#learn chinese
Happy New Years, everyone!!!! I can’t thank you guys enough for your support since starting my new blog. There have been some hiccups along the way, but I’m learning and always growing thanks to you all! One of my resolutions this year is to be more transparent with you guys and really let you into my world and into my mind more, no matter how crazy it is! I have an insane mind but it’s full of ideas and tips for you, so I’m going to try to open it up to you guys more. I hope that you all had a good New Years! Look out for the masterlist of language learning blogs and Tumblrs! I’ll be posting it soon!
Source:https://lilidoescriticallanguages.com/2018/12/13/two-ways-to-track-your-language-learning-progress/
Unfortunately for language students, language learning is not at all straight forward or linear. In fact, there is very little in your language journey that you share with another language learner. Yes, you could both be learning Spanish, but your language study processes could be drastically different. In addition, when you first start learning, there’s a lot of grey area around what is the best material for you, how long you should be studying per day, how much material to learn, and what goals to set. You may have bought a fancy new language learning planner and have no idea what to put in it! It can be so overwhelming that it can drive away self-learners within weeks or days!
Never fear! I’m not here to scare you (because I ain’t good at it). Instead, i’m here to learn how to learn Korean, Spanish, French, Italian, etc as efficiently as possible and provide study tips for you!
Why should you create language learning goals?
- There is no teacher, so you need to decide what you want to learn and by when
- Keeps you organized
- Keeps you motivated
- Helps you tell whether or not you are improving
- Helps you become more efficient with your time
- You’ll learn faster
You MUST set goals as a self-study language learner. Period. How to do so however, can be the struggle. So here I lay out two major ways to track your language learning to insure faster progress! Here we goooo!!
If you’re looking for a new way to study Chinese, here’s a method that I have used to learn Chinese or any other language quickly and effectively. If you’re self-studying or self-learning languages, using tv shows to learn languages is a fun way to learn natural language in an enjoyable way. I’m going to start giving you guys tv show episodes and providing the transcript in the native language to help you in your studies!! The instructions are down below. Simply follow the instructions, watch and learn Chinese!
If you have recommendations for shows you’d like me to do next, leave them in the comments!
Watch and Learn Instructions: Please Read
Intermediate to Advanced: Watch first ten minutes without stopping (without English subtitles). If you are able to understand at least 50%, then re-watch the first ten minutes without English subtitles and only use the Chinese subtitles while looking up any words you do not know.
Beginner to Lower Intermediate: Watch the first ten minutes without stopping (without English subtitles). If you are unable to understand 50%, re-learn the first ten minutes with English subtitles so that the learning process goes a little faster.Look up and write down any and all words you don’t know.
Note: Hello, language learners! Just want to first apologize for a very late post! A lot has been going on since my move from China and it has been a doozy. Excuses aside, here is a fresh of the press post for your language learning needs.
Grammar Is a Nightmare
Grammar is always a nightmare for language learners. It doesn’t matter what language you’re learning, grammar is simply not always a basket of roses. It’s actually never a bucket of roses and the sooner you accept that,the better whole language learning process will go. Why is grammar such a nightmare for those of you who are bright eyed bushy tailed and new to language learning? Here’s a list:
- Because there are ‘rules’ to grammar, but there are ALWAYS exceptions.
- Sometimes the grammar itself makes no sense at all when explained in your native language
- You often forget them right after
- They may have specific usages that you must know of in order to avoid sounding like a plebe
- There are a million and get more and more complex as you progress
What Is Grammar
Stop your scrolling! This is important!! I’m not going to explain the complex intricacies of the concept of grammar or even try to simplify it because if you speak a language, any language, you know what grammar is. HOWEVER, it is important to remember as you study grammar is that it is the written expression of how a group of people understand and synthesize the world around them. It is also how you learn more about the culture of the language you are learning. So take care to learn grammar thoroughly.
So how do you get through this total nightmare with your sanity intact? Fortunately for you, I’ve been studying languages for ten years and can tell you EXACTLY what to do. So before you resume or begin studying, here is my recommended step by step guide to studying grammar.
Quick update: First of all, let me apologize for not updating in a while. I have moved from China to the USA and from Boston to Virginia and have now begun studying for the LSAT. Whew! I’m back to a regular routine and you guys should see regular posts from me now!
