Comments on: Hacking Chinese: Contradictory and provoking?

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 20:08:11 +0000

It has been great trying to catch up to the present for the last couple of weeks, I have had a chance to witness a growth of ideas for you and feel one in myself. I apologize if you are wondering who this strange Rob is commenting on old posts.

What I like the most is that it is not that pedagogical, and rather than just saying “Many ways of studying have their merits, find a way that works for you” and “Find a dictionary you like”, you offer an actual opinion and give actual resources, as well as advice on really hammering out a path. The specific examples are so much more useful than vague guidance that I have received in the past.

I haven’t felt anything to be blatantly contradictory, and I cannot even think of an example of something mildly contradictory at the moment. I am really enjoying the ride and sifting through things I am trying and want to try in the near future!

By: Knut Erik Rosmo

Knut Erik Rosmo — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 09:18:23 +0000

Thanks for writing these articles about learning Chinese. It is very valuable for me, especially as I’m trying to learn Mandarin on my own, to get input and ideas about the process of learning Chinese. Keep up the good work! 🙂

By: Olle Linge

Olle Linge — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 15:16:21 +0000

In reply to Warp2243. Agreed. It's more like walking a very long road on foot than scaling a precipice. Each step isn't necessarily very hard, but the fact that you need to take an awful lot of them makes the whole endeavour hard nevertheless.

By: Daniel French Poole

Daniel French Poole — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 06:12:10 +0000

Your blog is great! I think your almost scientific-like and methodological approach to learning Chinese is refreshing. As for ‘contradictory advice’, well, I’m sure you wouldn’t think that you have all the answers worked out for how to learn Chinese. I see your blog as more of a discourse on things you have tried to be used as ideas for others. Also, in learning anythings, things that work for some people will not always work for others!

By: Billy

Billy — Sat, 29 Jun 2013 09:34:37 +0000

Your articles are fantastic, whether they’re contradictory or otherwise. I don’t come here looking for a panacea. I come here looking for inspiration and advice from someone with similar goals. That’s the way all advice should be taken: take it all in, ruminate on it for a little while, and do what you think is best for you. But then I largely agree with what you write anyway: before I found this blog, I was seriously considering writing one of my own, that would have turned out to be very similar, but about Japanese.

(And, honestly, I’ve never really found them contradictory anyway – Chinese *is* both more difficult than people think and easier than people think.)

By: Warp2243

Warp2243 — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 09:25:58 +0000

The reason why Chinese can be both seen as easy and hard is a matter of time scale and knowledge scope. Quoting (and adapting) my math teacher, “Chinese is globally difficult, but locally trivial”.

When you think about “your Chinese learning”, you think of the last few days or weeks of studying, where it was really easy (relatively to your own level). Just a few pieces of characters, words, grammar, immersion. But at the same time you think of your progression as a whole (scale of several years), and then it appears as a huge and complex accumulation of data, patterns, habits, training and meta-knowledge.