#calculcator

FSI puts Chinese at requiring 2200 class hours to get to ~B2 level. (Japanese is also in the 2200 class hours estimate). 

Some people in forums suggest that if self studying, you may want to double that amount. Their reasoning being that FSI students usually do 2200 class hours with a teacher, and do significantly additional study on their own. While I see how that could factor, I think FSI estimates are at least a good “minimum” study hours to aim for. For me, I need a goal to reach, any specific goal will do. At least until I surpass it and need a new one. So at the minimum I try to assume I’ll need at Least the FSI recommended hours, or more. I found FSI’s estimate of hours needed for French to be very close to how much I needed to study.

This wonderful calculator on Autolingo.com can tell you about how long it will take for you to get to the language level you’d like to! That calculator gave me fairly realistic results, and I think it does a great job at showing realistically how many hours you’ll want to study per day to make the progress you want in a given amount of months/years. That way no one makes a mistake like me thinking Japanese can be learned to B1 in one year with only 30 minutes of study a day.

I tried to test the calculator, to give me about when I hit B1 in Chinese after I started studying. I consider this, for these purposes, when I could: start reading extensively without a dictionary MOST things although with detailed to only overall main idea comprehension depending on the material, start watching any show without a dictionary and getting only overall main idea to significant details depending on material, and could start listening to audio only material and start grasping main idea of some things (so listening was probably A2), could have general conversations about most things as long as i could ask questions (so again probably A2 rather than B1). The stats that matched the actual timeline I had best on the calculcator were: Language (Chinese Mandarin), start level Complete Beginner A0, Experience Knowledge of more than one language, Motivation Very high motivation (I had to set this high or else it didn’t match the hours I know I studied to get to that ~B1 level), 1 study session a day at 1.5 hours a day (in reality I did some days of 1 consistent hour, some of 2-4 consistent hours, some of 8-10 study hours, and some days/weeks of absolutely no studying, so 1-2 hours average daily study time is my best guess). 

The calculator gave me a time frame of 2 years, 3 months to get to B1 level after starting to study chinese. I think that’s fairly close to what I experienced. At the beginning of year 2 I noticed being able to extensively read pretty much anything I picked up for at Least the overall main idea (and many to all details depending on if I was really familiar with the topic), I remember I tested reading Goodbye My Princess, SCI, LiuLi, Peach Blossom Debt, some news, weibo posts, etc. around that time. At the end of year 1 I started doing much more listening practice, and by the start of year 2 I was starting to be able to follow audio dramas main overall idea and pick up some level of detail if re-listening (however I’m STILL awful at understanding podcasts), I think my listening skills and production skills lagged however and were more A2 level at the start of year 2. Speaking/writing was like I said, also lacking, I had gotten to the point I could have live conversations over the phone and ask questions in chinese (like when i didn’t know the word for flag), but my speaking/writing comfort level was definitely only daily life/hobbies/interests questions (and my active vocab was limited to that unless i looked up words or asked the person i was talking to what the word was). I could watch shows from when Word of Honor came out onward with no english subs (so Spring 2021 after about 1 year of learning) so by year 2 I could grasp most details although sometimes not all from shows with chinese subs, follow non-subbed shows overall main idea, and follow unfamiliar genre chinese shows for overall main idea with subs and some details. This was a nice spot to get to because I was able to start listening to shows in between doing other stuff/looking at multiple things like with english. I’m in year 3 and currently working on comprehending shows with audio only (no chinese subs) and increasing vocabulary in genres I’m less familiar with. 

For B2, with Very High motivation the calculator says it will take about 3 years, 8 months (from when I started learning). and with High Motivation it will take about 4 years, 4 months. I think this range is probably correct for me. So I likely have about 8-16 months to get to B2. Again, I think my speaking/writing will lag and probably be more like ~B1 by then. But I can already tell all the reading is improving my listening comprehension a lot (I have been practicing with condensed audio and I follow dialogue quite easily now, follow audiobooks better than in the spring without relistens like in the spring, am getting better at following audio dramas, and I should probably start trying to listen to news and podcasts my weakest listening points). Reading has also improved my speaking a bit (or its all feeding into each other), my active vocabulary that’s easy to immediately think to say is much bigger than in the spring, if and when I start journaling I expect my writing to get at least broader in topic even if grammar will remain YIKES until i sit down and make myself do some written exercises with examples some month. Listening and Reading in around a year (like the calculator’s estimate), I would like to have good enough to read my print chinese novels in a speed and comfort close to when I read in english. I’m getting there already with some novels, but I’d like to broaden how many novels feel readable until (like english) I can just pick up whatever one I’ve got. I think this goal is feasible, considering I 1. have a high tolerance for ambiguity so I can reach this ‘comfort’ without being as perfect as maybe someone with less tolerance for vagueness, 2. I made a goal to read a TON recently and its going well, and it seems the number of characters read Does add up (I’m aiming for 4 million characters read but in the short term getting to 1 million this year would be nice ToT). 3. I already notice stuff getting significantly easier to read even after just these ~300k characters read in September-October. I think continuing to read digitally is what I’ll continue for a while though because it lets me increase new words known and listening skills at a faster rate then reading my print books would. (But saying this who knows if I’ll push through a print book randomly without warning in a week, I don’t know the future!). I’d also like my listening skills to get up to FOLLOW THE MAIN IDEA OF MOST AUDIOBOOKS even if details escape me. Because the sooner I can listen to chinese audiobooks for main plot on the first listen through, the sooner I can do more stuff I want to. ToT

So yeah. Back to the original reason I made this post. How many hours have I studied??? 365 days in a year x 3 years = 1095 days. 1095 days x 1 hour of study a day = 1095 study hours. So I have at minimum probably studied that long. If I studied 1.5 hours on average a day? 1642.5 hours. If I studied 2 hours on average a day? 2190 hours.

