The 2012 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread

[imron]

I'd really love to spend more time applying the famous "imron method"

As much as I would like to claim credit for it, it's actually the famous 赫杰 method. At least that's where I got it from anyway

[heifeng]

2012 Goals update Q1:

1. Listening: Q1-Q4

Status: I finished watching 北京爱情故事 & am ½ through watching 夫妻那些事. Also I have been listening to radio news in the AM for at least ½ hour each day.

2. Speaking/pronunciation: Q1-Q4

Status: I’ve been back tracking and organizing my notes/ANKI flashcards for completed PSC practice tests. No use in making the same mistakes (well re-forgetting the same tones that is)! Also, I have been practicing langdu pretty much every other day, even though I may not always post the articles.

3. Writing: Q1-Q4

Status: This has been neglected. I need to find new ways to hand write & even type more frequently. This will be a goal to explore more this quarter.

4.Reading: Q1-Q4

I have started this book中国式看守所 which is right up my alley of reading about crime & criminal proceedings .

5.Vocab & special knowledge

I’ve been collecting/reading many medical articles in Chinese this quarter since I’ve been concurrently studying medical terminology--Overall, I think this area has had some reasonable progress.

5. History

*crickets chirping* (drats, this always happens…ughhh) I predict Q3 will be better for this goal.

6. Activities & Classes Q1-Q4

I completed my Medical Terminology course* and am about ½ complete with an online language program. I think I will actually receive certificates of completion for both of these, so I guess I’ll get some more fancy paper to throw into a box and store hehe. My medical course had taken quite a bit of my time over the last 2 months, so by next quarter I should be able to spend a bit more time on other activities! (*Great class, but now I afraid of every illness and disease under the sun….I’m not sure whether to thank our teacher (a full-time nurse with her share of interesting stories) or not! Oh well, at least I know how to say the terms in English & Chinese instead of a weird combo of one or the other!!)

7. Exams

Alas I have passed all of my certification exams for court interpreting(*) Hooray! 6 months behind schedule, but I’ll take it anyway. (*different requirements for different states, now I no longer need to worry about that pesky reciprocity for the states I would be interested in)

OTHER:

Get a plan together to go back to China: this is being worked slowly. At least I will be back for a while this summer. The details will need to be sorted out this quarter though!

Phew...onto Q2

[querido]

My teacher and I continue to work together.

Will we finish CSLPod Intermediate this year?

I don't know.

Edit:

I should have done this at least two years ago:

Except for my deck of CSLPod Elementary words (which I don't feel like going back to change, only 1100 words), my studies are all-Chinese now: CSLPod Elementary and Intermediate whole-dialogue cards with audio, Intermediate sentence cards ("cloze delete" style created by Chinese Word Extractor and Wenlin), and practice with my tutor.

Also, though CSLPod includes readings at more than one speed, I am now listening to fast only. (two full days to snip it all out. not bad)

Having a tutor and being friends with her family has been a reward in itself, even if I never do anything else with this language.

[edelweis]

In case you're wondering, February was basically a waste study-wise (for reasons unrelated to anything Chinese), although I did start watching stupid Chinese shows such as 智勇大冲关 instead of stupid western shows such as Wipeout, so I did not completely lose touch with the Chinese language.

Stats for March are still not that great - do better in April.

Also, I re-read lots of interesting threads on this board about study methods and resolved to immerse myself in Chinese as much as possible, so I bought two MP3 playing gadgets to make this easier when not in the same room as the computer, and a new headset with comfy in-ear buds for my smarpthone (the old ones made my ears ache - no wonder I never stuck with listening), and selected some non-didactic but still easy stuff to listen to such as April's podcast and Chinese Stories Platform stories.

1) pass HSK4.

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

SRS:14/31 (on smartphone)

Listening: 6/31 (partly automated the process + using smartphone and new headset, sticking to it is getting easier now)

Writing: 0

Vocabulary: 0 (and I have these HSK核心词汇天天学 books sitting on my shelf!)

Mock-up tests: 0 (I'll do one tomorrow - April already !!)

I'm planning to take the actual test in June.

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.

Up to: 1575 characters (that's 75 characters in 3 months pfff)

Drilling: 8/31

Reading: 8/31 (well, I've had 圈子圈套 for 18 weeks now, and I'm only on page 118... I really want to finish it soon so I can get started on Sci-Fi.)

3) keep attending the weekly class.

