The 2013 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread

[OneEye]

So, goals for June. I'm participating in Tadoku this month, and my goal is to read 500 pages in Chinese. I usually read 10 pages or so per day as it is, but on days when I translate a lot, I can't do much serious reading. So I bought some comic books to read this month when my brain gets tired. I want to make significant progress on both Japanese and 尚書. And I want to continue watching/listening to a bunch of movies, because it helps a lot with both listening and speaking ability.

Tadoku was going OK, and then I got busy with work, and by the end of the month I had forgotten about updating for too long to be able to catch up. I think all in all I read the equivalent of about 300 pages by their count, but most of it wasn't recorded. I did make good progress on Japanese and 尚書, and I watched/listened to a bunch of movies. So all in all it was a successful month.

I'm in the US for now. I brought some stuff to read (high school 國文 reader and 《雪山飛狐》by 金庸), and I'm hoping to study some Japanese and maybe some Taiwanese while I'm here, but I'm not setting any concrete goals. It's the first time I've been back since I moved to Taiwan 2 years ago, so studying is far from the main priority.

[Meng Lelan]

So, OneEye, you in Austin now and how long?

I'm finishing up the blind rehab classes in Lubbock and returning to San Idiotonio this weekend. The blind rehab classes were completely awesome, but I haven't done much Chinese. There really aren't any Chinese my age in Lubbock and no Chinese kungfu schools here.

The really difficult thing about the blind rehab classes is I am constantly graded on how well I teach the skills need for orientation and mobility, in contrast to deaf education (in which I am currently employed) they never evaluate your teaching, they just evaluate your filling out forms and papers and other administrative trash.

I am now at episode 20 of 西遊記 and totally enjoy the wushu scenes (the guy who plays Monkey King is actually practices wushu and has been in wushu competitions in China).

Some guys who studied Chinese in Taiwan have started up a Chinese meetup in San Antonio so I am going to that next week and see how that goes. But my Chinese speaking is starting to become trash due to lack of Chinese conversation here in Lubbock.

[OneEye]

Actually, we just lived in Texas for a few years, but Florida is home for both of us. We're staying with in-laws in Georgia for a few days, then to Florida early next week. I fly back to Taiwan July 28. Short trip.

[xuefang]

It's been a while since I've looked at my aims for Chinese learning. As always, I'm goog at setting goals, but not so good at achieving them. My biggest goal for the rest of the year is to finish my thesis that is to be written in Chinese, about 5000-8000 characters. Writing my thesis will of course make me to read and write a lot in Chinese.

I also want to finally really start reading Chinese novels and watching Chinese tv shows regularly. I've had this goal many times, but it seems hard for me to keep up this goal. Haven't I found something compelling and interesting enough?

After graduating in the end of this year I should also decide what are my future goals with Chinese.

[laurenth]

Assessment for 2Q2013 (see #47):

- READING: "Read a bit everyday"

Done, and then some. Apart from 王小波's《黄金时代》and part of a non-fiction bilingual book called 《中国进行时》, I've focused on short stories and novellas and I've read:

* 赵本夫 《天下无贼》 (second time I read it)

* 赵本夫 《七个和一个》

* 余华 《我没有自己的名字》

* 裘山山 《下午茶》

* 西西 《像我这样的一个女子》

* 萧红 《手》

* 阿城《炊烟》

* 曹寇《挖下去就是美国》

* 北北 《总之还要住下去》

* 巴金 《家》 (simplified, shorter version)

In addition, I've read over 40 press articles on a variety of subjects.

- LISTENING: "Continue working with Chinese Learn On Line at a rate of 2 podcasts/week."

For my birthday, my wife offered me a ChinesePod subscription. Sweet! So I've switched to ChinesePod with a view to reinforcing my listening comprehension. I've studied at a pace of about 1 or 2 podcasts/week.

Also, I've discovered NDTV, an online Chinese-speaking TV. I've watched videos and read the transcripts at least twice a week.

- SPEAKING: "Continue 2 Skype classes/week this month until my subscription comes to an end"

Voilà. No more Skype lesson. No more talking Chinese for the moment.

I try to compensate by practicing shadowing, parroting, substitutions, etc. with ChinesePod lessons.

- VOCABULARY:

I reviewed HSK5 and HSK4 vocabulary, but didn't start studying HSK6 vocab as announced.

On the other hand, I studied a lot of words collected while reading in Pleco.

I also continued studying characters.

- PREPARATION FOR HSK4

I did study the vocab, did some mock tests (only the audio part, due to lack of time), did register, and did pass (see dedicated thread).

