I’ve learned languages to a high level before, so I know what it means to study hard – intensive in person language classes, language podcasts, text books, constant input, grammar drills, always striving to force that level of output, flash cards, graded readers, language software, intensive reading, language partners… I’ve done all of those things, and I’m not gonna lie – they work. They work pretty well if you can put in the hours. But these days, I’m older, I’m busier, I’m a bigger believer than ever in authentic materials, and — maybe most importantly — I’m just lazier.
The odds of me sitting down and spending an hour pushing myself to read through a book in Mandarin are pretty low. I’m just not that motivated especially since I’m not yet at the level where I can effortlessly read especially interesting things.
So what has my lazy solution been to push through that intermediate slog to get the advanced promised land?
**Chinese dramas and Anki.** Yep. That’s it.
I watch an hour or two of Chinese dramas every day – maybe more if I get really into the show or it’s the weekend – and for every episode I key in at least 1 or 2 new words into anki, along with the complete phrase it came from as an example sentence. If I’m feeling motivated that day, I’ll key in 4 or 5 per episode.
It doesn’t take long at all since I have Anki on my computer and just keep it and a dictionary window open. It also doesn’t require a very high level of Chinese since a lot of sentences in dramas are really short and if you can half guess at the pronounciation the keyboard input will often figure out the character you were trying to type.
So my Anki card is (sorry for odd example)
Vomit blood 吐血 tùxiě － 怎么又吐血了呀？
It takes very little Chinese knowledge to figure that out. 怎么，又，了，呀．That’s it. You can get those from using Duolingo for a couple months. All you have to do is get familiar with the Chinese input on the computer / phone and you’re set.
Anyway, I wouldn’t argue this method is ideal. I’m pretty sure it’s not. But it does feel like a relatively painless way to grow your vocabulary which is what that intermediate journey is all about IMO, and at the same time, you get tons of hours of 100% authentic contextualized listening / reading practice.
I’ve been doing this for a few months, and I find that my listening is a thousand times better, my vocab is rapidly improving, and most importantly, it doesn’t really feel like work since I’m basically just watching TV with a few little breaks.
Anyway, it seems to work for me and I plan on keeping it up. Has anybody else tried something like this?
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EDIT — In case it’s not clear, I am absolutely using English subtitles as well. I am definitely not at the level that I can enjoy the shows without them. Also, I often need the subtitles to reverse look up the word I’m targeting when my pronounciation guesses fail me.
That’s basically my routine. I’m too busy with life to do anything except Anki and watching/listening to/reading stuff. I don’t watch many TV series, but I’ll watch a lot of Youtube, I’m reading 三体 slowly and steadily, I’ve joined some Chinese subreddits, etc. I’ve just made it a part of my life rather than this thing I have to work at.
The only thing I’d call work which I’ve started trying out on the advice of Lele Farley is mimicking/mirroring/whatever it’s called. So sometimes when I’m watching or listening to something, I will try to imitate everything they’re saying. It’s a massive challenge when the dialogue is so quick it’s moved on before you’ve finished speaking, but Lele swears by it and his Chinese is impeccable, and you do feel the benefit straight away.
When I can’t bring myself to study, this is what I do, except I like taking notes by hand.
Alternatively, I switch Genshin to simplified Chinese and write down anything that catches my eye (I find familiar words, hanzi, structures and expand from there while ignoring the rest to not overwhelm myself with information. Sometimes I can understand a full sentence or most of it and it feels really good lol).
My Chinese sucks, I’m at a very elementary level and I don’t even have that many opportunities to use it, so it’s hard to retain what I’ve already learned. Seeing phrases and words I studied in the context of a story I like, spoken by characters I feel connected to helps so much, because it becomes more customised and personal, not as dry and detached as in my textbook, and I get to learn vocabulary that corresponds to what I’m interested in!
I watch Chinese dramas a few times a week, even though my comprehension isn’t great. Historical or wuxia stuff mostly, which I enjoy even when I’m not 100% understanding it.
One nice thing about Chinese drama is so many of them have subtitles burned into the show itself. I wondered why that is, and came up with theory that they’re often watched in noisy public settings or something like that.
Some tips to help – 1st, this guy creates text files full of vocab for graded watching for mandarin TV shows. Basically cuts out having to make anki cards. I think pleco is easiest to import though.
[http://www.jiong3.com/gradedwatching/](http://www.jiong3.com/gradedwatching/)
2) There’s a chrome extension that generates the subtitles for you, you just mouse over for the translation. I think premium you can even export the ‘saved words’
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/learn-languages-with-netf/pjchiefjmkcbmhnhoffjhhgkfdkbkjhk?msclkid=e8ffe33ccf4411ec90c42369b43be6fd](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/learn-languages-with-netf/pjchiefjmkcbmhnhoffjhhgkfdkbkjhk?msclkid=e8ffe33ccf4411ec90c42369b43be6fd)
I agree. Especially after having kids I just don’t have much energy to sit down and brute force “study” anymore, I have to manage my motivation very carefully. That means finding content I’m actually interested in / OK with consuming on its own merit, and try to learn passively as much as possible. I use Anki, but my deck of thousands of cards have long since fallen by the wayside, because I just can’t keep up with the number of reps needed. I’m OK with a few minutes a day, but it balloons so quickly, I’m thinking it’s not the whole solution.
OP, what are your favorite things to watch? Give us your recs.
Recommend 人世间
if you want a more casual way to study i recommend getting some graded readers. they’re designed so that you can learn words without effort. a lot of graded readers are just abridged versions of real chinese books so reading them can be genuinely interesting.
Helpful post ima try this ty
Its scientifically proven that listening improves language skills..
Watch some good Chinese language animes like Link Click?
[Link Click](https://www.anime-planet.com/anime/link-click)
Ok that’s cool and all but don’t learn English through family guy or Japanese through anime.
吐血 tu xue. It’s not tuxie. Gotta modify ur error.lol
Do people use Anki on their phone? i feel like it being on my pc is so inconvenient but its the only way ive ever tried.
Do you have any Chinese drama recommendations? 🙂
Recommend 平凡的荣耀 Ordinary Glory, adapted from a K drama and very good.
Does watching TV-shows help listening comprehension when English (or other language you’re familiar with) subtitles are on? All my Chinese teachers have consistently recommended me to watch material without English subtitles. My own impression was also that I just ended up reading subtitles and it did little for my listening comprehension. But that might just be a wrong assumption on my part. Is anyone familiar with research on the effectiveness of watching shows with/without (English) subtitles?
Tl;dr but by the title, I do the same and at this stage it has proven more effective than any “synthetic” form of vocabulaty building.