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THAT GAME 7 THOUGH. LILLARD PAWING AT THE RUNGS OF THE LADDER TO IMMORTALITY.
For real though, that was some shit. Ice, ice cold.
I’m envious of your lifestyle. I left the state and came to Asia for that, and then ended up working just as much as I did in the States. I wouldn’t sweat it though, you can reach the same level of proficiency on your own if you’re suitably motivated.
Ups and downs man. I recognize that I’ve got it pretty sweet. Downs are it gets lonely and it takes a massive amount of self control that, as a newly christened 24 year old, I am laboring to develop. I hate wasted time more than most things and I find myself wasting so much time “being my own boss” that I often wake up and wish a dude would just tell me what to do. With that said, the problem isn’t my arragnement so much as my expectations for myself on what I can get done.
You perfectly describe the plateau, where your skill level isn’t truly fluent, but it’s good enough to communicate everything important. Most people won’t go past this level but in my experience, the ones that do have specific goals that Mandarin helps them achieve. Goals exactly like you mention: reading books or comics in Chinese, watching movies in Chinese without subtitles, practicing kung fu, learning mahjong, etc.
I think you’re right with specificity of goals. I broadly say I like to do things Chinese and develop hobbies. A few days ago I decided to get good at two things these next three months: Majiang and pool. I’d played majiang 5 times or so before starting this last spring festival. This one is easy. I played a week ago, kind of noticed where I didn’t get it, and then downloaded a game for my phone. Been addicted to it and have gotten a lot better. Now whenever I go home I stop and watch a few hands at our local majiang parlor. I’m getting to the point where I can read the tiles enough and organize them in my head fast enough where I think I can sit with the old pros. Still probably lose money, but still.
And regarding the book, I couldn’t have done it without pleco. I found a free pdf download and plugged it into the pdf reader on pleco. Any word I didn’t know I looked up with an easy tap. Problem with this is I don’t retain as much. I try not to slip me up though. I’m doing it largely to try to internalize grammatical structures and just to get over the hump of reading my first long format piece in Chinese. I’m trying to find some Science Fiction next.
I think the more specific your goals, the better. I also think the fewer the better. Choose one or two things to do at once. Being like “I want to be a dope cook and get into majiang and start reading and also have a really active social life and do well with work” just leaves you flustered, disappointed, and likely achieving none of them. It’s the classic how do you eat an elephant scenario.
@callum, early Chinese learning is both really rewarding and really humiliating. I say it is rewarding because every single thing you learn is relevant. I remember the first three months of study I felt like every new chapter taught me something I could go out and use, or something I would start to hear in conversations.It was humiliating for me because I felt constantly out of sorts, constantly without the equal or upper hand, and constantly the dumbest guy in the room, at least in terms of what would manifest in a conversation. Trudge on, though, because it is one of my favorite parts of living in China. I can also say without any hesitation it is the thing I am most proud of in my wee life as of yet, mostly because I know how much persistence it takes.
Rick is right. Engage in language wars. Use Chinese whenever you can. If someone hits you with english, fire back with Chinese. It’s part of the game.
Also, at risk of being excessive, Ferris’ definition of fluency makes his promise for the post doable:
“How to be fluent in a few months” is not that crazy when you’re just trying to be comfortable enough to describe things in a new language.
Plus, what they talk about is pretty in sync with Khatz. Major Khatz difference is fanatacism, and he also talks about being working level proficient in a year (reading, writing, speaking) which is truly nuts.
Charlie when I first got to China, I had studied about a month of basic Chinese grammar. I vividly remember an older Suzhou woman (where I first lived for a year) telling me what I need to do. I could understand zero of it, but at one point she laughed so hard that I had her son type the characters into my dictionary. At this point, the woman waddles off and I’m left looking at the sentence “Find a long-haired dictionary.”
I’m with you on all your points. I have a Chinese roommate now and have never had a foreign roommate in the past. I’ve been involved in the Chinese dating scene but haven’t really found a relationship that has lasted long term. The job thing is something that hurts me because I think it would be mad useful. Thing is, I don’t want anything more than a part time job (10 hours a week). I’ve got a unique working arrangement, as you know, and can do everything from my house. So if you know of any magic part time job that is chill, fun, and would force me to speak Chinese, I’m all ears.
The point you make is ideological more than anything, though, and I agree. I’m a believer in putting myself in situations where, even at my being my laziest, I still have to speak/learn Chinese.
My question for you is this: What do you do later on? These immersion strategies were really, really useful early on and even in middle stages. I’m not advanced yet but I’m far enough along where I can do most everything I need to do. Language does not hinder my life, but my Chinese is far from where I want it to be.
Do you have any strategies for later on in the learning process? Reading and writing are good theoretically but hard to maintain. This is where my man Khatz comes in because he really advocates you read/write about things that you care about. Like comics? Read comics. Dig video games? Play video games. Just do it all in your desired language.
Last, I’m real familiar with both of these guys. I actually just read the 4 hour work week in Chinese as my first little project because everyone and their mother has been tlaking about tim ferris recently. I’ve also looked into Benny pretty extensively in the past. I even watched his video on China. Dude definitely can pick stuff up but he acknowledges that he only ever gets so far with most languages. Ferris in that video post also defines fluency pretty loosely as the ability to get by in your desired language, the ability to describe anything that you want to describe even if you don’t know the word. I think I’m on board with that, but it also belies that perhaps these strategies are perhaps too front-end focused.
Longwinded, I am.
I follow Snoop Dogg on Instagram. Been curious to see this sucker (ha) for a long time. How does this compare to other vape pen type things?
Hey Tracy. Just got back to you on languageclan. Out of curiosity, if your english is good enough to write “bump” like a tried and true netizen, why don’t you teach her?
Just a thought. Forgive the assumption that English isn’t your mother tongue. Regardless, look forward to hearing back from you.
