Recently I discussed learning Chinese passively with a fellow Chinese learner. She wanted to learn Chinese passively to focus on studying Japanese. This sparks the question, can you learn Chinese (or any language) passively? The short answer is no, not by itself. But, with traditional learning, I think passive learning is a good accessory. Today I have listed a few passive learning methods that I found to be most effective. There are probably other methods that other learners use that might work for you, and there may be methods I have listed that might not work for you. The important thing to remember while testing new methods of learning is that no two brains are alike. What works for one student may or may not work for another student.
As a student still on the path to learning Mandarin Chinese, I use passive learning methods quite often, sometimes as part of my daily routine. Some of the methods I have written below are ones I find most beneficial to recognizing vocabulary, picking up on grammar, learning new words, and learning how to comprehend spoken Chinese.
Why I think passive learning won't work alone.
Depending on how you passively learn, it could be difficult to pick up on vocabulary if you have never learned it. TV, for example, you can visually see what is going on but you still wouldn't be able to learn all of the vocabulary by listening alone. Learning vocabulary takes time and study. But, if you are learning Chinese through a podcast, then you could learn Chinese, I personally, still think traditional learning is required but I am not ready to say it is not possible as I had an English student I tutored that learned English almost entirely from podcasts.
Overall, I think passive learning is still recommended. It may not be possible to learn an entire language with passive learning alone, but with other methods of learning, passive learning can be a great tool. Passive learning is flexible, customizable, and can be very informative.
Now that we have discussed the pros and cons of passive learning, we can find out what our options are for passive learning.
Television and Movies.
Watching anything in Chinese without subtitles can be extremely difficult for a beginner, watching with subtitles is still recommended, I learned much vocabulary from enjoying Chinese dramas when I was a beginner. Watching without subtitles might not be recommended right away. But, those who can already speak and comprehend may find television a helpful tool in their toolbox. An advantage to watching Chinese TV and movies is that most Chinese media has subtitles written in Chinese. So, you can practice your reading as well. And, if you cannot comprehend what is heard, reading the subtitles might help you understand what is going on.
While watching Chinese TV I tend to keep my digital dictionary close by so I can translate when I hear a word that is either repeated or may be relevant to what I am trying to understand. If you do this, don't forget to put translated words in either a book or your flashcards so you can study them later on.
Listening to Podcasts.
I believe podcasts to be the most informative among our passive learning options. Podcasts typically last around 10 minutes and usually focus a very few words and/or phrases. You should take notes while listening as well as turn learned words and phrases into flashcards to help you retain everything you learned. The best part of podcasts is that you can listen to them while you do almost anything, I often see students listen to them while driving instead of listening to music.
Podcasts can be found on Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, Youtube, and websites specially made for podcasts like Podbean.
Audiobooks.
Much like podcasts, you can listen to them while doing basic tasks like driving, cleaning, or even relaxing. An advantage of listening to audiobooks is that you can take in a lot more information in a shorter amount of time compared to podcasts. The disadvantage however is that audiobooks may not be as detail-oriented as podcasts while also harder to retain what you have learned because of how much content you listen to in such a short amount of time. Of course, not all audiobooks are the same, some may be more detailed than others. But, regardless of the detail and quality of your chosen audiobook, audiobooks are still a great accessory to your studies.
I use them quite often myself. I will often listen to them while settling for bed and sometimes while I sleep, usually on accident, but it is quite exciting to test the theory of learning a language while you sleep. Unfortunately learning a language while you sleep has very few research studies done, so I won't discuss this anytime soon.
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