The 2010 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread

[edelweis]

So there are a few days left in this month but I took the TOP today and my study routine will change so here goes:

0) don't let Chinese eat up all my energy and free time - leave a little time for my other projects and some energy for the work I get paid to do

I so wish I'd win at the lottery and could quit my job to study Chinese and other interests full-time. OR that I did not work in an open space with nosy colleagues and were able to study Chinese when either sick of my job or bored after finishing a task as my boss is at a meeting, instead of staring blankly at the screen while daydreaming about a 12-week course at BLCU .

1) take the HSK (apparently it will be the new version here)

I'm just back from the TOP. Probably (?) passed the "For beginners" test, quite certainly flunked the "Basic" test (answered mostly at random). The funny thing is, when I went to get the answer sheet for the Basic test (after deliberating whether I should take it or just go home) they had mistakenly already given it to someone else (who apparently was unfazed by the unknown name on the sheet). So if I had just gone home, that Asian looking college girl would have taken the test in my name and I might have "passed"

Still unsure whether I will be able to take the HSK. I will probably register for level 3 anyway.

Note to self: taking a day off before a Chinese test is useless. Instead of reviewing or cramming I spent the day watching TV - and not even Chinese channels - so I did even less study than on a working day.

2) spend 15' per day learning/reviewing character writing

I reduced that a bit since I was busy with learning to read/pronounce the TOP vocabulary. However I will now step up on the writing for HSK since the new HSK level 3 does have some writing.

3) finish the 1033 word HSK vocab list

What 1033 word list? The new HSK has updated lists...

Anyway... in April I intend to review all the new vocab I learned for the TOP test and learn the few words which are in the new HSK 600-word list and not in the TOP 800-word list. After that I will probably start on the new HSK 1200-word list at a moderate pace, along with going back to textbook study (so there will be some vocab from the textbook(s) too).

4) finish the study of "chinese grammar without tears"

Stalled at 1/3 of the book. I only did some review this month as I was busy with vocab.

There's no particular hurry, but I'd like to restart at a moderate pace this month. Say 1 page per day, not 3 pages per day as I did in January.

5) submit at least one written exercise per week on Livemocha to practice 3) and 4)

(preferably more!)

hmmm... I was busy with TOP vocab. That's my March excuse.

6) keep watching chinese TV and listening to Chinese Breeze. Have a notepad and pen ready to take notes!

Aha!! I finally admitted that listening to my mp3 player while walking to/from work was not going to happen. So I've now changed my approach.

- replaced the music I used to wake up to with a mix of short Chinese audio tracks (Chinese with ease, Zhongwen red/green/blue, Talk Chinese, 301 juzi). So depending on how tired/asleep/lazy I am, I get between 10-30 minutes of listening practice every morning. I randomly change the order of tracks once a week.

- while doing dishes I listen to Chinese Breeze (about 15-20' every two or three days). Now just standing in the kitchen makes me think of 我一定要找到她. I will start on 你最喜欢谁 next.

- and I am still watching Chinese TV at meal times.

Low-priority goals:

7) finish the assimil "Chinese with ease" books

Might start on that after the HSK.

8 ) study one of my Talk Chinese books (perhaps the "IT talk" one)

No hurry here. I might start with one the the other, less specialized books, to reinforce basic "new HSK"/TOP vocab (which is more daily-life oriented that the old HSK vocab).

I think I'll change my morning audio mix to make it less random and methodically go through "Communicative Talk" and 301 juzi...

9) start traditional characters reading (I bought the NPCR1 textbook in traditional characters for that purpose)

No hurry here either. Might start this summer as a background task.

10) learn to type in zhengma and wubi and stop using pinyin input methods (for active character recall even when typing)

As soon as I am done with HSK, I'll start using only wubi on my linux PC, along with a systematic study of wubi.

11) learn the 1000 most frequent characters (in words, not by themselves). Right now I can recognize about 500.

No hurry, I'll do a check of which characters I have learned this summer perhaps.

[Gleaves]

Time for a 2010 Q1 update, I suppose.

I have found it extremely motivating (and fun) to keep detailed track of progress on my goals in google docs. If your goals are quantifiable, I highly suggest keeping detailed stats as a motivator.

1. Read 6 books. I plan to set aside an hour a day for reading.

I need to pick up the pace, but I'm happy that I've been consistently logging an hour of reading about five days a week. I'm halfway through A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin (Page 350 of 700). This one is tough because of all the transliterated names. I'm getting going on Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Sword by Gu Long (Page 200 of 1200). I have four other much shorter books lined up. I read James and the Giant Peach, but it was much more of a children's book than I was expecting (I thought it would be more of a young adult novel), so I'd rather not count it towards my total of six books this year.

