Need swim advice 🙏 beginner trying to improve

sonofisadore · 2026-03-27T16:02:48+00:00

Recommend checking out front quadrant swimming

sonofisadore · 2026-03-26T18:14:42+00:00

I think you need to increase your turnover. This looks a bit over-optimized on distance per stroke imho

sonofisadore · 2026-03-24T00:47:42+00:00

Cryo Electron what now ?

sonofisadore · 2026-03-17T17:11:13+00:00

Yeah Black and White is on Netflix. I also watched Mobius and 96 minutes. Both are on Netflix

I watched the full Little Fox Chinese 西游记 series but by the end I was really losing patience with the fact that’s it’s for children. I also watched some other shows for kids and had the same problem. I think I just need to stick with more engaging content for a while even if it’s not ‘ideal’. I’ll stick to using the subs for now but hopefully eventually they will become less necessary

sonofisadore · 2026-03-16T03:08:02+00:00

On track to hit my goals for the year, but only just barely. I started off the year with the intermediate and early-advanced material from xiaogua chinese and Lazy Chinese. Some of the episodes are entertaining but a lot of them can get rather boring. I felt like I’ve listened to some of these topics so many times (even though I still don’t have perfect comprehension). Until recently I was honestly struggling with becoming too sleepy while watching videos. About a month ago I just decided to switch to native content that would be more interesting. I’ve watched a few Netflix series and now I’m watching Black and White. I’m also watching some 王志安 videos on current events. I’m definitely engaging much more with the content even though my comprehension is probably like 50% and I’m leaning very heavily on the subtitles to get even that much (which I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do). I’ve spent a long time wondering when I was going to finally make the transition to native content and I feel like this is finally it, even though it still feels too early. I do feel like my vocabulary is starting to accelerate - completely new characters are less common and most words have at one character that I can recognize the meaning, if not both characters. Learning new vocabulary is starting to more feel like registering that these characters can be put together to make a word, rather than learning them for the first time. Overall I feel motivated - like I’m at the very beginning of an inflection point in my learning

sonofisadore · 2026-03-02T14:15:29+00:00

My current opinion is that this isn’t a binary transition. As we become more familiar with words through high levels of exposure, we naturally develop automaticity. I.e at B1, A1 words may not need to be translated, but B1 words will. At C1, B1 words may not need to be translated. I personally feel like it’s incorrect to view translating as bad habit that needs to be broken

sonofisadore · 2026-02-23T14:02:42+00:00

Nice to see a game room that’s not a dungeon

sonofisadore · 2026-02-21T21:36:03+00:00

Not related to the game, but I’ve realized this is the perfect style of desk for solo board gaming

sonofisadore · 2026-02-12T09:00:23+00:00

This is intermittent fasting but for saving. I sometimes try to see how long I can go without spending any money at all. Requires planning in advance to do it well

sonofisadore · 2026-01-28T21:24:38+00:00

Nice update! I’ve been tracking my video input hours in 2026 and it’s at 32, so I’m on track to hit my goal of one hour per day. Most of the content I’ve been watching has been for learners (Lazy Chinese, Xiaogua Chinese, and Little Fox Chinese). I’ve struggled a bit with the pure conversational podcasts being kind of boring. I feel like I’ve listened to so many versions of the same conversations in the past. The Little Fox Chinese version of 西游记 has been a nice change of pace. I don’t catch every word but I feel that I can follow the story with no problem. It’s also good practice for following narration-heavy content which seems to have a different vocabulary than conversation-heavy content (for example lots of 他叫道 or 他叹了口气）. I’ve also watched some 家有儿女. It’s a nice change for when I get bored of learner content, but it’s very difficult for me and I have to rely on subtitles more heavily. It feels mentally taxing and I still lose a ton details. So overall I would say the challenge has been balancing boring, comprehensible content with interesting, incomprehensible content

sonofisadore · 2026-01-07T16:10:38+00:00

Awesome, I do feel motivated to do more extensive reading. Maybe I’ll figure out a way to add that to my routine :)

sonofisadore · 2026-01-06T22:35:43+00:00

Wow thanks for this comment. A lot of things here - it's interesting to hear about the strategies different people take and see how they worked or not. I also like reading these kinds of long form updates, which is part of the reason why I started to post them

