Languages i will never learn: Hindi, dutch, bengali, polish, hungarian, ukrainian, hebrew Languages I would learn: Arabic, Russian, Japanese, mandarin, korean, italian
Mandarin blueprint built on the groundbreaking work of James Heisig’s method. His 2 volume set of books + ANKI for SRS will teach meaning and writing of 3000 characters for a fraction of the price （about$100) then it’s just hard work. The naysayers who say reading teaches you characters is only partially true. Knowing the building blocks of the entire language has helped me immensely and I have a native speaker to listen to anytime I want - my wife. With Heisig you focus on MEANING and WRITING - not strange and unnatural pronunciations that can be learned through context of reading and listening - also there are MANY ways to voice a character (普通话 is but only 1 way)which is why I don’t waste my time on it at the beginning stage.
Yeah, I did heisigs method for Kanji in Japanese. Definitely a great system. This is built upon that system (I think they even say that in the first few lessons). I dig it.
Saying that knowing 500 characters will allow you to understand 80% of Chinese is kind of like saying knowing 20 letters of the alphabet will allow you to understand 80% of English. Just because all of those letters show up frequently (or characters in this case), does not mean that you can understand how they work together. You need to understand words and sentences to actually have meaningful comprehension. It's just a really flawed way to say this. In reality you probably are going to want around 2k words before you can start to reach around 80% comprehension (which is still a very low level comprehension)
Hi mate, been following your updates for a while. Thanks for making a video like this, gives us an insight into the MB method. I just took the MB challenge and will upgrade to the Blueprint after a few months! As we say in Chinese, 过日子 生活 并享受
I still use it, but I did get back into Traverse. I fully understand not being into it, it has a lot of issues with smoothness and such. I became reliant on skritter and wasn't doing handwritting as much as i was doing writing on my phone with my thumb and I wanted to change that and get back into writing.
@@SeaboltSpeaks Thank you for letting me know. I’m gonna try MB with Skritter to see how I do. I don’t mind writing using my thumb, so hopefully Skritter will let me get over the Traverse hump. I also really like Hanzi Hero and Du Reader, for what it’s worth. Anyway, good luck!
I’ve dabbled off and on in mandarin for a bit. I do live in the United States in a small town, so there isn’t any major Chinese community here or anything like that. I started mandarin blueprint last May and did it for about a month then basically almost a year off of language learning seriously.
Congratulation to your 500 Hanzi journey!!! You might not know how good you are in Hanzi and your pronunciation too! So I am here to tell you, as a native Chinese and a mandarin teacher. Your understanding of the character is so accurate. And writing the character is definitely helpful for recognizing the character. It's just like if you never really make a cake by yourself, you will never make a good cake, even though you've watch hundreds of cake-making videos. I am so amazed by the effort and time you've invested in learning Hanzi, because most of the people would give up in the first month of learning Hanzi and feel hopeless because thousands of Hanzi would take forever to learn. But it will all worth it if you just keep it going. Because the more you learn, the easier it will get. Things will be more structured and easier to understand, and the character will offer you a new way to understand many things. Like, 城 is made of 土(dirt radical) and 成(sound radical). If you come to visit China one day (strongly recommend Xi'an西安) , you will see the defense wall that was built to protect the city, they were all made of dirt, even the bricks of the wall were made of dirt. Thanks to the defense wall, that made the city a city, not wild land, in ancient time. Ohh, and maybe my Hanzi learning experience might make you feel better... it took me 6 years in primary school to learn 2000+ Hanzi. We have writing homework in school everyday, like, to write every new Hanzi 20 times. If I made one mistake, then another 50 times. That crazy repetition made the character carved in my brain. Same as any other Chinese kid. So what I'm trying to say here is, even for native Chinese, learning Hanzi is definitely not easy. You should give yourself more credit for learning so many of them. But it would all worth it after years of practicing, especially if you are interested in Chinese history, because you can read the carving on the pottery/stone/monument/bamboo scroll that made thousands of years ago and now in the museum. Anyway, hope you have fun learning Hanzi.
