Will I ever learn Chinese
Jeanette Sakel
Is it even possibly to learn Chinese? Linguistics professor Jeanette Sakel tried it out, telling us about her successes and failures along the way.
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Top 10 Will I ever learn Chinese Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Will I ever learn Chinese episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Will I ever learn Chinese for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Will I ever learn Chinese episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Intermediate Chinese: all those wonderful tools!
Will I ever learn Chinese
09/28/24 • 38 min
In this episode I explore how I honed my different Chinese language skills: understanding, speaking, reading and writing. I look at all those wonderful tools, most of which are free, that are available to the intermediate learner. In my own learning, Chinese podcasts for learners, as well as Chinese television dramas started to play in increasingly important role. This was time well spent and I was taking in the language in a fun and engaging way to kept me motivated, coming back for more.
Making sense of the chaos
Will I ever learn Chinese
09/20/24 • 21 min
Chinese has many homophones: words that sound the same. And when you are only just entering the intermediate stage and are still not very confident when it comes to the different 'tones', there are even more such homophones. What can the learner do to make sense of the chaos? And, what even is a word in Chinese?
Making learning Chinese fun
Will I ever learn Chinese
09/14/24 • 29 min
Do people really have different learning preferences, and how do you go about finding yours? In this episode I reflect on my language learning back at school, which, mildly put, was a disaster. Not only did my English teacher state that I had no 'talent' for languages, but languages were also my least favourite subject, which was reflected in my marks. How come I became a linguist later, learning many languages outside of the school setting? What motivated me? I look at different learning methods and learning styles, and the current hot-topic in language-learning circles, namely Krashen's comprehensible input hypothesis. What do linguists have to say about it, and what is my experience, as a learner (and a linguist)?
Reflecting on my learning and fine-tuning my learning approach
Will I ever learn Chinese
09/12/24 • 21 min
I look at how Chinese is different from the other languages I speak, and how I was dealing with this difficulty. Also, after the first few weeks of learning Chinese, I noticed that I was missing something and that I was getting quite confused at times. Would I be able to keep up my motivation for learning? What would it take?
Do we really need to learn explicit grammar rules?
Will I ever learn Chinese
09/10/24 • 37 min
Children learn their first language without looking up any grammar rules, so why can't adults do the same? In this episode look at how the grammars of the world's languages differ. Having previously worked on "grammar" and even written a grammatical description of an Amazonian language, Mosetén, I decided to study Chinese without learning any explicit grammar rules at first. Why? Is that even possible?
What is Chinese and is it difficult to learn?
Will I ever learn Chinese
09/06/24 • 10 min
In this episode I look at what the term 'Chinese' refers to. Mandarin? Cantonese? Why are there so many different terms for Chinese in Chinese itself? I try to investigate whether Chinese is difficult to learn. Well, apparently it is, because everyone keeps telling me so! But is it really? Is my learning doomed right from the start?
Do age and talent affect language learning?
Will I ever learn Chinese
09/04/24 • 22 min
Would a 49-year-old even be able to learn a new language? Spoiler alter: yes! But why are people different in their language-learning success? What affects language learning? In this episode I compare how children learn their first language and second language acquisition and I look at the different factors behind language-learning success.
Speaking Chinese in China: the real deal!
Will I ever learn Chinese
10/22/24 • 17 min
In this episode I’m talking about traveling to China for the first time and using my newly acquired language in the real world. Wherever I travel, I like to be able to speak at least a little bit of the local language and communicate with locals and to make my own arrangements. Being able to speak more than rudimentary Chinese was key to many of my wonderful experiences. Also, I started to gain new insights into a country I had, admittedly, known very little about before starting to learn the language. It was a whole new world opening up to me, understanding the local geography, customs, dialects and participating in the language ‘for real’.
Language learning and linguistic fieldwork: the excitement of the puzzle
Will I ever learn Chinese
10/26/24 • 19 min
I love puzzles, be it crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles or the puzzle that is learning or analysing another language. My PhD thesis, for example, is a grammatical description of the small Amazonian indigenous language Mosetén. I was working with speakers of the language to record and then analyse the language and its structures. During that process, I learnt to speak Mosetén as well. I realised that I was using many techniques I had learned during my fieldwork in the Amazon when learning Chinese. Should we, perhaps, approach language learning from the perspective of linguistic fieldwork? Should researchers working on languages make an effort to learn those languages? This episode is a celebration of the wonder that is figuring out how a languages works, solving a gigantic puzzle.
Accent and dialect
Will I ever learn Chinese
10/10/24 • 18 min
In this episode I’m looking at accent and dialect. Many learners have a distinct foreign accent. Is that inevitable, or are their ways to work on your accent (and if so, is it necessary)? I’m talking about various techniques, such as shadowing and working on individual sounds, as well as how sounds that initially seem familiar may be the ‘problem areas’ where an accent persists, just because the learner does not realise that the pronunciation is slightly different, while totally different sounds may, eventually, be easier to produce. As my pronunciation was getting better, I had to choose whether to copy my teachers’ northern accents, or include other dialectal features in my speech.
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FAQ
How many episodes does Will I ever learn Chinese have?
Will I ever learn Chinese currently has 30 episodes available.
What topics does Will I ever learn Chinese cover?
The podcast is about Learning, Linguistics, Chinese, Autobiography, Language Learning, Podcasts, Mandarin and Education.
What is the most popular episode on Will I ever learn Chinese?
The episode title 'Language immersion and conforming in another language' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Will I ever learn Chinese?
The average episode length on Will I ever learn Chinese is 20 minutes.
How often are episodes of Will I ever learn Chinese released?
Episodes of Will I ever learn Chinese are typically released every 2 days.
When was the first episode of Will I ever learn Chinese?
The first episode of Will I ever learn Chinese was released on Sep 2, 2024.
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