3 Years 5 Months (Feb 2018)
2-4-2018:
Recently I’ve been learning lots of synonyms and filling out my native language abilities. It
makes it easier to improvise and also reinforces all the stuff I already
know
2-13-2018: My reading speed has increased dramatically as I get close to finishing the first of the three 三体 books. I went through grammar points on AllSetGrammar and was happily surprised to find that A1 and A2 and almost all of B1 Grammar is a piece of cake. It's weird looking at it and remembering when I was first starting out. It feels like a lifetime ago.
2-22-2018: Went looking for and found some great Mandarin grammar books from Routledge. My language ability has so much native exposure that reading and speaking is a completely different experience than when I first started. Sentences are now chunked into words and phrases just like in English which makes grasping and mastering a grammar concept quite easy if not natural. There are lots of little grammar mistakes I have been making for forever and I'm so happy to finally be able to get the kinks ironed out.
2-13-2018: My reading speed has increased dramatically as I get close to finishing the first of the three 三体 books. I went through grammar points on AllSetGrammar and was happily surprised to find that A1 and A2 and almost all of B1 Grammar is a piece of cake. It's weird looking at it and remembering when I was first starting out. It feels like a lifetime ago.
2-22-2018: Went looking for and found some great Mandarin grammar books from Routledge. My language ability has so much native exposure that reading and speaking is a completely different experience than when I first started. Sentences are now chunked into words and phrases just like in English which makes grasping and mastering a grammar concept quite easy if not natural. There are lots of little grammar mistakes I have been making for forever and I'm so happy to finally be able to get the kinks ironed out.
3 Years 7 Months (Apr 2018)
4-3-2018: I can't understand lots of things but at the same time I can understand everything. I was looking at the phone app, and remembering when I could barely navigate. I was reading a book on the bus in Chinese and despite large passages that make no sense, I could understand all the dialogue and main plot points. I can mostly follow along in Taichi class, and am now following two Chinese TV shows.
4-3-2018: I can't understand lots of things but at the same time I can understand everything. I was looking at the phone app, and remembering when I could barely navigate. I was reading a book on the bus in Chinese and despite large passages that make no sense, I could understand all the dialogue and main plot points. I can mostly follow along in Taichi class, and am now following two Chinese TV shows.
And at the same time, it’s always never enough. I can feel myself doing things I never thought I would be able to do but also frequently catch myself focusing solely on the things I can't do and still can't understand. Feeling like all the people that inspired me to start learning mandarin are still years ahead of where I am, despite watching them years and years ago.
3 Years 8 Months (May 2018)
5-28-2018: I started studying traditional characters recently and its really cool to finally understand all my Taiwan Facebook friend posts as well as texts from parents (they're all Taiwanese as well). I'm also using the opportunity to learn/review tones for all the 3000 most common Hanzi. Should help out a lot as I often don't know how to guess-pronounce new words when I see them in the wild.
I am continuing to practice Japanese. This has helped my pronunciation of Chinese and also keeps my knowledge of Chinese words fresh. My advancement in singing through my second passagio has also helped in making rising tones easier. My voice seems to tire less easily.
5-30-2018: When I practice Chinese on the Japanese deck, I often use Baidu translate to look up tone pairs that sound/feel funny when I pronounce them. Third tone and second tone still sound the same in a lot of places. I think I finally cleared up the difference between silent and third tone however. Also realizing that third tone is just flat low and not a dip when it is pronounced 99% of the time. I read this a long time ago but just starting re-realizing it.
5-28-2018: I started studying traditional characters recently and its really cool to finally understand all my Taiwan Facebook friend posts as well as texts from parents (they're all Taiwanese as well). I'm also using the opportunity to learn/review tones for all the 3000 most common Hanzi. Should help out a lot as I often don't know how to guess-pronounce new words when I see them in the wild.
I am continuing to practice Japanese. This has helped my pronunciation of Chinese and also keeps my knowledge of Chinese words fresh. My advancement in singing through my second passagio has also helped in making rising tones easier. My voice seems to tire less easily.
5-30-2018: When I practice Chinese on the Japanese deck, I often use Baidu translate to look up tone pairs that sound/feel funny when I pronounce them. Third tone and second tone still sound the same in a lot of places. I think I finally cleared up the difference between silent and third tone however. Also realizing that third tone is just flat low and not a dip when it is pronounced 99% of the time. I read this a long time ago but just starting re-realizing it.
3 Years 9 Months (Jun 2018)
6-4-2018: I've noticed that the only times I notice pronunciation is when I pronounce incorrectly. All the times I have great pronunciation or very clean pronunciation I don't pay attention at all. In order to stop that trend tonight I stopped and took note of how pronouncing 今天晚上 doesn't give me any problems at all. Not only that, but its sounds pretty good as well. Reminder to self: focus on the goals and the accomplishments in a balanced manner.
