The 2012 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread

[amandagmu]

I have no idea what you mean re: the latter on Middlebury, but I can guess as I had a lot of doubts about ICLP when I did the program. It's only been in hindsight that I have come to appreciate going. (Going to Taiwan for a year as a slightly older student than the average ICLP'er was also really not easy or ideal.) I'm just telling you that in case your doubts are about teachers, methods, textbooks, fellow students, program administration, etc, some of which I absolutely found to be... annoying and sometimes unprofessional when in the program (which was ridiculous considering the price tag). On top of all that living away from home even for "only" 10 months really got to me. Not because I was homesick, but because I had doubts and wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing and I wiped out my savings to do it. Of course, I don't know about your work or home situation, so I just hope things hold together until you finish what you need to at Middlebury. I know concentration can sometimes be a bitch, but hang in there.

Also, despite anything anyone has ever said, I personally have never found learning Chinese (I mean really learning it) to be any fun at all.

EDIT: I just read your recent blog entry. Sounds more like ridiculous U.S. bureaucratic nonsense re: the knife/sword incident.

[Meng Lelan]

This is my first summer semester in the program.

After reading your comment I do think I would have been better off in the ICLP program if there was a summer option even if it did not lead to any master degree at all...reason being I teach public schools during the academic year with summers off. The atmosphere here at Middlebury is much too contrived and phony at least for me (they sell tshirts saying "No English Spoken Here", hard to imagine considering we have to interact with the Vermont locals for certain tasks like getting a new cell phone charger), I think I would be more happier in Taiwan taking Chinese classes than here in Vermont taking Chinese classes. I have 28 more days to go here and I have already decided if I am going to continue with Chinese it is likely to be a summer program in Taiwan.

[OneEye]

I do think I would have been better off in the ICLP program if there was a summer option

http://iclp.ntu.edu.tw/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=2&Itemid=2〈=en

There is a summer program (scroll down)! Whether the dates align with what you have available is a different question, but they do have an 8 week summer term. It's a bit worse of a deal financially, because you get 2 fewer weeks and 1 hour less per day of instruction compared to the regular program, and only a $400 reduction in price. But it's an option at least.

[Meng Lelan]

Oh I didn't scroll down, ah, I see it now. That might be the thing for me, but I don't think the MOE funds would apply to it if I ever applied for funds?

[OneEye]

Ah, that's a different matter. I believe you could use the MOE scholarship for ICLP (not 100% on that though), but they just wouldn't cover the whole cost.

[edelweis]

July update

Immersion: Nothing serious. Tried two TV series: 心术 (probably too difficult) and 毕业时刻 (perhaps too much drama? we'll see...) so that's 2h total perhaps.

Eight 15' tasks

Average for this month 4.4/8.

Despite a strong start, I somehow lost the rhythm in the last two weeks of the month. The last two weekends were especially dreadful.

1) pass HSK4.

Done. See there for the official results.

1b) learn more HSK vocabulary.

add XX (starting with 120) words from the HSK5 list to my anki deck,

OK. Don't know the exact number, but it's above 120.

SRS:27/31

and use those same words in targeted listening.

Listening: 23/31

write sentences or essays using HSK4 and HSK5 words,

Writing: 6/31 (oof... seriously lost my drive)

keep using my old HSK vocabulary book.

Vocabulary: 7/31 I'm making this a priority for August. Since I'm working diligently on the hanzi and reading, I feel like I really am missing something by not working more with that book which contains many words that I encounter nightly in 圈子圈套2.

add other words to my anki deck provided I can keep up with it

I added words from 科普汉语听记 and the old HSK vocabulary book.

suspend at least 20 old easy words from the deck each month.

Failed.

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: 1860 characters

Drilling: 27/31

Reading: 25/31

3) keep attending the weekly class.

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

On summer break. Still haven't decided about next year.

Grammar: 13/31

Speaking/Spoken language: 6.5/31

July tasks:

07-01 Perfect day challenge

Failed - again, did not try very hard. I'm scrapping this, not very useful.

07-02 Spend 15' on Arabic

Done.

07-03 Read one chapter of Trilogía de las Tierras

Done, and finished book 1. Starting book 2, 200 years later but still as cheesy.

