Book Club Recommendation

August 29, 2023 by

I would like to make a book club recommendation.

Shanghai Immortal, a novel by A. Y. Chao
As a reader, my personal intention is to read or listen to “a good book.” As a book club attendee, through the synergy of hearing thoughtful, informed people share their experiences with the book, I hope to enrich my own experience of the book and, more generally, to enrich my creative, intellectual, and social lives.

Criteria for “a good book”

Although what constitutes “a good book” for me has changed since I was first allowed to choose my own books at the Scholastic Book Fairs at Margaret Beeks Elementary School, my current criteria for “a good book” include:

  1. Compelling story that results in such a flow state of interest that I need to give little mental effort to following the plot.
  2. Main character who either is, or becomes, psychologically-minded enough to see reality as it is – however fantastical – to become aware of traits, both strengths and weaknesses, that contribute to how they handle challenges, and to address all of these ingeniously and bravely.
  3. Language beautiful enough to offer an aesthetic experience in itself and evocative enough for the reader to imagine experiencing what happens.
  4. Nuances in thinking, expression, and/or conveyance of meaning that activate my own creativity.
  5. Having experienced and learned of brutality due to my stage in life and my profession, limited brutality, preferably none.
  6. Available in audiobook format.

Shanghai Immortal, by A. Y. Chao, published in the U.K by Hodderscape, 2023, meets my criteria for “a good book.” I have both Kindle and Audible versions. Reader Mei Mei Macleod is absolutely stellar. Shanghai Immortal tops my list of favorite fantasy novels.

Why do I hypothesize Shanghai Immortal might be, not just interesting, but fascinating to book club members?

Timeliness.

Released July, 2023, in electronic and audio versions.

Context.

  1. A. Y. Chao joins a growing number of people with Chinese ancestry who identify as female or live as female, and are writing fantasy and science fiction novels. Please see Female authors emerge in Chinese sci-fi and fantasy (2022) and this essay by A. Y. Chao (2023).
  2. According to multiple sources, including The Subplot: What China Is Reading and Why It Matters, by Megan Walsh (2022), and Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution that Made China Modern, by Jing Tsu (2022), China is experiencing a golden age in Chinese science fiction. Please see China’s science fiction enters ‘golden era’ (2022).

Language.

Point A.

From Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities (Source):

“A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do.”

First sentences from Shanghai Immortal:

“The steaming Shanghai night drapes heavy over my bare shoulders. I lean against the door of a decrepit warehouse, gums aching, stomach grumbling, and wait on Big Wang’s secret delivery. Cicadas scream all around me. With a title like Lady Jing of Mount Kunlun and ancestry that includes the great goddess Queen Mother of the West, running errands at 3 a.m. in this rotted heat might be considered below my station.”

Point B.

Chao’s writing organically bridges English and Chinese language and culture. The human concepts are clear, regardless of language. I hypothesize that what we can do to know more about how to communicate in both languages may contribute to world peace.

Point C.

I am a volunteer with the Literacy Volunteers of the New River Valley of Virginia. The beauty and power of A. Y. Chao’s sentences gave me the boldness to suggest a book club for speakers of Mandarin Chinese who wish to deepen their abilities to speak about ideas and life in English and Chinese.

Point D.

Excerpt from a review by A. R. James:

“From its sweat-dripping opening to its heartwarming conclusion, Shanghai Immortal is a sumptuous read. Tendrils of mythology weave together with modern characters whom you can’t help but love, and the result is a rich story of enigmatic deities, nether-realm heists and unexpected joy. It explores complex issues of heritage, identity, belonging, and intersectional feminism in a multicultural migrant context. It is a love letter to the author’s Chinese diaspora heritage with a twist of Canadian sensibilities… and – they’re not kidding – a huge amount of sass.”

Possible book club discussion questions:

  1. What has draped heavy over your shoulders? Perhaps physically – like a steaming Shanghai night – or figuratively, like a burden of some kind?
  2. About what have you ever counted “Yi. Er. San.”?
  3. What in the novel delighted and surprised you?
  4. What made you laugh?
  5. What images and scenes do you still remember, long after finishing the passage? What about them spoke to you or called to you?
  6. What made you uncomfortably aware of personally problematic ways you have of feeling, thinking, acting, interacting, or relating?
  7. Of the relationships Lady Jing has with other beings, which reminded you most of a relationship you have in your life?
  8. To what else in the story can you personally relate? Even though the story is about fictional, fantastical beings – except for a few humans – what in the characters’ experiences is personally engaging and/or meaningful to you?
  9. What do you feel and think when you recognize elements of Chinese culture and language in the novel? For example, Da Wang? Lady Jing? Mount Kunlun?
  10. If you had an opportunity to speak with author A. Y. Chao, what questions would you ask?
  11. I posit that Chao’s writing organically bridges English and Chinese language and culture. Universal human concepts are clear, regardless of language. I hypothesize that reading and discussing Shanghai Immortal opens opportunities for native speakers of Chinese and English to begin to navigate language and cultural differences and to achieve greater mutual understanding. Further, I hypothesize that mutual language and culture learning may contribute directly to productive, global conversations about topics of global import. Lady Jing, ambassador of peace? What do you think?

