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12 Months of Mandarin

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Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#51

Post by diggan »

cynicalpeace wrote: post #47

I hitchhiked China for 3 months in 2018 after studying Chinese for 2 semesters of college beforehand. Hitchhiking is by far one of the best ways to learn a new language. Long hours with a wide variety of individuals, mostly one-on-one. If you're young, and you're reading this, go hitchhike. It's not as safe as staying home with mom, but it's not as dangerous as people who have never done it say it is. I "achieved int…

> Hitchhiking is by far one of the best ways to learn a new language.

Another way is moving to another country. You'll learn quicker than you think, and no need to learn the language beforehand, it'll be great fun to try to understand something completely foreign, and gets a lot easier when you see people's faces and hands :)

If you're young, you still have time to move to another country, and move back home if you get bored/scared. It's not as difficult or dangerous as most people think.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#52

Post by rootsudo »

pragmomm wrote: post #20
edent wrote: post #7

While I haven't the same proficiency, I had the same "local celebrity" experience when visiting Beijing. While it is fun at first seeing people double take and then ask to take a photo with you - it gets old fast! Mind you, I'll never tire of (partially) understanding what people say about me when they think I don't understand. One thing not mentioned is that it is often a good idea to have some formal testing. Frien…

[flagged]

No, if anything it is well advised:

1. You are fluent in the langauge. 2. While acquiring fluency, you learn the culture. 3. You will be able to hold your own w/o a local interperter. 4. You can change locals mind and let them see their news/version of events isn't all secular (e.g. laowai adapts culture, learns langauge, not to fit in, but complimentary to living/being in China, etc.)

So, I would say for someone that is fluent, it is the best time to go.

General tourism, business investment, FDI, etc I'd say yes don't be too special. Note that the links you used really reference tourists.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#53

Post by vunderba »

alberth wrote: post #18

Different language, but I’d highly recommend Tokyo Vice as a tv show. The main actor, Ansel Elgort, learned Japanese in 1-month time. https://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ansel-elgort-learned-japanes... Granted he probably was learning more pronunciation to say his lines. But Japanese actors on set have commented at how surprised they were in his mastery of the language off camera in such a short amount of time.

Reminds me of the film Incubus in which Shatner learned just enough esperanto to deliver his lines.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#54

Post by cblum »

CollinEMac wrote: post #29

I'm always surprised when people mention watching shows in their target language as a study method. For me, I don't understand much and my mind starts to wander pretty quickly.

I too find it wild when people do it at a beginner stage.

Back when I was learning English during my school years, I only started seriously watching native content after I already had either a B1 or B2 certificate. At that point I already knew most of what was being said, I just wasn’t used to hearing/parsing it in real-time and without the “padding” that comes with learner-oriented content. So the gap I had to bridge there was small.

The burden of learning basically everything at the same time - word meanings, grammar patterns, native-level speech patterns and speed - sounds daunting to me. But I think if you are at a life stage where you can put tons of time into it, it works.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#55

Post by cynicalpeace »

cynicalpeace wrote: post #47

I hitchhiked China for 3 months in 2018 after studying Chinese for 2 semesters of college beforehand. Hitchhiking is by far one of the best ways to learn a new language. Long hours with a wide variety of individuals, mostly one-on-one. If you're young, and you're reading this, go hitchhike. It's not as safe as staying home with mom, but it's not as dangerous as people who have never done it say it is. I "achieved int…

You can read some stories about that trip here: https://medium.com/p/d4c0358c3097

I wish I came up with a better title.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#56

Post by pastage »

joshdavham wrote: post #25
alberth wrote: post #18

Different language, but I’d highly recommend Tokyo Vice as a tv show. The main actor, Ansel Elgort, learned Japanese in 1-month time. https://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ansel-elgort-learned-japanes... Granted he probably was learning more pronunciation to say his lines. But Japanese actors on set have commented at how surprised they were in his mastery of the language off camera in such a short amount of time.

I'm not familiar with the show, but, you can't learn any language in one month. That is a myth. The reason for this is actually mathematical. To understand a language you need to know at least a couple thousand words and you can't realistically learn thousands of words in a month. That takes time.

The state department says 88 weeks for Japanese[1]. A month is a long time with full immersion, getting the basics right will get you far enough that people will help you with the rest. I could communicate relatively well with two weeks of immersion but I did not finnish learning it in 100 weeks.

[1] https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#57

Post by vunderba »

cynicalpeace wrote: post #47

I hitchhiked China for 3 months in 2018 after studying Chinese for 2 semesters of college beforehand. Hitchhiking is by far one of the best ways to learn a new language. Long hours with a wide variety of individuals, mostly one-on-one. If you're young, and you're reading this, go hitchhike. It's not as safe as staying home with mom, but it's not as dangerous as people who have never done it say it is. I "achieved int…

Or go teach. Barrier to entry to becoming an ESL teacher particularly in southeast Asia is relatively low, and its the best way to integrate into the culture.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#58

Post by cynicalpeace »

diggan wrote: post #51
cynicalpeace wrote: post #47

I hitchhiked China for 3 months in 2018 after studying Chinese for 2 semesters of college beforehand. Hitchhiking is by far one of the best ways to learn a new language. Long hours with a wide variety of individuals, mostly one-on-one. If you're young, and you're reading this, go hitchhike. It's not as safe as staying home with mom, but it's not as dangerous as people who have never done it say it is. I "achieved int…

> Hitchhiking is by far one of the best ways to learn a new language. Another way is moving to another country. You'll learn quicker than you think, and no need to learn the language beforehand, it'll be great fun to try to understand something completely foreign, and gets a lot easier when you see people's faces and hands :) If you're young, you still have time to move to another country, and move back home if you g…

Yes agree. I lived in Colombia for 4 years. But hitchhiking is learning on overdrive. Not just language, but what they like to call "agency".

I slightly disagree that you don't need to learn the language beforehand. You don't NEED to, but I would actually recommend getting a 4 week crash course beforehand.

Because I've seen so many expats that don't even know where to start so they just hang out with other expats and that's how you end up living in a foreign country for 10 years and you can't speak the language.

The most minimal thing is you need to learn how to point at a thing and say "How do you say?" and refuse to revert to your native language.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#59

Post by cblum »

joshdavham wrote: post #31
vunderba wrote: post #3

I commend the author's discipline - this is a pretty standard approach. TLDR - Move as many things as possible in regular life to the target language (software, tv shows, reading, etc) to maintain the language - There is no substitute for full immersion if you have the opportunity. I learned traditional Chinese in Taiwan while I was an ESL teacher. - The power of SRS (spaced repetition system) cannot be overstated I…

> 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 tweak templates. I remember having days when I felt extremely frustrated after realizing I had spent pretty much my entire study time working on Anki and not exposing myself to the language.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#60

Post by cynicalpeace »

vunderba wrote: post #57
cynicalpeace wrote: post #47

I hitchhiked China for 3 months in 2018 after studying Chinese for 2 semesters of college beforehand. Hitchhiking is by far one of the best ways to learn a new language. Long hours with a wide variety of individuals, mostly one-on-one. If you're young, and you're reading this, go hitchhike. It's not as safe as staying home with mom, but it's not as dangerous as people who have never done it say it is. I "achieved int…

Or go teach. Barrier to entry to becoming an ESL teacher particularly in southeast Asia is relatively low, and its the best way to integrate into the culture.

I don't have first hand experience with that, but it seems that might actually be a poor way to learn, because everyone will want to speak English to you. I've had to selfishly refuse to speak English to people many times.
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