about how you engage than what you engage in.

 

Absolutely!

 

My "loose" definition of a hobby would be anything I do on a regular basis and I would mention on a date (gym, Netflix, etc). My more "narrow" definition of a hobby is something I would happily put on my resume. I would not put watching movies on there unless I was positively a movie nerd. But, yeah, this is just my opinion. No value juedgment intended at all. 

[vellocet]

I wouldn't call it a hobby at all. ? It's a life skill.  It's like learning to drive, or cooking.  It's not something you do for fun in your spare time, it's something you do because it yields concrete benefits.  Skill at Chinese pays off literally every single day. 

[Moshen]

Quote

I wouldn't call it a hobby at all. ? It's a life skill.  It's like learning to drive, or cooking.  It's not something you do for fun in your spare time, it's something you do because it yields concrete benefits.  Skill at Chinese pays off literally every single day. 

 

But take cooking, for example.  For loads of people cooking IS a hobby because they indulge in it far beyond what is necessary to keep themselves well fed. 

 

And for many people on this forum who don't live in China or work for a Chinese company, studying Chinese is indeed a hobby that has little or no payoff other than the satisfaction of mastery and of learning to understand another culture.   It's on a level with playing a musical instrument or playing tennis.

[dakonglong]

On 2/14/2022 at 2:36 PM, Moshen said:

But take cooking, for example.  For loads of people cooking IS a hobby because they indulge in it far beyond what is necessary to keep themselves well fed. 

 

And for many people on this forum who don't live in China or work for a Chinese company, studying Chinese is indeed a hobby that has little or no payoff other than the satisfaction of mastery and of learning to understand another culture.   It's on a level with playing a musical instrument or playing tennis.

 

This perfectly sums up how I feel about it.

 

I also consider Chinese a hobby because I enjoy the learning process itself, even when it's disconnected from the outcome. This sounds crazy, but if I could somehow become fluent tomorrow, I'm not sure that I would do it, because then I would lose a major challenge in my life and a past-time I enjoy.

 

Obviously, I reserve the right to change this answer if I ever work in China or otherwise need the language in my day-to-day life.

 

 

[Jellyfish]

I never really thought of Chinese as a hobby but I guess that is what it is since I don't use it professionally (well, I do now to some extent but I didn't start off learning it with the intention of doing so, and I'm not making efforts to improve my Chinese for work but just for my own personal use).

Other hobbies are running, basketball, food (both cooking and eating), reading and writing (both mainly poetry), playing D&D or board games, hiking. I think that's more or less it though I may be missing a few.

I guess Chinese takes up more time than most of the other hobbies except running, purely because I do it every day (for about 1h on average I'd say). So, Chinese and running are probably tied for main hobbies just in terms of how time consuming they are. I would never describe them as my main hobbies though in terms of how important they are to my life and for me as a person, that title would probably go to poetry and/or D&D.

[黄有光]

Currently, Chinese is my only serious hobby. In the future, I would like to pick piano back up and also work with watercolors. I am quite good a drawing, but have not done anything serious with drawing in many years. 

 

I have considered picking up the 二胡 but I'm not entirely sure if it would be worth the time and effort, given that I live in Europe and it would therefore be a difficult hobby to engage with.

 

[黄有光]

Forgot to add -- I and my husband are in the Netherlands at the moment, and if I decide to commit to immigration, I will set Chinese aside and begin learning Dutch starting on January 1, next year. My plan is to use the incredible studying strategies I've developed in learning Chinese to hit the ground running hard with Dutch. I am planning on doing the same thing I did with Chinese last year -- learn at a rate of 30 words per day, by mining words from books, and learn 10.000 in a single year. With the combination of my German abilities, and my excellent Chinese study strategies, I expect to have a very strong grasp on Dutch by the end of next year. 

 

After that it's just 5 years to citizenship

[suMMit]

Chinese started as a "life skill" for me, but I could stop now and get by just fine. I would definitely consider it's something I do for pleasure in my free time and requires specialized knowledge and skill. 

 

Some of my other hobbies are poker, Chinese tea, bartending, traveling, gym.