How do I regain my confidence regarding Chinese?

[moderntime]

I think I'm rapidly hitting a plateau in terms of my studies. I'm in what my school calls the intermediate transitioning to advanced level, and I have been studying for nearly a year now. Ironically, after all this time, my confidence regarding my Chinese is lower than it was before I started. No doubt that a big part of this is because I failed one of my four midterms, the general Chinese one although all my other midterms were fine. I have never failed an exam before, so it has affected me rather badly.

At any rate, ever since then, it has just not been the same. Lately it seems that I can't get out even a simple sentence without stuttering over what I need to say. Whereas just a few weeks ago I could literally have a two hour conversation on topics like gardening and worm composting (these are my oddball hobbies) or chat with a native speaker for over an hour at a party, these days I can barely order jiachangcai.

It is so demoralizing and frustrating that I find it difficult to even make it to class, which, of course, defeats the purpose. I feel as though my goal of being fluent will never be achieved. Have you been in this position? If so, how did you overcome it? I would really appreciate any advice you have.

[abcdefg]

Nobody is perfect. Cut yourself some slack. Take a deep breath and regroup. Be kind to yourself.

[sunnysummer]

Don't worry about that too much

i am a chinese who is also learning other languange

i know it can be frustrating sometimes learning a second language

recently i met a janpanese who is also learning chinese

he was also under great pressure and seemed in the same situation as yours

but i really think his chinese is good and was amazed at the sentences he made

so sometimes you may not be confident just because you have set a level too high to achieve in a short time

after all ,when we learn a foreign language ,we are not trying to be a native speaker, we just try to communicate, if we can understand each other ,that's ok.

when it comes tests,i should say , never take them too important, in a long run , to achieve your purpose of learning chinese is the most important.

you don't think you haven't done your best, but in others' eyes ,you may have already been so excellent~

so , don't afraid of failure itself, all that we should be afraid of is afraid itself

[renzhe]

You've burnt out, and Chinese often turns out to be more work than people expect.

Such a low point is a normal thing when you invest a lot of work into something and don't see the expected results.

You need to loosen your workload to a manageable level and stick with it, you'll rediscover your fire soon enough, and you'll see that you're not as bad as you thought.

[stoney]

"I'm in what my school calls the intermediate transitioning to advanced level, and I have been studying for nearly a year now."

chat with a native speaker for over an hour at a party

You gotta be kidding??? If you can reach this level in one year you are one of the chosen few, a veritable language god, and you don't realize how fortunate you are.

I'll be happy if I can get there in 5 years.

Don't get discouraged, you're only human!

[renzhe]

I could literally have a two hour conversation on topics like gardening and worm composting (these are my oddball hobbies) or chat with a native speaker for over an hour at a party

Seriously, sounds like you should just find enjoyable things to do in Chinese and improve your language like that. Your level should be sufficient based on your description.

Watch movies, interesting TV-series, read books, magazines, anything that's interesting and that you'd be doing anyway, only do it in Chinese.

Studying is boring. If you find a good book or a great TV show, then it's fun, and it's possibly the best learning you can do.

[moderntime]

Thanks for the comments and encouragement, I was feeling quite down about this and I truly appreciate the perspective offered by this thread.

Thanks to this forum I've been regularly reading Ranma 1/2, which is both entertaining and useful for reinforcement.

Also, I'm hardly a language goddess, if you count all the years I suffered through Chinese class as a kid, I've been studying Chinese for nearly as long as Chinese students have been studying English. I've been studying on-and-off for quite a while now, and it's only now that I'm doing hardcore, formal university study.