that's how I finally learnt Mandarin, at a basic conversational level after 2 months.
Mar 13, 2024
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i'm a native portuguese speaker, currently fluent in English and studying mandarin for two years.
I'm going to admit, i still feel like a begginer, mandarin is known for having a complicated learning curve, but taking in consideration my experince with english, it really is about surrounding yourself with the language.
I guess it's the most common advice, but it does work! To past time go on 小红书, look for films and series in Mandarin, and if you are watching on netflix you can use language reactor extension on browser that offers double subtitles. Make a spotify playlist with songs in the language, and once in a while print the lyrics with a few missing words and try to complete them when listening to the song.
Another think that helped was to play games of forming words by combing hanzi flashcards. Doing it with a few friends forces you to think fast and expose youself, especially if you still feel insecure with your skills.
I wish you the best and good luck with your learning process!
Jan 8, 2025
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1. Learn the basic building blocks for your language of choice (i.e. pronouns, action verbs, common objects– literally the essential words you’d need to formulate the most basic sentences to communicate simple ideas). That can be done by googling things like “essential verbs in (insert language of choice here)” or “100 essential words to learn in _______.” Pair that up with any beginners grammar language book that you can take out from your local library. At this point, you don’t need to know how to speak the language, just have a general idea of how different elements come together to form coherent sentences.
2. Once you’ve acquainted yourself with those principles, the fun and most critical part comes into play: immersion. Since you’re not at the talking stage just yet, you need to treat yourself like you’re a baby hearing words for the first time and trying to associate meaning to them via their context. The best way I’ve found to do this is by watching kids tv shows in the language you want to learn and also finding YouTubers who are native speakers of that language. Turn on the subtitles and also keep them in the same language. This will allow you to start matching visuals with words and understand how sentences are composed in more organic ways. It will also force you to make language connections the way children do when learning their native tongue. You want to remove the buffer of thinking in your mother tongue and then translating the word in the new language. Instead, you want to start making immediate semiotic connections to the things you’re seeing. Like 🍎 is manzana in Spanish, but you wanna avoid thinking “oh that means apple in English which translates to manzana in Spanish.” It’s an extra loop you have to jump through that makes the language learning process less natural and more arduous imo.
3. In tandem to immersing yourself by listening to the language being used, here’s where you can start applying it bit by bit. This can be by either repeating the sentences you see in the tv shows you’re watching and start challenging yourself to write & say very basic sentences with your knowledge from step 1. In an ideal situation, having a friend or acquaintance who speaks the native language and can start talking with you is also incredibly useful since they can actively correct you while you practice. Though very beneficial, I know that that may not be an option for many people, so practicing on your own with the aid of the media you’re watching in the native language still works very well!
This is a very long response, but I hope that these suggestions can help create a more structured approach to learning your new language. Good luck!! ✨
Feb 19, 2024
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the thrill of your brain working without needing the help of your eyeballs!!! 😱
(i’m learning mandarin and after a year can finally recognize simple sentences without always needing to see them written down 😭🙌🏻)
Mar 10, 2024
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it's totally cool to age and society still isn't equipped to deal with that.
Mar 27, 2024
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Sometimes you try your best and everything seems to hit the fan no matter how much you try, so you take that raincheck and take yourself out for a day.
Nov 27, 2024
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This is what I call it hahahah made by mums everywhere but the greased up version is sold along stalls in Mumbai. Two regular slices of white bread, buttered, and the middle filling is cream cheese with red onions, coriander/cilantro, tomatoes and some minced chillis. All veggies chopped mini cube size so they blend with the cheese. Toasted crispy.
Apr 3, 2024