OTHER LANGUAGES:

- Finnish: "read 1 short text/week." Check

- Latin: "finish chapter XLIV and read chapters XLV-XLVI of Oerberg's Roma Aeterna." Nope. Yet, I did read quite a lot of shorter texts, mainly extracts from Caesar and the Gesta Romanorum, and I started Regulus (a translation of "Le Petit Prince").

- Spanish: "one novel". I read Bolaño's "Las putas asesinas".

- Reminder: "6 pm - 10 pm is Chinese-free time." I was only moderately successful with this.

OBJECTIVES FOR NEXT 3 MONTHS

July and August will probably be relatively bad for language learning, as I will want to spend more time with my kids and less with my books and my phone. However:

- READING: Read a bit everyday. I'll go on with Pleco. Every attempt to use paper has failed so far, as too many dictionary lookups kill the pleasure.

- LISTENING: Use ChinesePod regularly to improve listening comprehension.

- VOCAB: Go on with the same diet, i.e. adding 20-30 daily to a Pleco list named after the date, and study the lists of days X-1, X-3 and X-6 (simple flashcards, no SRS), plus studying my all-purpose Anki deck and my list of characters with Skritter.

- READING and WRITING: no objective.

- Other languages: read one more novel in Spanish; study more texts in Finnish and in Latin.

[Meng Lelan]

So far I am at 4100 characters in the Skritter queue, when I reach 5000 I will demand the Skritter guys publish an interview with me.

Just came back from the Houston wushu tournament where I got two gold medals. Now I am working on new 刀術 and 長拳 forms , maybe a new 南棍 form, this is stuff I like the most because the southern staff is so thick and heavy and massive that it's stellar to do and watch.

I haven't posted much in my blog because I am considering moving my blog to a more trad character friendly platform, not sina.com but maybe something Taiwan based, but I don't know where bloggers like to go in Taiwan. Will have to investigate.

I decided not to go to the Chinese meetups here because I am now moving into a new house and trying to get a job related to the vision impaired and blind rehab and also want to spend more time training in wushu than more time talking in Chinese.

So far I am satisfied with my progress towards my 2013 goals.

[古文奇才]

Save up money so I can take a break from my job to focus on studying Chinese and learning breakdancing, my two goals.

[OneEye]

No bump this month, eh?

I've been back in Taiwan for two weeks now. I applied and was accepted earlier this year to do an MA in Chinese at a university here in Taiwan starting this fall. I planned to defer admission for a year while I worked on my Chinese and read some more in my field. I wasn't offered much of a scholarship, and I was hoping for a better one next year. There's also the possibility of moving to Japan next year instead to work on my Japanese, which I'll need for my PhD work. I was all set for a year of translating (my job) and studying between now and then.

Then today, that all got turned upside down when I got an email from the university offering a much bigger scholarship than they had originally offered. It would cover the entire tuition and then some. I couldn't really turn down a free MA. If I do end up moving to Japan next year, I can take a leave of up to two years, so I'd have the option of coming back and finishing. If I don't go to Japan, I'll finish my coursework next year and then work on my thesis from wherever I am the following year.

I'll be taking one course on palaeography and one course yet-to-be-decided (probably either on the classics or etymology) as well as an "Advanced Chinese" course for foreigners, which actually looks quite good. I'm also auditing an interpretation class (because I promised the teacher I would), so I'll be quite busy this fall. I will continue doing translation work, though the time I spend doing it will necessarily be limited. I'll also continue studying Japanese, though maybe less intensively than I had planned.

So the next four weeks will be a mad dash to prepare. I'll be reading a lot, in both Chinese and English, on palaeography, the classics, early Chinese history, archaeology, etc. Should be fun.

[Meng Lelan]

Awesome. Take the scholarship and just do it. I would think you could work on your Japanese in Taiwan anyway.

[OneEye]

Could, yes. But I suspect it will be about like I worked on Chinese in the US. Which, after several years off and on (mostly off), I only tested into second-quarter Chinese when I got to the MTC. I've made up for lost time since then, and I'm much more dilligent than I used to be, but still, I wouldn't have much time to work on it because other things would take priority.

But really, the reason for going to Japan is that the professor who I'm hoping to do my PhD under has told me I should try to study in Japan before I start my PhD. He even seemed to think that it would be preferable to doing an MA if I had to choose (which I do...time's ticking). Plus, I'd love living in Japan. I really like it there.