6-20-2018: Binge watched my first TV show in Chinese. I've also been going to Taiji every day and my brain is starting to produce mandarin quicker and more often than English. Often times the mandarin will pop into my head in the middle of an English sentence, sometimes before the English, and sometimes at the same time as the English. Very interesting.
3 Years 11 Months (Aug 2018)
6-4-2018: I've noticed that the only times I notice pronunciation is when I pronounce incorrectly. All the times I have great pronunciation or very clean pronunciation I don't pay attention at all. In order to stop that trend tonight I stopped and took note of how pronouncing 今天晚上 doesn't give me any problems at all. Not only that, but its sounds pretty good as well. Reminder to self: focus on the goals and the accomplishments in a balanced manner.
6-20-2018: Binge watched my first TV show in Chinese. I've also been going to Taiji every day and my brain is starting to produce mandarin quicker and more often than English. Often times the mandarin will pop into my head in the middle of an English sentence, sometimes before the English, and sometimes at the same time as the English. Very interesting.
3 Years 11 Months (Aug 2018)
8-27-2018:
Still chugging through the traditional characters and all the pronunciations.
On returning to China I feel like I can read and listen to anything with no
problems (people are still slowing down for me in actuality but it all feels
almost too easy). Time to start hitting the books and novels and TV shows to
take this stuff to the last level, native.
4 Years (Sept 2018)
4 Years (Sept 2018)
9-19-2018: So
today is the last day for learning the 3000 most common traditional characters
as well as learning/reviewing pronunciation for all of them. By some wild
guess, I decided to look today to see how much I had left and it turns out
today I had 25 words left. Pretty cool. Watching TV nowadays feels like I know
99.9% of the characters though the speed is still too quick sometimes to hear
everything.
4 Years 1 Month (Oct 2018)
4 Years 1 Month (Oct 2018)
10-3-2018:
I've been watching a fair amount of romantic dramas recently (2 hours +/day)
and the conversational flow of most dialogue has really helped a lot in making
my language flow more naturally. I was in the China Mobile store today and for
the first time, my brain grasping the flow and rhythm of the conversation
wanted to just starting talking even though I had no idea what was going to
come out. My usual "speak slowly and watch my tones" was way too
slow. When I am typing now and speak in English, it is the same way except I
assume what I am saying is correct since I have been corrected so many times in
the past. Wondering if I should just let go and see what happens.
10-12-2018: 如果他真的爱你的话 I saw this phrase and heard it simultaneously and I think it is the first time I've heard a whole sentence like this and immediately felt the weight of the words being said. The vocabulary and grammar is so familiar it was like hearing English almost. Very interesting.
4 Years 2 Months (Nov 2018)
10-12-2018: 如果他真的爱你的话 I saw this phrase and heard it simultaneously and I think it is the first time I've heard a whole sentence like this and immediately felt the weight of the words being said. The vocabulary and grammar is so familiar it was like hearing English almost. Very interesting.
4 Years 2 Months (Nov 2018)
11-3-2018：Just had an interesting experience where
watching TV and not understanding most of what is said but still grasping ideas
through context and key words. 26 years of learning about the world (in this
case about silicon valley) was enough to understand meaning even when I don't
understand a phrase.
I can now eat and watch TV and that is a huge milestone. Learning the language is at the easy/fun part which is very cool.
11-9-2018: My singing voice has been a little more tired than usual the last two weeks or so. I think it is due to an increased amount of mimicking as I watch TV recently. Yesterday I literally spent the entire day watching TV. I find that some sentences and phrases still sound awkward when I say them (when I pronounce them with the correct tones they don't sound like they do when spoken by native speakers). Sometimes I can also feel that my throat and mouth can't keep up and so I have to pronounce it many times over before it starts to sound natural.
11-19-2018: It's weird I can understand everything that is happening in a TV show. Sure, I miss connotation, all sorts of idioms, subtle plot twists, and the like…but 90% of the experience I can understand (between subtitles and listening). It’s weird how the brain at one point was wishing to just be able to get the gist of stuff. But as soon as that happens the brain is already longing after something else.
4 Years 3 Months (Dec 2018)
I can now eat and watch TV and that is a huge milestone. Learning the language is at the easy/fun part which is very cool.
11-9-2018: My singing voice has been a little more tired than usual the last two weeks or so. I think it is due to an increased amount of mimicking as I watch TV recently. Yesterday I literally spent the entire day watching TV. I find that some sentences and phrases still sound awkward when I say them (when I pronounce them with the correct tones they don't sound like they do when spoken by native speakers). Sometimes I can also feel that my throat and mouth can't keep up and so I have to pronounce it many times over before it starts to sound natural.
11-19-2018: It's weird I can understand everything that is happening in a TV show. Sure, I miss connotation, all sorts of idioms, subtle plot twists, and the like…but 90% of the experience I can understand (between subtitles and listening). It’s weird how the brain at one point was wishing to just be able to get the gist of stuff. But as soon as that happens the brain is already longing after something else.
