I've been really stressed out with learning Mandarin lately. It's kind of getting in the way with my school and I'm learning stuff in school that's already pretty complicated (just got into relativity in physics and going to learn quantum mechanics and all that stuff). I'm just wondering if I should really be studying Mandarin.

It's really weird to me because Chinese used to look like an alien language. Don't get me wrong, it still is alien, it's just now that I can see characters differently and they seem less of a mystery to me. I used to look at a sign written in Chinese characters and see beauty. Now, all I see is the Heisig key word staring back at me.

I wanted to learn Mandarin but it's really getting stressful and it's hard to stay committed daily with everything. In this mess, I was thinking about if I should just give up and start another language like Japanese for instance (because I really love Japanese music more than Mandarin music), but I don't really know what to do anymore.

I kind of just lost a lot of my drive that I once had and I'm not really liking Mandarin as much as I once did.

I still listen to people speaking in Mandarin all the time in my daily life at college and that makes me sort of depressed because I want to be able to understand them. It's just so hard.

So much pain put into something so simple.

That's why I was thinking.. is it really worth it?

I think with anything the best things to continue on with are things that bring you enjoyment short term (studying) and long term (fluency) For languages if you dont have short term value or pleasure then the time it takes for you to become fluent will take that much longer especially if you don't enjoy it anymore. For me fluency was my only concern. I wanted long term rewards but didn't much enjoy the short term of putting in the grunt work everyday. Now for me the short term is where I derive the most pleasure. the fun that comes along with learning a new word, the fun in figuring out how to read this or that and its easy once you get a solid routine going.

should look at this too. its helped a lot of people here and myself.
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blo...to-fluency

You could start to focus more on listening comprehension. Then you can understand more of what people at your college are saying, and eventually you could join them, making for much more pleasant study time: conversation See it as a goal if you wish.

I started with the Heisig method, but couldn't keep it up. It did not motivate me. So I put it aside (what I learned from it I can use really well though) and now I'm reading texts (with audio), initially focusing on listening comprehension. For that, you could use IceCream's suggestion. Or have a look at the texts from buonaparte's threads/posts. What's documentaries, movies, ..., I look for motivating, interesting and enjoyable exposure as much as I can find. I found out reading literary texts and seeing moving pictures is what motivates me the most at this moment, but at some time I might want to focus on conversation too.

As what Tolerence pointed out, seek what motivates you. It is natural, I think, if a language does not motivate you, you want to start another. However, that way you'll just keep hopping from one language to another, never reaching any goals...
By the way, Chinese combines particularly well with physics --- they complement eachother nicely I always take a break from my physics studies with Chinese, since it's something completely different.

Bryos Wrote:That's why I was thinking.. is it really worth it?

If that's the case,
then get your rewards now.

Make learning mandarin a rewarding process.

Wow... I was very glad to read this, because I'm in a similar situation. I've been studying Mandarin pretty intensively for two years now, to the point that it's interfering with my PhD Math studies, but was something I enjoyed so much though that I enjoyed Chinese more than math.

Now, however, I feel so frustrated, because even though I've studied a lot and dedicated many hours to my studies, I realized still how limited my Mandarin is, and it made me feel very frustrated and hopeless and wonder what's the point. I've put my private lessons on hold for a few weeks now and I feel sorely tempted to quit out of discouragement.

@Byros
Just cut back and do fun things in mandarin as a hobby. Watch youtube videos, find new chinese music, learn about china etc. Stop studying it, but keep giving yourself opportunities to learn more.

@vorpal
same advice to you.
how high would you estimate your passive vocabulary to be? If it's too low that may explain your limitations. If you shift your focus on just enjoying chinese content while slowly but steadily boosting your vocabulary, you start turning chinese into comprehensible input and then studying becomes mostly just a matter of consuming chinese media that you enjoy.