That's all going to depend on my wife anyway. I can translate from anywhere, but she actually has to find a school to teach at. She's very talented so I doubt she'll have any trouble, but we'll see what happens. If she gets a job there, then great, but if not then hey, free MA!

[OneEye]

Update time.

I was pretty good about studying Chinese this month. I did a lot of brushing up on school-related vocabulary, which paid off at orientation/registration yesterday because I heard and had to use a lot of what I had worked on. I did a lot of reading. I got together all the books I think I might need to use this semester and familiarized myself with them so that I'll know where to turn when I need to find things out during the semester. That generally meant reading the front matter and maybe the first chapter or two to see what it was all about, and casually flipping through the rest of the book. I reviewed some Japanese, but didn't study any further.

It turns out I'm not going to be required to do the Advanced Chinese course. However, since my undergrad degree wasn't in Chinese, I will be required to take a slew of undergrad courses in my department in addition to the MA requirements. I thought I was going to have to take 30 hours of coursework, now I'll have to take 44. Fortunately, the undergrad courses I was given to choose from overlap in content with some of the grad courses I'll be taking, so I think they'll complement each other very well. The undergrad courses don't require term papers, just exams, and the reading I'll have to do for them will help me a lot in my MA courses and the papers I'll be writing. So it will be tough, and the undergrad courses tend to require large amounts of memorization (for example, I think I'm going to have to be able to be able to write all 540 部首 from the 說文解字 in order from memory, in both 小篆 and 楷書), but it will be good for me.

Anyway, it looks like I'm taking 漢字形體學研究 and 出土文獻思想專題研究 in the graduate department, along with 文字學 and 國學概論 in the undergrad department. The undergrad courses are both full-year courses, so I'll be taking part two in the spring. I have 6 days until I start, and I'm fairly swamped with translation work until then. Starting soon, I'll be taking part in a 正史 reading group. I think we'll probably mostly stick with the 史記, the 漢書, and the 後漢書, though we may venture later. My goal for that is simply to keep up, more or less.

Let's see...goals for the month. 1) Stay afloat. 2) Choose paper topics for the two grad classes. 3) Try to squeeze in some Japanese study.

[edelweis]

It seems I'm studying mostly out of habit these days. A bit of SRS and 听力 in my little hiding hole at work after a quick lunch, a bit of any other language once or twice a week while folding laundry. If anything disturbs my little routines, such as forgotten headphones, low battery, vacation, travelling for work (unfortunately not to China), studying just does not happen, sometimes for weeks at a time.

Feeling quite relaxed about everything, except work maybe? (the high level staff at my company certainly know how to keep people on their toes, but on the other hand I get along better with my colleagues so...). September used to be my yearly peak of energy and euphoria and it seems that pattern has returned although subdued into a kind of mild good humour and surprising endurance of, well, life.

Also I fell into poetry again due to my dabbling in recording for Librivox. So the laundry folding activities have veered off into shadowing Christina Rossetti's Spring or Antonio Machado's Era una mañana y abril sonreía

And at night instead of reading my traditional characters Taiwan literature book (which I haven't opened in quite some time), I might read aloud some poems by Anna de Noailles or Emile Verhaeren...

I am still only at lesson 8 of 30 in my review of my old Arabic textbook. Too soon to try poetry although I made a half hearted attempt to find Ibn Arabi's Tarjuman al Ashwaq on the internet.

I tried to register for a Chinese conversation class that occurs twice a month (let's be realistic, once a week is too much for lazy me), but it seems it might get cancelled due to not enough participants. Also I bought tickets for two Chinese Operas which is kind of mildly exciting. A 黄梅 one and a 京剧 one. The one time I saw 京剧 live was in Beijing 4 years ago. Now I hope nothing happens to spoil these between now and the end of the month.

[OneEye]

OK, now is as good a time as any for an update.

I ended up just taking one undergrad course (文字學) instead of two, and I'm really glad I decided to do that. The undergrad class is turning out to require a lot of time, like I suspected. Not only do I have to know the 540 部首 from the 說文解字 like I said before, I also have to know the differences in their forms between two different versions of the 說文 (the 大徐本 and the 段注本), their 古文、籀文、篆文 etc. forms when they exist, and copy it all into a workbook in addition to the explanation for each from the 說文, their 反切 spellings, etc. I'm having to spend about an hour per day just copying the stuff into my workbook if I want to finish it on time, in addition to the required reading and memorization. I should be pretty good at reading 小篆 by the time it's over, though, and I've already noticed improvements there.

