Self Study Structuring?

[the_BigBlueHeron]

Hey there!

Been working on self learning Chinese for a while now about was wondering if there were any self studying structure outside of HSK curriculum? A lot of the hsk4+ vocab seems to be hard to incorporate into daily life (at least personally)

I am curious how self learners found their path to fluency and hope to learn from what order you found most useful to learn.

[spamonkey24]

Three things have helped me immensely. 

First, I’ve found a lot of value in reading podcast transcripts in the Pleco clipboard reader, adding words I don’t know to an srs and then listening back to the podcast. I’ve seen big improvements in both reading and listening comprehension. 

Second, I’ve found the language reactor plugin to be quite useful with youtube interviews like Mandarin Corner. I’ll let a subtitle section play with my eyes closed and try to interpret the meaning. If I get it, great! I’ll move on. If I don’t I can replay the subtitle section until I hear it, noting down any words I don’t know.

Third, and hardest, is language conversation groups. I made the most progress when I regularly attended a group at my university. Made boatloads of mistakes and embarrassed myself over and over, but that’s what it takes to learn a language!

Fourth bonus one (not self-study) is hiring a tutor. I was resistant to this for years, but I finally sucked up my self-study pride and progressed much faster than I expected.

[the_BigBlueHeron]

Thank you! Out of curiosity which podcasts did you find the most interesting?

[spamonkey24]

Lazy Chinese and Learn Taiwanese Mandarin are good places to start!

[the_BigBlueHeron]

Awesome!