知彼知己，百戰不殆；不知彼而知己，一勝一負;不知彼，不知己，每戰必殆.
– 孫子兵法
Epigraph, Shanghai Immortal by A. Y. Chao

Update: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club, Blacksburg Branch, Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library, Virginia, has chosen Shanghai Immortal to read and discuss at 6:00 PM at its monthly meeting on May 28, 2024.

Discussion of Shanghai Immortal in Blacksburg, VA

All content is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. Consult a qualified professional for personalized medical, health care, and professional advice.

Filed Under: Books

Fantasy Novels to Foster Resilience

August 26, 2023 by

Although I primarily read literary fiction, once the unimaginable lockdown began in 2020, I turned to creators of imaginary worlds for mentorship.

In my 40s, when I was in deep grief about the end of my first marriage, my sister said, “Anne, just read Harry Potter.” Twenty years later, in 2020, I returned to the Harry Potter novels by J. K. Rowling. I have listened to the entire series read by Jim Dale multiple times. But I’m not a young boy. And Ron and Hermione were also in lockdown.

I sought fantasy novels with characters with whom I had enough in common to relate, and who modeled what I valued. I looked for characters who lived primarily as female, were psychologically-minded, acknowledged errors and learned from them, and, regardless of circumstance, or what had happened, or what was happening, displayed resilience and courage.

The novels below are listed in rank order based on my subjective view of the extent to which the main character meets these criteria, has or gains awareness, learns new skills, and survives and thrives.

Shanghai Immortal, a novel by A. Y. Chao

In a class by itself

I believe Shanghai Immortal, by A. Y. Chao, is an important book, a work of literary art.

The link is to the stellar Audible recording by Mei Mei Macleod.

Here is an excerpt from a review by A. R. James:

“From its sweat-dripping opening to its heartwarming conclusion, Shanghai Immortal is a sumptuous read. Tendrils of mythology weave together with modern characters whom you can’t help but love, and the result is a rich story of enigmatic deities, nether-realm heists and unexpected joy. It explores complex issues of heritage, identity, belonging, and intersectional feminism in a multicultural migrant context. It is a love letter to the author’s Chinese diaspora heritage with a twist of Canadian sensibilities… and – they’re not kidding – a huge amount of sass.”

Solely to discuss this novel, I founded a book club.  Here is more about Shanghai Immortal. Shanghai Immortal was released in ebook and audio formats on June 1, 2023. It’s due out in hardback on October 31, 2023.

“I can’t afford to be powerless anymore.”
– Biddy, The Magician’s Daughter, H. G. Parry, 2023

The rest of the list

  1. When Women Were Dragons, Kelly Barnhill. Before I read Shanghai Immortal, this was the first book I had broadly recommended since Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House. (The Dutch House link is to the Audible version narrated by Tom Hanks.) Alex observes the miraculous and the monstrous in her small-town, 1950s life, handles such deep hurt with honesty and bravery, and evolves in her thinking  over time about people and why they do what they do.
  2. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, Shannon Chakraborty. Amina is a ship’s captain and pirate, and infamous in the Indian Ocean. Too exotic? Amina has done some things. And she has a daughter, born of an intense affair with a complex being. The story is profoundly real although set in a world and time beyond standing in the checkout line at Kroger. Amazingly original and meaningful.
  3. Burn for Me, Ilona Andrews, pseudonym for a wife-and-husband team. First in the stellar Hidden Legacy series with main characters who are aware of their feelings and thoughts, do cost-benefit analyses with rank ordering when faced with choices, devise strategies, engage in understandable self-blame when things don’t go well, then move ahead based on their values and priorities. First series I have listened to twice since Harry Potter.
  4. The House Witch: A Humorous, Romantic Fantasy, Delemhach. A creative, kind treatise on carrying on after trauma. Subsequent books in the series are also excellent.
  5. Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. Link is to The New York Times book review. Katsa lives her values in astronomically extreme circumstances.
  6. A Magic Steeped in Poison, Judy I. Lin. Link is to the exquisitely read Audible version by Carolyn Kang. A gift to people who treasure finding meaning from the surprise of related things and times.
  7. The Liar’s Crown, Abigail Owen. Her world is inexplicable to us, then to her, then she bravely sees reality as it is.
  8. Legends & Lattes: A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes, Travis Baldree. Link is to Audible version, delightfully read by the author. An odd title for a startlingly imaginative archetypal heroine’s journey story. (Bookshops & Bonedust, Book 2, released in 2023.)
  9. The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune. The characters work hard to champion their own humanity against powerfully held beliefs about how people should be.
  10. Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons), Quenby Olson. In quiet, subtle ways, not often noted or praised, Miss Percy bravely stands up to nothing less than belief-based hegemony in the context of an absolutely darling story.
  11. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, Sangu Mandanna. An extraordinary exploration of aloneness.

Noteworthy, in rank order

  • The Wizard’s Butler, Nathan Lowell, 2021. The main character is male but, otherwise, met and surpassed all my criteria and helped me see ways to address hardship radically.
  • The Undertaking of Heart and Mercy, Megan Bannen, 2022. Introspective characters discover painfully and insightfully the cruelty of stonewalling and the freedom and compassion available from speaking openly.
  • Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse. Astonishingly powerful, on the edge of too graphic for me. Link is to Kirkus Reviews. Tried second book but a little too dark, at least for now.
  • Joan Is Okay, Weike Wang. Although not a fantasy novel,  without support, with opposition, a main character with a  neuroatypical inner life movingly handles the beginning of the atypical, apocalyptic beginning of this pandemic.

