How to approach study after school?

[Daniel Primed]

Today I have completed my last year 12 exam. I have a long holidays which streches form now to about March until I start at University. I plan on doing quite a bit of study for Chinese over the holidays. But I'm not sure where to start. Should I go thru my school books and consolidate evferything that I've learnt over the past few years? Should I finf my weaknesses and focus on them.

I've already started downloading some podcasts from ChinesePod and I also have a book that runs thru a few 1000 characters, how to write them , sat them pronounce them etc. So I think that I should do some of that. I just don't know in what direction I should push off from here? Can any previous students provide some suggestions as to the best way to continue learning Chinese?

[Hongbao]

It all depends on what your current level is, and what you want to achieve. If you're quite happy with your level then you could just make use of it and what Chinese films, read books and magazines in Chinese and even participate in online forums. If you think you still need to improve your level then go for that.

Personally I think that it always helps with studying in a "real" context, like reading a book or cartoon in Chinese and at the same time paying attention to how the language is used.

Good luck!

[imron]

I guess it really depends what your level is, and how much studying you're looking to do.

If you've got the time, and the willpower, this post (especially the comments by 赫杰 regarding CRI) has a lot of good suggestions on how to improve your listening skills. It's quite intense studying, but will really help your listening abilities no end (plus it will build your vocabulary regarding current events). It will be slow going in the beginning, but if you can keep it up for 3 months, your listening will have improved by leaps and bounds by the time you start uni. If you do this, you should also check out this post for a small utility that will download and compile all the articles for a given day's broadcast into one easy to read document.

You might also consider teaching yourself to type using Wubi. Not so you can type quickly, but because it will teach you to break down characters and think of them as being built up from smaller components, which helps a lot when learning new characters. Even if you think you can do this already, learning Wubi will help you do it a lot faster Do a search of these forums for Wubi, and you'll find several posts giving installation instructions and recommending typing software.

(As an aside, if you can't do so already, you might want to take out the time and learn to touch-type in English. Being able to type at 80wpm without needing to look at either the screen or the keyboard is a really useful skill to have. A nifty program to teach touch-typing is this one, and over 3 months it's not unreasonable to go from nothing to 60-70wpm if you practise a little each day).

You might also consider learning to recognise Chinese handwriting. A good book on the topic is Chinese Cursive Script: An introduction to handwriting in Chinese, by Wang Fangyu. It covers 300 common characters, but once you've got a grasp of these, it's not difficult to apply the principles to other characters you know. You can get a copy from China Books. They have stores in Melbourne and Sydney and also take orders online, so if you choose express post you can get next day delivery in any capital city. If you do end up taking Chinese at university, then at least with this you'll be better placed to understand your lecturers when they scrawl on the whiteboard in class.

If you're interested in identifying your weaknesses and working on them (also a good idea), you might consider taking the practise HSK exams that you can find online (basic, elementary-intermediate, advanced, ). Because you are trying to get an accurate idea of your ability, it's important to try and do the tests under normal exam conditions (i.e. in the set time, and resisting the temptation to rewind the audio/look at your dictionary etc). Though the exams are by no means a perfect measure of one's ability, it will give you a good idea of where your weaknesses are, and where you need to focus your attention.

Anyway, that's probably enough ideas for starters. These should keep you busy for most of the holidays

[Daniel Primed]

Thanks, I'm sure that all of that will keep me busy for a while. Thank you very much.