plain-purple•7mo ago
How can I level-up my study?
Just a general question on study workflow. I've been studying simpified Chinese for a year now and quite casually. Dedicating approximately 30-45 Minutes per day in a mix of passive / active immersion (Netflix & Spotify Podcasts), The Migaku Academy Level 1 flashcards, reviewing mined flashcards, reading chairman bao articles, reviewing hanzi on Skritter, etc.
Recently I've been dedicating more time to my Chinese study and wanting to take it to another level. When I explore the server, I read people talking about the advantages of things like learning IPA, Yomininja, and other programmes that appear difficult to set up or have a feeling that they're out of reach. I feel like I'm only dipping my toes in the water despite having a background in Japanese. I wanted to ask the more seasoned learners what you would recommend doing to take my study to that next level.
Any help is much appreciated!
9 Replies
flat-fuchsia•7mo ago
Hey! What are your goals (writing, reading..etc)? What kind of media do you want to enjoy in chinese?
plain-purpleOP•7mo ago
Hey! Generally I have long-term goals for Chinese and would like to enjoy most forms of daily media with general ease as though it were my native language, I.e. Netflix, News articles, Books (do tend to read up on business). Eventually it would be nice to start considering taking the HSK exams to symbolise my hardwork as a personal goal. I work in an area where tourism is high and seeing people's faces light up when I speak even a little Chinese really makes my day. In short I wouldn't say I would want to specialise in anything but rather become a generalist and treat the language learning process as a lifelong journey rather than a one-off activity
flat-fuchsia•7mo ago
Then your workflow seems to be good. Yomininja is for media that needs to be OCR'd (like manga/manhua, videos without the subtitles burned in instead of a separate file or being able to turn them on/off).
Ipa is nice if you want to see what sounds might be similar to the languages you know or languages that you would want to learn.
The final say is too keep immersing in the media you like. The migaku reader is coming up next year as well.
plain-purpleOP•7mo ago
Ahh this is really good news! I think it's easy to compare your own study workflow with others and feel as though you're not doing enough! Maybe I'll consider IPA down the line should I wish to explore other languages.
Thank you for your help on this, and I'm excited to give the migaku reader a try when it releases
adverse-sapphire•7mo ago
I'll just note that I wouldn't count passive immersion time towards anything. So a mix of both doesn't sound like a good metric. Like it would be better to count passive immersion as a fraction of active immersion. Like 1/10th ratio or something. Passive is great, you should do it, but don't weigh it highly in how much it adds to your metrics.
metropolitan-bronze•7mo ago
I really think it depends of what you count as passive immersion. Listening to a podcast as go on a walk or cook is much different to listening as you are having a conversation in English.
adverse-sapphire•7mo ago
If you want to track it it's fine, but I would still count it separately and not group it with active, as they are very different things.
And 30-45 minutes isn't exactly a lot per day, esp when I don't know the ratio of which is what.
adverse-sapphire•7mo ago
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Is passive listening helpful or a WASTE of time?
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Have questions about language learning? Ethan and Ben have answers! In this clip, they tackle the question: "Does passive listening have value?"
Does listening to immersion material in the background while you'r...
metropolitan-bronze•7mo ago
I stopped tracking them separately but I could not find any real difference in practice. I think once you get to a certain level of comprehension you will just actively listen to your passive immersion, unless you are intentionally ignoring it which is pretty hard.