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I hope you are seeing this comment on this year old video. I believe most schools in the US called Chinese Mandarin instead of Chinese. Actually Taiwan officially calls its language Mandarin after the US but for China it is Chinese. There is no Mandarin in Chinese schools. China 中文 Chinese vs Taiwan 国语 Mandarin, even the Chinese names are different for the two. The US recognized Taiwan as China until December 1978 when Jimmy Carter pledged One China Policy with Deng, so it kind of made sense for Taiwan to have adopted the word Mandarin. BTW There is an interesting Jimmy Carter video on RUclips telling the story. As you know, to specify the dialect, Chinese always use the word Putonghua. Many times people said to you 你这个普通话说得比我还要好. Putonghua is the official English word for 普通话, you can see it on China Daily or hear it on CCTV all the time. It’s not a big deal since 99% of Chinese wouldn’t pay attention to such details, I only think it's a bad habit that can be cured.
@@michael511128 Honestly, this is an extremely thoughtful video which should receive greater public attention. You ought to better promote your insights to the wider society in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
COMMON SENSE: Once you learn ONE foreign language (she said Hindi) & intensely studied another one (French, but didn’t like it), then picking up another language is difficult, but one knows what to look for & where to go look for it: well, then you are pretty far ahead, & then it’s a matter of FOCUS, CONCENTRATION &. DETERMINATION. Wish me luck!
‘Started learning Chinese in 2015’ - Respects to you! ‘Learnt Hindi before Chinese’ - That’s beyond awesome! ‘Oh, also learnt French for four years’ - I’m speechless!
One advice I can tell people from my previous Chinese professor who taught foreign language at my college was, he mentioned that if you want to learn any language, you should always look at their central news channel. For example, if you want to learn English in America, tune in for CNN or FOX news channel for professional English speaking and pronunciation. If you are trying to learn how to speak Chinese properly since Chinese is a tonal language and has different tones, you should watch CCTV4 and such, because they're trained professional that are taught to speak Mandarin on a professional level without accent or dialect. It's very important that people are able to differentiate if someone has an accent and is speaking the proper language. Otherwise, if you're learning the wrong way, it's going to make you more frustrated in the long term. Just like in America, there's a lot of people who speak English, but many of them don't speak proper English with correct and clear pronunciation, such as people saying "y'all" and "axe" when it's supposed to be "you guys" and "ask." It's the same with Chinese and any other languages in the world too. Being able to differentiate what is correct and what is not is very crucial for learning a new language as well. That's just my personal perspective of engaging with people in the past that were trying to learn a new language. It's their pronunciations were always off. The details actually is very in-depth when it comes to speech for a tonal language, and a large part has to do with you using the muscles of your tongue, such as curl or flat or whatever that produces those proper pronunciations. It helps a lot when you speak a language with very clear and proper pronunciation, because you'll even seem more intelligent just based on regular conversation exchange.
nice, this is very informative, You are not just bragging like many other people in their videos about their "perfect" chinese and your chinese is really good, I am a mexican Chinese teacher and glad to know of someone like you that "learns how to learn" and shares the experience
It's almost one month since I started learning Chinese Mandarin. I am a Chinese Historical drama/movie addict. Since I was little I watch so many Chinese KUNGFU movies and I fell in love with them and their KUNGFU. I love chinese people and their food. The reason I wanted to learn Chinese Mandarin it wasn't just for my dramas. But I am teaching myself that if I want to accomplish any goals in life I must be PATIENT and WORK HARD and UNDERSTAND that there is a PROCESS to reach my goal. In the past I just wanted to hurry up and get to where I want to be without working hard for it. I had no patient then. So by learning Chinese Mandarin teaches me to achieve this goal I must work hard and be patient in the process.
Actually Chinese culture is so fun. For myself I was born in Hong Kong but still not fully understand the whole Chinese culture. I hope I can understand more in the future.
Most of us would be discouraged to walk into a group/environment that is foreign to us. You walked into a group of all Chinese and converse in Chinese and decided to stay. Wow, you are a force to be reckoned with. Your method of learning a new language should be put in a text book to whoever wants to pickup a new language. The criteria to be successful, one has to love the language and totally immerse in it, just like the ways you did!
I have already commented this, but it is incredible to think that you have studied Chinese by yourself for 6 years and you are using it to write your university thesis.
My PhD is in developmental Psycholinguistics (how kids learn language) and bilingualism. I agree with your approach 110%. To master any language as an adult requires PASSION for the language. You live it intensely 24/7. You are right that memorizing words is a waste of time. In fact, words are not language. Language is simply rule knowledge - how you put the words together to make sentences. So memorizing 10,000 words in swahili is worthless if you can’t produce a simple grammatical statement.
Swahili . Reminds me of the black and white movies starring Johny Weissmuller as Tarzan .The producer needed an extra to play a Zulu warrior reporting to his chieftain and they picked a Kenyan student to play this role…. he only have to say something in Swahili. When the movie was screened in Nairobi, Kenya , the audience roared in laughter when the extra said “ the money the producer of this movie paid me is not even enough to pay for transport to the studio”
In my humble opinion, humility plays a key part of learning any language ( There’s no such a thing as ‘ foreign ‘ language , must be ‘ another ‘ language . A wise man once said: For every language you learn , you become another ( acquired ) ; if you learn 5 languages, you become 5 persons -in 1 persona )
Very true, when you learn a new language you experience a whole new culture which adds to your personality and character because the culture is embedded in the language.
