The 2014 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread

[老马萍]

I keep meaning to write up a sign in Chinese to post in the local library to find someone to do a language exchange with. Or just start talking to strangers who I hear speaking Mandarin :-)

 

 

Do you know about mylanguageexchage.com?  You can find someone to practice any language on the planet.  Granted, Skype conversations are not as good as in-person.  But I have found several friends I speak with regularly, including one who lives only 30 minutes away.  We meet for lunch every couple of weeks.  I am a volunteer tutor for a local adult English program.  I request the Chinese speakers and have 3 students now who are very willing to help me practice Chinese.  One of them is active in the local Chinese church.  If you have such a church, you might find really good partners there.

 

On the goals score, I'm so impressed with everyone's dedication and proficiency.  After 4 years with a private tutor, I'm still barely intermediate read/write and worse at speaking/listening.  I lost my tutor a few months ago and have failed miserably at independent study.  So now I have enlisted one of my ESL students to meet with me once a week so I have a deadline.  But I remain fascinated by the language so I am not in danger of quitting.  Reading everyone's post helps me overcome periodic bouts of depression and frustration over my lack of ability!

[lakers4sho]

So, I just got an email from my school's International Center, and they had just paired me up with a Chinese language partner! The minimum is 2 hrs a week, 1 hr Chinese 1 hr English, but we can definitely meet up for more if interested.

So excited for this opportunity. Hopefully it works out.

lakers4sho

[symphony]

Hey y'all,

 

Long-term lurker here. I figure some Chinese goals won't hurt, especially considering the year I've got coming up (studying abroad during junior year of college, spending this summer & fall in Beijing at intensive Chinese programs). All of the goals being posted are really inspiring!

 

• Actually use Anki every day (and don't get behind)--having committed to doing this for French/Japanese in the past, I've seen the progress that can be made, and have zero reasons to not be using Anki every day for Chinese. (being "too busy" is not a valid excuse)
  • Add words from iMandarinPod podcasts
  • Add words/sentences from TV shows (i.e. keep watching 爸爸去哪儿)
• Make huge progress this summer during my two months studying at HBA
• Continue making huge progress during the fall semester while I'm studying at IUP
  • Live with Chinese roommates during my stay if possible
  • Minimize(/eliminate) English use
• Write at least 75 entries on Lang-8 by the end of the year
• Continue listening to podcasts daily
• Stay in contact with Chinese friends on 微信, meet up with them (often) once I'm back in Beijing
• See how I feel about HSK6 towards the end of the year (as I have no idea what level I will be at after 6 months of intensive Chinese courses)
• Explore China

[Meng Lelan]

As usual a lot of  kungfu-ing and little of anything else. I did finish the DeFrancis Intermediate Reader Part 1, am starting the DeFrancis Intermediate Reader Part 2 (DeFrancis is amazing how he can use a basic simple elementary vocabulary to expound on the profound). Going to finish up two short stories in here before heading off to Louisiana for the blind rehab internship. Then I found a copy of 紅樓夢 in the original Chinese that I bought twenty years ago in a small bookshop in Shanghai and threw it into the garage to forget about it and then I had to clean up the garage and then I saw it and I thought to myself who wants to read this %$&@# story about everyone crying about everything then started reading the first chapter about the monks finding the stone and was not able to put the thing down. What happened to me?

[Lu]

So. I'm halfway through my translation, which means I am, amazingly, on schedule, and provided I keep this up I might finish it in time. I've been getting up earlier, which is helping. Income is still very limited, but let's see how it goes.

Met a fellow sinologist recently who was going through about two Chinese books per month, which inspired me to also start reading more. I have finally, finally finished 杜拉拉升职记 and have now started on 阿城's 棋王. I'm also still learning words but haven't learned any new chengyus for a while, so that needs some more attention.

And I picked up running again and enjoy it (again).

So all in all, things are going alright, and anyway I'm happy.

Meng Lelan, you're reading the 红楼梦 in Chinese?! 佩服佩服.

