Seeking study plan advice for person in Chinese environment

[valikor]

Hi all,

 

I think my situation as a Chinese learner is a bit unique, because I have constant exposure to the language (I work in Beijing, and all of my co-workers are Chinese). That being said, it's an American company, so most of our reports/written communication is in English. So:

 

Speaking/listening practice: daily

Writing/reading practice: little

 

My current level is such that I can often communicate everything I need in spoken Chinese, but when discussing more complex topics, I can really struggle. I also make a lot of grammar mistakes, and have a limited active vocabulary. My reading is okay (I can probably get through the majority of newspaper articles, though I may be slow).

 

My main goal is to improve my speaking and listening. I have no idea how to do this. The common advice "more input, more output" doesn't seem especially helpful, since I'm around Chinese people all day everyday, and have a ton of exposure. But I still think I'm at a huge and frustrating plateau, and feel I'm making almost no progress. 

 

Does anybody have any suggestions for this kind of situation? I will probably be here for a few more years, so I'd like to have some kind of long-term study plan, and/or a short-term (6-month) intensive plan that would be doable for a person with a full-time job.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

[Shelley]

Well I feel I must point out this : http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/43939-independent-chinese-study-review/#comment-328096

 

It must have taken awhile to write and I am sure that by posting it here he/she might have hoped it would help some one, maybe it will help you.

[imron]

Does anybody have any suggestions for this kind of situation?

Memorising and reciting native content.  锵锵三人行 is probably a good place to start due to the ready availability of transcripts and the variety of content.  Just start choosing relatively long sentences by either the host or one of the guests and then go about memorising and reciting it.  Record yourself while you do this and don't stop until you can match the rhythm and pacing of the original (prepared to be humbled).  Try to spend at least 30 mins a day doing this, and make sure to do it everyday.

 

It'll be incredibly boring and monotonous, but I've found this sort of drilling really helps push through plateaus.

 

The more you practice, the more you'll be able to start getting your speech close to native speeds and pacing, and this will naturally start to flow in to your everyday speech when you find occasions to use similar word patterns and expressions to the ones used in the sentences you are memorising - especially for things like joining sentences together and the like.

[gato]

Try to read the newspaper and watch the news everyday. Read magazines (such as 新世纪周刊) for longer articles. This will help you expand your vocabulary and become more comfortable with more complex language patterns.