Wow, that post brings back some memories about learning Chinese. Now I’m remembering back to when my Chinese level sort of plateaued and refused to go any further, probably about four years ago. I remedied the situation by doing grad school here and forcing myself to operate at an academic level.
I’m going through the same thing with Vietnamese. For the life of me, the sounds and words I hear just don’t register, though my reading level is ok. I think I have a mental block of some kind. I’ve got a plan of attack once I get back from China in late December. I really need to dedicate myself to obtaining listening and spoken proficiency. I’ll be here for 3 more years so I have time I suppose…just can’t let myself grow too complacent.
Just take a digital translator, hang out in a bar, talk to some folks, watch the news. Memorize about 2000 characters really well. That’s really it.