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

Classes: 2/3

Grammar: 12/31

Speaking/Spoken language: 2/31 (only during classes)

February tasks (extended to March):

02-1 make an anki deck with basic Arabic verb derivations.

Failed.

02-2 buy a Spanish Sci-Fi novel from this list

Done. I bought Trilogía de las Tierras by Jordi Sierra i Fabra.

02-3 add reverse cards to my HSK4 deck (both with pinyin on the front side, and with meaning on the front side).

Done (three days ago)

02-4 any China related outing beyond going to the Chinese Cultural Center or library.

Failed.

April tasks:

04-1 Challenge: have one "perfect" day (completing all 8 15-minute tasks of writing, reading, speaking, listening, SRS, vocabulary, grammar, and character drilling - that's 2 hours of active studying - plus passive immersion for at least 2 hours.)

04-2 Create an anki deck from the 圈子圈套 most frequent vocabulary items.

04-3 Review the first 3 lessons from my old Arabic textbook.

04-4 Start reading Trilogía de las Tierras.

04-5 Put up ads to sell my old Sci-Fi and Fantasy books in English - I've got to make room for all the Chinese stuff I'm planning to buy.

[OneEye]

Goals for March:

1) Literary Chinese for Advanced Beginners: Lesson 4 (this will depend on how quickly the difficulty increases)

Did through Lesson 3. Should be able to catch up next week because I don't have class.

2) 20 Lectures on Chinese Culture: Lesson 6 (I said before that I had quit this book, but it's pretty useful)

I quit this book, again. I got a similar (based on the same original book and vocabulary list), but MUCH, MUCH better book. I'll talk about this below.

3) Learning Chinese with Newspaper I: Lesson 3 (published by my school)

I did Lessons 1 and 2, but I'm going to hold off on this until next term. My reading level is pretty decent right now, and my speaking really needs some intensive work, so other than 文言文 I won't be doing any reading-focused stuff for a while.

*4) Chinese Customs and Traditions: 1-2 chapters per week (Supplementary reader, pretty easy going)

Same deal here. I'll probably pick this back up later for some easy reading practice.

Native material to use every week:

1) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: read some daily

Not anywhere near daily, but occasionally. I'm almost done with the first chapter. The last time I picked it up I realized I can read it much faster than before, several pages per hour.

*2) 國語日報: a few articles per week (awesome local newspaper for kids)

Nope. Every once in a while I pick it up, and that's good with me.

*3) Ranma 1/2 (亂馬1/2): for fun, not much learning going on here anymore

Again, occasionally. I could probably sit down and finish this one (first book) really quickly if I wanted to, but it's more a diversion than anything else at this point.

*4) Chinese TV Shows

Nope. Oh well.

Other:

1) Don't quit French

I haven't quit. I haven't continued much either. But I have done some stuff with French, so I'm good with it.

2) Apply to ICLP (this has been a goal for three months now. If I don't apply this month it will be too late)

Applied. Still trying to decide whether to go or not.

So, lots of failures this month. I'm good with that, because I still accomplished a lot. I've found that if I set way too many goals for myself, and accomplish only 50%, I've still accomplished a lot because I've worked really hard. If I set realistic goals, I don't feel like I have to work as hard, so I don't accomplish as much. I'm good at applying pressure on myself, but I'm also good at slacking on that pressure, so if I ramp it up I'm likely to accomplish more. This may sound weird, but that's how it goes.

A reader of my blog generously hooked me up with a textbook I had been looking for for a while called Talks on Chinese Culture (TOCC) that's used at ICLP, but not sold to people who aren't currently studying that course there. He found a used copy and gave it to me. It's similar to the 20 Lectures on Chinese Culture that I was studying before in that it they both serve as an introduction into more academic vocabulary, and both are mentioned as options to study before moving on to Thought and Society. Anyway, the book is leaps and bounds better than 20 Lectures, though it's still very much 國民黨 oriented, and uses some specifically mainland vocabulary. Like many textbooks here, it even uses 兒化 on many words, but then it teaches Taiwanese pronunciation and tones, which results in people saying things like "lèsè (垃圾) tǒng zài nǎr?" Which of course is not said by anyone in either country, other than foreign students in Taiwan who don't know better yet.

Anyway, these are minor gripes. The book is outstanding. Each chapter has a dialogue which introduces the vocabulary in conversation (seems like the two characters discuss the upcoming lecture), then a several-page lecture (15-20 minutes), and then a followup dialogue. Good stuff. So I'll be using this now, along with the audio that another friend gave me, instead of 20 Lectures.

