Main Site Blog Help

Why no structure in the study program?

I dont know how to progress in my learning chinese. It seems to be a shot gun approach to learning! Do i just review lessons randomly within my ability level? or what? thanks

Hi @richard870295399

There is currently a test on chinese to assess your Mandarin level.
http://chinesepod.com/tools/tests/

After that you have the freedom to select any of the lessons within that level that interest you. That is one of the great things with CPod as you can pick lesson subjects that interest you which helps with retention of what you learn. If you are looking to more structure then there are also courses for various levels that allow you to learn within a level but allows for more structured learning.

http://chinesepod.com/library/courses/

When I first started using Chinesepod I went through the daily life courses first at the beginner and elementary level and then looked for lesson topics that interested me.

If you have more questions just let me know or post on here and I’m sure the community would be happy to help.

Good luck with your studying :smile:

-Matt

I never review lessons (which I probably shouldn’t do), but i use flashcards to review and I was still able to advance to upper intermediate without any problems. I use both anki and memrise. both great. Bang Chinesepod vocab and grammar into anki, which I study everyday and use memrise for the hsk vocab which I study on my phone when Im out and about. Seems to be working well. Thought the intermediates where very hard at the start of the year, now find them easy and am studying upper intermediate.

yeah, you probably shouldn’t neglect the reviews. I’ve just started using Memrise and while I do great at it I still fail to be able to generate the vocab on-the-fly when I need it in conversation. Context is everything. But apropos to the original question, I think most of us are conditioned to think that learning proceeds by beginning with chapter one in the textbook, and then continuing to chapter two, etc. etc. The beauty of CPod is that it has so much content that is just at the intersection of your ability level and your topics of interest. There is no way to put this into a “logical progression” that will be appropriate for everybody. Or for anybody else, for that matter. I simply took a “grazing” approach to CPod for years, and it helped my listening ability tremendously.