Can an old dog learn a new language?
My Story
I'm an introverted 40 year old that has struggled with languages throughout my life. The only time I've visited detention was for failing my French listening test and I dreaded languages throughout school. After graduating University I went to night school to revisit French and some years later I tried Spanish, both of which faded out of interest just a few terms in.
In 2020 I moved to China.
I started learning Chinese a year prior to departure, with the intent to visit my wife's family but with the onset of the Covid pandemic we choose to stay in China. Like many of us I have a busy life so its my spare time hustle. I've taken 1:1 tuition, night classes, virtual courses and I've tried 10 language apps, fully completed the excellent HelloChinese app, and spent a lot of time in youtube. I tried all of the techniques along the way.
- Flash cards
- Spaced Repetition
- Passive Listening
- Comprehensible Input
Year 1 - 500 hours studied
I was planning to meet my wife's family for the first time, most of whom can't speak English, and I was determined to make the most of my prep year to learn as much as possible. I filled all of my free time with study. All time spent commuting, lunch breaks, including walking and showering was spent studying. I studied everyday and binged on the weekends, putting in 10 hours a week on most weeks, with occasional binge weeks of 25 hours.
Spent via
- Classroom Entry Beginner at the London school of Practical Mandarin - 20 hours
- Classroom Advanced Beginner at the London school of Practical Mandarin - 20 hours
- Classroom homework + revision - 60 hours
- Italki 1:1 - 50 hours
- Italki homework + revision - 100 hours
- Language Apps + Podcasts + Youtube - 250 hours
I passed the HSK 1 exam. Completed the classic HelloChinese course which includes HSK2, but after trying the HSK2 mock exam I wasn't confident enough to enroll. On arrival to China I found I had nearly zero listening comprehension. I could order some food though it often requires a lot of pointing at menus and often I'd get the wrong item. No real conversational level, limited to basic phrases for my job, hobbies and basic daily life routine.
I couldn't read any Hanzi characters which was a bigger problem then I had planned as a lot of Apps for daily life and with the Covid pandemic are not localized.
It was deflating to have spent a considerable amount of time and to arrive in China with almost no working ability of the language. My expectations were too high and I took some shortcuts and made some mistakes in my study method. Focusing just on Pinyin and a lack of listening are the top mistakes.
Very few people will talk with the clean slow standard Mandarin that you'll hear in language school and study materials. A lot of the time daily conversations are in part locale dialect or with heavy accents, which to even an advanced learner is confusing.
Have modest expectations. I am finding that only at a high level, about HSK5 on the old HSK system you can really start to have good comprehension and daily interactions. Struggling is all part of the learning process.
Avoid as much English content in lessons as possible. Immersion will help you adapt quicker.
Find good listening content. Most language Apps heavily compromise listening as they have very limited, highly repetitive or synthetic sounding speech.
Learn Hanzi characters. Mobile Apps aren't localised and relied upon in China. Writing I've not found as important.
Did I mention listening, listening, listening?
Year 2 - 335 hours studied
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