posted by oyamakuma on August 2, 2014 | 5 comments
I am just wondering how everyone spends their time splitting their time learning Chinese. Do you just rely on podcasts or do you also use a book. About how many podcasts do you listen to each week? Do you focus on grammar?
murrayjames on August 2, 2014 | reply
hi Oyamakuma,
When I started learning Chinese, I would divide my time into blocks devoted to different activities (reading textbooks, watching Chinese cartoons, listening to podcasts, etc.). This was valuable at the time, because my Chinese was poor and I needed structure.
I don't study that way anymore. Now I live in China and am immersed in Chinese for most of the day. Whether at work, at home, at a restaurant, playing music shows--there's Chinese everywhere. Of course, having Chinese friends, a Chinese wife (and inlaws!) and a job at a Chinese university help a lot.
Here are some other ways I use Chinese throughout the day:
-listening to podcasts at Popup Chinese :-D
-Chinese social media, like 微信, 微博 and QQ
-my computers, cellphone, and most of the applications I use (Microsoft Office, Google Chrome, etc.) are all set to Chinese localization
-correcting my students' homework
-Lang-8 for practice with written Chinese
-flashcards (Anki) periodically throughout the day
-in my spare time I
* play video games (currently 《去月球》)
* read books (currently 《流行音乐与爵士乐和声学》), or
* read articles online (usually from 百度百科 or 维基百科)
For sentences or words I don't know, I use Wenlin on my computer or Pleco (with paid add-ons) on my cell phone. Then I make Anki flashcards for stuff I want to review later.
When I'm confused about a grammar point I usually ask Grace in the forums here :-) There's also John Pasden's fantastic Grammar Wiki:
http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/
I'm not sure how much time I spend on Chinese a day! Probably a lot, but I care about frequency more than quantity.
robert@unipacshipping.co.uk on November 8, 2014 | reply
For learning characters try the Chinesepod Top 1000 on a mobile phone.Took me six months to get to the end. Wouldnt say I know them all, but took me from knowing almost no characters to being able to write messages using the keyboard (not handwriting) Reading the answers can however be quite time consuming.
1141588113 on November 15, 2014 | reply
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1141588113 on November 15, 2014 | reply
hello!~ i am a chinese , and i relly want to make friends with english speaker . my email is 1141588113@qq.com . and you can improve your chinese . i can improve my english .haha
Hello. I am an English teacher in China and I'm studying Chinese. I'm always looking for people who can help me with my Chinese. It helps when they can speak some English as well. So maybe we can be friends. You can help me with Chinese and I can help you with English :) I have qq and wechat