List of additional recommendations

I’m interested primarily in books written during and after the pandemic and buy approximately 10 books for every one I end up listening to and completing. This list was begun 2/9/2024 without descriptions. Title are in order by author’s last name and link to the audiobook version.

The books on my list are selected in the context of my limited experience with fantasy which, however, is with the greats.

I attend the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club at the Blacksburg Library, Blacksburg, Virginia.

I began this list here.

Other recommended books of other kinds are here.

All content on this page is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical, professional, educational, and/or legal advice. Consult a qualified professional for personalized medical, professional, educational, and legal advice.

Filed Under: Books

Revisiting Mindfulness in Challenging Times

August 15, 2023 by

In 2017, I watched in horror as my father began to suffer from dementia. To attempt to ease my way, I turned to Headspace.  The app had limited content at the time and I completed most of the programs by 2018.

A home pull-up bar failed on August 6, 2022, and my head struck a tile floor. Months later, continuing to experience post-concussion symptoms, I began to work my way through evidence-informed protocols that might provide relief. Mindfulness meditation is one of the recommendations so I returned to use of Headspace.

 

Caveat #1: Some forms of mindfulness meditation, because they are assigned or prolonged or other factors, may be experienced as force, invoke a sense of helplessness, reactivate or exacerbate trauma symptoms, or have other negative effects. Consult a qualified health care professional before engaging in meditation, mindfulness meditation, or mindfulness practices.

Caveat #2: There is no right way to meditate or to practice mindfulness. Awareness can occur in any place, with arms, legs, or body in any position, whether eyes are closed, half-opened, or wide open. One may be seated in an upright position or hanging from a professionally-installed, outdoor pull-up bar. Discovering what helps a person become aware is, in itself, a part of becoming gently, openly aware of one’s own interiority.

I have no affiliations with Headspace or other resources mentioned on this page. These are my disclosures.

Why Headspace?

Logistics

  1. Emotion dysregulation is a primary mechanism by which much human suffering occurs. Mindfulness skills directly offer the opportunity to regulate alarm, distress, and stress and to ease one’s inner experience and physical discomfort. With one set of skills, a person may be able to address multiple challenges.
  2. Unless under real duress, troubling feelings – such as feeling depressed or anxious – are usually caused by dire thoughts. Becoming aware of one’s thoughts offers the opportunity to gently help oneself with them.
  3. Mindfulness-informed interventions are increasingly showing improved health outcomes for people experiencing physical and mental challenges.*
  4. Use of Headspace is empirically supported. Headspace is currently the most researched** meditation and mindfulness app. Fourteen clinical trials support its efficacy.
  5. The content is sound. I have meticulously schooled myself in research-backed therapy protocols. Although Headspace’s current library of content is vast and I have not listened to all of it, what I hear a) is in accord with cognitive theory-based protocols that have proven track records to improve mental health outcomes, b) offers spacious options rather than “you should” directives, c) is kind.
  6. When I need support, encouragement, and guidance at times when others aren’t available, the Headspace app is open 24-7. (Mobile apps for mental health is an idea I have been working on since 2013.)

Helpfulness

The primary reason people seek counseling is to feel better and do better. The primary mechanism by which people can feel better and do better is to become aware of what they’re feeling and thinking, what and how they’re thinking about what’s happening – reality as it is – and to help themselves with that. For initiating and practicing this process, Headspace offers guidance, support, and reinforcement.

Given current levels of despair, the large percentage of Americans who report feeling lonely on a regular basis, the global prevalence of anxiety and depression, and my own challenges, I began with these Headspace courses: Basics, Grief, and Managing Anxiety.

Why not other apps?

Popularity does not ensure safety or effectiveness. Marketing, influencer testimonials, or word-of-mouth referrals do not equal rigorous testing to determine if a method works for most people, most of the time, better than other things, and better than nothing at all. Do no harm to self or others is the prime directive with self-administered or other-administered care.  Quackery exists and can be popularized, even by people with the best of intentions. I wish for top tier, research-backed, gold standard care for my one precious life. On all aspects of my health, I do literature reviews of research and consult credentialed, authoritative experts.

Recommended use of Headspace for clients

I recommend beginning with these courses, in order:

Basics > Basics 2 > Basics 3 > Managing Anxiety

Each course is 10 sessions. Each session is 11 minutes and 30 seconds long. In Basics 3, approximately session 5, individual awareness skills taught in the first sessions start weaving together in a way that reveals possibilities for the method’s broad use.

Daily completion of  the sequence of Basics, Basics 2, and Basics 3 will result in a 30-day streak. If you need documentation of this streak, I recommend taking a screenshot of this data from your profile page.

The navigation to find courses is:

Dashboard > Explore > Meditate > Courses and Singles > Courses A-Z > Scroll through the list of alphabetized content to find Basics, Managing Anxiety, and other courses.

Favoriting courses with a heart icon makes the selected list available by clicking the empty heart icon on the dashboard.

After completing the daily course, you are invited to explore other content. Using the search feature with words describing feelings, thoughts, and situations can reveal options. Using the search term “expert guidance” reveals a list of 1-minute instructional videos that are very helpful.

