Advice for intensive self-study

[Talipallo]

你們好!

 

I have studied chinese for almost two semesters now. As I failed to get a summer job this year I decided to spend my upcoming summer vacation cramming some chinese. I can't afford to travel to China nor to hire a tutor, hence my only option is to study myself.

 

In my chinese classes we have worked through the NPCR 1 and after the summer we're moving on to the NPCR 2, therefore I won't be using this book series over the summer. (studying the book over the summer would make attending the classes the next semester kind of pointless in my opinion)

 

At the moment I have learned about 1600 words that contain a tad over 1000 different characters. I believe I'm able to recognize almost all of those characters in a text with 95% accuracy. Out of those characters I can write roughly 700. I'm learning the traditional characters.

 

When it comes to studying by myself I am completely clueless. This far I have been simply learning basic vocabulary along with pronounciation. I know the basics of sentence structure and I know how to speak in different tenses. I haven't done much reading as I don't know where to look for easy texts written with the traditional characters.

 

I'm planning on doing 4-6 hours of chinese every day over the summer. However spending all that time learning only vocabulary seems too tedious and not too helpful. Can you give me any advice on what I should do and perhaps recommend me a grammar book that would be easy to go through without the help of a teacher or a tutor?

 

謝謝你們

[tysond]

Tamu wrote an excellent post on this, although there were a lot of tutoring session involved, there are still plenty of study tips.  http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/43939-independent-chinese-study-review/

 

Since you can read a decent number of characters, try reading comic books (many are available online or through iOS/Android/Windows Phone apps).  You can also read graded readers.  Many are recommended on this site, have a search around (not sure how many are available in traditional though...).  Reading native material is great for new vocab, idiomatic expressions, slang, etc.  Reading graded readers is great for improving your reading skill itself as they largely isolate you from new vocab.

 

You should also able to watch TV and movies at this point, with subtitles helping out.  Also, chat shows like QQSRX which have transcripts.  There are browser plugins that will convert simplified to traditional.  You can also sign up for Chinese language social networks and just generally browse the Chinese internet sites.  Plenty of Taiwanese chat forums and stuff out there.

 

You can work on pronunciation by yourself using mp3 files and audacity to shadow/chorus what is being said (recording yourself and comparing).  

 

There are lots of threads on these topics on Chinese Forums.  

[renzhe]

You could get a different textbook at beginner's level and go through that. I went through four different textbook series. It will reinforce the things you know, and introduce some alternative ways of saying the same things, and some new vocabulary.

At NPCR1 level, there's not much more you can do, really, but since you know a decent number of words, I would recommend comic books. Check the reading subforum for many recommendations.

You could also go through all the NPCR1 videos (they are on youtube), listen to them, and try to shadow every sentence until you can get it just right. Also great practice.

[Talipallo]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

I see that reading comic books might be a good idea. I, In fact, bought a few comics books some time ago (" 弒神者！" , " Another " and " 结界女王 " -series) from an exchange student who didn't feel like carrying them back to Taiwan. There are some pages of which I can easily undestand everything. I have shunned away from reading them because there are also many pages of which I can barely recognize half of the characters. I guess my goal for the summer could be that I could read these kinds of comics without too much trouble.

 

I checked out the thread by Tamu. I like the idea of learning vocabulary by memorizing complete sentences - I think I'll do that.

 

Last january I tried to look for graded readers written with traditional characters without much luck. I did find few sort texts (<500 word each) that were good for my skill level. Other than that and the NPCR 1 -textbook I haven't read any chinese aside from the occasional sentence here and there.

 

I think at the moment my pronounciation is one of my strong points. Whenever I studied vocabulary I would read the words out loud as I studied them. According to my chinese teacher I pronounce the tones fine. I plan to do a face-to-face study sessions with a chinese transfer student next semester; that's when I plan to seriously focus on my pronounciation.

 

@renzhe Considering that you have worked through 4 textbook series could you recommend me one of them? Preferrably something that would have a different approach and/or content from NPCR?

[renzhe]

I've worked through NPCR, Speed Up Chinese, and two German-language books which were not that awesome.

Popular choices include Integrated Chinese and Chinese Panorama, which are both rather similar to NPCR in style, and the venerable DeFrancis reader, if you can find it, which is quite different.

