I just need to vent some frustrations here about my language learning journey I don’t know anyone else to talk to this about so I will just put this here.
I have been studying Chinese for maybe about four months now and in the past week I feel like I have been hitting a wall.I am not learning new things as fast as I once was and I feel like I am just stuck on this level and can’t improve. It makes me feel beyond frustrated and like giving up at times. But I have invested far much time into this to give up now.
Perhaps I just need to change my materials? My routine? Has anyone ever been in a similar situation? Sorry to put my personal problems on this forum. I just don’t have anyone in my life I can talk to this about.
I would say, whatever your time availablity, you ought to consider taking 3 or 4 continual approaches to this. As well as Memrise, consider Pimsleur all-audio courses (borrowing from a library would be cheaper than buying) , “at the wheel” courses, and any other top picks on Amazon.
Hi thank you for your suggestion. I actually already completed the full Pimsluer program but it has been quite a while now perhaps going back to revisit it would help. In addition to Memrise I am also using about 3 other programs. I learn a lot of new vocab every day but as far as speaking and my grammar it is still not going so well. I notice my reading getting better but my speaking? Not so much. It really has me frustrated.
I would suggest taking a break. I’m just guessing but if you have studied a lot in the last months you might be burning out. Every week set goals to achieve but put somewhere in there a rest day or some distraction time to take your mind off Chinese.
HI, I’ve noticed that if I work through Pimsleur for the second or third time, even at the basic levels, I still find stuff that I unexpectedly don’t know - although I definitely did work through the same material previously. As a revision technique, one trick would be to listen to the conversations in the first two minutes of each lower level lesson.
Another thing to do would be to find websites in subjects that interest you and which contain content you’re already familiar with in English, and try reading through those materials.
I don’t think that burnout should necessarily be a problem - if you’re highly motivated (which you certainly appear to be) and you have the study time available, keep using methods that generate good progress for you and shelve those that don’t.
A few thoughts : speaking, there’s no substitute for speaking with a native speaker! I am lucky enough to live with one, but, he hates teaching me. Still, every so often, we’ll do a few sentences. He knows roughly my level so he says some question I ought to understand and I have to answer. So I don’t necessarily learn anything new but I practice using the vocab I know. Not everyone can access this, (I don’t often enough to progress) so my suggestions are, you talk to yourself! Find as much info as you can on pronounciations, tone changes etc, and start. Make up conversations. I sometimes talk to my cat!
Alternatively, have you started writing? I am finding that a good route to go down when I am feeling ‘stuck’, learning to write characters I know. Plus v easy to practice and find materials to do so. I am using Anki along with memrise to get some writing practice.
Finally, how are you doing with various topics of interest? For example, how about learning a load of food words (tho I imagine you already have - chinese food… yum)? That can revive some interest.
There’s quite a good selection of community contenct on Memrise if you haven’t explored already.
Remember that consolidating your learning is just as important a phase as “learning more” so don’t worry about that wall for now.
Ps - sorry if that’s super patronising. You already know how to learn, I am sure. Sometimes I find myself forgetting obvious suggestions though, so I hope something helps.
If you’d like to find a mothertongue to exercise with, HelloTalk is a great option, you can even just chat and get corrections with it, otherwise Italki matching too.
If you’re about intermediate, I find what helps the most in progressing, other than speaking, is reading books and looking up on the dictionary the words you don’t know, maybe then saving them as flashcards or memrise personal course. Or watching tv programs, anything that gives you immersion, included setting your phone/pc in that language.
Since you’re studying Chinese, if you like dramas Viki has learning mode, where you get double subtitles and you can also click on the Chinese words for a dictionary popup.
No no no I didn’t feel like you were patronizing at all! In fact I felt that you offered some very good suggestions.
Well right now my daily routine is I do ten words of the HSK level 6 course on Memrise and 10 words of the “Learn 800 Chinese Characters Course” on Memrise. I write down every new word but I haven’t done much writing practice in terms of constructing my own sentences yet so maybe that is something I can start doing as well. In addition to Memrise I also do a level of the Hello Chinese app a day and I also use drops just to learn some unique vocabulary. After that I do the Domino Chinese course to learn some grammar but I think my biggest weakness is maybe I just learning too much vocabulary but not really how to use them correctly? I would say my reading is pretty good but when I try to orally make a sentence it comes out sounding really confused.
I forgot to mention that I do have a tutor that I do one lesson a week with. But currently that is my only speaking practice.
Maybe this is forward of me to ask but would you be interested in being study partners? Perhaps we could motivate each other and practice speaking with one another? I think maybe having some support would be really beneficial as well. Let me know what you think!
To me (not an expert in anything at all ever) it sounds like you need some more structured stuff for grammar.
For books I went through Assimil 1 and 2 (unfortunately that’s the furthest they go for Chinese for English speakers.) The Assimil brand had been recommended to me by my partners brother.
I have another book I bought called Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar, (which totally kicks my ass lol).
As to apps, HelloChinese is prob my fav of the ones I use (but I already finished all the levels, so I just do review mode now). Besides that I have ChineseSkill, Duolingo, and I do flashcards on Pleco (the dictionary app.) Whenever there’s a new word I hear that I don’t know, I get on Pleco. (I live in an area where I do get to hear Mandarin if I leave the house and go to certain places, but I’m practically a shut-in. <_< :P)
I don’t do much memrise nowadays, just daily targets on a few diff things including a Traditional chars version of the HSK list.
I definitely pushed myself way too hard last year on it and hit burn out (I literally did nothing but study, and had a bunch of other extra resources I used besides this as well as giant word docs I made of things), so now I’m kind of chill moding it all. I need to get back on the grammar book. >_<
JoolesBH - for a minute there I thought this was my post " I am lucky enough to live with one, but, he hates teaching me." that’s how it is with my partner. Now and then I get a little bit but it’s in weird little voices and almost always about wanting food… I get almost no live practice (but I try to eavesdrop on strangers convos for listening practice atleast…)
@XiaoCottonCloudy and @keyianpai: just in case you didn’t know: you can write personal messages to each other. Just click on your avatar on the top right, click the message button (as depicted below) and then click the blue “New message” button. You can add recipients by starting to type the other user’s name in the “Add a user” box.
Now and then I get a little bit but it’s in weird little voices and almost always about wanting food… I get almost no live practice (but I try to eavesdrop on strangers convos for listening practice atleast…)