The 2008 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread

[roddy]

Well, doesn't have to be New Year's resolutions. Could just be a general progress on aims and objectives.

[heifeng]

Ok, status reports.

Studying: I finally found a 纠音tutor and have been going for 3/ week. It's going well enough. These next few months will be the the 'buck stops here' in terms of letting myself slide with bad tones. I have gotten through about 1/3 of the 朗读 readings fairly thoroughly for the pcs. (thoroughly as in even my friends can recite the readings from hearing me say them so much.... Athough I am making tone progress, I figure that this 'corrective mission' has turned into a 6 month rather than a '3 month plan' since 3 months is only enough time to diagnose some problems and go through all the exercises a few times, but the full 6 months is probably just enough to really have better control over the problems at hand. So I already have the exam dates for the next 4 months in my hands, I'll definitely sign up to get a 'beginning' score..and then go back for more pain 3 months later. Pronunciation aside studying for the exam has made me find some really random words and chengyu, so hopefully this will help with my writing. Other exams and such things I will worry about and study for after March.

I have been keeping a lame lil' written journal which hasn't been filled with any great essays or such yet, but at least I don't spot too many 错别字。During the holiday I might find an episode of a show to translate if I feel like it, however that is a bit on the back burner given my current pronunciation goals. OH, I added a 'goal' of practicing my handwriting and have been 'trying' to incorporate that into my journal writing. (Even bought a lil' 楷书' booklet and vcd set at wumei for 10 yuan...) anyway, yeah, I figure time to make my characters look a bit more presentable and since the content is crap in my journal, the least I can do is make it look pretty.(sh)

Reading/Radio: I haven't been doing a good job reading the newspaper lately, but I did manage to read a book this month. I haven't been listening to the radio as much as I planned but have been watching the news in the mornings.

Keeping in touch with people: plan to send out cards to friends during holiday. in fact I am going to go shopping for cards tomorrow!

Using my left hand somewhat more, but ultimately get annoyed and let the right one take over.

Misc:

Working out: Except for my bout with a cold/plague this week (will get back on schedule tomorrow), I was good about working out each day and have probably only taken an elevator 5 times in the past month. However I still get winded after 7 flights...ughh. Oversplits are ok..well not on left side, oh well slowly but surely. Due to a head start from jet lag, I've managed to pretty much keep a 6am-9pm senior citizen sleeping schedule with is good for the finding time to work out part. I've been cooking....if the same meal each day counts, but I did cave in and buy some frozen dumplings when I was too hungry to wait for anything else. Drinking tons of water. water crises is getting more serious in northern China cities thanks to me.

[Guest realmayo]

peer-pressure, yay!

i) learn to write 50 hanzi a week for the next 30 weeks

-- yes, despite spending a bit of time contructing a fancy plan for this, I've nevertheless been ploughing through two textbooks, a chapter from both every week. 45 mins before work, 45 mins at lunchtime, maybe a bit in the evening too.

ii) don't stint on vocab either

-- I've stinted (in so much as concentrated on individual characters, not words)

iii) listen to chinesepod etc rather than music on my ipod on my commute.

-- yes, found that I prefer imandarinpod for this though.

[wushijiao]

One of my New Year's Goals, that I forgot to mention, was learning Cantonese. I had basically given up/put it on the back brner, but in the last two or three weeks I have been studying Cantonese like crazy, and I'm having a good time doing it.

So that brings me to my Feb. goals.

1) Finish the book "Teach Yourself Cantonese". So far, I'm on chapter 13, of 26.

2) Finish "Fun with Cantonese: Sounds and Tones".

If anybody is interested, I think those two books compliment each other well, because the former focuses on dialogues and vocabulary, with little isolated word readings, while the other book is the opposite.

As far as Mandarin:

1) Keep on listening to daily podcasts, mainly 中国丛谈 and RFA. I've been good at sticking to this.

2) Continue reading the papers and magazines frequently.

3) Re-start and finish 红太阳是怎样升起的, which I'm about halfway through.

I've always kept monthly and annual goals, so I think this is a good idea. It's motivating to read other people's as well (Roddy, heifeng, realmayo).

As far as working out, keep up the lifting, finish the HK Half-marathon (hopefully in 1:50 or less).

[Rrina]

2008 not bad for me so far. I'm still on module 2 of FSI but I've completed two units there - now I'm on unit 6.

I'll still focus mostly on FSI. I had started to try to learn to read, and I do love the characters, but I put that on the back burner again. I decided I want to be able to talk Chinese as soon as possible.

