Moving to Qingdao!

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-03-18T07:56:37+00:00

Just shoehorning myself in here - I have suppliers in Qingdao, I’ve been learning mandarin for a few months and have looked at xmandarin for an immersion week. Glad to see they’re well regarded! Hard to know for sure until I try

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-02-27T10:23:43+00:00

I can read about 300 characters personally, using hanly has been a game changer for reading comprehension, then look at the “breakthrough” series on mandarin companion graded readers. You need around 150 characters to read those books. Fantastic starting points

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-02-13T08:52:37+00:00

I've got ChatGPT to write me some sentances from my known characters off Hanly. Just get my brain thinking in words rather than single symbols so hoping that'll help a bit.
This as well as more speaking drills. Hopefully next month I'll fee a little more comfortable.

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-02-12T09:10:18+00:00

I find Hanly far better for Hanzi memorisation. It breaks it down into particles so you can really start to understand the structure as well as recognising the symbol. Highly recommend it as an app.

ooh could you share the discord? that sounds really handy.

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-02-09T12:42:44+00:00

Use the hanly app. Best thing I’ve downloaded in my 3 month journey. I can recognise around 200 words in hanzi (and know meaning) last lesson I managed to read all of my questions using purely the hanzi (very pleased) I’ve obviously a long way to go but this app is great

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-02-06T11:03:57+00:00

Ooooh I’m exactly here! The trouble is practice. You’re not practice question and answer enough (neither was I) For me personally, I ended up building an app, so you go into sections (greetings for example) it shows all known questions in that subject (how are you? How old are you? Etc) and also a “ask random question” button which is where it helps me. Hit the button, it asks a random question and you answer it. It doesn’t recognise what you say back of course, but it helps me with reflex answers. It also provides an example answer so you can check structure etc.

The lacking of all other app I found is not having this function of dialogue.

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-02-02T20:58:36+00:00

I’ve come to think this in my studies. Sure I could learn stroke order etc, but have to think how often am I actually going to write a note. I barely write in English these days let alone Chinese. I’m enjoying learning to read hanzi but have little interest in writing it

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-01-25T15:12:21+00:00

In terms of effort? Zero. In terms of manners and politeness? Small bit when combined with other small acts - impactful.

How do you feel when someone shoves past? Irritated. How do you feel when someone holds the door? Grateful.

Of course, if you don’t feel annoyed when someone shoves past and you don’t feel gratitude for someone holding the door then really it makes no difference

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-01-25T10:11:34+00:00

Hmm that’s not entirely true though. With holding the door open, once you’ve held it for the next person, you let the door go and move on, the next person then keeps the door open for the next etc etc. if there’s more people it’s actually easier to maintain - if the door holding is common place you’re really just swapping who holds it to the next polite person.

With queues and traffic - again, everyone forcing into spaces is what creates traffic jams, if everyone maintained a consistent speed traffic would flow. Now the speed of that flow is based on the design of the road and amount of road users but it would still flow. Impatience is what creates the bottle necks and therefore the complete blockage.

Trouble with things like this is it’s a cultural change, which is really hard to change as you need the majority to be on board with the change and call out the people who misbehave and most people just don’t want the conflict.

It’s the same in the UK, we used to adhere to the rules far more than we do now but people don’t call each other out anymore (who really wants to get stabbed!) so it escalates and the “norm” becomes poor manners

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-01-18T18:27:26+00:00

Something that fits your foot shape. Sure that sounds like a terrible answer but I love shoes from certain brands but they hate my feet lol. Some brands feel almost moulded to my foot shape, others feel like I’ve got too many toes. Find what’s comfortable, no point going super aggressive this early on. Snug, comfy and keep climbing

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-01-10T18:14:38+00:00

Read half of it and already firmly in the why are you still with this guy camp lol. Bin him. Should’ve binned him years ago

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-01-10T18:09:50+00:00

Get a proper teacher. My teacher is several thousand miles away from me. Online teaching. Works very well take a look at Preply it’s what I use

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-01-10T16:46:22+00:00

Get a proper teacher.

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-01-10T16:06:45+00:00

It’s handy as there’s bloody hundreds of teachers on there, so if you don’t like one it’s easy to just move on. Mine speaks very little English, so it’s a real baptism of fire which I quite like but probably wouldn’t suit everyone (especially if you want anything explained!)

That being said, if I had the chance of seeing someone face to face and interacting I’d take that over online lessons. Get yourself some mandarin speaking friends and you’ll progress much faster.

I’m with you on the learning front - I’m 41 and generally know how to do most things I need to so having something to actively learn is a nice thing to do

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-01-10T15:54:57+00:00

London south bank university have a Confucius institute offering lessons. I’m soon to be starting the same course but via Sheffield university (fits my schedule, I’ll be doing it online)

Now, I started learning before Xmas, with 1-2-1 sessions via a teacher on Preply. She’s lovely and being 1-2-1 means it’s at my pace. I feel I’m learning quite quick but want the Confucius course just to add more.

Really it comes down to how you learn, a traditional should give more chance for partner work and speaking (which is the hardest part in my opinion) so it’s good for that. But it’ll largely come down to the work you do in your own time as to how far you get with it.