[Meng Lelan]

Meng Lelan, you're reading the 红楼梦 in Chinese?! 佩服佩服. 

 

It's not THAT horribly hard after nearly 25 years of daily Chinese study.........but it is loooooooooooong and soooooooo many people to track throughout the story. 

[Lu]

I read one chapter in a class once and estimated that I would never reach the required level in this lifetime, so 佩服佩服. As to the characters, you don't need to actually keep track of all of them all the time. Just remember the core characters (Jia Baoyu and his father, Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, the cousins and a few servant maids) and most of the others you can just mostly forget about until you encounter them again.

[Meng Lelan]

Jia Yucun - this is the one that keeps me reading. I know, a minor character so to speak, but the way this guy keeps wandering in and out of the story so far and I think he may show up again towards the end, but shhhhhh....! Don't want to know of spoilers, yet. 

[Elizabeth_rb]

OK, it's the end of the month and time to update on my progress.  My goal list is lengthening, which could get scary if it goes on at this rate...   Anything without a blue comment is unchanged from last time.

 

Reading only texts (make notes from):

* Colloquial Chinese 2

* Chinese in Three Months  Done!  New start and finish since last update. 

* Practice Makes Perfect Basic Chinese

* Chinese Demystified  Done!  Last two-and-a-bit chapters done since last time

* Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar  Done!

* Elementary Chinese Readers 3  Done!  Just had a few chapters of notes to make from Feb.

* Revise Far East Everyday Chinese (RR)  vocab revision begun

* Tiantian Zhongwen: Beijing's Courtyards  2/20

* Tiantian Zhongwen: Teahouses in China

Sit down and study texts, i.e. write the answers out/check on Lang-8:

* Finish 'Schaum' Chinese grammar  11.6/15

* Basic Chinese - A Grammar and Workbook

* Chinese Bible Genesis-Joshua 15  Planning on starting today

Area Studies and Linguistics Reading:

* Understanding Chinese Society  5.1/13  Started on last update day

* Rebellions and Revolutions, China 1840-1949

* Ramsey 'The Languages of China'

* Chen 'Modern Chinese - History and Sociolinguistics'

 

I've also joined the hackingchinese.com character learning challenge

 

Changed my mind.  I've been putting far too much pressure on myself and so have deleted 5 books from the list as well as decided to slow one book right down.

 

Ahhh, that's better!

 

Next update: 30 April 2014

[edelweis]

Chinese: around 12 hours

Other Languages: around 10 hours

Chinese TV and radio almost everyday.

 

It has been a stressful month, and the next two months might be worse.

I've decided against taking the CPE in June, there's no way my pronunciation can be good enough by then.

Thinking about alternative jobs, did a bit of research about a master in specialised translation (en->fr, possibly es->fr, not zh->fr of course).

Then I found out that understanding the rough meaning of basically any kind of text I read in English isn't the same as being able to translate it...

矛盾: motivation is due to stress in current job, but the same stress also causes lack of energy to study.

 

In April: I might restart reviewing Spanish grammar at a more sustainable pace, and, well, try to study regularly.

[tysond]

Progress:

 

- Have been reading lots of bits and pieces - finished another Chinese Breeze reader, been poking around in novels since I got my new Kindle, reading articles and jokes and so on quite a bit.  

- Watched quite a few movies, listened to QQSRX and SBS Radio quite a bit, and had a steady diet of ChinesePod.

- Vocabulary building has been my focus in Anki.

 

On the Road to HSK4

 

I want to get to the point of passing HSK4 soon.  My teacher thinks I can already pass, but I do notice that around half the vocabulary list is pretty unfamiliar to me.  So I have been keeping a big spreadsheet where I mark what I already know, and did some analysis.

 

Based on # of words, I know  80% of HSK3, 51% of HSK4, 6% of HSK5 vocab lists.

But then I used the frequency of these words to weight them.  So that makes it very very different.  (I used subtitle frequency from SUBTLEX)

 

Based on frequency, 97% of HSK3, 84% of HSK4, 50% of HSK5.  

