The 2012 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread

[jbradfor]

A bit late setting goals this year. I think because my primary goal is to regain my interest in continuing to learn Chinese.

Assuming I do, what I plan on doing is

1. Continue to read 平凡的世界. I like it thus far, and the level looks really good for me. However, I've reached a bit of a low point, as the initial "OMG! I'm reading Chinese! OMG! I'm reading Chinese!" rush has worn off, and now it's just rather slow going.
   
2. Exercise 2-3 times a week. This is related to Chinese, as it's the only time I have to listen to podcasts. And while I'm there, maybe try some new ones.
   
3. Focus more on speaking. On one hand, I don't really care about this skill right now. OTOH, it is by far my weakest skill, and I'm feeling too unbalanced. And if I manage to improve it a bit, I think I would have enough confidence to speak to random Chinese in Chinese.
   
4. Read the two textbooks I didn't read in 2011.
   

[paike]

1) I started reading books in Chinese in preparation for an MA in Chinese in 18 months. So hopefully I can read some books in Chinese, every two weeks or so. Yu Hua's books are easy, 慕容雪村 is much harder, while 韩寒 is somewhere in the middle. Like to read most of their books, first.

2) Maybe this summer go back to the States and take the ACTFL Speaking Test in Chinese for fun!

3) Take the Hsk again. Took it 4 years ago and got a 6/8. My 综合 score was terrible, every written character was wrong! =( Still can't write Chinese, but read well.

4) Watch everything 孙红雷 has been in. He is among a handful of good Chinese actors!

5) Keep on rocking in the free world!

6) I've seen Pro-Skritter comments. Maybe I should jump on board and get somewhere with my written Chinese.

Re-watch all my Spiderman Cartoons I bought on Amazon.com.cn which are AWESOME. The humor translates well. Big Plus for those if you like Cartoons. Watch all my 聪明的一休， 正版 cartoons. Got it on buy360.com. Also really good. Ones on Amazon have bad voice overs.

[Guest realmayo]

First six months: consolidate; second six months: push on.

1) Recently restarted relearning how to write characters: finish this to the 3,000+ mark well before mid-year.

2) Recently reset my Anki deck containing loads of Chinese->English vocab: continue going through this to have all the cards either current or suspended/deleted, before mid-year

3) Learn Korean -- basic conversational Korean before mid-year.

4) Chinese TV: 90 mins a day (thank you 45mins each way on a train commute)

5) Read Chinese books or magazines: a little but often

6) Decide who has the best-sounding Chinese, the actor who plays Cao Cao in the recent Three Kingdoms TV series, or the guy who plays Liu Bei (陈建斌 vs 于和伟)

[character]

- Learn more words. I feel my limited vocabulary is keeping me from getting more out of movies.

- Grammar knowledge improve my.

[edelweis]

I have only 3 Chinese goals this year:

1) pass HSK4.

Preparation for this involves learning the vocabulary (SRS + targeted listening + writing) and practicing with the mock-up tests.

2) drill 600 to 800 new characters (up to the 2100th most frequent one at least)

This must be complemented with daily reading otherwise they just fall from my head.

3) keep attending the weekly class.

This involves mainly grammar, and some speaking, and just going to the classes.

So I will report monthly about these.

Additionally I will set myself a few easy little tasks each month.

At least one of these should involve a language other than Chinese/English/French.

January tasks:

01-1 fill one a4 sheet with Arabic writing. (from my little cursive writing handbook if I can find it).

01-2 install the HSK4 flashcards on my new smartphone.

01-3 attend the Chinese new year procession.

01-4 set up some kind of alert or reminder at work, so that I remember to work on my English pronunciation.

[renzhe]

4) Watch everything 孙红雷 has been in. He is among a handful of good Chinese actors!

You can start with these, they are all good:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/21418-first-episode-50-%e6%bd%9c%e4%bc%8f/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/35441-first-episode-88-%e7%94%b7%e4%ba%ba%e5%b8%ae-men/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/17176-first-episode-7-%e8%90%bd%e5%9c%b0%e8%af%b7%e5%bc%80%e6%89%8b%e6%9c%ba/

[chaiknees]

In this post i want to combine the review of my results so far as well as set the targets for 2012.

I started learning Chinese in June 2010 (in spare-time besides a full-time job), this equals 80 weeks so far.

----------

Status and targets set beginning of 2011 (black) // actual status beginning of 2012 (blue) /// targets for 2012 (red):

Textbook NPCR (now lesson 33): finish book 3 and 4 (lesson 50)

// Already finished the whole series NPCR 1 ~ 6 (lesson 70). By adjusting my daily schedule I saved much time to finish. But I also need to mention that in the end i skipped several of the additional materials as I prefer non-fictional texts to prose. After NPCR worked through "Stories of the Chinese" and finished it last week.