My stated goals for the month were: "1) Stay afloat. 2) Choose paper topics for the two grad classes. 3) Try to squeeze in some Japanese study."

I was successful in all three, so that's something. I'm a little behind in my reading, but not drastically so. I should have no problem catching up this month, because the reading load is a little lighter than in the first month. I've chosen my paper topics. One is on 通假字 in the 郭店 bamboo texts, the other on thought in the two excavated versions of the 緇衣. I've collected a bunch of books and journal articles for each, so I'll be getting started on the reading for them this week. As far as possible, I want to get a little bit written each week so I don't have to cram it all into the last few weeks, and so that I can get my language exchange partner to help me with the proofreading.

I did fairly well with Japanese this month. I didn't cover any new material (yet again), but I did cover nearly everything I had previously studied in a way that has helped me activate what I only knew passively. It's been quite effective, but we'll see how well it works with unfamiliar stuff. I had おなりのトトロ (My Neighbor Totoro) playing in the background while I worked on some proofreading earlier today, and was happy to find that I could follow the general gist of what was being said. Not even remotely close to full understanding, of course, but there were a surprising number of full sentences that I understood with no problem. That was quite motivating. Recent developments in my wife's job search have made me very optimistic about being able to move to Japan next fall, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much. If we do move, I'm planning to have achieved a basic level of competence by then, hopefully better than my Chinese was when I moved to Taiwan two years ago.

Goals for this month are 1) Keep up with reading 2) Go through all the journal articles I've downloaded and see which ones will really be useful for the papers I'm writing and ignore the rest for now 3) Read at least the basic/theoretical/methodological stuff I'll need for the two papers 4) Write at least a few pages 5) Finish reviewing Japanese and start pushing forward into new material. I hope to finish the Assimil Japanese book and maybe most of Shadowing 1 by the end of the year, which will require me being fairly diligent with it.

[Meng Lelan]

I'm having to spend about an hour per day just copying the stuff into my workbook if I want to finish it on time,

Dude I would love that kind of homework after seeing that awesome workbook. I could never find a 文字學class like that anywhere in the States. So as for my update, not much going on. I switched my kids' Chinese workbooks after they complained of eternally happy children and extremely cheerful teachers featured in their Singapore Mandarin 小学华文 series and they called it "Prozac Land", so I graciously dug out a set of readers 華語 that were published in the 1990s and issued for free by the Taiwan education department. We like it. I also dug out my Rouzer Practical Primer of Literary Chinese and working my way through it. Still Skrittering, but I don't study very much as I spend most of what was supposed to be study time on wushu practice and strength training. Study is far more taxing on me than doing 刀術。

[Lu]

- Translate a book (still).

- Actually study Chinese instead of just using it. To this end, set up a serious SRS deck.

- Keep reading books in Chinese.

- Figure out what to do with rest of life (again). Alternatively, accept that I won't figure this out, and instead make a resolution to spend good times with friends, family and other cool people.

- The book is finished! In the end, another translator was called in as I wasn't able do finish it in time (the deadline was very tight), I enjoyed the cooperation. The book is to be published in november. We're applying for a scholarship, hopefully still in time, to get a little more money. I'm now contemplating whether I should propose another book to the publisher...

- Still feeding Anki and learning words and chengyu.

- Just finished 猫城记, now reading 杜拉拉. Reading is going well.

- Still no real job, doing things freelance for the time being. So far I've had bits of income here and there, if I can get a bit more freelance work perhaps I won't need to start eating my savings. I want to find a job to have more security, but at the same time I'm having a blast. Doing exactly what I like, seeing friends old and new, some translation and interpretation gigs, it's great. Haven't been this happy in years.

[edelweis]

Doing SRS and 听力 still, not much more besides.

 

Saw two Chinese operas:

女驸马

this is a 黄梅调 opera. Costumes, dancing, singing, all very interesting and funny. The stage set was reduced to chairs and a table though, I guess it would have been too expensive to bring anything more elaborate to Paris. The story took a dramatic turn near the end, and just as I was thinking "wow the acting is superb", I realized the king and his advisor were genuinely surprised, the princess was genuinely concerned, and the main actress was in a genuine faint on the floor. Hope it wasn't anything life or career threatening.

A compilation of some interesting moments on the CCTV website. (not the same actors as in the live performance I saw)

 

三打陶三春

this is 京剧 with acrobatics and martial arts. Also a comedy, funny and light-hearted, and actually quite informative about court etiquette (as the fiancé complains a lot about it, and the title role refuses to submit to it despite the explanations and supplications of her official escort members). They also had only the minimum accessories with them but the acrobatics were spectacular.

