Thank you for your response/feedback Magda!

I was eventually able to understand Mandarin fast spoken speech, but it took 6 months for me to be able to understand anything at all. It works, but is inefficient. So with languages like Mandarin, I had to step back from my own philosophies and approach it with beginner resources.

Congratulations on making progress in Mandarin! I think you're right that language learners need to follow their instincts more than anything.

Your response was really helpful to me!