You are a legend regarding learning Chinese language, I think the most important for learning a language is, you do not hate that language and you love that language you choose to learn.
@@刘虎-r5q I can't agree with you; very rarely is it black or white, but many different shades of grey. Interest / ambition/ Passion -- they would all do one well as motivation
great point, i genuinely loved English when I started learning at school so I get good at it at a much faster pace then my peers. But I've been learning German and live in Germany for 3 years now and all my university courses and everything are in German but I still suck at it.
Interesting stories on how Katherine learned mandarin by herself without taking any classes and not bothering learning how to write. Her mandarin is really good almost like a native speaker with good intimation and comprehension. The power of immersion and passion
Lol. I’ve been watching the wrong show all these time! Chinese anime is not very good for learning Chinese. I’ve learned words like “I kick your butt.” With other actions words. Nothing useful for make friend.
I am Chinese. Let me explain a little bit, the reason why your Chinese colleagues don't talk with you at the beginning when you just got to China is that they have very poor speaking English skill, they can not express themself very clearly, but I am sure they can do more than their words if you need any helps. The most effective way is to write some words to them about your trouble. I guarantee that this applies to all foreign friends who are new to China.
Have viewed most of your contents, as you can see a fan. Would you retrospectively consider adding English dubbs to your earlier short personal stories? I would love to see the whole album. Thanks.
You are truly amazing, Katherine, and so fluent in Chinese! Not many people can reach your level of fluency in Chinese even if they spend their lives in the country. Well done for your nice and positive videos!
I'm from a country where French is one of the three official languages, so I've always had exposure to it. It's not foreign. Had compulsory French at the end of elementary school (two years) and all through secondary school (six years). I know a lot of words and expressions, but I still can't express myself fluently or join in a conversation with native speakers. I hate the sound of French and I feel that its syntax is ugly. I dislike the way words are pronounced in French. In short, I agree with you entirely about the internal motivation. You need to love the language you're trying to learn or it's impossible. Great video!
Katherine! OMG u learned hindi. Me2. I am learning Chinese now. I am located in Australia but have a tutor that I chat with from China. I agree! writing is a long term game. Learn to speak and understand.
I was learning by talking to myself, but few months later, my GP advised I should got to Rehab Center for a treatment..................that advice left me in dumb............................................ haha, I'm just joking
XCELLENT VLOG . . S U P E R S U P E R EDUCATIONAL . . I DID XACTLY THE SAME THING 30 YEARS AGO . . XCEPT, I DID IT IN FRENCH . . @ L'ALLIANCE FRANCAISE , . . 2HRS / DAY . . TWICE A WEEK IN 15 MONTHS . . READ,WRITE & SPEAK FRENCH
Your experience in self-motivation and self-created immersion program serve as a role model for many! Very inspiration indeed! I love your "never stop learning" attitude!
Wow, this is great advice. I've been learning Mandarin on and off for a few years, starting in my 40s (late I know). I'm probably HSK3 now, but the problem is, I spent all my time learning vocabulary, how to read and write, that I got great at using WeChat and HelloTalk for conversations, but I never practiced listening much, so I'm basically deaf in Mandarin, even though my vocab is about 1500-2000 words. I can speak and put sentences together, but then the Chinese listener thinks my Mandarin level is much higher and when they reply, I only get like 30% of it. So absolutely, don't make the mistake I did, focus focus focus on listening. If you can get good at listening, you can use RUclips and Bilibili to 'bootstrap' more learning, and you can get energized by being able to participate in real conversations. As opposed to getting good at reading/writing. But I wonder when you first started, and your lab partners knew you only knew a little bit, did they still talk to you at full speed, or did they deliberately speak in small sentence fragments, or use simpler vocab? I've tried doing language partner stuff and going to club meetings, but I find almost invariably, I end up teaching English pronunciation to partners more then listening to Mandarin, out of frustration. There's like an initial tough hill to climb to get to that plateau where conversations can go smooth enough. Before that, I feel like its impolite or annoying to keep stopping conversations and asking what something means. I wonder if you would ask for explanations in your early days, or if you just picked out the few words you knew and silently just dealt with the ambiguity of not being sure what the whole conversation was.
The group dynamic of the lab helped a lot. In one on one situations the problem you have described is a bit more common (the partner doesn’t have the patience to deal with your lower level and the language exchange doesn’t work well) but in the group setting everyone was chatting with each other and just throwing me little bits here and there. I participated more and more in the conversations as my level slowly improved. and they seemed to find my attempts to interact with them funny and cute as opposed to being a burden since they were having their own group interaction at the same time and not just focused on me . But not everyone is fortunate enough to have a group to interact with on a regular basis so I recognize that I was a bit spoiled in that sense 😜 our university also had a Chinese language club where 2-3 Chinese students would chat with Chinese learners but hardly any learners ever showed up because ..... they were too busy doing the reading and writing homework 😂😓
As for asking questions , I had to “pick my battles” and just ask the most important questions (ask about stuff I thought was grammatically important or a word I thought was critical to understanding the main focus of what the person was saying, etc). I wouldn’t ask for every single thing . You have to accept that when you’re a beginner you can’t understand 100% , otherwise you will drive yourself crazy and others too
@@RayCromwell You are good in writing mandarin, and is able to make a bit in-depth article. Awesome! Well, the methods the host teachs that is u quite useful not marely in learning Chinese, but also the significant ideas on English learning. Now I have been striving for one and half year, I like to translate the mandarin to English on my own and correct my wrongs by Google translate or take its original translation for reference, thus on purpose to made up and build the proper englsh frame in my mind, to make it be a part of my body. Wish you can speak fluently Chinese soon as your writing. For me, the task to speak well a language as the native is so hard than to write, like hardly the sounds of pronunciations is made precisely and constantly ........ 加油朋友。 一起加油！
All true and good advice. Very true about immersing yourself totally in the language in every sense and opportunity. Surround yourself by speakers of the language, or being in the environment (eg country) of the language is the key to learning the language. Or even dating a person of that language is a real booster. Your accent and proficiency is truly impressive. It's my mother tongue (supposedly, lol) and I can barely utter a few words, never mind speak it. I envy, but am happy for you. Congrats and hope you've a good and happy future in China!
