Studying Chinese can feel very passive. Your teacher or textbook tells you what to study, and you just sit back and try to take it in. If this sounds like you, you need to take control.
If you’re not in control of your study, you’ll be less interested in the material. Less interest will lead you down the path to giving up.
Studies show that those who don’t feel in control of their lives are less successful. The same is true for studying Chinese. The most successful students actively seek things to study.
Here are some steps to take:
- Start talking: You might not be able to discuss the finer points of French literature, but you can start learning how to discuss topics you find interesting.
- Start writing: Go to lang8 and start writing a Chinese blog. Lang8 has a huge community of users who are willing to help you improve your writing skills.
- Start watching: Heard of youku? It’s the YouTube of china and it’s full of tv shows, movies and clips. (Try Meteor Garden 流星花园 if you don’t know what to watch.)
I totally agree with you. Teacher can’t just pour information to your head, you have to be active and learn it yourself. I’ve been active in different way during the past three years I’ve been learning Mandarin. And sometimes not active enouhg.
Right now I’m finding out what is my level in the new HSK by doing some mock tests. Soon my first term as a Chinese language degree student starts and I can find new ways to be active that support the courses I have.
Congrats on starting your Chinese language degree.
The great part of studying for a Chinese language degree is you get to learn a lot of Chinese (spoken, written, listening, reading).
The not so great part is there’s a lot less time to learn the Chinese you want to learn.
Having earned my own Chinese Language degree in 2006, I’ve been very happy with most of what I learned. I only wish I’d had more freedom to follow my interests and less coursework that came directly from compiled textbooks.
Thank you Steven.
Good to hear that you were satisfied with most of your courses. I can imagine that not everything will be equally useful or interesting for me, but I hope most of the courses will be good. I have high expectations for Sun Yat-Sen University, soon I’ll find out if courses can match them.
And yes, I should be watching more Chinese movies and TV shows. I think it’s good listening practise and probably helped me to get my HSK listening up last Spring.
hi,Sara. I am Chinese, I think I can help you study Chinese. By the way, my English is poor, so i will be very glad if you could help me study English. my email is love.hunter@live.com