07-04 Move a dozen Sci-Fi and Thriller books out of the way

Done.

07-05 Do DLI Spanish tapes while sorting out clothes

Done, although again I forgot to to it these past two weekends.

07-06 Study one chapter from 科普汉语听记

Done, although I'm not sure I'm doing it properly...

07-07 watch one episode of a Chinese TV series, or a Chinese movie

Done, in small doses.

August tasks:

08-01 Challenge: vocabulary+grammar green, speaking+writing orange.

08-02 Spend at least 15' on Arabic

08-03 Read at least one chapter of Trilogía de las Tierras

08-04 Move a dozen Sci-Fi and Thriller books out of the way

08-05 Do DLI Spanish tapes while sorting out clothes

08-06 Study at least one chapter from 科普汉语听记

08-07 watch at least one episode of a Chinese TV series, or a Chinese movie

[OneEye]

July's goals:

1) Finish Thought and Society through Lesson 7

Well, I'm on Lesson 5. No big deal there, I still have time to finish before the beginning of next term (which is what I was hoping for).

2) Spend an hour on 文言文 per day, reading texts with the group and otherwise.

Haven't spent an hour per day, but I've mostly kept up with reading for the group. Haven't done much besides that.

3) Continue reading newspapers, magazines, websites, 《文字學概要》, etc.

Eh... I realized that I'm not ready for the TOCFL exam I have to pass in November, so I've had to add a little more structure to what I'm reading in order to prepare. More on that in a minute.

4) Read at least one article per week from The Independent Reader.

I put this aside for most of this month in favor of other courses, but I've recently picked it back up. So I did one article.

5) Assimil Japanese through Lesson 30 (yeah, same as last month).

Putting this aside (yet again...) to prepare for the TOCFL. I'll get back to it once I pass the test.

OK, so looking at the vocabulary list for the Level 5 TOCFL (or TOP as it used to be called...or CPT as it was called before that) made me realize that I'm not just going to walk in and pass the test like I thought I would (and like I have on the other levels). So all of my studying for now is, unfortunately, geared toward passing the test in November. If I don't pass the test, I can't do my MA where I want to, so it's pretty imperative. For now, I'm reviewing Mini Radio Plays (turns out it has a decent amount of vocabulary from the test) and all the newspaper articles we've read in class this term. I'm also using the audio from Media Chinese (新聞聽說讀, an ICLP course for which I don't have the book), continuing with Thought and Society, and studying The Independent Reader (從精讀到泛讀, hopefully 2 articles per week). The test covers only reading and listening, so that's what I'll be focusing on, though of course I'll still be working on speaking and writing for class.

August's goals:

Thought and Society through Lesson 9

Finish reviewing Mini Radio Plays

Review 10-15 newspaper articles from class

Media Chinese through Lesson 6

The Independent Reader, 10 articles (first article from sections 1-10)

[Silent]

It has been a while since my last update as progress is slow but I guess I owe you an update before dropping out....

> Reading

In the last update I announced I've choosen to read 圈子圈套. In May I had a hard time to get going. At first I thought it had to do with it being a new book and me barely reading after finishing 许三观卖血记 in Januari. The reading feels like a struggle and though the difficulty varies from section to section I've not seen an easy section yet. The book is clearly a few notches harder then 许三观卖血记. In short progress is very very slow. But then, considering the far larger vocabulary, the book being much longer and me spending far too much time on reading in January my progress is maybe not as bad as it looks at first sight. I should be able to finish the book this month, if I push it a little maybe in two weeks. The good thing about 圈子圈套 is that to me it feels that I learn usefull modern vocabulary from it contrary to 许三观卖血记 where I often felt I was learning somewhat archaic vocabulary.

> vocabulary

I dropped my original goal a while back and decreased the amount of vocabulary study. As I more and more often notice that I understand new words, never seen before, based on it's components my lag on the initial goal is not as bad as expected. Nontheless I would need a miracle to meet the goal by the end of the year.

> grammar

Spend far too little time on it.

