We all know New Year resolutions tend not to be followed through. If that is the case, I wonder why are people still making them? Wishful thinking? Clean slate? I've heard the theory that it might be more likely to follow something you set your mind to and start on, let's say... June 9th, than at the beginning of the year. The theory says that it's more likely to want to do that and not feel compelled to follow a trend that is certainly strong at the beginning of the year. But the trend is strong when everything starts, nobody will jump and say when they give up on their resolutions a few weeks to a few months later.
It's not New Year yet, so why am I talking about this? First of all, because I assume we will have a decently long list of posts talking about that then. And second, because mine isn't a New Year resolution. I don't know how to call it either, at this time, but it's not that.
Apart from my Hive goals, I think I really want to learn Mandarin after all, after only dabbling with it for a short while. I don't expect to become proficient in the new language, but I do have a plan, and it's not something that one can apply in a few weeks or even a few months.
After two days of allotting some time to my new let's call it hobby (there you go, it's a hobby!), I'm still in the phase of exchanging greetings and being polite, which is not far, but it is steady progress. I'm slowly figuring out pronunciation rules, which is good.
Although it's too soon for grammatical structures, I read somewhere a piece written by a Chinese speaker who brought some clarity in my mind both regarding the grammar in Mandarin (significantly simpler than Western languages), as well as how they use compound base terms to say what in the languages I am familiar with need distinct terms. Simpler grammar doesn't necessarily mean things would be easier for someone used to express events on a time scale given by tenses. In Chinese, tense is determined from context.
There was something else I wasn't clear about: if I should start learning writing at the same time with speaking. After a little research, it seems it's easier to at least understand and speak Chinese at a basic level before you start writing, at least for a Westerner. The few thousands hanzi characters seem more daunting than the spoken language, even though they can be learned in stages, with the most used ones first.
My plan is that by the end of next year I'll be able to partially understand Chinese videos or films without subtitle. The "partial" part is tricky, because it's too early for me to gauge how progress would go. I'd hope it to be at least 50%, considering one can understand from context as well.
Since I'm not considering moving to China or working for a Chinese company where English is not spoken, but more like a hobby, I won't be as driven to learn Mandarin as quickly as possible. But given how different Chinese is from everything I know, this will be a time well spent, in my opinion.