From personal experience with Spanish and now trying to relearn Mandarin the right way, this is excellent, top-notch advice. Pay attention, y'all! The only think I would add to this is, aggressive reading also helps tremendously with vocabulary.
I know many Chinese families sent their children to Chinese language schools, but eventually, they drop the school and failed the mission to learn Chinese in Canada, writing get students frustrated and took too much time, learning a skill that has no use. I told my son Mandarin, only need to read, no need to write, even in China today, people no longer write Chinese after graduating from university, you only need to learn how to type on the phone/computer, that's enough, now my son can use Chinese on a daily base (type on the phone), a big help for his work as a music teacher.
This was really helpful, thank you.. I've been trying to learn Chinese for a while now, but I'm struggling.. I love learning Mandarin so much, as challenging as it is, my love for China, the culture, the people, the food, and of course the language, keeps me going.. I just need to find the right learning style for me.. I listen to Chinese radio and watch TV shows, films and immerse myself as much as possible everyday, but it's just a very slow process.. I'm going to try to drop the character writing element for a while, as it is absolutely a huge part of my time, I will give it a try and see if it helps, thank you so much again.. Just, subscribed 👍🏻👏🏻
I really like English. I've been learning English more than ten years,I can read a lot,but I almost can't speak one sentedce.I've never talk to other in English.To me it's too hard to learn a new language.Just do it. Go ahead！You can do it！
Thank you 1000 times for the useful tips and your story. I’ve been so frustrated teaching myself mandarin. I took a mandarin class here in Chengdu (virtually in person) and was so disappointed because even though it was a basic ground floor learning class the teachers didn’t speak English and taught using advanced vocabulary so it was just a bunch of sounds and I could’t follow or catch on no matter how hard I tried. Small tip for you, if you start the chapters in your description with 0:00 they post to your video timeline ;) Also if you shoot indoors change your frame rate (FPS) to either 50 or 25 or the lights will have an annoying flicker (if you didn’t know already). Devoted subscriber, Joshua
Glad it was helpful for you! Thanks for the tip about the chapters, I will do that next time . How do I change FPS? It’s a camera setting , or a setting when I upload to youtube ?
Oh your videos are ok. It only happens with artificial lighting indoors. (More of an FYI if you try to record and notice it). ;) It’s a camera setting. It’s how many “pictures” your camera takes per second (FPS frames per second). Short explanation is that electricity changes polarity (flashes) at 60 times per second in america and 50 times per second in China (fast enough we can’t see it). So if your camera shutter speed (FPS) doesn’t match sometimes it takes the frame when the lights are bright and sometimes when the polarity is changing creating a flicker. ;) Best example is when you see the noise lines when you record a tv (or computer) screen in your videos. Same concept.
Go, hokies! Dear VT alumni. Glad to find your channel. It's really beautiful to see what happens when you take in new things with open mind, curiosity and no bias.
Language comments: Girlfriend came to US and watched re-runs of I love Lucy. To improve comprehension, I listen to a zoom class with people speaking about current events or I watch the news because the pronunciation is impeccable and the speed is conversational. The vocabulary is high school level. You don't have to understand every word. I am studying a language with 12 tenses and moods of verbs vs. only 6 in English. No problem to recognize the tense when written. However, the spoken language is not the written language so you need to listen carefully to distinguish whether the subject is singular or plural, and some of the pronouns are the same for both genders.
Listening is really important. Just like how a baby learns a language, it starts with exposure. At the very beginning, the baby cannot understand anything, but they learn it gradually with time and with more exposure and stimulations.
Took me a few years to speak Mandarin but I can never learn how to read it. There are just too many characters for me to remember. When I was in China working in the 90s I had no problem talking to the locals but everytime a technical report came in I would be hunting high and low for 1 of the local staff to read to me. Sadly they have not made Goggle Translate yet :(
Thank you Kathrine. Your experience with Hindi - being able to speak but not being able to understand what anyone said - is exactly the problem I have with Persian. You've made me all the more determined to focus on my listening skills. Thank you!
My son went to dual language school (Chinese-English) since he was 4 y/o into pre-K, but since it was a public school for all Americans, its Chinese curriculum plateaued out at a very low level. He graduated from after 5th grade, now it is a struggle to keep him interested to continue learning Chinese. You are such an inspiration, thank you.
