Listening Focus as Priority?

[Breaknet]

If I can give my two-cents, I would say that memorizing textbooks sentences is also a helpful way to learn some ''tricks''.

Let me be clear: spending hours memorizing academic-level stuff is nonsensical. However, due to the fact that Chinese is a sino-tibetan language, it makes the whole thing so alien to us Indo-european language speakers. Therefore, memorizing some parts of the language makes it easier to recognize it on the streets or with your language partner. Of course, the main purpose of this exercice is to force you to go out and spend time with native speakers: if you pull out your tricks correctly (coherently?), you will see an instant positive feedback.

[fabiothebest]

Yes listening is definitely important and Chinese has tones and some sounds seem similar especially for beginners, but once you have the confidence of being able to recognize the sound and the tone, then you can learn new words faster by speaking to someone or watching tv. Unfortunately unless the word is made of characters that you know already, you can imagine them and they make instantly sense together for you, you don't know completely the word until you look it up on the dictionary and see the characters. Imagine you are having a conversation with a Chinese person and every time you don't know a word say: wait a sec, let me search the word on Pleco, it'd be funny isn't it? but it's pretty common anyway..or you can look it up later (if you still remember it)..then sometimes you look it up but then if you don't write it down you forget it unless you study it or use it multiple times.   Sometimes you can infer the meaning of a sentence even if you don't know all the words. Sometimes the only word you don't know is so important for understanding the topic that you can't guess the general meaning of the sentence either.  It isn't easy, it's a slow process, but perseverance is everything. Regular study and review can lead to a better progress than studying like crazy and then stop studying for some time and start studying again (which I also did in the past and I'm sure I'm in good company). I'm trying to study everyday, I hope it will last. These days I also started using a Pomodoro app for keeping focused. The default time is 25 minutes of focus (you can change it) for studying without doing anything else, then it gives a sound alert and you can have a break and then have another study session. I don't use it for everything but it can be useful. 

[rn1rnl]

4 hours ago, Breaknet said:

I would say that memorizing textbooks sentences is also a helpful way to learn some ''tricks''.

I agree! If you memorize vocab single only, then you will speak the same way. Everything I can say was due to memorizing sentences. My issue is knowing what sentences to memorize! Its like do i need to know how to say " I don't like black shoes or brown shows?" How do you determine which sentences would you use?

 

4 hours ago, fabiothebest said:

regular study and review can lead to a better progress than studying like crazy and then stop studying for some time and start studying again (which I also did in the past and I'm sure I'm in good company). I'm trying to study everyday, I hope it will last. These days I also started using a Pomodoro app for keeping focused. The default time is 25 minutes of focus

I have found what you said to be the holy grail of language studying. I have studied the past 12 days with skipping one day. Granted its only been for 30 mins per day with flashcard reviews. I am trying to boost it up to 60 minutes a day. But this is hard for me to do. I get insanely bored listening to my textbook audio once past 30 or so minutes. Today I ended up stopping at 45 minutes cause I was so bored. I also use the pomodora technique of 25 mins. Theres something psychological about stopping at 25 minutes and not 30 minutes.. Any tips is appreciated! I don't want to hop from material to material.

[Flickserve]

2 hours ago, rn1rnl said:

I don't want to hop from material to material.

 

This is exactly what I happen to do!

 

I get bored of the using the same materials and end up trying different things. Or,  despite the advice of studying regularly, taking a break. Luckily, I seem to be able to come back to studying. 

 

I have added listening to sentences about 50 times and mimicking. Tried a few Italki sessions last few days. I might be dreaming but I seem to feel some improvement. 

[imron]

7 hours ago, rn1rnl said:

I am trying to boost it up to 60 minutes a day. But this is hard for me to do.

Don't do it if it is hard for you to achieve every day.  The last thing you want to do is introduce an incentive for you to have a break for a day, because that day will turn in to 2 days, and then a week and then a month and then you haven't done any studying for several months and your Chinese has gone to pieces.

 

Keep things at a level that you can easily maintain day-in day-out, regardless of everything else you have going on in your life.  If you still have an extra 30 mins to spare and are sick of listening, switch to something else.  Also, use the 5 minute break at the end of your pomodoro session to do something physical - pushups, star jumps, skipping rope anything that doesn't require your brain and that gets your blood pumping.  It'll reset your brain for the next session.

 

The important thing is not how much time you spend studying every day, but rather how many continuous days you can study.