How much do you study?

[leosmith]

As someone who is preparing to study Chinese, I'm very curious about how much you guys study per day, or per week if that makes more sense in your case. And if you'd like, please include a brief summary of how you spend that time - we'd love to hear it.

[novemberfog]

I work full-time, so I study during lunch break, and listen to recordings on the 4km walk to the office, and on the way home. When I get home, I normally study for an hour, if I don't get home too late. I wish I had more time in a day!

[Ding Yiyi]

I'm a college student in my first year of the language. I generally do approximately one hour of chinese a day out of class. I find that is enough to remember the new characters and the new grammar rules each week. My teacher is also fairly good, she goes at a slightly slower pace than I would prefer (about 25 words each week), but she makes sure we all learn every single character, and grammar rule. This way we don't forget what we learned last week, or last semester.

[Shadowdh]

I am a fulltime student (1st year in both a BA in Chinese and a Masters in International Security) and a fulltime house husband, and apart from university classes I would study about 3-5 hours a day... 2 or so hours language and the rest in reading and essays for the masters... I echo Novemberfog's sentiments and wish for more hours in the day... about 8 would be good...

[HashiriKata]

I am a fulltime student [...] and a fulltime house husband

How many fulltimes can one have?

Anyway, I work fulltime and Chinese is one of my hobbies. I don't have a specific time allocation for learning Chinese and I'm always in the danger of doing it passionately (while it still hot!) or avoiding it as much as I can (if it's been left cold for a while), I therefore envy those who have classes to go to because classes will at least ensure that you keep your Chinese going at a steady pace. I sometimes can spend a lot of my time after work on Chinese, at the expense of other things that I don't feel like doing or thinking about (so yes, Chinese is also an escape for me, and I can get really mad (= ) when people complain that Chinese is difficult! (Try life! ))

So, I can't really tell how much time I spend on Chinese but I think if you want to learn Chinese realistically, you need to spend at least 2 hours a day for it, especially if you don't live in a Chinese speaking environment.

[Shadowdh]

How many fulltimes can one have?

well 2 and a half times as it happens... (househusband, student (BA Chinese) and part time masters)

I also get really frustrated and annoyed when people moan at how hard it is or at how bad it is taught and they dont actually study at all... sheesh...

[amandagmu]

Yes, the most annoying part is when people say it is difficult but in reality it's because they don't study at all.

Right now, I am working full-time and taking 2 classes/ 4 sessions of classes a week (1h15mins each session), tutoring for an hour on the weekend, and I try to do at least 20-30 minutes every day outside of all that. When I have homework or a test (approximately once every two weeks in each class) I'd say I spend an extra 2-3 hours per class for that, on top of the 20-30 mins per day per class.

The important part is just practicing frequently, not staring at books and characters for hours upon end one or two days and doing nothing on the other days. Especially when you are relatively new to a language, it is better to practice a little every day, and not try to do too much at once (and get overwhelmed). You'll remember more in the long run and can move ahead at a faster pace in the future once you have a solid foundation.

[amandagmu]

Oh, I agree on adding more hours to the day. Did I mention I'm training for the Boston marathon in April and a triathlon in May?

[Danilo-11]

I'm not doing that great (I've been a little lazy)

But I listen to Pimsleur Chinese in my car everyday when I drive to work and on the way back.

It really helps and you also realize how much time people waste in their car listening to music when they could be learning something (in this case, mandarin)

[Shadowdh]

Good Luck with that Amanda...

[leosmith]

Did I mention I'm training for the Boston marathon in April and a triathlon in May?

Cool. Ever play language cds on your lonng bike rides? Which tri, btw?

[amandagmu]

Heck yeah I do ;) www.chinesepod.com and houzekat.blogspot.com (french).

[amandagmu]

Oh yeah - Columbia Triathlon, just Olympic Distance. I signed up for a half-IM but I'm skipping it to do some travel instead. Which is fine... I'm feeling burnt out after the Boston marathon ;)

[Shadowdh]

So how did you do with the Boston Marathon...??

[yonitabonita]

Hey guys,

I had a quarter life crisis, quit my job and am here in China learning Mandarin full time at the BLCU.

I do 4 hours of classes at the BLCU, then an additional 2 hours of classes at a private school. After I eat, I read the Chinese news for an hour, and spend about 1-2 hours learning new characters on Wenlin flashcards. I spend about half an hour doing my homework, and then either listen to Chinesepod.com, or I attempt some language tapes for another half an hour or so. If I don't work on tingli, I try and go to the local noodle joint to chat to the owners. Theirs isn't putonghua, but it's at least kouyu practice.

Having written this, I realise how silly I am to chastise myself for not doing enough study. There's nothing like being thirty, and self-financing this year in Beijing to get me motivated about studying.

y

[nipponman]

Looks like I'm late as usual...

Anyway, I don't study much anymore, being a full-time student and all (today's the last day by the way...Yay!) But as soon as summer gets underway I'll probably start. Even when I study, I don't usually "study", I just listen to tv or sound clips from the internet, thats where I get my vocab and stuff from.

[imitation]

I'm at zhongshan in GZ, I study 3hrs a day in class M-F, then some weeks I am good and study 2hrs plus at home but I also work fulltime from home here which sucks because I don't practice chinese at all when I am working. However I have some weeks where I just seem to do nothing and laze about after class or play basketball and go to the gym. Then other weeks I find some interesting new learning method and really get stuck in. For example this week I started learnign 五笔 and i've been spending like 4-5hrs every day typing stories from my textbooks.

Oh and I live with my chinese girlfriend so ehh I guess that's studying chinese :o except her English has gotten so so much better now she says putonghua is her 4th language, english 1st, guangdonghua 2nd, hunanhua 3rd. But we are getting more into using putonghua and our household is bilingually now.

[amandagmu]

It went OK. I ran a 3:45, but my last marathon I ran 3:36. I guess not bad considering I didn't train nearly as hard, and the course was more difficult... I'm looking forward to taking some time off when I go to France for a month this summer and then head to China after that =D

~Amanda

[Shadowdh]

Wow Amanda I am impressed... well done...!!! Thats a great time...