From watching a lot of language learner's videos on YT, I believe learning a language in a classroom environment is not ideal. If he can understand the language great, if he can't speak much that means he lacks interaction with speaking. But the problems with language (especially the LEARNING) is that when we were a kid, we don't normally care much about language learning, we normally like to have fun with friends or play with certain things (I believe real learning truly happens when we were in our teens, because we are more aware of what we want in life). The reason that we don't actually need to "learn" our native language is because we are already fluent before our first year in school. All the learning effort in school are just to improve and sharpen an existing skill along with writing.
Most of Chinese people or east Asian people are very friendly and kind, I don't understand why so many US guys are so keen to hate Asian race, many US guys even hit Chinese especially Chinese old ladies in the street or in public, why is this happening? anybody can explain this phenomenon please??
As an ethnic overseas Chinese myself that knows the language by heritage and not by education, I am thoroughly impressed by your journey, and in fact, I'm taking tips from you to learn the official PRC Putonghua Mandarin, which is waaayyy different from the Chinese I speak in my community.
We really need to break the stereotype that Chinese language is difficult, that is not true and may prevent people from learning it, Yes indeed it has huge number of charactors and tonal system, thousands idioms. but in another word, it means this language has abundant cultures and stories which are quite interesting. if you really get into it, the hard part can be turned into fun.
Thanks for sharing your very interesting journey. It reminds me of the evolution of mankind...a big slice of luck here, a few setbacks there and load of perseverance in-between. But things turned out good in the end! :D
You’re absolutely right about the writing aspect of it. I always quit learning Chinese because learning how to write it was so time consuming like you said. I think I can finally move forward with my learning Mandarin now that the writing obstacle pay is out of the way. Thanks for this little but very valuable tip.
Thanks for the tips to "improve your listening". I tried it and it seems to help. I am a fluent Cantonese speaker trying to learn Mandarin. When I watch Chinese TV, I couldn't follow the speech without the Chinese subtitle. It was frustrating! Yesterday, I closed my eyes and just listened. I got about 45%. That is pretty good. I will keep trying to see if that will help me. Thanks again.
Your advice not to waste time learning handwriting characters is the best advice about Chinese learning ever. I tell this same advice to everyone learn Mandarin. It's 2021, we should stop teaching languages like it's 1981.
Nice! You had the passion and motivation for learning chinese. A lot of people focus more on the characters of which I think is useless. I like the background music of this video. ❤
What you said about finding the joy in learning (rather than learning cuz it gains you some advantage) is epic. In fact, the same could be said about just about pursuit in life!
I speak 5 major languages. I agree with Katherine that it's very important to learn how to use a word in different sentences. My favorite dictionaries always have many example sentences.
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I hope you are seeing this comment on this year old video. I believe most schools in the US called Chinese Mandarin instead of Chinese. Actually Taiwan officially calls its language Mandarin after the US but for China it is Chinese. There is no Mandarin in Chinese schools. China 中文 Chinese vs Taiwan 国语 Mandarin, even the Chinese names are different for the two. The US recognized Taiwan as China until December 1978 when Jimmy Carter pledged One China Policy with Deng, so it kind of made sense for Taiwan to have adopted the word Mandarin. BTW There is an interesting Jimmy Carter video on RUclips telling the story. As you know, to specify the dialect, Chinese always use the word Putonghua. Many times people said to you 你这个普通话说得比我还要好. Putonghua is the official English word for 普通话, you can see it on China Daily or hear it on CCTV all the time. It’s not a big deal since 99% of Chinese wouldn’t pay attention to such details, I only think it's a bad habit that can be cured.
@@michael511128 Honestly, this is an extremely thoughtful video which should receive greater public attention. You ought to better promote your insights to the wider society in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
6 years only and self-taught and you are really fluent now. Amazing!
The thing I find incredible is that she is writing her university thesis in chinese, really unbelievable.
COMMON SENSE: Once you learn ONE foreign language (she said Hindi) & intensely studied another one (French, but didn’t like it), then picking up another language is difficult, but one knows what to look for & where to go look for it: well, then you are pretty far ahead, & then it’s a matter of FOCUS, CONCENTRATION &. DETERMINATION. Wish me luck!
‘Started learning Chinese in 2015’
- Respects to you!
‘Learnt Hindi before Chinese’
- That’s beyond awesome!
‘Oh, also learnt French for four years’
- I’m speechless!
One advice I can tell people from my previous Chinese professor who taught foreign language at my college was, he mentioned that if you want to learn any language, you should always look at their central news channel. For example, if you want to learn English in America, tune in for CNN or FOX news channel for professional English speaking and pronunciation. If you are trying to learn how to speak Chinese properly since Chinese is a tonal language and has different tones, you should watch CCTV4 and such, because they're trained professional that are taught to speak Mandarin on a professional level without accent or dialect. It's very important that people are able to differentiate if someone has an accent and is speaking the proper language. Otherwise, if you're learning the wrong way, it's going to make you more frustrated in the long term.
Just like in America, there's a lot of people who speak English, but many of them don't speak proper English with correct and clear pronunciation, such as people saying "y'all" and "axe" when it's supposed to be "you guys" and "ask." It's the same with Chinese and any other languages in the world too. Being able to differentiate what is correct and what is not is very crucial for learning a new language as well. That's just my personal perspective of engaging with people in the past that were trying to learn a new language. It's their pronunciations were always off.
