{"id":10289,"date":"2018-05-21T06:26:21","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T06:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/?p=10289"},"modified":"2018-05-21T06:26:21","modified_gmt":"2018-05-21T06:26:21","slug":"problem-university-chinese-ways-solve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/problem-university-chinese-ways-solve.html","title":{"rendered":"The Problem with University Chinese and Ways to Solve it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAbout me: At the time of writing this piece, I have completed nearly six semesters of formal Chinese language study. The first five semesters were completed at my university in America, and this most recent semester, wrapping up within the month, will be completed in Shanghai. My experience is just that, my own, and while it may be unique to me, given the chance my advice can possibly save some time and frustration for someone else, I am happy to share it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

When you first begin studying Chinese, if you are anything like me, it is easy to fall into the trap of viewing it as just another scholastic subject. You learn at what feels like an incredible pace in the beginning as you have no sense of scale for the language, progress through the textbook at a speed reminiscent of any other introductory course, and feel the instant gratification of learning some of your favorite phrases in a language that to you, still sounds like an assortment of random sounds and inflections. Even as someone who, prior to studying Chinese, was only familiar with Romance languages, I found learning the tonal system of pinyin and memorizing new vocabulary to be no more difficult than memorizing a mathematical formula or important economic principle; with a little bit of studying I could very easily ace a test or complete a homework assignment. Unfortunately for me, just as I did for those mathematical formulas or economic principles, I committed them only to short term memory and as soon as I no longer needed them, I discarded them completely.<\/p>\n

To add to the circumstantial misfortune of my casual Chinese learning endeavors, I live in America. So, as you can imagine, my Chinese very rarely permeated into my everyday life. This meant that after evert semester of Chinese I \u201clearned,\u201d I had an astoundingly low retention rate. Every new semester meant relearning the same things I had not committed to long-term memory. I had trapped myself in a cycle of learning inefficiency perpetuated by my own inability to address my poor habits. With the lack of continuity to keep me honest, my corner-cutting went undiagnosed. Most people reading this would probably assume that I should have been able to quickly address and correct this issue, but unluckily for me I was academically thriving, even if inefficiently. High test scores gave me a false sense of comfort. How could I be testing so well if I didn\u2019t know the material? If I kept getting A\u2019s, how could my system be broken? It did not take until I went to China for me to realize not only how poorly I had spent my time studying Chinese in America, but also how ineffective collegiate testing was at judging my mastery, or lack thereof, over the language.<\/p>\n

Below, I would like to offer some tips to help other serious Chinese scholars avoid falling into these traps. I urge anyone reading through these suggestions to take them as that\u2014only suggestions\u2014rather than as a recipe or to-do list. Everyone learns differently, and you must find what works for you. Who knows, though? Maybe you\u2019ll find your own way to improve your progress, which will then help you pass your current plateau.<\/p>\n

1. Chinese does not begin and end in the classroom.<\/h2>\n

Studying Chinese in a classroom for only a few hours a week will never get you to a point of comfortability with the language, let alone mastery. You must be active<\/em> with your learning, and it must be an academic priority for you. Although it would be nice, you can\u2019t accidentally learn Chinese, and passive <\/em>learning will take considerably longer. Some things that I have found helpful to learn outside the classroom:<\/p>\n