This thread is a nice idea.

[roddy]

Have renamed the topic as "The 2008 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread" so that anyone who doesn't make New Year Resolutions, or who only turns up in mid-April, is welcome to join in.

As far as working out, keep up the lifting, finish the HK Half-marathon (hopefully in 1:50 or less).

I can more or less manage that pace for a 5k, might need to wait till 2009 for a half-marathon at that speed

[renzhe]

Oh, I missed this one. Here are my goals for 2008, it's not too late yet!

1) Be able to read 3000+ hanzi, including all HSK chars (I'm at about 2100 now)

2) Build a vocab of 4000+ words, up to HSK level 3 (I'm at about 2000 now)

3) Finish NPCR book 6 (I'm at the start of 4 now)

4) Be able to lead conversations FLUENTLY on a range of topics. My upcoming one-month trip to China should help me there.

5) Take over the world

[simonlaing]

Hi all,

Reading all your posts and dogged studying schedule is impressive.

50 words a day is lot. I will add some measured goals .

1. Read 1-3 chinese news articles from Monday to Friday. I believe reading will be the best way for me to keep my vocabulary current and not lose more words from when I was studying.

2. Arrange a tutor class with a friend 1-2 times a week. Push my self to learn those chengyu's that I was so lax in University learning.Also work on interpreting books.

3. Do more Chinese writing. (Left vague because I am not sure if would be better as a diary or summaries of articles that I have read.)

Other non chinese goals-

1. Continuing to go to the Gym 4-5 times a week

2. Walk up stairs several times a week.

3. Play sports on the weekend when the snow goes away.

You'd think after this long I'd be up to DaShan standard. I am starting to think he is a computer generated character that is spliced into talk shows and Chinese comedy shows.

Here come spring festival, get ready for another lesson in how much more Chinese I need to learn to rival Dashan.

have fun,

Simon:)

P.S. Learning Chinese is about the masochistic journey and pleasure of getting it right? It doesn't matter if it takes awhile.

[OneEye]

Ha! Let's see...

Fitness

Exercise 3-4 days per week

Doing this one just fine. I'm planning on participating in a powerlifting competition by the end of the year (I don't expect to place or anything, just for the motivation and experience)

Only 3-4 "junk meals" per week

Doing ok on this one I guess. Doesn't help that I just ordered a pizza.

Chinese

Listen to at least 5 "easy" (whichever level that is at the time) ChinesePod lessons per week

Always be working through at least 1 "difficult" ChinesePod lesson

Finish Beginning Chinese (textbook and readers) and start on Intermediate

Work all the way through HSK "A" list and start on the "B" list in Pleco

Work through 三国演义 TV series

Put all useful new vocab from CPod lessons, textbooks, TV shows, movies, etc. into Pleco flashcards

I'm just going to lump all of this into one and say I'm not doing so hot with it. I'm keeping up with my flashcards, but I haven't been too good with new material. I do have a couple spare hours tonight though, so I'll be listening to a CPod lesson or two and reading some lessons in Beginning Chinese.

Financial

Max IRAs and 401(k)s

Let's see...wife just got laid off. Not really a huge deal, but it makes things a little more complicated. My 401(k) doesn't kick in until April. IRA not opened yet. Failing so far.

Minimize spending on food (besides groceries) - cook more often and bring food to work

Doing pretty well with this. I'm cooking bigger portions so I have leftovers to bring to work.

Go after promotion - should happen by April

Still waiting...

Music

Practice composing at least once per week

Practice trombone 2-3 times per week

Not happening. No excuses here, just lazy.

The best laid plans...you know the rest.

[self-taught-mba]

Well so far this year I have spent zero hours working on my Chinese. Pretty much the same as last year. So my goal is to do something. How pleasantly vague. But since I'm a big fan of measurement, I can honestly say I will be the most successful here since an increase from zero to anything represents an infinite percentage increase.

Meanwhile for those that are doing the right thing and making slow and steady progress daily, check out this tool:

http://dontbreakthechain.com/

Set it as your homepage. It will be especially useful if your computer is a daily part of your review or you battle your youtube addiction, or, forgive me Roddy, forum addiction.

[atitarev]

Chinese studies:

1. I should get Certificate IV in Chinese by the end of the year. (I don't foresee any problems). I have 2 degrees but I only study Chinese for fun). Extra work would be to go through "New Practical Chinese Reader 4", which I haven't started.

2. Finish Gulliver's travels book (with Pinyin). Reading it on and off. (Well on track, will perhaps pick up some more).

3. Challenge objective: Start and finish Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Chinese. Not the best of books but plenty online resources even about the errors in translation.

