Note sure what route to take.

[AndyLau]

Hello,

 

I've been research for a good half to an hour regarding how I can further continue with my chinese studies. I am an ABC with a canto background (Can hold a decent conversation but sometime requires me to pause to collect the words and organize it.) My mom pushed me into mandarin (one of those weekend classes) around 08' to get my younger sister into it, and since then, I've been hooked to them. I stopped going 4 months ago because of schooling. Even not attending, I still continued on with my chinese studies regardless at home (It's an addiction). I downloaded ZDT and used it constantly for 2 months (20 cards a day Monday-Friday) and finished the entire series (Frequent 100-500) before new year ended. Now 2014 is here, I went back to ZDT and my motivation continuing ZDT has gone down after the first week ( ). I want to find other resources to bring back the energy I once had. I plan on taking chinese class in college to further my chinese studies. Can anyone give me a reccomendation?

 

Here's a short list on what I've done from 08.

• Completed ZDT Frequent 100-500 (My accuracy rate on that was around 75% )
• Finished IQChinese GO100-200 (Switch schools, look below)
• Took a weekend class for 2 years that use MeiZhou book series (Both text and workbook) (Highest I went was a level 5)
• Brought the Student edition pleco that includes handwriting, OCR, and flashcard (Love it when I'm bored on the road)
• Can recognize characters and know it's definition, but cannot write (Writing is not my priority).

 

My main concern is I honestly don't know my skill level since I've learned chinese over the weekends only and an on and off settings. but these were some of the choices I was considering:

• Beginner chinese by Yong Ho - Maybe too easy for me? saw under the reccomendations for ZDT
• Intermediate Chinese by Yong Ho - Another reccomendation saw under ZDT, could use that book in combination with ZDT
• New Practical Chinese Reader - Saw it on this forum but don't know what skill level or volume I should start.
• IQchinese - Think this is the least favorable one.

I just started on this forum so I may not know some of the terminology well.

 

Sorry for a long rant / grammar mistakes, it's 3:30AM.

 

Andy Lau

 

[mandarina]

Have you thought about using Anki for vocabulary?

[Elizabeth_rb]

Andy, sorry you've had so little response!  

 

Anyway, what you've suggested in terms of books sounds fine.  What really matters - and this cannot be underestimated - is that you just pick something and get on with it.  Don't worry about something being too easy, it'll help with revision and consolidation and there's always something new to learn.  It'll also get you going.  What counts most of regular, consistent work and as much practice as you can manage.

 

Having said that, some of my current faves in terms of books are:

 

Claudia Ross 'Chinese Demystified'

Practice Makes Perfect 'Basic Chinese'

'Teach Yourself Beginners Chinese/Get Started in Mandarin' (it was recently re-named)

Kan Qian 'Colloquial Chinese 2'

 

Digital resources I know zero about, I'm afraid!