> listening

Watched most of the first season (are there more?) of 奋斗. Fell asleep several times, but many parts I've seen several times. I very strangely notice that one time I feel I understand quite a lot (still very little) and a day later with the same scene I've nu clue what it's about. No clue what this is about, but I hope the rare bright moments of understanding will slowly extend.

>actively use chinese

Do this too little, dumped my language exchange partner as she seemed more interested in probing me for marriage then in language exchange and have not been active on lang 8 any more. Contacted some 'random' people I found on Chinese websites, responses seem mostly not understanding...

> travel in China

Preperation is on going. Still have my doubts about where I want to go as my initial idea's are less practical due to the different season and limited offer of North Korea tours that meet my preferences.

> pronunciation

Virtually no activity on this one.

As mentioned in the first line I'm dropping out. That is, in a few weeks I'll start a two year course for work which will require a fair bit of time. This will be at the expense of Chinese studies. So I adjust my goals to maintaining my present knowledge through continued reading and occasional watching of Chinese movies as these will maintain my level of Chinese and may even be entertaining. I also intend to keep up with my flashcards though I will add only very few, if any, new words to study.

[edelweis]

@Silent: perhaps you can find Chinese material related to your course for reading and vocabulary?

(not for studying new things, but as a review of topics you have already studied in your native language)

Anyway, you can still report on this thread, even with reduced goals. I often feel a renewed motivation for Chinese studies after posting here.

When I was losing weight I was also posting regularly in a related forum. I should get back to that...

[milestones]

I am new to the forums and late to 2012 so these are plans extending into 2013. I live in China and have been studying Mandarin for about a year. Last academic year I taught at a university here and spent a good amount of time with fellow expats so didn't really achieve a very high level, though I did work with a Chinese tutor a few times a week, completed Pimsleur 1,2 and 3. I traveled around China this summer, did a good amount of self-study and I think my level jumped from A1 to A2 on the CEFL. (I am now teaching at a private school in GZ and have even more free time than last year and more immersion opportunity, so plan to do the "add oil" thing with my Chinese studies). Have a good deal of motivation but realized am not very organized in how I study (do some of this, some that and then forget to keep doing the same thing as I look for the next thing) so, for the last few weeks, have rectified that with a new plan that is as follows:

Greater emphasis on input over output while not ignoring output. I have no real fear of speaking Chinese and am fairly diligent in studying my mistakes in everyday life, but really don't have vocabulary at this point to say many interesting things. I can recognize about 500 characters from HSK 1,2 and 3 and then another 150 or so from words I've learned from other lists and everyday signs and menus, etc. Nothing magical about the HSK lists but they are something to work with.

1) Listening and reading. I am now doing both at the same time and finding this to a helpful method. For the last few weeks spending 2 hours a day of turning mostly incomprehensible input into mostly comprehensible input listening to online resources about life in China (with texts and audio), mainly "slowchinese" and "clavis sinica." What I do is I put words and chengyu I don't know (and that's a lot) into MDBG reader and tag the one's I don't know as favorites. Almost all HSK 4,5, and 6 get put in as well as words beyond HSK I think are useful or interesting. Words I deem highly technical or too low frequency for me at this point I don't add. After I have listened and read to the audio a few times times, I go over the words in MBDG and then read and listen a few more times until I can absorb the overall meaning and know most of what's in the text. This is essentially the lingq method, for those of you familiar with that. I have decided that MDBG is the best way to implement this method though, because the MDBG reader dictionary is excellent and it seems to parse blocks of text better than any other online tool I've tried.

2) Listening. Listening to talk radio for min 1 hour a day while doing nothing else but trying to figure out what's being said. Add words I think I hear into MDBG (usually only to realize I misheard the word because they are not talking about...a chemical composition). But if I hear the word correctly and I don't know it, then I am on to what the topic is at least -- by virtue of looking it up. Generally I catch the connecting words ranhou, danshi, etc, but find it hard to understand sentences at the pace that they are speaking at. Try to focus on what I can understand and not what I cannot.

