Articles tagged with ‘Efficiency’
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Chengyu, a magic key to Chinese language and culture, or a waste of time?
Chengyu are idioms linked to ancient literature. Are they the key to Chinese language and culture or a waste of time?
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Should you use an efficient method for learning Chinese even if you hate it?
Methods for learning Chinese can be good because they are efficient, because they to focus on the right content, or because they are enjoyable, allowing you to spend more time. But no method is good in all these ways at once, so what should you do if you just don’t like the most efficient method?
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Learn Chinese efficiently, not quickly
Learning Chinese efficiently is a better goal for most people than learning Chinese quickly.
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Are there any shortcuts for learning Chinese?
Some say that there are no shortcuts for learning Chinese, others say that there are many. So which one is it, are there any shortcuts for learning Chinese or not?
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Time quality: Studying the right thing at the right time
Many students think that learning a language is limited to going to class, working your way through difficult texts or having conversations with native speakers. These all contribute to your learning, but learning is not limited to things you can schedule in your calendar. If you think of it like that, you’ll miss so many learning opportunities!
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Why not going to China now could actually be good for your Chinese
Do you have to go abroad to learn Chinese? Will you learn Chinese simply by living abroad? And if you go, does it matter when you go if you can only stay for a short time? This article argues that it does matter when you go, and that you’re better off not going immediately as a pure beginner.
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Analysis paralysis: When choosing method becomes a problem
If you spend more time tweaking your method than you gain from making it more efficient, you might suffer from analysis paralysis. If you spend most of the time thinking about how to learn Chinese, you spend less time actually learning the language, meaning you’d be better of not caring about the method at all! Or would you?
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How to reach a decent level of Chinese in 100 days
Scott Young has written a lot about how to learn more efficiently and this year he has turned his focus entirely on languages. He spent three months in China and managed to reach a very decent level of Chinese in that time, including passing HSK4. In this article, he shares his experience and the strategies he used. The article also contains two video interviews, one with John Pasden (Sinosplice) and one with me.
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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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How to find more time to practise Chinese listening
Listening is probably the most important skill when learning Chinese, and the more you practise, the better. In order to listen as much as you should, you need to stop thinking about listening as a study activity and start thinking about it as a part of life!
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