OK, so on to April's goals:

1) Mini Radio Plays (in class): we'll probably finish through chapter 10 this month if we keep moving at the pace we are now.

2) TOCC: Maybe finish half the book (6 chapters)? I'll be using the audio intensively and drilling sentence patterns with this one.

3) Literary Chinese for Advanced Beginners: Lesson...8? Not sure, because I may end up putting this on hold for a bit so I can do some reading from my 四書讀本.

4) Keep reading Harry Potter.

5) Listen to, shadow, and even memorize as much audio as possible. My conversational Chinese is not keeping pace with my reading, and this is something I really need to address.

Supplementary Stuff

1) New Radio Plays (another text from ICLP, with audio) for listening practice

2) Supplementary Chinese Readers series, for extensive reading practice

3) Maybe some other stuff, not sure.

4) Review old material more often. This is holding me back a little right now, so I need to work it in somehow.

5) Don't quit French.

[Meng Lelan]

New Radio Plays? Is this some new followup to Mini Radio Plays?

Here's my pre-summer follow-up, I probably won't update until I return here after summer.

1. Skritter: I now have almost 4000 characters (both trad and simpl) in the Skritter queue. So I want to end the year 2012 with 5000 characters in the queue.

2. Middlebury: Got accepted, got some money, got to go this summer.

3. Wushu: Finishing up 長拳 (compulsory set 5) and 刀術 (compulsory set 5), next month I start 南棍.

Also I want to be 50% done with the program towards certification in Vision Impaired and Orientation&Mobility by year's end.

[OneEye]

No, it's an ICLP textbook (Mini Radio Plays was written by MTC teachers...I think). It's probably about the same level, but not so "studio-produced", which I kind of like because it's not so clear, it's fast, and I have to really pay attention. It's one of the handful of ICLP's books that you can actually buy if you're not a student there, and I got my hands on the audio for it recently, so I'll use it here and there for fun.

I thought about you today actually (is that weird to say?). I went to a wedding where the American bride's parents were both deaf, the Taiwanese groom's parents were both blind, and the groom himself was also deaf. The bride knows some Taiwanese sign language, and the groom knows American sign language, which is their main way of communicating. The groom is a teacher at a school for deaf people here, and so a really large percentage of the guests were also deaf. So the ceremony was in four languages: Mandarin, English, TSL, and ASL, though the ASL was just for the bride's parents. Really interesting experience!

[Meng Lelan]

Ooooohhh!!!!!! so how come the Happy Couple didn't send me a 喜帖？ And another coincidence is that I just got the Taiwanese short stories through Interlibrary Loan and was starting to read today 婚禮 by 吳念真.

[abcdefg]

2. Middlebury: Got accepted, got some money, got to go this summer.

Congratulations, Lelan!

[Meng Lelan]

It's similar to the 20 Lectures on Chinese Culture that I was studying before in that it they both serve as an introduction into more academic vocabulary

Wait a minute, it's the one edited by Richard Chang? I just pulled it out of my closet, that was about the first textbook I ever had back at the U of I, and Richard Chang was the first Chinese university professor I ever had.

[OneEye]

It may be an MTC edition of the book you're thinking of. Mine just says the title, 1986, and 國立台灣師範大學國語教學中心 on the front, and has nothing but the text on the inside, no info about the authors or editors. I have read that this book and TOCC that I mentioned were both based on the same original text book, and from looking at the description of Chang's book on Amazon I think that may be the book. The 20 Lectures I have doesn't have the lecture written in any romanization, only Chinese characters, though it does use Yale romanization in the vocab lists.

TOCC has much longer, more detailed lectures (5-7 pages as opposed to 1.5 pages, and at a smaller font size), plus the 2 dialogues per chapter that 20 Lectures lacks, which are themselves about 3 pages each. So there's a lot of content crammed into each chapter. In the back there's a sentence pattern practice section, with 126 patterns altogether, and 5 example sentences per pattern. It also has a vocabuary index, which my copy of 20 Lectures lacks. There is an edition of TOCC available in the US, but I don't know what the differences are. It's edited by Vivian Ling, which of course means it should be outstanding. I just wasn't willing to pay the US$35 plus shipping when most of the textbooks I can get here are $10 or less.

[Meng Lelan]

I agree Vivian Ling is absolutely awesome.

[character]

Through studying and watching films (and this forum), today I've achieved fluency with a native accent and can read with ease.

ETA: ...april fool's...