2) FSI. I tell myself to do FSI (do a module everyday!) because it's probably the best free comprehensive resource out there (minus characters)...but FSI is dry and so, like most people who go at it, I don't stick with it. Now I aim to do just one unit 5 times a week. This isn't much (about 30 min) and I think I can keep on track. I've skipped around a lot on it but now going back to unit 4, the directions module. Going to try to take it slow and not rush through it, especially the grammar notes. I don't care when I complete it as long as I keep consistent and do a unit almost every day.

3) SRS. Everyone has their favorite SRS. Mine is trainchinese -- especially app on iPad. It's not free, but I like the way it slides from word to word and I've been good with keeping at it for the last month. I am focusing on HSK 3 and in a few weeks will start with HSK 4. Try to do an hour a day, but do min 30 minutes.

4) Skritter. I just signed up as a member and the main reason I did is I think the iPad app is great. I've added HSK 1 & 2 (all words I can recognize) for writing only. I don't see learning to write as imperative and I am pretty good at memorizing characters without writing them by hand, but there is something to the writing process in Chinese worthwhile for reasons not clear to me at this point. I am not overly concerned about being able to fill out forms here, passing exams, or even seeing beauty and logic of the language -- although practicing may be a pay off for these things down the line...I like writing just because the process is so narrow and mechanical it seems to put my mind in good state of focus. For this reason, I try to write for 30 minutes a day before listening, reading, and looking up, as I seem to concentrate better.

5) China life. Well, Chinese people are constantly amazed at how good my Chinese is.. From cab drivers to co-workers. Often this leads to conversations (in English, well, never with cab drivers in English!) about how I am so good at Chinese and then...how awful their English is. "Oh great laoshi with your wonderful Chinese acquired so quickly, can you tell me how can I improve my English because, you see, I only am good at grammar and my speaking is so bad." This is not a trap I fall for -- except with pretty girls, and they are not in short supply here. I found informal language exchanges with women don't work all that well. It's mostly too much in English. They throw a sop to Cerberus. We do talk some Chinese but after some blank stares and wo ting bu dong's from me it's back to speaking English or going over simple explanations (in English) of individual Chinese words or phrases. It appears making English concessions are necessary from standpoint of getting to the place you want to go with women, which is fine. I don't think that pushing myself to speak at an expressive level to is altogether that important for me since I am still pre-intermediate. I don't have enough words yet so will stick with Krashen's input hypothesis for the time being. Main goal is to take what I can from real life -- especially with the listening aspect, and there's a good deal of Mandarin chat at my school. Focus on getting to a solid intermediate level and then next summer do a speaking intensive to move passive into active vocab. Language exchanges...I'm keeping my expectations low (for Chinese, anyway;-).

Other stuff. Wenlin. I use Wenlin mainly to look up detailed explanations of words that I can't memorize easily. For how a word is used in sentences, NCIKU. To sum up, my method for learning Chinese is to go wide and deep. Try to be superficially aware of words I come across in listening and reading and tag them as favorites in MDBG reader. Memorize words appropriate for my level (HSK 3) and then learn to write the words already memorized (HSK 1/2). FSI provides a contextual skeleton so I have some sort of active ability for using the language. I am not sure about using a text book but it might a good idea to get NPCR and add that to the mix -- or it might be redundant, not sure. All of this method and tools stuff is well and good, but how consistent will I be? That is by far the most important above all, of course.

[abcdefg]

#150 -- @Milestones -- A comment and a couple questions.

Well, Chinese people are constantly amazed at how good my Chinese is.. From cab drivers to co-workers.

Don't be fooled; Chinese are effusive with language compliments even if your Chinese is pitiful crap. Don't let them inappropriately inflate your ego.

Questions:

1. Have you thought about hiring a tutor? If nothing else, it might keep you on track. Language exchange, in my experience, is good for meeting cute girls, but not much else. (Please understand I'm not against meeting cute girls.)

2. Isn't the Guangzhou environment heavily tilted towards Cantonese? Sounds like you are able to work around that and still find enough Mandarin speakers. Has that been difficult?

Good luck and best wishes with your project. Thanks for writing it up. (Also, I like "throwing a sop to Cerberus." That's classy.)

[OneEye]

Don't be fooled; Chinese are effusive with language compliments even if your Chinese is pitiful crap. Don't let them inappropriately inflate your ego.

