good luck!

just a documentation of things I find and notes I take, as I try to learn chinese. basically a studyblr. My main tumblr is @mejomonster

[rigelmejo]

February 17, 2025 Links Masterlist

General Resources, Reference, Study Plan, and Progress Links:

Japanese resources tag (a bit messy as some are in japanese reference instead, but here’s some of the study resources I've found)

Japanese reference tag (I try to post grammar stuff under the reference tag)

Chinese resources tag (also messy, some in chinese reference instead)

Chinese reference tag (I try to tag grammar posts and notes on tone, pronunciation)

Study Plan tag (I make new study plans every so often, posts about that are tagged 'study plan' along with 'month study plan' for various months I've made different ones)

Progress tag (I make progress posts every so often, they are tagged 'progress' or 'month progress' for the month I post them in. I also sometimes tag them 'language skill progress' such as 'chinese listening progress', and 'skill progress' such as 'reading progress')

For general skills I use tags like 'chinese reading' (language reading) to track thoughts about the topic, sometimes those posts are not tagged as 'progress'

Posts with information and discussion added by other people tagged for under ‘japanese notes’. Other posts of this type will be tagged 'language notes.'

Rec list tag (novels, audiobooks, I will try to tag these more consistently in the future)

Lets plays tag (lets plays of video games I find, I will try to tag these more consistently in the future)

Comprehensible Input Resources:

All posts tagged 'comprehensible input resources' (this is the tag I will add on new posts linking comprehensible input resources as I find more. I also use the tags 'chinese comprehensible input resources' and 'japanese comprehensible input resources' for specifically resources I find for those languages. I will try to tag reliably in the future, so expect the pattern 'X comprehensible input resources' if looking for something specific).

Comprehensible Input Wiki site (a good starting place for finding comprehensible input resources, comprehensible input teaches a target language in the language, usually through audio-visual with context clues. If you see 'comprehensible input' used as a term in general, it can mean one of a few things: it can mean Comprehensible Input Lessons Made for learners which is made to be extremely understandable to a beginner such as Dreaming Spanish. It can mean material that has become comprehensible to you because you have studied/learned many words and now find the main idea of a material understandable, this is what MIA/Refold/people who study with anki and immersion mean when they say 'comprehensible input.' And this is what people who study with ALG/Comprehensible Input Lessons say when they are talking about using materials for native speakers that they can comprehend once they've finished materials made for learners. In summary: if a material is clearly made for learners and is labelled 'comprehensible input' it is made to be understandable for learners at the level it's labelled. If a material is not made for learners, then if it is comprehensible input will depend on what you know already and if you can follow the main idea it's conveying.

Awesome Natural Approach Github (Natural Approach textbooks were an older language learning method that is like comprehensible input - it teaches a target language in the target language, usually through text and sometimes with context clues like images)

Nature Method Books:

Le Français Par La Méthode Nature (example of what a Nature Method textbook is like, Lingua Latina is a nature method textbook still in use in some classrooms)

Le Francais Par La Methode Nature Audio

L'italiano Secondo Il Metodo Natura (another example of what a Nature Method textbook is like, this book is fairly easy to find a published print copy).

L'italiano Secondo Il Metodo Natura Audio

German: Deutsch Nach Der Naturmethod (I can only find a short version, I am unsure if a longer version exists)

All Spanish Method (There is a First Book and Second Book, I bought a published version of both, if looking for the pdf files note that sometimes you have to go digging to find the Second Book)

Poco a Poco (a Direct Method style textbook, often this style of teaching is lumped in with Nature Method resources so you may find some of each type of book on 'nature method' discussions online. Direct method textbooks tend to be entirely in the target language, mainly dialogues, and assume the learner will have a teacher to aid them)

Poco a Poco Audio

Worman's First Spanish Book Primero Libro de Español segun el Método Natural (Note that this is a Graded Reader, not actually a textbook designed in the nature method style. There are several Worman's graded readers that go well as supplements to nature method textbooks - I have seen a French version and a German version)

Dr Dru's Lab (a Nature Method type website for beginners in Japanese that know hiragana and katakana, uses emojis to give visual context)

(This list is not exhaustive, I have not found links to all of them. Many of them are free on archive.org, many can be purchased through certain publishers if you look for a copy to buy, Ayan Academy on Youtube - and some other youtubers - have uploaded audio for these books. These books are made for learners to learn a target language by reading in the target language. The Nature Method means teaching the target language through target language text, using additional context like pictures and teacher gestures. The Direct Method textbooks appear similar, but involve mainly dialogues, sometimes with pictures - but the Direct Method textbooks typically assume a teacher will be there to explain word meanings using visuals/gestures and translations when necessary. The main difference is Nature Method textbooks tend to provide the learner with as much information as possible to self study and understand the material on their own, Direct Method textbooks tend to be in the target language but assume the learner will be with a teacher to explain things).

Listening Reading Method:

You listen to audio you do not yet understand (listen to an audio in target language).

You read along to comprehend as much of the meaning as you can, and to map the sounds to the target language writing system (you listen to target language audio, while looking at target language text, this step may help with reading skills)

You look at a translation and follow along with the audio, attempting to understand the meaning of everything (you listen to target language text, while looking at translated text and attempting to 'look up' the meaning of any unknown parts as you follow along. This is more exhausting than it sounds. Only step 3 and 4 are mandatory to do this method, and repeat 3-4 as much as desired).

Listen to the audio again.

Continue steps 2,3,4, as desired, until you can understand as much as possible when listening to the audio only.

If you'd like to test how much your listening skills and vocabulary have improved, find an audio of a text that has less unique words than the thing you L-R. See if the audio is understandable, it should be much more understandable than before L-R. (So pick something to L-R with a high unique word count, then test improvement by listening to a lower unique word count audio before and after. For example you might L-R a novel for adults like something by Stephen King, then test improvement with a novel with only ~2000 unique words like The Little Prince).

Shadow the audio if you’d like to practice speaking. (Repeat after the audio or try to speak at the same time as it, attempting to sound as similar to it as possible).