If you’re self-studying or self-learning Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French or any language, there are so many reasons why a language learning method could fail that you could be completely unaware of. After all, there is no one identifying your shortcomings or problem areas in language study for you. You have to do it all by yourself. When I began to learn Japanese and Korean in high school I did not know this and it was pretty devastating. When things slowed down or I couldn’t remember Japanese words, I got so freakin’ pissed! Why wasn’t all my hard work paying off!? How long does this stupid crap take?! Why am I not fluent!? How do I learn Japanese faster?! I was rightfully frustrated, but at the wrong things. I was angry at everything else except how I was actually studying.
What I have come to understand is that the language learning method is just as important as the content you actually learn.
It’s the bane of every language learner that wants to self study or study at home. If you are one of these self-learning warriors them you know what I mean. You have to create your own study schedule and plan your own curriculum and it can be a real P in the A. There are so many things to consider, such as your level, available time, your study style (which you can learn about here) and the goal of your learning. HOWEVER, despite all these variables, I am here to help you create your own customized language learning study planner that is both efficient and effective for YOU. So if you want to become a master study schedule maker, keep reading!
Calculate Your Hourly Study
Before you create your schedule begin by looking at your regular schedule (work or school) and determine how many hours per day you can study. Then calculate how many hours per week that makes. This will determine how much material you will be able to cover and how fast you will be able to get through it. The fewer hours of time you have available, the less content you will be able to learn over the span of a week. There is nothing wrong with this at all. Just have to say this clearly so that you don’t expect to be fluent in a few months if you only study an hour a day for five days. Don’t expect miracles people!
My Suggestions
If you work full time, I would suggest only studying about 30 minutes to one hour a day with review on weekends.
For people who have more time to study, you will be able to cover more content in the same week. However, make sure you aren’t adding too many hours so you don’t burn out. For those with more time, I suggest studying between 2-3 hours a day with review on weekends.
TLDR: Count hours because just like a regular language course, the amount of hours a week you study dictates how intense the course is and how much you will cover in a semester.
Determine How Many Days a Week You’d Like To Study
This part is ENTIRELY up to you! However, whatever you choose to do, make sure you leave at least one day of break to avoid burn out. I am currently doing 5 days a week of study with weekends off.
Choose Some Material
There is such a wealth of materials on the internet that I don’t recommend that you purchase ANY textbooks until you search the web to see if it is available online in pdf or something. That’s what I did. If you would like some free Japanese textbook pdfs, you can visit my post about free Japanese resources. I did find online a list of the best textbook by language:
Best Advanced Spanish Textbooks
Also need:
Memrise
Cram
Fluent-U
Yabla Chinese
Chinese Pod
Japanese Pod
Written Chinese Dictionary
TLDR: Do some research to find some material that will be best for you. DO NOT RELY ON APPS. THOSE ARE ONLY FOR DOWNTIME PRACTICE.
Create a Semester and a Syllabus (Get Creative)
The big cons of self-studying languages is the lack of organization. You have to do it alllll by yourself and it isn’t a basket a roses, believe me. So to make it easier for you, plan your studies in semesters like college courses. That way, you have more concrete and plannable goals. If you just float throughout the year as one continuous study blob, you’ll get bored, burnt out, and more likely to give up since your progress is not as easily trackable. But if you study by semester, you can set concrete goals for the semester and what you’d like to cover every day, week, and month. This way, you are easily able to track your progress. This is the best way to study, if you want to see real progress.
The other thing you need to do is create a syllabus, so once you’ve chosen your textbook and materials, go ahead and plan the WHOLE SEMESTER of what you will cover on what days, what days you will have tests, what days you will review, etc. This will require you to go through your textbook or online program in advanced to plan your studies. Try to plan each week by textbook chapters, program units, or specific subject you’d like to learn (celebrities, music, fashion, animals, etc) If you create a week where you are studying a specific subject, you can use movies, books, articles, youtube videos, or music to learn that subject!
For example:
Week 1: Korean From Zero Chapter 1 and 2/ Wani Kani 1
Day One: Blah blah
Day Two: Blah blah
Day Three: Blah blah
Day Four: Blah Blah
Day Five: Review Day!
Week 2: Korean From Zero Chapter 3 and 4/ Quiz
Day One: Blah blah
Day Two: Blah blah
Day Three: Blah blah
Day Four: Blah Blah
Day Five: Review Day!
Week 2: Desserts – Ms. Panda and Mr. Hedgehog Viki Tv Show
Day One: Blah blah
Day Two: Blah blah
Day Three: Blah blah
Day Four: Blah Blah
Day Five: Review Day!
Get creative! Your study schedule is whatever you want it to be!! Don’t forget to mark down the goals for the semester and what you’d like to be able to do by the end of the semester.