 

So it seems like I know a lot of words at that level, because the ones I don't know are more obscure.  But of course, it also means HSK levels are full of relatively uncommon words - because they need to give you something to talk about.  网球 is a 1 in 100,000 frequency word, but it's HSK4.  (it's neighbours in my list are the transliterations of Eddie and Morris).

 

But then again, it's actually about as frequent as 阴, which is on the HSK2 list.  Turns out on TV shows and movies people don't spend all their time talking about the overcast weather making it unsuitable for playing tennis.  But my textbooks do.   

 

As for level 5 - a few high frequency words completely dominate the long tail of words at that level.  

 

I'll still keep learning these words (in frequency order) as all the learning materials tend to standardize around these lists, but I might stop at 95% mark and leave the long tail ones alone, unless they come up naturally.  Amusingly, the least common HSK4 in subtitles was 京剧 (1 time in 33 million words), which came up in episode 2 of Zombie Brother (尸兄).  

[JustinJJ]

 

 

It's not THAT horribly hard after nearly 25 years of daily Chinese study

佩服佩服佩服！

[Pokarface]

I'll keep my list short but efficient:

 

1- Finish my books along with their CDs, Colloquial Chinese and teach yourself Chinese. (To learn Chinese)

2- Walk around my local University and find students from China/Taiwan to befriend (Using Mandarin!! To apply Chinese)

3- Master the FLR method. (This will allow me to ask/reply questions very fast and to be more detailed)

[roddy]

"3- Master the FLR method"

This is a new one... perhaps a new topic telling us what it is and why you're using it, then we can see what we think ;-)

[JustinJJ]

 

Based on # of words, I know  80% of HSK3, 51% of HSK4, 6% of HSK5 vocab lists.

But then I used the frequency of these words to weight them.  So that makes it very very different.  (I used subtitle frequency from SUBTLEX)

 

Based on frequency, 97% of HSK3, 84% of HSK4, 50% of HSK5.  

 

So it seems like I know a lot of words at that level, because the ones I don't know are more obscure.  But of course, it also means HSK levels are full of relatively uncommon words - because they need to give you something to talk about.  网球 is a 1 in 100,000 frequency word, but it's HSK4.  (it's neighbours in my list are the transliterations of Eddie and Morris).

 

Tysond, based on my experience I'd try to learn much more words than they suggest before sitting an HSK exam. When I sat HSK 5 I had only really focused on the 2500 words in the syllabus and I found the reading section very stressful. Even though I got a reasonable score (I think it was 246/300), I would highly recommend learning all level 5 words before sitting level 4 and all level 6 words before sitting level 5. I think the word lists are such a joke to the extent that Hanban are almost trying to lead people astray by providing them lol.

 

I'm planning to sit Level 6 at some point, but hoping to have studied at least the majority of the words from the Old Hsk list in addition to the HSK 6 list before then (I'm mainly learning them as I come to them in novels and adding them to anki).

 

Re: frequency of hsk words, I wouldn't put too much stress on what your frequency list tells you, I'd just assume they are all useful. 网球 is a word you could come across almost every day if you read the sports section of a newspaper and if you don't learn words of that frequency the day people are talking about the 网球 you'll be really confused I'm skeptical about 京剧 only being a 1 in 33 million word.  

[imron]

I think the word lists are such a joke to the extent that Hanban are almost trying to lead people astray by providing them lol.

I think they mention somewhere that there will always be a certain % of words on the exam that are outside of the wordlists.

[tysond]

Thanks for the advice on HSK lists.   I know there's lots of problems extrapolating too much from any lists, because frequency depends a ton on your topic of interest and even medium.

Subtitles from movies/TV shows don't talk about tennis because most characters aren't playing tennis.  But Li Na's activites in Melbourne were all over the news recently.

 

I know my obsession with the subtitle list has its drawbacks.  It's pretty reliable for common things, but as you get further down the list, it starts to be less reliable.

 

I heard the HSK6 test goes outside the vocab lists but I didn't know HSK4 did.  At any rate I do get exposure many words outside HSK4, but I'm not actively trying to memorize the list.

