Well... This Year Has Been... I Really Feel Like I Half Assed My Goals But At The Same Time I Ended Up

How To Romanticise Language Learning

TL = Target Language

Buy a new folder, highlighters and journal all in a specific colour for your TL

Find a drama/series to fall in love with

Create music playlists for different moods (e.g. aggressive rap/upbeat pop/sad songs/old classics)

Cook a traditional meal from the country of your TL

Make a summary sheet of some big historical event that shaped the country of your TL

Learn about the traditional dress (and colour significance) from your TL country

Compose a song in your TL

Research into famous art from your TL country (e.g. Japanese Irezumi) and try to recreate it in a sketchbook

Find a classic tale written in your TL (e.g. War and Peace in Russian)

Make an aesthetic Pinterest board that summarises your TL

Research into classic architecture built in your TL country

Designate a special area to study your TL (and make that area minimalist/pretty)

Make an aesthetic Pinterest board about travelling to your TL country

Write a poem in your TL

Write a short story in your TL

Keep a diary in your TL

Find a favourite YouTube channel in your TL

Write up a list of reasons why you're learning this TL and pin it up on the wall (read whenever you need motivation!)

i love you physical media ❤️ i love you cds ❤️ i love you vinyl ❤️ i love you cassettes ❤️ i love you dvds ❤️ i love you blurays ❤️ i love you paperback books ❤️ i love you comics ❤️

audio study methods

Still working on that 'lazy' study plan post, since I am just not satisfied with any chinese grammar guide summaries online enough to recommend them as a small grammar intro. If anyone knows of any good 'grammar overview summary' articles or sites for chinese grammar, please let me know. (I like AllSetLearning's Chinese Grammar Wiki but it is huge and in depth and not something I'd recommend a learner 'just read through' on month 4 of learning, and the grammar guide summary site I used as a beginner that was very easy to read through in a few hours... no longer exists)

So in the meantime. Not a grammar study tip, but a general 'lazy' option for language learners who (like me) can't focus on stuff like anki, or just don't want to. I go more in depth about using audio lessons and audio flashcards on other posts, and on the lazy study plan post i'm drafting, but the short of it is: you can listen and learn while doing your normal daily activities. That's what makes the study method so convenient. You don't have to squeeze in any extra time, or change your daily life schedule to make time for chinese, to use audio lessons and audio flashcards.

You simply find some times during the day when you'd either normally listen to audio in the background (like if you listen to music when commuting or shopping, or if you listen to podcasts when working, or if you listen to youtube while exercising or browsing social media). As usual, the more time the better as you'll make faster progress if you study 1-2 hours a day or more. But anything is better than nothing. So lets say you commute to work 30 minutes in morning and evening, there's your hour of studying audio. Or you go for a walk at lunch for 15 minutes, and browse tumblr for an hour scrolling (that's 1 hour and 15 minutes of study). It's very easy to fit 30 minutes of audio study into a day, and it's fairly easy to fit even 2-4 hours of audio study if you're so inclined. I usually do 30 minutes - 2 hours of audio study some days, since when I walk I decide if I feel like listening to a youtube essay or chinese or japanese stuff, when driving I decide which I feel like listening to, and I want to listen to something in english 2/3 of the time.

How do you use audio study material? Well, the easy way is you just press play on it, let it play in the background while you do other stuff, and that's it. If you tend to avoid studying new stuff (like me), then I recommend PRIORITIZING listening to NEW AUDIO every time, until you get into the habit of listening to NEW stuff to learn. Then you can re-listen to stuff sometimes, as review, especially when you're doing activities you have less attention on audio during. So for example: you'd listen to new audio on the commute or when walking (when you can mostly focus on what you're hearing), and then re-listen to audio as review while working or scrolling tumblr and reading english (activities where you pay more attention to other things besides audio).

What can you listen to?

There's audio lessons - which would be something like ChinesePod101 (Immersive Language Chinese in the Hoopla library app), Coffee Break Chinese, youtube videos where teachers talk in english and explain chinese as they teach it. These are good for study material, because you comprehend what you're learning due to the english explanations of every word and grammar point you hear. These are good for beginners, because you will understand everything you're listening to, and learn new words and grammar, thanks to the explanations. The drawback with audio lessons is they require the most focus.

There's learner podcasts like TeaTime Chinese and Slow Chinese, these are more often ENTIRELY in chinese. So these are better for practicing comprehension of stuff you've studied elsewhere, rather than for learning new things. You can learn new words and grammar from these, but if that is your goal then re-listen to learner podcasts a decent amount (5-20 times or more until you can't guess/figure out any more word meanings).

