No, not disciplined, just ADHD. And, itās summer, so there isnāt a specific schedule. Iāve been to one summer camp with my daughter already, and between preparing for another camp, another two weeks outside of the state, preparing for school to start, and cleaning the house, I just do what I can when I can.
Spanish is a part of daily life because we live in a bilingual household. I might spend less than 10 minutes a day on Duo to practice grammar and read a story.
Chinese is on in the background when Iām doing things, but because I havenāt practiced characters consistently, Iāve forgotten many of the ones I learned. I only knew less than 200 anyway. I watch cdramas in the evening when my husband is watching his shows (in Spanish). I practice characters on Skritter, but not daily like I used to. Yoyo Chinese and Mandarin Blueprint are programs I use to learn. I also like the Flexi classes. How much time I spend on it depends on how I feel that day and how much time I have.
German is also daily, but itās just on Duo right now because my textbooks are packed. It might be 10 minutes, or it might be an hour. Yesterday while waiting for my car to get checked, I spent about 35 minutes practicing.
Everything else, I just do when I feel like it or I have time. They are not priorities. I like how languages sound, and my goal isnāt to fluency for all the languages. I want writing fluency in Spanish (Iām already fluent verbally), and conversational fluency in Chinese and German, and be able to read both. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
Since this last post I move to Taipei. Living there I have the chance to hear Mandarin spoken all around me and grasp each and every occasion to speak, for example with my neighbours or taxi drivers (my favourite ppl to practice!!).
So, even though I havenāt started learning Mandarin seriously, I am comfortable again in speaking the language, try to hold conversation and making mistakes! Slow progress is still progress
Iām not sure Iām quite there yet, but I feel much more comfortable on the listening part for sure! Still need a lot of practice but, as @Marine said, slow progress is still progress!
Coming back to this comment that I made earlier, I can definitely say that 2 hours a week, having a dedicated tutor definitely has helped me a lot.
I am in Czech right now as we speak and just blurting those half baked sentences out there is already giving me compliments that how I can help others understand what I am trying to say. (I am sure they are laughing a lot in between but thatās the fun of learning a new language)
Excited to see what we all notice on this journey in the next 6 months
@Marine@Max@Ottavia-Mandarin_Simplified_HS I loved it a lot! Spent a whole month there and went to many places - Taipei, Tainan, Sun Moon Lake, Zhang Mei Amaās farm with capybaras, Houtong cat village, Shifen, Yehliuā¦ At first I was quite nervous about speaking Mandarin, but soon I realized I could manage to have conversations - people actually understood me! They were super nice and excited about it too I found the accent pretty easy to understand, a lot easier than some others Iāve heard.
Also, big thumbs up for all the cheap food!
So many places do you have a favourite youād like to visit again if you could?
Regarding the accent, itās the other way around for me, the Beijing one was easier but after a few months in Taipei I got used to it, and donāt think I could go back to the BJ accent
At the outset of 2024, my language goals included:
work through volume 4 of New Practical Chinese Reader with Wang Laoshi, whom I stayed with last October (LingoInnās homestay with teachers).
continue weekly Zoom language exchange with Rui, whom I found on Tandem. We had weekly Zoom chats in 2023, and I met her in Hangzhou.
continue working through HSK vocabulary lists in Hackchinese
study Advanced Writing and Social Reading units at uni
watch Cdramas without English captions
How things turned outā¦
In February, I lost my job and had to cancel Chinese and violin lessons. So I didnāt work through the textbook and only interacted with Wang Laoshi a few times on Wechat this year.
Rui moved to Groeningen for postgraduate research, and I developed insomnia, so that our time differences made Zoom in the evening too difficult for me as I was too fatigued by then. However, about two months ago, our weekly Zoom meetings started again and now we are a mini book club, sharing reviews with each other using Powerpoint.
Continue working through HSK words lists in Hackchinese: this has gone okay, apart from a two month lag in winter (August-Sept), where I was fighting to get a backlog of about 1000 flashcards down. Getting close to 6000 words and currently about 66% through HSK 6.0 (old). Itās really a battle every day to keep on top, as I have to spend at least 40 minutes a day with so many words to review. To be more efficient, I review my flashcards while on the elliptical machine each morning.
