1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,041 Hey everyone! Today I want to share some tips with you. 2 00:00:09,041 --> 00:00:15,333 The topic I want to talk to you is "Learning Success Strategies". 3 00:00:15,333 --> 00:00:24,666 Why are we talking about this topic? It’s because I have spent a lot of time thinking about it recently. 4 00:00:24,666 --> 00:00:30,875 By looking at my current Chinese level and seeing how it is, 5 00:00:30,875 --> 00:00:38,833 And to be honest, I think my Chinese is very poor, compared to before. So I think my Chinese has regressed. 6 00:00:38,833 --> 00:00:46,333 Of course I think this is a bad thing! I work at Skritter every day, and I practice writing Chinese characters in Skritter every day. 7 00:00:46,333 --> 00:00:59,916 But if I were to give myself some feedback, I would feel "Wow! Gao Jian, your current Chinese seems to be a step backward compared to before" 8 00:00:59,916 --> 00:01:12,041 So, I spent a lot of time thinking about why, I think there are many reasons, so we won't cover them all in this video. 9 00:01:12,041 --> 00:01:19,000 But, today I want to share with you some strategies for learning success. 10 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,291 Okay, without further ado, let's get on with it. 11 00:01:21,291 --> 00:01:28,208 Sorry, it may be disordered today... Because I don't have a script, I didn't write it down. 12 00:01:28,208 --> 00:01:34,250 I only wrote down some key things I wanna discuss, so occasionally I will check my phone to see what I wrote. 13 00:01:34,250 --> 00:01:43,125 So first, I think if you want to succeed, no matter what we're learning, one must have a goal if you want to succeed. 14 00:01:43,125 --> 00:01:47,958 The goal you choose is actually very important. Why is it important? 15 00:01:47,958 --> 00:01:57,083 Because if your goal is too big, you may have no choice but to fail and give up more easily. 16 00:01:57,500 --> 00:02:03,208 For example, you are a newbie, you can't even say one word... 17 00:02:03,625 --> 00:02:08,791 Then I ask you "What are you going to do?" "I want to speak Chinese, I want to speak fluent Chinese?" 18 00:02:08,791 --> 00:02:13,500 OK, that’s a good goal, but then what? How are you gonna do it? 19 00:02:13,500 --> 00:02:17,541 If you don’t have a plan, it's easy to fail. 20 00:02:17,541 --> 00:02:23,833 So your goal is actually very important, very important to success. 21 00:02:23,833 --> 00:02:28,791 So what counts as a good goal? 22 00:02:28,791 --> 00:02:33,208 I think it's one that you can achieve. 23 00:02:33,875 --> 00:02:44,416 And that goal is a little harder than your current level. 24 00:02:45,125 --> 00:02:50,041 Where do you want to improve? You have to think clearly. 25 00:02:50,041 --> 00:02:59,041 So maybe a good goal, I personally... I found that after the decline in my Chinese skills, my goal is to improve my overall level. 26 00:02:59,041 --> 00:03:07,708 How can I do it? My goal is to make myself feel more comfortable communicating with others. 27 00:03:07,708 --> 00:03:13,041 So I found a teacher and started doing one-to-one lessons on the Internet. 28 00:03:13,458 --> 00:03:20,250 I do it once a week, the first lesson...wow! I really felt that my Chinese had regressed. 29 00:03:20,250 --> 00:03:24,916 Like, "Gao Jian, you are not wrong, your Chinese has really deteriorated." 30 00:03:24,916 --> 00:03:30,000 But the second week, the third week, the fourth week, the fifth week, I found that I was making some progress. 31 00:03:30,041 --> 00:03:32,666 So my goal is to improve my proficiency 32 00:03:32,666 --> 00:03:41,000 But, I wanted to be more specific, I could say that my goal is to read at least one article every week, 33 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:49,125 Write down some interesting words in the article and turn it into my own words. 34 00:03:49,125 --> 00:03:57,291 Practice should start first with input and then output, so I spend a little time practicing every week. 35 00:03:57,291 --> 00:04:07,166 Then I try to practice "learn now, sell now", so I will try to use what I learn right away. 36 00:04:07,166 --> 00:04:14,333 It doesn’t matter if you use it wrong, just keep practicing over and over and over... Get used to these words. 