violetlearnschinese

[violetlearnschinese]

today is 6/30/2024 i just wanna write up a log of the things that i've tried so far i guess

i feel like my chinese learning journey is kinda interesting bc . i'm more addicted to trying to innovate/revolutionize/optimize how to learn chinese more than actually learning chinese . and sure some of that could be attributed to instant gratification or wtvr, but also i am also rly addicted to trying to solve physics-esque/mathy problems and that's just what my brain is inclined towards doing, like if it recognizes smth as mathy and nonoptimal then it'll compulsively search for a solution lol . usually this activity doesnt actually turn out to be super productive (and a lot of the time it can seem like im just Wildly Overcomplicating things, and there's definitely an argument for that, yes) but i believe it's at least Somewhattt useful + at least i enjoy the rush (sometimes) + maybe one day ill finally get some Good idea and then ill make millions !!! or maybe that is just what i tell myself to cope . Lmao . anyway.

chinese course at brown

hellochinese

made the whole diagram thing (i was so anal abt this (and esp its application to music) and eventually changed opinion to yeah sure it was correct but not a good way to approach learning bc kids arent just magical sponges but instead the reason that they learn quickly is bc 24/7 private tutor (their mother) + fast iteration)

anki spoonfed chinese too hard

may 23 night - may 24 day

call w regan, she inspired me to just go thru my chinese textbook bc she made me think damn maybe i should just try being normal for once

went thru half of chinese textbook

felt like i wasnt rly learning well past lesson 5 (and lessons 1-5 were mostly review anyway)

may 24-25 ish

found lazychinese.com comprehensible input

found other CI people existed

searched through a Lot, couldnt find much at my level, either way too easy for total beginner or too hard nothing to grasp onto or just no variety of sentence structures

may 25 night

salena sent me the gay guy i could sorta understand him, like i could latch on to smth

coded the thing

went over the video w transcript for a day or two

may 26 day

saw the baby in pool

may 26 night

watched n followed funny easy chinese ig/tiktok accts

may 26/27

tried peppa pig / cartoons / stories on yt / etc, still too hard

may27

up until now, really mostly input little output

peppa pig longest sentence

turned on chinese keyboard

chatgpt convo

texting w friends

wow im not bad

hearing is impt, then pure imitating, then say it while pinyin, then understand

u will not see gains intra-day 1 bc gains r slow obv u need multiple days etc wtvr 2 bc gains happen during Sleep (ie After the learning session, Not During)(analogy to gym, u dont get stronger inside of one session, ur muscle builds up After the session is done)(i notice improvement after one or two days)

do many short sessions, but also include some long sessions

imitating a sentence/paragraph whole-part-whole . listen to the whole thing, then split into parts, then put the parts together . like learning a piano piece . (also this is fractal - if too big, split up)

around this time i tried brute forcing comprehensible input via lazychinese.com, but found it too slow/unoptimal/wtvr

flirting w krashen's hypothesis and i see so many success stories abt krashen (e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/wetbjo/i_learned_english_through_magic_and_input_krashen/)

this was interesting too, i forgot what i got out of it but it was interesting (https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/r9g1s3/i_immersed_in_spanish_for_900_hours_without_any/)

eventually i disagree w krashen and think he's stupid bc my brother cant speak tagalog

opinion abt tutors

also found out that it lines up with more modern language acquisition theories and critiques of krashen: swain's comprehensible output + dekeyser’s skill building

hypothesis abt memorizing stories might be better than flashcards

like a memory palace but it's stories not palaces

du chinese analysis failed (unique word density starts at 12% then goes to 6%)

i think about here i stopped being so anal about the whole ... diagram that was rooted in kids being sponges

i dont hate language classes as much

trying to brute force grammar

current hypothesis/method:

trying to brute force grammar

same hypothesis abt memorizing stories to learn vocab, but now using AI generated stories (unique word density starts at 32% then goes to 20%. much better!)

build a huge foundation (learn lots of textbook grammar and vocab) (get lots of clay), then iron it out (practice listening/speaking/reading/writing/wtvr to acquire more natural idiomatic expressions and also just increase your speed/skill etc etc) (roll the clay)

[violetlearnschinese]

log of deliberate study

(like actual study, not just thinking abt how to study)

(i will continually edit this note!)

———

prior - got thru HSK1 lessons on hellochinese (5-10 hrs?)

fri 3/29 - 1.5 hrs

[violetlearnschinese]

thur 3/28 and fri 3/29 - i didnt rly practice much. i thought more n more about language learning. im developing my hypothesis more n more and i rly think im onto smth. we’ll see if it ends up being genuinely revolutionary or if it ends up just being stupid

fri 3/29 night - customized the spoonfed chinese anki deck so that it’s not just chinese sound -> english but actually chinese sound + pic -> english meaning AND pic + eng meaning -> chinese sound.

that way i can train listening + copying + understanding AND speaking/conveying

and im rly doing a lot to get the most direct association (chinese <- -> idea) with as little english middleman as possible

i wanna make customized pics (not just search up sorta-vague stock photos) for 2000 phrases but im not sure if that’s worth the time or not. like im almost sure it would have a very nice benefit but idk if the time-saving of that benefit outweighs the time cost of making those customized pics

anyway, i did maybe 1-2 hrs of actual deliberate study today. i got thru approx 50 phrases on anki.

[violetlearnschinese]

forgot to post this video!

my starting point in chinese, captured on video! i know like a handful of phrases and i went through most of the HSK1 lessons on the HelloChinese app, but i cant do convo at all. i can say where's the bathroom and hi and goodbye and thankyou and i eat mangos and stuff like that but very very very basic. just hsk1 stuff and im not even good at hsk1

[violetlearnschinese]

thur 3/28 1am - im gonna review some stuff about changing tones lol

then im gonna try learning through a very nonconventional way .. i wanna test out doing almost zero conscious memorization of textbook grammar + almost zero english translating as an intermediary step between idea and chinese

my goal: speak/understand chinese for common everyday convos with slow speaking and some grammar mistakes (maybe equivalent to a 5 year old native) (also i dont care abt reading/writing)

my plan rn: watch a lot of stories/dialogue on youtube and speak slowly with it, and just immerse myself in the language with lots of subconscious association/osmosis/wtvr … then try to think in that language and talk in it as much as i can

idk we’ll see what happens

[violetlearnschinese]

wed 3/27 started a chinese vocab journal (idk if this will help)

rn im using hellochinese, ive gotten through the first 5-10 lessons