What to do when in a Mandarin FUNK ?

Calkins, a break now and then is a good thing. I once was training for a marathon and was up to around 60 miles of running a week. My knees began to hurt, so I went to a "sports doctor". He told me that my knees hurt because I was running too much; "$600 please." Same thing for Mandarin. You need to schedule occasional breaks. Besides, you're getting ready to go to Taiwan, right? You'll be fine. Just take it easy until you're ready again and stay away from the obsessive-compulsive thing.

Calkins: I hate to sound all Bush-esque on you, (thousand points of light), but in my experience these 5 years, I've found the best thing to do is to stay the course. That having been said, I'm going to suggest ways to help you control burnout while staying the course. Staying the course includes not getting frustrated by an apparent lack of progress (like Frank said, you'll get there). Staying the course also includes doing a little bit every day, but be realistic about how much you can do in a day. Maybe only 20 minutes of activities in your Chinese, or study per day. It's extremely important to VARY your activities or you'll burn out for sure, it can't all be textbooks, you need activities like watching movies, listening to music and chatting (as others have suggested), I also suggest writing in Chinese or Pinyin about something your interested in to relax. Maybe write a letter to a Chinese friend, write an essay about your favorite sports car, starting a Chinese blog etc. Study the lyrics of your favorite Chinese song, alternate listening to it and looking up the words, you'll feel almost like your cheating it's so easy! Read a Chinese website about a subject your interested in, looking up the words and trying your best to understand what it means, even if you only look up a few in a day. You'll find it gets quickly gets easier. Chinese Karaoke is also a fun way to help practice Chinese. On days you don't feel into it you can just practice one aspect of your Chinese, like using pinyin texts to just practice your pronunciation without trying to force yourself to understand what it means. Taking breaks is something that's very important as well, I've always approached it like a diet, 6 days of work followed by 1 day you don't do anything that even remotely has to do with Chinese, rest and relax, refresh your mind. IF you feel yourself starting to get that disinterested feeling, it's a great idea to switch out what your doing, try other activies and be creative, find things that work for you that keep you connected to Chinese. Listening to Chinese while you sleep is a low-stress way to keep yourself into it, not taxing on the mind, but a good way to keep in contact with Chinese. Listening to the Chinesepod Podcasts while you do something else, like doing chores, looking at pictures, eating your Lunch can all help. Finding every excuse to keep immersed in it, but not over-stressing yourself in it is important. Like John said, after times of rest big breakthroughs are common! The main thing is, not to overdo it. Good luck in your studies!

I understand. Sometimes you feel its not going in, is too boring etc. So hows about instead of actively studying, as in reading textooks, doing exercises...do something a bit more natural, relaxing but also at the same time proove to yourself that you have learnt a hell of a lot.... for example watch a ...Chinese movie without the english subtitles, read a Chinese comic ( i recommend DOREMON), read some Chinese blogs，go find some friendly Chinese people to have tea and a chat with. Youll probably amaze yourself by how much you can understand. Youll be using your Chinese in a relaxing and enjoyable way. But at the same time this really helps to keep your Chinese 'real', and not too textbooky grammery. Im sure youll be able to then go back to your studies with new questions, ideas and vigour. 加油

In my case, if I start to feel burned out, it's usually because I'm not happy with my results. Actually, "not happy" is euphemism, as I tend to get very frustrated with my apparent lack of progress at times. What's usually obvious to everyone but me in these situations, is that I really am making progress, and the reason I'm frustrated is because I'm expecting too much of myself. In these cases, I just have to learn to be content where I am (though not content to stay there), and maybe take a night/weekend off or something. The pressure may seem worse in your case, since you have somewhat of a "deadline" to meet. Just remember, there's a fine line between diligent study and cramming. You can't force your brain to absorb more when it's full for the day/week/whatever. And be encouraged; what you've learned so far is probably more than most Westerners take with them into a situation like that. I hope I don't sound too condescending. :P It's not like I've been studying that much longer than you anyway. But if there's one thing I do have experience with, it's the frustration of trying to acquire a skill over the long-term. 加油！