/// I already started with Road to Success (which I like much better than NPCR so far) on lower intermediate level. I hope to reach lower advanced within this year. Why an additional text book series? I tried more native material, but it's to early for me, still need to lookup too many words.

Hanzi (now 1440): 2500, this is about 3 per day due to growing ratio new words / new characters

// 2400. Target not achieved.

/// Mmmh hard to say. Let's say 2800 (makes 400 new Hanzi this year)

Anki facts (now 2700): 5500, this is about 8 per day

// 7600. Target achieved. Besides NPCR I added a few additional materials and keep on doing Anki every day (about 20 minutes). The rapidly growing ratio new words / new characters might be an explanation why I didn't reach my Hanzi target although by far exceeded the facts target.

/// 12000 (about 12 per day)

Review becomes more and more important. I must consider daily review and consolidation as more important than moving forward in the book (after finishing a lesson maybe taking a few days break just to review old stuff). Especially regarding speaking practise. There I am far behind my passive level. Actually being in China is the perfect environment, I should make more use of it. If I have more practise in daily life, maybe I can increase my learning speed again.

// Finally I found a way to do my daily reviews. As I constantly create and update a big Excel file with grammar summary, phrases and example sentences I can use it well during every day's lunch break in the office. Saves much time and is effective. As for speaking practise, I can have simple conversation with my colleagues during work and also spend more time with my non-English-speaking friends 一边聊天,一边练习 ;-) But nevertheless speaking is still my weakest point.

And using a food delivery without help is still on my list ;-)

// Still not done...

/// In 2012 it MUST finally happen

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Further targets for 2012:

• Continue with my daily schedule. In the past I found to spend almost more time on thinking about "how, what and when to learn" than on actual learning. But now I got it finally, effective and utilizing my time as good as possible.
  
• Continue working through the Iowa collection as supplementary (and "semi-native") reading material.
  
• Working through "Urban Chinese" to further build up vocabulary.
  
• For additional listening practise: Finish Dashan's "Communicate in Chinese" on CCTV website.
  
• Hire a tutor for maybe 2 hours per week for conversation and correction.
  

[abcdefg]

In 2012 I plan to continue placing the emphasis on reading and small compositions. My conversation remains way ahead of both although it is loaded with mistakes.

I cannot really promise to practice writing more Hanzi even though that is the weakest link in my "Chinese package." The effort required is not commensurate with the gains I think I would reap. Went to the post office yesterday and was able to write my name and return address freehand on the forms, which is probably just about as good as it's going to get.

I will take the HSK for the first time in May, though I'm not going to go all nuts about studying for it day and night. Nothing really depends on the outcome; it will be more diagnostic than anything else.

Every year I stay in China longer and soak up more daily life language through informal contact with Chinese friends and through domestic travel. It isn't "book learning" but I hope it still counts because it's both easy and enjoyable. Maybe this year I can visit Tibet.

As far as other non-academic projects, this year in Kunming I have a decent kitchen and plan to go to the nearby wet market more often and try cooking a wider range of dishes using unfamiliar ingredients as well as old favorites. Last year my flat had no refrigerator, which was a definite limiting factor.

[renzhe]

My list for 2012:

1) Introduction of the "Chinese Saturday"

2) Finish 水浒传 . About three pages per day should do it.

3) Watch TV shows without reading any subtitles. Stuff like 非诚勿扰 , but also 男人帮. Stuff I can follow without reading any subtitles. Reading subtitles harms my listening comprehension.

4) Finish old HSK vocab, which I started this year (not a priority). I'm not missing much, but I want to solidify it all, and getting through easy stuff I know is time-consuming

5) Finish the 1400 chengyu I started this year

6) After 4) and 5), start working on writing characters by hand

The "Chinese Saturday" is my new idea for improving conversation. Every Saturday, my girlfriend and I speak only Chinese, and nothing else, regardless of how uncomfortable it gets. Exceptions only when talking to other people, or in groups where some other language is unavoidable. Typically, we'll try to reschedule such things to avoid a clash, though.

We've tried it already this year to see if it's feasible, and it works fine. I really hated explaining computer software bugs in Chinese. I hated discussing shopping in Chinese. It makes me do things I hate (and therefore skip), which means it's working. If we see this through, it will be 52 days of Chinese conversation in 2012, which is close to about 2 months spent in China.