The face paintings make body acting all the more important.

Part 1 and Part 2 on the CCTV website. (also not the same actors)

 

There were subtitles in French and Chinese, but as the display was suspended to the ceiling, it was not very practical to read the subtitles and follow the acting at the same time...

The translation was obviously not reviewed by a native speaker ("soyez brudante" instead of "soyez prudente" etc.)

 

[Lu]

 

The stage set was reduced to chairs and a table though, I guess it would have been too expensive to bring anything more elaborate to Paris.

This is actually not uncommon, and one of the charms (for me) of Chinese opera. I've seen more elaborate sets, both in Holland and in China, but also simple ones like this one in China itself. I don't think the cost of shipping was a concern here, bringing the troupe itself is usually so expensive that some extra shipping doesn't matter that much.

 

 

There were subtitles in French and Chinese, but as the display was suspended to the ceiling, it was not very practical to read the subtitles and follow the acting at the same time...

Ack yeah that sucks. I was at an opera once where the set was so light that I could barely see the subtitles projected over the stage.

 

I'm off to see some Kunqu tonight, not only am I lucky that this is performed in Holland at all, I also somehow can go for free.

[耳耳语语]

I watched this whole festival in Paris. http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/42128-whats-so-great-about-beijing-opera/page-2

The actress that fainted is fine. She came back during the applause and she even recieved a price the last day.

Since this festival, i flashcard like crazy :-D

[OneEye]

1) Keep up with reading

 

More or less. I'm learning to skim in Chinese, and that helps.

 

2) Go through all the journal articles I've downloaded and see which ones will really be useful for the papers I'm writing and ignore the rest for now

 

Nope. Instead, I've been spending a lot of time becoming familiar with the texts I'm working with, reading different scholars' interpretations, etc. I'll do this part this month.

 

3) Read at least the basic/theoretical/methodological stuff I'll need for the two papers

 

Some. Still have some of this on deck.

 

4) Write at least a few pages

 

Nope. Actually, I don't think the writing will take all that much time, so I'm not going to worry too much about it just yet. I'll try to get some written this month though. 

 

5) Finish reviewing Japanese and start pushing forward into new material.

 

Success. I finished reviewing everything I had previously covered in Assimil, plus some.

 

 

In addition to the 說文 homework I mentioned previously, I'm now copying every headword in the 說文 for one of my other classes, in both 楷書 and 小篆. I bitched about it for a while, but I've gotten over it now and I'm just doing it. I'm doing so much of this stuff, I literally dreamt about 小篆 a few nights ago. On one hand, it's helping a lot. On the other hand, there are better ways for us to learn how to read 小篆. Oh well, 仕様がない。

 

My paper topic has changed somewhat for one of my classes. Rather than 通假字 in the 郭店 texts, I'm doing an analysis of a few characters from both the 郭店 and 上博 manuscripts of 緇衣. It's a lot of fun.

 

Goals for this month: keep moving forward with research papers, 說文 stuff, and Japanese. Keep up with readings for class. Be more consistent with my daily schedule.

[Marguerite]

I found this thread pretty late in 2013, so some modest goals for the next two months:
 
1. Conversation, especially pronunciation: Work with a native tutor once or twice a week to develop conversational skills and improve my pronunciation. No getting pats on the back just for trying!
 
2. Reading: Read a little every day. So far, I am doing a chapter a day of 秘密花园 (discussed here). I'm relying very heavily on the pop-up dictionary, but I hope to improve. By the time I move to the next book, I hope to be able to get through more while looking up less.
 
3. Studying: Keep up with Skritter and the HSK / textbook lists. Depending on the tutor(s) from 1, get a new textbook and follow it.
 
4. Concrete testing: Take the HSK 2 or 3 at the first opportunity. I will be travelling back to 都柏林 this weekend, which appears to be the last time this year the HSK will be offered there. I will see about taking the HSK 2 in December in 科克 instead, maybe. If I can't take HSK2 this year, I'll aim for the HSK 3 early next year instead.

5. Writing: Use written language (email, Skype) to communicate with either my colleagues here in 广州 or my tutor(s). Revive my Lang-8 account and use it at least once every week.

6. Other languages: Ugh. Not much at the moment. Use Lang-8 for my French also at least once a week. Start planning goals for 2014 (priority 1: DALF/TCF, then CILS, and don't lose progress in my other languages).

Edited to clean up that link.

Edited November 6, 2013 at 09:27 AM by Marguerite