App Developer Reveals 5 Tips for Chinese Sentence Mining (Podcast)

*This podcast is available on Apple, Spotify and Google

On today’s podcast episode, app developer Karl Baker talks in Mandarin about his five top tips for mining Chinese sentences.

Karl began learning Mandarin several years ago as a way of communicating with his Chinese wife’s family and he’s previously written for the I’m Learning Mandarin blog about using sentence mining to improve his speaking skills.

Recently, he’s started developing a new app called Mandarin Mosaic which is designed to facilitate the sentence mining process.

As usual, you can follow along with a Chinese transcript below. If you’re interested in recording your own short episode in Mandarin, please get in touch at info@peakmandarin.com and I’ll be happy to support you through the development, production, and recording process.

Finally, if you like this podcast please don’t forget to leave a review or five-star rating on your preferred podcast provider.

Chinese Transcript

大家好，我是Karl Baker，我已经学习中文 4 年了。我去过中国 3 次，因为我妻子是中国人，所以我对学习中国文化和语言非常感兴趣。

我也是一名程序员，我正在写一款用于学习中文的程序，它是为数不多的几款专门用于积累中文句子的程序中的之一，所以今天我想与大家分享我积累中文句子的技巧。

1 ：我提前准备了复杂的对话。

我在中国的时候，有几次我单独出去办各种事情，比如：去购物、买早餐或去健身房。
提前准备可能的对话对于应对这些情况是有帮助的。

我把当时可能发生的场景在脑海里预演了一下，并准备好了我认为可能会出现的句子，这样我就有时间去研究怎么应对问题和怎么回答。

这样，我和别人的对话就会比临时去想句子更顺畅。它也给了我更多机会学习对我来说很重要的主题的新单词。

2：我总是随身携带手机来记句子。

你可能随时想到一个新句子，特别是如果你在中国旅行或沉浸在中文里面的时候。
我发现如果我立即写下这些句子，我就不太会忘记它。

3：我学习的句子没有太多新单词

我发现，如果我学习一个包含 3 或 4个以上新单词的句子，就会变得非常困难，因为这会使我难以理解上下文的含义。

所以我确保我学习的句子最多只包含一个新单词。这样我就能更好地理解新单词的上下文。

4：我为我想学的新单词造句。

如果我有想学的新单词，但没有特定的句子的情况下，我发现如果我自己造句包含这些单词，我会更容易记住这些单词。

5. 经常复习。

我确保每天都学习以保持记忆力。我认为使用间隔重复算法 (SRS) 的软件非常重要。这可以确保你每隔一段时间就复习新的句子，例如 Anki 或我的应用程序：Mandarin Mosaic

好的，今天就到这里。感谢收听，如果你想了解我的应用程序，可以访问 mandarinmosaic.com

English Transcript

Hello everyone, I am Karl Baker. I have been studying Chinese for 4 years. I have visited China 3 times, and since my wife is Chinese, I am very interested in learning Chinese culture and language.

I am also a programmer, and I am developing an app for accumulating sentences. So today, I would like to share my techniques for accumulating Chinese sentences with you.

1: I prepare complex conversations in advance.

When I was in China, there were several times when I went out alone to handle various things, such as shopping, buying breakfast, or going to the gym. Preparing possible conversations in advance was helpful for dealing with these situations.

I would mentally rehearse the scenarios that might happen and prepare the sentences I thought might come up. This way, I had time to study how to handle the problems and how to respond.

This made my conversations with others smoother than if I had to come up with sentences on the spot. It also gave me more opportunities to learn new words related to topics that were important to me.

2: I always carry my phone to record sentences.

You might think of a new sentence at any time, especially if you are traveling in China or immersed in the Chinese language. I found that if I write down these sentences immediately, I am less likely to forget them.

3: The sentences I study do not contain too many new words.

I found that if I study a sentence that contains more than 3 or 4 new words, it becomes very difficult because it makes it hard for me to understand the context.

So I make sure the sentences I study contain at most one new word. This way, I can better understand the context of the new word.

4: I create sentences for the new words I want to learn.

If I have new words I want to learn but do not have specific sentences for them, I found that if I create my own sentences containing these words, I can remember them more easily.

5: Review frequently.

I make sure to study every day to maintain my memory. I think using software that employs a spaced repetition system (SRS) is very important. This ensures that you review new sentences at intervals, such as Anki or my app: Mandarin Mosaic.

Alright, that’s all for today. Thank you for listening. If you want to learn more about my app, you can visit mandarinmosaic.com

Mischa Wilmers