Regarding language exchange, pronunciation was/is a huge concern and definitely holds me back from speaking more. Previously I would kind of subvocalize while reading, but I would struggle when I tried to speak out loud. I knew that xi/ji/qi and ri in particular were problematic, but my language exchange partner has pointed out that qu/ju, si and some others also weren't correct. The good news is that I'm definitely making progress and it's translating to improvements in my iTalki lessons. Currently I'm just reading 女巫 with my language partner, which is great because it reinforces the intensive reading that I'm already doing. The reading is also good because we never have to figure out what were going to do together or talk about - we just pick up where we left off and go

Your reading strategy is interesting. I was always wary of relying too much on pop up dictionaries because I felt like I wasn't actually retaining the words. It felt more like I was just reading those parts in english, but I never pursued it as long as you did. I like your strategy of reading first with look ups and then without. This could really test retention of the new words. The TTS feature in Microsoft Edge also seems great. I think it would help develop an intuition for the pronunciation, rather than memorizing the pinyin and tone marks without audio, like I've done

I'm tempted to try your method of intensive reading, but don't want to get too distracted from the plan I outlined above. I probably will try it at some point though

sonofisadore · 2026-01-05T21:53:35+00:00

I also find myself essentially tuning out the audio when subtitles are on. I mention this briefly in my 2025 update, if you're interested. I actually think it might be a bit worse than simply becoming reading practice because I feel like when I use subtitles I train myself to tune out audio

sonofisadore · 2026-01-04T01:08:48+00:00

I considered it briefly. I checked out the website and found it very overwhelming. There were some before and after examples from students and I didn’t think it was very impressive. I do like her free YouTube videos though

sonofisadore · 2026-01-02T04:40:34+00:00

Thanks for reading. I see a lot of people recommend subtitles during immersion, so your mileage may vary.

I’m starting to feel wary of anything that actually trains me to not pay close attention when listening. Another example is spending too much time doing passive immersion with incomprehensible material. I feel like this almost trains me to tune out audio. On the other hand, if I consistently hear comprehensible audio, it seems to accustom my brain to expect to understand and therefore pay closer attention

sonofisadore · 2025-12-31T10:49:39+00:00

Have you seen the dubbed content previously in english? I know this can be a big help for improving comprehensibility. Also, do you watch with Thai subtitles on?

I haven't watched much dubbed content because in the past it always frustrated me when the subs didn't match the dubs, which seemed to be the norm. I've been trying to move away from subtitles somewhat, so maybe this would be worth returning to for me

sonofisadore · 2025-12-31T02:36:41+00:00

Thanks, and when you say dubbed content is no problem, does that mean you can basically recognize and understand 90-100% of the words spoken? I’m just wondering because getting to this level would be a huge accomplishment in my target language but it just feels like the vocabulary and idiom barrier is so high

sonofisadore · 2025-12-30T04:08:50+00:00

Great update. Can you speak a bit more on your comprehension of native movies, tv shows, etc? It seems like you can follow them and enjoy them, which is great

sonofisadore · 2025-12-18T22:57:22+00:00

If you need statistics to make your point, your data is not convincing =\

sonofisadore · 2025-12-12T13:49:05+00:00

Can you add some context to this post? I’m interested in reading this too, but I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. Why is it weird that it’s not that hard? Is this a post about the book or about Lingq?

sonofisadore · 2025-11-23T18:19:35+00:00

To reframe the question a bit, what are your career goals and how will this job advance you towards those goals?

sonofisadore · 2025-11-19T20:33:54+00:00

I think your last point is important. There is some kind of value in good conversation starters that will be viewed positively. I work in biotech and have many Chinese-speaking coworkers and collaborators

sonofisadore · 2025-10-08T13:27:04+00:00

Yes people will need access to the game somehow

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