Mandarin Chinese Study Plan

老师好。

我学习了3.5年中文。 我的办法是学习很多很快。我非常喜这个办法。有些人可以通过这种方式学习。我意识到，我熟悉很多概念。 但是，我还没有掌握这很多概念。 其实，我掌握的概念很少。我必须接受我学习新概念太多太快。（也我在我的小城市上练习说中文的机会太少了，但我无法改变这个，所以我废弃了。）

在我进步以前，我的看法是我先必须掌握很少数概念。

Since 2020, I have made gradual progress. My hypothesis is that if I pause to master a limited amount of frequently used, personally meaningful content, my progress will become exponential.

我有三个目标。

  1. Speak Mandarin Chinese understandably.
  2. Read Harry Potter in Chinese.
  3. Pass the HSK 3 2021 and/or the New HSK 3 exam while I am 65, before I turn 66. (I want to pass as a result of  my learning, not as a result of my studying for an exam.)

Slides based on Harry Potter as the central text

With my friend, Mary, a Mandarin Chinese teacher and language exchange partner, I am reading the first Harry Potter novel in Simplified Characters. She is reading it in English. I have shared with her that the most important part of the novel to me is in Chapter 12. Although I am still reading Chapter 1, she has started to make slides with grammar points and vocabulary for me in hopes that, when I reach Chapter 12, I’ll be able to read it fluently.

老师，would you be open to helping me master the content of these slides? If so, I will send them to you.

What do I mean by “master”?

I want to know the content so thoroughly, comprehensively, and deeply, inside and out, that it becomes a permanent part of my heart, mind, and thinking. If I’m half asleep on an airplane to China and the flight attendant speaks to me in Chinese, I want to be able to answer.

What’s an example of what have I mastered?

口。 When I’m an old woman, I believe I will know that’s “mouth” and it’s third tone. I know handwriting is less important, but I can write that character with 3 strokes, in the correct order.

I want to know the first 3,000 most frequently-used Chinese characters at that level. I want to have mastered them.

比如说, in slide 2 is 废弃.

I would welcome help learning, remembering, recalling, and being able to use in multiple contexts:

废 fèi to abandon
广 [ guǎng ] broad, vast, wide; building, house
发 [ fā ] to issue, to dispatch, to send out; hair
弃 qì to abandon
亠 [ tóu ] lid, cover; head
厶 [ sī ] private, secret
廾 [ gǒng ] two hands

I would welcome helping taking what I know and building on it through connections.

For example, 到 is also used in the slides. 到 also contains 厶 [ sī ] private, secret! Helping make connections like that – carefully using the content of the slides, not new information – helps me build an inner network of understanding with my heart and mind.

Specific areas in which I wish to grow as a student

  1. Correct pronunciation.
  2. Correct word order.
  3. Applying my knowledge of one character or one word learned in one context and using it accurately in another context.

How to help me as an individual student

  1. During mutually-agreed upon times for conversation, please speak Mandarin Chinese. Research findings on adult second language describe me accurately. My learning is optimized when I think in my target language and suppress my native language. Shifting back and forth between languages breaks the fragile connections of understanding that I am trying to build in my mind.
  2. During whiteboard instructional sessions, use of both Mandarin Chinese and English may be helpful and efficient.
  3. Please help me build on what I know. For me, shaping works. Please catch me doing something right.  For me, success breeds success.

With regard to corrective feedback, I prefer cues to self-correct.

Adult relationships are based on mutuality. Between adults, criticism, correction, fault-finding, and unsolicited advice harm relationships. How is a teacher of adults to correct errors made by adult students?

This 2023 study on corrective feedback is fascinating. It notes “significant differences between the Chinese as a second language teachers’ and students’ preferences for corrective feedback types.”

Students in the study – I assume they are college students – preferred  direct correction. Teachers in the study preferred “recasts,” i.e. implicit correction within the context of the conversation, rather than explicit correction.

  1. During conversations, I learn best from error correction when it occurs naturally within the flow of conversation. If I make pronunciation or word order errors, if the teacher will speak my sentence correctly, I will consider that a cue to self-correct and I will repeat it.
  2. I may need a little extra time to complete a thought or to repeat an incorrect sentence correctly. A typical pause in speech lasts only about a quarter to half a second. During my pauses, some teachers find themselves talking over me. Please know I am aware of too-long pauses and am working on this.

What you can count on from me

  1. 努力。
  2. Desire for precision.
  3. Homework completion.
  4. Daily study. I am part of a group of 学习伙伴 who study an hour or more each day. Here’s the home page linking to the Google docs we use for check-ins.

Sweet spot for teachers and learners

I am looking for the “sweet spot” where teachers are teaching what they love, in a way they love, and I am loving what we’re learning in a way I can learn.

My limits

  1. 30 minutes per online session. I can stretch to 45 minutes but usually experience diminishing returns. My retention of what happens in the final 15 minutes is low.
  2. Timing. I am available for classes starting at 6:00/6:30 AM and 2:00 PM on Fridays, U.S. Eastern time.
  3. Topics. 我是一个人。To quote Leonard Bernstein’s character in “Maestro”, I have a “grand inner life rather than a grand outer life.” I would love to be able to read Harry Potter fluently. Here’s a Google doc with the first pages. I love to talk about psychology. Mary helped me write and translate this.
  4. Urgency. I am 65, not 25. I wish to follow research-backed methods likely to help me to do very well, very quickly, while I have time.
  5. Exposures. As do other second language learners, I need 3 to 17 exposures to learn a new word. Although I appreciate teachers teaching me new words, if the words occur in a context I will never use in my personal life or read about as a topic of personal interest to me, I am unlikely to remember it.

My Mandarin Chinese learning background

My connection to China began when I was around 10 years old and read The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. This is a copy of the paperback I read probably 100 times. Pearl S. Buck’s autobiography, My Several Worlds, shaped me as a woman, a person, a thinker, and a scholar.

I took one semester of Mandarin Chinese in 1981 and began to study again in 2020.

My language-related bio is at the bottom of this page: If I Were to Begin Learning Mandarin Chinese Today.

My level

I passed HSK 1 (2021) and HSK 2 (2021) in 2021. I took HSK 3 (2022) and did well on the listening portion, but did not pass because I could not read well enough.

According to Benfang, on 1/5/2024, I spoke at the HSK 2/HSK 3 level.

HSKlevel characters test

  • Characters, 1/8/2024: Understanding: You can understand 450 characters*
  • Vocabulary, 1/8/2024: (forthcoming)

*According to HSKlevel, those 450 characters land in Tier I of The Table of General Standard Chinese Characters (通用规范汉字表), a standard list of 8105 characters published by the Chinese government.

Current online teachers

Other courses, software, and resources I use are here:

老师，thanks for considering my request!

Published 1/8/2024
Updated 1/9/2024

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