These are the accompanying audio files for “Beginning Chinese”:
I plan to make a video in the future about my full journey once I reached a certain goal ahaha but it will take a while. If you have questions, feel free to ask
Didn’t you intend to make a video in 2025?
That’s a bit “late” for our thread, don’t you think? > ha ha ha <
Probably 
Perhaps earlier would be better huh ahaha. Wanted to fully say that I truly learned the language but that’s a different debate
@chytran: I think I had wrongly understood from your answer in the other thread that it took you 1.5 years to go from 0 to 61k without previous knowledge of Chinese. I was particularly interested in your approach with LingQ only and the timeframe from no knowledge at all starting and using LingQ as a main tool.
But as Peter scolded me I tried to understand your roadmap digging around (which I don’t like much because it gives me the feeling to be a detective :D) and I answered to gaoli in this way.
@gaoli: I thought 1.5 years starting from 0 too but nope, that’s another story. He started in 2018 in LingQ. What he’s probably saying, it’s that after 4 million words read, he started doing 1.5 years of full immersion. He had 15K known words in January 2022 (when he started the massive input) and now he has 61k known words in Chinese.
I understand it that way now.
Maybe if you know what to do already it could take 2 years of massive input in Chinese?
But he was doing also Korean, so I don’t know if that helps to switch to Chinese too.
The new LingQ known words number says 35k known words for Chinese Advanced 2. Let’s say you need 20k more to be more conservative. He should have reached the level of 95% comprehension of above by reading.
Just speculating here. But it’s still an interesting roadmap to consider.
Am I bit correct with the timeframe? It’s 5 years you are doing Chinese and you started that massive input after 4 million words read and at 15k known words more or less.
I suppose you had the time to better understand the foundation of the language and also LingQ platform.
Did also studying Korean helped you to tackle Chinese as well?
I hypothesised 2 years knowing what to do already and starting from 0 on LingQ only? But maybe it’s too optimistic.
According to LingQ, you have well passed 35K known words for Advanced 2, would be 60K known words a more realistic number to target?
Thanks for all the answers.
Hi David, Lingq was my first platform since I came across Steve’s video. When I first started I just looked random words online about how to say certain words but was so dreadfully bad ahaha. So this can be considered a brief introduction to my studying arc. From 04/2018 to 08/2021, I attempted to learn chinese on lingq but was super confused on how to use it so I quit about 10x times and would switch off to spanish and korean. Those languages are languages I can’t do much with anymore so they’re just there for show. The origin was 5k known words at 08/2021 and that’s when my villain arc(just for laughs) began . The difference was that I decayed for so long that I forgot how to read everything so I have to capture those vocab once again since if I don’t know the pinyin from recognizing the character, I had to start over. The only difference was that from spanish, I learned to read/listen combo better. From korean, I learned how to read better and acquire harder words. Those languages contributed to the skill aspects, not knowledge aspect since I don’t find any relation between chinese and korean(not that I’m aware of). Even though the 5k words are still within my brain, accessing those again were fairly faster to which gave me a small foundation to pursue the 1.5 year journey span.
Most of my time with chinese have been on and off. If I were to approximize, it would be about 2 years total with the 1.5. Currently 2 years 3 months if you want to add that. I believe that the 1.5 year was almost a 0 to now because I haven’t touched chinese or took it seriously. I believe I am able to recognize 95% of vocabulary at 55k for majority of easy and hard topics. Since beyond 32k is vocabulary from medical/politics/etc in my opinion. Listening is still a process since if I did the math of my unconscious mind, could be 15-30 words a day to recognize new words as my known words increase. It’s all conspiracy and theories but just saying stuff ahaha.
To be honest, without lingq, my chinese would be non existent. If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask
Moin Davide,
“But as Peter scolded me”
Mentioning? Yes.
Scolding? No.
We’re not in kindergarten any more, i.e., we neither throw sand at each other nor hit each other on the head with our plastic shovels
I would disagree. In fact tones are more important than pronuciation. I was in Taipei 2 weeks ago and hung out with a group of friends. Some were from Taiwan, others from southern China, one from Chengu, etc. Their “accents” were so different, but they were still understandable because of correct tones.
@chytran: thanks for the stats. But I would consider at least a part of the initial journey as part of the process of learning a language. Because that initial period, especially for a difficult language, could be exactly how you describe it.
But even if we jump around, make mistakes by using wrong tools, and so forth, our brain is still learning, figuring things out, understanding things. Even the pauses, that you might think are not important, are actually important to give space to our brain to put things together. Effort-metabolization-pause-repeat. So I would consider a big part of that period actually important in your learning curve to be able to gather energy and information to approach the villain arc.
When I quit smoking, a lot of time ago, it took me 1 year from the day I formulated the intention to quit smoking and the actual day I started. In that year I kept smoking but my mind was working on it in the background. When I decided to definitely quit smoking, it took me 1 week to do it. But that 1 year was important to gather the energy and the strength to be successful once the decision was taken. So, in my case, for example, when they ask me how long did it take to quit smoking, I always say a little more than 1 year.
Thanks for sharing your journey. I will be definitely happy to watch your video in 2025, if I’ll be in this planet and using LingQ (very very high probability!).
@Peter: I didn’t like kindergarten indeed, I went home the first day crying, then I figured out my grandmother was a psychological monster and I decided was better go back. Fortunately, the only thing I remember was a little blonde girl I liked (she had curly hair). Thinking about it, I remember also a blonde girl I liked in middle school (she had curly hair too). Weirdly enough, I’ve never had a blonde girlfriend! What a shame!
I find this complete opposite strategic thinking on tones very interesting to follow. Although, that would require also a complete different approach for a new learner. Something to really think about.
Great advice! 
Also I wrote this blog on five common pitfalls to avoid when learning Mandarin: The 5 Most Common Chinese Learning Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them – I'm Learning Mandarin
It just one sacrifice for the benefit of another kind of thing. Tones are important, but I couldn’t tell the difference in the beginning until I started listening so much ahaha. I had an idea how the tones worked, but knew it will take a long time to get it
This is not a good idea. I know because it’s what I did. I paid the price so the rest of you don’t have to. I Ignored tones at the start, learned Chinese to a decent comprehension level, then had to go back and correct everything.
I documented this process in depth here:
and here:
Tones are much more important than most learners think they are. I have met untold numbers of advanced learners who have issues communicating because they underestimated the importance of tones.
“We’re not in kindergarten any more, i.e., we neither throw sand at each other nor hit each other on the head with our plastic shovels :-)”
Speak for yourself 