37 00:04:14,333 --> 00:04:25,041 So first you must have a good goal, your goal will be different from other people’s, It doesn't matter, but you need to know what your goal is. 38 00:04:25,041 --> 00:04:32,041 OK, that is the first one. The second one I think you have to have a plan, you have to have a good one... 39 00:04:32,041 --> 00:04:43,291 Why is a good plan important? Because if you have a good plan, it's easy to follow that, and you get what you need from it. 40 00:04:43,291 --> 00:04:52,750 If you have a day without a specific plan, our minds are actually quite lazy, we are all lazy. 41 00:04:52,958 --> 00:05:02,916 We have to find the path of least resistance. We don’t want to think too much, or spend too much time on it, we just want to succeed. 42 00:05:02,916 --> 00:05:15,416 If you observe someone doing a really good job, it's probably because they have a solid plan and schedule. 43 00:05:15,416 --> 00:05:22,875 So after you have a goal, you need to spend some time making a solid plan to reach it. 44 00:05:22,875 --> 00:05:28,333 You have to write down all your thoughts and opinions. 45 00:05:28,333 --> 00:05:31,708 You can listen to some opinions of others, or you could read a book. 46 00:05:31,708 --> 00:05:41,125 But you have to spend at least a moment to write down your plan. What will you do every day, week, and month, 47 00:05:41,125 --> 00:05:44,666 In order to reach your goal. You need to have a solid plan. 48 00:05:45,125 --> 00:05:57,000 Thirdly, you must not rely on motivation or good intentions only, but rather, rely on good habits. 49 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:03,333 When you first start... many people, including myself rely on motivation. 50 00:06:03,333 --> 00:06:08,375 When I was in college, when I was freshman, I was motivated and I wanted to learn Chinese. 51 00:06:08,375 --> 00:06:13,875 I had some friends who all spoke Chinese, and I wanted to be like them. So my motivation came from that. 52 00:06:14,250 --> 00:06:21,458 But, motivation/intent by itself is actually very unreliable 53 00:06:21,833 --> 00:06:31,041 Let's say you wake up one day, you feel sick and you have a headache. Are you motivated to study? No, you're not. 54 00:06:31,625 --> 00:06:41,625 But if you have good habits in place, you may feel that you are less likely to give up on something. 55 00:06:42,625 --> 00:06:52,916 So, motivation and intent are good driving forces in the beginning, but if you want to succeed, you have to create good habits. 56 00:06:52,916 --> 00:07:02,083 How do we do it? I think everyone can spend at least five minutes a day to do at least one thing. 57 00:07:02,083 --> 00:07:15,666 If you want to learn Chinese, or languages, or take up painting, you have to learn...whatever you want, you have to spend at least five minutes to do it. 58 00:07:15,666 --> 00:07:24,666 If your plan is to take an hour, you have to ask yourself, can you do it? Can you do it every day? 59 00:07:24,666 --> 00:07:30,375 Not necessarily. But you can probably do five minutes. Five minutes is a short time. 60 00:07:30,375 --> 00:07:35,166 You can listen to Chinese-speaking radio while driving. 61 00:07:35,166 --> 00:07:37,291 You can read/study while you're on the loo. 62 00:07:37,291 --> 00:07:43,708 When you're waiting for your coffee, you can study or speak a bit. 63 00:07:43,708 --> 00:07:48,208 Or when taking a shower, you can talk to yourself, or sing... 64 00:07:48,208 --> 00:07:55,875 So I think you can do five minutes. If you really don't think you have five minutes... I dunno what to say! 65 00:07:55,875 --> 00:08:04,333 You wanna think hard on it. You do have that time. Turn off your phone, turn off Youtube, don't watch IG, don't read Facebook. 66 00:08:04,708 --> 00:08:12,958 Then you'll find five minutes. And you will find that five minutes can easily become ten minutes or fifteen minutes. 67 00:08:13,416 --> 00:08:23,750 But you have to start doing it. If you think five minutes is too difficult, then one minute is fine, but you have to practice every day. 68 00:08:23,750 --> 00:08:29,541 You have to turn your motivation, your goal, into a daily habit. 69 00:08:30,083 --> 00:08:37,416 I recommend that you take a moment to think and analyze what you have done so far. 70 00:08:37,958 --> 00:08:44,791 I mean, you do a certain thing, you prepare your plan, you have your goal, 71 00:08:44,791 --> 00:08:51,208 You need to know right away, is this good for your goals? Is this useful? 72 00:08:51,458 --> 00:08:59,833 If it doesn't work well, don't do it. Give it up. You have to replace it with something else, another plan, 73 00:08:59,833 --> 00:09:08,916 But if you don't take the time to think and analyze what you are doing, you will run into problems. 74 00:09:08,916 --> 00:09:16,750 You will spend a long time doing the wrong thing, then you'll be completely off course, in the wrong direction. 