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PODCAST

Will I ever learn Chinese

Is it even possibly to learn Chinese? Linguistics professor Jeanette Sakel tried it out, telling us about her successes and failures along the way.

education language learning

All Episodes

21:32

Making sense of the chaos

Will I ever learn Chinese ·

2024/09/20

Send us a textChinese 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?Support the show

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16:23

Chinese, my escape from reality

Will I ever learn Chinese ·

2024/09/18

Send us a textIn this episode I describe how learning Chinese became my treasured escape from reality. I wanted to tell everyone about my new language and also start speaking Chinese with real people, but I was still not very proficient, despite my efforts. Also, I was reluctant to use the language in a professional setting, reflecting on my experience as an exchange student in Denmark when I was learning Danish and Greenlandic (Kalaallisut). Would I be judged speaking a very basic 'baby lang...

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14:45

Learning to write Chinese characters

Will I ever learn Chinese ·

2024/09/16

Send us a textWhen I realised that learning to read and write Chinese characters would help me in my learning, I started to add a writing app to my repertoire of learning methods. Suddenly the characters started to make sense and I saw a pattern behind the apparent randomness. Aside from writing, I also started to hone my listening and speaking skills, starting to get the hang of the language.Support the show

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29:12

Making learning Chinese fun

Will I ever learn Chinese ·

2024/09/14

Send us a textDo 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 differen...

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21:31

Reflecting on my learning and fine-tuning my learning...

Will I ever learn Chinese ·

2024/09/12

Send us a textI 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?Support the show

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37:43

Do we really need to learn explicit grammar rules?

Will I ever learn Chinese ·

2024/09/10

Send us a textChildren 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?Support the show

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26:08

Finding the right method to learn Chinese

Will I ever learn Chinese ·

2024/09/08

Send us a textOnce I had decided to learn Chinese, I needed to find the right method to do so. In this episode I describe my thought-process and why started with an app that was entirely in Chinese, without any translation.Support the show

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10:49

What is Chinese and is it difficult to learn?

Will I ever learn Chinese ·

2024/09/06

Send us a textIn 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?Support the show

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22:16

Do age and talent affect language learning?

Will I ever learn Chinese ·

2024/09/04

Send us a textWould 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. Support the show

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15:22

Introduction: why I started learning Chinese

Will I ever learn Chinese ·

2024/09/02

Send us a textHi, I’m Jeanette Sakel and I’m a professor of Language and Linguistics. I’m an avid language learner... or at least used to be, until I settled into a permanent teaching post, had a kid and somehow did not have the time or inclination to learn languages for a number of years. But this changed about a year and a half ago, when, pretty much out of the blue, I started to learn Chinese. This story follows along with my language learning, from knowing near to nothing about Chine...

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30 results

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