I second chitty's post. Go do something fun, and don't feel guilty about not hitting the books for awhile. Pretty soon, not only will you realize how much you've learned, you'll also realize there's more to learn - and at least for me, that's often enough motive to get back at it again and figure it out! P.S. I saw you're a photographer in Chicago. I have a good friend from Taiwan at the Art Institute. Just thought I'd throw that in - totally off subject, of course! :- P

Calkins, I can tell. Sometimes, I have the same feeling when i learning English. It is hard for me to understand a page long reading comprehension, even i should do four reading comprehension everyday. I just can do half correct and i am so worry about the coming test. I agreed with ohters that you should go out and have fun or you can watch some chinese movie and listen to chinese songs. If you want to know some wonderful chinese songs, tell me , i can help you! Relax, take it easy.

Thanks everyone! Your suggestions and cheer are much appreciated. I do take the usual breaks to hang out with family and friends, etc., and I do rent Chinese movies often and listen to a good bit of Chinese music (actually, I'm listening to a band right now called Super VC...anyone heard of them...I think they're from Beijing?). But you all make a good point, because I never really considered these things "studying". Now I will ! Sparechange, you are probably right...I know I put too much pressure on myself, and probably more so because of my impending move. (btw, you definitely didn't sound condescending). Like everyone here, I just really love learning Chinese. But I guess that doesn't mean that we shouldn't take breaks. Anyway, I think my break is over....I just noticed that Yang Jie is back!!!!

Brent, you probably remember my problems a few weeks ago: http://chinesepod.com/connections/viewpost/lunetta/connect/An+involuntary+break+from+CPod I ended up listening to Aunty Sue. I just took it easy and slowly I got back into the groove again. Of course, you may want to skip the knitting but it actually helps on your concentration. ;-)

Breaks are good, as long as they aren't long/permanent. A week or two is no big deal!

Just repeating the wisdom of the community here, but I totally agree that breaks help a lot. Often big breakthroughs follow long breaks. That has been true for me many times.

calkins, what I do when I realize that I've overdosed on Mandarin is: I go to my Italian friends' restaurant and eat a really big pizza with them. Or better still, go scrounge in their kitchen for whatever's cooking. Drink a glass of wine and watch sports with them on the restaurant's flat-screen TV. Just my personal technique...

One needs to be careful. It is just like sports: Stop it for a day and you get back in easily. Stop it for 3 days and you find the excuse not to restart on the 4th day. Stop it for a week and it becomes hard to find a reason why to restart. Stop it for a month and it is almost impossible to remember what it was all about. On the other hand: Be overly ambitious and you will burn out and grasp the first straw that will provide you with the "reason" to pause for those deadly 4 days. For me right now there is another issue, though: I should have other priorities. The academic competition does not have a hobby like learning Chinese. They write papers. Many do not even have a familiy. They write papes. And the best do not even have a soul. ;) So I always feel guilty when I am doing this. I guess I ned to turn this Chinese thing into something useful very soon or there will be some kind of crash. But for now I still have to work through 5 88news-posts, 1 Advanced lesson, and about 10 character points. Sigh.

Hi henning. I think I know what you're saying. My language learning is driven, in the most part, by... guilt. But constructive guilt! The guilt that comes from juggling a few languages, with limited time; sometimes I imagine that it's not so different from being the parent of a few children, and trying to enjoy each child. For me, working on 2 or 3 unfamiliar languages simultaneously keeps the "language acquisition" bubbling, so that even if I rest from one language, I am still doing another language, and it doesn't grind to a halt. The danger here is "shallowness", though...

Henning, In my experience, the burn out in academia can go both ways. I've cranked out two papers so far this year, and now find myself wanting to ratchet up my Mandarin studying and triathlon training (my other current obsession). Hopefully, this will let me hang on to my soul! Cheers, Steve

