How much time do you spend studying? How much time to you spend on forums?

[WoAiJolinTsai]

The reason I ask is because I see so many people here and on the Chinesepod.com forums posting long messages every single day about how to study better, etc. Wouldn't your time be better used studying?

[Toffeeliz]

sorry Mum, I'll go straight to my books right now!

The forum is where people get together to exchange their ideas and to do what language was intended for; communication. This is as important as sitting down and practicsing charcaters and memorising sentence structures because you are putting them into use.

[kudra]

Wouldn't your time be better used studying?

yes, or getting a good night's sleep before class the next day, but don't tell roddy.

let me just check the new posts ...

[roddy]

I don't know - can make a more constructive break from studying than just watching TV I guess. Plus, if you can spend an hour on here and find out about something that saves you ten hours . . .

[johnmck]

I have wondered about this myself. I find reading this forum to be a very good distraction from revising the long list of words I need to learn each week.

Saying that, learning Chinese can be a slow and lonely exercise (I do not know anyone else who is studying the language). This forum is invaluable for keeping my motivation up.

[heifeng]

I probably study and hour plus everyday on the bus, and then take 2 hours of classes a day, and then translate or other random work or find something else to do the rest of the day while I am pingponging around different offices, meanwhile if I am near a computer I stay logged onto Chinese-forums and comment if I see something interesting. Then I go home to study or watch tv or see how many of my goldfish are belly up. It's a very thrilling life. So what where you saying about studying again? Anyway, I know very few foreigners studying Chinese personally so I just add what I have learned or think is useful here and see what others with similar interests have written.

[HashiriKata]

Saying that, learning Chinese can be a slow and lonely exercise (I do not know anyone else who is studying the language). This forum is invaluable for keeping my motivation up.

This (quote) is also what I would say. The forum is a great place (especially) for those who learn the language by themselves.

I noticed that many members are active for some time and then just disappearing and never seen again. I hope that they have indeed found something more worthwhile to do, rather than just given up. A formula that seems to work for me and keep me going so far is to help others in order to help myself.

many people here and on the Chinesepod.com forums posting long messages every single day about how to study better, etc. Wouldn't your time be better used studying?

I do consciously try to avoid writing long posts or getting into "theoretical" discussions, but must admit that I sometimes check the forums a bit too often when I've got something else that I don't want to do.

[Luobot]

There’s a treasure of information here, and the extra stimulation and motivation makes a real difference in keeping at it for the long haul. I’m really grateful that this site exists and that it brings together a community of people willing to share ideas and help out others. Oh, and it’s also fun.