I have found recently that I have hit sort of a wall with my Chinese. I am learning a lot of advanced stuff, but when I speak, I pretty much use everything I learned in PAV book 1…and I wouldn’t say I use it all fluently. Recently, I have heard people talking about somewhere at an intermediate level, people seem to hit a wall with their progress. Some people eventually jump it, while others never make it over.
I am not sure how to best jump the wall. I already take 14 hours of classes per week, I have a local SO who I speak a lot of Chinese with, and I study hard every day. Most teachers really push memorizing the stuff that I don’t use, but I find if I memorize something and don’t have an immediate need to use it, then I will quickly forget. I also remind myself that this is the method that most people here use to learn English…and most people here can’t speak English!
Any advice from anyone who has had this problem would be appreciated. I’m not giving up…but I think I need to do something different if I want to get past the “wall.”
I guess I’m kind of sort of at that “wall” but not really (I’ve been at it for years now .) I think the best thing to do is start finding “real” uses for your Chinese. You obviously have the basics down, now it’s time to split into something more specific.
Like politics? Do it in Chinese. Computers, video games, comic books? Find an outlet to do it in Chinese.
I sort of stopped studying because I didn’t have a reason to anymore. I’m probably going to start another comic book series soon (or read Dragon Ball again.)
Unless studying is fun, or you have a real goal your working towards, I think it’ll be hard to make moves forward (with classroom study.) A better idea would be signing up for something you like (taichi, bowling, archery, I don’t know) totally in Chinese. It’d probably be cheaper and more fun too.
I agree. Finding some sort of hobby/interest which uses your Chinese helps immensely.
I know this sounds mildly psychotic, but I always try to imagine conversations in my head in Chinese. If there’s something I notice that I’d like to talk with someone about later, I’ll practice having the conversation in my head. If there’s a key word I don’t know, I’ll look it up in my dictionary. If I’m not sure I’m using the right verb with the right noun, I’ll Google the two words and see if they’re used together.
I sort of stopped studying because I didn’t have a reason to anymore.[/quote]
Me too. I got to an every-day-can-talk-to-the-inlaws-and-order-food level and suddenly lost interest. I have only just started to learn new stuff after a break of five months. Perhaps the break did some good, when I study it is more for for fun than anything now.
This might sound weird, but talking to myself was crucial for me too in developing fluency in German, and it’s also been very helpful with Mandarin.
MTK’s comments are spot on too, I feel. I know quite a few foreigners (myself included) who have reached that plateau - everyday stuff is no problem, but there’s no real motivation to take that next step. As the man says, you need to find something that motivates you to do that.
I’ll add this: Even when it doesn’t seem like you’re making progress, if you’re putting time into it, and using your Chinese, then you probably really are making progress – just in invisible ways.
You’re consolidating and reinforcing what you’ve learned. The words you use with effort gradually become words you use effortlessly. Over time, that frees up your RAM to acquire more vocab etc.
You’re probably actually making progress but it becomes harder to perceive as you go along, because the increment becomes smaller compared to the whole. Like adding bucketfuls of water to a large bucket vs to a swimming pool. When you start learning, your cumulative knowledge is small, so the daily or weekly increments are large in comparison. Years later, you could learn hundreds of new words, and it would be like adding bucketfuls of water to a swimming pool – you wouldn’t perceive the increase, even though it’s there.
So don’t think of it like hitting a wall. Just focus on the processes of acquiring and using words, phrases and grammar, and have patience. You’ll be making progress, even if you don’t realize it.
Put yourself in a position where you have to explain and/or discuss abstract concepts, often using specialized vocabulary, in Mandarin. That will get you over the hump.
You’ll have to do that by getting a job that requires you to do that (e.g. translation, business consulting, test preparation teaching). You could also enroll in a graduate program that is taught in Mandarin.
If you’ve hit the wall with your spoken Chinese there are still the characters there to keep you amused and entertained. Made it to 6000 yet? How many can you actually write from memory? Learn the characters for things you already know how to say well. Read about topics you enjoy and learn all of the characters you’re not fully familiar with.
I’m probably a long way from the actual wall but I can already feel my returns starting to diminish, speaking-wise.
.) I think the best thing to do is start finding “real” uses for your Chinese. You obviously have the basics down, now it’s time to split into something more specific.