2. Watch 4 TV episodes and 2 movies a week.

Yes and no. On average, I'm watching 5 shows a week, but only 1.5 movies. I am less and less intimidated to press play, though. I'm hoping that my watching habits will grow as the year goes on.

[roddy]

Little progress to report here. Had a very enjoyable trip to home and other points for most of March, which meant not doing a lot of stuff. Am currently trying to whack the Skritter mole back down in its hole, but don't see myself actually adding anything new for quite some time. All other constructive activities have also fallen by the wayside.

[querido]

Full-sentence production-only deck is at 450 cards.

Modern Chinese Reader is successfully "productionized".

Started Yong Ho (two volumes, lengthy dialogues).

[trisha2766]

I managed to finish NPCR4. Sort of. I've gone through the whole thing, but really didn't absorb it like I should. I plan to keep reviewing through those books, especially the last two for quite a while.

I didn't make a point to learn the supplementary words in the NPCR books before so that is what I am planning for April along with reviewing.

I've been unexpectedly busy the past few weeks so it has been hard to find time to study. I hope I find a bit more time soon.

[querido]

Words, recognition: 3000.

Hanzi, both ways: 1300.

Sentences, production: 700.

Live instruction on Chineseteachers.com: 1 hour.

Now in Yong Ho vol. 1 lesson 8 of 10. These lessons are all dialogue.

Truly automatizing everything in this book is the immediate goal.

[OneEye]

Haven't checked in here in a while...

I didn't get accepted to the university. Plans are changing. My wife and I will be moving to either China or Taiwan next summer so I can study in one of the non-degree language programs there. I'm looking into different places trying to figure things out. Are they generally selective? I was told that in Taiwan you basically just sign up and go, but the person wasn't sure if that also goes for more prestigious places, and didn't really know anything about the situation in China.

As far as studying, I'm basically having to shift gears to get ready for that. My speaking sucks. Really, really horrible. Since I've never really had anyone to talk to, I've mainly focused on listening and reading. So I'm looking for a tutor to help me with speaking over the next year or so. I might also try to cram in a bunch of characters, since I've heard that keeping up with character learning (especially with Korean and Japanese students in the class) is one of the hardest parts about these programs.

Anyway, we're really looking forward to the move! My wife probably a little less so.

By the way, I mentioned I was writing a book review on Ramsey's The Languages of China. My professor told me it was "publishable as is" and gave me an A+. I think he was being nice, but it was cool to hear, anyway.

[edelweis]

0) don't let Chinese eat up all my energy and free time - leave a little time for my other projects and some energy for the work I get paid to do

hmm. Need to work on:

- getting more sleep

- keeping focussed when at the office

1) take the HSK and/or TOP

TOP results are delayed "due to the ash cloud".

Registered for the New HSK level 3 test on the 15th of May.

2) spend 15' per day learning/reviewing character writing

This is going well. I've had to add some new cards in jmemorize as I had reached the end of my previously created stock of cards.

3) finish the 1033 word HSK vocab list

I've "finished" learning to read and pronounce the new HSK level 3 600-word list. For the first two weeks of May I will only review (add production cards as time permits). After the HSK I will start adding new words again. Of course, I have grandiose plans of working on old HSK/new HSK/TOP and various textbooks vocabulary lists. Will see later about a realistic plan.

4) finish the study of "chinese grammar without tears"

Still stalled at 1/3 of the book. In April I reviewed and worked on HSK level 3 sample sentences. I will keep working on that until the HSK. Afterwards I will go back to the book.

5) submit at least one written exercise per week on Livemocha to practice 3) and 4)

(preferably more!)

I actually started writing sentences in the Chinese Corner here. I need to do some review exercises regularly so that all the advice I receive (thanks!) does not fall out of my head.

6) keep watching chinese TV and listening to Chinese Breeze. Have a notepad and pen ready to take notes!

The morning audio mix + TV at mealtimes + Chinese Breeze while doing dishes is still working for now. However that means my mind is seldom fully engaged in listening. hmm.

Low-priority goals:

7) finish the assimil "Chinese with ease" books

Might start on that in June.

8 ) study one of my Talk Chinese books (perhaps the "IT talk" one)

I started with the first chapter of Communicative Talk, will resume in June.