4 Years 3 Months (Dec 2018)
12-5-2018:
Still haven't found a way to stop doubting that I'm making progress. I know it’s
important to constantly check but at the same time it seems a bit silly at
times. Was reading some things in Chinese recently and found that my flow and
sentence cadence has come a long way. Maybe by the end of this year I'll be
able to speed read Chinese? Probably not
4 Years 6 Months (Mar 2019)
3-21-2019: For the last two months or so I've been listening to the radio to add listening. It's kind of amazing to understand what is going on without subtitles and especially knowing where I started.
Just started watching a few anime dubbed into mandarin with no subtitles and while it was impossible to understand last year, I can get 80-90% now which is pretty amazing.
I picked up a book and read a few articles on my phone recently and the inner voice improvement is also kinda insane. I can read and flow without wondering about tones too much (though there are still quite a few with more than one pronunciation that still trips me up).
3-21-2019: For the last two months or so I've been listening to the radio to add listening. It's kind of amazing to understand what is going on without subtitles and especially knowing where I started.
Just started watching a few anime dubbed into mandarin with no subtitles and while it was impossible to understand last year, I can get 80-90% now which is pretty amazing.
I picked up a book and read a few articles on my phone recently and the inner voice improvement is also kinda insane. I can read and flow without wondering about tones too much (though there are still quite a few with more than one pronunciation that still trips me up).
4 Years 8 Months (May 2019)
5-1-2019：Just looked up the difference between 受 and 授 on Baidu and was reading explanation in mandarin. I could read the sentences with easy pronunciation just like looking up an answer on google. Pretty cool. My voice has been tired for the last month or so but my mandarin pronunciation has reached a new level of ease and native quality. Singing voice is still shot though.
5-5-2019: Was reading an article on Tencent news and could hear the cadence of the sentences (which were all characters I have heard and seen) super easy. I was able to see the chunks of words that make up a sentence, look ahead a bit, and actually read it with natural rhythm (of which I made a recording).
5-7-2019: Went to watch an episode of Detective Conan and can understand everything (the show doesn't have subtitles). Pretty neat.
5-1-2019：Just looked up the difference between 受 and 授 on Baidu and was reading explanation in mandarin. I could read the sentences with easy pronunciation just like looking up an answer on google. Pretty cool. My voice has been tired for the last month or so but my mandarin pronunciation has reached a new level of ease and native quality. Singing voice is still shot though.
5-5-2019: Was reading an article on Tencent news and could hear the cadence of the sentences (which were all characters I have heard and seen) super easy. I was able to see the chunks of words that make up a sentence, look ahead a bit, and actually read it with natural rhythm (of which I made a recording).
5-7-2019: Went to watch an episode of Detective Conan and can understand everything (the show doesn't have subtitles). Pretty neat.
5 Year (Sept 2019)
9-1-2019: I've been back in China for a week and haven't encountered any situations yet where I don't understand something or can't express what I want to say. I'm about to start watching TV again today. Thinking about paying someone to do a language session with me on a weekly basis to speed things up.
9-5-2019: I can finally say my phone number in Mandarin with no problems. Reciting a phone number is a very unique and interesting use of the brain. It feels like part muscle memory, part vision, and part language.
I kinda feel like I'm in a dangerous place where my Mandarin is "just good enough". I experience less times where my language is insufficient so I have less reminders to study. I would say that I have experienced this with a lot of my goals recently and realize that I'm entering a different sort of stage where my motivation come not from being so terrible it hurts but so close to success that I need to keep pushing.
9-1-2019: I've been back in China for a week and haven't encountered any situations yet where I don't understand something or can't express what I want to say. I'm about to start watching TV again today. Thinking about paying someone to do a language session with me on a weekly basis to speed things up.
9-5-2019: I can finally say my phone number in Mandarin with no problems. Reciting a phone number is a very unique and interesting use of the brain. It feels like part muscle memory, part vision, and part language.
I kinda feel like I'm in a dangerous place where my Mandarin is "just good enough". I experience less times where my language is insufficient so I have less reminders to study. I would say that I have experienced this with a lot of my goals recently and realize that I'm entering a different sort of stage where my motivation come not from being so terrible it hurts but so close to success that I need to keep pushing.
5 Years 6 Months (Mar 2019)
1-6-2020
As I expected
this timeline has been updated with a lot less frequency. Within this last year
my routine has been incredibly simple. I watch TV everyday with subtitles
enabled. I spend a few minutes on Anki going over traditional characters and
tone pronunciations. And that’s it. I know I’m making progress but it has
settled into such a barely there hum, that sometimes I forget everything I did
to get to this point.
Miscellaneous Notes
- Traditional Hanzi is pretty easy. I completely forgot that was a study goal at one point.
- I often still skip reading Chinese characters even though I can read and/or understand 99% of modern text (news, chat, billboards).
- I still do Anki every day and most times it’s not even conscious. It’s like breathing and takes all of 3 minutes.
- My voice is rarely fatigued from Chinese pronunciation practice.
- I don’t have any goals for 2020 except HSK 6 and watching more television.
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