Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning Mandarin

Articles tagged with ‘Goals’

  1. Learning Chinese is more like walking a thousand miles than running 100-metre dash

    Learning Chinese is more like walking a thousand miles than running 100-metre dash. Make sure that your strategy works in the long term!

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  2. Don’t try to improve everything at once when learning Chinese

    To communicate in Chinese, many skills need to work in unison, but trying to improve all of them at once is a recipe for frustration. Instead, limit your focus to make progress and stay motivated!

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  3. Using the HSK as a roadmap to learning Chinese

    For some students, the HSK is not just a proficiency test, but also a roadmap to learning Chinese. Is treating it as such a good idea? And if you do, what should you keep in mind?

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  4. Are there any shortcuts for learning Chinese?

    Some say that there are no shortcuts for learning Chinese, others say that there are many. So which one is it, are there any shortcuts for learning Chinese or not?

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  5. Take responsibility for your Chinese learning now

    You should be responsible for your own learning, and if you outsource that to someone else, the results might be disastrous. This might sound obvious, but I think the problem is widely overlooked, especially by students enrolled in language courses.

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  6. Should you enrol in a Chinese course or are you better off learning on your own?

    Some people think enrolling in a course is the best way to learn Chinese, but others say that courses are useless, and swear by the effectiveness of self-studying. So should you enrol in a Chinese course or are you better off learning on your own?

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  7. The forking path: A human approach to learning Chinese

    Top-down, project management style learning often fails for a number of reasons, but there are alternative, softer approaches to learning Chinese. In this article, I introduce one such approach that focuses on small, everyday choices rather than distant goals.

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  8. Are you practising Chinese the right way? Is your method valid?

    The most efficient way of learning something is not necessarily the most straightforward one. However, the farther your way of practising is removed from the target activity, the more you need to make sure that you’re actually learning the right things.

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  9. Study more Chinese: Time boxing vs. micro goals

    Study more Chinese: Time boxing vs. micro goals

    Time boxing and micro goals are both excellent strategies for getting things done, but which one is most suitable for learning Chinese? In this article, I discuss the pros and cons with the two methods and how that relates to learning Chinese. The short answer is that I use both a lot, but in different situations.

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  10. What’s your next step to master Chinese?

    Procrastination is a major problem facing anyone trying to learn Chinese outside class (which should include almost everyone because if you only do what you’re required to do in class, you won’t get very far). In this article, I share some ideas on how I handle big projects and intimidating tasks. The gist is that you need to break things down and you need to know what your next action is.

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