Advice for Self-Learning - Beginner

Hello everyone,

 

Background

A little background, my husband is Chinese and I am Spanish, and his in-laws do not speak English. While most of our friend circle speaks English, most of them are Chinese. So it makes sense for me to start taking it more seriously. I have been studying roughly one year now, however I did not take it seriously for the last 10 months due to time-constraints and my progress was rather slow. I am also a bit of a late starter at 30.

Now that we are settled and I am starting to prioritize better, I find myself with more time. Also my new job allows me to unplug and listen to whatever I want for a majority of the day.

 

Time Availability per Weekday

30 Minutes in the morning commute 30 Minutes at lunch 4-6 hours of listening to Chinese media / tv / music (I started doing this 2 months ago and have seen incredible progress) 30 Minutes in the night commute 1-2 Hours at home if I don't have to freelance

Even though I do not understand a lot of what I am listening to - it has been training my hearing more and getting more used to listening to Chinese and hearing the tones. I find it more beneficial than wasting time with English music / media.

 

Things I am currently doing

I have done most of the lessons on an app called Chinese Skill - I really love this app but it seems the developer has changed to a different app and has abandoned current updates on the app. They have a GREAT format and its free. I like the idea of Memrise but a lot of it is paid content. I use Pleco a lot as it is a staple. There used to be a game called LearnChinese by MindSnacks that was a great bite size learning past-time.

 

I am using HSK books as a guideline followed with a bit of Rosetta Stone (but I do not particularly like their structure of pure repetition and does not allow me to study on the go). I was debating a more structured program like YoYo Chinese but do not want to put up the expense at the moment. My question is - what are recommendations for apps / structure for self-study and how should I be investing my time at the moment? I would like to go to classes / find a teacher but I want to make as much progress as I can on my own for the time being. I am willing to put up the cost for apps / programs if I can get some insight on people that have used it before and find it beneficial. My knowledge base currently falls in completed HSK 1 with character knowledge but around HSK 3 if strictly pinyin. Do you guys find it beneficial to focus on both as you go or try to push for pinyin / conversational and then return to the characters with better knowledge?

 

Moving to China at the moment is not an option due to work but we do visit for 2-4 weeks every year (though its mostly holiday mode and my learning / progress comes from interaction with the in-laws) My goal is to get to somewhere in the HSK-4/5 range before I consider moving to China.

Any guidance or insight is appreciated I am looking through and reddit the forums for past comments and knowledge!

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