[amandagmu]

TOCC is the book I used at the intermediate level at ICLP. To this day, I swear it is the only reason I was able to get over the first really big hump in Chinese from high beginner/low-intermediate to solid intermediate *especially* when reading or listening to lectures. Granted, I'm a history student, so I probably found the lessons perhaps more useful than others. The ones on politics and history were obviously enormously helpful for me to begin writing my own essays/research reading and discussion with academics about my own research. The sentence structures are *exactly* the type you will hear and need to use with professors and other scholars. So, if you need to improve your academic listening/speaking/writing/reading GET THIS BOOK. Generations have been more-or-less trained with this book at ICLP and IUP (they use a variation of it I've heard, probably less 国民党-oriented, hehe).

Thought and Society is the next level, basically an advanced reader. Basically, the main difference I found between TOCC and T+S was vocabulary acquisition, particularly in terms of distinguishing between several different words and the introduction of loads of 成语 and 四个字 (of which I probably only retained a fraction). It's too much vocab for the 8-week periods they have at ICLP, but it works better if you go slower or review a second time. There's less sentence structures in this book, but there are some grammatical points made. Again, the tone is quite academic (despite the fact that they call these simply "speaking" books they should qualify that with "speaking for academics"). I thought the texts were a lot more boring in this book, but then again, the focus was not so much on history and politics and the design was not lectures, more like essays that state obvious points using a host of new vocab.

Unrelated to all that, an update on my goals - not good in terms of Chinese. I've been swamped with Deutsch lernen. However, I am now at the B1 level in Deutsch (woohoo!) and feel more confident after ~5 months of studying this language than I did at the same point in Chinese. Go figure. ;-) I can read basic newspaper articles and use the dictionary for what I don't know. My biggest struggle with speaking is grammar and sentence structure; German has some oddities I was previously unacquainted with in French and Chinese, namely cases, Adjektiv Deklination (THE DEVIL!!!!), and this funny thing where the verb almost always goes at the end of a sentence, although that depends on the connector (if it's a Hauptsatz vs a Nebensatz). For example, if one begins a sentence with "Therefore" then the verb is in the second position, but if one begins with "Although" then the verb is at the end of that sentence. So, the learning curve in German is probably related to how often one is forced to speak, which is not a lot when a large percentage of the surrounding population speaks English and prefers not to hear your atrocious German. Typical situation:

Me: Hallo, morgen! Ich möchte eine Tasse Kaffee und ein Butter Croissant, bitte.

Other person: Would you like cream and sugar with that?

Me: Uh... no.

Other person: For here or to go?

Me: zu mitnehmen

Other person: 2 euros, please.

Le sigh.

[OneEye]

I'm really enjoying TOCC. Thanks for your thoughts on it!

[laurenth]

Update time again:

- "read my first book in Chinese. With book I mean a book aimed at native adults"

Yippee! I've read my first novel! And a very good one, I'd say: 《许三观卖血记》by 余华. The story of Xu Sanguan is moving, there are many unforgettable scenes: the meal in the time of famine, Yi Le crying on the roof of the house of his real (?) father, Xu Sanguan's journey to Shanghai… I've learnt a lot of interesting profanities and many interesting facts about Chinese life. I don't know if reading would have been as pleasurable without Pleco Reader as a crutch, though.

Now I have started 小王子 (http://www.xiaowangzi.org). I've read it in French before, more than once, so hopefully it shouldn't be too difficult.

[icebear]

Keeping myself honest/on track with quarterly updates too...

1. Relocate to Beijing - Already applied for the CSC, and will be applying directly to a few universities in the next week or so (in case I don't get the scholarship). Already found and booked a great deal on a ticket during the summer, so I'll have time to settle, enjoy a brief respite between my concluding studies and next round, and maybe travel a bit before getting rolling with classes. Anxious for the results, although it seems June-July are typical for notification...
   
2. Skri​tter - Keeping up with it as planned - usually 30-40 minutes per day, with an average of 10 new words (less novel characters) added per day.
   
3. ChinesePod - Averaging probably 4-5 lessons per week.
   
4. NPCR - Up to lesson 30, more or less on schedule.
   
5. Chinese Reading - Probably 30 minutes from finishing 活着, which I've found both a great read and an encouraging experience. I find that reading a novel is more enjoyable as the main vocabulary of the author is relatively repetitive, whereas in articles you are always scrambling around new, "obscure" words that are very important to that particular bit of news. Important to learn eventually, but maybe not the most productive use of my time right now. Still, I've also been reading an article probably 3-4 times per week, although given limited time my preference has been for the novel.
   
