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12 Months of Mandarin

isaak.net

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Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#161

Post by hintymad »

braunshedd wrote: post #131
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…

I also use Netflix to great effect for practicing Chinese, especially when paired with the Language Reactor[1] extension in Chrome. * Note: Netflix has much more Taiwanese content than mainland China content, so do note the difference in the accent / dialect you'll be learning. [1] https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/language-reactor/ho...

How do you pass the initial language barriers? I'm trying to learn Spanish with Netflix shows and the Language Reactor, but I find it extremely hard to understand spoke Spanish. The characters speak so fast that I couldn't discern individual words or phrases. For a lot of times, they speak as if they are murmuring. When I was learning English, my ability to understand spoken English grew with my ability to read, but in the case of Spanish, I can read a lot more advanced text than being able to listen...

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#162

Post by joshdavham »

cblum wrote: post #59
joshdavham wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The power of SRS (spaced repetition system) cannot be overstated Speaking as someone who has used Anki the last 5 years, has built and sold Anki decks and is working on implementing various spaced repetition schedulers as we speak... unfortunately its importance can absolutely be overstated. Definitely more language learners should be using an SRS, but there are lots of people who take it way too far (I have way to…

> there are lots of people who take it way too far I wrote in another comment that that’s exactly my issue. I can easily spend hours, days, weeks even just tweaking my card templates due to Anki’s extreme customizability. That stems from a (false!) belief that I can somehow find just the right card format that will impress the language in my head in no time. Took me a long time to reign in the impulse to endlessly tw…

Believe it or not, after 5 years of Anki, I still have 0 styling on my personal decks. Not even dark mode. Just black text on a white background haha

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#163

Post by hintymad »

neves wrote: post #89
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…

Peppa Pig is hard :-) What would a be a good child animation for learning a foreign language? I'm trying to learn a little of French for a coming trip.

I also find it hard in Spanish, even though it's a kid show.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#164

Post by niek_pas »

jcla1 wrote: post #152
wantsanagent wrote: post #138

I don't care about learning Mandarin, I want to find out how this guy's motivation system works and then download it into my brain. Doing a PhD and learning Mandarin as a side project ?! Doing hours of Anki practice and new note taking, some of it while running on a treadmill? There's just a crazy amount of drive (and what sounds like an epic memory) here. I don't think people consider base motivation enough when thi…

Do not underestimate the urge to procrastinate (by still doing productive things, like learning Mandarin) while pursuing a PhD. I am not sure if this will be the author's experience too, but pursuing a PhD will often leave you exhausted without any hope of ever finding "the final missing ingredient" to solve the problem you are currently tackling. So turning to entirely unrelated problems, however productive they may…

I am currently learning to color grade, am an active bedroom musician, enjoy cooking and learning about food science, and am training for my first half marathon alongside my PhD. The side project thing is definitely real.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#165

Post by ZephyrBlu »

lxe wrote: post #107
swatcoder wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

Have you ever actually tried to learn a language? I'm learning Korean as a native English speaker. I thought it would be a grind, which it kind of is, but learning new words and grammar is actually really fun. I use anki cards and get a dopamine hit whenever I remember the word correctly.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#166

Post by Metacelsus »

wantsanagent wrote: post #138

I don't care about learning Mandarin, I want to find out how this guy's motivation system works and then download it into my brain. Doing a PhD and learning Mandarin as a side project ?! Doing hours of Anki practice and new note taking, some of it while running on a treadmill? There's just a crazy amount of drive (and what sounds like an epic memory) here. I don't think people consider base motivation enough when thi…

He wasn't doing a PhD at the time he was learning Mandarin (he's just started his PhD).

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#167

Post by cupantae »

trhway wrote: post #153
seper8 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Noone goes without sleep for three days and doesnt pay a severe heavy price for it. Stop it with that dumb sleep machismo...

Man, have you ever been 20smth years old? Do you really remember it as the time when you were thinking about "heavy price" beforehand and were suppressing your "machismo"?

The point you’re making is ridiculous though, because what Isaak has done is clearly an unusual accomplishment. You’re actually just making excuses for yourself, being too old to have the motivation. It’s a less helpful explanation than just plain curiosity - and that’s available to all age groups.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#168

Post by kjellsbells »

This is impressive and inspiring.

Not to detract at all from his dedication, but it really helps that there are so many content/resources in the target language: news, kids shows, anime, tutors, emigrant diaspora.

As a side quest, look at another reputedly-hard language like Vietnamese, where there is not nearly so much. As an example, Google and Microsoft Translator apps speak different variants of Vietnamese (Northern and Southern respectively), and (because they are trained statistically on whatever limited corpuses are available) they seem strangely limited in what they can do/how accurate they are.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#169

Post by shepherdjerred »

jcla1 wrote: post #152
wantsanagent wrote: post #138

I don't care about learning Mandarin, I want to find out how this guy's motivation system works and then download it into my brain. Doing a PhD and learning Mandarin as a side project ?! Doing hours of Anki practice and new note taking, some of it while running on a treadmill? There's just a crazy amount of drive (and what sounds like an epic memory) here. I don't think people consider base motivation enough when thi…

Do not underestimate the urge to procrastinate (by still doing productive things, like learning Mandarin) while pursuing a PhD. I am not sure if this will be the author's experience too, but pursuing a PhD will often leave you exhausted without any hope of ever finding "the final missing ingredient" to solve the problem you are currently tackling. So turning to entirely unrelated problems, however productive they may…

Having something to procrastinate on is half the reason I’m going to grad school while working full time.

It truly is an excellent hack.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#170

Post by wenc »

almostgotcaught wrote: post #148
wantsanagent wrote: post #138

I don't care about learning Mandarin, I want to find out how this guy's motivation system works and then download it into my brain. Doing a PhD and learning Mandarin as a side project ?! Doing hours of Anki practice and new note taking, some of it while running on a treadmill? There's just a crazy amount of drive (and what sounds like an epic memory) here. I don't think people consider base motivation enough when thi…

> Doing a PhD and learning Mandarin as a side project?! his matriculation year is 2024 (and fall classes haven't even started) so he's doing a PhD like the pre-med kids were "doing" med school freshman year. people that brag like this don't finish - there were a few in my cohort too that washed out after quals.

Author also graduated high school from Austria early, and finished a Berkeley math degree in 2 years. I’d say author is gifted.

That said, technical PhDs often require a combination of raw mental horsepower, persistence and luck. (Working for the right advisor in a promising area)

I brought about the same smarts as my peers but they graduated in 5 years whereas I did 8 years because I didn’t have the most promising area of research plus I got unlucky.

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