75 00:09:16,750 --> 00:09:20,833 So you have to take control of your time. 76 00:09:20,833 --> 00:09:25,666 So what should we do?Just think, take a little time to think, 77 00:09:25,666 --> 00:09:31,750 How am I doing right now? Am I succeeding? Do I enjoy it? 78 00:09:31,750 --> 00:09:35,708 So I recommended It! Take time to think and analyze! 79 00:09:35,708 --> 00:09:40,333 Number 5. I actually think this is a very important thing... 80 00:09:40,333 --> 00:09:44,125 Don’t compare yourself to others. 81 00:09:44,166 --> 00:09:54,166 So what I mean is, nowadays, it’s easy to see a lot of people just say "Oh, within three months, I'll be fluent in Chinese" 82 00:09:54,166 --> 00:09:57,791 "I spoke fluent Chinese within a year." 83 00:09:57,791 --> 00:10:03,041 "You can see I'm a non-native speaker, but my Chinese is very good." 84 00:10:03,041 --> 00:10:10,750 Okay, well done! You are doing well. You are great! But, their success has nothing to do with you. 85 00:10:10,750 --> 00:10:21,000 Their background, their experience, and their life is completely different from yours? 86 00:10:21,541 --> 00:10:32,625 Of course you can consider what they said, if they wrote a book, you can learn from them and take what you think is important, or what is useful, 87 00:10:32,625 --> 00:10:39,000 and try it for yourself. But what are the advantages of comparing with others? 88 00:10:39,833 --> 00:10:46,708 You are not them, and they're not you. Your lives are different, so don't compare. 89 00:10:48,875 --> 00:10:56,583 Okay, we don't need to dwell on this... You can compare with yourself, but I don't think you should compare with others. 90 00:10:56,583 --> 00:11:00,791 Because others are different, you have no way to control others, you can only control yourself. 91 00:11:00,791 --> 00:11:06,750 So don’t spend too much time thinking, “Wow, they're doing a good job. they're so rich, blah blah blah... 92 00:11:06,750 --> 00:11:14,041 It doesn't matter, it has nothing to do with you, you focus on yourself, and don't look at others and think on it too much. 93 00:11:14,041 --> 00:11:21,041 Finally, it's actually similar to the last point... Don't blame others. 94 00:11:21,875 --> 00:11:29,750 Because you have no way to control others, so why do you also try to blame others as well? If you wanna blame someone, blame yourself. 95 00:11:29,750 --> 00:11:33,916 "Gao Jian, your Chinese has regressed, whose fault is that?" 96 00:11:33,916 --> 00:11:40,750 That was my own fault. I haven't spent much time since 2013 learning Chinese 97 00:11:40,750 --> 00:11:47,000 Of course my Chinese has regressed. Is that the fault of other people? No, that was my own mistake. 98 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:54,583 Just speak to yourself honestly, and own up to things. "Am I doing well? Am I doing badly?" 99 00:11:54,583 --> 00:11:56,208 Don't pass blame. 100 00:11:56,208 --> 00:12:00,333 If you go to school and you feel that the teacher is not good, then you change the teacher. 101 00:12:00,333 --> 00:12:05,250 If you download a piece of software and you think that piece of software is useless, then you change it. 102 00:12:05,666 --> 00:12:11,166 If you think this book is not good, then don't read this book, you find other books. 103 00:12:11,166 --> 00:12:15,500 If you go to school, and you think the school is useless, then you go to another school. 104 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:24,708 Do you understand? So don't blame others, you must take ownership. If you're not successful, that's on you, not someone else. 105 00:12:24,708 --> 00:12:37,791 Of course we can all be your cheerleaders, and give you props and motivation, But you can only control your own behavior, direction, and thoughts. 106 00:12:37,791 --> 00:12:43,291 So don't blame others. When you encounter problems, you need to find a way of dealing with them. 107 00:12:43,291 --> 00:12:50,000 "Your goal did not succeed, you failed, you gave up, it was all on you." 108 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:58,458 I'm sorry to spend so much time just talking, But today I really wanted to share with you some things that I have been thinking about myself. 109 00:12:58,458 --> 00:13:05,583 Do you agree or not? Leave a comment below. 110 00:13:05,583 --> 00:13:11,291 Do you have any strategies for learning success? I welcome you all to let us know. 111 00:13:11,500 --> 00:13:18,166 Then without ranting on, thank you everyone for watching this video, See you next time 112 00:13:18,166 --> 00:13:18,958 Peace.