The details actually is very in-depth when it comes to speech for a tonal language, and a large part has to do with you using the muscles of your tongue, such as curl or flat or whatever that produces those proper pronunciations. It helps a lot when you speak a language with very clear and proper pronunciation, because you'll even seem more intelligent just based on regular conversation exchange.
nice, this is very informative, You are not just bragging like many other people in their videos about their "perfect" chinese and your chinese is really good, I am a mexican Chinese teacher and glad to know of someone like you that "learns how to learn" and shares the experience
like you so much!
It's almost one month since I started learning Chinese Mandarin. I am a Chinese Historical drama/movie addict. Since I was little I watch so many Chinese KUNGFU movies and I fell in love with them and their KUNGFU.
I love chinese people and their food.
The reason I wanted to learn Chinese Mandarin it wasn't just for my dramas. But I am teaching myself that if I want to accomplish any goals in life I must be PATIENT and WORK HARD and UNDERSTAND that there is a PROCESS to reach my goal. In the past I just wanted to hurry up and get to where I want to be without working hard for it. I had no patient then.
So by learning Chinese Mandarin teaches me to achieve this goal I must work hard and be patient in the process.
Me and you both
I became a Wuxia fan a couple of months ago. So, why not? I've started to pick up some random words already.
Beautiful
Actually Chinese culture is so fun. For myself I was born in Hong Kong but still not fully understand the whole Chinese culture. I hope I can understand more in the future.
I live in China I want to find a teach English for my daughter and I can teach you Chinese
420854615@qq.com
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Most of us would be discouraged to walk into a group/environment that is foreign to us. You walked into a group of all Chinese and converse in Chinese and decided to stay. Wow, you are a force to be reckoned with. Your method of learning a new language should be put in a text book to whoever wants to pickup a new language. The criteria to be successful, one has to love the language and totally immerse in it, just like the ways you did!
As in my case ...
By reading books ...
I've improved "writing skills"
By watching famous mini series ...
I've improved "speaking skills"
自学，两年半，不在中国，就通过了HSK6，you are a legend!!!
for kids it´s a combination of movement, picture, repetition, singing, dancing, every piece of vocabulary with Total physical response
I have already commented this, but it is incredible to think that you have studied Chinese by yourself for 6 years and you are using it to write your university thesis.
basically linguistic talent + practice vs linguistic no talent .
Greetings from Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬
Number one to learn foreign language is passion. If you are passionate about it, you will persist to learn it.
Wonderful and succinct advice.
My PhD is in developmental Psycholinguistics (how kids learn language) and bilingualism. I agree with your approach 110%. To master any language as an adult requires PASSION for the language. You live it intensely 24/7. You are right that memorizing words is a waste of time. In fact, words are not language. Language is simply rule knowledge - how you put the words together to make sentences. So memorizing 10,000 words in swahili is worthless if you can’t produce a simple grammatical statement.
Swahili . Reminds me of the black and white movies starring Johny Weissmuller as Tarzan .The producer needed an extra to play a Zulu warrior reporting to his chieftain and they picked a Kenyan student to play this role…. he only have to say something in Swahili.
When the movie was screened in Nairobi, Kenya , the audience roared in laughter when the extra said “ the money the producer of this movie paid me is not even enough to pay for transport to the studio”
pretty amazing.. thanks for sharing 😊😍
subbed
In my humble opinion, humility plays a key part of learning any language ( There’s no such a thing as ‘ foreign ‘ language , must be ‘ another ‘ language . A wise man once said: For every language you learn , you become another ( acquired ) ; if you learn 5 languages, you become 5 persons -in 1 persona )
Very true, when you learn a new language you experience a whole new culture which adds to your personality and character because the culture is embedded in the language.
Excellent, intelligent, well done.
Of all the expats I follow, you and Blonde in China are the better Mandarin speakers. Passion, persistence and thick skin are more helpful.
Meant to say perseverance.
@@yunfeigao5217 老外也用了哎
Thanks for sharing!
You are a legend regarding learning Chinese language, I think the most important for learning a language is, you do not hate that language and you love that language you choose to learn.
Agree!
@@Byu12398 great point
I can't agree with you,It is not interests in a foreign language that are the key to master it,it's ambition.
@@刘虎-r5q I can't agree with you; very rarely is it black or white, but many different shades of grey.
Interest / ambition/ Passion -- they would all do one well as motivation
great point, i genuinely loved English when I started learning at school so I get good at it at a much faster pace then my peers. But I've been learning German and live in Germany for 3 years now and all my university courses and everything are in German but I still suck at it.
Peppa Pig is becoming an indispensable tool in language learning :'D
I love peaceful China, kind Chinese, awesome Genshin Impact, beautiful Liziqi and too much!
Wow, Katherine , you are a genius being self taught in mandarin.
we do share the same story Catherine...🇳🇵🇳🇵😍😍 I love chinese.I m impressed by your Chinese
Humble, clever , energic, beautiful. Your husband is so lucky man.
Rainbow pee😂
@@layzhangofficial9771 Haha, only Chinese can understand what you say.
@@layzhangofficial9771 哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈逆天
家里有矿
She is enough, doesnt need a husband😂
But you ARE an exceptionally intelligent person, have no doubt about it. ✌️
Interesting stories on how Katherine learned mandarin by herself without taking any classes and not bothering learning how to write. Her mandarin is really good almost like a native speaker with good intimation and comprehension. The power of immersion and passion
Presume you meant intonation.
