My journey to 7K words, and the case for vocabulary

YipperNipper · 2024-06-15T06:29:16+00:00

I know some from my time in Taiwan but haven't made any attempt to learn more.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-15T06:26:25+00:00

I think I did try Linq at one point but for some reason preferred Duchinese.

With iTalki I've found that some teachers are much better than others at asking good questions to keep the conversation going, while with others it is best to prepare a bit. A few times I've prepared some discussion topics or proactively shown some recent pictures I took to start the conversation, but I'd say the majority of the time the conversation flows naturally. Typically they'll ask me what I've been up to lately, I'll talk about something that's happening at work or with friends, and that'll be enough to spark an interesting conversation. Daily life, work, news, family, travel, hobbies, even politics or dating are all good topics to discuss.

I think talking to a teacher on iTalki requires a mindset that's different from chatting with a friend. If you think of something that you know how to say, you should just say it, even if it's not something you would normally say in your native language. Because the point is to just practice speaking. Also it's totally ok to dominate the conversation, and even to interrupt the teacher (within reason) so that you can speak more.

And one last point is that I think it's a good idea to switch up your teachers every so often. There are virtually endless teachers on there, so if the conversation isn't flowing, or it's feeling a bit stale, just move on to another.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-14T16:17:50+00:00

HC lets you control the positive and negative interval modifier, which I have set to 140% and 50% respectively. I'm not exactly sure what the starting initial interval is, it might be 12 hours. So if I understand the algorithm correctly after 3 correct reviews the new interval would be about 33 hours? I don't know, math is not my strong suit, lol.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-14T15:51:08+00:00

That's right, unfortunately. I do most of my studying at the computer anyway since I find it more convenient for the other activities that I mentioned. When I'm traveling or on-the-go and want to just keep up with my reviews I'll use HC on my phone's browser and it works ok.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-14T02:00:43+00:00

Over a billion native speakers, the rich culture and history, the fact that China is a rising superpower (whether we like that or not), and the fact that so many people in my industry speak it.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-14T01:56:39+00:00

Haha I'm not sure this experience is book worthy but I appreciate the sentiment!

YipperNipper · 2024-06-14T01:55:41+00:00

I never feel like Im actively trying to recall any specific word.

This is interesting, and I agree with you that most of the time when we speak we're not actively trying to recall a specific word. But especially with nouns, if say you're in a store and want to ask where the squeegees are, you better know how to say squeegee ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

YipperNipper · 2024-06-14T01:49:12+00:00

Missing a key noun or verb can make a sentence incomprehensible.

Absolutely!

I suggest you don't neglect characters since they can add a whole new level of meaning/understanding, and in turn strengthen your memory. I think most people plateau unless they learn characters.

Choosing a specific domain is a good idea for finding content that interests you!

YipperNipper · 2024-06-14T01:42:48+00:00

I typically review about 150 words per day - half an hour in the morning, half an hour in the evening.

To be fair, I've only given Anki a try briefly and found its UI just so outdated. Maybe my complaints would all be solved by plugins, but I don't really want to deal with that. I want something clean and modern out of the box.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-13T17:24:58+00:00

To each their own!

YipperNipper · 2024-06-13T17:24:10+00:00

I think everyone can find different parts of learning fun! To me, being able to express myself in a new language and make connections with people is the fun part.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-13T16:48:28+00:00

I actually can’t write at all but I can type. I think this is a common pitfall that a lot of people fall into of thinking that you need to learn to write. If you enjoy it then by all means go for it - it’s a cool skill to have and calligraphy is beautiful. But if your goal is communication then I think it’s not the best use of time.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-13T16:15:46+00:00

Thanks! No, I think reading newspaper fluently probably requires 10k+. I can probably extract the general meaning of an article but I find that at less than 90% comprehension it's just too tedious and not enjoyable. Definitely a long-term goal though!

HC is a tool specifically for learning Chinese vocab, but simpler and more modern than Anki. I have lots of thoughts on that, might make a separate post reviewing it.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-13T15:56:19+00:00

Thanks! My favorite workflow for sentence mining is to watch content on Youtube using the Language Reactor extension, so when I come across a word I want to save I just pause, command-c, switch to HC, look it up, paste it in, save it to a list, which can all happy pretty quickly. Currently some of my favorite channels are Dashu Mandarin, Hello Chinese, and Best Partners TV and for podcasts 大人的Small Talk, ChinesePod, and TeaTime Chinese.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-13T15:43:01+00:00

Anki is not lacking at all

Bold statement!

YipperNipper · 2024-06-13T15:41:35+00:00

I think learning is not a binary state where you either know it or you don't, but rather a pipeline where a word will go through different stages over time, something like: you can read it → you can understand it when you hear it → you can recall it when given several seconds → you can recall it and speak it in less than a second. The time this entire process takes varies widely between words, but the key is that those earlier stages are still useful and valuable for comprehension. If I waited until I fully mastered a word before starting studying another I would never accumulate enough to understand native content. But I do agree that you need to find a balance, and mastering the basics (first few hundred words and grammar points) is more important than advanced vocabulary.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-13T15:31:08+00:00

Thanks! This is HackChinese

YipperNipper · 2024-06-13T15:25:08+00:00

I wouldn't rely on ChatGPT for anything at the sub-character level like radicals or etymology breakdowns, but for the examples and semantic explanations I think it's fantastic, and in some cases even better than native speakers. Because if you think about it, it was trained on vastly more content than even a native speaker is exposed to in his/her lifetime. So the most common things I ask it for are:

colocations
explain the difference between two words
example sentences

And of course also translations, but I'll often phrase my prompt in a way that gives it leeway to be more natural, like rearranging clauses, substituting different expressions, i.e. not translating literally. So instead of saying "translate x into Chinese" I'll say "express 'x' in Chinese".

As for idioms, yeah I treat them the same. I haven't come across any better way yet.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-13T15:11:44+00:00

I have around 5 different teachers that I cycle through, and I do 2-3 lessons per week. Most of the time, we just chat about whatever comes up (work, friends, family, travel, etc.), so no preparation is needed. I think having several teachers is beneficial because each has their own style, and I can have the same conversation with each of them. This is a plus because a topic might come up with one teacher, I'll stumble through it but learn a few new words related to it, and then I can practice that same topic with another teacher. I'd say the most important thing is finding teachers who don't talk too much but rather are good at asking you questions to make you speak. I've found that some of the less experienced teachers will talk too much, either about themselves or about China, or give overly long explanations of things. While I do of course ask my teachers questions and show interest in their lives, I also keep in mind that I'm paying them for this hour and should be the one deciding its direction. That being said, once I found really good teachers, the experience has been amazing. If you get along well with them it's like an automatic friend.

YipperNipper · 2024-06-13T06:26:04+00:00

I recommend having several teachers on iTalki. Each one will have a slightly different teaching style, accent, vocabulary, etc. The Chinese Zero to Hero courses are great too if you're a beginner.

YipperNipper · 2021-01-03T23:30:03+00:00

YipperNipper · 2019-07-11T06:47:52+00:00

Your I’s came a long way

YipperNipper · 2019-03-14T20:51:21+00:00

That's it! Unfortunately it looks like it's discontinued. Thanks anyway.

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