There's audio flashcards (which I love). These are sentence audio in english, then repeated in chinese. The order may vary, the chinese may be repeated more than once. These are good for beginners and upward, because you get a translation of every single thing you hear in chinese. You can pick up new words and grammar from audio flashcards. Audio flashcards require less focus than audio lessons, because you can learn from sentences while you pay attention and then if your attention drifts you can just focus again to the next sentence you hear and continue learning. The drawback is there are no explanations for which word specifically translates to what, some translations are not literal, and there's no explanation of why the grammar is the way it is. Audio flashcards require the listener to try and guess what means what by exposure to chinese sentences and their translations. So it's harder than audio lessons in terms of explanations, but easier than learner podcasts. Audio flashcards are the best substitute for traditional flashcards or SRS apps like anki, if you're trying to improve your vocabulary by hundreds of words ASAP. Audio flashcards are dense with new vocabulary (usually 1 new word or grammar point per sentence you can learn), so you'll learn more words than you would with an audio lesson that is paced slower with more english explanations or a learner podcast which would ideally be mostly words you know and only 20% or less new words.

There's Spoonfed Chinese Anki audio files (which I recommend since these start out very basic and increase in difficulty while also repeating words a lot so you can review, they're shared on reddit if you search, or ask me), if you search 'chinese english sentences' on youtube or bilibili (i've done this with chinese japanese sentences on bilibili) you'll find videos like this where you hear audio english then audio chinese. Old glossika cd files are basically this structure as well, which you can find the audio files of for free online or free in libraries (I'm using the new glossika app for japanese but I'm hesitant to recommend the modern app courses as there's significant errors in japanese so I'm not sure how good/bad the chinese one is). If you're a beginner, then the audio flashcard material you pick won't matter much as you need to learn a few thousand common words first which will be in most materials you find. But if you're an upper beginner, you may wish to prioritize finding audio flashcards with MORE unique words, more sentences, or may want to transition to using learner podcasts more for new vocabulary. If you aren't running into at least one new word for every 5 sentences you hear in audio flashcards (and ideally one new word for Every sentence), then that audio flashcard is way too easy for you and you know enough words to move onto new study material.

Audiobooks and audio dramas - use these like learner podcasts, listen to ones you can comprehend the main idea of, and then re-listen until you can't guess/figure out any more new words. If you're not very good at listening comprehension (like me lol), then you may want to listen to a given audiobook/audio drama file 3-5 times before deciding if you can comprehend the main idea (and use the material). When my listening skills are rusty, or just in general since my listening skills are bad, it can take me a few times of listening to recognize words I 'already know' and then a few more times of listening for my brain to put the words i recognize together into 'comprehending' what was communicated. So if you can read better than you can listen, you may want to listen 3-5+ times to a new audio file before deciding if you can follow the main idea or if it's too hard. And if you can READ the audio drama transcript, chapter text, but cannot understand the audio file? Then it probably IS at a good level for you to listen to, you just need a lot more practice hearing and recognizing the words you can read. So re-listen.

All of these listening study methods are good for:

Adding more study time into your day, since you can do them while doing other things.

Learning new words and grammar, when you don't have the time (or don't want) to spend time dedicated mainly to focusing on your study material.

Learning new words and grammar, if you don't use flashcards or SRS like anki but want the benefit of learning lots 'faster' than you would if you only picked up words during active study time (active study time being when you ONLY are focusing on study activities: like reading chinese, watching cdramas, chatting/texting people, and looking up words)

Find post you want to read

Unfortunately I am not able to add new links here 🥲 Check my page to find new posts 🖇️

Study days 📚

YouTube video / Effectively reading and study notes

Prepare for study session

Basic steps to study effectively

Study tips every student should know

How to preview?

Appropriate reading and note taking strategies

What should good notes include?

the PQ4R study method

Spaced repetition

Common study problems and how to deal with them

Searching in databases tips

The Feynman technique

The power of visualization

Understanding study materials. Effective methods

Be productive ✍🏼

How to stay productive?

Apps for productivity

Creating the perfect study space

How to stay concentrated while studying?

Crafting an effective study schedule

The best time to study

Memory 🧠

Memory process and strategies

Improve your memory

Food to boost memory

Cognitive hacks for long-term retention

Mental and physical health 🧘🏻‍♀️

Signs and symptoms of burnout

What are the harmful effects of studying too much?