Try to make a transcript of the audio as you listen, try to translate the audio as you listen (if you'd like to work on translation skills)

Website about the Listening Reading Method (I had to use the Wayback Machine to link this, as the site doesn't seem to exist anymore)

Ilya Frank's Reading Method (contains free parallel texts to study with, resources for various languages, some have audio files)

Bilinguis.com (contains free parallel texts in various languages, some have audio)

Duoreader App (app contains free parallel texts in various languages, with TTS audio and click-word translations)

Wasabi-jpn (a website with Japanese lessons, which include parallel texts and audio, the website also has a grammar guide)

Listening Reading Method posts I've made are all tagged with 'listening reading method'

Learn Japanese with Video Games (Lessons):

The Complete JLPT N5 Grammar Video(Game) Textbook

The Complete JLPT N4 Grammar Video(Game) Textbook

The Compete JLPT N3 Grammar Video(Game) Textbook

Game Gengo Youtube (makes lessons that teach Japanese, has a ton of lessons, also he has some videos where he explains the process by which he studied Japanese using video games - in case you similarly would like to look up game scripts, look up words and grammar points, as you play video games)

Game Grammar Youtube (teaches Japanese using video games)

Japanese Quest (many lessons, here’s their playlist Japanese Quest - All Lessons in Order)

Memrise, Anki SRS Flashcard Decks, and Audio Flashcard Files: (note all Memrise links are broken as Memrise deleted community courses, I will be looking into if anyone made anki versions of those courses, if you know of any anki versions of these memrise community courses please message me)

Chinese Most Common Words Memrise and Anki Decks:

BenWhatley’s Chinese words by spoken frequency 0 - 1000 (I used this course, then started reading with Graded Readers from Mandarin Companion)

BenWhatley’s Chinese words by spoken frequency 1,001 - 2,000 (I used this course, then started reading webnovels with Pleco and Readibu)

hengfun’s Advance Chinese - Frequency from 2,000 - 5,000 + Audio

poyopoyo’s Polymono’s 5000 most common Chinese words [HSK] (the only deck in this section with no audio, this deck has the most thorough definitions, includes words by frequency and the words in HSK)

*Chinese Spoonfed Anki Deck (I recommend this one, if I could go back, because it has a lot common words in sentence examples with audio. It has some errors but I will be honest all anki decks made by learners have some errors so don't take what they teach as 100% accurate)

AUDIO FILE*Chinese Spoonfed Anki Deck audio files (I have studied with these files a lot, english-chinese sentence audio - I recommend to please download these and save them to your own computer or google drive and then use them, if too many people play the same google drive files in the same location then google drive can make it so a limited amount can play at once)

Chinese anki and memrise decks for learning the characters:

BenWhatley’s First 500 characters in Mandarin Chinese

BenWhatley’s Characters 501 - 1,000 in Mandarin Chinese

BenWhatley’s Characters 1,001 - 1,500 in Mandarin Chinese

BenWhatley’s Characters 1,501 - 2,000 in Mandarin Chinese

Also LukeMeister’s Learn 800 Basic Chinese Characters (this contains all characters and words contained in the Tuttle book Learn Chinese Characters, which is all HSK A words, 2000+)

And googed’s Heisig’s Remembering the Simplified Hanzi (contains 3,139 characters, unfortunately I haven’t used this deck so I do not know if the cards include mnemonics for each hanzi or if they just contain the character/meaning)

*Mnemonics - 3018 Simplified Chinese Hanzi deck (I recommend this deck, if I had to go back and do it again)

*Mnemonics - 3035 Traditional Chinese Hanzi (I recommend this deck, if I had to go back and do it again)

 *Mnemonics - 4143 Traditional AND Simplified Chinese Hanzi (combines the 2 decks above)

Anki and Memrise Chinese decks, based on HSK:

Ben Whatley’s HSK 1, HSK 2, HSK 3, HSK 4, HSK 5 decks (some decks also include all the information of the deck before it, so HSK 4 deck contains all of the other lower level HSK content)

nialllo’s HSK Complete including Examples (this covers all HSK 1-6 content, and also example grammar sentences for HSK 1-3)

amargatarde’s HSK Complete Traditional Characters (includes all HSK 1-6 vocabulary and characters, in traditional characters)

Misc Chinese Grammar Course Memrise and Anki Decks:

 *Chinese Grammar Wiki Study Deck (if looking for a full grammar guide I recommend this one, which so far has been the most well formatted version and links to the AllSetLearning Grammar points so you can easily do background reading when needed)

Ole’s Chinese Grammar Wiki A1, Chinese Grammar Wiki A2, Chinese Grammar Wiki B1, Chinese Grammar Wiki B2 (all adapted from AllSet Learning’s Chinese Grammar Wiki site)

DrewSSP’s Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar (with audio) (I own the book for this, so I imagine the deck is similarly useful. This may be a reasonable chinese alternative to what nukemarine’s Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide decks are for japanese)

Japanese Anki Decks:

Let's Learn Japanese Anki Nukemarine deck - I used this back when it was on memrise for free, hands down my favorite deck to study Japanese as it contains Tae Kim's grammar guide, kanji, and Core 6k decks within it. The only way to get it now is on Nukemarine's patreon (From LLJ Patreon: Anki Deck - Due to "purges" that occasionally occur on Anki's official site, I host Anki decks I create on the official LLJ patreon page)

The Core 2k/6k/etc decks (This is a possible link to the Core 2k, this is a link to Nayr’s Core 5k Revised, this is a mediafire link to the old 2k/6k Core deck)

 Tango N5 deck could be used for sentence examples - here is an MIA Heavily Modified Version, and here is another version.

For Kanji: Mnemonics - 3030 Japanese Kanji

AUDIO FILES Japaneseaudiolessons.com (I love these lessons, they're english-japanese audio files, the website also has a grammar guide, and the website makers wrote a series of books to learn Kanji using mnemonics stories they made up - I have used these books)

Miscellaneous Tools and Resources:

My Little Word Land - a possible alternative to the old memrise user made courses, has courses for many languages

Heavenly Path Notion Site - If you want to learn to read chinese, I highly recommend this site for their many guides on what to do, and their recommendation lists based on difficulty and genre. Click their links under Chinese Media for recommendations. Such as the pages Webnovels & Books (小说) and Audiodramas & Audiobooks (广播剧、有声小说). I truly recommend this site if you're trying to figure out what to read or listen to next, or how to start doing it.

Heavenly Path Comprehensive Listening Guide - From Beginner to Native Media (I am following this guide currently)

Heavenly Path Comprehensive Reading Guide — from Beginner to Native Novels (I followed this guide, in particular their suggestions to use Pleco and Readibu apps to read webnovels, what graded readers to try first, and what webnovels to start with once I knew ~1000 words. This guide mentions  秃秃大王 by 张天翼 as a good initial novel to read, I agree and it was easier than a lot of the first stuff after graded readers I'd tried to read)

Heavenly Path Reading Tools, Tips, and FAQ (I highly recommend reading through this to see what tools could be useful to you)

japanese manga translations in chinese

analyze chinese texts difficulty, and make generated vocabulary lists

Bidiread - make parallel texts in your web browser

ZHToolKit - paste a text into this (such as a chapter of a webnovel) and it will rate the difficulty of the text, and make a list of words. This is free and is used inside your web browser.

