Hello all, I love Chinese pod it has helped me a lot.I have done over 120 of the elementary lessons and all of the pre-intermediate lessons. I want to move on to intermediate. But I find it hard to keep up with the speed, it takes me a while to translate things in my head. Should i keep listening and practicing intermediate or should I do something else? Thanks
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I was having the same problem at first, but now that I’m about 30 lessons into intermediate I have become much better. I say just stick with them. Listen to the same lesson several times before moving to the next lesson. I also keep a notebook and write the dialogue for every lesson in Chinese. I think this helps greatly for retention. Good luck!
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Hello, I have heard from other users at our London meet up that the gap between Intermediate and Pre is pretty large. We are thinking of ways to better help our users go from one to the next. I am super proud of your dedication to studying Chinese and we want to make a better transition for our learners. Thank you bkirkman for your input!
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If you have to translate, then you have not learned the words. I myself am still on the Elementary level. I use Anki daily to study vocab I learn in the lessons. You want to get to the point where if you hear the one you automatically understand the meaning. It takes a lot of time and practice, but you will get to a point in the language learning process where most words, structures, and sentences automatically have meaning to you, and you do not need to “translate” in your head. Merely studying a lesson isn’t going to get you to the intermediate level without reviewing each one more in depth. Try to make sentences with the words you learn when you have time. This will add context and allow you to remember with more ease the words you study. Download Anki.
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I also write down all the dialogs before moving onto the next, it forces you to understand each syllable. Great practice. The app has a good feature to rewind 10 sec.
I also put the dialog alone on repeat quite a few times before even doing the transcription. I’ll listen to it 5x in a row a few times throughout the day. Read it again, then listen another 5x on loop. Good luck.
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When it comes to speed, what I’ve noticed is that it takes about 2-3 hours of listening to a new medium to adapt. So keep trying for a while, and it should become a bit easier. If after 3 hours you still can’t understand any of the audio after the second listen, then I would keep working at elementary/preintermediate for a while. Definitely if speed keeps being a problem, I’d try to learn how to use the vocabulary actively, and try to avoid translation because that will slow you down.
Also keep in mind that the “recommended number of lessons” is hopelessly optimistic. For a native English speaker, it’s supposed to take about 2,000 classroom hours to reach fluency in Mandarin (according to government agencies), but the recommended number of lessons would only last 150 hours, make it 300 hours if you include review and you’ll still be a long ways away. So it’s not just you: language learning takes time.
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For years, Poddies have been talking about the gap between Elementary and Intermediate. When I had to jump that chasm, there was no such thing as “Pre Intermediate.” One thing you could try is to alternate between Elementary and Intermediate. On days you’re doing Intermediate, you’ll really get pushed. On days you’re doing Elementary, you get to retreat for a bit.
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Great suggestions you guys! I love our community.