I recommend listening to Andy Puddicombe read The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness. Puddicombe did a wonderful 10-minute TED Talk in 2012: All it takes is 10 mindful minutes.

. . . . .

I have existential awareness of the complexity of the human condition. I have had my share of hardships. I neither minimize nor maximize my experiences, nor compare my experiences to those of others. I do, however, wish for a full, on-going sense of well-being.

This is part of the reason I have returned to using Headspace as part of my daily, self-care practices. My thoughts can be drawn longingly to what’s gone, what can’t be changed. or what might be ahead. This activates the emotion centers of my brain, often flooding my inner experience with alarm, distress, or the blues. Headspace helps coach me, then helps me practice shifting my attention from specific thoughts to spacious, broad consciousness. This returns me to use of, in synergy, my beautiful human brain’s emotion and cognitive centers. I can use my inner wisdom, skills, and creativity to help myself.

To gather case study data about my experience, I took several assessments prior to beginning use of Headspace, including the Flourishing Measure. I experienced positive change in all measures.

My experience with Headspace corroborates research findings: I feel better and do better.

. . . . .

*This is a brilliant definition of, and overview of, the research on mindfulness up to 2017. It expresses and summarizes beautifully my thinking on mindfulness – first exposure and experience in 2000. It offers sections of plain language for the layperson and more in-depth clinical exploration.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), is an evidence-based protocol backed by decades of research, including brain imaging studies (2021), to assist with “Acting with awareness, Non-judgment, and Non-reactivity” (2022), improvements in stress, self-compassion, and social connectedness (2020), anxiety disorders (2023), post-traumatic stress disorder (2018), reduction in levels of anxiety, depression and stress (2022) – although results for depression are mixed (2022) – high-stress jobs such as nursing (2021) and teaching (2021), improving sleep quality in nurses (2021) and cancer survivors (2021), and with physical conditions such as boosting innate immunocompetence (2022), type 2 diabetes (2022), asthma (2022), cholesterol levels (2022), and hypertension (2021).

Loving-kindness meditation may be helpful with post-traumatic stress symptoms, including depression (2021).

**Excerpts from selected research articles that test Headspace, from earliest to latest:

“This trial suggests that short guided mindfulness meditations delivered via smartphone and practiced multiple times per week can improve outcomes related to work stress and well-being, with potentially lasting effects.”
– Bostock S, Crosswell AD, Prather AA, Steptoe A. Mindfulness on-the-go: Effects of a mindfulness meditation app on work stress and well-being. J Occup Health Psychol. 2019 Feb;24(1):127-138. doi: 10.1037/ocp0000118. Epub 2018 May 3. PMID: 29723001; PMCID: PMC6215525.

“Mindfulness meditation uniformly and independently improved the participants’ overall mental health.”
– Zollars I, Poirier TI, Pailden J. Effects of mindfulness meditation on mindfulness, mental well-being, and perceived stress. Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2019 Oct;11(10):1022-1028. doi: 10.1016/j.cptl.2019.06.005. Epub 2019 Aug 7. PMID: 31685171.

“Results showed significant reductions (P<.01) in depression (Z=-3.36), anxiety (Z=-3.07), and stress (Z=-3.46) scores, representing reductions of 32%, 32%, and 47%.”
– Foley T, Lanzillotta-Rangeley J. Stress Reduction Through Mindfulness Meditation in Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists. AANA J. 2021 Aug;89(4):284-289. PMID: 34342565.

Of possible interest

Revisiting Values and Priorities in Challenging Times

Image: iStock

Last updated 11/16/2023

All content is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. Consult a qualified professional for personalized medical, health care, and professional advice.

Filed Under: Guide, Self-Care

If I Were to Begin Learning Mandarin Chinese Today

August 14, 2023 by

If an English-speaking adult with limited opportunities for immersion in the language came to me today and said, “I want to learn Mandarin Chinese. Where should I begin?”, this is what I would answer.

“[Mandarin Chinese is] one of the most geopolitically important languages in the twenty-first century.”
– Jing Tsu, Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution that Made China Modern, 2022

Caveat

My personal experience cannot be generalized to apply to others.*

The claim, “If it worked for me, it can work for you,” is unlikely to be true, particularly for language learners who do not live in a country where the language is spoken, do not have a love interest who speaks the language, do not have in-person classes they can attend, or who live in an area with few people who speak the language. It oversimplifies the complexity of context and of individual differences.

That said, I have done 100+ hours of review of the research literature on adult second language learning, particularly of Mandarin Chinese. Beyond my own experience, I have case study data from having observed adult learners in this effort, this one, and others. I feel confident offering some limited guidance, with the caveat that individual needs and strengths vary.

Screenshot from Hack Chinese dashboard

I took a semester of Mandarin Chinese over 40 years ago, then started again in 2020 as the pandemic began. My intention is to learn to speak Mandarin Chinese well enough to have meaningful conversations.

If the person were uncertain about whether or not they wanted to learn Mandarin Chinese, I would suggest that, before doing anything else, they book a 30-minute lesson with italki instructor Benfang Wang. Benfang is a teacher unsurpassed in skill in helping beginners learn Mandarin Chinese while only speaking Mandarin Chinese. Here he is speaking with a complete beginner. Here he is speaking with me in 2021 and again in 2024.

I have worked with over 50 instructors. Benfang is a master teacher. My hypothesis is that, after 30 minutes with Benfang, if the person has a nascent spark of interest, that may flame to a passion that calls to learn more.