Oh my, thank you so much for the very uplifting words, that means a lot! I love Hanzi so much, each little character telling a story. It's so amazing. And i have a TON of interest in visiting China one day. I've seen a bit of Xi'an in video recently on xiaoma's channel actually. It looks amazing. One day i'll be over there and be able to communicate and get around and be able to read with no problems. You're point about learning 2000 characters in school over 6 years is exactly the point i made to myself a while back. If i were in China learning as a Chinese person it'd take me a lot longer. The pace i'm going at is really good for me! I'm also going to check out some of your videos as well, I cannot stop watching anything to do with china, chinese language, or even some 语法. Thanks for commenting!
@@SeaboltSpeaks With 500 Hanzi, you will be doing ok if you are in China, with 2000 Hanzi you are doing very good in everyday life, with 5000 Hanzi you can read most of the formal text, including application form, explanation of the handicraft in the museum, etc. I am sure you will get there, but no rush, it just take time. It took me 12 years in total (6 in primary school, 6 in middle school). Especially you are living in a non-Chinese language environment, your determination is gold. I still remember I literally cried for having too much Hanzi homework when I was a little kid, because I just didn't understand why I should learn this much. And I almost cried when I was learning Chinese ancient article in middle school (imagine you are reading something written 1000 years ago and in ancient grammar, which is very different from the modern grammar). Ohhhh... and I did cry a lot when I was learning English grammar, like perfect tense.... now my old struggle just turned into something I can share and talk and sometimes joke about, haha Learning a new language might be overwhelming sometimes, but just follow your pace and eventually you will get there. Wish you all the good luck and enjoy the process!
Due to my busy August schedule (summer has been horribly busy for me), I stopped at level 20 for now. I just review my flashcards, watch my Netlfix with Mandarin subs, and listen to my favorite singer right now in the car. Once school starts again for my kide, then I will head right back into Mandarin Blueprint. I really want to finish my novels I bought, too. It looks like this will continue to be a fun way to learn to read Mandarin.
Heck yeah! Keep going at the pace you're comfortable with and you'll make great progress. I do not regret 1 single second I've spent learning to read Mandarin!
I started studying Korean specifically because I hated Japanese kanji but I am slowly coming to realize that although it sucks for reading a book, kanji are really good for helping you learn vocabulary. It’s like a built in mnemonic device. Now I’m going to make myself learn how to read hanja (Korean word for kanji) the Korean way. Just doing it all over again. 500 is pretty damn good. You’re well on your way.
i am so happy to see you visited my favorite place ever. that was our 2nd annual Sunflower festival. i want lie i kinda remember your little guy i was there working the animal barn at the festival. Please come back and visit us again for a Pumpkin Festival. its so much more to do now for him. Thanks Again for joining us
I'll be back! I've been documenting more of my local travel stuff on my other channel it's called "Jon From Appalachia". If i upload somethign like this again it'll be over there! Thanks for watching!
Hi, If I am watching Japanese content on my own computer using VLC player, is it possible to use migaku to copy out the Japanese subtitles and actually paste it into actual text on Microsoft word or google search?
Hi Seabolt. Their historical note on the simplification is wrong. Simplified characters where around for thousends of years and ninety percent of them where in common use before the 1950 only a susbset of simplification was made during the 1950 to standardize simplification.
@@SeaboltSpeaks ABChinese made two really good videos about it. Cant post the direct links since they get burried in the algorithm, but on youtube if you look for ABChinese you gonna find thoose videos. But yeah, just a minor complaint, i still think the migaku course seeems solid
Hi! I have been learning Mandarin for a few years now. I started during the pandemic. I like the content provider in your video, and I would like to recommend another; Story Learning Chinese With Annie.
Hey Seabolt I have been watching your videos and you inspired me to take the plunge with Mandarin. Let’s see how it goes. It’s a language I have been wanting to learn for many years. I figure why not just try it out and see how it goes. Thank you My man. Keep making update videos I enjoy watching them.
