A podcast discussion about how 3 foreigners got to a high level of Chinese

[lukey296]

My two good friends Phil and Scott run a podcast that's building a strong following in China, with rotating Chinese and English podcasts weekly. As me and Phil have just taken the HSK 6 test, the latest episode is a discussion about how we came to learn Chinese and share our thoughts and experiences and some do's and don'ts of the process. 

 

I think there's a lot here for beginners and Chinese students in general, covering a wide range of topics, including:

 

The importance of and quickest methods for learning Chinese characters

Our successes, along with our biggest failures, and how we could have avoided them

Keeping a good mindset when learning

Misconceptions about Chinese learning

 

 

We've been helped a lot from the Chinese-forums community, and would really like to know what the users here think. 

 

Click here to listen, Enjoy!

 

Warning: All of this is unscripted and unedited so apologies for any non-sequiturs or off-tangent ramblings!

[qc418]

Awesome! I teach Mandarin in California, so I'll definitely pass this along to my students.

 

Do you discuss other topics (culture, current events, etc.), or is it exclusively focused on language acquisition?

[lukey296]

Thanks, we'd love that, and please let me know how that goes.

 

I just changed the link to send you to their whole podcast series, in case you or anyone else wants to listen to their other episodes. They talk about a lot of aspects about Chinese culture and being a foreigner in China. They also have Chinese guests that come on for the Chinese episodes, who are always interesting in some way or another.

[Mr John]

I have listened to a few episodes.

 

I thought the one on feminism with a native speaker as a guest was fairly interesting; although a lot of the time the discussion didn't get beyond broad generalisations.

 

On another note, there's also a fairly big difference between the two main hosts in terms of their pronunciation and range of expression. Probably not the best material to mimic, but still good for reinforcing vocabulary.

 

Despite the above qualifications, I think it's cool that they do whole podcasts in Mandarin.

 

If only Sinica would do some shows entirely in Mandarin as well, I'd be a happy man.

[lukey296]

Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for listening!

[Milkybar_Kid]

Good podcast. Don't forget to update us in a month's time to let us know if they actually passed the test after all of their efforts.

[Chris Two Times]

lukey296,

 

Many thanks for posting this and bringing this to our attention--it looks really good. I am interested and I plan to listen to this latest episode this evening.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[lukey296]

Cheers guys, will see about doing another one to talk about the results.

 

Chris, I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think.

[ChTTay]

Is there an easy way to get this on my phone? I can't really be doing with downloading to my laptop, transferring etc etc

[xuexiansheng]

@ChTTay- just use whatever app you use to listen to podcasts to search for '第三眼' and it should pop right up. Or, go to the website and scroll down to under the 'followers' and you should see a quick link to apple store or google play.

 

I've listened to the first three and really enjoyed them. I'm jealous of the English guy's 口語水平, it was interesting to listen to each of their background stories and I'll definitely be working my way through them.

[ChTTay]

Thanks. I am not sure why I couldn't find it in apple podcasts. I did have a listen on their podcast website .. I've only listened to one but I'm not sure it's my cup of tea. I'll put some more on my phone and listen on my commute.

[lukey296]

Hey guys, me and Phil both passed the HSK 6!

 

Phil did it by 1 point and my score wasn't much better (193/300), but we did it. Considering we both only studied for around 2 years, we feel really good about it. Thanks for taking interest in the podcast and I hope this encourages anyone who's thinking about doing the HSK someday that it's possible as long as you have a regular study schedule and follow the great advice packed within this website. 

 

Cheers,

 

Luke

[xuexiansheng]

@lukey269 - Congrats on the HSK 6!

[laowhiner]

There are a lot of interesting data points on learning Chinese now. 

 

One guy learned Chinese for 3 - 4 months and passed HSK4 at the end: http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2014/02/13/plan-chinese-3-months/ (his thread: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/43765-another-blogger-setting-out-to-learn-chinese-in-3-months/)

 

Another obtained HSK 6 after a mere 6 months of very intense study (she had already studied Japanese, though): http://rubyronin.com/how-i-became-fluent-in-mandarin-in-6-months/ (she has a thread somewhere on these forums too, but I am too lazy to find it now). 

