Whats your biggest mistake when learning Chinese?

[Johnny20270]

@ French

 

I am having a similar problem. My class are throwing 70+ words a week at us. I spend too long rote memorizing. After a few months it starts to become a real chore. Too many (for me) to be honest.

 

I'd prefer of they reduce the word count and we concentrate on grammer and patterns. I spend too long reading going "and whats this word again". Makes the reading very disruptive

[uni419]

Not doing more research on where to do my year abroad. 

 

Got awarded a Boren Scholarship for 20k and ended up proposing to go to CET Beijing for Fall and CET Harbin for Spring. Total cost with living expenses about 32k, so 12k in the hole.

 

Was all based on the mistaken belief these schools offered the most rigorous Chinese classes you could find. 

 

After arriving in China, hear about IUP and ICLP for the first time, and realize they're both head and shoulders above CET (and if I'd went with ICLP could've qualified for the HES which would've granted me an extra ~$850 a month for living expenses and such). 

 

Have been kicking myself for a while over that one. 

[Diana82]

Mine was not interacting enough with native speakers.  I spent a year in Taiwan studying Chinese, but aside from my Chinese teachers and people I'd encounter while out and about, I didn't really have that much interaction with the native Taiwanese or befriend any of them.  Most of my friends were European or Japanese and were my fellow students at my Chinese language study program.

 

If I could do it all over again, I would rent a room from a Taiwanese family so that I'd have practice speaking Chinese in a natural setting and have more of a "homey" experience.  I would also find more opportunities to meet and befriend Taiwanese people, not just to use them for language practice but to cultivate genuine relationships with the locals and get to know their culture (and teach them about mine).  There's nothing more motivating for language learning than falling in love with the culture and its people!

[abcdefg]

There's nothing more motivating for language learning than falling in love with the culture and its people!

 

I agree with that!