It’s been a few years since I stopped studying Mandarin Chinese, but I am considering going back to it since I may try to get back to China and get a teaching gig there whilst studying the language in my free time.
Please comment my idea to review 10-20 cards per day on Anki and 10-20 cards via Pleco (mostly character and word writing for HSK test) to get back on track whilst starting from scratch with Domino Chineseand adding, at some point, no more than 10-20 vocab and grammar cards using both Anki (following Fluent Forever’s method just for grammar, the vocab cards I created and could not let go of is one of the main reasons I quit studying Chinese [made me anxious and distressed whilst making them], having no clear plans what to do with it once I learn it was the actual reason though…) and Plecoper day (mainly for characters/words).
I plan to study for the old HSK4 test and get a job in my home country with it and think I can do it in a year or two since I have a solid base and a couple of hours to spend on learning the language daily - studying, talking with folks, reading, etc.
My own opinion is that Anki and memorization, in general, is not that useful after A2 or B1. It’s much better to just read novels and take your time progressing through the ranks, however slow that may seem.
From your description, it sounds like you are a heritage speaker and not starting from scratch? It should be easier for you because you have your family and other resources available to you. I recommend asking a language forum for study tips that worked for other heritage speakers. Sometime it feels like most of us here are just testing out memory tricks using languages and not dedicated to learning languages.
@L42 I’ve found Anki very helpful in moving from A1 to C1 in a language in around six months. It means that you must study more than plain, out-of-context vocabulary, of course. Grammar and full sentences (in e.g. cloze form) are very helpful.
In response to @G013: I’d suggest you relearn the concepts first, even if you do it as a quick skim. If you try to get back to Anki cards after all that time, there will be many cards that you do not understand, or for which the grammar or syntax confound you. Relearn the basics quickly, then reinforce that learning by using Anki.
@matta In this context, I was referring to written Chinese. Six months seems overly optimistic. We don’t know enough about his situation make that kind of promise, and we shouldn’t.
All I’m suggesting is that OP should ask for advice from someone who’s been through a similar situation. And those types of users are more likely to be found in language forums for his target language.
Thank you both!
Yes, I have the basics covered and believe matta’s advice is on the spot - I literally have no idea what the characters and radicals refer to anymore whilst the grammar concepts have somehow stuck better. I’ll be going through a course and some books to refresh my understanding of it all.
@L42 Yep, I thought memorization was key instead of letting myself get immersed in the language more, and that all contributed just to me shooting my own foot and eventually abandoning the learning project entirely. I was not serious about it now I go back to it, to say the least…
I do have some close friends who are native Mandarin speakers, but was not surrounded by native speakers since childhood…
I’ll be refining my question on Reddit and asking for more specific advice, thank you both once again!