Good luck. I'd rather read old English poetry or Shakespeare, just as challenging but it's my history.. Goodness knows how long it would take to read equally edifying stuff in that language.
literally first thought on my mind on payday "man i gotta get me some tacos authentic street style with lots of lime chili green sauce and as much ice cold Corona as i can drink" my best friend Enrique turned me on to mexican food back in the day and i take him to the best steak houses and bbq joints in texas now I live in colorado and he takes me to the best tex mex places when i visit and I take him to the best weed dispensary's aha
This is cool to see. Not sure if you feel the same way or not, but for me learning Mandarin has been one of the more rewarding learning experiences. I feel like the perceived complexity of the language disappears much quicker than the other languages I've tried to learn. Things like Mandarin Blueprint or Hanzi Hero are also amazing for picking up the characters. This (and your newer video reading) showing of LingQ have been some of the first times I've seen that website and thought it looked useful. Going to check it out a bit more now.
I 100% agree. What's cool is though, with the mystique and mystery of Chinese going away as i learn more, i find myself loving it more. I've studied languages in the past where the mystery wore off i kind of tired out of them. But mandarin keeps me interested. LIngq rocks. Hoe you enjoy it!
Keep up the good work! I've been taking a bit of a break from active Mandarin study, but I've been watching a good bit of Chinese/Taiwanese TV in the past month, so it's still bouncing around the brain.
So, in the the time you learnt 100 characters I learnt 64. At 1 764 characters those stories in Remembering the Simplified Hanzi really do grind one down. Haha. 加油 加油 加油
64 is nothing to scoff at. I'm going a little slower because each character i learn can now be combined with a previously learned character and make a ton of new words now. I'll learn 1 character and it'll unlock like 8 words haha. Keep going! 加油
I also feel if i'm just talking and not scrolling showing what i'm talking about i'd get complaints of the exact opposite "oh you talk so much but don't show anything." This is just how some of these videos work unfortunately
Very interesting. I will check out Chinese Blueprint. Using LingQ. My Chinese character level is about the same and I am also self studying Spanish. After watching tons of RU-vidrs teaching Chinese, I just recently found a really good one. Step by step. Richard Chinese. No link, you can look him up if interested. I wish I had found him sooner. I am watching the HSK series he did 3 years ago now.
I love your content. I also find learning alphabets and writing them very pleasing experience . I think some people are too focused on speaking part as soon as possible leaving all other things for later. I'm not saying that is wrong. But for me those all other are as important as speaking and "as soon as possible" mindset takes away all the fun from it. btw I've been learning english and on B1
哥，we are 同学. I know the meaning and writing of 1700 chinese characters so far. 1300 characters to go. I think you need to reconsider the methodology. Logically speaking, Learning the meaning and writing of chinese characters (Remembering the simplified Chinese characters) and doing immersion (movies, series, game shows, cartoons, news broadcasts) is the best method to learn a language if your objective is to be literate in the langauge in the shortest time possible. One gets to hear how native speakers actually speak. Perhaps you may already be doing something similar to this (with some innovations) With those 1700 characters I can pretty much get the gist of conversations in movies and series.
My goal isn't the shortest time possible. My goal is to enjoy language learning. I do immerse, i just didn't go over it here. But maybe i'll make a few videos in the future of immersion based things! Thanks for watching.
@@darren5597 I'm glad you see what i'm saying. When i typed that response i thought "man, i don't mean this negatively but it's so hard to read a tone of someones speech through text".
I suppose what I understand is that some people find it enjoyable to learn about the langauge. For example, I'm always fascinated by medieval Chinese titles like 天下兵马大元帅 / General who leads the horses and soldiers under the sky) because it's a very specific culture that develops such a view on military affairs. Certainly, I have books on ancient Chinese history and customs (宋金历史). Funnily enough, I can't read most of them yet because they are in Mandarin. Haha
If it’s the least desirable method for you, then don’t do it. It’s hard to argue someone is wasting their time when they enjoy it and are progressing. Thanks for watching I guess.
Oh my comment got deleted. Sorry I don’t know maybe that was against RU-vid’s rules or something. Hey man good job on your Chinese! Learning languages takes time but it’s a fun journey, And I like what you said about it being therapeutic I feel that too.
