Something just clicked... one year in "Advanced"

And of course, I'd like to offer everybody at CPOD -- my precious teachers -- an utterly heartfelt "Thank you". Those two words are so simple, but my emotions are not...

Congratulations, auntie68. And now for the "click"in Wenyan.

Hi John. When I first discovered CPOD, the current lesson was "Lover's Spat". Release date: Nov 2006 - how time flies! At the time, I could (more or less) understand maybe 3/4 of the banter in the Intermediate level, but I was only able to read about two-thirds of the written characters in each sentence. My first language is English, the only other language which I am comfortable in is French. To be honest, I had studied a subject called "Chinese as a 2nd Language" in school for nearly 11 years, even getting an GCSE "AO"-level (this is equivalent to an IB level subject?). However, a very bad start in the language -- I spent part of my childhood in England, and neither parent could speak Mandarin or write Chinese characters --, together with the (necessarily) very low standards of "Chinese as a 2nd Language", meant that my Mandarin was in terrible shape. Even for an "English-educated" Singaporean; Jenny Zhu can explain this to you, since she lived here. How did I get to my current level? Well, I did listen to every "Elementary" lesson as it came out; as I progressed, this naturally shrank down to merely listening to the dialogues and reading the PDFs. Can't recommend this highly enough. And I listened to every "Intermediate" lesson as it came out, whilst working my way through the past lessons of that level. I used the word "listened", because for one month after my free trial expired, I was too cheap to get a Basic subscription. So doing a lesson meant listening to the free podcast and flipping through my very basic Chinese-English dictionary to try to find the words that I thought I had heard. Definitely not recommended! But it was surprisingly do-able, with a bit practice, and it was probably good for me too because it prevented me from getting overwhelmed by the written characters in the transcripts. Finally, after a month, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I hadn't lost interest or momentum, and decided to give myself a break and splurge on "Basic". After about two months, I had caught up the "Intermediate" lessons (one or two lessons a day from the archive), and began to listen to the current "Upper-Intermediate" lessons, in a messy and haphazard sort of way. Somewhere along the way there was a single concentrated burst of "Upper-Intermediate" study, during which time I put other things in my life on hold (apart from Stunt Toddler) for two weeks and did a 3 or 4 "Upper Intermediate" lessons a day until I had caught up with the current lessons. Once I was in "maintenance mode" with "Upper Intermediate" -- meaning that I had "done" all the previous previous lessons --, I started on "Advanced. That sad, gory story is laid out in full detail in my initial post. Throughout, I continued to follow all levels, from Ele to Upper Intermediate, listening to every podcast as it came out. Highly recommended. On days when my confidence was plunging because of "Advanced", an Ele or Intermediate lesson would help to keep me from losing confidence all-together. And it has to said that your lower levels are worth listening to, even for more "advanced" learner, that IS a marvel which you can be proud of. For what it's worth, I'm very happy with my progress -- I remember the "click" the day I realized, with a shock, that I was skimming Chinese text, when all my life I had been deciphering it one word at a time. Realistically, there are still huge gaps: I still have never read a Chinese novel or even short story in my life; CPOD is my only source of Chinese! And I think that my phobia of posting in Chinese characters only is well-documented on CPOD! One big gap in my Chinese studies is finding a way to enjoy the culture as part of my daily life. Although, language-wise, I am probably equipped to watch CCTV-4, I ended my cable subscription to that after about six months because I realized that I didn't find the programming interesting. Learning how to appreciate current Chinese (especially Taiwanese) popular culture outside CPOD is something that I haven't been able to get a grip on. A lot of Taiwanese programming available in Singapore is more "modern", but it feels so "trashy", even vulgar, to this old Auntie. The only movies I can enjoy are Cantonese movies, like "Infernal Affairs Trilogy", Pang brothers horror films, and the odd film with Andy Lau or Chapman To which is more sophisticated. If anybody can help me here, I'd really appreciate it! Even though I seem to be asking for help constantly...

P/s: When my copy of "Lust, Caution" arrives in about 2 weeks, I'll get a better sense of how I feel about Mandarin films, but I think I need to confess that I find Mandarin films very "heavy". Even "greats" like "Farewell to my Concubine", "Raise the Red Lantern" etc. I must be the only ethnic Chinese person who has never watched "In the Mood for Love", because my tolerance for Chinese-style "heartache/suffering" in movies is so low!