Japanese studies:

1. Finish NANA manga with a thorough analysis of colloquialisms. (Getting there)

2. Finish vol. 2 of Ultimate Japanese.

3. Having problem finding a good textbook for my level but perhaps, I'll find something not so primitive.

4. Challenge objective: Start and finish Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Japanese. he-he

Arabic studies: (lower priority)

1. Finish Teach Yourself Arabic.

2. Start and finish Elementary Modern Standard Arabic, volume 1.

3. Challenge objective: complete Introduction to Koranic and Classical Arabic (not sure I will be able to complete - massive religious texts, boring but good grounding in grammar).

I haven't set up any objective about speaking and listening skills (any language), I will just have to do my best and find better methods.

It's a good thread, we should really define our objectives.

[wushijiao]

I did the HK Half-marathon in 1:52:24, which turns out to about 8:34 (26:38 5k pace). Not as fast as I would have liked, but not terrible.

I think my Cantonese listening is making some progress due to the book "Cantonese in HK", and to a lesser extent "teach yourself cantonese". I'm going to try to work through those books (and then listen to the dialogues a billion times) hopefully by early March.

Finish Gulliver's travels book (with Pinyin).

How long is that? Is it only in pinyin, or are there characters below it too? Harry Potter in Chinese (and Japanese) sounds like fun. After that, you can branch out and read all the creative, pirated, Chinese-only, non-Rowling Potter books!

[roddy]

I did the HK Half-marathon in 1:52:24, which turns out to about 8:34 (26:38 5k pace). Not as fast as I would have liked, but not terrible.

Looks pretty good to me. My current 5k pace is about 27:30, but I'm only doing 5k's, not a half marathon

PS No Harry Potter in Arabic then?

[wushijiao]

My current 5k pace is about 27:30, but I'm only doing 5k's

Not bad! I think running is all about putting in the time and the effort. For me now at this point, I'm just running so that I have a base of fitness for overall general health.

It might be worth noting that my biggest gains in language studying have come when I have been doing long-runs (usually around two hours on Sunday) while listening to tapes/podcasts on a regular basis.

Working out has also been proven to improve memory:

One form of training, however, has been shown to maintain and improve brain health — physical exercise. In humans, exercise improves what scientists call “executive function,” the set of abilities that allows you to select behavior that’s appropriate to the situation, inhibit inappropriate behavior and focus on the job at hand in spite of distractions. Executive function includes basic functions like processing speed, response speed and working memory, the type used to remember a house number while walking from the car to a party.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/opinion/08aamodt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[roddy]

Yeah, I try to use running time for Chinese podcasts, but to be honest with all the continual attempts to calculate how far I've run, what that is as a percentage of total run, what my current pace is and what it needs to be, etc, I'm not sure how much actually makes it past the ears. I need to learn to zone out and concentrate on something else while running.

Do you use / have you looked at the Nike+ Sports Kit - I'm a big fan, lets me keep track of my runs and goals. I doubt I'd be running so much without it.

Was really good last week with Chinese stuff, was doing loads of character work with Pleco flashcards and doing maybe an hour of transcribing podcasts every morning. Kind of slipped this week though and ended up watching rather more classic BBC political drama than I initially meant to

[atitarev]

How long is that? Is it only in pinyin, or are there characters below it too? Harry Potter in Chinese (and Japanese) sounds like fun. After that, you can branch out and read all the creative, pirated, Chinese-only, non-Rowling Potter books!

Gulliver has both Pinyin and Chinese simplified:

See my thread on 注音故事乐园:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/16137-recommended-reader-for-learners-%e6%b3%a8%e9%9f%b3%e6%95%85%e4%ba%8b%e4%b9%90%e5%9b%ad&highlight=Gulliver

More than that the Japanese version has LOTS of Furigana (not complete), so it's almost like pinyinised

Well, that's the objective to be able to read anything eventually.

BTW, I have electronic versions (links) for both. Chinese has a variety of versions.

PS No Harry Potter in Arabic then?

今天 05:00 PM

I've got the Arabic version (PDF) but it has no vowels (unvocalised Arabic is almost like Japanese or Chinese without a phonetic guide, you have to know where to put those vowels, which can be daunting as the grammar is complex), it might be the objective of NEXT year, I've got some short fairy tales with short vowels, I'll try those instead.