Chinese Reader Apps I recommend: Pleco (has a eReader click-translation feature, a dictionary, and an SRS system, graded readers can be purchased within the app), and Readibu (free version has a click-translation feature, can paste webnovel url into this app to read any webpage, will roughly estimate HSK level of the webpage, and has some links to webnovels that the app already has found - useful if you've never gone looking on chinese webnovel sites before). Additional information: Microsoft Edge has a great TTS Read Aloud feature if you'd like to use TTS while reading, and ALL Web Browser apps allow for long-click to get 'translate' option of any words or sentences (if you have Google Translate or another translation app installed), the general web browser translations appear about as accurate as LingQ app's translations (Pleco and Readibu are better for Chinese). Also, most eReader apps on phones and tablets also have a click-translate feature (Kindle does, all the other free eReader apps I've tried do like Kybooks, Moonreader, FB Reader)

Japanese Translation/Dictionary App I recommend: Yomiwa (it's free, it's on android, it works great for me. There are surely better options, but I do recommend using a Japanese-specific translation app for Japanese, and a Chinese-specific app for translation like Pleco, because Google Translate and DeepL and other general translation apps tend to be wrong about 10-20% of the time with these languages)

I recommend Google Translate too, if only because you can write pinyin, romaji, speak into it, input one word or whole phrases, write hanzi or kanji into it, take a picture of text you see, to look up words. And that is extremely convenient when reading a print book, watching a show on your TV with target language captions, or listening to an audio. I think it gets about 10-20% of words somewhat wrong to super wrong when it comes to translating Chinese and Japanese (and so I recommend language specific translation/dictionary apps to clarify and correct the meanings of new words/phrases you see). But in terms of ease to use in various situations, it is nice to have 1 word you don't understand and look up a vaguely similar translation to understand the overall context.

Miscellaneous Links (this list does not contain all the things I've found, check the 'language resources' and 'rec list' tags for more):

Dracula Audiobook French

Frankenstein Audiobook French

Pride and Prejudice Audiobook French

DeFrancis Chinese Reader Audio Files

FSI Chinese Course

FSI Basic French Course

FSI Japanese Headstart Course

DLI Chinese Mandarin Course

If you want to watch a cartoon dubbed/subbed in chinese, search the name with 动画

(for all links below you're going to need to copy-paste, tumblr will not let me add any more links to this post)

School rumble in chinese dub - 校园迷糊大王: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ks41197XF

櫻桃小丸子: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQGFvBFre_B3sTKh8hrPOp9RU40o7TweR&feature=shared

If you want to watch japanese lets plays on youtube, search for the japanese name of the game, then use that and the word 実況 ( じっきょう) , 実況プレイ , or lets play in katakana. For example to find Kingdom Hearts type “ キングダムハーツ実況 “ into youtube. A lot of japanese videos have ok automatic subtitles if you want subs.

Kingdom Hearts Lets Play Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCpkaNPLsb0&list=PL_qCLgZgesQYN-q9vZX1tX4dBJTV7ie-A

Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core Lets Play in japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG9V-EtxKYY

Crisis Core: a female player (no jpn subs): https://youtu.be/XG9V-EtxKYY

or https://youtu.be/CvGjIe_JzYU

a male player: https://youtu.be/YqYxcEpagSM

nier automata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXPngowycCM

another male player (belle): https://youtu.be/GBs_ruu7X98

KH1: male player: https://youtu.be/tLDag2eK590

KH2: male player: https://youtu.be/C2XjNDILpog

female player: https://youtu.be/QkDpVpItndM

drakengard 3: https://youtu.be/QGSqRtpSLQk

Ratchet and Clank video game ‘movies’:

1 https://youtu.be/QG7CsYg2n-s

2 https://youtu.be/7aYmYaDFIAU

3 https://youtu.be/_r8adhW0-44

Persona games: Persona 3 (lets player does not talk much, guy): https://youtu.be/H5xm7tJJc2Q

Persona 3 (guy reads lines he considers picking): https://youtu.be/Acv8N7XKk0I

Learn Japanese, a playlist for studying japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3ioRPuBcfw&list=PLwGjqS2iLnwV1lBfUo6VuWmMaWUJnxLMK

Links to some japanese audiobooks (often these also have ok automatic subs on youtube): https://rigelmejo.tumblr.com/post/647662534757908480/japanese-audiobooks

Erin Ga Chosen! Nihongo Dekimasu - Japanese lessons (kind of like learning comprehensible input): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avoqy0H1CRA

もしもしゆうすけ Learn Japanese Language With Subtitles (interesting lessons in that its sort of subbed daily life things): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4MrAyRTWqw&list=PLywPkWlgX6ihrSDqaKA6otJbqSrMgTSN2&index=20

The Japanese Foundation Japanese Basic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a5kYYcnEKw&list=PLtPwdOLHqkuDHu6M-N_NsI4PK8uqM0cm0

NHK Lessons (on the NHK site, a LOT of materials): https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/learnjapanese/

Cure Dolly Transcripts (for japanese grammar): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XpuXerkGU8waJ4DPDNJA4bGeqOvM-csXjTe57iHARHc/edit

The Glass Maiden Chinese audiobook: https://www.ximalaya.com/youshengshu/28810646/

Echo of Wings 2ha Audio Drama: https://www.missevan.com/sound/player?id=1196168

Happy Chinese (108 episodes, seems to be a learning show and kind of slice of life, good for learning): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svdnzVJ9KA4&list=PLdT5MUO4gYEdQBMFtkF5g803FJZOss-ip

[rigelmejo]

Some Housekeeping 5/26/2026

I haven't posted here in a little while, partly because I have been worried about being judged for how I'm studying. Which yes, I realize is a bit silly. I was spending too much time on meaner parts of the internet - which is my bad lol - and now I'm decompressing, away from those parts, and away from the internet generally. Upside is I am managing to read some books I couldn't focus on before, since my phone screen isn't distracting me as much.

So I wanted to reaffirm my goal with this blog, to sort of expectation set? As y'all know, I ramble on this blog a lot - about what I'm doing, my own progress, my mistakes and stuff I think is working for me, and things I've seen other people do, ideas that seem interesting, resources I find. I ramble a LOT, and please remember at the end of the day it's all just my opinion and not to be taken too seriously.

This blog's purpose is to be like my note-taking journal while learning languages. So reflections in the moment on what's working or not for me, study plans, resources I find, stuff I wanna contemplate, ideas for things I wanna try later. Just me thinking out loud.

It got more followers than I ever expected (y'all are amazing for enduring my rambling), and while I share resources (which I'm glad gets to others! I love when more people can use useful stuff!) I'm not the polished langblr that posts nice curated lists of resources regularly (you all know that). I'm the rambling online blog you stumble upon, and if you're curious keep reading - I've loved many a Chinese and Japanese learner blog I found on random sites, sometimes needing the wayback machine to access, and reading what another person did and seeing if I can learn anything from their personal experiences - and also just amazed to read through another person's learning journey as it happened. I love journal-blogs of people learning, I love seeing when you all post similar stuff. I love cheering you on in real time, when we get the chance to be learning at the same time and on the journey together! I love hearing about the messy real experience of how learning feels, of taking two steps back and then switching routes entirely, of wondering if what we're doing is even working then looking back and wow, yeah, we definitely improved from where we were years ago! I love that aspect of studyblrs on tumblr, and so in that sense I appreciate the wonderful gift of being able to interact with everyone instead of this being on some tiny unknown site. (Although I do occassionally contemplate moving some of the more useful posts - like the resource lists and maybe some huge update posts, to their own site so they're somewhere more permanent and reliable in the long term).

