Experience and Application

I'm definitely a fan of experience. In day to day life, experiences are fundamental to the learning (and thus growing) process. They are much like flags or beacons; experiences are reference points...they may or may not hold explicit answers, but they definitely play a critical role. This is one of my most productive and useful approaches to learning Chinese. The more I experience the language the better I do. Some people have a learning style that is more aptly catered to memorization and repetition; I, however, have a very hard time learning vocabulary that way. Words stick when I experience them. What does that mean? For me, it goes beyond hearing it or seeing the character. Experience means application: seeing the word within a context, or hearing it within the crux of a story. The environment within which the words are applied is crucial. This helps me make associations and better commit the word to memory.