Now, I don’t think I’m B2 yet, even though FSI says 2200 hours for B2 in mandarin. So either yes, maybe a self studier like me needs to double the hours estimate lol. OR, I probably studied closer to 1 hour on average daily. Not bad progress at all, for 1 hour a day. 

I saw someone give a suggestion, that to find out how long each goal level (A1-C2) takes, take the hour estimate (so B2 taking 2200 hours) and divide that by 2 for each level under. So if B2 takes 2200 hours, B1 takes 1100 hours to reach. A2 takes 550 hours, A1 takes 275 hours. I personally think these estimates seem to match my experience with chinese fairly well, and I aimed for that A2 level ASAP so I could push into reading as quickly as possible (I enjoy learning by reading most). According to my estimate of how many study hours I’ve done, I’ve probably done 1.5 average study hours daily, probably studied 1642.5 hours. As that would put me a bit into B1, but not at B2 level yet. 

So I personally think I probably studied 1-1.5 hours daily on average (as in some days not at all and some days anywhere from 1 hour - 10 hours). I think I’ve probably studied 1095 to 1642.5 hours so far. Which means I’ve got 557.5 to 1105 hours I still need to study to get to B2. 

Thankfully, reading books takes a lot of time, so I think I’ll manage to hit that goal as long as I stay on this reading kick (just look at any audiobook play time for hours spent reading ToT Tian Ya Ke is like 27 hours, Guardian is like 55 hours, cnovels are LONG). Also of personal note, as my listening improves I noticed some pronunciation errors I’ve been making. Problem is I used to use an app that tested pronunciation and graded it to fix mine, and that app was only for Apple so I can’t use it on my current Samsung phone. Does anyone know of any chinese pronunciation app that gives you a grade on your pronunciation and then lets you re-record until you’ve said it properly? I used to use the Apple app 普通话学习 but as I mentioned, I can’t find a substitute app on the Google Play App store.

I think this estimate of my study time is also a little lesson (for my future self) on how you don’t need to go ham to get results. 1 hour average daily is not that much, especially compared to the people on some language forums that aim for 4-8 hours a day. I also know I do ‘study’ as pretty much anything I am doing where I learn or practice improving my chinese. So once I got into year 2 of study, that included stuff like listening to audiobooks/audio dramas/condensed audio in the background as I worked or cleaned or walked or drove (which was an easy way to get at least a half hour of ‘study’ time on most days even when I did nothing I actually focused on and put effort into). That also started including (partly) time spent watching cdramas with english subs I was going to watch anyway, and just spending some time on listening to the actual audio and trying to figure out the new words I heard (i finally learned 交代 fully yesterday just watching Cang Lan Jue with the english subs really hammering wtf it means in context). I don’t count time with english subs as study, but now that I know more chinese I can sometimes learn a bit of new stuff even just listening to the chinese words or comparing the chinese hardsubs to the english subs, and that adds up. The times I look up pingxie and dmbj fansongs and read along to the lyrics, or a cdrama I like’s ost and read along to the lyrics to try and sing along, that adds up even though its only 5 minutes here and there. When I find a video I like on bilibili (usually manhua with voice acting bits lately lol) I’m sucked in for a good half hour, that adds up. I’ve been picking at the dmbj novels these past few weeks, reading for 5-10 minute bursts as breaks from work, or from whatever I’m doing (I don’t focus long I need multiple things to do), or to bounce between reading chinese and english stuff (cause i’m also on an english reading kick - but again i need to switch activities often or i get bored and stop doing much of anything ToT). It all adds up! Did I study not at all yesterday, or did all that dmbj reading add up to an hour, the listening to ost music trying to catch the lyrics add up to half an hour, the 2 hours watching Cang Lan Jue add up to at least some time of me listening to the audio primarily, the time i spent on the new Time Raiders phone game with chinese on trying to speed read the text before it closes - did that add up to an hour? Did I study not at all, or 2+ hours yesterday. I don’t know. I just did what I’d be doing anyway. My point with this is just... don’t think the random things you do don’t count, because they do. They seem small, they seem for indulgence, they can count as the study time adding up too though. 

And that’s also maybe one of the most useful bits to take from Immersion study plan styles, the idea to integrate what you’re learning into your usual hobbies and activities anyway. Its hard for me to make time to sit down and focus for 2 hours on only chinese. But its fairly easy to read a couple paragraphs to take breaks from other stuff when i’d be reading something on the web anyway, hear a couple lines when i watch what i’d already be watching, listen to an audio drama or ost songs i like while driving, hear some chinese on my dance/singing playlist. You get the idea. (Immersion study methods also work great if you learn by doing, though I’m a bit of a grab-what-works-for-me type so I don’t do all they recommend, and some people do a lot more ‘study’ per day then I ever could). 

Anyway! Well, lets see if next August 2023 if I get to those reading listening goals! \(ToT)/ 

(that calculator I linked is really cool if you do like looking at timelines given study time you can do, feel free to check it out and adjust language/hours/goals etc!)