Anyway. Ultimately this blog's always been a messy journal of my language learning journey, full of random rambling and whatever ideas cross my mind in the moment. I don't want y'all to ever think you need to study like me, or even that I'm studying 'right' (I promise you whatever you are doing is just as good, or better, for you - because everyone is different, and on their own journey as through trial and error we figure out what works best for us and learn what goals matter most to us individually). I don't think I'm a good example of anything in particular to do or not do (I'm not trying to start any 'learning method' or say anything I do is ideal, I know whatever I do is only ideal for me and only until I figure out something better for me, that's some blogs I've read and followed but it's never gonna be me). I deeply appreciate getting to learn from you, grow alongside you, like a bunch of classmates in this world that get to bond on the journey (some of us with no teachers or curriculum lol). 'I deeply appreciate getting to learn from you, grow alongside you, like a bunch of classmates in this world that get to bond on the journey (some of us with no teachers or curriculum lol). ''I deeply appreciate getting to learn from you, grow alongside you, like a bunch of classmates in this world that get to bond on the journey (some of us with no teachers or curriculum lol). 'I deeply appreciate getting to learn from you, grow alongside you, like a bunch of classmates in this world that get to bond on the journey.

[rigelmejo]

947 chinese hours

Watched an avatar the last airbender cartoon episode. Noticeably easier than whenever the last time i watched was (maybe 50-100 hours ago?). Last time it sounded "faster" and i was catching less words. This time it sounds regular paced, and i catch almost all words so the ones I dont know stand out clearly, and the words i kind of know stand out in context i grasp.

I needed this reminder i am in fact making progress. Because ive been listening to Dashu Mandarin, Talk to Me in Chinese, audiobooks, and dramas, and for all those its been hard to notice any progress and i keep feeling im going up and down/forward and back in progress when using them. (It could be, maybe, since i use them daily i dont notice the tiny daily improvements and im not feeling any "big" leaps in progress in a noticeable way from my last time listening).

So i needed this reminder. I AM making progress. Even the messy way im going about learning. Even listening to things that feel not ideal (only grasping the topic and main idea sometimes) and even listening with partial attention while doing other things (like during the activities when id listen to English audio)

[xiakeponz]

chinese language learners ! so someone ik works on this language exchange platform tokimonki (for chinese / english language exchange) and word rn is there has been an influx of chinese native speakers who want to learn english, but this means an imbalance and there are not enough english speakers who are trying to learn mandarin chinese - so pspsps apparently now is a good time to join for chinese learners, there is like a free trial or smth, if you are looking for this type of method to practice spoken chinese. the platform has pre-prepped materials to help you avoid awkward convos, but there is sorta a pre-req requirement that you need to have a certain intermediate-ish level of chinese first to do exchange seshs. anyway just putting it out there since ik a lot of language exchange usually has too many english first language speakers and not the other way around , hope this reaches the right people

[rigelmejo]

4/14/2026 SMALL IMPROVEMENTS

Chinese 927 (1474) hours:

I'm going to try to make a big update post around 1500 hours.

I mentioned being frustrated with how progress feels. Its still like that. I still think Dashu Mandarin podcast is helping despite not understanding as much as I wish. I'm still mosting listening to that and 2 gamers on youtube. I still think audio-visual resources I learn new words fastest from.

I went back to listen to Maomi Chinese podcast, because I remember how it felt last time I listened to it hundreds of hours ago: like I grasped the main ideas in 1 listen but missed many details. Now? It's great! It's like Chill Spanish podcast (see below). I understand nearly every word she says, I understand almost ALL words from context, and its just much less effort to listen to. One day Dashu Mandarin WILL feel like this to listen to.

Spanish 138 (253) hours:

I finally understand Chill Spanish podcast! It feels easy! Also very motivating! I feel like I can fill gaps in vocabulary using it.

I've been solely watching JuegaGerman and Spanish Boost Gaming, so it's exciting seeing I must have picked up a ton of basics from those videos. Because I would NOT understand Chill Spanish without the basics. Idk why but JuegaGerman is both SO understandable and so fun to watch. I think i click with his kind of humor. (Maybe he speaks with very simple words? Idk)

Cuentame now speaks so SLOW its harder. Not because the podcast is hard words wise, but because I'm so used to faster speech now.

I tried an episode of The Wild Project today. It was about nuclear physics and I have some background, and its science so lots of cognates. However - 100 hours ago I couldn't understand it enough to follow anything. This time? I could follow the gist of the topics as they moved. I didn't understand a LOT of details. But it was exciting being able to tell when they were talking about the radiation electrics give off versus nuclear plant radiation, and the limits of safe radioactive exposure per year.

[rigelmejo]

The app Flexling has been updated a bit!

It uses the Tatoeba sentence collections for sentence/audio/translation SRS flashcards for many languages. I've been testing it for Mandarin (which I mentioned a while ago). Happy to say that last time I tested it, it's audio only study mode worked very well - like glossika - as long as I kept my screen unlocked. I'm going to be testing it some more, in case eventually there's an update so audio only mode works for long periods with the screen locked.

This app might be useful for: people using Clozemaster who want a better Audio Only mode (or like Flexling's TTS, interface, or pricing options more), people using Glossika who need to learn MORE VOCABULARY (since Glossika's vocabulary is limited and Flexling app also has an SRS audio only mode), people who want a better TTS for their sentence flashcards (the TTS sounds very good for Mandarin and I'm picky about that), and people who like anki pre-made decks but want to explore other tools with both premade and self-made card options (this app has a lot of self-made card options meant to make it as convienient and easy as possible, I haven't explored the feature much because I am happy with premade cards - but I see the appeal as when I try to make anki cards I hate that I have no way to add audio easily so Flexling seems nice if I ever want to make my own sentences.)

Also there's now unlimited premade sentence cards you can study on all the paid options (similar to Clozemaster there's a limit on the free tier). I am happy to hear this ovo)/

Basically: if you're upper beginner to intermediate, and want to study new words in sentences in text, audio, or text+audio.

https://flexling.com/

I imagine more features will be added. If you use the app, I encourage contacting the creator in case you have ideas! They are really nice! ⭐️

[rigelmejo]

Chinese listening experiment 909 (1456) hours PROGRESS

Quick notes in case this changes.