This. And the fact that they switch the conversation into English should tell you something.

Anyway, I'm not going to do my normal update this month. I didn't do much of what I planned, but I did a lot of other stuff instead. That's good, right? My comfort with reading is improving, as is my reading speed. I'm watching a really fun TV series and actually transcribing all of the first episode by hand, adding glosses and such as if I were making a personalized textbook for myself. I've just started this fairly time-consuming project, but it seems like it will be really helpful.

I'm doing really intensive work with Thought and Society, because that's the course I'm taking at MTC. I've already studied nearly the entire book, but while I know it passively, not much of the material is in my active vocabulary. My teacher is fantastic (thanks to Daan for the recommendation), and his focus is to drill us on usage until we're able to use this stuff in real life. We were assigned 104 new vocabulary words the first day of class, so I'm really glad I've already read the book and am familiar with the vocabulary.

I'm also studying Shadick's A First Course in Literary Chinese intensively. It's a pretty easy book for me, but I'm really going through everything with a fine-toothed comb, especially grammatically. Of course, I'm still reading for the Grand 文言文 Reading Project. Starting next week I'm auditing a class on Chinese Character Morphology in the 國文研究所 at NTNU, so I'll be doing a lot of reading on that, plus I'm reading 《古音之旅》, which is a book on Chinese historical phonology. I've also picked Harry Potter back up, just to have something easy to read on the bus.

I'm taking a free weekly Taiwanese class, which seems like it will be a lot of fun. I might even come out on the other side of this term with a few Taiwanese phrases under my belt. At some point in the next year I want to actually learn some basic 台語, because I plan on doing a little dialectology during my MA, and everyone else in the class will already speak it.

Mkay, I guess that's it.

[milestones]

Ha, I am not fooled (obvious from my post, I think, that my Chinese is low level) and yes Chinese are compliment candy machines (to foreigners) -- the compliment is meaningless. I didn't state the irony directly but just hinted at it...talking about how good my Chinese is in English and then talking about how bad their English is in ENGLISH is a way to practice their English with a native speaker. Clever. At least cab drivers will compliment you but more often than not lack the English ability to switch to English to practice with you. However, that most all Chinese give foreigners compliments -- whether or not speaking in Chinese or English -- is proof that the compliment is not all just a device to practice English. Sometimes, it does feel that way because English ambition is high among Chinese but I don't think that is the case.

1) Agreed. Tutor may not be a bad idea and I will probably get one, once a week anyway.

2) Well, I haven't been in GZ that long, just a few weeks; the school I teach at is Mandarin everywhere, everyone speaks Mandarin because many of the students are out of province.

[xuefang]

@abcdefg Studying Mandarin in Guangzhou is actually not a problem at all. All most all the locals can speak Mandarin, also there are lots of people outside Guangdong studying and working here. Of course my pronunciation is closer to locals speaking Mandarin that a Beijinger speaking Mandarin, but that's just fine.

Then to my goals. I haven't done much this summer regarding the goals I set in January, but I'm getting back on track as the new semester will start soon.

My goals are;

Skritter at least 15 minutes per day This goal is still the same and I'm stil trying to make it a habit. Just paid for one year of Skritter for extra motivation.

Watch an episode of Chinese TV per day This goal used to be to watch as much Chinese TV as I watch American TV, but with a daily goal it's easier to track. I recently watched 34 episodes of 爱的蜜方 in 3 days so it doesn't go that balanced, but it's still a goal to watch everyday. It's usually just a matter of finding the right series.

Read 5 Chinese books in 2012 I'm only on my 2nd book at the moment, not really where I wanted to be in September. I tried books that were too difficult and spent too much time that way. I can finish all the books before 2013, I just need to get more motivated to do so. It's not a matter with reading speed or anything.

There three goals I'm tracking with an app called Way of Life.

Besides these I want to pass HSK6 in December Even 181 points is enough, I just need a pass.

[abcdefg]

@abcdefg Studying Mandarin in Guangzhou is actually not a problem at all. All most all the locals can speak Mandarin, also there are lots of people outside Guangdong studying and working here.

Understand what you mean; I found that to be true in Zhuhai. (Never spent much time in Guangzhou, however, so I wasn't sure.)

