Wear-Off-Effect in Talking Chinese - Am I Alone with this one?

I think I've experienced this, and kinda still do, though maybe through practice my battery lasts longer. Maybe it's mental fatigue, just with Chinese the fatigue builds up pretty fast.

wei1xiao4 Where are you at in Hong Kong? Have you heard of or seen the Hong Kong International School in Repulse Bay and TaiTam?

The effect was definately *not* influenced by Aggie. I would regard this a classical ceteris paribus setting. Interestingly in English it is vice versa: After a while of talking my English switches from "translation mode" into "natural mode". But then, we are talking about ability differences of several magnitudes (on a logarithmic scale) I actually do like Aggie's way of providing corrections, help or alternatives very much. Not in any way demotivating. Got to teach that to someone ;)

I am the opposite, once I get started it is hard to shut me ụp . I get more and more confident at the conversation goes on. I sue to get headaches after speaking Chinese too long. The amount of effort it took ti get the tones right was stressful. If you just keep at it it is probably a matter of being more comfortable with you level and having those words ready to draw on with out having to think about it too much. It is that thinking that would cause the drain. Only time and practice can solve it.

北京？You should come to 上海！The home of Chinesepod! I'm with TianFeng, the more I talk, the harder it is to stop me. If that makes sense. If I get started, it's hard for me to stop. If I'm out at a bar with some Chinese friends and I get started with 普通话 I don't stop. I end up talking to people I don't know. I'm sure the 啤酒 has a bit to do with it.

Yea the improvement of a second while drunk should be something they try and prove on mythbusters. I always wondered if my Chinese level really goes up when I am drunk or I just don't are about mistakes as much so I just let it all flow. I remember working at a bar in Nanchang and when I would start the night sober I would be a little nervous speaking but by the end of the night I don't think i was using any English at all.

I've yet to have a conversation in Chinese hehe.

I have found my Chinese improves (not just at the moment, but for a day or so I have much more confidence) when I speak to non-English non-native-Chinese speakers (e.g. people from Japan, Korea, Thailand, etc.) in Chinese. Usually I am very self-conscience about my Chinese and will often be lazy and resort to English when talking to Chinese people. Yet when you talk to people from other countries who doesn't know English, it is so easy to talk to them that I feel like my Chinese is fluent... and that was noticeable by other friends and classmates. Can learn so much from other foreigners by speaking Chinese with them... yet we often feel we should talk with native speakers... that isn't necessarily true... you learn so much from their mistakes and quickly correct your own Chinese if you can pick out their mistakes. Yet when I talk to Chinese friends I get so frustrated to express myself at a deeper level. It is best for me to hang around non-English speaking Chinese if I really want to use my Chinese, otherwise it feels like a little novelty item. -R

Tianfeng, that would be a fantastic show if the Mythbusters got drunk and tried our their second languages on complete strangers!!! I have to say that my Chinese, or German or even Nepali vastly improves after a couple of drinks. I think it's something about lowering my resistance to making mistakes. It's irrational, because I know that making mistakes is part of the learning process, yet, I quite often freeze out of fear. A drink or two takes that fear right out of me. Something else that works for me is trying to practice when I'm very exhausted; I guess I'm too tired to worry about mistakes. This one may sound odd, but very high altitudes make me a little slap-happy and talkative too. There's never a problem for me to try out my language skills in the Himalayas. Put me in a class room in New York City though, and I can hardly put two sentences together.

Rich, I find a way to combat that when you meet new people you only used Chinese. If they get to know you in Chinese than the conversations will stay in Chinese. I actually am to the point now that I have forced all the Chinese people around me to speak to me in Chinese all the time. And I am in Canada. Several of them have much better English than my Chinese but if they switch to English I just say "我听不懂英语，清说中文啊。“and I get a laugh and they switch back. I have noticed that I have gotten lazy because I know they speak English so when I run into a word don't know I can just say it in English. Overseas Chinese conversations is spoken in Chinese mostly but there is smattering of English nouns throughout. I used to keep a notebook with me to write down all the new vocab but I have gotten lazy this year. When I head back i will re-instate this of pratice of never leaving home with out my notebook.