6. Chinese Media - Up to around episode 15 of 奋斗, although its irregular - some weeks a episode every night, other times nothing for a few weeks. I'm not incredibly strict with it, i.e. I only stop and look up the subtitles if I'm completely lost, but don't bother if I miss just a word or two. Maybe I'll increase the strictness once time permits.
   
7. Chinese Speaking - Been making a point of doing the whole 朗读 thing for intermediate and lower level ChinesePod lessons' dialogues and expansion sentences (upper intermediate rarely, if time permits - they can be quite lengthy if you are strict); feels helpful, although the proof will be in the pudding once I land back in Beijing.
   

[Tangmu]

Really impressed by everyone's updates. Especially the links to Imron's honed thoughts on how to study. Thanks for these, they are very helpful and have made me reflect on how I should best do my own study. Although I have been studying for years I have never got the "rhythm" of study that I really crave right - the days of full time study are over for me and its challenging with the pressures of work. I need to be realistic and flexible, but not give up. As for my progress so far and objectives after a bit more than the first quarter, I have made a couple of steps forward, but still have a lot more to get done. Listed in the order of my original post at the end of 2011:

1. Grammar Structures notes: After months of work I have completed all the questions from an intermediate HSK grammar book (highly recommended - HSK初、中等全攻略教程) , and done at least a couple of example sentences for each question and rolled this into some fairly comprehensive grammar reference notes in an MS word table. This is also combined with the 高等 notes I already had. The grammar notes needs a little further improvement but are now good enough to start being used as a study resource/memorisation tool. When I get them back from my teacher's review I will have them printed out. I also managed to find a copy of the official old HSK grammer structures guide - actually quite easy to find on taobao and only a few RMB! So. 9/10 for no.1

2. Listening. I had a collection of HSK listening papers to go through. I have done one or two papers but have otherwise failed to do these regularly. Like with grammar I have to find time to do these weekly. I have however watched my first ever Chinese tv series 朱元璋 with 胡军. A great and really informative series I really recommend. I massively enjoyed the introduction to early Ming history. I am sure just by listening to each episode that my listening has, improved. I have also started listening to some audiobooks online. Including 明朝那些事, which is recored on 土豆。 So. 5/10 for No.2

3. Writing. In answering the grammar questions (point 1 above) I am sure my composition has improved slightly. However I have failed to do any regular free hand essay writing or a diary etc. One option may be to start putting 发信 on 微博 to build regularity, does anyone else do that?. But in any case I need to free-hand write, which I have not been doing. So 3/10 for no.3

4. Knowledge of Characters and Vocabulary/Reading. I am fairly comfortable with around 3,500 characters, but I need to consolidate these. This really leads onto vocabulary. I have been making progress with 近义词 and having been working through a number of these with my teacher. I have been reading with a bit of regularity and storing vocab, but I could do much better. So 3/10 for no.4

So for the next quarter, having read Imron's and other's posts, I am going to try and make study much more focused and regular. I do something most days, but I think I need to i) record what time I am spending accurately and keep to a daily amount apart from those days I genuinely am so busy I have no time (unfortunately I do have those horrible late night days ) ii) make sure I am doing the right things and iii) not be too ambitious so that it feels like a chore or lose regularity because I am unable to usually find the time.

My tweaked objectives and actions for the next quarter will therefore be:

1. Grammar. Comprehensively learn and practice the grammar structures I have collated to cure "fossilized" errors I make and consolidate my understanding.

Action: I will be doing one mock advanced old-HSK grammar exam (about 45 minutes) each Sunday morning starting the 6 May at my language school before class until I routinely am getting 70% plus (I think I would be getting around 50- 60% at the moment). I can review my errors in my lesson and steadily add any new grammar points to my notes over time as I pick up gaps in my knowledge through the mock tests.

2. Listening. I need to keep watching tv and listening to audiobooks. And do more listening papers.

Action: Each day watch/listen to a tv program or an audiobook for 30 minutes. I am already doing more than this I just need to keep this up. On each Saturday morning starting the 5 May I will also do a listening comprehension (this is only about 30 minutes). I can then review my errors in my Saturday morning class (which will speed the review process up).

3. Writing. I need to be able develop a reasonable ability to pass the essay section of the old-HSK exam in October, and to be able to write the other required written elements for that exam.