Why can’t a person just try a few apps or courses and see if something sticks? The person certainly can. But there’s an ominous statistic to consider.

Although this study focuses on elementary and secondary students in Australia, my case study data corroborates it: 95% of people who begin studying Mandarin Chinese quit. Adults have to find ways that are individually reinforcing and individually work for them very quickly to maintain the consistent effort needed to outrun the forgetting curve.

My hypothesis is that adults quit learning Mandarin Chinese because they don’t make enough progress fast enough to make it seem worthwhile.

The primary problem with learning Mandarin Chinese is remembering and not forgetting. The sounds are few in number so sound alike. The content is vast. Being able to speak and read requires a precision unknown in English.

The only Mandarin Chinese course I know of, and recommend, that offers a connected, systematic, reproducible way of learning to pronounce, read, and write characters is Mandarin Blueprint.

Their invention is ingenious. A learner is taught this process: With a character, associate initials with people, finals with places, tones with rooms within those places, components within characters as items, then imagine scenes in which action unfolds with those elements in the sequence in which the components are written in the character.

For each character, the learner creates a personally meaningful story. Some characters become instantly recognizable; some can be remembered through recognizing elements and the story attached. It’s quite miraculous. I often wish my parents were still alive. I can imagine their wonder that their 65-year-old daughter can pronounce, read, and use 藏 in a sentence.

. . . .

For people who do want to learn Mandarin Chinese, after hard, trial-and-error labor since 2020, this is how I wish I had begun.

About studying Mandarin Chinese as an adult, I wish someone had given me this guidance:

  1. Treat each encounter with a new word or grammar point as one of the many needed. Research suggests that new language learners need 3 to 17 exposures to a new word to create strong enough connections in the brain to remember it. Neither students nor teachers can logically or fairly expect that one round of instruction will result in either remembering the word or grammar point or being able to use it accurately at the next opportunity.
  2. Connect each new word or grammar point to something meaningful that you already know. Remembering is the greatest challenge for adult learners of Mandarin Chinese. The adult human brain can learn and remember new information – and repetition does help – but learning Chinese requires both phonological and semantic processing. Learners need to intentionally connect the sounds of words and their meanings to personal experience.
  3. Focus on mastery, not on “more.” Learn a few things deeply and well rather than many things superficially and forgettably. More is not better, although enthusiastic teachers may believe they are giving you more value by offering you more new words, more grammar points, more learning resources.  Adding too much new information too quickly simply overwhelms the cognitive capacity of the adult human brain.
  4. Begin with, and continue to practice, self-kindness. Some things in life don’t happen as a result of character, desire, insight, or will. When learning languages as an adult, since one can always do more or know more, self-criticism, self-judgment, and worry aren’t merited. Self-appreciation and self-kindness are merited.
  5. Use self-awareness to monitor what delights you and what doesn’t. Do what delights you.
  6. Make it daily.

Then:

