If yes, how’s it going? What do you like about it? What don’t you like? What challenges are you encountering? How are you approaching it?

I ask because my partner and i both decided last year we would start doing a little language learning in our spare time, and it’s been quite nice to have that “back to school” feeling again after so many years.

  • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.mlOP
    3·
    17 天前

    Thank you for the recommendations! I actually already do some of those things. I don’t really struggle with the basic pronunciation, it’s remembering the tones that doesn’t come naturally. Also i’m finding some sounds hard to distinguish when spoken by native speakers. For some reason i find that non-native speakers sometimes have clearer, more distinct pronunciation.

      • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.mlOP
        2·
        17 天前

        I’ve more or less settled with the fact that i’m going to have trouble with tones for a long time. Right now i’m talking more about hearing the difference between for example “-n” and “-ng” endings, or “z-” and “c-” initials. In theory i know the distinction but in practice it’s often hard to hear.

        • bobs_guns@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          2·
          17 天前

          Regardless you should still study hearing the tones. You can use Anki for tone pairs you find bothersome, help you draw a distinction between them. For initials and finals I found IPA helpful, although to be honest I didn’t find either of those especially troublesome. You could try the channel I linked about zh, sh, ch distinction, they may have videos that are helpful for improving understanding of the difference between these sounds.

        • va11kyrie@lemmy.mlEnglish
          2·
          16 天前

          Dong Chinese has a free section where you can drill recognizing tones and syllables that I find helpful. Though I’m still a beginner so this might be below your skill level.

          • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.mlOP
            2·
            16 天前

            I’ve actually done a lot of that. In isolation i don’t have too much trouble recognizing the difference, and i can pronounce them just fine. It’s just when spoken fast in a sentence sometimes the sounds become hard to distinguish. But it’s fine. I know that i just need more exposure to media in the language and then i will get better at the listening comprehension over time.