Hi Olle,

Sorry for the late reply.

The area which I found the most lacking was vocabulary, which in turn affected my listening.

This is not to say that I did not study or attempt to learn vocabulary. I just didn’t expose myself to enough NEW vocabulary. I Instead I spent lots of time reviewing old material, trying to perfect my handle on it.

This was an elusive target at best and a waste of time at worst. Not expanding my vocabulary kept me from understanding a lot of what was going on around me, which in turn let me tune out much of it. This then had the result of me missing much of what I HAD been studying in the first place.

When I made it a point to expose myself to new material on a daily basis, I began picking up a slew of new and useful words and expressions.

I could say more on the topic, but will leave it at this for now. Let me know if have other comments/questions 🙂

Hi Daniel! It would be very interesting to hear more about your experience. Which areas did you find lacking most? How did the problems manifest themselves? What was it like to start studying these areas?

But once I am in a position to really study again, I am way overdue on focusing on some ares of my Chinese skills.

Recently, I finally put an end to the madness. I have completely restructured how I study (including my previously inefficient way of using Anki) and have already made drastic improvements, especially in listening and reading. Now, I plan to take the HSK5 in Dec, which further reinforces my need for strategy and a well thought-out (systematic) learning approach.

Thanks for the great article.

Even if we were still able to learn to a high level implicitly (through exposure and use), it does not necessarily mean it is the most efficient way to learn. Native speakers spend years and years of daily immersion to reach their end level,it simply is not practical for second language learners. I think the trick is explicit study of vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar initially and then you can use communication and input to reinforce this knowledge later.

I just wish I had worked this out earlier on!

They study regularly and systematically, AND use it without always giving up and lapsing into English at the first minor difficulty.

I have met several students who can converse okay in Chinese after just a few months and they all did exactly this. They were very serious, spoke a lot of Chinese, but they also spent hours drilling sentences, vocabulary, pronunciation and so on.

On the flipside, I know people who, after only a relatively short term engagement with Mandarin have achieved a good level. The secret? They study regularly and systematically, AND use it without always giving up and lapsing into English at the first minor difficulty.

Very balanced, sensible and practical article, Olle, thank you!