Owing to the insomnia, I reduced my study load, but because the units have prerequisites and are only offered once per year, I couldnāt do any Chinese units at uni this year.
Watch Cdramas without English captions. This sometimes happened. Iād use Chinese captions instead, reading them aloud simultaneously with the actors. Even if I had the English captions on, Iād often repeat phrases and sentences in Chinese when I heard something. Pretty regularly, Iāve said to my partner, āHey, I just learnt that word!ā Itās cool when that happens.
Although itās been a tough year, with most of my study on my own rather than in any organised academic institution, I definitely made progress. Unexpected advances, for instance, included writing a song in Chinese, practising Chinese calligraphy by using pre-printed scrolls of classic works, exploring Chinese å¤ē“ music and also porcelain, and buying stacks of new interesting Chinese books. My reading is noticeably better. Also, Iāve started lessons at LTL again, so thatās cool. I am hoping to make a å at the pottery club next year. I get lots of emails too, either directly language-oriented, or tied through music, politics, and whatnot, so there are lots of opportunities to keep developing.
Uni: take Advanced Writing, Social Reading, and if Iām lucky, the in-country learning unit in Xiāan. I have the textbooks ready, so I just have to add all the vocab into Hackchinese.
Zoom chats with Rui: keep going with these, and hopefully meet up again in China when her masters is over.
LTL classes: work through HSK 5.0 and 6.0 lessons. This is really about guided language practice: taking the lessons as themes and practising grammar and vocab.
Hackchinese: I normally get through about 1600-2000 words annually, so with about 1900 left of HSK 6.0, I should begin the HSK 7 range later in 2025.
Iād really love to subscribe to Pierreās grammar gems newsletters, Andrewās Slow Mandarin (or whatever itās now called), and DaShu, but I have to have time and money for these. Their breakdown of news stories was really helpful.
Make my own å or a series of them.
Get better acquainted with å¤ē“. I am hoping to be able to buy one when next visiting China, but I will have to find out how one can transport it as cabin baggage (itās definitely oversized). I heard someone protesting quite adamantly that as intangible cultural heritage, reducing all barriers to the import of these instruments was crucial for good international relationsā¦ I think it worked! Thereās a Chinese School of Music and Arts in my state city, but itās five hoursā drive away. They do sell å¤ē“ and have teachers, so that may be a good resource.
These are all really great goals! Itās good to start planning in advance so we know what we want for the following year.
In my opinion, having a set of goals is good but we shouldnāt be too harsh on ourselves if we donāt accomplish them all or if we change our priorities during the year. Life is so unpredictable that sometimes our goals need to be changed according to what life has decided for us in that particular moment.
Personally Iād give myself a 4. Poor year all in all, no excuses.
Chinese - at least I can say Iāve maintained my level. Iāve developed quite a few language exchange partners in the UK and always speak it when coming back to Asia so Iāve had exposure, just learned little new.
Italian - little progress, but I have signed up to a new course which I am following so that gives me some accountability.
Korean - kick started, but very slow thus far. I can read Hangul fairly comfortably now and understand some basics.
Japanese - nothing, regressed.
Maybe a 4 was harsh actually! Iāll say 5/10.
Next year Iām hoping to push on Korean and Italian
However, Iām proud of the fact that I started taking Chinese classes again at the end of the year for 3 months. I really need to keep doing them cause I started to see some solid progress!
I also would like to bring my Spanish back, I used very good at it in high school but now Iām rusty cause I havenāt had the chance to practice it with nobody for so long.
Itās either I come back to study French/ Germany because I spent some times before studying them but I forgot all of them now hahaa and now I have friends who speak these languages so itās gonna be soooo cool to talk to them too.
OR I will start to study Mandarin because everyone around me know how to and I dont want to feel fomo
And, itās summer, so there isnāt a specific schedule. Iāve been to one summer camp with my daughter already, and between preparing for another camp, another two weeks outside of the state, preparing for school to start, and cleaning the house, I just do what I can when I can.