  1. Open a Hack Chinese account. Bypass use of Anki, Traverse, and/or other spaced repetition software for now.
  2. Take the Mandarin Blueprint Pronunciation Mastery course. It is imperative to learn correct pronunciation before learning characters so when characters are learned and reviewed, they are pronounced with precision in the mind and with the mouth. (To test whether or not Mandarin Blueprint is a fit, the course is available for 15 days for $7. The full course is about $1K, payable in installments, and offers a 90-day money back guarantee. I have no affiliation with any sources mentioned in this post.) My suggestion is to crank through the Pronunciation Mastery course videos, skipping making flashcards. Practice with the videos and move on. If needed, the course can be reviewed again later. I took it twice. Luke has summarized the content of the Pronunciation Mastery course in 1 hour.
  3. Master pronunciation. “Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong.” – Outlier Linguistics
  4. Record yourself speaking. Download and save the first audio you record to return to later. Vocaroo is easy to use.
  5. Start a personal vocabulary list in Hack Chinese. Add a very small number of characters and words from the Pronunciation Mastery class that are personally meaningful or interesting to you. Try diligently to add what you are beginning to recognize, not what you wish you knew. Review these as you complete the PM course.
  6. Join me and fellow study buddies who are Mandarin Chinese “streakers,” i.e. daily studiers of Mandarin Chinese who check in via Google doc.
  7. When you complete Mandarin Blueprint’s Pronunciation Mastery course, as a pre-test, take HSK level, an assessment created using an artificial intelligence algorithm by François-Pierre Paty, Ph.D. HSK level is the only credible, online assessment that I have been able to find that serves as a reasonable pre-test/post-test to measure gains. One needs to save the results page as a .pdf to retain the results. The results are not stored or retrievable.
  8. Create a Mandarin Blueprint (MB) Phase 1 vocabulary list in Hack Chinese by importing the character list in the progress link at the end of Level 6. Note: This step is possible if you’re a daily studier. If not, doing this may be too much information, too quickly.
  9. In Hack Chinese, add props/components cards to your first MB list. For example, in Level 4, you will learn 兑. The component at the top, 丷 also has a card in Hack Chinese. In Level 5, you will learn 说 = 讠 + 兑. In Hack Chinese, 讠also has a card. Adding characters and components keeps your list comprehensive.
  10. As you learn characters and components – termed “props” in Mandarin Blueprint – use Purple Culture or another source to add to the notes the original names and meanings of the components.**
  11. Memorize the tone with the character. Mandarin Blueprint uses the method of loci (also termed “memory palace“) to help learners remember tones. I envision their system as a “tone house” and place characters within rooms.
  12. Add a Simplified Characters keyboard to your electronic devices and begin using characters in your messages and emails.
  13. Start Phase 1 of Mandarin Blueprint. Although it will be difficult because many of the characters will seem unrecognizable, start reviewing the MB Phase 1 list in Hack Chinese every day for 2 minutes (or more, based on your schedule and your awareness of your inner experience – don’t push, easy does it.) Just start getting familiar with these first characters.
  14. Continue discovering your own personal study strengths and interests. Monitor your inner experience and repeat activities that bring you a sense of flow and satisfaction. Experiment with the review schedule that works for you.
  15. On the Hack Chinese dashboard is a list of hard words. You can send these to a teacher. Book a lesson with italki instructor Benfang Wang, message him that you are a beginner, and copy and paste the “hard words message” into the message box.
  16. Get ready to speak only Mandarin Chinese AS A BEGINNER using words you know and will be taught. Benfang Wang is a teacher unsurpassed in skill in helping beginners speak only in Mandarin. Here he is speaking with a complete beginner and here he is speaking with me in 2021. Note: It is critical to speak only Mandarin when learning Mandarin. Research studies suggest an adult must suppress the native language in order to optimally acquire a new, target language.
  17. Record yourself speaking after your experience with Benfang. Compare this recording to your first recording.
  18. Engage in passive listening. Listening to audio in the target language while doing other tasks is termed “statistical learning (SL), the unguided, automatic extraction of regularities from the environment through passive exposure.” (Alexander et al., 2022) Andrew Methven recommends these podcasts.
  19. Watch this video on word order from Shuo of Shuoshuo Chinese.
  20.  After you have finished about 300 characters in MB, try reading Twenty Three Cats. If all goes well, you will become a reader of simplified Chinese characters, skipping over the few words you don’t know to find out what happens next! It’s wondrous! If you can’t establish a reading flow, just stop. This will come.
  21. Experience the swirl of delightful synergy created by  pronunciation + characters + vocabulary + reading + speaking + listening! This synergy provides the early and immediate reinforcement busy adults need to keep studying.
  22. After you are able to read Twenty Three Cats, consider continuing with other graded reader texts. If reading is not your cup of tea, let it go! This will come. Graded reading materials of interest to adults are difficult to find. Possibilities for reading include: Mandarin Companion, Chinese Breeze, Imagin8 Press, Du Chinese (stories), and The Chairman’s Bao (news). Frank, an instructor with italki, has custom-created several graded reader texts for our group of study buddies, posted in Google docs, including The Gift of the Magi and Rickshaw Boy.
  23. Retake HSK level at intervals personally meaningful to you.
  24. Keep going with Mandarin Blueprint to get a core 1,000 characters done.
  25. There are many enrichment options*** after this! 加油！

Consider working with additional instructors.

I’ve had over 600 lessons with italki instructors and had sessions with about 50 teachers through italki and other means. I currently only meet with 3 of them. Why?

Ultimately, at nearly 65 years old, I need to have an excellent customer experience. At the end of the session, I need to feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, not a sense of inadequacy or failure. Given the complexity and difficulty of the task of helping an educated, articulate adult navigate the limits of speaking in a new language, this requires an instructor with extraordinary awareness and skill.

I seek instructors who

  1. speak only Mandarin Chinese during lessons (because adults must suppress their native languages in order to optimally acquire a new, target language),
  2. have expertise in adult second language learning and teaching,
  3. are focused primarily on me as a learner, rather than on themselves as a teacher,
  4. see me, hear me, recognize what I know, and help me build on that.

I have had a great deal of difficulty finding instructors who meet these criteria.

If instructors

  1. speak English during the session,
  2. speak more than half the time,
  3. correct me so frequently I can’t complete my thought or sentence,
  4. fill in what I’m struggling to say or a character I’m trying to read without giving me time to retrieve the content from my brain, thus robbing me of the chance to make a new connection,
  5. give me advice before they learn what I’ve already tried,
  6. focus on what I do incorrectly rather than help me build upon what I know,
  7. introduce too much new content too quickly for me to be able to connect it efficiently with what I already know,
  8. insist on using their content rather than what is personally meaningful to me,
  9. lead me to feel small vs. collaborate with me as a fellow adult,

I say 谢谢 and don’t book another session.

I’ve cried 一万 tears and wasted 100s of hours trying to convince teachers to speak only Mandarin with me, to help me try to think in Mandarin, and to catch me doing something right.  Shaping works. Success breeds success. If the instructors don’t get it, they don’t get it, and probably won’t. Move on.

In working with instructors, I have gained the most benefit from asking questions about materials of interest to me. For example, I’ve asked to share my screen and used this public, graded reader level version of The Gift of the Magi by italki instructor Frank to get help with pronunciation, reading fluency, and grammar points.

About the image

The image is a screenshot from my Hack Chinese dashboard from August 12, 2023. I subscribed to Hack Chinese short of a year ago, in October, 2022, on the recommendation of a study buddy, to review words used in Mandarin Companion graded readers. I used it intermittently until mid-August, 2023, when a study buddy shared his screen with his dashboard showing me the results of daily reviews for over a year. 哇！I want what he has! I am on my way!