Motivating! I am listening to Guardian 镇魂 audiobook, with partial attention (while browsing online), and following it almost as well as something in English. Like English, it simply "catches my attention" now any time there's a sentence I'm interested in (so my attention tunes in when I notice which scene it is when say Zhao Yunlan shows up or Shen Wei does). Unlike English, I do have to focus on the Chinese audio a bit MORE than English when I'm also browsing online. Not completely - I can do both now. But it does require more focus than an English youtuber on in the background. (However, it might be the same amount of focus an English audiobook would require - heavy narrative audio I need to focus more on to follow in general).

I think I have "acquired" (quick instant understand) a lot more words, because my mind doesn't stop to translate or puzzle out things. I know more individual words. I hear some isolated words I don't fully remember but they click instantly upon hearing because of the context (wo 握 bizi pinch nose) (qunzi skirt) (heixiang black box) (xiukui ashamed) (shouxin middle of palm) (bumen department). I would say 2 major things happened: 1. Choosing to listen-without-analyzing more has helped my comprehension-speed of words I am familiar with. So it was worth doing, and I would recommend spending at least some listening time doing it. (Kind of like extensive reading improves reading speed). 2. I think I have learned/acquired a decent number of new words. (Acquired as in words I was familiar with got stronger and more instant like xiukui, and learned as in words I didn't know are starting to get more familiar so they take less mental effort to recognize like yudi).

I need this milestone noted. It's exciting!

I've been having a big low point the past few weeks. I am listening-without-analyzing now (closer to how Dreaming Spanish suggests) so I haven't had as much mental exhaustion. But everything I listened to for learning (Dashu Mandarin, Talk to Me in Chinese) felt like I was wading water... grasping SOME main ideas, SOME details, never ALL main ideas. Never as much as I want to grasp.

I took the hsklevel test a few days ago to give myself encouragement that I AM learning. Because I felt the past month understanding so much stuff as "some main ideas" instead of "all main ideas" was frustrating. My results as of April 2026, 909 (1456) hours:

I know 6250 words in Chinese.

HSK level 4/6

🟩🟩🟩🟨⬛⬛

New HSK level 3/9

🟩🟩🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

HSK 2.0: HSK 4

HSK 3.0: HSK 3

HSK 3.1: HSK 4

TOCFL: TOCFL Band B.1

I think I was in HSK4/B1 range last time I took this test. My result in January 2026, at 718 hours (1,265 hours total): 5250 words.

So I have done 191 hours since January. I've learned around ~1000 words in 191 hours. That cheered me up. (I took the hsklevel test in January and now, based on if I said the word aloud if I knew it immediately "known" or recognized it quickly "so-so". So this is listening vocabulary known).

I am right around where I should be, Dreaming Spanish Level 6 (2000 hours for the doubled roadmap) is supposed to know ~7000 words. Dreaming Spanish Level 5 is where I am now (1200 hours on the roadmap doubled for Mandarin), at level 5 one is supposed to know around ~5000 words.

There is still the possibility I am "ahead" of schedule because of how many words I knew from reading, or how much my reading or traditional study of Mandarin might contribute to my progress. So if I hit 7000 words before 2000 hours, or feel like Level 6 before 2000 hours, that may be why. I'll be keeping an eye on that lol.

So... what I've been doing has been working. Even though it's felt frustrating lol.

Dashu Mandarin and Talk to Me In Chinese podcasts (easy to fit into my daily schedule, both podcasts have multiple speakers so I get used to conversational rhythm and different voices)

Youtube lets player when I can look at a screen (visuals help me pick up words faster, and the varied pronunciations help me with parsing less clear speech)

Listening-without-analyzing a majority of the time (this really makes it easier to listen MORE, and the things I understand I understand easily without effort)

Sticking to 1-3 resources and just clicking "next" (its less interesting, but it makes choosing what to listen to easier, and I fill in gaps in my knowledge with the podcast episode topics I wouldn't normally choose to listen to)

I might try some audiobooks now too... we'll see. I am really perfectionist about audiobooks. Even in English. So I might save these for walks. I'm listening to Guardian audiobook right now because I was "testing my progress" it just turned out to be a really noticeable improvement! I've listened to chapters 1-20 before, so as I listen to these early chapters today I'm not getting angry I missed some details. I might find it too hard to "let go and move forward" if I get to new chapters, or try a new audiobook.

Oh, and real quick, a review on Dreaming Spanish: it has been VERY USEFUL for improving listening skills, the Levels have been fairly close in how many hours its taking me to know X words in listening. I am also "picking up" new words around the rate it suggested. I am getting better results with audio-visual materials (as it suggested) and I see how crosstalk would be fastest. I find the Level recommendations for media I might understand has been useful.

If you have prior study, classes, or reading skills: Dreaming Spanish Method is an excellent plan to improve your listening skills by just extensive listening to stuff you understand the main ideas of. (There's other strategies of course, like doing intensive listening by looking things up or using a transcript then not). Example: this is what I'm doing now for Mandarin and it's going well.

If you want a listening-heavy study plan for learning a language, I think this method has also been good for learning vocabulary. (I can't say how well or awful it goes for getting used to grammar as I already did that with a lot of reading, but many update reports on r/dreamingspanish on reddit can give you that info).

I also think Dreaming Spanish Method could work well after or alongside something like anki (common words and basic grammar), pimsleur, glossika (anything with target language and translations to study a lot of stuff QUICKER). For example: I studied Japanese with Genki, some anki decks, glossika, and now I understand Nihongo Con Teppei and Japanese with Shun podcasts. I think, like Dreaming Spanish Method, i could probably keep learning primarily with podcasts and CIJapanese's videos. (For reading skills something additional would be needed of course - either subs/transcripts sometimes while listening, graded readers like Satori Reader app, or some kind of reading practice time).

I personally think reading practice (which DS Method recommends), and speaking and writing practice (which DS Method does not explicitly say to do but many learners on r/dreamingspanish suggest 50-300 hours speaking and writing practice with corrections), need to ALSO BE DONE to get very competent at those skills.

However, I'll give DS Method this: listening a lot has made speaking easier (for me) than reading ever did. I read a bit over 1 million characters. I still often could not actively recall words to say or write in a journal. As I've done this Chinese Listening Experiment, I notice mentally I often can say short statements of what I'm doing, I can actually write a journal describing what I did or some basic thoughts (with mistakes or I have to use other words to describe the word I can't remember). My active vocabulary is bigger. My active vocabulary is easier to recall quickly to express myself. I can only express ideas in a basic surface level way, but I CAN express them. I don't know why this is. Maybe the mind is more willing to recall words with many AUDITORY memories and spit them out, versus words you mostly recall from text memories where you don't know the pronunciation. Or maybe the mind considers words HEARD as things you'll be more likely to need to repeat, say yourself, say to someone else, more likely to need you to respond, so the mind keeps those words you've heard a lot on easier-recall.

I personally think speaking is still going to require additional practice. (Like any skill). And my active vocabulary is bigger when I am actually speaking or writing a journal. But, I do think listening practice places more words closer to active vocabulary than reading did... at least for me personally.