calkins -- "I'll get there." That's what I keep telling myself. It's this internal voice, a very calm and Zen thing where I just relax and know... I'll get there. I've been with ChinesePod almost since they started. Aside from the book from which I'm teaching myself the characters, this is my only source of learning on the subject. I used to go through two or three lessons a day (depending on the level). I'd do the lesson, the expansion, the exercises. When they added The Fix, I did that, too. Then... burnout. It happened suddenly. I did NOT enjoy it. But I got back on the horse and started again. I stopped treating this like I was training for the Olympics. I remembered that this is supposed to be FUN. When it stops being fun, you'll stop doing it. Now, as you know, I just came back from Shanghai. You'd think I would have pounded through a ton of lessons before I went in order to prepare for the trip. You'd be wrong. I was totally laid back about the whole thing. I figured any vocabulary I didn't already know wasn't going to magically attach itself to my neurons before I got on the plane. So I just shrugged and enjoyed myself. And I spent whole *days* talking in Chinese to people. Sometimes, I did it badly, but I did it! LOL Now and then I see or hear something in Chinese and my brain doesn't translate it anymore. It just understands it. It's happening more and more as the days pass and I can't help but think that part of it is because I'm just letting it happen. I'll get there, man. You will, too. Try not to worry about the destination and just enjoy the journey. (Sorry this post was so long. It really should have been it's own post over in the Newbie blog, but... hey. You're special. :-))

My relaxation is music. You've said you're an over zealous gatherer, like me. :) I'd probably spend a lot of time enjoying myself on Amazon going through music in the mp3 download section trying to find stuff in Mandarin that I enjoy. It's constructive, but it's also a time waster, and it's fun. :) What kinds of music do you like? You might check out some of the links I posted in another topic - it can give you a good head start and take you in a lot of different directions... --------------------------------------(copy/paste)---------- Have you found any blues in Chinese? I have a song here and there that I've collected. :) There are a couple in Mandarin on this CD (Blues in Asia): http://tinyurl.com/2a4j7t And Abigail Washburn, who lived in China for a few years, occasionally sings in Mandarin: http://tinyurl.com/yt423x Check out the song "The Lost Lamb". She also sings/sang with a group called Uncle Earl. Check out "Streak o' Lean, Streak o' Fat" on this CD: http://tinyurl.com/ysbhzs I call the song "Péi Gēn," myself. :) This one's a bit silly, but still fun. Rick Scott and Harry Wong, doing the song "Nor Yau Chin." http://tinyurl.com/25susa This one isn't blues, but it's a favorite. Liu Fang's "Zhi Fei Ji (Paper Plane)" http://tinyurl.com/2a22g7

Henning - "and the best dont even have a soul" - I love it. You make a good point. I am not in the ivory tower but I have spent enough time in college and graduate school to understand your remarks. Even in industry I have to know that every ounce of energy I am putting into learning Chinese, I could be using to "get ahead", and others are. I wish I could just do Chinese for a couple years, but that luxury belongs to the very young. Where do you draw the line? As just a hobby it will take many, many years, any more and you limit yourself elsewhere and it still takes years. Most of my coworkers consider Chinese a waste of time but I love it. I consider them narrow for not understanding the rich rewards involved. If only there were more hours in the day. RJ

Brent, what I usually do is swith gears by changing my studying focus. If I have been focusing on speech then get a new book and hit the character memorization fresh for a while and focus on that. This rotation all adds to the whole that I need and keeps the funk down. Its so hard to do it all at once in addition to working. In your case I would think of studying as a head start rather than something you need to finish before relocating. You will do fine even if you speak no chinese, so let it come as it comes. RJ

Thanks again everyone! I think I just needed a couple chill days away from the computer. Henning, I think you hit the nail on the head...I also feel guilty because I know there are other things I should be doing instead of studying Chinese. Like we've stated before, it's hard when you're addicted! As Auntie68 put it, it's a "constructive guilt", so it's all good... 谢谢 !

Hello again. calkins, I know I have already posted, but I am posting again now (sorry!) because I was expecting that somebody would suggest "try taking up a second (and or a third or fourth) new language". Am I the only one. This works for me. Whenever I start a new language, I usually also pick out a (basic) course of some totally unrelated language that maybe I've been curious about, but would never be able to justify spending time on learning. And it feels like Xmas. For me at least -- but I am a messy learner! -- this works fine as it keeps the "language acquisition" part of my brain bubbling (and well-fed), while the competing demands on my time seem to make everything seem attractive. It's like when my Stunt Toddler nephew is telling me, "Five more minutes? Okay? Just FIVE more minutes?" For what it's worth...