Apps for mental health

Antidepressant food

Herbal teas for stressful times

Essential oils for students

Will a nap make you feel better?

How to study effectively and maintain good health

Reasons to take up a hobby

Scents that stimulate brain work

antique perfume bottles. some are transparent

#LearningMandarinChinese #sstellestudiess 1

Like with any language, there are several resources and tools for those looking to learn Mandarin Chinese. I know because I’ve been there. And in this guide, I’ll set out some of the main things to know when starting your language learning journey and key resources to master Chinese grammar and vocabulary

The amazing Jaenelle, who did her thesis in Mandarin Chinese and studied in China, wrote up this post for beginners.

#reminder: its gonna be alright ❤

what’s crazy is that everything is literally going to be okay 

What are those apps you usually post in your productivity updates?

hi! here's a breakdown of apps i use, as well as websites and other resources i've used/use for my learning (mainly chinese, though some of these resources can be used for other languages as well).

apps i use every day:

dot languages: this is a chinese-specific app where you select your hsk level, and then read articles at that level. there's a pop-up dictionary, an option to show pinyin, post-article vocab practice (audio, matching, translation, and writing), and the option to have your articles either in simplified or traditional.

TOFU learn: a blend between flashcards and writing, you can find decks for various things, including hsk level-specific decks, and you learn new vocab with the stroke order and then write each new term three times—once with an overlay (so the term is visible), and then two times from memory. there's also a review function, which helps you practice terms you've already learnt, and each term has audio that goes with it. i use it for chinese, but there's decks for esperanto, french, german, italian, japanese, korean, norweigian, portuguese, russian, spanish, swedish, and turkish.

the pleco dictionary app: my favourite chinese dictionary app; allows you to translate from english to chinese or chinese to english, has options for writing, radical, vocal, and keyboard entry, and has both traditional and simplified characters.

ankiapp: this one's not particularly complicated; it's a flashcard app, where you can make your own decks or download decks other people have made. it uses a spaced repetition system to help you remember terms—you rate yourself from worst to best on how well you remembered the term, and that determines how many times it'll pop up afterwards. it also gives you an overall grade for each deck, which is a nice way to measure your progress.

duolingo: probably my least favourite of all of the apps i use; the chinese course isn't the best, and now that they've removed the notes/grammar information option, there's no way for people who aren't already fairly familiar with the language and its inner workings to learn them if they exclusively use duolingo. it's okay for maintenance practice, though, but i'm already almost finished with the entire course and i would say it barely reaches to lower hsk 4, so i wouldn't say it's a good tool if you're more advanced.

apps i have but use less often:

readibu: this is sort of like dot in that it's an app for reading in chinese with a pop-up dictionary. however, that's where the similarities end; readibu has novels, short stories, and articles aimed at children, and each of those are further split into genres. readibu also lets you add your own web-pages and read them on the app, so you can use its pop-up dictionary with them. it's aimed more to intermediate and upper intermediate learners, with hsk levels ranging from hsk 4 to hsk 6. the only reason i rate dot above readibu is because dot has a larger range of levels (hsk 1 through hsk 6 i believe? but it may go higher) and exercises built in to help you learn the vocab.

the chairman's bao: also a chinese reading app, though if you use the free version, you only get one sample article per hsk level (hsk 1 - hsk 6). i believe that every so often you get a new sample article for each level, but i'm not sure what the interval on that is. it also has a pop-up dictionary and a flashcard option for saved vocab.

du chinese: another chinese reading app; it has articles divided into newbie through master (six levels in total, though they don't line up perfectly with the hsk in my experience), and new articles are free for a certain period of time before becoming locked behind a paywall. there's a pop-up dictionary and a vocab review/test option for vocab you save.

memrise: flashcards with audio, depending on whether you're using an official course or a user-generated deck. decent, but it can get repetitive.

hellotalk: not exclusively chinese, but i believe it started off mainly aimed that way. you set your language, and then your target language, and then you can talk to native speakers who have your language as their target language. potentially incredibly useful, but if you're like me and extremely introverted you may have a hard time using this app, since it requires a lot of one-on-one interaction.

slowly: i haven't actually gotten around to using this, but it's sort of like a digital penpal app, as i understand it. you can learn more about it here.

websites and other miscellanea:

this massive mega drive by @salvadorbonaparte (languages, linguistics, translation studies, and more).

this masterpost by @loveletter2you (linguistics, languages, and language learning books/textbooks).