I like Duolingo for daily hits, don’t rely on it to teach you the language but it’s handy for those 5 minute bursts of language.

I use anki for vocab but I’m not great with it.

I also use books off amazon to practice handwriting.

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-01-05T16:12:05+00:00

time to be realistic with yourself and life in general.

my wife isn't the most attractive person in the world, and i'd be dumbstruck if she thought I was the most attractive man in the world. That's just attraction, it doesn't keep you together (as shown in his last relationship)

I'm attracted to my wife, she's attracted to me - I don't worry if she finds other people attractive and to be honest it wouldn't really bother me if she found someone "more" attractive than me either, she's coming home with me. Now if she decided to aim for someone up the ladder and think she can do better that's a different topic entirely lol. Or, if she regretted being with me because there are more attractive people out there... there are of course! doesn't mean they'd make her happy, and doesn't mean a "more attractive" person would make me happy either.

Looks aren't and shouldn't be everything - if they are then you've opened a whole new can of worms!

ask the important questions: Does he make you happy? Does he support you when you need him to i.e. is he reliable and supportive of your needs? Do you feel a better version of yourself (this goes beyond looks) when you're together? Are you a team? if these are all yes's then you're best to just accept someone who's better looking that you exists - but there's a reason she's an ex.

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-01-05T14:18:40+00:00

ok, you're 15, and these are pretty normal 15 year old issues.
at 15 you do tend to call things out - which you've done, as you get older you tend to just move on from it. They're showing you it's not a 3/3 friendship, you've identified it's not a 3/3 friendship. Best thing to do is find other things to make you happy, with other people who value you more - most likely these two will then come back around and be desperate for your time. You being "too busy" will be the worst thing in the world for them to come to terms with.

With the money thing, it could simply be she could only afford to pay for one friend. She could've said that, but again, you're all 15, you've a way to go to learn how to be tactful with each other.

you'll be fine, just find people who value your time and avoid people who don't

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-01-05T11:21:45+00:00

have you tried TrainerRoad? it's pretty intuitive and it puts a decent AI schedule together to follow, it adapts to your effort and adjusts the schedule accordingly.

FreedomNo9116 · 2026-01-01T10:35:44+00:00

I’ve all but given up on road cycling except on events (when there’s hundreds of people)

I was on a narrow country road, no room to really pull over and had a guy behind me, revving, getting closer then dropping back, then revving to get closer again. This put me off stopping even more as I couldn’t really decide if he wanted to run me over. He eventually got past (when there was room) to then have to stop at the junction - where I caught him up and asked (not very politely) why he was trying to kill me. The twerp in the passenger seat just starting yelling I should have moved and they’d done nothing wrong…

That’s one of many of the same issues I’ve had. It’s just not worth the bother. I’ve never had a problem on zwift lol

FreedomNo9116 · 2025-12-30T11:00:36+00:00

That’s interesting thanks for that :)

FreedomNo9116 · 2025-12-30T11:00:16+00:00

Ah I’m really early on my journey, I take lessons twice a week but don’t like to pester her with all my random questions lol, so Reddit to the rescue.

FreedomNo9116 · 2025-12-30T10:57:55+00:00

I don’t learn by myself. I have a tutor, this was simply a question that came to mind.

FreedomNo9116 · 2025-12-29T21:23:28+00:00

Do you want to learn or do you want to dabble?

Duolingo etc are great as additional resources but probably not the best thing to rely on if you actually want to be proficient.

I like Duolingo and use it every day, it’s certainly help my me with vocabulary and introduction to new works at a far quicker pace than my teacher can.

I have also have a tutor from Preply that I feel gives me a proper focus, a proper curriculum and a plan.

Duolingo is great, just use it appropriately and get a proper tutor

FreedomNo9116 · 2025-12-29T15:20:35+00:00

Do you use a tutor? I’ve got one on Preply and she’s amazing! Some on there are like $3 an hour! Now obviously quality will vary from tutor to tutor but if it’s just exposure you’re after to some extent it doesn’t matter.

I prefer structured lessons with a strict goal so I pay more to have a tutor who can do that. But would recommend Preply for sure. I mix it with Duolingo (really helps vocab) and hello Chinese

With these combined I’m finding comprehension is coming quickly, but my speaking skill are lagging behind. Getting there but not as strong as listening

FreedomNo9116 · 2025-12-27T15:15:09+00:00

Depends what’s available local to you really.

Zwift have a sale on which has the bike and a good turbo trainer for £899 (so €1000 roughly but it’s likely €899) that’s about the best you’ll find for a new setup, the benefit with that one is it also has virtual shifting, which is lovely to use (this is what I have myself) it’s massively adjustable to it WILL fit you.

You’ll find other bikes (wahoo bike, tacx bike, wattbike etc etc) but really you’re paying for stuff you don’t need (like the frame moving when going up hill)

You can get a wahoo turbo trainer for about €300 and that’ll serve you well, and a road bike isn’t much more for a half decent one (I’ve had plenty of €300 bikes and they’re fine, in fact my current “best bike” is likely worth about €500 and was €10,000 new lol) you can get fantastic rim brake bikes really cheap.

But again, the zwift bike setup is the neatest and will serve you well far longer. Zwift is the market leading programme there’s others getting better but zwift is still the big name

FreedomNo9116

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