Whenever I meet someone who is learning a foreign language, I am endlessly curious about how they’re doing it.
What textbooks are they using? How did they get from the beginner to the intermediate stage? How often do they use the language? And on and on.
Because of that curiosity, I thought it would still be pretty cool to reflect on how I’ve gotten to where I am and what I do now to progress to the next level.
Right now, I’m at an A2 level in Chinese, which means that I can handle basic conversations.
I really want to be at a B2 level by next year, and if you’re interested, here are my plans for how I intend on reaching that level.
When I was just starting out at an A1 level, here’s what I did to progress to A2.
A1 -> A2
The first resource I began using seriously is called Chinese Learn Online and a lovely man named Adam who is very into the Taiwanese culture and the Mandarin language created it. Altogether there are seven levels of audio lessons, each level consisting of around 60 lessons.
Within each lesson, you can complete exercises for writing, listening and sentence construction.
When I used this resource it was the first time that I followed a program well enough to actually see marked progress from it. After level three, I began feeling much more comfortable putting sentences together.
After every lesson, I would take all of the vocabulary and sentences learned and put them into my Anki deck. It was great because each lesson came with individual audio so all of my cards were equipped with audio and pictures.
At around level four (lesson 204, to be precise) I was so endlessly bored of the lessons and the exercises.
I played with the idea of just pushing through the boredom, but realized it wasn’t fun anymore and knew that I had tapped out on that specific resource.
COST = $50 every 3 months or $20 every month
I am and will always be obsessed with Taiwanese dramas. While I was in the A1 level, I couldn’t understand much of what was being said, but I would watch them anyway because they’re entertaining and I wanted to really get a feel for the rhythm of the language.
After many episodes of shows like In Time With You and Dear Mom, I started picking up whole chunks of sentences, identifying sentence structure and plucking new words out like prizes.
Every time that I would learn a new word or recognize a sentence structure pattern, I would put it straight into my reflections notebook and then after into my Anki deck.
COST = $8 per month
I firmly believe the only reason I have made it to an A2 level after years of struggling to learn this language is because I had Anki as a tool. It’s basically a digital flash card system that repeats card reviews until you remember them.
For example, I can put a new card in one day and when I review the next day, I’ll see my new card. If I remember it, I’ll see it again in another day. Then I’ll see it in three days, seven days, one month and eventually six months.
This system exists so the word is constantly being reintroduced to me and that tells my brain that it’s something important that I need to store in my long-term memory.
During this time, I limited my reviews to 100 cards per day and would review around every two to three days when I was being particularly diligent.
COST = One time fee for iPhone app of $25
YouTube
I used YouTube the least during this time period, but I did enjoy videos done by Fiona Tian, Bai Jie, and Peggy.
Here are my favorite videos from each of them.
Just like with every other resource I use, once I learned a new word or phrase from these videos, they would go straight into my Anki deck.
COST = Free
For around a four month period, I would meet with a professional tutor on Italki once a week. He was from Taiwan, which was perfect, and he had textbooks that he used to guide me through grammar points, vocabulary and conversation topics.
When I first started learning with him it was really intimidating to have lessons only in Chinese, but I got used to the phrases he always used and was able to pick up a lot of good vocabulary and grammar points, which of course, went into Anki after each session.
COST = Between $15 – $20 for each 1-hour tutoring session
Other notable resources:
— MandarinSpot – I love their dictionary and annotation features.
— Pleco– I ADORE this dictionary and will forever be in gratitude for their example sentences.
What didn’t work for me at this stage
The resources that absolutely didn’t work for me at this stage were
— Easy readers – I just couldn’t get into the stories.
— Textbooks – YAWN.
— Workbook exercises – DOUBLE YAWN.
— Skritter – I think Skritter is a really cool resource, which I definitely want to revisit in the future, but I just couldn’t stay interested enough in writing to return to it everyday.
A2 -> B1
Now, to get from where I am now, at A2 to B1, here is what I’m doing.
Brian Kwong runs a really cool program called the #Add1Challenge, which is essentially 90 days of nonstop language learning.
You get to choose your routine, mine started off as 5 days a week x 45 minutes a day and after day thirty is now 7 days a week x 30 minutes a day.
The goal is to stay consistent and be motivated by everyone else in the community who is also learning a language.
He sets you up with a study group of people learning your target language and a mastermind group of people learning other languages. All of this accountability results in you being consistent and banking on your momentum.
I can honestly tell you that if this challenge didn’t exist, I would be further behind in my studies and less motivated. I am so grateful that I’m in it.
COST = $97
If you’re interested in seeing how the challenge is going, you can watch my Day 0 and Day 30 videos below!
Since I was bored of Chinese Learn Online, I decided to find another resource to experiment with and after reading a few reviews, I decided to get a subscription for FluentU.
Basically FluentU is a huge video and transcript library divided by levels. They have videos that they make in-house (which are actually interesting and culturally accurate) and ones from YouTube.
When you watch the videos, you can follow along with the transcript and click on words that you don’t know.
These words can be added to your flash card decks to review later.
Depending on your subscription level, you can also take mini-quizzes and do activities based on the video lessons.
COST = $8 per month
Anki will never stop being useful to me. I am their biggest fan.
However, now I’ve limited my daily review from 100 per day to 65 per day. This is because I have three other decks to review consistently and seeing 100 a day was really demotivating.
COST = One time fee for iPhone app of $25
DramaFever
I am chest deep in the drama Dear Mom and am obsessed with it. It’s great because it’s a lot of dialogue.
I do wish, however, that there were Chinese character subtitles instead of English subtitles.
For this reason, I may switch to watching a drama on SugoIdeas once I finish with this show.
COST = $8 per month
I recently started using HelloTalk to chat with natives in Taiwan. So far, I’ve only used text chat, and it takes me about 100 hours to type a message like 你的工作是什麼 using my zhuyin keyboard. Sigh.
COST = Free
Italki Tutoring Sessions
Recently I’ve been slacking with the tutoring sessions, but with the motivation from the #Add1Challenge, I’ve started rebooking them.
COST = Between $15 – $20 for each 1-hour tutoring session
Chatting with a native speaker in person
I’ve made it a habit to speak to my mother at least once a day in Chinese. She’s a native speaker who grew up in Taiwan, and she still uses the language for work, so it’s nice to hear her accent and give my speaking skills a go on a daily basis.
From these conversations I know that I still struggle with tones and need to work on expanding my vocabulary.
I’ve also joined a Meetup group in Las Vegas for Taiwanese language and culture, so that could be another great opportunity for speaking.
COST = Free
Even though it’s not strictly Mandarin from Taiwan, I love these audio lessons because they’re funny, sometimes vulgar, and interesting.
I don’t listen to them nearly enough and want to get into a more regular habit.
COST = Free
Resources I’m looking forward to trying
CCTV – These are video-based lessons, and while they’re a bit out of date, they’re pretty useful and I love the breakdown at the end of each scene.
COST = Free
Getting to B1
At this point, getting to B1 is all about me staying consistent with my studies and practicing speaking.
It sounds simple because it is, but it’s also easier said than done. At times, motivation can be incredibly low, and I think that is my greatest enemy.
(That and tones. ;])
What about you? What level are you currently at, and what are you go-to resources to get to progress to the next level?
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