 

Tamu's legendary thread where he, I believe, obtained HSK5 after around 4 months of independent study: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/43939-independent-chinese-study-review/

 

There's also OneEye's saga of learning Chinese in Taiwan -- beginner to proficient in around two years with an academic focus (http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/35962-mandarin-training-center-national-taiwan-normal-university/)

 

And now you guys -- zero to HSK 6 in two to three years. There are many more, of course, but these are the ones I have in mind or on hand (aka my evernote page with inspirational links). It goes to show that if you have the right tools as well as the motivation and time, you can achieve good results in a (relatively) short timespan. Well done! 

[lukey296]

Thanks guys. There's just so much great information and resources online now that it's becoming quicker and easier for people to get good at Chinese fast. Chinese-forums is still the best for me though

[renzhe]

Congrats!

[Milkybar_Kid]

 

There are a lot of interesting data points on learning Chinese now. 

 

One guy learned Chinese for 3 - 4 months and passed HSK4 at the end: http://www.scotthyou...inese-3-months/ (his thread: http://www.chinese-f...e-in-3-months/)

 

Another obtained HSK 6 after a mere 6 months of very intense study (she had already studied Japanese, though): http://rubyronin.com...in-in-6-months/ (she has a thread somewhere on these forums too, but I am too lazy to find it now). 

 

Tamu's legendary thread where he, I believe, obtained HSK5 after around 4 months of independent study: http://www.chinese-f...e-study-review/

 

There's also OneEye's saga of learning Chinese in Taiwan -- beginner to proficient in around two years with an academic focus (http://www.chinese-f...mal-university/)

 

And now you guys -- zero to HSK 6 in two to three years. There are many more, of course, but these are the ones I have in mind or on hand (aka my evernote page with inspirational links). It goes to show that if you have the right tools as well as the motivation and time, you can achieve good results in a (relatively) short timespan. Well done!

 

There are some incredible stories out there about becoming fluent in three months etc, however for the vast majority of students—myself included—it just doesn't work like that.

 

I have been living, working and studying in Taiwan for over five years. Although I've never enrolled on a Chinese course, I've been passionate about learning the language on my own. I would love to be a 全職考生, however I have a wife, baby and a mortgage to look after. Teaching English for a living doesn't help with Chinese language acquisition either.

 

I'm now at the stage where a basic newspaper (The Apple Daily) is within my comfort zone, and I make sure that I read regularly. Despite this, advanced-level Chinese language tests are still way out of my reach. How can it be that someone can pass the hardest level of the HSK without doing much in-depth reading (see post above), and yet another person (i.e. me) can comfortably read a newspaper but can't pass the test. Perhaps it's all down to a poor test-taking strategy? Perhaps repeated practice tests would help me to lift my score? Perhaps it doesn't really matter anyway as the test isn't a true measure of Chinese proficiency? Either way, not everyone can go from zero to hero within two years (despite wanting that shiny certificate to hang on their wall).

[laowhiner]

 

Milkybar_Kid - I agree that those aren't examples of what your average 週 could hope to accomplish. For most of those examples, the people were highly motivated and studying full time, in some cases at language schools. Obviously, studying several hours a day in class, several hours as day on your own, and then living the language full time is a huge advantage over someone in your position.  As well, several of them studied with the HSK or TOCFL in mind, which would have had a large impact on their scores (this is the case with all tests in all subject areas -- if you want to do better on a test, study for it). However, I think that beyond time and intensity, these people used methods that others may find useful, which is partially why I made that post. 

 

Tests are valuable for several reasons (they're an extrinsic source of motivation, they provide an objective quantification of your learning, they show you areas where you may need to focus more attention, and they give you a pretty certificate to show off), but I agree with you that they are not a true measure of proficiency, at least not wholly. However, like the LSAT, MCAT, GMAT, etc. they are a standard we can compare ourselves to, and they likely correlate strongly with Chinese ability (I've read the occasional story about people getting HSK6 despite having horrible oral skills, but that speaks to the nature of the HSK, a test that has no scored spoken component -- I don't think that result is typical). They're also good at weeding out imposters or those whose self-assessed abilities are incorrect (notice how Benny Lewis didn't bother taking the TOFCL, yet continues to claim he reached a B1/B2 level in Chinese?). 

[imron]

For most of those examples, the people were highly motivated and studying full time, in some cases at language schools

Not to impinge on OneEye's learning success, but I'm not sure it's fair to say he was a beginner when he started learning Chinese in Taiwan.  He'd definitely been active on the forums for several *years* before that, so he might not be an accurate example of what a complete beginner can do in the same time.

[laowhiner]

Yeah, IIRC, he had gone through at least two Integrated Chinese textbooks before going to Taiwan, so he wasn't a complete beginner.