Everything she says is so true.
The best languages teacher in the whole world is Peppa )))
As an ABC, I think the NOT learning to write is really good advice.
Lol. I’ve been watching the wrong show all these time! Chinese anime is not very good for learning Chinese. I’ve learned words like “I kick your butt.” With other actions words. Nothing useful for make friend.
I often wondered how you accomplished this amazing feat! Wow!
Makes me feel proud :- )
At first I thought you are a genius but you told us there are also hardwork and fun work involved.
I am Chinese. Let me explain a little bit, the reason why your Chinese colleagues don't talk with you at the beginning when you just got to China is that they have very poor speaking English skill, they can not express themself very clearly, but I am sure they can do more than their words if you need any helps. The most effective way is to write some words to them about your trouble. I guarantee that this applies to all foreign friends who are new to China.
You are right i am a student in Nanjing too
Chinese can read English,but their speaking English and listening English are very poor.
You misunderstood. She was talking about lab work in her university in the United States, where all participants of that project were Chinese.
@@ThePearltong Yes he needs remedial English it looks like.
Have viewed most of your contents, as you can see a fan. Would you retrospectively consider adding English dubbs to your earlier short personal stories? I would love to see the whole album. Thanks.
These are valuable tips that everyone should know 🥰
We would love to partner with you so you can have one more resource to share!
Picking up on the local senator scenario, of course you know in person makes better impression . Good luck to you both in your endeavours.
You are truly amazing, Katherine, and so fluent in Chinese! Not many people can reach your level of fluency in Chinese even if they spend their lives in the country. Well done for your nice and positive videos!
I'm from a country where French is one of the three official languages, so I've always had exposure to it. It's not foreign. Had compulsory French at the end of elementary school (two years) and all through secondary school (six years). I know a lot of words and expressions, but I still can't express myself fluently or join in a conversation with native speakers. I hate the sound of French and I feel that its syntax is ugly. I dislike the way words are pronounced in French.
In short, I agree with you entirely about the internal motivation. You need to love the language you're trying to learn or it's impossible. Great video!
Katherine! OMG u learned hindi. Me2. I am learning Chinese now. I am located in Australia but have a tutor that I chat with from China. I agree! writing is a long term game. Learn to speak and understand.
Thank you. You've been very supporting fo all of us who want to learn mandarin and grow as a person.
I was learning by talking to myself, but few months later, my GP advised I should got to Rehab Center for a treatment..................that advice left me in dumb............................................ haha, I'm just joking
I want to learn Chinese too.........
XCELLENT VLOG . . S U P E R S U P E R EDUCATIONAL . . I DID XACTLY THE SAME THING 30 YEARS AGO . . XCEPT, I DID IT IN FRENCH . . @ L'ALLIANCE FRANCAISE , . . 2HRS / DAY . . TWICE A WEEK IN 15 MONTHS . . READ,WRITE & SPEAK FRENCH
Beautiful katherine you master Chinese language you're very smart I will always love you and respect you 😅😉
all very good tips. also 100 per cent that your heart needs to be in it.
You show how beautiful a human being can be! I`m trying to pick up Manderine on the internet, it`s hard but fun. Thanks for making my day!
color me impressed
Your experience in self-motivation and self-created immersion program serve as a role model for many! Very inspiration indeed! I love your "never stop learning" attitude!
哈哈，你上辈子肯定是个中国人
Wow, this is great advice. I've been learning Mandarin on and off for a few years, starting in my 40s (late I know). I'm probably HSK3 now, but the problem is, I spent all my time learning vocabulary, how to read and write, that I got great at using WeChat and HelloTalk for conversations, but I never practiced listening much, so I'm basically deaf in Mandarin, even though my vocab is about 1500-2000 words. I can speak and put sentences together, but then the Chinese listener thinks my Mandarin level is much higher and when they reply, I only get like 30% of it.
So absolutely, don't make the mistake I did, focus focus focus on listening. If you can get good at listening, you can use RUclips and Bilibili to 'bootstrap' more learning, and you can get energized by being able to participate in real conversations. As opposed to getting good at reading/writing.
But I wonder when you first started, and your lab partners knew you only knew a little bit, did they still talk to you at full speed, or did they deliberately speak in small sentence fragments, or use simpler vocab? I've tried doing language partner stuff and going to club meetings, but I find almost invariably, I end up teaching English pronunciation to partners more then listening to Mandarin, out of frustration. There's like an initial tough hill to climb to get to that plateau where conversations can go smooth enough. Before that, I feel like its impolite or annoying to keep stopping conversations and asking what something means. I wonder if you would ask for explanations in your early days, or if you just picked out the few words you knew and silently just dealt with the ambiguity of not being sure what the whole conversation was.