9) start traditional characters reading (I bought the NPCR1 textbook in traditional characters for that purpose)

Actually started reading _some_ traditional characters in Skylee's posts

10) learn to type in zhengma and wubi and stop using pinyin input methods (for active character recall even when typing)

I will start this on the 16th. Right now I am stealing a few minutes here and there to review/learn all the radicals.

11) learn the 1000 most frequent characters (in words, not by themselves). Right now I can recognize about 500.

I checked today: can read/recognise about 600 of those characters now.

Also I've been thinking about getting a teacher to work on my speaking skills and keep myself motivated. I'll think about that after the HSK...

For the first two weeks of May I will be busy with family business, reviewing for the HSK, and not going out of my mind at work (and watching my mailbox for those TOP results). After that, I plan to seriously start on wubi (stop using pinyin when on linux, even if it slows down other areas of study) and take some time establishing a realistic plan and daily schedule for the 2nd half of 2010.

[Meng Lelan]

start traditional characters reading (I bought the NPCR1 textbook in traditional characters for that purpose)

That was what I did to keep up with both simplified and traditional characters - I would get NPCR volumes 1, 2, 3 in both simplified and traditional characters. I really like reading traditional by the way and it's true that skylee's traditional character posts are very motivating reading.

[Lu]

So, I haven't checked back here for a while because I wasn't making a lick of progress on either of my two goals, but last week pretty much out of the blue I got asked by a publisher if I wanted to translate a book. Nothing is finalized yet and there are no details or anything, but I really really want this. Keeping my fingers crossed...

[Meng Lelan]

Oh! I can guess the title of the book you're translating: "Secrets to Successful Steaming of Chicken", to be made available in a trilingual volume of Russian, Chinese, and English. Can I pre-order a copy for my Russian friend?

[Lu]

That book translation's not going to happen, unfortunately. At least not on that book. They wanted someone more experienced :-(

[querido]

Finished Yong Ho vol. 1, beginning vol. 2.

Accumulated words and sentences but is it language yet? No, still not.

Last month I didn't do the chineseteachers.com/live-interaction thing.

This month I intend to.

[heifeng]

Wow, Ok, I haven't visited in such a long time! I think I was secretly trying to break my addiction to the internet & CF...hehe....and then you know, when you don't write for a while you feel guilty. And then you avoid writing at all...well, ok, in summary I'm very very sorry that I literally disappeared for a while! It started with my trip to China and things took an interesting turn from there....it's actually been an insane 6 months. In any case, here is my recent study progress:

1. I will be finishing up my interpreting certificate program this summer, which has been quite enjoyable and helped me improve both my English and Chinese language skills, E->C interpreting skills* (basically the main direction we practice), as well as my knowledge of the US legal system. It's hard to imagine 1 year has gone by so quickly. I'll provide a write up on the program when it officially ends in 1-2 months.

2. I've taken this written exam, which, to be honest (and I will regret saying this later) wasn't that terrible. Did I pass--no. (waaah--i could see the words FAIL print out as I was walking to get my score), but It was pretty darn close to passing, which at least is encouraging...and annoying. I'll write a little about the exam in a separate dedicated post on that exam thread I started long ago. Apparently you can only take this written exam 2x's per year, so I have time to study up on the one particular section that ruined ruined ruined my life score. <_< j/k

3. English vocab: Improving. Yeah ;) Ok, so I've literally had to get SAT/GRE books from China and go back and forth between the languages, which was fun. ( I am not even sure if I'm being sarcastic any more here). But I've forced myself to do it and it helped in the exam. (doubt it will help me in my acronym plagued job though....)

4. Medical vocab: well, I've strayed a bit from my system-a-month studying plan, but I did manage to get organized a while back and get my binders & files nice and neat with forms, brochures, instructions, and other medical & insurance related things I wanted to know how to sight interpret on the spot. So now at least I can go through doctors office forms & instructions pretty easily...ya know, your standard diseases & allergies to medications blah blah.

5. Legal vocab: Ok, I basically memorized that other book I mentioned a while ago, and now I just correct /note things in it as I find/hear different ways to express certain terms. Why---because you will hear something different everywhere! (not for everything but for a number of US legal terms!). Per an instructor's recommendation I have taken to reading 世界日报 now instead of just the usual 法制晚报 to see how things are 'translated' for readers in the US, etc.

6. Reading. Ok, well, in order to sacrifice for the above 5 items my leisure reading in Chinese has really taken a nose dive...unless of course you count reading the dictionary. Which I've had to actually do a bit---afterall you don't really know a word until you know its #5 definition. However, one of my first orders of business is to at least finish 回归悲剧 which has been collecting dust for 1/2 a year! ridiculous!! I think I have a few more actual novels around here that I will start (or finish) reading. This summer is going to back to leisure reading! yeahhhhhhh

7. Pronunciation: I still read and record occasionally, but I haven't given myself a PSC practice test in a while, which I need to start doing again. As a part of my class I still have to practice myself recording, so at least there IS some effort on the pronunciation front.

