The 2009 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread

[OneEye]

Meng Lelan, Anki is a spaced-repetition software program. It's my personal favorite, partly because it was developed with learning Japanese in mind (so it is easily customizable for Chinese).

My "aims and objectives" for this year (after failing so badly last year) are as follows:

4000 漢字

be able to follow basic movies without subtitles (we're talking Disney movies and such)

find a buddy to practice speaking with - shouldn't be too hard once I'm ready

I'm also studying Spanish a bit on the side for work. Mainly brushing up on what I've forgotten and working on conversation (my reading ability is much better than my speaking ability).

I have a long list of books I'm reading through, but I don't have any specific goal other than to not neglect them. All different subjects - personal development, finance, history, philosophy, fiction, etc.

I want to be active more than I am. 2-3 days in the gym and 2-3 days of cardio per week is my goal.

I'm also in a different job now, so I'm going for a promotion to Store Manager by the end of 2009.

I guess that's about it.

[so.many.words]

Can I regard this mission statement to be something like my New Years Resolution and quit it even before January finishes...

In that case, I plan to continue studying my chinese dilligently until at least the end of Jan.

That should be more than I have done in the last 12-months.

[so.many.words]

Oh Bugga !! (can anyone give me a chinese equilivant??...non literal of course!!)

Just saw the December book of the month Wang Xiaobo ...see I have already broken my resolution ...am studying at least until March.

Bugga!! Bugga!! Bugga!!

Edited December 27, 2008 at 08:36 AM by so.many.words
PC

[renzhe]

Oh Bugga !! (can anyone give me a chinese equilivant??...non literal of course!!)

糟糕?

[simonlaing]

Hey Guys,

I think I met most of my 2008 goals, and my oral and listening level has risen even though the grammar sentence construction still has issues. so this will be a good thread for me to redo again.

Chinese

Chinese writing: Try and write at least 2 Chinese articles a month (does anyone else find writing Chinese tricky as well?)

Keep on with at least one Tutor class a week

Listen to Chinese radio or Chinesepod on the commute to work.

Participate actively in Chinese at office meetings.

Read some short novels during vacations (spring festival is coming up...)

Use Chinese to teach Migrant worker kids.

Fitness

Go to the Gym at least 3 times a week.

Work to the goal of pull ups.

Keep playing Ultimate frisbee and play a match against Shanghai or Ningbo.

Good luck with your goals,

Sincerely,

Simon:)

[Gleaves]

I like the idea of revisiting these in a year's time. Here are my 2009 aims/objectives:

1. Be able to start reading a Jin Yong novel by the middle of summer.

2. Watch lots of shows from the First Episode thread. (Thank you to all that contribute to the vocab lists.)

3. Know about 10,000 vocabulary items, including 3000+ unique characters.

4. Make some significant headway into studying Chinese poetry.

[renzhe]

With so many of us either reading or planning to read Jin Yong, maybe a Jin Yong read-a-thon would be a good idea?

Pick a short one and plan to start around summer, maybe 雪山飞狐 or 连城诀? I should be finished with 射雕 by then, perhaps Lu will be finished with hers, and this would give us enough time to get our hands on the book?

Either that, or everyone reads 射雕 like me, and we discuss it

[Gleaves]

I actually picked up 雪山飞狐 a while ago, so I'd be willing to do a group read of it (or another not-so-long kung fu novel) around summertime. I'd like to tackle 射雕 eventually, maybe after I have a few novels under my belt. I'm currently reading 漫画, so I have some work to do.

[Guest realmayo]

I'll actually be in China for 2009, starting February, studying Chinese for a semester or two. First time I've ever studied the language formally, and first time living in the country since 2002. Resolutions vague, then, but given the success of posting them last year:

i) study bloody hard

ii) Anki every day

iii) find & pay someone to teach me how to cook Hubei/Hunan/Sichuan food

iiii) learn to write a further 1,500 characters before May (already know 2,000).

v) learn traditional characters

vi) note and learn new words/expressions I see or hear, rather than just think "that's interesting"

vii) spend time out and about in China speaking Chinese (no hiding)

viii) avoid restarting smoking in China.

hmm, quite a lot.