I have no affiliations with any of the service providers mentioned in this post.

My understanding evolves. I will continue to update this post.

“There is a phrase in China, “zhiyin” (知音), used to describe the person who knows you best…As far apart as China and the United States may seem, our futures are deeply intertwined, and the world’s destiny lies in our collective hands. Americans must try to understand the hopes, dreams and aspirations of the Chinese people.”
– Carla Dirlikov Canales, opera singer and U.S. arts envoy, guest essay for The New York Times, 10/07/2023

. . . . .

*My personal experience can be termed case study data, anecdotal data, experiential data, and/or qualitative data. My personal experience cannot be equated with quantitative, human subjects research data which reports on answers to questions about what helps most people, most of the time, better than other things, and better than nothing.

**Knowing the original meanings of components, rather than trying to remember pictographs based on how they look, is more helpful for reading characters in the long run. Only about 5% of Chinese characters are pictographs.

For example, 且 qiě means “and; moreover; yet; for the time being; to be about to; both (… and…)” and is composed of these components:
月 [ yuè ] moon; month
一 [ yī ] one; a, an; alone

In Mandarin Blueprint, the suggested image to remember for 且 is a bookcase, but that’s pretty distant from the true meaning.

In my opinion, Mandarin Blueprint’s invention is a true innovation in the learning of Mandarin Chinese by adults. Learning both – the elements of their method, plus the original meaning of components – is ideal.

This post from Mandarin Blueprint on learning Chinese by yourself is very helpful.

***I have tried dozens of courses, programs, texts, and apps, and have worked – mostly briefly – with over 50 instructors. I have only a very few recommendations for post-1,000 character enrichment. Other than graded readers and a few instructors, these are the only resources that align with what research suggests and that I have found myself returning to when I seek further clarification or instruction.

Enrichment

Still at too high of a level for me but I find the content fascinating:

Interesting and helpful:

Reading Harry Potter, sentence-by-sentence

Thanks to a podcast interview I heard on You Can Learn Chinese in 2020 with a woman who taught herself to read Chinese using Chinese translations of the Harry Potter novels, and Andrew Methven‘s encouragement to find a text I love and muscle through it, sentence-by-sentence, I am doing just that.

I am using this Kindle version of the first Harry Potter novel. I aim to read – and look up unknown vocabulary and grammar points – at the rate of one sentence per day.

. . . . .

Anne Giles, M.A., M.S., L.P.C., is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the Commonwealth of Virginia, U.S.A., and a student of Mandarin Chinese. She has passed the pre-2021 HSK 1 and HSK 2 exams but did not pass the HSK 3 exam in 2021. She holds master’s degrees in curriculum and instruction and mental health counseling, and a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate. She attended the virtual National Chinese Language Conference in 2021 and 2022. She has taught English at the middle school, high school, and college levels. Her experience in working with non-native speakers of English includes serving as a support person for two visiting scholars from China to Virginia Tech, 1982-1983, tutoring non-native speakers, working with language exchange partners, and enjoying co-housing with international visiting scholars, 2020 to the present. She is a volunteer tutor with Literacy Volunteers of the New River Valley, Virginia.

Last updated 07/23/2024

All content is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. Consult a qualified professional for personalized medical, health care, and professional advice.

Filed Under: Chinese

A Book Club for Speakers of Mandarin Chinese

August 6, 2023 by

Native speakers of Mandarin Chinese who wish to deepen their English conversation and discussion skills are invited to join a book club offered through the Literacy Volunteers of the New River Valley.

[Here is the book club meeting format.]

What? A book club, conducted in English, for adult speakers of Mandarin Chinese

Shanghai Immortal, a novel by A. Y. Chao

For whom?

Adult speakers of Mandarin Chinese who have an upper elementary or above level of proficiency in English and wish to improve their English pronunciation, conversation, and discussion skills.

When? Two meeting times, each 30 minutes

  • 6:30 AM U.S. Eastern, Thursdays (for all)
  • 2:30 PM U.S. Eastern, third Sunday of the month (for residents of the Blacksburg and New River Valley areas of Virginia, U.S.A.).
  • Remaining Sunday meetings in 2023: September 17, October 15, November 19, December 17

Where? Zoom

What book?

Shanghai Immortal, by A. Y. Chao, released June 1, 2023

Why Shanghai Immortal?

As a learner of Mandarin Chinese, the beauty and power of A. Y. Chao’s sentences and her blending of English and Chinese language and western and eastern cultures, gave me the boldness to suggest we read her novel together to grow as people deepening our abilities to speak about ideas and life in English and Chinese.

We need a novel that uses excellent, contemporary English vocabulary, has many opportunities for gathering personally meaningful words to add to a core vocabulary, and offers a bridge between Chinese and English language and culture. The novel needs a compelling story and a heroine befitting the global challenges of life in 2023. Perhaps most importantly, the novel needs to merit sustained attention to each word and each sentence over a long period of time. I believe Shanghai Immortal meets these criteria.

Here’s the Kindle version. The hardback version will be released October 31, 2023. According to the author’s site, Shanghai Immortal is the first novel in a trilogy.

Here’s the Audible version. Narrator Mei Mei Macleod is exceptional.

What will be the reading pace?