And related, I think a lot of reading practice puts a lot of words into a "notice easier" category for when you listen. (Similar to using anki or studying a list - I like reading better though lol). The words you're at least somewhat familiar with in reading, jump out in listening when they're part of a main idea/clear from context. They jump out faster than they might otherwise. Basically... I think if you read, or do anki, or look up words, that may help the words be "noticed" for learning from listening faster. So if you have specific words you want to learn sooner* then some reading or anki or study or lookups might help you understand them in listening faster. (I put an * because I,do think the mind likes to pick up some types of words EARLIER than others - nouns and verbs done on real objects and adjectives about clearly visual things, so abstract words may take longer to grasp even if you "notice" them).

(That's the only explanation I have for why less than 10 hours into French listening I understand so much, I could READ, so it doesn't take much listening for the mind to attach their pronunciation to the strong reading-only memories. Or with Chinese, that's perhaps why even when I was BARELY understanding so many details, I'd catch key words for some main ideas in aomething like 坏小孩 even though I never read it... but I knew so many words from reading, especially verbs and dialogue tags which are often key to following the main idea of a plot. Or Japanese... I cram studied in anki a few times, forgot a lot, when I did glossika course ONCE with very little reviews it seemed to attach the audio memory to the text I knew, despite not many reviews of audio. Then I could understand some learner podcasts, even though before glossika I only understood if the Japanese transcript was there to read).

Related: I think the mind picks up words with VISUALS and audio the fastest. Hear a word and there's a picture and gesture? It will stick faster than a word with audio on a translation flashcard. Hear a word in a full situation you can follow? Word sticks the best and quickest.

(Someone saying a verb AS THEY DO IT, or someone saying "stop" in an action scene when fighting, or someone saying "take care" as a loved one leaves going into battle, or hearing "hes dead" as a coroner squats down to look over a corpse. Peppa Pig cartoon is a good example of what this looks like, and I get now why its something so many kids watch - lots of action verbs and item nouns AS they're on screen and AS the characters do something related to them. Kids for cartoons, like Lilo and Stitch, also tend to do this pattern - even with more complex words like "escaped convict" and "I'm running an experiment." Action shows do this well for action verbs and some nouns - people often shout the noun of what they're looking for, or the action they're doing. Lets plays do this well if you find someone verbal - they'll say what they're grabbing, what action they do, read object names, and also comment on the stuff around them like "there's a doll, i hate dolls, they're scary" or "a cockroach! What is it doing here?" And "where am i gping? I need to find the key. The scorpion key, for the scorpion door right here" and "this little girl is cute! I'll help her find her dad (related to her dialogue asking to help find her dad)". Lets players who talk a lot (if they talk about thw game and what they're doing), will usually talk often about stuff that connects directly to visuals. Vloggers who do stuff in their videos also are good for this - travel vloggers say what theyre doing, cooking vlogs do, vlogging through a day in the life do).

[rigelmejo]

Tones reference and Grace Mandarin course linked on the video.

[rigelmejo]

Some fun personal updates

Chinese 902 (1449) hours: I tried watching Go Ahead ep 1 again. This time not looking at the Mandarin subs, and trying to be relaxed instead of intensely focused. I felt it was much easier to understand. I might not even know more words... I think it's more that the words I know, I understand easier and with less effort. So the show FELT easier.

I have been listening to Dashu Mandarin mostly. Just brute forcing it, hoping it clicks more over time. Right now I understand some main ideas and some details, which is lower comprehension than what I'm happiest with (which is ALL main ideas).

For videos, mostly these 2 on youtube:

与阿山

嗨，大家好，我是阿山 這裏是我的遊戲頻道, 喜歡我的影片就來訂閱我吧!

BHZY

FREE AND EASY, FOLLOW YOUR HEART. I make videos, and occasionally other types of videos.World peace. ---------⚠️ Special Reminder⚠️ ------

Mostly because lets plays are entertaining to me, I learn easier with visuals, there's lots of physical objects they discuss. And it barely exhausts me, compared to shows. I love shows, but they require my full attention and focus so they exhaust me faster (in any language). If anyone knows any other lets play youtubers they enjoy, let me know please.

Spanish 122 (237) hours:

I'm now able to watch JuegaGerman for fun. It doesn't feel more mentally draining than Spanish Boost Gaming. (Oddly enough though, Spanish Boost Gaming's Advanced videos felt more effort to listen to than a few months ago. Maybe I was just tired the day I tried? Or maybe I pay more attention to Martin because I know there's stuff I can learn faster since he's trying intentionally to be understamdable? Or maybe I just recently "clicked" and it all is gonna feel easier now?) I've also been watching PlanetaJuan and really enjoying the videos he makes. PlanetaJuan feels noticeably less mentally exhausting than a couple months ago.

Not sure if in general my mental exhaustion is lowering because 1. I simply know more now so it's easier to understand, or 2. I've been trying since March to STOP mentally translating as much as I can, if I don't understand something to simply let go and move my attention to the next thing. This second change has definitely helped get more input - since I'm not getting as exhausted.

I also finally joined Spanish Boost Gaming's patreon. I really wanted to watch some videos on there. I'm going through the Resident Evil ones now. I also like the little side videos Martin and Mila put up on there. Interest in things REALLY helps motivation lol.

(I also FINALLY had a dream in spanish lol! Martin was there and I was trying to talk to him lol. Said surprisingly big sentences and phrases, but still broken and missing words I wanted just like I imagine it'd realistically go. It was fascinating and funny ToT)

If someone else is doing Dreaming Spanish, could you let me know if what I'm understanding is around what's recommended for Level 2 or Level 3? Like Spanish Boost Gaming, PlanetaJuan, JuegaGerman, Alex Tienda?

(I estimated I had 115 hours prior study of Spanish, and I could read French, so idk if I'm in Dreaming Spanish Level 2 or 3. For podcasts, my favorite is Espanol Al Vuelo, but Cuentame and Chill Spanish still require my full focus, and How to Spanish is somewhat understandable but hit or miss, Espanol Con Juan is still exhausting to follow, and anything harder than How to Spanish I only grasp some details or main ideas here or there. I've been listening to Herejes podcast just trying to brute force it lol, but realistically I only grasp vaguely the topics of conversation every several minutes, so some of the main ideas but Not what they're specifically saying about most of those topics).

Some Reflections:

It's getting harder to notice my progress with Chinese.

I am hoping one day Dashu Mandarin feels like I understand every main idea, and that lets me know I improved.

For right now, I think going and watching show episodes might be the easiest thing to check my progress? I know I am making some progress... I know I'm WAY improved since last year. I can listen to ALL Lazy Chinese videos as podcasts! I remember when I atarted, I didn't understand most of her videos over Lower Intermediate, and I NEEDED to look at her visuals to understand the videos I could understand. I also remember when Dashu Mandarin was too confusing to parse anything without subs. I remember when I couldn't understand Teatime Chinese, now it's easy. I know progress is happening. It's just the smaller incremental improvements are getting less obvious.