得多交流多说话。识字量多对读写有帮助，对说话帮助不大。
The group dynamic of the lab helped a lot. In one on one situations the problem you have described is a bit more common (the partner doesn’t have the patience to deal with your lower level and the language exchange doesn’t work well) but in the group setting everyone was chatting with each other and just throwing me little bits here and there. I participated more and more in the conversations as my level slowly improved. and they seemed to find my attempts to interact with them funny and cute as opposed to being a burden since they were having their own group interaction at the same time and not just focused on me . But not everyone is fortunate enough to have a group to interact with on a regular basis so I recognize that I was a bit spoiled in that sense 😜 our university also had a Chinese language club where 2-3 Chinese students would chat with Chinese learners but hardly any learners ever showed up because ..... they were too busy doing the reading and writing homework 😂😓
As for asking questions , I had to “pick my battles” and just ask the most important questions (ask about stuff I thought was grammatically important or a word I thought was critical to understanding the main focus of what the person was saying, etc). I wouldn’t ask for every single thing . You have to accept that when you’re a beginner you can’t understand 100% , otherwise you will drive yourself crazy and others too
@@美食萊克 Katherine的故事给了我希望，因为她成年后开始学习。我有两个小孩儿，而且我希望他们学习汉语，所以我学习汉语，然后我们可能一起练习，互相帮助。
@@RayCromwell You are good in writing mandarin, and is able to make a bit in-depth article. Awesome! Well, the methods the host teachs that is u quite useful not marely in learning Chinese, but also the significant ideas on English learning. Now I have been striving for one and half year, I like to translate the mandarin to English on my own and correct my wrongs by Google translate or take its original translation for reference, thus on purpose to made up and build the proper englsh frame in my mind, to make it be a part of my body. Wish you can speak fluently Chinese soon as your writing. For me, the task to speak well a language as the native is so hard than to write, like hardly the sounds of pronunciations is made precisely and constantly ........ 加油朋友。 一起加油！
You sure are an inspiration. I have been "learning" Spanish from, like forever.😩
All true and good advice. Very true about immersing yourself totally in the language in every sense and opportunity. Surround yourself by speakers of the language, or being in the environment (eg country) of the language is the key to learning the language. Or even dating a person of that language is a real booster. Your accent and proficiency is truly impressive. It's my mother tongue (supposedly, lol) and I can barely utter a few words, never mind speak it. I envy, but am happy for you. Congrats and hope you've a good and happy future in China!
You are such an inspiration, Katherine. I'm so grateful I recently found your channel.
From personal experience with Spanish and now trying to relearn Mandarin the right way, this is excellent, top-notch advice. Pay attention, y'all!
The only think I would add to this is, aggressive reading also helps tremendously with vocabulary.
I know many Chinese families sent their children to Chinese language schools, but eventually, they drop the school and failed the mission to learn Chinese in Canada, writing get students frustrated and took too much time, learning a skill that has no use. I told my son Mandarin, only need to read, no need to write, even in China today, people no longer write Chinese after graduating from university, you only need to learn how to type on the phone/computer, that's enough, now my son can use Chinese on a daily base (type on the phone), a big help for his work as a music teacher.
Motivation and immersion are key
This was really helpful, thank you.. I've been trying to learn Chinese for a while now, but I'm struggling.. I love learning Mandarin so much, as challenging as it is, my love for China, the culture, the people, the food, and of course the language, keeps me going.. I just need to find the right learning style for me.. I listen to Chinese radio and watch TV shows, films and immerse myself as much as possible everyday, but it's just a very slow process.. I'm going to try to drop the character writing element for a while, as it is absolutely a huge part of my time, I will give it a try and see if it helps, thank you so much again.. Just, subscribed 👍🏻👏🏻
I really like English. I've been learning English more than ten years,I can read a lot,but I almost can't speak one sentedce.I've never talk to other in English.To me it's too hard to learn a new language.Just do it. Go ahead！You can do it！
Self taught Chinese --- impressive!
Thank you 1000 times for the useful tips and your story. I’ve been so frustrated teaching myself mandarin. I took a mandarin class here in Chengdu (virtually in person) and was so disappointed because even though it was a basic ground floor learning class the teachers didn’t speak English and taught using advanced vocabulary so it was just a bunch of sounds and I could’t follow or catch on no matter how hard I tried.
Small tip for you, if you start the chapters in your description with 0:00 they post to your video timeline ;) Also if you shoot indoors change your frame rate (FPS) to either 50 or 25 or the lights will have an annoying flicker (if you didn’t know already).
Devoted subscriber,
Joshua
Glad it was helpful for you! Thanks for the tip about the chapters, I will do that next time . How do I change FPS? It’s a camera setting , or a setting when I upload to youtube ?
I had no idea about the flicker , I’ve never noticed it before 😭
Oh your videos are ok. It only happens with artificial lighting indoors. (More of an FYI if you try to record and notice it). ;)
It’s a camera setting. It’s how many “pictures” your camera takes per second (FPS frames per second).
Short explanation is that electricity changes polarity (flashes) at 60 times per second in america and 50 times per second in China (fast enough we can’t see it). So if your camera shutter speed (FPS) doesn’t match sometimes it takes the frame when the lights are bright and sometimes when the polarity is changing creating a flicker. ;)
Best example is when you see the noise lines when you record a tv (or computer) screen in your videos. Same concept.
That’s so interesting , never would have guessed that one !! Thanks for the tip , I will try to watch out for that 😹
好有趣...与大家分享！
ruclips.net/video/9wFcYzHV6zI/видео.html
Go, hokies! Dear VT alumni.
Glad to find your channel. It's really beautiful to see what happens when you take in new things with open mind, curiosity and no bias.
hard working makes human smart
你是一位非常努力的人。
That's hot. Something about bisexual chicks.