this masterpost on chinese minority literature by @zaobitouguang

the integrated chinese textbooks by cheng and tsui, which are the textbooks i use for self-study—there's textbooks and workbooks, as well as character workbooks (though these can easily be cut out without suffering from the loss).

mandarinbean: graded readers, hsk 1 - hsk 6, with a pop-up dictionary and the option to read in traditional or simplified

chinese reading practice: reading, beginner through advanced (three levels), with a pop-up dictionary and some additional notes included on vocab and language-specific things non-native speakers might struggle with or not know.

hsk reading: graded readers, hsk 1 - hsk 6, divided into three sections (beginner, intermediate, advanced). does not have a pop-up dictionary, but does have an option to translate the text, post-reading quizzes, and notes on important vocab with example sentences.

my chinese reading: reading from beginner to advanced (four levels); has a pop-up dictionary, the option to play an audio recording of the passage you're reading, notes on key words, things that are difficult to translate, grammar, and post-reading comprehension questions.

the heavenly path notion website, which i would say is one of the best resources i've ever found, with a massive number of guides, lists of chinese media in a variety of forms, and general resources.

chinese character stroke order dictionary: what it says on the tin; will show you the stroke order for a given character.

hanzigrids: allows you to generate your own character worksheets. i use this very frequently, and can recommend it. the only downside is if you want to create multiple pages at once, you have to pay; however this can easily be circumnavigated by creating only one sheet at a time. you can download the sheet as a pdf and print it out for personal use.

21st century chinese poety: a resource i only came across recently; has a massive collection of contemporary chinese poetry, including translations; much more approachable than classical poetry, which can often be incredibly dense and hard to parse due to the writing style.

zhongwen pop-up dictionary: if you're reading something in chinese on a website that doesn't have a pop-up dictionary, this is a must. i've never encountered any words that it doesn't have a translation for so far, including colloquialisms/slang. i use it to read webnovels, and it's been a fantastic tool. you can also save vocab by hitting the r key when you're hovering over a word/phrase, making it easy to go back and add terms to your flashcard deck(s).

chinese reading world: a website put together by the university of iowa; split into three levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced), with thirty units per level, and ten modules per unit, as well as multiple proficiency tests per level. each module is split into three parts: a pre-reading vocab quiz, the reading with a number of comprehension questions based on it, and a post-vocab reading quiz. it also rates you in relation to someone with a native proficiency based on how quickly you read and answer the comprehension questions, and how many vocab questions you get right.

jiaoyu baike: an extensive chinese-to-chinese dictionary, put out by the taiwanese ministry of education. you can find an extensive write-up on it here, by @linghxr.

social media etc: see this post by @rongzhi.

qianpian: another chinese-to-chinese dictionary; @ruhua-langblr has a write-up on it here.

this writeup on zero to hero by @meichenxi; initially aimed at chinese learning, but now has expanded greatly.

music rec's: this masterpost by @linghxr.

tv/film: youtube is a great place to find chinese tv shows and films, and they often have english subtitles. if you can't find something on there, though, you can probably find it either on iqiyi or asianvote, which have both chinese and other asian shows and films (though you'll want an adblock if you're going to use the latter). i use these a lot to watch things, and have discovered a lot of media through these, and then novels through those when i went searching to see what they were adapted from.

polylogger: a website for logging the amount of time/type of language study you do. has a wide variety of languages, and the option to follow other people. still, it's a fairly basic site.

I want to rant for a moment. Which if you're following me, I hope you are used to this lol.

This is for the people using comprehensible input to learn Chinese:

Pinyin IS NOT ENGLISH. IT IS NOT ENGLISH TRANSCRIPTION. IT HAS IT'S OWN PRONUNCIATION AND DOES NOT MATCH ENGLISH LETTERS PRONUNCIATION. (Chinese is not pronounced like English, the sounds in pinyin do not match English sounds any more than French letters/pronounciation match the sounds of English - which if you don't know, NO French is not pronounced like English). This is a pronunciation guide for how pinyin sounds and is pronounced.

Pinyin is used in Chinese elementary schools. Pinyin is learned by native speakers, and used to type on phones and computers. Or Zhuyin is learned in elementary schools in Taiwan, and used to type on phones and computers. This is a zhuyin pronunciation guide for how zhuyin sounds and is pronounced.