I now understand why Dreaming Spanish (and ALG) suggest to try not to conciously think and analyse the language. Ignoring their reasons for why and how it affects learning - oh my goodness I am simply LESS EXHAUSTED getting input. (Imagine you're in a class lecture on how radiation works, writing notes and definitions, trying to follow what the teacher says, and how mentally exhausted you feel by the end. That is like getting input while conciously trying analyze and figure out any parts you don't know. Compare that to how you feel watching a youtube video on a radiation topic by an entertaining person, and how you don't take notes and the entertainer explains things in simple language if you don't know a word - or you simply accept you dont onow the word and move on. You feel fine, not mentally drained. At least not nearly as much as the class lecture. That is like getting input and simply relaxing and enjoying it).

I'm sure there's an argument to be made about how conciously analyzing (like notes during a class lecture) could improve speed of learning. But as I'm not taking notes, and just testing if more comprehensible input hours = improvement, I don't care. And with my brain healing situation, less mental fatigue is absolutely necessary for my wellbeing. (I think there's definitely room for others to care! It might be preferable for others to conciously analyze if its helpful for them!)

I have learned, about myself, that DOING THINGS is more important than doing things perfectly. Perfection is my biggest hurdle. Doing this chinese listening experiment, I have learned that I personally CAN learn when listening to stuff while doing other things, I CAN learn while watching a small video on my phone while browsing social media, I CAN learn from stuff I only understand some of the main ideas of (lower comprehension than I prefer), I CAN learn from stuff I know almost zero words in if I can understand the visuals, I learn FASTER from visuals (even imperfect ones like a small screen or a screen I only occasionally glance at), I learned I can get used to accents if I simply make myself listen MORE to that accent. And recently, I learned that I personally still learn from input when I stop conciously trying to guess the parts I don't understand (and it's less exhausting when I stop conciously analyzing).

From all these things I've learned about myself amd how I learn. I find myself, every so often, intrigued by AJATT and learners who said they immersed in content for native speakers almost exclusively.

I find myself wondering, if I put on Chinese stuff ALL DAY, even the times I usually don't because I figure I can't pay any attention. If even those "passive listening" hours where I can pay very little attention, would end up causing me to make progress. (Compared to now where I listen to things when doing physical tasks or low effort mental tasks like scrolling tumblr or grinding in a video game - all times I can still listen to things and usually follow whats being said). (My personal guess is: maybe this would work for me... I would have to test it out. And also, I would have to make sure it doesn't mentally fatigue me too much).

I also find myself wondering, since my level must be intermediate now, if I just switched to only stuff made for native speakers, stuff where I only understood some main ideas (not as much as I prefer), if that would work and I'd still improve. (My personal guess is... maybe it would work, but would be less efficient than using stuff I understand More.)

Feel free to ignore, I'm getting sentimental...

Also just. I love understanding more people. Probably my favorite thing about learning Spanish so far, has been how much of the Spanish speaking world I get to see and learn about. To hear what Spanish speakers think about events, places, the past, stories, pop culture.

Many people can't understand multiple languages (including me for most of my life). I went to school with so many English Second Language kids (my school district had 70+ native languages spoken by students, and we were a small city - imagine the big cities and how many lamguages are beneficial to know to communicate with and get to know others). I went to college with many people from other countries, who had to learn English well enough to study for a degree completely in English, and live in an English speaking place. So many people learned another language, can communicate with and understand the English speaking world. Understanding only English is only being able to see the English world, and some parts of the rest of the world that get translated to English. But translations aren't the same as the original, and people's expressions in their native languages aren't the same as operating in an English framework, and there's so many people who cannot speak English and may never speak it and learning languages lets you see their world more, connect with more people.

[rigelmejo]

This is just my personal opinion. So feel free to ignore it, or take whatever is useful and leave the rest.

Language learning does not need to be complicated. As in: you don't need to be doing tons of daily activities, you don't need to practice all 4 core skills all the time, you don't need to be able to perfectly do 'everything' eventually (unless that's your goal).

It comes down to: having short and long term goals of what you want to do with the language, learning new stuff that will help you with those goals, and practicing understanding/using what you learned in activities that will help those goals.

(Endless study plans can do this, endless resources can do this, any time I get lost or don't know if something will help me I reflect back on those key points).

The way I break it down personally, in my head, when making a study plan:

1. I need some way to get a vague familiarity with 1000-3000 common words. (Having a base level of familiarity with common words is a good starting place for listening or reading skills).

(1.5. Spending a few hours going through a pronunciation guide to have a vague familiarity of the sounds of the language - this will be needed for any listening or speaking goals)

2. I need some way to get a basic familiarity with general grammar (This base level of familiarity will help reading, listening, writing, speaking goals).

(2.5. Spending some time reading/watching about the different writing system and how it works to get a vague familiarity - this will be needed for any reading or writing goals)

3. Once I have a vague familiarity with common words and basic grammar, I can use primarily practice activities to keep learning while focusing on specific goals. (This is the fun part for me. If I want to learn to read - I practice reading, and make sure I learn new things from context or by looking them up. Same with listening goals. Same with speaking goals - practice speaking, and either ask what words I don't know mean or ask for corrections or look stuff up I don't yet know how to say. Same for writing goals.)

These 3 things can be done in sooooo many different ways. From very complicated multi activity study plans (such as using all: a textbook doing all activities, anki decks, an app, language exchange apps, tutoring sessions), to something like Dreaming Spanish where one ONLY does extensive listening to stuff they understand (to learn common words and basic grammar) then when they decide to work on additional goals outside of listening they just add reading speaking writing practice (while continuing to listen to keep learning new stuff).

I personally think step 1 and 2 can be as simple as you make them. It's just they also are when most people give up. Step 3 can get more complicated, because in addition to learning you start PRACTICING goals too, and that aspect involves deciding more intentionally what to do and why.

For step 1 and 2, ever since French I kept it simple because it works for me: I'd look up a common words list or anki deck, cram study it for a few months. I'd look up a grammar guide summary, cram read through it for a few weeks. (I'd also look up a pronunciation guide, go through it in a week). Repeat this for if the writing system is different - spend a few weeks to months reading about the new writing system and cram study. Get a basic familiarity within ~6 months. (Someone with an Excellent anki deck could just cram through anki, if someone was okay with Glossika then cramming through Glossika, if you have a textbook or a library course like Innovative Languages cramming through it). Not that everyone needs to cram. I just cram through these parts because I want to get to the learning while PRACTICING stage 3 asap. I enjoy learning by doing. And getting to DO stuff related to my goals motivates me.

Doing steps 1 and 2 can be as simple as:

Taking Beginner 1 and 2 classes in college.