Maybe Aggie complimented you? Praise makes anyone self-conscious. It's the fastest way for anyone to reduce me to incoherent babbling.

don't know how much you 准备好了 those lessons, but one possible effect in addition to fatigue is the more you get into the conversation, the further you stray into unknown territory, away from your set vocab lists and anticipated answers. With additive uncertainty, a bit like juggling between production and understanding, you manage to keep it flying for a while but at some stage the balls start falling down. The good news is, the more you practice the longer you'll keep'em up in the air.

gotta add this - my spoken Chinese was abyssal up until I started my practice sessions with Vera 3 months ago. This morning as I was getting into the office, I got a call from Shanghai on my cellphone, picked it up without paying attention, a Chinese caller being the last thing on my mind at that point. Turns out it's a Chinese friend I hadn't spoken to in years, had heard I may be coming in October, chatted for a while - it all come pretty smoothly and a propos, I was flabbergasted. Thanks Vera

goulniky, that was actually my experience when doing the Practice Plan with Aggie. I started off strong because we were still on the vocabulary from that day's lesson, but after a few minutes we'd headed off into territory that was as yet unexplored for me. It was equally frustrating and eye-opening.

close the eyes and through it ! ;-)

NICE PEOPLE - usually I get in to a rhythm at some point in the conversation, sometimes I start of bad, but then clean up the language. But then I try to express more and more, and all of a sudden things start to break down. At this point, I usually just say "哎呀， 不知道怎么好说“ and let them pick up the conversation for a while. I think it's good to reach this point of babbling, it means you've taxed your lexicon and are working on new ideas and phrases, not memorized stuff. Problem with this is that the eventual babbling makes it kinda hard to pickup the chicks...LOL.

Tianfeng, Well, I have pretty much had a big switch of friends from those who speak English (their major) to Chinese who either had no time to study English or absolutely 讨厌 English (believe me, there are many Chinese young adults who hate English, despite the trend to learn it, due to hating their English teachers and classes... memorize, memorize, MEMORIZE!). And yeah, I should make the effort to talk in Chinese even if they speak English, but it depends on the circumstance. Like even when I met Jenny in person, I was determined to speak in Chinese to her, but uhhh... it was kinda like meeting a famous person (at least in our world she is anyway), I couldn't even think very well in Chinese, especially knowing that I had very little time to get to know her in person, so English was what we spoke until after ordering our coffees and then she realized that I had become pretty fluent in Chinese (and yet being praised about it also made me lose confidence, as mentioned above). It is a crazy word where Chinese are determined to speak English to foreigners and foreigners want to practice their Chinese.

Thanks everyone for sharing your frustrations and triumphs. It really helps to know that others are experiencing the same learning tribulations. You know, before I started the practice plan, I thought 10 minutes was not a very long time. Now, some days, 10 minutes can seem like an eternity! But I do look forward to practicing even though I feel sorry for those friends whom I impose on to listen to me and try to sort out what I am trying to communicate. It is tiring for them as well as me. Can you imagine how tired Vera and Aggie must be at the close of the day just trying to listen to us? That's why I think it is easier to practice chinese with other chinese learners. They are going through the same issues. And even if our communication together is not perfect, at least we are trying to formulate our thoughts verbally. If any of you are passing through Hong Kong on your way to China, I would appreciate the chance to practice as well.

I am with ya henning. Maybe more often for me are the times I wonder where my smooth, streaming with nice sentences goes:( No Mandarin speaking wife:( Not living in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or China:( All my good Mandarin speaking friends live elsewhere:( ...................................... Good thing we have CPOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess it all depends on circumstances like: how big is my vocab knowlage, am I prepaired for this talk, what is the talk about, am I nervous,...etc. i think the best way to get through "talking holes" is to keep talking and go on with your practice. (man, I feel the deepness of my words as if I would have had those situations and masterd them easely ;-) )