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Studie philosophy

#1

Hello.

I´m currys if my approach is a good one.
After listning/watch a lesson several times, gone thru the exercises and scored within or above 85-90% in the tiny little tests in the end of a class.
Is this a good time to mark that as studied and go on to the next one? With more studying the score will improve, but I fear they become boring with to manny repetitions.
I´m thinking that a good deal of the vocabulary, grammar, pinyin and so on will be reoccurring in several classes, and in the end almost everything is learned.

I use some other resources in my studies, Skritter, Pleco, HelloTalk and so on, thinking exposure is key to progress…

This far I´m a newbie or noob by all measure, but I hope to advance to Elementary in a month or so. Thinking a good two hours per day aught to suffice to reach my first little goal.

Am I on the right track?

/ Greger

#2

Instead of repeating one lesson until you score higher, you can go on to others and then come back to that one later and do it again. They recommend this in the show called How to use ChinesePod, which you can find by going to your dashboard and selecting “Other Shows.”

It seems to me, though, that you have to make your own choice of how fast to move along versus how carefully.

#3

Sure you’re on the right track if you’re studying regularly and trying! I just went from Newbie to Elementary so empathize with your question. I think Mandarin is way tougher than learning other languages (for me as a native English speaker). It took me 6 months of regular, meaning almost daily, 2-4 hour sessions, to get to Elementary. You’re right the vocab does recycle, but (in my experience) if you don’t realize what you’re continually seeing will you ever?

Different learners have different needs, learning styles (auditory, visual, kinesthetic), and ability to retain and then use language. Be kind to yourself. Accept what you can retain, review it until you internalize it, then move on.

After trial and error I found I retain the best with an old school deck of written flashcards, so that’s what I do. It helps me to write out new characters and gives me control of my own learning. After 50 Newbie lessons I have quite a stack of vocab cards! This gives me confidence. I also sit and pick apart the characters in the Comments sections of lessons, use (meaning I highlight words I’ve looked up!) an Oxford Chinese Beginner’s dictionary, and recite Chinese aloud.

Skritter and Pleco are fun for me when my motivation is off. I tried Hello Talk, but it was too lightweight compared to CPOD. An Android app called “Chinese In Flow” is my current favorite.

CPOD for me is a serious desktop computer program: I use it on my tablet only when I review, browse it on phone for amusement. The CPOD methodology is solid. As a retired Instructional System Designer and language teacher it is easy to see. And they’re always coming up with new stuff that’s interesting!!

Hope this feedback helps! :footprints: