I am cautiously optimistic
I am cautiously optimistic. I appreciate the use of science backed memory methods. I have completed Phase 1 already and am looking forward to progressing. I have studied Spanish, French, German, and Russian in an academic setting, and had private tutoring for over a year in Korean. Semi-fluency is the highest level I achieved, and just a month break would quickly leave me frustrated with the amount I would forget. This program (so far) makes it easy to stay consistent, and the Hanzi movie method and living links bypass a lot of the tedious time it takes to get vocabulary from short term to long term memory storage. Also, as an introvert, I am beyond thrilled that they give helpful options for really improving listening and speaking WITHOUT pushing awkward, stilted conversations with native speakers. In fact, they encourage a solid foundation of practice BEFORE engaging with native speakers. I don’t alway want to speak to people in my native language, why on earth would I want to speak to them in a language I am just learning? So, here’s to hopefully a successful journey of making Mandarin practice a daily part of my life, and getting to the point where talking with a stranger in Mandarin just makes me the same amount of nervous as talking to a stranger in English, ha. Cheers.