Ella's Chinese Happy Hour

Problem Statement I was very ambitious when I watched the first video from Super Easy French. Not only did I want to understand every single word, but I also pushed myself to memorize each sentence. I believe I'm not the only person who has taken this approach during the early stages of learning a second language. The idea of "knowing every word, speaking every sentence without prompts, and retaining this passage in memory forever" brings a sense of thrill and motivation. But I failed. Despite the video being only five minutes long, as an absolute beginner, it became a marathon for me to understand each word, memorize each sentence, and work on my pronunciation. My patience and passion began to wear thin. After one week, I had only memorized two minutes of content. I changed my strategy after that attempt, and so far, I am very happy with what I have done. In brief, I started to make my own illustrations for chosen content from each video and reused them in future...

As addressed in the title of this post, my solution for learning tones is to hum them.  Here's a breakdown of this approach: Find a video that teaches how to pronounce tones. Ensure that the pitch of the speaker is relatively within your daily vocal range. For example, I have a low voice, so I chose a male teacher for the Thai tone tutorial video. (If you're learning Chinese tones, you can use the one I created on YouTube. I read the tones in both higher and lower pitches:  https://youtu.be/PneCbH_Araw) Grab a pen. Listen to the tone-drilling part of the video, and simply hum the tone you hear. Draw curvy lines on the paper for each tone. Keep in mind that many tones have different pitches and may have "short" and "long" sounds. Your curvy lines should indicate this. Watch the video two or three more times to confirm what the tones sound like. If you want, record your humming. If possible, play your recording for a native speaker and confirm the accuracy of ...