Some help setting a few goals

[Lycar]

Hello everyone as this is my first time posting here.

On to the point, I have been studying Chinese off and on for the past year and a half (Finished the intermediate book of Integrated Chinese). My Chinese teacher decided to take a job over 3 states away so I no longer have anyone to practice with in real life and have thus had to start teaching myself. (My college offers what they call SILP which stands for Self-Instructed Language Program but I figured I'd save myself $450 since I'd be teaching myself anyway).

Basically I am looking for a few members to hopefully post their suggestions on a couple goals I should aim for / check my progress by and maybe even a timeframe. What have other members here found challenging to complete in a certain amount of time, things like that. I have a tendancy to bite off more than I can chew when I set my own goals so I am looking for a more level headed person who has been through this stage to hopefully suggest a challenging yet achievable goal.

My current study habits: Basically I use flashcards I bought from a local bookstore and use these while in transit between school and home or anywhere I know I will have to wait 15+ minutes. I learn 34 new words a week and review all of my old words each night thanks to the above mentioned notecards. I know I need to start listening to and reading more Chinese and I am currently looking into graded readers to order along with some (hopefully) simple dialogues on CD that I can listen to in transit as well.

Sorry for the long rambling post.

[abcdefg]

Basically I am looking for a few members to hopefully post their suggestions on a couple goals I should aim for...

Goals are a very individual matter, hinging on why you want to learn Chinese in the first place. That being said, maybe at least have a look at the SILP your university advises to see how they approach leading students an appropriate balance between the component language skills of reading, writing, and speaking.

I have a tendancy to bite off more than I can chew when I set my own goals

Also, you might at least entertain the possibility that the structured course your university offers might be worth the cost.

[anonymoose]

From your post, it seems like you are drilling passive skills (listening and reading), but if you really want to improve, you need to start exercising your active skills (in other words, producing the language yourself). This is more difficult because you have noone to interact with. I suggest continue what you're doing, but see if you can arrange language exchange with chinese students (if you have any there). Also you can try finding some Chinese friends on the net that you can chat with over msn or skype. It's not ideal, but there's only so far you can get just by listening and reading.

[Hofmann]

Well, let's see what area(s) you want to develop. If there's nobody to talk to, you'll still be able to develop conversational skills (by reading dialogues or playing text-heavy video games). However, that's only part of the package that you need to be a competent Chinese user. While you don't have someone to talk to, you might want to focus on other areas, such as reading comprehension or composition.