posted by jon.walsh on August 21, 2012 | 3 comments
Hi all,New boy here...I've been learning Chinese for around six months using a number of tools; radio, a tutor, talking to myself and, of course, the awesome Popup podcasts.However, I seem to have lots of words in my head but struggle to get them out when I need to. When I'm listening I recognise the words, but it takes time for me to string them together to understand what they mean. When I do, I'm really in a fluster to get out a response. It's very slow going.I'm thinking that I may need to go intensive but need to fit it in with work. I'm based in Hong Kong and thinking of hopping over the border to Shenzhen for a weekend at a time to do 4 to 6 hours a day, maybe once or twice a month.For all the advanced learners out there, what are your thoughts? Am I just missing something that I should be doing? It really feels like I'm quite close to being able to talk at least simple stuff, but just have this invisible and unidentifiable blockage.Thoughts?Cheers,jon
In my experience you'll struggle for quite some time. If you've only been studying for 6 months and you are already able to understand things and formulate responses (even if slowly) you're doing great.The more you practice the faster you'll learn. If you have the chance and opportunity to go practice 4-6 hours a day go for it. It'll certainly help!PS, I'm not advanced, maybe an intermediate speaker. But the more I practice the better I do :).Craig
Thanks Craig.I have to say, I'm loving Chinese. Great language and I find it very logical.I'm not worried about doing the hours, but one tutor I just spoke with suggested that four hours would be too much for a 1:2:1 session. But I agree with you, the more the better.Currently looking at;Day 1: 4-6 hours 1:2:1, break, dinner with Chinese tutor/friends, stay overnightDay 2: 4-6 hours 1:2:1Anyone have advice on how structuring these big chunks? Mostly working on speakig, but should we break it up with writing also?Shenzhen here I come...
drummerboy on August 22, 2012 | reply
I'm not one for long posts, but would like to offer my input :-). Learning a language, especially Chinese takes time. For many of us (myself included) the pursuit of fluency is a lifetime journey of continual learning, improvement, and practice.
Hitting the wall is normal. I've hit the wall more times than I care to remember over the last 10+ years of off and on study. I think all learners of Chinese hit the wall on several occasions throughout the journey. There is an excellent piece written by a good friend of mine that provides great insight and humor to what western learners of Chinese experience. http://pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html/
It sounds like you've made fantastic progress in only 6 months. My thought is that 4-6 hour sessions are going to be challenging to really absorb much past the first hour. Now, if your just looking for conversation and listening practice that might be fine, but to really try and assimilate 4-6 hours of content would be a daunting task. I used to think that watching lots of Chinese TV would help me improve. Well it depends if you are actively or passively watching. Just sitting in front of the TV wont do a whole lot (from my experience). However, if you watch something on DVD and can stop, pause, rewind, look up the new words/phrases, go back and see how it was used, etc. you might get more out of it (at least I did). But as you can see this is pretty time consuming. If you are watching for entertainment purposes this wont be much fun, but try spending 30-45 minutes doing this and you might be surprised with what you have learned.
Maybe Echo or one of the other teachers might have some good advice. I tend to think that you'd get more out of a 1-2 hour session with a tutor, take good notes, record the sessions, then spend several hours reviewing and absorbing that content, then taking those new words/phrases on a test drive with native speakers.
I think sometimes less can be more if you spend time in the right places, and there is a limit to what can be absorbed and retained over time from marathon sessions.
Hope that helps and best of luck with your studies.