Comments on: Vocalise more to learn more Chinese

By: The cheapest and most convenient way to improve your spoken Chinese | Hacking Chinese | Hacking Chinese

Sun, 17 Sep 2023 10:55:07 +0000

[…] you have to touch but don’t know how to say in Chinese! I wrote more about this here: Vocalise more to learn more Chinese. More advanced students can describe what they are doing, what other people are doing or […]

By: Olle Linge

Olle Linge — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 17:50:45 +0000

In reply to Andrew Sponsler. Good luck! I think part of the problem at the beginning is that every single word and phrase takes a lot of time to recall, even if you in theory know them. This becomes a huge problem in conversations, because it slows them down to a point where it can't really be called communication. While it's of course preferred to talk with people instead of yourself, this type of retrieval practice can still be quite useful!

By: Andrew Sponsler

Andrew Sponsler — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 11:47:16 +0000

Awesome tips. Trying to speak about the things that are immediately around you, and even rehearsing how to tell simple stories about your life, helps to build the sets of vocabulary that you’re naturally going to need for most of the conversations you’re bound to have.

I’m learning Macedonian right now and I just changed my phone interface language based on your second tip.

By: Bill Price

Bill Price — Tue, 27 May 2014 00:18:50 +0000

In reply to David Feigelson.

David, I think the idea is to use this exercise to expand your vocabulary by identifying gaps in your everyday life. I do not think this is supposed to prepare you for listening to native conversation(or speaking at full native speed).

Just my 2 cents.

Bill

By: David Feigelson

David Feigelson — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 17:23:24 +0000

I used to do something like this when I was trying to maintain my high school French. Whenever I would read anything or think about something,I would translate everything into French. Pretty soon you get pretty goid at this and you develop a false sense pf your own competence. Because when I would meet native French speakers I would miss a lot because I was trying to follow them at my speed and actual conversation French is much faster than how I talk to myself. I’m not using this method for Chinese. Instead I just try to listen to native speakers rather than coming up with my own dialogue.

By: Guus

Guus — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 06:59:57 +0000

Interesting. I realise I’ve been using this method to teach my 2 year old to speak & expand his vocabulary!

By: Mike N.

Mike N. — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 06:07:49 +0000

Nice post, Olle!

I once had a Chinese professor tell me the best way to learn new material was to do all of the following: read, write, speak aloud, and listen. The good news is you can do these things in pairs. As you write Chinese you also read it; as you speak it you also hear it.

The key to this strategy of course is tapping into multiple senses to build stronger associations in your brain which helps with retention.

It works a treat!