Thanks for the valuable learning insights auntie68 and congrats too on your success ! This is certainly an inspiration for the rest of us. My own learning with CPOD mirrors a very similar pattern to your experience. Right now, the Advanced level seems like a distant dream for me, but your post gives my motivation a big boost.

paulc, your kind words are much appreciated. I only hope that nobody out there is going to lose heart when they read that it took me a full year to get reasonably comfortable in "Advanced"!

祝贺你auntie68, 我很高兴你能够和我们分享你学习中文的经历。好久没有和你联系，希望你一切都好！ 就像大家学习中文一样，当我发现我几乎可以听懂一部电影中所有对白的时候，我也非常的开心和激动！我和你一样，享受学习外语过程中的快乐。 I know you like reading chinese and you do have the ability to understand those words, so i wrote it in chinese. I have been busy recently, but i still hope that we can keep in touch. Hope every poddy can make your own progress like our dear auntie68. No pain, no gain! Go poddies!加油！ Cassie

Auntie68- congratulations and thanks for the story because it does offer encouragement. Your comment about Chinese movies hits home also - you mention Chinese-style "heartache/suffering" . I also have a problem with that. Why do you think most Chinese movies are filled with this element? There is a cultural message there I suppose and I wish I understood it better. -RJ

I am in a permanent state of limbo: Sometimes thinking it clicked long ago, then again getting the feeling of just hallucinating understanding. The last 3 days I watched the movie Ratatouille with my son - in Mandarin. I could follow it, for sure, and thought "Wow! It clicked". But I knew the rough story and it is vividly supported by pictures. And when paying close attention I found that I actually got all the easy framing phrases plus a bunch of isolated words (or phrases) in the middle - the rest was mentally filled. If I would write down my actual understanding probably something like that would come out: http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2005/03/23/closer-subtitle-surrealism That is far better than a year ago, when I didn't have anything to grap even with the most creative mental filling. But where do I actually stand with my "skills"? I simply don't know. Probably somewhere at the beginning of a long, long road.

Thanks a lot for writing out your experiences, auntie68! This is seriously valuable stuff. (@Henning: LOL re: your use of my blog entry link...)

Congratulations, auntie68! I know breakthroughs like that are a great feeling. We're happy to put the lessons together; the one that made the breakthrough happen is you, though. Could you explain a bit more about your level when you started ChinesePod, and how you got to your current level? This is really helpful and encouraging news for other learners. Thanks!

First, many thanks to everybody and their kind comments! Henning - I agree 100%. That's why my definition of that "click" was so limited in scope, viz, being sufficiently comfortable with CPOD's "base" Advanced vocab as to be able: (i) to focus on the new vocabulary specific to the lesson; and (ii) to benefit from the Chinese-only explanations given by the hosts. So I don't think for one second that it means I'm "advanced" (yikes!). Merely that I am finally in a position to absorb -- more or less -- most of what CPOD is setting out to teach me in each lesson. The feeling is that I'm getting my money's worth from my Basic subscription, not to mention more value from any time I put into lessons. Dear John, you're very welcome. You guys at CPOD have done so much for me... John, this exercise -- of trying to explain how I have been using CPOD in the past year -- did lead me to think some naughty thoughts: I think that the CPOD method, which is non-linear ("start with any lesson which catches your fancy") is excellent for teaching vocabulary. So heritage speakers/ Overseas Chinese, or else any users who have studied Chinese formally before (especially those with Chinese-speaking spouses or S.O.s), are in a good position to get a lot out of your podcasts. Who knows, you may benefit from studying this demographic and offering just enough additional "Basic" features to get them/us to sign on. I know I've said this too many times in various posts, but it would be very easy to get high satisfaction ratings from this demographic, at the price of only one or two extra "Basic" features, which probably could be the simpler features like (eg. "dialogue-only" feed). I have no doubt that I would have benefitted from a full "Premium" subscription. But I also suspect that there's no way an average heritage speaker (or a fairly advanced learner) would be willing to pay USD$180 more each year to use features like "expansion drills" and a grammar guide etc. Just some food for thought... On the other hand, John, my humble opinion is that those users who don't have that "linguistic cushion" do seem to need a more guided, structured method than what you are offering now. How many repeat questions have we had in the Comments recently on 着 vs 在, or even plain old 的? The point I am making is that the "start with any lesson you like"-approach works great if your objective is merely to build vocabulary. I know that CPOD is not designed to be a "stand-alone" resource, but these kinds of questions seem to point to a need for getting these things straight, if only to ensure that your users don't feel like they're out at sea (or worse still, develop bad habits). I'm betting that you could identify a series of 6 - 12 "core" lessons for each level, which could be suggested to your users as a good place to break into that level, enabling them to gain the "base" vocabulary, and at least encouraging them to stick with that level for that number of lessons before giving up. Thank you everybody for being so patient with my long-winded posts...