They lurk in my sentences in Anki, and I add new sentences based on reading, and my textbook.  And occasionally I'll go on a run down my frequency list and just add words that seem common and useful.

[Kobo-Daishi]

Subtitles from movies/TV shows don't talk about tennis because most characters aren't playing tennis.  But Li Na's activites in Melbourne were all over the news recently.

 

Obviously, haven't watched Ariel Lin's It Started With A Kiss. Ariel's Xiang Qin joins the university tennis club, gets hit in the nose by a lob and ends up with a bloody nose. Plenty of tennis hijinks abound. 

 

Kobo.

[andyfastow]

I started learning Chinese this year. In January and February I was only doing 1-3 hours per week, but since the beginning of March I've been studying independently on a full-time basis. My goal for the year is to reach a conversational level, such that I can have a 20-30 minute conservation with a native speaker on a variety of common everyday topics.

 

My goals for April are:

1. Spend at least 50 hours per week learning Chinese

2. Spend at least 10 hours per week with tutors or language exchange partners

3. At least one SRS session per day, six days per week

4. Finish modules 2 and 3 of FSI

5. 30 minute drills 5 days per week listening to single syllable words in isolation until I can accurately recognize tones on a consistent basis

[laurenth]

Update after three months, see post # 18

 

READING: I will try to read 10 novels in 2014, or about 2 million characters

 

 

I don't know whether I'm on track as far as actual numbers are concerned, but the important thing is that I did read every single day. In addition to a series of articles, I read:

 

- vol. 1 of 鬼吹灯, by 张牧野. There's a whole thread about it, so go there if you don't know why I believe it's a very good book.

 

- vol. 1 of the People Education Press readers for 3rd graders. In spite of a basketful of flowery adjectives, the book is interesting enough, not least because it gives you the false but nice impression that, by following the same path as Chinese kids, you may end up as literate as they are.

 

- I've almost finished 万灵节之死, which is vol. 2 of a detective novel series called 第十二夜, by 璇儿. Again, I was lucky, because such light fiction is just about right for my level and, though the cultural background is less rich than 鬼吹灯, I'm engrossed in the plot and I can use the book both for intensive and extensive reading.

 

If numbers matter, I reckon I read almost 250 pages in January, a little over 200 in February, and over 250 in March.

 

LISTENING: I will try to log 10 hours of listening per week

 

 

Big failure here - the only week when I was able to reach that objective was when I was alone at home because the kids and my wife were all away. Such a set of highly improbable conditions is not likely to be met again anytime soon.

 

I haven't even been able to integrate listening exercises in my daily routine. At this stage, I just can't do "extensive" or background listening: the radio is almost totally opaque and the language of all the movies I've watched these last few months was above my head (三峡好人, 小武, 铁西区, 霍元甲, 洗澡, 1911, 新少林寺, or even the apparently simpler 我的父亲母亲, 或者, etc.).

 

On the very infrequent occasions where I did have some time to *really* listen intensively (i.e. load the sound file into Audacity, loop through sentences, isolate difficult extracts, slow them down, look up the vocab with the help of a transcript, shadow, parrot, etc.), for instance  ChinesePod upper intermediate level podcasts or short extracts of  锵锵三人行, I've seen how useful that exercise was, but I simply wasn't able to integrate one-hour periods of intensive listening in my routine - and there has been no noticeable improvement in my listening comprehension. Deeply frustrating.

 

Anyway, I've continued working with ChinesePod (intermediate) and SlowChinese podcasts.

 

 VOCAB: Skritter and Pleco

 

I've studied my Pleco word lists faithfully, adding 10-25 words a day and deleting part or all of the SRS queue when reviews took too long. In Skritter, I tend to study regularly on week days and to fall behind during weekends. Up to now, I've always been able to catch up though.

 

 What I *won't* try to do: Speaking, writing, preparing for HSK 5, studying grammar, etc. and studying/maintaining other languages than Mandarin.

 

 

I've succeeded in not doing what I didn't want to do anyway.