[wushijiao]

Yeah, I try to use running time for Chinese podcasts, but to be honest with all the continual attempts to calculate how far I've run, what that is as a percentage of total run, what my current pace is and what it needs to be, etc, I'm not sure how much actually makes it past the ears. I need to learn to zone out and concentrate on something else while running

I have that problem too if I'm trying to run at a certain pace, or I'm trying to make certain intervals. For any sort of challenging run, I tend to listen to English podcsts or music.

But that's why the long, slow runs (outside of a gym) are good. You can clear the mind and just concentrate.

I don't have the Nike one, but it sounds cool.

Some of my other goals:

1) Watch at least one HK movie per week.

2) Listen to at least one Spanish news podcasts per day (the BBC has a show Mundo Hoy, which is a bit like 中国丛谈. Much like Chinese, if the BBC would take their amazing amount of material online and put it in podcast form, it'd be much better.)

[roddy]

Well, time for February progress reports .

Mixed results on the Chinese front for me. First couple of weeks I was being pretty good, doing a few hours every morning on writing / transcribing stuff, but towards the end of the month it just kind of all went wrong and I stopped. I'm not even sure why, I guess I got bored or something. Also ended up watching lots of US / UK TV stuff, got out of the habit of keeping up with my Chinese RSS feeds, etc. My pronunciation classes continue to go well though.

Been a very good month for running, got my fastest 5k time down from 29:18 to 26:25; added a 10km to my weekly schedule; and totalled 85km for the month, not missing a single run. Very pleased with that. Maybe that's using up my discipline reserves.

I had a shot at learning some Spanish on livemocha.com - kept it up for a few days, but I came to the conclusion that the lessons are all the same, hence a bit dull and it's a surprisingly old-fashioned methodology. I was on Lesson three or something, and had learned to say 'the coins are not silver' but not 'Hi, how are you. My name's . . .' So that's on long-term hold.

I'm also approaching the end of a long and almost spiritual journey. A pilgrimage, if you will, which I have been undertaking over the last few years. I've been watching the fifth, and final, season of The Wire. The last episode will air next weekend, and will be followed by a period of mourning for the best TV ever. Watch it, from the start.

[imron]

I didn't manage to do Book of the month this last month, and March isn't looking so good either. On the plus side however, cooking classes are going well. Today was the first 热菜 class and we learnt meatballs and meat stew. In fact, I just finished making a batch of 牛肉，洋葱 and 香菜 meatballs for dinner, and it turned out reasonably well. Tomorrow I'll try my hand at the 炖肉. A side effect of learning that dish is that I'm now also fairly sure I know how to make various 拔丝 dishes (as strange as it seems, yes there is a connection between them).

[heifeng]

拔丝 dishes (as strange as it seems, yes there is a connection between them).

ohh...make sure to give updates on how those turn out!!!

ok, my progress..ugh, well basically, a bit lacking in the middle of the month, but better towards the end...

Working out.

Getting sick wore me down a bit so I took about a 2 week break from working out, but still managed to crawl up/down stairs on 95% of the days, so I'm still sticking to my stairwell work out at least. I did finally get back into working out in the morning though, but need to work on the whole sit up/stand up straight and good posture goal more....oh...starting now I guess..

Studying

Pronunciation:

So its going well enough. 纠音class is still helping quite a bit, as is the recording myself read . I probably have spent at least 2 hrs/day on that a day(voice gives up after that)...4 hrs if I have a class that day. Luckily I am not really behind schedule to finish my langdu readings (have recorded 40/60, so last 20 for the last 3 weeks) but haven't even started recording my 命题 responses (even though 1've written and practiced about 1/3 of 'em this month) yet...so a bit behind there...ughh

Translation/Interpreting, Newspaper, reading and radio:

Newspaper: hahahahahah...newspapers are just finding themselves being turned into high-class placemats at my apt lately. Radio...zilch...At least I've been pretty consistent in watching the news though. I like to watch BTV in the morning b4 the sign language news comes one.

Oh, so I finally 'started trying to expand my horizons' on more technical materials to maybe start prep for the catti level 2....So I just started reading some science books designed for junior high kids (hey, gotta start somewhere, besides I know the stuff...just need to know how to say it in Chinese yo)~which, will now be my personal 'book of the month". Last week I started on 生活化学since I'm sick of not knowing the names of chemicals and such plus I keep running across characters for elements and the names of common compounds.

Other

So the getting outta BJ situation at least had some movement this month, but not packing my bags any time soon from the looks of it. Unless I go to the middle east since my classmate was seriously trying to recruit me for construction work... We'll see how March turns out before I fill out that application I guess heh:mrgreen: