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12 Months of Mandarin

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Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#71

Post by hintymad »

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

No need. :-) Comprehensible Input and immersive language usage can be your superpower.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#72

Post by dgacmu »

pragmomm wrote: post #46
jajko wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To keep things polite - that's a bit over the top to call it 'ultra-nationalism' and then in nation of 1.5 billion to point out... 2 attacks altogether for last few months? That's like what, a weak school week in US in comparison? If its there, and this is first time hearing about it for me and seemingly for others, please provide some serious proofs for such serious accusations.

[flagged]

Your posting history seems to primarily consist of an anti-China narrative.

For example, "Also, they could just remind people that China released COVID which killed millions and cost countries billions." (which, well, those are definitely words.)

China is ... complex. But you seem to be consistently pushing a specific agenda in the way you choose to address it. Why?

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#73

Post by pc86 »

curiousgal wrote: post #34
pragmomm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I am curious, do you actually believe these things?

Not the GP but this question has me wondering what you mean, precisely.

75% of the comment is just things that happened, so there's nothing to "believe" there. For the rest it's basically two statements:

1. Ultra-nationalism is on the rise in China

2. Going to China as an outsider is ill-advised

OK so #1 may or may not be true but either way is an objective thing, it's either rising or it's not. So again, not really anything to be "believed," although you could certainly think it's moving one direction and just be wrong about it.

So the charitable reading of the only remaining statement is essentially "you probably shouldn't go to China if you're a foreigner" which yeah is an opinion, and not one I'd take particularly seriously, but it's also not outlandish that someone would believe that. There are plenty of places in the world to visit and if there's a place with a higher chance the locals don't actually want me there, I'll go elsewhere.

Most of the time when I see questions like this asking if someone "actually" believes something, the implied second part of the question is either "or are you a troll" or "because no rational person could possibly believe that," neither of which seem appropriate in this instance.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#74

Post by cmuguythrow »

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 way to learn a foreign language that I know of.

The CI community has come a long way in the last ~5 or so years - the general consensus looks a lot like OP’s methods, which I would summarize as:

1. Brute force [premade Anki flashcard decks](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/810519009) for the first ~1k most common words

2. Start watching comprehensible input as soon as you can, ideally for an hour a day or more

3. [Sentence mine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBcQJESGQvc)the comprehensible input and add it to the daily SRS flashcard grind

The best summary of these methods that I’ve found is https://refold.la/

Self plug: I’ve been working on a way to generate Mandarin audio comprehensible input using LLMs/TTS models. The idea is that there aren’t many great CI options between 500 words and ~3k-5k words - OP himself mentions that when he started watching Scissor Seven 刺客伍六七 he barely understood anything, which is pretty hard to “push through” without some hardcore willpower. My project https://plusonechinese.com makes Mandarin audio stories that are 85% comprehensible at any level from 400 words all the way to 8k or more words and then auto-imports the audio snippets into SRS flashcards, which makes a CI workflow like this a lot easier to engage with at a lower level and without advanced willpower. Still working on making the content _truly_ interesting, but would love some feedback!

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#75

Post by shubb »

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 was hoping to find something like your app. Haven't tried it yet but so excited!

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#76

Post by cynicalpeace »

realusername wrote: post #69
diggan wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I've done it this way and didn't learn much, I learned more by self-studying after I left. Thinking that I would just learn my target language just by being there was my biggest mistake. Sure, if your target language isn't too far from your native one, learning it on the go probably works fine. But you aren't going to get from English to Chinese casually by picking up stuff though, you'll end up knowing a hundred wor…

Yeah that's why I think you need a small, but solid base to really take advantage of being there.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#77

Post by 1stub »

Learning a language through input is incredibly effective and in my eyes much more enjoyable than the traditional classroom approach. For myself with Japanese it was after ~6 months of immersion and SRS that things really started to click and it became much more enjoyable.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#78

Post by jmyeet »

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…

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

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#79

Post by realusername »

cynicalpeace wrote: post #76
realusername wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've done it this way and didn't learn much, I learned more by self-studying after I left. Thinking that I would just learn my target language just by being there was my biggest mistake. Sure, if your target language isn't too far from your native one, learning it on the go probably works fine. But you aren't going to get from English to Chinese casually by picking up stuff though, you'll end up knowing a hundred wor…

Yeah that's why I think you need a small, but solid base to really take advantage of being there.

Indeed that's also my opinion, sure if you spend 6 months before going there and reach a lower B1, that's not the same story.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#80

Post by hintymad »

A side topic, for those who have acquired Mandarin, do you think Chinese is a really easy-to-learn language in the long run? Yes, learning all the characters has a steep learning curve, but once one passes that stage, it's all about combination of the characters. That Chinese's grammar is heavily influenced by modern English also helped. I feel that the grammatical similarity between English and Chinese is closer than that between English and Spanish.
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