Spence94

Learning Mandarin Chinese

8 posts in this topic

I need to get more engaged and disciplined with learning Mandarin Chinese. I am going to start journalling about it and documenting my process and journey to fluency. I think it deserves it's own journal.

Methods:

LingQ.com ( Reading & listening to immersive interesting content. Save word counts and save phrases. Easy access to dictionaries and definitions while reading.)

Refold.com ( Immerson listening to real native content.) (I used the Chinese equivlent of Netflix to watch native tv shows and movies, i also have a TV in my apartment which is wired to Chinese television as I live in China.) I also have a load of DVDs i can play in my place which inlcudes a lot of amazing anime. lol.  Gotta love it.

Concious study of words and characters. Write out the word or character a view times, speak out loud, practice the pronounciation, write the english meaning ( only one English meaning where possible, sometime it isn't possible because the words have multiple meanings that are totally unrelated.)

Use Chinese grammar Wiki. Very clear and simple guide which focuses on patterns and not rules.

Review word, patterns and grammar using Anki SRS ststem

Practice speaking with my Chinese co workers in the office and random people out and about during the week. Most of my Chinese friends speak really good English, they tend to win the language power battle, also speaking Chinese when you suck sucks, the idea is to focus most of your attention on input then you can more naturally and effortlessy communicate more like a native, this seems to be my experience and the experience of many others. Requires patience though. Plus i am pretty inner focused, the input approach suits my lifestyle more.

At this point after living in China for so long I have not doubt in my ability to become highly proficient in Mandarin I just need to take the action and put in the time. I hope this journal can help me do that by keeping me more focused and making the process more interesting and enjoyable. I am pretty fascinated by the process of language learning itself as well as the Chinese language itself and the Chinese culture itself, I hope the journal can also make these elements of the experience more interesting and give me a space where I can contemplate。

 

 

Edited by Spence94

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2022/3/19 (In China they write the dates this way.)

Study time: 90 minutes. Concious word and character study.

Next: 30 minutes of the a Japanese anime movie with Chinese dubbing.

There is a distinciton between active and passive listening.

Meditation and Concentration meditation really helps to make immerion more effective.

Insight: Quality time with the language is more imporant than quantity.

although: to achieve genuine native level fluency requires 1000s of hours and years of immersion practice, so it's actuall Quality AND Quantity.

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Total Active Immersion Time (Hours : Minutes) = 1 : 45

30 minutes on LingQ. It is such an enjoyable way to learn a language and it just feels very effective.

Language learning, like any skill is something you get better at with practice.

Language learning like any skill, is enhanced by your overall development as an individual. For example, being healthy, getting enough sleep, exercising and eating clean effect the quality of your language learning in many ways from the quality of input, to memory, to recall, to confidence with speaking, to acceptance of mistakes and remaining chill.

LingQ.com and Refold.La are the main websites i am using, they are somewhat underground and hardcore approaches in the language learning world but hey, actualized.org is underground and hardcore too so that the way I role baby.

How will my behaviour change? Starting today, I am no longer going to do any work, or action or study or activity or practice in the evenings, all of that has to be done during daylight hours, as soon as it is dark, the only practice I am engaging in is listening and reading to Chinese. The daytime is for english and for work and practice and study. The nighttime is for chilling out and enjoying hardcore full Chinese immersion practice.

Done.

Edited by Spence94

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"To learn a language, your energy must be focus like an addict at world of warcraft." -A forum member

This is it. I can do this. Its world of warcraft. Bring it on. Level 99. XP.

Edited by Spence94

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Total Active Immersion Time (Hours : Minutes) = 2 : 45

It's not just compelling content that is neccessary, you also need to be obsessed with the language itself. You need to be hooked on the sense of satisfaction that comes with understanding and 'leveling up' your comprehension skills.

Listening is Active, the more concious the better. Watching Kung Fu Panda 2 is not zoning out eating popcorn, you need to literally tune into the vibrational frequency of the language, that connection is where the juice is, and by doing that you can relax, and just enjoy the experience of understanding whilst becoming immersed into the content just like a native speaker would, even though you're not native fluent yet and you can't actually comprehend all of the language. The experience is still enjoyable, and probably even more so, because you get to enjoy a movie/TV show/ Book/ whilst enjoying the sense of satisfaction that comes from increasing your proficiency in the skill. It's pretty amazing. 

Then when you walk out the door into the real world, your perception and level of atonement and understanding already increases. You begin to blend into the environment around you. It's mindblowing.

Edited by Spence94

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If it feels awkward and uncomfortable, you're probably doing it right. 

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Don't feel the language in your head, feel the language in your heart. 

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I need to spend more time listening. I've been watching spider man anime recently. It is a lot better than the movies. The thing the language learning world gets wrong is they make vocabulary and grammar study the most important action and treat watching tv shows and movies and practicing active listening as somehow 'lazy' or 'just relaxing' and 'not for serious students.' In truth, active listening Is the most important language learning practice. Of course, if it was common knowledge that you could pretty much listen ( and read) your way to fluency then that would put a lot of language teachers and schools out of business...

Language learning is a subconscious process, the study of words and grammar is a supplement to active listening and reading compelling content, and not the other way around. Its pretty effortless really so long as you're building your passive vocabulary. Passive vocabulary is the key. It's amazing how the brain can decipher the language over time, in just a few days of listening you already see improvements in comprehension.

Best part about it, it makes the language fun, even if you can't comprehend most of it. Makes the process very satisfying as you 'Level up' your understanding bit by bit. 

Output can only reach the level of your comprehension.

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