TLDR: Create your own semester-based plan to create concrete learning goals and trackable progress. Create a syllabus to write down your goals and your daily and weekly material to cover.
Figure Out Your Study Style
There are essentially two, which I talk about in an earlier post. The Systematic Style and the Intuitive Style. To find out which one you are, visit my post. Essentially, a Systematic learner would rather learn the concepts first, then practice them. An intuitive learner (such as myself) would prefer to be thrown in to an immersive environment and learn while immersed THEN learn the details of the concepts. This GREATLY effects how you need to approach your language study because you will need to develop specific language study skills. For example, if you are intuitive, you MUST have audio/video based lessons with explanations and you may not need a textbook at all.
TLDR: Find out what your
is and implement this style into your study syllabus
HOW TO ORGANIZE AND PLAN MATERIAL
One of the biggest problems among self-taught language learners, is staying organized. You need to be having fun with your studies, but it needs to be organized. Take a journey with me into hypothetical land. Imagine that you wanted to use kpop lyrics to learn Korean. So to do it, you choose a song to start and then everyday you sing the song over and over and study more and more of the lyrics till EVENTUALLY you learn the whole song. Then you choose another and start again. This sounds normal doesn’t it? It’s shouldn’t be. It’s bad.
What you SHOULD do is determine exactly how long you want to take to learn the lyrics to the song. For this case, we’ll say five days (an entire work week). For each day, you need to determine how much of the song you want to cover. One verse? Two verses? Then you plan that the LAST day (the fifth) day of your studies, you review all the vocabulary words and grammar you’ve learned. On Saturday or Sunday, you test yourself on the material.
Voila!! You’ve just created an ENTIRE study plan for a week just around a single K-pop song!! Stick that in your syllabus and move it along!
TLDR: Organize. Organize. Organize.
Use Material You’re Interested In
Keep in mind that you DO NOT have to only use your textbook or language learning program. The internet is vast and so are the resources, so don’t limit yourself! If you would like to learn about fashion, sports, science, or whatever, then plan a week or two of study where you use online resources to do exactly that! You can use movies, shows, articles, music, or even books. Whatever you want in the subject that you want in order to make your language study as interesting and less brutalizing as possible. So it’s okay if you suddenly take a break from your textbook study to learn a kpop song or watch an anime. Do what you want!
TLDR: Mix in topics and subjects you’re interested in learning about into your language study to help keep you interested in your language study!
Conclusion
I hope this wasn’t totally overwhelming! I know it’s a lot, but if you want real language progress, you MUST be organized. It doesn’t matter if you want to know how to study Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, French, German or whatever. You can use these study tips to help you no matter what the language or what the level. Use these steps and you will become a master schedule maker in minutes! I hope this helps!! Good luck with your language study!!!
All Steps:
Calculate Your Hourly Study
Determine How Many Days a Week You’d Like To Study
Choose Some Material
Create a Semester and a Syllabus (Get Creative)
Figure Out Your Study Style
HOW TO ORGANIZE AND PLAN MATERIAL
Use Material You’re Interested In
降央卓玛演唱《冈拉梅朵》，最美女中音，宛如君临天下｜乐享汇
Xia Yu Ge | 下雨歌 | 儿歌 | Children’s Chinese Songs | pinyin lyrics #下雨歌儿歌
#Mandarin
Some places in the city!
我经常去咖啡厅，我偶尔去快餐店。
Can you use an adverb of time to describe how often you go somewhere?
The Super Chinese App is full of scenarios directly applicable in daily life. Download the app now in Play Store and App Store
Always wanted to know the names of all countries in Chinese? Yes, me too!
Here you go! Part 1. Africa
Keep an eye out for Part 2. North America and South America
The Super Chinese team
One way to work on your Chinese characters is by learning about radicals. Here are some of the most common ones, sigh their Chinese name.
Fun fact: this is how Chinese people introduce their surname, or any character for that matter. Say my name is “yu”, I can then say, 言字旁的”语”。try it out for your own Chinese name, you’ll sound super native!
HSK Exams are back on! And to help you prepare, we’re giving you 15% discount off ANY vip purchase. Use your HSK Online app to scan the QR code, pick your VIP package and enter this code: tumblr15
Any questions, please shoot us a message at [email protected]
Happy Dragon Boat Festival!
Happy Father’s Day!
Some antonyms today!
For content directly applicable in your daily life, download our app Super Chinese!