Action: Unfortunately I can't do everything at once due to time constraints. I have to prioritise and move through objectives steadily after I have made progress. Therefore I will come back to writing in 2 or 3 months when (hopefully) I am very comfortable on the grammar work. I can then start to do some writing practice on some Sunday's instead of grammar papers, and rote learn some a collection of simple essays for exam purposes. This should eventually give me confidence with writing at least the key (first 2000) characters and I can expand from there if I want to. So I will revisit this in early August.

4. Vocabulary/Reading. I must make my vocab learning less random and improve my reading speed. On the HSK papers I have done I have discovered my reading speed is not quite what it needs to be. In relation to vocab I am always looking things up and store them on flashcards, but I need to find a little dedicated time to review a limited number each day and grow my vocab base in a more measurable way.

Action:

1. I will read one news article each day for at least 30 minutes. Print this, keep it in a file and highlight the characters or terms I don't know. I will add these to the list and keep re-reading the articles as much as I can until I improve the speed of my reading.

2. I now have a vocab list of HSK - related terms I have created from my grammar-related study. I will review this 20 words a day and from now on add vocab from my flashcards to this, this will take probably at least 20 minutes per day after I have done the reading.

To the extent I have time I will continue to read 明朝那些事，毛泽东传，射雕英雄 and 兄弟 for pleasure, and in that order (I need to stop jumping between books).

Based on the above I should be doing 50 minutes of reading and related vocab, and 30 minutes of watching TV/listening (120 mins total) per day. If I can't manage that some days I will just do the best I can, but if I really want to improve I think I need to spend at least that much time if I possibly can. As mentioned above at weekends I should also do at least one hour listening focused comprehension each Saturday and about one hour of grammar review/testing each Sunday before my classes. I have signed up for a free online time entry (14Dayz.com) and will record how long I spend doing Chinese, not counting lesson time, on that, so I can see what I really manage to do.

Sorry about the detail - but writing this post definitely helped me firm up in my mind what I want to try and do! Thanks. Any ideas or comments more than welcome!

[imron]

But in any case I need to free-hand write, which I have not been doing

Allow me to introduce a website I created that might also help with that :-) Hanzi Grids.

[edelweis]

April update.

I've been trying to spread out the tasks during the day, so I don't get back from work at night and worry about how much I should study to make any progress.

Currently trying to do grammar, writing, and 1/2 speaking (FSI tape while getting dressed) in the morning, then SRS, characters and listening during the morning, noon and afternoon breaks at work, and vocabulary, reading and 1/2 speaking (langdu) at night.

I haven't managed to do all 8 tasks in a single day so far, my average for the month is only 3.9/8 (about 1h per day).

On Saturdays I do a mock-up test. Sundays are usually bad days. There was also one Monday totally devoid of any study.

However I am pretty satisfied with my progress compared to the previous months. Possibly I'm just setting myself up for burn-out. We'll see what happens in May.

1) pass HSK4.

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

SRS:22/30

Listening: 16/30

Writing: 6/30

Vocabulary: 8/30

Mock-up tests: 4

I've registered online for the June 17 test - they haven't improved their website's security at all. Possibly a dozen edelweises will be studying in Chinese unis next year, or otherwise breaking the law anywhere in the world. Brrrr.

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.

Up to: 1630 characters

Drilling: 21/30

Reading: 21/30

3) keep attending the weekly class.

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

Classes: 2/2

Grammar: 14/30

Speaking/Spoken language: 9/30

April tasks:

04-1 Challenge: have one "perfect" day (completing all 8 15-minute tasks of writing, reading, speaking, listening, SRS, vocabulary, grammar, and character drilling - that's 2 hours of active studying - plus passive immersion for at least 2 hours.)

Failed - but I came close with 7 tasks completed (on a Wednesday).

04-2 Create an anki deck from the 圈子圈套 most frequent vocabulary items.

Postponed. Busy with HSK4 prep.

04-3 Review the first 3 lessons from my old Arabic textbook.

I reviewed the first 2 only.

04-4 Start reading Trilogía de las Tierras.

Barely started.

04-5 Put up ads to sell my old Sci-Fi and Fantasy books in English - I've got to make room for all the Chinese stuff I'm planning to buy.

Done but I have not sold any yet. Either bring them to the 2nd hand bookshop or store them out of the way!

May tasks:

05-1 Perfect day challenge (Same as above)

05-2 Review Arabic lessons 3 and 4.

05-3 Read the first 3 chapters of Trilogía de las Tierras.

05-4 Don't forget to send the check for the HSK4 exam.

05-5 Get the English SciFi books out of the way.

Also: waiting for my Dandang order to arrive hehe.