[The Elf Piper]

1) Learn to use the second hand Palm I got so I can get Pleco and learn to use that

2) Learn enough words to be able to read a children's book

3) Try to learn how to order something in Chinese in a Chinese restaurant and then not be too shy to do it

[FadedStardust]

1. Practice my handwriting to make it look better and learn to write more characters by hand.

2. read lots of manhua and as many short novels as I have time for.

3. Continue to watch as many lianxuju as possible.

4. FINALLY start listening to those FSI Cantonese lessons I downloaded so long ago...

5. Try like hell to get into that Chinese history class this spring (unfortunately it was full by the time I could register for classes for Winter term...)

6. Take the HSK 中等

7. Prepare myself to read 射雕 or 笑傲江湖 by 2010.

[wai ming]

1. Improve my Cantonese listening skills. I've decided that I've neglected listening as a skill, having focused on learning vocabulary by reading in the past (which might sound rather strange, considering that Cantonese has a reputation for being a spoken language), so I need to focus more on listening, particularly if I want to improve my speaking.
   
2. Play badminton at least twice a week. I got really lazy and used studying as an excuse too much last year. At the same time, I don't want to aim too high in case I feel tempted to give up completely.
   
3. Maintain a Distinction average for my graduate diploma and gain admission into the LLM. Although I only have 3 subjects left for my grad dip, I know they will be amongst the hardest for me, so I'll really have to work hard and keep on top of the assessment schedule.
   

So far I'm not doing badly on numbers one and two. I've been listening to episode one of the RTHK radio dramatisation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and I played badminton 4 times last week. The real problem for me will be trying to balance numbers one and two with number three when the semester starts.

[renzhe]

6) Get comfortable at speaking fluently about a wide range of topics.

Great news, I accidentally stumbled upon a bi-weekly Chinese Speakers' Corner virtually across the street from where I live. It was lots of fun and I intend to do attend regularly.

[heifeng]

1. Maneuver my way into getting sent to China for work for once..or give up Chinese all together and just learn how to Samba j/k .

2. Continue recording an article every other day.

3. At least read a few articles in 新京报daily.

4. Read all the books I just bought in China.

5. Know how to say the technical stuff I have to say at work in English, but in Chinese...Try to find industry news in Chinese and stay updated.

6. Get back into doing some translation work after I finish some applications and exams..ugh.

7. Practice more E=>C translation as a subsitute for keeping a journal...which I always get bored of writing around the 1/2 yr mark.

8. Oh yeah, hurry up and study for the GMAT, my new standardized flavor of the month.

9. Stay on top of PSC, HSK, and CATTI exam stuff so one day I can finally achieve levels 2B,11, and 2, and complete my all around cycle of torture, also known as my 2008-but-temporarily-sidelined-examination-goals.

[roddy]

Let's give this the first of its 12 monthly bumps and see how we're all doing. I should also check in for the first time.

I'm not really giving myself any specific Chinese-improving goals at the moment, and am being fairly unproductive all round. I am aiming to do more Chinese reading and TV watching, but that's more a use for all the leisure time I'm unjustifiably awarding myself at the moment. Still, polished off a few Chinese books the last couple of months, along with about 1.33 TV series.

[renzhe]

OK, I'll go, since I started the thread and all that...

1) Finish the HSK vocabulary. I'm at around 6300+ vocabulary items, out of 8800 overall

2) Add the vocabulary lists from our Grand Episode and BotM projects for more vocabulary that isn't in the HSK

3) Finish Legend of the Condor Heroes. I'm about halfway through.

4) Read some other book(s) after I'm finished with that.