[Gleaves]

Some long overdue updates, but the short version is that all my Chinese goals have been a big fat fail over the last few months. I recently got back from a hiking trip in the Alps (tour du Mont Blanc). Before leaving, I decided to learn as much French as possible. Because of that, I dropped my daily Chinese studies almost entirely for the last 3 months. I'm now trying to shift back into a solid daily study routine.

1.) Listen to 8 audiobooks

Fail. I've listened to two books this year, I think, but have decided to put this goal on hold to focus on more basic listening. I look forward to getting back to audiobooks in the future.

2.) Closely listen to a piece of audio everyday

Not bad on this one. I kept up with this for about 3 months, at the rate of about 6 days a week. I would basically listen to the news and note each word I didn't understand (usually after many, many rewinds). I'd cut myself off at 5 unkown words a day to keep a manageable pace. Then I'd review the transcript. At first, it might only take a few seconds of a news podcast to come up with 5 unknown words. Pretty humbling. After a few months, I could usually get through about 30 seconds of a broadcast. Nothing magical, but discernable progress. Given the rate at which the news gets read, I was pretty happy with that level of comprehension. One big benefit of this exercise is that it gave me some much needed vocab to discuss current affairs issues with people (I was surprised to find that the vocab naturally made that jump from passive to active).

Over the last week or so, I have switched things up a bit (as inspired by my Assimil book I was using for another language). I take a short news story about a minute long and approach it a couple different ways. I first listen without looking at the text. I then read the transcript out loud with help from a dictionary. Next, I read it out loud again, but with no dictionary help. I then listen again, this time reading the text as a listen. Finally, I listen again with no text. I'll usually make some notes on intersting vocab/phrases/grammar after I'm done. This takes a solid 20 minutes. I'm not sure yet on the effectiveness of this approach, but it is enjoyable/painless.

[OneEye]

Still pushing forward with Thought and Society. Done with Shadick, or at least as much as I wanted to do for now. I'm reading selections from a high school 國文 reader I have, both with the study group I'm in and on my own. Put 《古音之旅》 on hold because I was doing some other reading to catch up in the class I'm auditing, but I'll be picking it back up soon because that reading is winding down. I'm still taking the 台語 class, but it's a different teacher now, and she's unbelievably boring, so I usually just read while I'm in there.

For the next few weeks I'm testing out what Mike Campbell (Glossika) calls the Mass Sentence Method, to see how it works for me. My biggest problem is still that I have a really hard time just putting sentences together. I can always get my meaning across, but I can't just 脫口而出, and it usually isn't the way a native speaker would say it. I'm hoping this will help that, and at the very least I think it will be good to get my tongue moving a lot more. Listening to recordings of myself is a painful process, but I think that will give me even more motivation to improve.

[laurenth]

Update after 9 months. Sorry for the very long post.

My current priorities:

0. Do less

My wife and kids are starting to think that I’m too obsessed with learning Chinese, that the language is robbing time that I could spend with them. Point taken. I’ll try to devote more time to my family and less to Chinese.

(Does anyone see the same reaction in their family or among their friends? How do you cope with that?)

How could I do that:

• although it’s fun, stop trying new chinese-related and time-consuming toys/activities every two weeks (Lang-8, Livemocha, Fluentflix...) and stick to a few top priorities;
  
• consider that 6-10 pm is Chinese-free time;
  
• read some of the (non-Chinese) books that my wife wants to share with me.
  

1. Reading (input)

2012 objective #1: “read my first book in Chinese”.

Result: done. I’ve read 许三观卖血记, 小王子 and 圈子圈套I. I’ve also read comics (哆啦A梦, 丁丁), etc.

Sometimes I read extensively (I don’t care too much about unknown words as long as I get the general meaning), sometimes intensively (lookup all unknown words and characters, notice grammatical features, and study afterwards), more often in between.

2012 objective #2: “Read some Chinese everyday” (other than literature).

Result: My meaning was "some real Chinese" (at a time when I was mainly reading text books). So this overlaps with objective #1. For intensive reading, I've used "Learning with texts" quite a lot. There are 57 texts in my database, mainly news article about the economy or Wikipedia articles about Chinese history.

