Articles in the ‘Learning outside class’ category Page 22
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Improving your Chinese by translating from another language
I think translation is one of the best ways of improving writing ability. Translation forces you into linguistic environments you wouldn’t have ended up in if you wrote the article yourself. This article is about how translation can be used to improve your written Chinese.
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How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components
Anyone who has tried mnemonics for learning Chinese characters knows that some components are easier to link together than others. This article discusses in detail how to deal with abstract or general character components and how to handle components with the same or overlapping meaning, an essential skill if you’re serious about character learning.
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Sensible character learning: Progress, reminders and reflections
The sensible character challenge has now been running for two weeks and it’s time to see how things have been going so far. This post is a progress report that contains some reflections on the challenge itself, as well as some practical advice on how to solve common problems. It also invites participants to share their experience and progress so far.
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Towards a more sensible way of learning to write Chinese
This character learning challenge strives to teach students to learn Chinese characters in a way that makes sense in the long term. While the challenge is over, the principles are still applicable!
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You can’t learn Chinese characters by rote
My conclusion after years of learning characters is that rote learning is useless. Spaced repetition software is good, but it’s still not enough. If adult foreigners are going to learn to write Chinese by hand, we really need another method. We need mnemonics, we need active processing, we need to quit rote learning and stop using SRS mechanically.
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Measuring your language learning is a double-edged sword
Spaced repetition software offers a great way of measuring progress, every step forward is recorded and clearly visible. However, this is also a trap, because even though SRS is useful, it’s just a tool, not a comprehensive strategy. Measurable progress is a great help, but only if you use it correctly.
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Have fun learning Chinese or else…
Having fun while learning, or at least making the best of every situation, is essential. Learning a language requires a lot of time and if we don’t enjoy the process, we aren’t likely to invest the time we need to master a language.
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13 more songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons
This is the third article in a series about using music to learn Chinese. The goal this time is to expand your horizons a bit and help you find music you like. While you probably won’t enjoy all songs presented here, it’s fairly likely that you will find at least a few you like!
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Learning Chinese in the shower with me
This article is about using time and space in your shower to learn more Chinese. This might seem extreme, but it’s just another method of diversifying your learning. Why spend high quality time in front of your computer or in the library learning things you could equally well learn in your shower?
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Learning styles: Use with caution!
Looking at popular literature about learning styles, it looks like the use of learning styles is based on solid science. This isn’t the case and many scientists dispute the claims made by authors and educators favouring teaching based on learning styles. In this article, I discuss learning styles critically, but also provide some thoughts on how they can be used productively.
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