zao shang hao!
Ahhh it's been something like 6 years now since i began studying mandarin Chinese and I think that most of the things I learned were in the early years. It is so difficult finding the motivation to continue. In addition to learning Mandarin, I also feel the need to study both Japanese and Korean, as both cultures and languages also interest me - but there's only so much time. Actually that's not true, there's more than enough time - what is lacking is enthusiasm.
I have been active again on Skype in recent weeks, and have been engaging Chinese speakers again in basic conversations - but usually in English. In fact, I had a really nice chat with someone yesterday about history - both Chinese and English. One of the things I have thoroughly enjoyed about italki is that I have met some really good (and some really bad!) people along the way.
Most times I chat with people it's by text, and mostly in English. I still don't know enough actual pinyin to hold a proper conversation in nothing but pinyin. I hope one day i can - both text and verbally. But i have to say - sometimes, when I really think about what I have learned, I have learned so much. I know so many varied things that I can answer most things in Chinese - but i just cant really continue the conversation.
I need to spend more time forcing myself to study! I want to learn new things - particularly grammar. But the key is- i need to force myself. I enjoy it, but it's just so hard to find the motivation.
Search from various English teachers...
Corrections · 6
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Yes ,It's hard to find motivation after six years learning.I think maybe find a friend who has a lot of time and whos patient to practice with you.You guys can tell stories to each other.When you find it is interesting,you'll have the motivation to learn it.
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Do you know what? Chinese grammar, compared to english, is actually very easy. The difficult part is the way that the sentence structures are almost opposite that of English. But the overall grammar rules are far more simplistic. For native english speakers, the real challenges of Chinese are not the grammar, but the tones and the chinese characters.
My problem is that I learned a lot of Chinese and then I stopped. While i use what I know quite actively (I talk to various people online) - I am not currently learning anything new - and that is the problem. It's so easy to come to a stop. Starting up again is so, so difficult.
I do make an effort to regularly watch Chinese tv shows, movies and listen to Chinese music. I always feel good when I recognise what has been said.
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hi ,nice to meet you ,in fact if you want to speak pinyin especially tone fluently you should practise more, but chinese grammmar isn't so eary, sometimes it's too boring ,and practise isn't useful,so I think you can try study chinese in other way ,just like child ,try to learn by imitation,focus on some interesting things , such as small joke ,food ,popular words,daily news and so on ,slowly you can make marked progress, wish you have a good time ,加油！
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Should still 'persist' Aileen, persist :) - short for persistance.
You could insist that I study harder, but i'd likely ignore your advice as i'm going through a severe lazy period!
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It's hard to learn a language ! But we should still insist ,right ? : )
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