Articles in the ‘Intermediate’ category Page 37
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5 insights from the first year of a master’s program in Taiwan
Pursuing an academic degree taught in Chinese is a great example of instrumental motivation. This article contains five insights from my first year at the Graduate Institute for Teaching Chinese as a Second Language (華語文教學研究所) in Taipei, Taiwan. Among other things, the article is about grammar, native speakers, the importance of having fun and the essence of communicative learning.
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How to get good grades when studying Chinese
Ideally, we would study Chinese just because we want to and in any manner we see fit, but this isn’t how it works for most students. Instead, we need to care about tests and grades, an extra layer added on top of our own personal goals and ambitions. This article is about studying Chinese when those tests and grades really matter, a kind of basic survival guide for both exams and courses.
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The get-back-up-to-speed summer challenge
This is a challenge to encourage readers (and myself) to get more out of the remaining weeks of the summer. I have huge Anki and skritter queues and I plan to fight the down to zero before September 1st. You might need to study more vocabulary or you might have other things you want to complete this summer. Will you join the challenge?
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Role-playing as a way to expand your Chinese
When learning a language, we naturally become very good at what we do often, but expanding our knowledge beyond our personal sphere of experience is an essential step to take. Role-playing is a useful tool that can be employed to take this step. Practice with a friend and create new situations or new persons, all depending on which area you feel you need to improve in.
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Dealing with near-synonyms in Chinese as an independent learner
Near-synonyms cause major headaches for language learners and it’s especially hard for Chinese learners due to the lack of adequate resources in English. This article suggests some ways of handling the problem of near-synonyms when learning Chinese.
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What research can and cannot tell us about learning Chinese
Most students don’t read scientific studies very often, but they might still encounter them in the mainstream press or when discussed online. Reading scientific papers isn’t easy, though, and if not careful, you might draw the wrong conclusions. This article is about how to read studies about learning Chinese.
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If you think spaced repetition software is a panacea you are wrong
Spaced repetition software (SRS) is widely discussed online, and generally speaking, there is a spectrum between people who think SRS is the holy grail of learning anything and those that think SRS is artificial, passive and just a waste of time. This article argues that this polarisation is a serious mistake, SRS is a tool and like any other tool, how we use it determines what we get from it.
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Learning how to learn Chinese through self-experimentation
Rigorous scientific research typically requires large sample sizes, otherwise it isn’t possible to draw any conclusions about the population at large, which is the goal of most studies. However, experimenting with yourself as the only participant might not be relevant for other learners, but it’s highly relevant for you. This article is about how to use self-experimentation to learn Chinese.
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Using Audacity to learn Chinese (speaking and listening)
Audacity is a marvellous piece of software that allows you to record audio (yourself, other people or whatever is playing on your computer), mimic native speakers, edit and enhance the audio, as well as automatically manipulate multiple files, such as lecture or lesson recordings. In short, Audacity is a really good program for learning languages. This article introduces the software both through a video example and explaining text.
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You might be too lazy to learn Chinese, but you’re not too old
Children learn languages neither quickly nor effortlessly, but there’s still a lot we can learn from them. You might be too lazy, but you’re definitely not too old to learn Chinese.
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