Collection of learning advice from the users

I think a great way of learning on CPod, a valuable tip provided by Henning, is to study the lessons using a backwards approach. I started doing this about a month ago and my comprehension and retention has shot through the roof. 1. First, I study the vocabulary, both reading and listening to the mp3's. I don't worry about memorizing them, I just try to get a decent feel for them. 2. Then I move on to translating the dialogue from the PDF transcript, and also listen to the dialogue mp3's from the Dialogue tab. 3. Then I review and listen to the Expansion sentences. 4. After reviewing all the material, I then listen to the podcast and the fix. 5. Exercises. 6. Scan over the Discussion comments for additional information. 7. Briefly review the lesson vocabulary. This does take a bit longer for me, but the benefits are definitely worth it. By first getting a feel for the subject matter, vocabulary, etc., it makes understanding the dialogue/banter much easier. And it also makes listening to the podcast much more relaxing and enjoyable.

Here's one where I got a lot of good advice on improving listening ability: http://chinesepod.com/connections/viewpost/billm/connect/Ideas+on+super-charging+listening+ability%3F

I think no matter what resources you use for learning Chinese or other languages, once you get down the basics and have a foundation, the most important thing is to actively and frequently communicate with native speakers. When doing this, don't get discouraged by initial mistakes and problems, because there is nothing more rewarding than successful conversations.

For example, I remember one weekend when I was supposed to study for a Chinese test in university, and I got a phone call from a friend who had a couple of visitors from Beijing. So of course I chose to forget about the test and enjoy two nights and days out with the guys from Beijing. During that time I learned more useful stuff than during the entire term in university and became much more confident in speaking Chinese.

@calkins: Interesting. That approach is quite similar to traditional classroom-based textbook learning: 1. Learn vocabulary, but no need to memorize everything. 2. Read and understand lesson text (=translate). 3. Listen to audio of text, if available, or to teacher reading the text aloud. 4. Do exercises and homework. 5. Discuss text, exercises, homework in class. 6. Review vocabulary (memorize) for tests.

calkins, this is great. You may find it useful -- and confidence-boosting -- to make sure you do the odd podcast in the "NON-backwards" way, ie "cold". Maybe every 3rd or 4th one you do? I suspect you will be surprised how little you need the "backwards" approach once you have used it to acquire enough of the "base" vocabulary for that level. Then you can just zip along, eating up the lessons like the Stunt Toddler eats grapes (I can never peel them fast enough for him!). Until it's time to make the transition to the next level up...

That's a great tip Auntie. I agree it's important to mix it up every now and then to keep it fresh. It is interesting to see how my number of lessons studied has declined since moving to Elementary AND starting the backwards approach. Earlier today I was looking at all the transcripts I've studied in the past 3 months: January : 69 Newbie / 2 Elementary (71 total) February : 37 Newbie / 17 Elementary (54 total) March : 14 Newbie / 21 Elementary (35 total) I started the backwards approach about mid-March, so that combined with my increased Elementaries has definitely slowed my pace down. Not that more is important, or better. Progression is what's important. It may seem discouraging that with each level jump, additional time and energy is required. On the positive side, at least for me, I feel my learning and understanding has improved tremendously since moving up one level. I still feel lost and overwhelmed at times, but my overall confidence is much better. For now I'm comfortable with the backwards approach - once I feel just a bit more confidence, I'll start eating the grapes at a faster pace!

Sebastian, I never really thought of it that way, but you are absolutely right! Hmmmm, maybe it's time to drop that approach :P

Calkins, does this mean you only do a lesson once? I first stumbled on the backwards approach because listening the second time (after working through everythilng else) was always more enlightening. I use it mostly for lessons above my level. If you listen repeadedly, you are doing it in a sense anyway. What I need is a way to enhance my memory. I dont have the patience to peel grapes. I bet they taste better that way.

RJ, I'm the same way. Similar to the grape analogy, studying Chinese for me is like a Tootsie Roll Pop...I don't want to lick the damn thing a million times, I just want to get to the tootsie roll and eat it! But we all know that learning Chinese is humbling, and I'd like to think it makes us all a bit more patient. But to answer your question, yes. I study each lesson once, where I sit down at my computer and go through all lesson tools. However, I do constantly re-listen to lessons and the fix on my iPod when I'm out and about.

And here are a few past threads with some valuable information: Anyone else having severe difficulties at Intermediate level Character recognition The Best Book on Chinese Grammar

CPOD is a great way to learn the language and I am not in anyway disparaging its usage in what follows here: You really do need to both talk and listen with Chinese people to really learn Chinese. Otherwise you fall in the trap of "听不懂“（ting1 bu dong3). The people that you meet will not speak the language perfectly like a teacher. In addition, they will not use the same vocabulary the way you learned it. What is worse, they will say something, and you will try to respond in the words that you know but because you have not practiced speaking with a Chinese person, you will say it wrong and they will not understand you. You know what you learned so you keep saying again... This has happened to me quite a few times here in China. As recently as yesterday in Wuhan, I took a taxi with a friend from the Hubei Museum back to Zhongnan University. When we got tot he university, we passed my hotel. I indicated this to the driver who then was about to turn around; but since the direction was in that to my friend's appartment, I told the driver to continue to his apartment. Since I speak a little more Chinese than my friend, I did the instructing. So far, so good. After dropping my friend off, I returned to the hotel in the same taxi. At my friend's apartment, the driver stopped the meter thinking we were both going to get out. So when I arrived at the hotel, I asked for a receipt... but now the fare was 5元。I had not yet paid the 27元for the first trip. So the total was 32元. I paid this but could not understand the driver who was apparently telling me that he could not give now a 发票 (fa1 piao4) for 32元. But I did not understand his vocabulary and he was not understanding what I was saying even after I repeated in the best Chinese that I know how to. I suspect he was using the Wuhan dialect but I really do not know. Since my hotel has no English speakers, the bell hop was of no use in this discussion. The cab driver was trying to tell me something but I could not understand what he was saying. "听不懂" After about 5 minutes of conversation with no communication, I said, 没关系(mei2 guan1 xi) and went into the hotel without the receipt that I wanted.

