I've spent 10 days reviewing all the audio drills and role plays in the Basic book. Now time to start the Intermediate book, which feels Hsk 4-5 ish to me. Last night while I was doing the last of the Basic book's role plays (by myself, out loud) my wife came over and peered at the screen. She was very surprised to see that what I was speaking aloud was actually a role-play written in English. She thought I was reading a conversation written in Chinese from a book, and said that my translations sounded really good. She is not one to hand out empty compliments either. I also found that after all the drills, it is very easy to translate the English in the role plays and feels very natural. So I'm psyched to get going on the intermediate!
My game plan is to do the book on my own, one 课文 a day, around 5 days a week. I am also doing other stuff simultaneously ie. graded readers, listening, classes, so I can't do more than one 课文 a day. Each 课文 will entail a number of steps:
1. Listen to the conversation
2. Listen and repeat the audio 生词 and sentence build ups
3. Read the notes and grammar explanations
4. Do the Substitution drill - book open
5. Do the substitution drill at least 2 more times- book closed
6. Do the Transformation drills in the same manner (ie. at least 3 times)
7. Do the Role Plays out loud playing both characters, repeat until smooth, repeat again following day as a warm up to the next 课文
8. Do the Listening Comprehension exercises
9. Do the Translation exercises
From Intermediate Spoken Chinese:
(edit) Tues Sept. 5th:
After having gone through 2 课文 I've decided to split it each 课文 over 2 days , like this:
Day 1:
1. Listen to the conversation
2. Listen and repeat the audio 生词 and sentence build ups
3. Read the notes and grammar explanations
4. Do the Substitution drills - book open
5. Do the Transformation drills - book open
Day 2:
1. Do the Substitution drill - book closed (until mastered)
6. Do the Transformation drills - book closed (until mastered)
7. Do the Role Plays out loud playing both characters, repeat until smooth (repeat again following day as a warm up to the next 课文)
8. Do the Listening Comprehension exercises
9. Do the Translation exercises
Which means I'll be spending some time with it, and doing the audio drills at least 6 days a week.
(edit) Sept. 13th:
Took longer than I expected to get the drills and role plays somewhat smooth. Just finished the first Unit of Intermediate (unit 11), which took me around 10 days.