5) Keep on working on characters (both the ones encountered while reading, and the most frequent ones I'm missing), the new goal is 5000 characters.

6) Get comfortable at speaking fluently about a wide range of topics.

7) Be able to watch modern TV dramas and movies without subtitles (I still need to glance at them often, but it's getting better)

8 ) Take over the world!

1) Good progress here, learned about 500 new words already.

3) Excellent progress, almost finished with the book.

5) major stagnation, I've been stuck at around 3500. It seems like it's getting better now, my recall of old characters is much improved, so I'll start learning some new ones soon.

6) I've found a regular "Chinese corner" nearby by total accident and I never miss it. Excellent for speaking practice.

7) I've started watching more shows again, including shediao, which has no subtitles.

Points 2, 4 and 8 require finishing some other things first.

[heifeng]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Maneuver my way into getting sent to China for work for once..or give up Chinese all together and just learn how to Samba j/k .

2. Continue recording an article every other day.

3. At least read a few articles in 新京报daily.

4. Read all the books I just bought in China.

5. Know how to say the technical stuff I have to say at work in English, but in Chinese...Try to find industry news in Chinese and stay updated.

6. Get back into doing some translation work after I finish some applications and exams..ugh.

7. Practice more E=>C translation as a subsitute for keeping a journal...which I always get bored of writing around the 1/2 yr mark.

8. Oh yeah, hurry up and study for the GMAT, my new standardized flavor of the month.

9. Stay on top of PSC, HSK, and CATTI exam stuff so one day I can finally achieve levels 2B,11, and 2, and complete my all around cycle of torture, also known as my 2008-but-temporarily-sidelined-examination-goals.

1. Grrr I think I just need to learn Portuguese & samba instead...

2. so-so, more like 1x per week, mainly b/c I lost my voice for a bit last month:(

3. yeah, I read it still. The inside coverpage is my favorite, so I at least read that relatively frequently.

4. Good progress here! I think I'm on schedule to finish one of them soon.

5. see pt 1

6. ugh...zero progress.

7. zero progress.

8. I think i've given up on applications to anything since I'd be applying late and a certain employer decided to change a certain educational reimbursement policy..booooo...

9.Well, I am trying to turn my book reading into an opportunity to expand my vocab, so far so good. As long as I follow through and write up & review my notes, I think this will be the most useful project I've done in a while.

Other than these I did watch 1/2 of暖春...but sadly I have also watched 3 seasons of Melrose place on youtube...so I think this may have caused some severe brain rot this month. This month I hope to just finished watching the 3 Chinese series I started watching late last year!

Oh yeah, last, but not least: New goal alert: 10. Figure out what I will actually use my Chinese for one day...whether for good or evil, anything goes right about now j/k:help Progress on this goal: still absolutely none....

I give myself a D+ for the month!

Renzhe, you know you can just block off the bottom 1/8 of your TV screen to 'turn off' subtitles too, right?

Edited February 5, 2009 at 07:47 PM by heifeng
its bad to secretly type while on telecoms...more typos than normal

[renzhe]

That depends on the sound quality, though. some of the shows on youku are very difficult without subtitles for me. Usually, if the show is easier, I ignore the subtitles until I get lost.

Anyway, it was just an accident that I got a show without subtitles at a time when I want to practice listening more.

[imron]

After your post in the experiment thread, I started reading the 新京报 online most days now too - not as an objective thing, but just out of interest. It has a whole bunch of interesting stuff in it. Like the one today, about the guy trying to annul his marriage to someone who ran off 8 days after they were married - they had only known each other 3 days before getting married. Unfortunately, his bride used a fake name/ID card and so because she doesn't exist, the marriage can't be annulled so he's stuck married to a non-person :wall:help

[olivortex]

Main objective concerning mandarin: find the best audio source possible to learn. Sometimes, text is killing me, i need sole sound.

So if you know a real good internet source, i'l sure go check it out. otherwise i still have to purchase a good cd.

谢谢您