While we’re all still inside, let’s share our study resources! We’re giving everyone 1 month VIP for FREE if you share the Super Chinese app with your followers (tumblr, insta or FB)
Download the app here and make Super Monkey proud!
Today is the 20th of May (520), China’s unofficial Valentine’s Day!
Do you know any other “number” words?
♀️♀️ let’s learn some new Chinese vocab today!
Check out our apps in AppStore or Play Store
—> Super Chinese
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Thank you for all those essential workers, keeping the world safe right now!
Do you know any other words related to outer space?
Download the super Chinese app here!
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你住哪里？
{Here is a guide to difficult pinyin pronunciation I found in a book on the Chinese government that I will work cite at the end of the post}
As many know, Chinese characters are one syllable long, made up of an ‘initial’ letter and ‘final’ letter that dictates that overall sound of the syllable. With that in mind, here are two tables cover the harder pronunciations in pinyin for ‘initial’ and ‘final’ letters.
Initials:
Pinyin English (pronunciation)
c ts
qi cheek
x hs
z dz
zh jack
Finals:
Pinyin English (pronunciation)
a father
ai bye
ao now
e but
i see (note: after initials ‘ch’, ‘sh’ & ‘zh’,it’s pronounced as ‘r’)
iu yo
ou so
u loot
ua trois (french for “three”)
(note: italicized is equivalent in sound that pinyin makes)
Combination Examples
Pinyin English (pronunciation)
zhou jyo
xi hsee
zao dzow
Work Cited
Lieberthal, Kenneth. “Pinyin Pronunciation Table.” Governing China: from Revolution through Reform, W.W. Norton, 2004.
A/N: If you have any questions, feel free to drop them on me!
edit: as it’s been brought up, the table’s representation of how to pronounce ‘qi’ is slightly off. A slight ‘t’ in front makes it more authentic and correct. I believe the book compared it to “chee” in cheek because that is the closest representation in English. Nevertheless, ‘tchee’ is more accurate.
bdrkness replied to your post “Explaining the four tones used in Mandarin Chinese”
谢谢你! So I’m just curious… if 妈 is mother what are the 汉子 for female horse and how do you pronounce it in pinyin?? Would it be 女马？
你好 ! firstly, i believe you meant 文字 (wén zì). With that in mind, the term for a female horse in english is “mare”. The 文字 for mare is 母马 and the pinyin is mǔ mǎ. It would be pronounced like MuH-MaH.
If you’re looking for a literal translation of “female” “horse”, 女马 would be correct ( 女 meaning “female” and 马 meaning “horse”).
To explain the four tones and how they affect the language, I’ll use the Chinese pinyin syllable “ma”
The four tones used in Chinese are typically shown through pinyin above the affected letter, like mā, or occasionally represented after the affected letter with the number that corresponds with the tone (ma1).
Tones dictate the way in which words are pronounced, similar to accents. The difference between tones and accents would be that in actual written Chinese, the tone marks do not appear, while accents in languages especially noted for them like French and Spanish, the accent marks do appear (résumé). Tone marks were created to explain in pinyin the difference in pronunciation.
As you’re about to discover, pronouncing pinyin syllables wrong, and not following the tonal rules, will result in the wrong word being said (that being said, most native speakers won’t be angry that you got it wrong, they’ll probably just find it funny and cute).
1st tone mā (妈) – mother
With the 1st tonal mark on ma, you pronounce it with a purposeful flat pitch, like m-ah.
Saying it this way, you are reciting the Chinese character 妈 aka mother
2nd tone má (麻)– numb/hemp
With the 2nd tonal mark on ma, you pronounce it with a purposeful low to high pitch, like ma-AH.
Saying it this way, you are reciting the Chinese character 麻 aka numb/hemp
3rd tone mǎ (马) – horse
With the 3rd tonal mark on ma, you pronounce it with a purposeful dip in pitch, from high to low to high, like Ma-aH.
Saying it this way, you are reciting the Chinese character 马 aka horse
4th tone mà (骂) – curse/name call
With the 4th tonal mark on ma, you pronounce it with a purposeful high to low pitch, like MA-ah.
Saying it this way, you are reciting the Chinese character 骂 aka to curse/name call
Neutral/no deliberate tone ma (吗) – indicates a yes/no question
Just saying “ma” without intent of pitch, at the end of a sentence, turns it into a yes/no question!
A/N: Let me know if you have any confusion or I got something wrong! Also I am the new admin covering the mandarin chinese learning content. I plan on doing “learning chinese through cpop” posts along with normal structure and vocab posts.