[OneEye]

I'm breaking my goals into smaller monthly goals this year, hoping that will go some way toward keeping me on track, but also allow me to make adjustments to my plan as I go along. So for January, my goals are as follows:

Taiwan Today: finish Chapter 9 (just finished Ch. 3, but it's pretty easy going)

Far East IIB: finish Chapter 22 (just finished Ch. 18)

Fuller: Finish Lesson 21 (just finished Lesson 12, 2 per week is sustainable for now)

PAVC: Finish Book III

Apply to ICLP

Finish The Emperor of China and start on Return to Dragon Mountain. I'm on a Jonathan Spence kick.

Those goals should be doable if I'm able to keep going at the pace I've been going the last few weeks. The pace of PAVC isn't up to me since it's my textbook for class, but I think we should finish it by the end of the month, or at least be close. I'm applying to ICLP for admission in the Fall in hopes that a scholarship comes through for me. My teacher from last term, who also teaches at ICLP, is recommending me for a scholarship from ICLP, but I'm not holding my breath for it. If I don't get it, then I'll be continuing as planned at MTC because I can't afford ICLP's tuition.

That should be more than enough to keep me occupied for January.

[Meng Lelan]

Oh, I really liked Taiwan Today and PAVC. Taiwan Today just came out with a new edition. I hope you get into ICLP.

[OneEye]

Yeah, Taiwan Today is really great. I'm reaching the end of my patience with the cheesy dialogues in PAVC, but I do enjoy the class a lot, so it's fine. They are better than many of the other textbooks I've seen and used, and the vocab and everything else is all useful, but the dialogues just kill me. I'm told Book V is much better, but it's a few months before I get there.

Thanks for the good wishes. I'd love to go to ICLP and have no life for 9 months outside of studying Chinese, but like I said, I'm not holding my breath for that scholarship. I'll be just fine at MTC if I don't get it.

[Meng Lelan]

I really like your goals. Hang in there with the PAVC, I know what you mean, the dialogues in Books 1, 2 and 3 are idiotic (been there, done that with PAVC) but it does get better in Book 4 and lots better in Book 5, you will get there and you will like it a lot better then.

[Loriquero]

keep improving my tones.

write hanzi... If I were to take HSK 6, is for sure that I will fail it basically because I'm terrible writing.

Watch more chinese tv shows. 爱情公寓 is a funny way to learn 成语s.

[jbradfor]

The "Chinese Saturday" is my new idea for improving conversation. Every Saturday, my girlfriend and I speak only Chinese, and nothing else, regardless of how uncomfortable it gets.

And if you ever need a break from Chinese, just have a big fight with her Friday evening.

[querido]

The overarching goal is to be able to manage a real (simple) friendship in Chinese/English with less frustration and exhaustion.

1) CSLPod Intermediate, hopefully all of it, with stress on real listening and speaking. Audio immersion is necessary.

2) Integrated Chinese, all of it. I'm studying this series with a QQ friend who is attending college. I'm counting it as an intro to grammar.

3) Three Character Classic 三字经。How much? Don't know. My teacher is fond of it.

4) Refresh my level in my children's books as time permits.

[renzhe]

And if you ever need a break from Chinese, just have a big fight with her Friday evening.

You are seriously underestimating my girlfriend.

What would happen is that she would go to sleep early on Friday, and then attack with all weapons on Saturday, when she has tactical advantage!

[Meng Lelan]

renzhe, I would love to be the invisible fly on the wall so I could listen in on all that.

[Loriquero]

What would happen is that she would go to sleep early on Friday, and then attack with all weapons on Saturday, when she has tactical advantage!

I have not just a "chinese saturday", but a "chinese everyday" with my girlfriend and I´m telling you... that´s something challenging. I feel like... I don´t know, Mark Zuckemberg in front of Mike Tyson. A Shanghainese female Tyson.

[valikor]

I think I pretty much failed at most of my 2011 goals, but we'll try again this year!

--Find a teacher and practice Kouyu for at least several hours a week. I really need to speak more. If I'm lucky, my listening will be good enough by the end of the year that I'll even be able to understand my roommate (who has a moderately thick accent).

--Watch at least 5-10 hours of TV per week, adding the majority of new words/chengyu to anki (except any words that friends tell me are very rare). Try to rely on subtitles less.

--Develop some sort of reading habit

--Learn to type in Wubi. I am very excited about this goal, although it's going to be difficult because there are lots of characters that I don't know how to write. Along with this, I will probably practice hand-writing characters. I don't expect my characters to be attractive (since I can't even make my English handwriting look decent), but I hope my characters look at least as good as a 10-year-old Chinese student's.

--Keep blogging in Chinese. I gave up on this a while ago and would like to start again.

--Know at least 4,000 characters by the end of the year. This should happen naturally