Oops, sorry, majamaya, for this totally irrelevant side-bar in your very useful thread...

阿姨68很聪明！

Here are some more trick thats I have learned to help me read and remember characters better: When seeing the character for the first time, I try break the character into components ... most of these have some assigned names but I rarely use them. Instead I try to find components that I have seen and learned before and then try to assoicate that with both the character sound and meaning. For example: 想 breaks out into 木，目, and 心。心 which helps me remember both the sound and meaning. 心 is xin1 which means heart ... 想 is pronounced xiang3. 目 (mu4 meaning eye) reminds me that it is outside the heart so what ever it is that I like is external. So from this I get "want," one of the meanings of 想. There are books that tell stories about each character and these have helped a lot of people. But I lose patience with these books and usually can only handle three or four of the characters from the books at one reading. The characters never seem to be the "I+1 information" that I am looking for at the time I need to learn the characters. Next, after that process, I then write the character at least ten times. I then put the character, its sound and its meaning into an Excel spreadsheet along with a column of numbers. Then using the Rand() function of Excel, I randomize the order of the characters and copy only the characters into a new worksheet. Then using the new worksheet I try to write the definition and the sound. (I found about 30 to 50 characters at time is a good test number for me.) I then check them against the first worksheet. The ones that I know cold go into a master Excel sheet while the ones that I do not know or am having problems with stay with the worksheet of new characters. Occasionaly, I will sample the master worksheet of all characters to be certain that I still remember them. I have not found a way of incorporating the CPOD vocab lists in to my Excel files. Another tool that is that I have found useful is ZDT. I particularly like the flashcard mechanism for ZDT which requires both the sound and the tone to be indicated. Another feature of ZDT that I like is the dictionary where I can find more words that use the character I am tring to learn. I have built special data files for certain vocabulary to learn using ZDT.

If you live in China, always carry a small notebook and pen in your pocket. When you are speaking with someone and a new word comes up you don't understand, have them write it down for you (as long as you don't overdo it most Chinese people are happy to oblige). Same thing with characters - make a point of writing down at least one new character you see when you are out. I learned quite a lot of my Chinese this way at first, though I've gotten lazier about it. In the Expansion section of ChinesePod lessons, I find it helpful to only look at the English and say it in Chinese myself, and then check with the actual Chinese sentence. Though the digital flashcards on ChinesePod are great, lately I'm leaning towards actually writing out my own. Taking this extra effort helps me memorize them faster, especially as I can include a sample sentence, particularly necessary for more abstract words like 毕竟 or 乃至. I also write out by hand the most useful expressions in the dialogue of each lesson to better retain them and to practice writing characters. Even if you rarely or never write by hand, learning to write characters will help you to memorize them faster, especially if you understand the radicals and the logic behind the characters as mentioned above.

Actually there is only one fundamental, solid, and proven piece of advice that I can confidently give: Keep going. Whatever your learning approach, philosophy, or methodology might be, is secondary. You might even switch on the way several times. Don't worry anout being inconsistent. Don't listen too much to other student's advice. Try to keep the fun in it. But keep going. But be warned: It might be a long way, so enjoy the beauty of the landscape on the wayside.

I have several Chinese grammar books featuring only common errors, abuses, and faulty sentences (病句) often made by Japanese learners. The authors explain systematically the diagnosis and prescription for frequently made mistakes. This kind of books is not for newbie and elementary learners, but I guarantee that they would definitely improve intermediate learners’ grammar skills very effectively. Those books are real eye-openers, which embodie “learning from errors.”

All kind of tips and books can help, but it's difficult to try to have the same level in listening comprehension, writing, reading, etc...memorizing all at the same time. So it depends of what you want to enhance. As for me i'm bad at listening comprehension, so, I try to improve in this field and test me by listening to the podcast first, without reading and for me I consider it's one of the strenght of ChinesePod among others : we are not obliged to see the transcript in characters or pinyin at the same time. (Sometimes I have the big temptation to look at it before ...). But it willl be the only way : listening and listening again. Then I look at the text and mainly at the characters except when there are new words I read them in pinyin. After, I look at at the translation . The point is that i'm improving my listening skills, but as I have little time for the rest I do not memorize the written characters, or I am too lazy. Nevertheless I think that even if we can't improve all at the same time, all is complementary and make us progress (sometimes not even beeing aware of it) PS : how much time do you spend usually for a new lesson when you have several words to remember?

RJBerki -- this Auntie uses a "grape peeler". It's a clever little thing. Basically, it's a very narrow strip of metal, slightly curved over the last 3 cm. It's not knife-sharp; merely thin enough that if you push it into a grape -- just under the skin -- you can separate the skin from the pulp by giving it a quick turn around the pulp. Then you hand the fruit to a Stunt Toddler so that he can "pop" the fruit out of the skin, which is still all in one piece. Neat, huh?