This is perhaps the most important point of all for people who study full time or who otherwise aspire to learn Chinese quickly or to a very advanced level. We simply can’t afford to stop learning as soon as we don’t feel up to studying what we originally intended to study. We’re either going to kill our motivation or ourselves in the process. The trickiest bit is that deciding what do do also requires effort, which is why I think it’s essential to have actual lists of things to do in different areas that require different energy levels. I don’t like dramas that much, but I like watching StarCraft matches in Chinese. 🙂

I really enjoy watching Taiwanese dramas because I find that I can learn a lot of new vocabulary quickly.

I like your advice about “studying something else instead”. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve just given up for the evening because I was bored or frustrated with what I was looking at at that moment.

Excellent suggestion! USing material you’re already (at lesat slightl) familiar with lowers the threshold significantly. If you have watched the movie fairly recently in English and are familiar with the plot and dialogue, it makes it even easier. I used to extract the audio from movies I had already watched, that’s also quite useful.

I generally find watching Chinese shows, for myself, is a high energy task – but this is much easier on me – Yes, you miss the cultural aspect, but it is perfect putonghua, plus the predictability of the familiar culture aids comprehension.

as usual very insighful and inspiring. Thanks to your advice I have also found music is of great help to me giving a touch of fun and change to the typical language learning pattern.

I do think watching video is a great tool also, as my greatest flaw is listening comprehension.