So, now I need to think of some goals for the 2nd half of 2010 ....I'll think about these in time for next month. Right now I need to drown my exam failing sorrows in a nice icy diet coke......I was seriously trying to come back here with some good news not sucky news, but hey, 失败是成功之母...and all that good, positive, motivational stuff.

ps. I missed all you guys!

edit: (and clearly NOT spelling skills hehe..proofreading still in progress)

[roddy]

Heifeng, you do about a dozen times as much as me and still write as if you've been slacking off.

I haven't been achieving very much lately. Been doing some great eating and drinking though.

[Gleaves]

My goals and updates...

1. Read 6 books.

I finally finished my first book of the year - 盛世. I picked it up after someone mentioned it here it in the “What are You Reading” thread. It was interesting, but a bit slow and contained plenty of political science type discussion that is above my Chinese level. I’m in the middle of three other books, and then have some others waiting after that. If I can keep up my current pace of about 300 pages a months, I should hit my goal of 6 for the year.

2. Watch 4 TV episodes and 2 movies a week.

I slacked on this big time in May, but I’m still averaging about 3 ½ shows and 2 movies a week.

I have some other goals, but I’m not sure I want to really commit to them. I have an HSK flashcard deck in Pleco where the front of the card is just audio, the back of the card is the characters/definition, to force some systemic listening practice. I’ve been learning more than 300 cards a week, so in theory I could get through all of them by Winter. I also need to get a tutor or teacher, online or off.

[renzhe]

Well, I've just started doing flashcards again after about 2 months' pause.

You can guess how my progress has been

I'm hoping to clear the backlog in two weeks or so...

[edelweis]

Short update:

Goal 1 (take the HSK) reached, working on all other goals.

Long update (with study routines at the end)

(feel free to skip, this is probably mainly for myself, although comments are welcome)

I think the lengthening days and the HSK-goal-reached high contributed to a renewed frenzy of Chinese language study.

Also I thought up a more varied study schedule which feels more fun than dry vocabulary and grammar cramming - although there are still some kinks to work out...

0) don't let Chinese eat up all my energy and free time - leave a little time for my other projects and some energy for the work I get paid to do

I am getting more sleep (or at least going to bed earlier).

Was supposed to return to music and other languages review but that has not really happened yet.

Discussed some issues with my boss. Felt somewhat motivated. We'll see.

1) take the HSK and/or TOP

This goal is already achieved regardless of HSK results.

TOP "for beginners" passed (in simplified characters).

Already planning to take TOP Basic in traditional characters and HSK level 4 next year (well... lots of thing could happen between now and then...)

2) spend 15' per day learning/reviewing character writing

Still going well. I need either to learn more lessons of "Chinese with ease" or devise another course of study for character writing.

3) finish the 1033 word HSK vocab list

Hmm... am working in parallel on finishing up that old HSK 1033 list (200 words left), the new HSK 4 list, the TOP Basic list, a Sinolingua HSK vocabulary book, a thematic vocabulary workbook...

I think if I keep going this way at the end of the year I will probably know a lot of words that start with the first half of the alphabet and ridiculously few words from the end of the lists (perhaps I should work from both ends or something)

4) finish the study of "chinese grammar without tears"

In addition to morning SRS review I am now spending 15' on the book in the evening.

5) submit at least one written exercise per week on Livemocha to practice 3) and 4) (preferably more!)

Livemocha: too difficult to find an appealing exercise etc.

Chinese Corner: really great but eventually unbalanced since I can't help people back. It was a really good stepping stone to Lang-8. Many thanks to all forum members that helped me gain confidence.

Lang-8: works for now. I get to choose the subject, words and structures, and as long as I don't exceed 5-6 sentences per day and reciprocate, I get corrections and I feel my writing improves.

6) keep watching chinese TV and listening to Chinese Breeze. Have a notepad and pen ready to take notes!

It seems that as soon as I find an interesting program they change the schedule and I get lost.

Anyway... good programs for me right now are 到北京学汉语 (Beijing TV 7:00 here), 快乐汉语 (CCTV4, 12:15 here), 动画城（CCTV4, 19:15 here).

Listening to CSLpod Intermediate (or other) while doing the dishes etc.