While book club members are welcome to read ahead at their own pace, for our English-focused discussions, we will work on mastering the first sentence of the novel, then proceed at the pace set by the majority of our members.

Why will we spend so much time on the first sentence?

“The steaming Shanghai night
drapes heavy over my bare shoulders.”
– A. Y. Chao, Shanghai Immortal

To “master” a word is to gain a deep, interior knowledge of it, such that the learner can, without notice or thought, regardless of context, use the word, explain the word’s meaning, pronounce it accurately as a word and within a sentence, recite the word from memory, and read the word on a printed page or screen.

From mastering a single, beautiful, well-constructed sentence, a learner can confidently build more complex sentences using frequently used,  most important, and personally meaningful words to communicate more individually and fully.

Further, we are attempting to master the pronunciation of this sentence with the standard American accent of a national level media broadcaster.

After several weeks of practice, one book club member said, “This sentence is mine now.”

For assistance with mastering the first sentence of Shanghai Immortal, here’s a worksheet. The .pdf opens in a new tab.

Why are we proceeding at a slow pace?

Many enthusiastic second language learners begin reading books in their target language. Few finish. Reading in a second language can be difficult, tedious, and demoralizing. Force decreases motivation and learning. Reading a book in a second language is not the time for 努力！It’s the time for spacious kindness. We need to give ourselves time to explore and experience these words to make them our own.

In considering logistics, the book is 365 pages long. Reading one page per day for 365 days in a row would take one year. We may go more quickly; we may go more slowly. We’ll take the time we need.

“[Students] read word by word, sentence by sentence, and they ponder over an unfamiliar word choice, a fleeting gesture, the shadow of an image, and the ripple of a sentence seen in the following sentence. The collection of their thoughts, observations and questions is very touching. It’s a testament to the art of reading with not only five senses but also with memory and imagination. And I hope it’s the most important thing I can teach my students: not merely the crafts of writing but the importance of paying close attention, to the world in a book and to the world beyond a book.”
– Yiyun Li, author, interview, The New York Times,

What is  the meeting format?

Here is the book club meeting format.

What materials and resources do I need?

  1. Zoom
  2. An electronic or print version of Shanghai Immortal. The Kindle version offers both English and Chinese dictionaries to help with vocabulary.

What is the cost to join?

This program is free and offered through the Literacy Volunteers of the New River Valley.  (Here is a 30-minute public television story about the Literacy Volunteers.)

How do I join the 6:30 AM U.S. Eastern Thursday meeting for all?

Please fill out the contact form and I will email you the Zoom link.

How do I join the 2:30 PM U.S. Eastern Sunday meeting for residents of the New River Valley?

If you are a Mandarin Chinese speaker and a resident of the New River Valley of Virginia and would like to join the Sunday meeting of the book club, registration is required. Please visit this page, then click on Student Application for English Classes.

Once you have registered, we can add you to our WeChat book club group. If you know someone who may be interested, please feel free to share this post with them.

Current book club members, thank you for your bravery and for the inspiration you give me to explore ways to learn another language as an adult. Thank you for the synergy we create together.

About the facilitator

Anne Giles, M.A., M.S., L.P.C., is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the Commonwealth of Virginia, U.S.A., and a student of Mandarin Chinese. She has passed the pre-2021 HSK 1 and HSK 2 exams. She holds master’s degrees in curriculum and instruction and mental health counseling, and a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate. She attended the virtual National Chinese Language Conference in 2021 and 2022. She has taught English at the middle school, high school, and college levels. Her experience in working with non-native speakers of English includes serving as a support person for two visiting scholars from China to Virginia Tech, 1981-1982, tutoring non-native speakers, working with language exchange partners, and enjoying co-housing with international visiting scholars, 2020 to the present. She is a volunteer tutor with Literacy Volunteers of the New River Valley, Virginia.

“[Mandarin Chinese is] one of the most geopolitically important languages in the twenty-first century.”
– Jing Tsu, Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution that Made China Modern, 2022

Other in-person opportunities to converse and discuss in English

Conversation and Communication Practice for Speakers of Mandarin Chinese, Tuesdays, 3:30 – 4:30 PM

This free, in-person class for up to six residents of the New River Valley of Virginia is for native speakers of Mandarin Chinese who speak English at an early intermediate level or above and wish to deepen their conversational skills.

The class meets in Blacksburg, Virginia and offers a variety of opportunities for working with pronunciation and vocabulary, and for practicing communicating effectively during conversations and discussions.

Registration is required to participate. To register and learn more, please visit this page, then click on Student Application for English Classes.

This class for Mandarin Chinese speakers is also listed on Meetup.

Conversation and Communication Practice for English Speakers of All Languages, Fridays, 3:15 – 4:15 PM

This free, in-person class for up to six residents of the New River Valley of Virginia is for native speakers of all languages who speak English at an elementary level or above.

The class meets in Blacksburg, Virginia and offers a variety of opportunities for working with pronunciation and vocabulary, and for practicing communicating effectively during conversations and discussions.

Registration is required to participate. To register and learn more, please visit this page, then click on Student Application for English Classes.

Questions?

If you have any questions at all, please contact me, Anne Giles.

Last updated 9/8/2023

All content is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. Consult a qualified professional for personalized medical, health care, and professional advice.

Filed Under: Books, Chinese
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