However, lately, I’ve found that reading books had replaced that activity, which is fine.

Objective for the 4th quarter: Read at least one more novel (I've started 哈利·波特 I).

If/when I have time: Go on reading news snippets every day (but, for now, I should avoid using LWT to study them).

2. Vocab

2012 objective: add 12 (down from 25) new words daily + 2 new characters

Result: I'm adding 8 words daily from the HSK lists + 3-5 from readings + reviewing 2 characters (ex-leeches, no new character).

BTW, I've started using Chinese-Chinese flashcards for part of my flashcards, thanks to the excellent Xiandai Hanyu Guifan Cidian sold by Pleco.

Objective for the 4th quarter: keep at it.

Avoid: adding more words/characters, creating more SRS desks.

3. New HSK4

2012 objective: new HSK 4 in December.

Result: Why do I want to pass that exam? Studying HSK vocab out of context is quite boring. However, it's high frequency vocab, so I can't go wrong. In addition, passing the HSK is a nice way to track your progress. Finally, one day, I might be happy to add the word "HSK" on my CV. You never know.

Objectives:

- Register for the December session (I also want to try HSK 5 while I'm there, but I will make no active attempt to practice HSK5 related stuff);

- Study vocab: well on track;

- Study how to write: I'm nowhere. I've opened a Skritter account but failed to use it on a regular basis. So I should use Skritter every day;

- Do mock tests.

4. Listening (input)

Previous objective: "Listen to some Chinese everyday, anything".

Result: failure if I was expecting any noticeable improvement. I’ve tried several activities on an semi-regular basis:

- Listening to the radio. I’m not sure it’s any use, since I seldom understand anything. I keep on trying, if only to try and catch a word, half a sentence...

- I have an Anki deck with audio sentences. I’ve used it for 2-3 months then dropped it.

- I’ve opened a Fluentflix account but I have failed to really put it to good use.

Objective for the 4th quarter: Rather than listening to the radio and not understanding anything, I’d better listen daily to audio texts that are at or slightly above my level. In fact, I have quite a lot of them: textbooks, Chinese Breeze readers, podcast for beginners, etc.

Avoid: panicking about my terrible listening skills. When I have more vocab under my belt, listening will become top priority.

5. Speaking (output)

IMHO, that’s the skill that leads to “fluency”. However, I’m not that interested in being fluent, as I don’t have Chinese friends, nor any plan to go and live or work in China. So I don’t care too much if I have a thick accent or if my speaking skills lag behind the rest. It’s not that I don’t want to improve, it’s just that it’s not my priority for now.

Yet, every week, I have two 1-hour sessions of Skype classes that often consist in a dialogue with my teacher, so it’s not as if I didn’t do anything to improve my speaking skills, either.

Objective last quarter:

- keep on with the Skype lessons.

- reassess those Skype lessons. I'm not sure I want to go on next year.

6. Writing hanzi (output)

Not a priority right now. However, as I said above, if I want to pass the HSK, I HAVE to learn to write. So I took a Skritter account but I’ve been very irregular up to now.

Objective for last quarter: learn to write HSK4 characters.

7. Writing Chinese (output)

Two months ago, I tried lang8 (link) and loved it, but I stopped for now. It’s fun and very useful, to test my skills and obtain feedback, but disproportionately time-consuming seeing that it’s a low-priority skill for me and I only have so much Chinese time daily.

Objective for last quarter: avoid Lang-8.

Summary

Daily: read literature (哈利·波特), review vocab (Anki), write some hanzi (Skritter), listen to some text

Weekly: 2 Skype lessons

Some time: register for HSK, do mock HSK tests

[rebor]

Quick update(from last time):

I love the smell of overambitious goals hitting the concrete wall of Reality in the morning ;)

The only thing I've really been doing so far is Skritter. I was diligent until the last couple of days of august, and then I had a miserable September, Skritter-wise. I built up a queue of a couple of thousand cards, but after a few hours of focused work I'm now back to zero, and have started adding new vocabulary again. I'm at 1800+ characters, 3000+ words and I will add 10 new words per day from now on, again. By this pace I should be done with HSK5 around christmas, after which I will turn to words I encounter when I read or watch shows, combined with words I deem to be useful from the NPCR-lists on Skritter. I've lowered my retention rate to 90%, but I'm relatively strict when correcting myself.