Honestly, I don't even think that it matters WHAT you use. It's simply useful to get the same type information in a different context with slightly different sentences and slightly different words. It's a really good way to gain very useful skills at a beginner level without getting into really deep territory too soon.

[roddy]

I think you're going to struggle to do that much study and not get way ahead of the rest of the class. You might not have used the textbook, but I'll wager you end up finding a lot of the content pretty easy. Any way you can skip a level?

Some thoughts - at some point you're going to want to learn simplified anyway. You'll end up on the mainland, or you'll get fed up of trying to find traditional resources. It might be a good idea to do that now - you've got the time, and it's be a good way of developing your skills without racing ahead of the class. We have discussion about learning both here.

 

Four to six hours a day is a LOT. Make sure you have plenty of consolidation and practice in there, if you make that all new input your brain will melt and you'll forget most of it. 
 

[Talipallo]

Unfortunately I have no chance to skip levels at the classes. My university only offers 2 years worth of chinese language studies in total - both due to the lack of competent teachers and due the lack of interested students. Truth be told, even now the classes are a little too easy for me. Recently I've gone there to practise pronounciation and ask various questions from the teacher after the class. Even if the class next semester feels too easy I will have to take it anyway; I need the course credits.

 

I have planned on learning 3000-4000 traditional characters by the end of my 3rd year in the university. After that I thought about learning to read simplified characters (which I doubt will take more than few weeks at that point) and going for an exchange in either China or Taiwan.

 

Also, I do realise 4-6 hours a day is a lot. However, without a summer job I have to spend the summer in my parents house. There's not much else to do but to study. I'm quite good with languages as chinese will be the sixth language I speak. However, for me it's hard to find the ways to learn chinese on my own. All the other languages I have learned by reading a lot of material; with chinese I need to reach a certain level before I can do that and getting there takes time...

[hackinger]

Hi,

 

I like Interactions I and II, Connections I and II and Encounters I and II, which I use as a supplement to NPCR.  They use traditional characters but most main texts and in the latter volumes all main texts are also in simplified characters.

See http://www.amazon.com/Interactions-text-workbook-Cognitive-Beginning/dp/0253211220/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1396469099&sr=8-2&keywords=interactions+I

I got mine directly from the University Of Indiana Press when they had a 60% off sale. They have a sale about twice a year. (May be you can borrow those books from a library?)

 

I know you want to stick with traditional characters for the time being, but it would be a great summer project to read all 300 lessons on this web site:

http://collections.uiowa.edu/chinese/topic_beginning.html

(Audio is available too and if you replace beginning by intermediate or advanced in the url, you get another 600 lessons).

 

Cheers

 

hackinger 

[Ania]

You could get a different textbook at beginner's level and go through that. I went through four different textbook series. It will reinforce the things you know, and introduce some alternative ways of saying the same things, and some new vocabulary.

 

This is exactly what I do!! I went through about 3 or 4 textbooks at a beginner level and now I'm doing the same at the elementary/upper elementary level. 'Cause even though the level is very similar, each book has a slightly different approach, different vocabulary selection etc., so I think it's a very good idea when you study on your own. I have certainly found it very beneficial. 

[hedwards]

Sounds like virtual immersion is what you need. Basically you surround yourself with the language at all opportunities. Your computer, your TV, your movies and as many Chinese friends as you have time for.

 

If you go this route, it's advisable to give yourself a day or two off on a predictable basis so that you don't get too overwhelmed, but this is the 21st century between QQ and Skype, you'd be surprised how much opportunity you have to interact with native speakers without having to leave the comfort of your own home.

 

I don't necessarily disagree with using academic resources during self study, but if you're going to do self study in this sort of intensive way, then you might as well go the virtual immersion route and learn the things that the classes aren't likely to be teaching.

[Talipallo]

@hackinger

Thanks for all the input once again. I was able to borrow the Interactions I textbook and the Integrated Chinese textbook over the summer from other students. I also checked out the texts in the link you posted, I think I will go through some of them after I run out of other things to do.

 

@hedwards

That seems like an interesting idea. I'm going to look into QQ and Skype more closely after the current semester ends.

 

 

As for the chinese TV and radio shows, recently I have started to play RTI in the background when I do other things. My teacher recommended me the tv-show Legend of Zhen Huan . I was able to find it with english subtitles quite easily.  I think I'm going to look for some chinese movies later as well. I've got a better idea what I'm going to do over the summer now. Thanks for all the helpful input.