Low-priority goals:

7) finish the assimil "Chinese with ease" books

Already started, I intend to study 2 chapters per week. As my level has improved a lot since last fall, I don't need to flashcard every sentence and every word anymore.

8 ) study one of my Talk Chinese books

I intend to study one chapter of Communicative Talk per week (or less, but should have at least one study session per week + flashcard review).

9) start traditional characters reading (I bought the NPCR1 textbook in traditional characters for that purpose)

Started with the 1st chapter already. Should be very easy for the first few chapters.

I am also generally adding traditional characters flashcards in my vocabulary and textbook studies (although I think I won't do it for every word if the traditional characters are easy to deduce)

10) learn to type in zhengma and wubi and stop using pinyin input methods

About 10-15' per day of wubi+radicals drills. I have not stared typing in wubi yet.

11) learn the 1000 most frequent characters (in words, not by themselves). Right now I can recognize about 500.

Can read/recognise/recall a word for about 625 of those characters now. And some of the others definitely seem familiar, although I don't recognize them outside of a word yet.

That's for simplified characters. Traditional characters are another matter.

I think my new daily and weekly schedules are way too complex.

However the working day schedule seems to work for now... I'll ease up a bit if/when I find myself dreading all things Chinese.

Anyway for the record, here is the working day schedule:

Morning:

In bed, while stretching legs: parrot textbooks current lessons tracks.

While exercising: random audio tracks, or exercise video (although I don't understand much of those)

While having breakfast: chinese TV

15' (or more) SRS vocabulary review

15' SRS grammar review

Check Lang-8 for corrections to previous day's journal entry.

Noon:

watch 快乐汉语 while preparing (quick, quick!)/eating lunch.

15' to 20' character writing.

At work:

try and think up a theme for the next Lang-8 journal entry.

Evening:

15' "Chinese Grammar Without Tears"

15' new vocabulary (often more)

10' reading (or attempting to read) varied texts

~15' watching 动画城 while having supper

~10' listening to podcasts while doing dishes

15' textbook lesson flashcarding if not done on weekend, else review+exercises

?? writing up 5-6 sentences on Lang-8 and correcting other people's work.

10-15' wubi and radicals

The above has worked fine for the past three weeks (except on Friday nights but that's allowed!).

I'm having a little more difficulty adjusting a doable weekend schedule. Here is the current schedule:

- 15' SRS vocabulary review (Sat and Sun)

- 15' SRS grammar review (Sat and Sun)

- 15' character writing (at least on Saturday)

- 1 chapter or more of NPCR1 in traditional characters (textbook only - easy for now)

- 2 chapters of "Chinese with ease" (I think, about 2x30' for initial learning, about 2x30' for flashcarding chars, words and a few of the sentences, then review during the week)

- 1 chapter or 1 study session of "Communicative Talk" (say, 30-40' maximum)

- 1 chapter of 301句 1st book (very easy at the beginning, 10-20')

- 1 chapter of 301句 2nd book (learn, flashcard, do some exercises, plan exercises for the week, say 40')

- Usual Lang-8 writing and correcting (Sat and Sun)

- Lang-8 advice review, flashcard, plan to reuse new words and structures

- reading and listening of random sources at will. Some of it might follow the working day schedule, or not.

Obviously this lacks live speaking practice. I've not yet decided how to go about that.

To be honest speaking is both my weakest skill and of least interest to me whatever the language.

Also I feel somewhat in limbo in many areas of my life so it's not easy to think about committing to a fixed class.

Ideally I'd like to have a small group conversation class once a week on Saturdays (no luck finding that so far) and perhaps a short internet or telephone chat once or twice a week.

Another issue is that this schedule obviously lacks direction... for some reason I feel compelled to study every textbook I have, even if some of them are somewhat under my level. At least I will have a good grasp of the basics, right?

I tried to add NPCR2 to the mix but the chapters are long so that will wait until I have finished NPCR1.

Anyway I can change this schedule when it doesn't work anymore... and my study routines will probably adjust by themselves over time or crash at some point. We'll see.

[Gleaves]

No progress to report, but I've noticed that others have been throwing plus ones at progress reports. I think that is awesome. I'll throw a plus one at anyone reporting positive progress on their aims.

[querido]

Bad news: Brain is full.

Good news: Making progress consolidating.

I said I was starting Yong Ho vol. 2 but I haven't felt like it yet.

Volume 1 actually has hundreds more sentences (examples, exercises) almost "free" in that I know all of the words.

I must be in the "long march" phase as it feels like nothing's happening. But that can't be true. So, see you next month.