4 ms·

If my wife is any indication, reading does work to retain language (she speaks Mandarin, reads Mandarin novels, and has no problem w/ the language ever after mo

by lhorie 5y ago

If my wife is any indication, reading does work to retain language (she speaks Mandarin, reads Mandarin novels, and has no problem w/ the language ever after more than a decade living in North America). Conversely, I had a japanese friend in college that fully immersed with non-japanese friends and liked to spend free time going to the movies. She realized after a couple years that she had forgotten how to write the name of train stations in Japan. Use or lose it, seems to be name of the game.

nsf39k 5y ago
Very much so - even if you’re partially immersed. Grew up with immigrant parents where Mandarin was spoken in the household but lived in a area with no other Chinese-Americans. Even though I was exposed to the spoken language daily, I wound up forgetting how to read and write Mandarin by middle school. Did my best to re-learn it but I rarely ever read/write in Mandarin so I would just regress after a bit - by this point I think I’ve re-learned how to read or write basic Mandarin at least three times and have regressed each successive time. Interesting note is that I seem to be significantly faster at re-learning things each time I go back to it, but that might just be constant repetition more than anything.
- wizzwizz4 5y ago
  > Interesting note is that I seem to be significantly faster at re-learning things each time I go back to it, but that might just be constant repetition more than anything. This is the phenomenon exploited by spaced repetition learning. “Trying to remember” is when you learn things the best. Reading something in Mandarin for a couple of minutes every few days will be better than weeks of effort every few years, even though it's less time spent overall.
Clewza313 5y ago
Chinese characters (used in Japan as well) are interesting in that you frequently have no idea how to write them by hand, but if you use an IME on your phone/computer and can enter it phonetically, you can trivially recognize and select the right one.
jhanschoo 5y ago
I was about to make a comment on the lines of Clewza313's: does your wife retain writing proficiency without the use of a reference?
- lhorie 5y ago
  Yes, she frequents chinese online forums and writes todo lists in Chinese

by lhorie 5y ago

nsf39k 5y ago

Very much so - even if you’re partially immersed. Grew up with immigrant parents where Mandarin was spoken in the household but lived in a area with no other Chinese-Americans. Even though I was exposed to the spoken language daily, I wound up forgetting how to read and write Mandarin by middle school. Did my best to re-learn it but I rarely ever read/write in Mandarin so I would just regress after a bit - by this point I think I’ve re-learned how to read or write basic Mandarin at least three times and have regressed each successive time. Interesting note is that I seem to be significantly faster at re-learning things each time I go back to it, but that might just be constant repetition more than anything.

wizzwizz4 5y ago
> Interesting note is that I seem to be significantly faster at re-learning things each time I go back to it, but that might just be constant repetition more than anything. This is the phenomenon exploited by spaced repetition learning. “Trying to remember” is when you learn things the best. Reading something in Mandarin for a couple of minutes every few days will be better than weeks of effort every few years, even though it's less time spent overall.

Clewza313 5y ago

Chinese characters (used in Japan as well) are interesting in that you frequently have no idea how to write them by hand, but if you use an IME on your phone/computer and can enter it phonetically, you can trivially recognize and select the right one.

jhanschoo 5y ago

I was about to make a comment on the lines of Clewza313's: does your wife retain writing proficiency without the use of a reference?

lhorie 5y ago
Yes, she frequents chinese online forums and writes todo lists in Chinese