Studying a textbook yourself, or self study learner book (Teach Yourself, Berlitz, Assimil)

Printing word lists and a grammar guide summary and reading through them.

Finding a common words in sentences anki deck and going through 3000 sentences. (There are many premade decks)

Using Glossika for 3000 sentences.

Using Clozemaster and going through 3000 sentences.

Finding a learner podcast with a bunch of common worda and grammar and going through it until it's covered all the basic grammar and a few thousand common words. (Innovative Languages/LanguagePod101, language-specific resources free and paid)

Using beginner Comprehensible Input Lessons (like on youtube) until you can understand intermediate Comprehensible Input Lessons.

*using an app until you have studied 1000-3000 words and basic grammar (I personally don't like this one, just because I feel the apps I have used are paced much slower than some denser-resources, and some multi-language apps don't always put equal effort into all language courses. So if you do this, I recommend looking up the amount of unique words the app teaches, as some apps only teach 500 words and they're not gping to be ideal. And plan to FINISH GOING THROUGH THE APP'S CONTENT in what is a timely manner for yourself. So if you were planning to get a vague familiarity with 3000 common words in 6 months? Then IF the app has 3000 unique words, work through that app so you finish going through it's materials in 6 months. An app will still work, if you have a favorite app that has enough content.)

*making your own common words in sentences anki deck/paper list, from stuff you actively immerse in from day 1. (This one requires a lot of effort from you. On the upside this allows you to learn from Practice from day 1. It can he very motivating if your personal goal is to understand a Specific material asap - since you can learn from THAT specific material immediately. On the downside, this requires you to look up words and gramamr points indvidually, frequently, a lot at the start. This also requires you to make all your own study methods, and decide what to use as your immersion materials.)

Crosstalking with a tutor regularly, a lot, until you can understand some podcasts for intermediate learners or some Intermediate Comprehensible Input Lessons or your tutor if they stop using pictures and gestures. (If doing this, be mindful of how many hours you're meeting a tutor. If you only meet once a week, versus if you're meeting 4 times a week. You'll need a number of hours to get a vague familiarity with a lot of common words. So every few months I suggest checking learner podcasts and CI lessons online to see if you understand them better, to check your progress. This method also pairs well with learning from CI lessons so you can get more learning hours in, and get through the hours required to get through beginner level in a timely manner. That said - if you were in say an immersion school doing crosstalk or being spoken to tons in the language, then you'd be easily getting 5+ hours daily and that's probably plenty fast paced and wouldn't need an additional resource. Think of ESL students in school 8 hours a day, with after school ESL lessons

(And for 1.5 and 2.5 either searching online, or asking a librarian to help you search online, or reading those sections in a textbook or self study book in the library or bookstore - should only take a few hours to read, may need dedicated resources if you need to learn a bunch of characters like Chinese)

In my view... the hardest part of steps 1 and 2 are: finding good resources (language learning forums old posts and college class syllabuses and librarians and checking what's most often recommended are good places to start searching), and managing my time so I progress to step 3 fast enough for me personally.

Finding good resources can take a few months - so I trial stuff for 1 week to 1 month, see what works for me and what doesn't, then stick to what works best for me.

Managing my time - I try to consistently learn 1-2 hours daily on average in the first few months to year. Because I know I make okay progress (for me personally) at that amount of hours. Some people will only be happy doing much more. Some people will be happy with 30 minutes daily. Some people will be fine doing things on and off and the beginner stage taking some years.

[rigelmejo]

i don't actively use tumblr for study purposes, but your blog is one i really enjoy reading. it helps me feel less alone in my language journey! thank you

💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm glad my posts make you feel less alone on your learning journey! <3

Y'all also make me feel like I'm part of a community on here <3 I appreciate you!

[rigelmejo]

Thank you to everyone who participated in the March Monthly Learning Hours Contest! (Even if you just tracked to yourself and didn't share how many learning hours you did)

I hope the contest/challenge helped motivate and helped you push a bit closer toward your goals.

WELCOME TO APRIL BABYYYYYYY

Anyone have any personal challenges/goals for this month?

I subscribed to Spanish Boost Gaming's patreon, so I'm going to try to watch as much of his stuff as I can while I'm paying for the patreon.

[rigelmejo]

For @kylinym ❤️

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For @foxladystudies 💙

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For @studysmth 💛

[rigelmejo]

For my own curiosity, I'm checking how many language learning hours I did this month.

I started this month from 838 Chinese listening hours, and 109.5 Spanish listening hours at the start of March.

I now have 894 Chinese listening hours, and 117.5 Spanish listening hours. (I didn't count reading hours but I hoped anyone else trying this challenge did).

So the learning hours I did this month were: 56 hours Chinese + 8 hours Spanish = 64 hours!

(I would love to get in the habit of average ~2 hours daily, I'd make good progress on my goals at that speed. Haha alas it seems 1-2 hours daily on average is my norm when I prioritize language learning, and it doesn't really go higher than that. On the upside, it's a good habit. I was pretty consistent by the end of the month, even though daily there were several days I just didn't do much. At least I can manage consistency over the long term I'm happy about that).

[rigelmejo]

March: Monthly Learning Hours Contest

Goal: to do as many hours of language learning activities as you can for the month of March. (So study, listen to podcasts, watch shows, read, talk, whatever language learning activities you'd normally do).

You can tag progress or update posts #monthly learning hours contest, if you want to share with everyone how it's going! \(ovo)/

By Tuesday, March 31, comment on this post how many hours you managed to do. (Any time zone is fine).

In the first week of April I will reach out to the person who had the most hours by the end of March, and ask what they'd like a highlighter pen sketch portrait of (if they'd like one) - OCs or fanart is fine.

(See my art blog @softcorevulcan for an example of what I could draw for you if you win, or see below).

Basically, something this level of complicated or less:

I'm hoping this contest can help motivate us to focus in on our language goals and make some good progress!

I'm tagging below all the people who reblogged/liked this and may have wanted to be notified when this contest starts:

@analienonthisearthh @foxfinding @dandelionjedi @shootingstarpilot @weathernerdmando @apersond @shadowicepuma @i-hope-they-have-wifi-in-hell @natdeviantrat @eiriee @whoisthisboy @alasse-irena @cherry-coloured-funk-girl @thatstudyblrontea @rrustykknife @sam-gardener-blog @diagoose @wiseobjectwizard @staidwaters @potatodesignblr @thatstudyblrontea @kylinym @straydogsandsaranghaes @moonshinemagpie

[rigelmejo]

REMINDER I will be reblogging this post again on March 31. Anyone who wants to be in the contest, comment your learning hours completed in March on the post that day! I will message the person with the most hours, and ask what you'd like a highlighter sketch of. 🩷💜💙

[rigelmejo]

IT IS MARCH 31! Comment on this post how many language learning hours you did in March 2026!