Congratualtions indeed... I wish and long for the day when I can say the same... Unlike you though, I listen to all lessons as they are released and I remember when I first started listening to the Upper-Intermediate and Advanced lessons, I would shake my head and think that there was no way that I would ever learn Mandarin... now though, after only 8 months I can listen to those lessons and pick out a few words here and there and realize that it's not the once insurmountable task that I once thought it was. Thanks to the CPod staff and poddies like yourself, Bazza, Henning, Lunetta and others who have been so instrumental in getting me as far as I am today... keep it up as I will do the same and look forward to many years of being a fellow Cpod member.

Dear Auntie, you're such an inspiration. Figuratively speaking, whenever I see one of you comments, I shut up and place myself at your feet to quietly soak up every word you say. You always have something interesting to say and sometimes you make me laugh out loud as well. Last time was that story about the Argentinian in Venice. Having spent a lot of time in Palermo, I've met quite a few of his Sicilian cousins.

Good to hear your encouraging comments Auntie. You have been a mainstay here, so its good to feel that sense of accomplishment through you. It is good to laugh with you and to hear your observations and encouragement. I agree with your "naughty thoughts". Yikes! That doesn't sound right. But then again, neither did your thoughts seem naughty. Thank you for all you do.

Auntie, just wanted to say congrats (you deserve it) and thanks for all that you do here! Whenever I have a question, 8 times out of 10, you're right there with a helpful answer. Like other users have said above, your life experiences are always entertaining and educating. I'm waiting for you to have a book of all your stories published...maybe in English and Chinese!

Congratulations, Auntie! Many young people here in Brazil with overseas heritage feel very sad about not knowing their ancestors language (luckily I have none that I know of than Portuguese). It will take a long time for me to learn mandarin, in a fluent level, my single advantage is being up for a decadal learning commitment. And cpod of course. besides that I think that my goal must lie beyond advanced level. I tried SpanishPod advanced level for the fun and I could understand every single word of it. I'm not a native speaker of spanish, never studied it. When i listen to a spanish song i usually understand something between nothing and 50% of it.

Eek, this is getting overwhelming. Thanks so much, everybody, for being so incredibly kind. bento, you are from Brazil? To me, Brazilian Portuguese often seems like the most beautiful and clear-sounding language on this planet, especially in song. Unfortunately, I have never studied Portuguese, but what little Spanish I know seems to be enough for me to enjoy the music of Seu Jorge nearly every day. And I love the music of Caetano Veloso and Maria Bethania; oops, that shows you how very old I am! You know, there are "old" Singaporean families with names like Texeira/Theseira, Pereira, Pasquale, da Silva, da Cunha etc, who are probably descended from exactly the same kind of adventurous explorers who established your family's destiny in Brazil. And my personal hero is Ayrton Senna... bento I wish you all the best for your Chinese studies, may your Mandarin journey be a smooth one all the way, as far as you wish to go.

Auntie, I'm delighted to hear these words. Moving towards an advanced level of Chinese is a huge achievement - you should be rightly proud. (There will be setbacks ahead, of course, but you are getting there.) Your comments are really important not just because they offer great insights, or because they offer motivation o to others, but also because it helps establish a community of practice. By this I mean a community of learners who learn together and share experiences. This creates what Robert Puttnam calls 'social capital', a kind of good will that encourages others to do the same creating a virtuous cycle. I want to thank you for taking the time to do that.

don't want to spoil the fun but I felt the same with that lesson, might have been a lot easier for whatever reason. I'm like henning, sometimes you think you're there and all of a sudden it's gone. But it does tend to get better :-)