Best way to learn

That's not bad for a year, I've been learning for 2 years and probably only just at intermediate level.

Again, taking Aunty Sue's above comments re different techniques working for different people, I think artkho's comment about speaking with native speakers applies regardless. Also, I have found it helps to talk to people unfamiliar with your capabilities. Otherwise, people who know you well adjust their conversation to your existing level, rather than speaking naturally.

one tip which i feel has helped me is to spend time to read the dialogues out aloud as much as possible, obviously the practice plan or language exchange where you can just speak freely (even though it doesn;t sound right) helps a great deal too... the biggest hurdle for me was simply to get over the embarassment/shyness factor... now i speak very confidently and loudly even through i am not sure what i am saying is correct... this definately helps... simply for me, after about 3 years of studying (using various methods) the more i speak freely be it reading the dialouges or with a mandarin speaker... the better my understanding and confidence gets... now after 6 months or so using the practice plan, i've decided i'm going to add in a weekly one on one session with a local tutor to have the opportunity to just speak more and more

My current theory is that nobody else's method will work, no matter how splendidly they explain its merits. So the idea is to try them all out, and see if any parts work for you, and in the end do it your way. Meanwhile, do whatever gives you a thrill, no matter what other people say, it's all learning, and thrill makes it sink in more effortlessly. Keep looking out for different ideas to try, especially ones that appeal or make you curious about them. After a year and a half I've discovered something in the last week that is almost the opposite of how I've been trying to learn, what I've been believing is right for learning, and it seems to be pressing some magic buttons. It's a book that takes a different approach, not a good approach at all really, but it supplies some things that my own learning style needs that I haven't thought important before, and that quiets my mind and helps to put my normal lessons in a clearer light. It's early days, but I think the lesson vocab is starting to stick using this "wrong" approach. So this is my current learning experiment. Next week I might be singing its praises, or on to something different. Whatever, it always results in fun and an improvement of some sort. So basically my suggestion, which could be wrong, is to follow your heart while using all of the resources available. If you find yourself doing something that's "good for you" or that you "should do", question it. As for listening multiple times, I found there comes a point where I start to groan and think oh not that again, and then it's too late, that lesson has become hard to learn. You have to stop before that happens. Repeat by all means, but don't use them as a mental jackhammer, stop listening to a lesson while you still have a curious thought and a big smile. Then they will still be pleasant to come back to next month or the one after. OK, so here's an example of some advice by a well intentioned fellow student. Try out the crazy bits to prove they don't work for you, and the good bits to see what ideas you can steal from them, and don't believe a word of what I've said until you know for sure that it works for you AND gives you a thrill.

yeah, everyone is different. and vice versa... I speak to Vera every day, well, 4 days a week really. trying to say what's on your mind helps, or write, all in Chinese. There's way too much going on here in English...

I think Sue said it very well. I have to agree.

Some good stuff there, Aunty. Do you care to share more about your "wrong" approach with us and how it´s helping you?

while I would have to agree with Sue, I think the best way to learn is to pack up your bags and move to China - that way your forced into all different ways of learning at the same time. Unfortunately, most of us can't do that - but wouldn't it be nice. 美国人由诞生, 中国人在心脏

Although I did the listen test again the other day and it still said low elementary. I think your brain needs at least 3 years to process all the fragmented data. It's like a slow defrag of your brain. ;)

Bryan, I'm only not sharing because I haven't really tried it yet, and to my logic (though not my heart) it is educationally unsound. I've just finished taking a month off all Chinese study due to life getting in the way (I also find these breaks help memory a lot!) so I need to get back into it before having anything to share. But it's an example of how even what you know to be crap can come along in a new light and provide something rare and special at some future time if your mind is open to it.

What works best for me is to speak Chinese out loud as much as possible. If you don't want to do it when other people are listening, wait until you're at home alone and go over a few lesson dialogs, repeating them until you're completely confident with them. I've really noticed how doing this helps to stick the phrases in my head, and how if I do a lesson and don't speak out loud, I can't remember it even 10 minutes later. Another thing is to try and construct sentences in your head - when you get on the train, say "I'm going to the office by train" to yourself. When it starts raining, try to remember what the word for 'rain' is. I think that the more contexts you see and use a word in, the better it becomes engrained in your long-term memory. Of course, the really important thing to do to learn anything is to ENJOY IT! If at any point you think, "I can't be bothered with this", take a break until tomorrow, or for a few days, until you get really excited about Chinese again. And well done for getting to elementary in a year!

I like to read/write a lot of stuff. I'm a very visual thinker though, but I'm not convinced that it sticks in terms of speaking/listening. That's why I try my best to listen to the podcast first, then read the dialogue, so that I don't neglect my weaknesses. As for speaking... well, I'll find out how that is when I go to China in March ;)

Aunty, that's really interesting. For my memory the breaks (caused by life) are very good, too. It's amazing. Seems like chinese vocab has to sink down slowly to the memory. It was different at the first break (which was just forgetting), but meanwhile a break seems really efficent. I'm playing around a lot with *not* learning Chinese

中国小学生用六年时间学汉字和汉语。但是在日常生活中你只需要熟练掌握几百个汉字就够用了。

I suggest hanging out with Chinese and Taiwanese. I've found that speaking Mandarin (or Chinglish) helps with these folks help me apply what I learn from Chinesepod and improve my speaking and listening skills.

haha,my english is chinglish.But i want to improve it so much and i found the process is baldness.When I break into Chinesepod I found that maybe I can use my chinglish do something and then become really English!

One thing I've been really pleased about is the thought of quitting or even cutting back has not even entered my head. I've kind of acknowledged I'm not going to be speaking passable chinese anytime soon but thats okay.....I'll get there eventually. I have quite a bookshelf now to go with the other stuff I am doing but I don't talk about my studies at work as this is a personal endeavour not an attempt to enhance my business value as most will probably take it! That means subtly using Chinese pod at my desk I get away with at lunchtime but I won't sit in the coffee lounge reading chinese books. Dsl333 makes a good point a lot of this is about the confidence to talk it....and I've not even gotten up the courage to thank the girl in the local chinese chip shop in chinese, just in case she's cantonese... :-(