I haven't done much reading. I picked up my old 读和写-book just now, and I was able to read everything I encountered. So I don't seem to have forgotten too much, thanks to Skritter I'd guess

With the iPhone-app for Skritter, reviewing and adding the new words takes me between 15-25 minutes per day. I will try to divide this up, reviewing in the morning and adding new words every night.

The main goal right now is to establish a habit of reading for at least 10 minutes per day, starting with reviewing my old textbooks. I will also buy some intermediate textbooks and try out a few comics. When I feel this habit sticks, I will increase the time spent reading, slowly starting to seek out easier native material.

Listening-wise I've listened to Popup Chinese while walking to school, but only maybe 4-5 times a week(counting one-way walks). I should make this into something I do every walk unless I have a really good excuse(like accompanying a friend). This is a lower priority than my reading, though. TV-shows, tutor and grammar will have to wait until after midterm exams. I will be visiting my parents for a few days then, so hopefully I can spend some time with Yip and Rimmington when they're at work. With better planning, I should be able to fit grammar, TV and a tutor into my schedule next study period(I am currently less than perfectly organized).

These are humble, conservative goals, but I want to make studying chinese a doable part of my everyday routine, and I don't want to be stressed out or feel like I lack time for my girlfriend or my friends. I also want to exercise, read(in swedish and english I mean) and go out. Hopefully I can reach an upper-intermediate level before I graduate in less than three years time.

Good luck to all of you!

[OneEye]

It's that time again.

Still pushing forward with Thought and Society. Done with Shadick, or at least as much as I wanted to do for now. I'm reading selections from a high school 國文 reader I have, both with the study group I'm in and on my own. Put 《古音之旅》 on hold because I was doing some other reading to catch up in the class I'm auditing, but I'll be picking it back up soon because that reading is winding down. I'm still taking the 台語 class, but it's a different teacher now, and she's unbelievably boring, so I usually just read while I'm in there.

Still doing Thought and Society in class. We're "all the way" to lesson 5 now. Moving really slowly, but oh well. Changed my mind about Shadick. I really like the book. It's on hold for now though, because I'm taking the TOCFL this Saturday and have been preparing for it. Finished the other book I was reading (《古文字學初階》 by 李學勤), which is the first whole non-漫畫 book I've read in Chinese. Not everyone's cup of tea for a first book, I'd guess, but I enjoyed it. I'm halfway through 《古音之旅》, but it's also on hold until after this Saturday. 台語 gets worse every week, but I do plan to start actually learning the language in once this term is over.

For the next few weeks I'm testing out what Mike Campbell (Glossika) calls the Mass Sentence Method, to see how it works for me. My biggest problem is still that I have a really hard time just putting sentences together. I can always get my meaning across, but I can't just 脫口而出, and it usually isn't the way a native speaker would say it. I'm hoping this will help that, and at the very least I think it will be good to get my tongue moving a lot more. Listening to recordings of myself is a painful process, but I think that will give me even more motivation to improve.

A stomach virus, remodeling in my building during the only time I have available to record sentences, and TOCFL preparation have prevented me from using this method much yet beyond experimentation, but so far I think it's going to be good. I'll start it for real next week.

This will be my last term at MTC. Starting in December, I'll be studying privately with a tutor, focusing mostly on academic writing ability in order to prepare for my MA.

Goals for this month:

Finish 《古音之旅》 and start 《文字學概要》 by 裘錫圭

Find a tutor

Do 3000-4000 sentences using the Glossika method

Continue with, and hopefully finish, Shadick's A First Course in Literary Chinese

I also want to plan out my studying for next year, especially books related to my research field that I want to read between now and when my degree starts. I've got a shelf of books on 文字學, 聲韻學, 古漢語語法 and the like, and I'm sure it will grow exponentially over the next few years. I plan to do my master's thesis on 通假字 in Warring States texts, which will not be an easy topic, so I need to get started learning this stuff as soon as possible.