If you are trying to do a pure Automatic Language Growth approach to studying, pinyin is just a transcription system used for Chinese! It is okay to start reading pinyin whenever you start reading hanzi. It is NOT English translation, or English 'estimation' of pronunciation. (Not any more than the French alphabet or German alphabet is 'English' - and be so for real, I know you know German alphabet isn't pronounced like English so stop pretending Chinese pinyin is pronounced like English). Native speakers see pinyin when they're in school. In some educational materials for native speakers, you'll run into pinyin! You don't need to avoid pinyin once you have gotten to the point in ALG where you're okay with yourself reading hanzi! Once you have acquired enough language to start reading, pinyin and zhuyin are just as 'normal' for native speakers learning to read as hanzi is. You will ultimately NEED to learn pinyin or zhuyin to type.

I am not saying to read Everything with pinyin above the hanzi, once you start reading. By all means skip the pinyin as soon as you are able when reading things. Hanzi is what books are written in, and websites, and you'll need to develop the skill to read hanzi ASAP. You'll want to LOOK at pinyin when learning new words/hanzi, as you'll need to learn how to type it and what sounds match up to the pinyin, or zhuyin, writing system. So learning material like Lazy Chinese's videos that include pinyin? Useful for teaching you how the pinyin matches to sounds, and how to type the new hanzi she teaches you in each lesson.

Pinyin is just an estimate of pronunciation, just like spelling in any language (English spelling is not a perfect guide for how to pronounce English words, French spelling is not a perfect guide for how to pronounce French words, and Chinese pinyin is not a perfect guide for how to pronounce Chinese, like Japanese hiragana is just an estimation - it doesn't capture some sounds in spoken Japanese). You should listen to how actual people are pronouncing words over what pinyin says (for example, some people will say pinyin 'ng' as 'n', or 'shi' as 'si', or 'r' as 'l'). You'll still need to learn pinyin/zhuyin to type and write things digitally.

This post is because I see so many people studying Chinese through comprehensible input, thinking they need to desperately avoid pinyin. I'm sick of it. Pinyin or zhuyin are going to be NECESSARY at some point if you want to know how to type anything!

And unlike English, and French, Chinese language IS very phonetically similar to pinyin's estimates of pronunciation. (For example in English letter 'a' is not ONLY pronounced like 'cat' sometimes it's like 'ate', versus Chinese initials and finals which are quite consistent 'shi' is generally always pronounced the same as any other 'shi' if we're talking Standard Mandarin and not regional accents). If you can learn pinyin or zhuyin, you can type so many words just by hearing them! It took some practice to hear Chinese sounds correctly (obviously) but I can type most every word I have learned in Chinese in pinyin and then select the hanzi I want, just because I've heard the words. I sure couldn't fucking say that about English or French, the way words sound in English or French might not match the spelling much at all.

I'm just... really sick of the misunderstanding that pinyin is a tool for language learners, and no native speakers use pinyin. Native speakers use pinyin or zhuyin, if they're young enough to be using phones and computers. Some native speaker children use pinyin for a little while.

Native speakers also use hanzi to read in all media, and to write on paper, so learn hanzi obviously. You'll need hanzi. Don't try to avoid hanzi.

Hanzi are often phonetic, so knowing pinyin 'qing' for some hanzi with 青 in it, will help you realize how to read, look up, and type: 情 晴 清 蜻 请 青 箐 請 鯖 . Now again, like English, don't assume pronunciation is exactly like the Chinese pinyin, listen to the actual words pronounced. But it sure is a nice regular spelling for typing to pick up and learn.

As someone who learned to read, I do think it's fine and good to move right to reading hanzi directly, or hanzi while listening to matching audio, as soon as possible. You'll need to develop the skill of reading hanzi. Pinyin spelling is fairly regular, and once you get the sense of pinyin's spelling/pronunciation, you'll be able to type most hanzi in pinyin just by hearing the word's pronunciation. You can skip textbooks made for foreigners that use only pinyin for tons of pages (or whole volumes - I hate these textbooks). You can get textbooks that include hanzi from day one (probably with pinyin or zhuyin provided for brand new hanzi so you can sound out the hanzi if you don't have provided audio).

My point is: Don't avoid pinyin just because you're trying to 'learn Chinese in only Chinese.'

I mean, unless you want, in which case sure fuck yourself over and come back in 5 years and let us know how not being able to text or find anything online is going. I'm all for people doing whatever they want. It's your life. Maybe it will go so well, and you'll be able to come back and insist to learners everywhere and native speakers to stop learning pinyin as one learns to read hanzi. Maybe you'll have some awesome benefit to show us, that is acquired by avoiding pinyin. Maybe you come up with a new writing system that's more accurate and easier to write, like the Korean hangul writing system, and it replaces pinyin, zhuyin, and hanzi worldwide.