How to learn Chinese

[zhouhaochen]

So I created a list of "ten tips how to study Chinese" tips to give to beginner Mandarin students when they come to China to learn Chinese. The "how to" tips are all very much based on my experience. I think this is always subjective to a certain extend, but if anyone has any feedback on points they disagree with or an essential point they would like to add - I am very open for suggestions, feedback or (constructive) criticism

That's how I studied (or wish I would have studied) - however that was in a time before smart phone apps. I like Pleco, but besides that do not need anymore today and back when I was a beginner, this stuff just didnt exist (makes me feel pretty old...).

[muyongshi]

I think your list covers a lot of the general things that I feel as well. 

 

I personally would add some addendums to a few. For example, under "Don't speak English" I would add not to watch English TV Shows/Movies, etc (or on a very limited basis). It is easy to "relax" to your native tongue, but I don't think it is overly beneficial to a beginner-or even an advanced student for that matter.

 

Another one that is a big one to me is using your auroral memory rather than your visual memory of pinyin. This was discussed just recently and to me falls under your first point-learn tones from the beginning. If you memorize each word and its pronunciation by auroral memory, there is no separation of the tone from the "word". When we teach pinyin and tones separately as is often done, we cripple the learner to believing that they have learnt a word when in reality they have only learned half of the word.
 

I'm sure there will be a lot of other input too, but I think you hit a lot of essentials.

[zhouhaochen]

thanks. I ran it past some of my colleagues at LTL who are fluent speakers and in the end there was general agreement with the idea, which is why I put them up.

I like the point with the movies - I find the internet actually just as dangerous. We put students into Chinese homestays, a Chinese language environment and then they spend four hours in front of their computer reading/writing in English, which is not good. I suggest watchig Chinese soap operas to our student usually. They are quite easy to understand and some of them are pretty good fun.

[abcdefg]

8. Look up characters when you see them. Whenever you see a character, it is a chance to learn one. China is full of characters, most of which you will not know. Use your dictionary to look them up.

 

Agree. When I look up new words while out and about, I use the Pleco dictionary app on my smartphone. Then I add them to a flashcard list if they are high frequency items or ones I think I would find useful even if they're not high frequency. I go through these new flashcards a couple times a week until they stick.

[roddy]

I'm dubious about the move your head thing. It's a common tip, but it's not always easy to stop. If some kind of physical hook is required I might be inclined to go for more subtle movements of the fingers. 

[lechuan]

i'd say no as well to the move your head thing. If you're training your body to connect a physical movement to a tone, it's hard to decouple them later on, or you'll have trouble making the tone when you're not moving your head. I had statred to move my eyebrows to match the tones I was making, and it took me a few months of deliberate practice to get rid of this bad habit.

You can just as easily try to visualize the tone in your head when you say it.

Rest of the list is very useful.

[sparrow]

Here's something I wrote in another thread:

 

For you in particular, Engage the Body to aid concentration.

• Studying while pacing or standing.
• Chew gum or eat low-calorie finger foods while studying. Buy tons of celery or sheets of seaweed to munch on.
• Practice characters with your finger (or by pen/pencil).

Vocabulary

• Use a frequency dictionary for most of your vocab. Routledge makes great ones—in my opinion, it's worth getting it shipped to you if you're currently abroad.
• Never spend more than 5–10 minutes studying NEW vocabulary at a time. If you want to practice a word, write it one to three times, depending on how well you know the characters already, then move on. If you think that's not enough time, I got through a list of 48 words in under 10 minutes today, writing each word one to three times.
• Spend 15–30 minutes studying vocabulary each day. That translates to 3–6 sessions of 5–10 minutes each. You should remember vocab very easily with so much review spread throughout the day, and with little risk of fatigue due to the short sessions.
• Always keep a bunch of vocab with you that you can review while in class, standing in line, etc.

Listening & Speaking

• Find a good comedy sitcom (I recommend 家有儿女 for beginners (credit to imron) and 爱情公寓 for intermediate to advanced). Record 5 minutes of it as an mp3, put it on your phone, and listen to it constantly. Record a new segment every few days. Comedy sitcoms are good because there is constant dialogue and they discuss common situations (banter, travel, ordering, arguing, buying, markets, movies, banking, money, business, romance, and so on).
• And yes, as a beginner, you should do this.
• While listening, try to shadow the dialogue, meaning repeat the dialogue as the characters say it. This will help your speaking.
• Make friends and talk with people.
• Get a private tutor or a language exchange partner (free) and do 30 minutes of English, 30 minutes of Chinese.

Reading

• Beginners to Advanced: Find newspaper articles or a book that seems interesting. Read through it very slowly. Take it one or three sentences at a time and underline what you don't understand, then look up all the words. Write them down in a notebook with their definitions. Try to do all this quickly—you are not doing this to memorize them later, but to expose yourself to the language. Don't spend too much time—5–30 minute sessions including looking stuff up. Yes, if you are just beginning Chinese and know two characters, you should still do this every day—it will pay off immensely because you are exposing yourself to real material. Read about Kató Lomb for more information.
• Of course, for beginners, you will first need to know the basics, namely pinyin.
• Remember, you're getting most of your vocabulary from the frequency dictionary! If you haven't encountered the word in there yet, it's not very important.

Using a Tutor or Language Exchange Partner

• Find random pictures of stuff online and bring them with you. Practice describing what is happening in the picture, where things are located, and so on. This is harder than it sounds for beginners and advanced beginners.
• Bring an article you've read and paraphrase it. Don't spend more than 20 minutes preparing this each day.
• Describe scenes from the sitcom you're watching.
• Practice reading and getting your pronunciation corrected.
• Bring a grammar workbook and do the exercises together, or do them by yourself and bring them in to be corrected.