Language comments: Girlfriend came to US and watched re-runs of I love Lucy. To improve comprehension, I listen to a zoom class with people speaking about current events or I watch the news because the pronunciation is impeccable and the speed is conversational. The vocabulary is high school level. You don't have to understand every word.
I am studying a language with 12 tenses and moods of verbs vs. only 6 in English. No problem to recognize the tense when written. However, the spoken language is not the written language so you need to listen carefully to distinguish whether the subject is singular or plural, and some of the pronouns are the same for both genders.
Very positive and good advice
Listening is really important. Just like how a baby learns a language, it starts with exposure. At the very beginning, the baby cannot understand anything, but they learn it gradually with time and with more exposure and stimulations.
Nice! Now challenge Cantonese!
Took me a few years to speak Mandarin but I can never learn how to read it. There are just too many characters for me to remember. When I was in China working in the 90s I had no problem talking to the locals but everytime a technical report came in I would be hunting high and low for 1 of the local staff to read to me. Sadly they have not made Goggle Translate yet :(
Dude this is exactly my foreign friends situation they're all can speak fluently and to communicate with locals but they just can't read a single word
Try Baidu Translation 百度翻译，it is much better than Google Translation. I tried and compared both so many times to believe it.
Wow, that’s incredible that you learn so fast👏👏👏
Thank you Kathrine. Your experience with Hindi - being able to speak but not being able to understand what anyone said - is exactly the problem I have with Persian. You've made me all the more determined to focus on my listening skills. Thank you!
hen mei
These are super useful tips even for someone learning other languages. Thanks Katherine!
Kathrine I have a question
My son went to dual language school (Chinese-English) since he was 4 y/o into pre-K, but since it was a public school for all Americans, its Chinese curriculum plateaued out at a very low level. He graduated from after 5th grade, now it is a struggle to keep him interested to continue learning Chinese. You are such an inspiration, thank you.
From watching a lot of language learner's videos on YT, I believe learning a language in a classroom environment is not ideal. If he can understand the language great, if he can't speak much that means he lacks interaction with speaking. But the problems with language (especially the LEARNING) is that when we were a kid, we don't normally care much about language learning, we normally like to have fun with friends or play with certain things (I believe real learning truly happens when we were in our teens, because we are more aware of what we want in life).
The reason that we don't actually need to "learn" our native language is because we are already fluent before our first year in school. All the learning effort in school are just to improve and sharpen an existing skill along with writing.
take him to Chinatown, let him order in the restraurant (tell the waitstaff to only speak to him in mandarin)
你的孩子你引导后让他自己选择吧
Most of Chinese people or east Asian people are very friendly and kind, I don't understand why so many US guys are so keen to hate Asian race, many US guys even hit Chinese especially Chinese old ladies in the street or in public, why is this happening? anybody can explain this phenomenon please??
MSM. you hardly find any positive news about china in US, all negative
I just got a motivation boost, like, I'd say one of the strongest ones I've ever gotten. Thank you.
♥️♥️♥️🤚👍
As an ethnic overseas Chinese myself that knows the language by heritage and not by education, I am thoroughly impressed by your journey, and in fact, I'm taking tips from you to learn the official PRC Putonghua Mandarin, which is waaayyy different from the Chinese I speak in my community.
Following in you from TouTiao
We really need to break the stereotype that Chinese language is difficult, that is not true and may prevent people from learning it, Yes indeed it has huge number of charactors and tonal system, thousands idioms. but in another word, it means this language has abundant cultures and stories which are quite interesting. if you really get into it, the hard part can be turned into fun.
You must be a special talent for Mandarin. That's why you are so fluent, Kats--high IQ for a foreign language such as Mandarin!
Thanks for sharing your very interesting journey. It reminds me of the evolution of mankind...a big slice of luck here, a few setbacks there and load of perseverance in-between. But things turned out good in the end! :D
You married a Chinese husband?
You’re absolutely right about the writing aspect of it. I always quit learning Chinese because learning how to write it was so time consuming like you said. I think I can finally move forward with my learning Mandarin now that the writing obstacle pay is out of the way. Thanks for this little but very valuable tip.
Thank you for the advice
very humble lady
Thanks for the tips to "improve your listening". I tried it and it seems to help. I am a fluent Cantonese speaker trying to learn Mandarin. When I watch Chinese TV, I couldn't follow the speech without the Chinese subtitle. It was frustrating! Yesterday, I closed my eyes and just listened. I got about 45%. That is pretty good. I will keep trying to see if that will help me. Thanks again.
Your advice not to waste time learning handwriting characters is the best advice about Chinese learning ever. I tell this same advice to everyone learn Mandarin.
It's 2021, we should stop teaching languages like it's 1981.
her temperament make me annoying,
幸好你沒學好印度話, 要不然王總可能還是单身漢
Nice! You had the passion and motivation for learning chinese. A lot of people focus more on the characters of which I think is useless. I like the background music of this video. ❤
What you said about finding the joy in learning (rather than learning cuz it gains you some advantage) is epic. In fact, the same could be said about just about pursuit in life!
听>说>读>写，Listen>Speak>Read>Write. Totally agree with you.
I speak 5 major languages. I agree with Katherine that it's very important to learn how to use a word in different sentences. My favorite dictionaries always have many example sentences.
You are gifted!
You are a language genius. You do have the natural gift. I found French is difficult to learn too.