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12 Months of Mandarin

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Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#101

Post by swatcoder »

lxe wrote: post #68

I don't think I can do SRS. My dopamine system is at a point where I can't do anything for a long time that isn't interesting, has immediate or intermediate rewards, or can capture attention for a long time. And on top of that, repeating that habit requires all these criteria. Examples: Scrolling on the phone?: Basically direct dopamine injected into my brain. Can do indefinitely. Not good. Programming? Sure I can pu…

> I don't think I can do SRS. My dopamine system...

I'm willing to bet you've never had probes analyzing anything about your dopamine system and how it responds to any of the activities you go on to describe. More likely, you've started using trendy pseudo-scientific jargon to justify why you believe yourself to be physiologically limited.

Do you struggle to see through or enjoy to some of those activities? So be it.

But chalking that up to some scientific sounding stuff you pieced together over the years just hardens those limitations. It's a very bad habit that's become really common lately. I strongly recommend trying to break it. It'll open up some doors that you're currently keeping shut.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#102

Post by [deleted] »

lxe wrote: post #68

I don't think I can do SRS. My dopamine system is at a point where I can't do anything for a long time that isn't interesting, has immediate or intermediate rewards, or can capture attention for a long time. And on top of that, repeating that habit requires all these criteria. Examples: Scrolling on the phone?: Basically direct dopamine injected into my brain. Can do indefinitely. Not good. Programming? Sure I can pu…

[deleted]

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#103

Post by sn9 »

Apfel wrote: post #98
jmyeet wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're quite literally describing textbook ADHD symptoms. If you haven't already, you may want to get assessed.

I'm someone who was perfectly able to use anki and learn chinese to a decent level with fairly intense combined-type untreated (at the time) ADHD. What you need is a compelling reason to learn (for me, it was the fear of letting down my wife by not being able to talk to her family).

The ability to focus on some things but not others is perfectly consistent with ADHD.

Disordered attention is the whole deal.

You might find it easy but that doesn't mean others will.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#104

Post by cmuguythrow »

15kingben wrote: post #93
cmuguythrow wrote: post #74

I’ve been learning Mandarin via Comprehensible Input (CI) for about 9 months and really admire OP’s dedication and consistency. In the first 4-5 months of being truly consistent with ~1hr a day of Anki and Peppa pig I got to around 2,000 words and was able to have a great experience when I traveled to Taiwan, so I can vouch for the core methodology in this post. It’s not “easy”, but it’s definitely the most effective…

DuChinese is a great app for reading stories at beginner levels of vocabulary. It also supports tap-to-lookup and saving words to flashcards, but unfortunately they don't integrate with Anki, only their own app's system.

Yeah DuChinese is I think the premier Chinese graded reader app right now. We also have the tap-to-lookup and make-flashcard-from-content flows (unfortunately only in our system for now, haven't build flashcard import/export yet). The thing we have that they don't is the ability to generate content about whatever subject you want (which can help make it much more personally interesting)

Also while naming quality resources I should also mention [Pleco](https://www.pleco.com/) - it's _definitely_ the best Chinese dictionary app - highly recommended.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#105

Post by yorozu »

> I want to reach a level where the legendary Three-Body Problem will be comfortably readable.

Good goal. I read the Three Body Problem in Chinese as a non-native speaker. It was challenging for me compared to other (non sci-fi) books due to the quantity and breadth of scientific jargon, but very enjoyable.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#106

Post by comboy »

ilamont wrote: post #97

I really like the focus on watching or listening to source materials every day. This is where Duolingo fails, or at least how my SO uses it. It becomes a game for listening to snippets and remembering vocabulary, not actual comprehension of language spoken by native speakers. For anyone who is a student, I highly recommend the National Taiwan Normal University (師大) Mandarin Training Center summer sessions. The materi…

There are apps now that provide you with listening material improving your comprehension while also doing some SRS on it. Superchinese focuses on pronunciation a lot, Clozemaster on listening. HelloChinese and ChineseSkill are more duolingo-like but way better for Mandarin.

And Untamed ("Leaving soon") is still on Netflix, it may seem cheesy but out of things I tried watching it has surprisingly clean, easy to understand language with lots of common phrases while also offering some interesting story.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#107

Post by lxe »

swatcoder wrote: post #101
lxe wrote: post #68

I don't think I can do SRS. My dopamine system is at a point where I can't do anything for a long time that isn't interesting, has immediate or intermediate rewards, or can capture attention for a long time. And on top of that, repeating that habit requires all these criteria. Examples: Scrolling on the phone?: Basically direct dopamine injected into my brain. Can do indefinitely. Not good. Programming? Sure I can pu…

> I don't think I can do SRS. My dopamine system... I'm willing to bet you've never had probes analyzing anything about your dopamine system and how it responds to any of the activities you go on to describe. More likely, you've started using trendy pseudo-scientific jargon to justify why you believe yourself to be physiologically limited. Do you struggle to see through or enjoy to some of those activities? So be it.…

    s/dopamine/motivation/g
You're right but the core of my sentiment stays the same

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#108

Post by Baeocystin »

pessimizer wrote: post #81
hintymad wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think I can do SRS No need. :-) Comprehensible Input and immersive language usage can be your superpower.

With old-school graded readers. Turns out that the people in past centuries who we ridiculed for their antiquated approaches for learning languages all spoke multiple languages. They didn't have comic books, though, which are another good source of interesting reading material that also comes with elaborate visual hints to what is being said. If I were trying to learn Mandarin, I'd scour the internet for bootleg scan…

Slight aside, but I learned to read with Asterix & Obelix & Tintin. The Asterix series in particular was fantastic for reading the same story in difficulty languages, and savoring the wordplay in each, and how the translators played with things. Having visual context to go with the words themselves was such a boon, I really am surprised the approach isn't given more legitimate respect.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#109

Post by comboy »

refactor_master wrote: post #49

Plug for this tool I’ve been using for SRS: https://hanzihero.com/ Yes, it costs a bit of money every month, but it’s incredibly polished and fun (well, for the first couple of thousands of characters) to use. For a language with so many speakers it’s quite evident that Mandarin lacks the cultural foothold that Japanese has gained in the West. Good resources and community aimed at non-natives trying to learn are real…

Do they have anything in common with Mandarin Blueprint? It seems to use very similar mnemonics. How far did the tool get you?

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#110

Post by kanbankaren »

swatcoder wrote: post #101
lxe wrote: post #68

I don't think I can do SRS. My dopamine system is at a point where I can't do anything for a long time that isn't interesting, has immediate or intermediate rewards, or can capture attention for a long time. And on top of that, repeating that habit requires all these criteria. Examples: Scrolling on the phone?: Basically direct dopamine injected into my brain. Can do indefinitely. Not good. Programming? Sure I can pu…

> I don't think I can do SRS. My dopamine system... I'm willing to bet you've never had probes analyzing anything about your dopamine system and how it responds to any of the activities you go on to describe. More likely, you've started using trendy pseudo-scientific jargon to justify why you believe yourself to be physiologically limited. Do you struggle to see through or enjoy to some of those activities? So be it.…

Yeah, I think OP drank the kool-aid on neurotransmitters.
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