Intensively learning Chinese for 70 days. Focusing on listening and speaking

[RY101]

Hello.

This is my first post here.

If I am posting this at a wrong subforum or breaking some rules, please understand that it is unintentional.

 

I am now in Beijing, China as an exchange student.

It has been 2 months here. Very recently, I made the decision to quit attending school classes

and start focusing solely on learning Chinese. 2 months is the time that I can afford to solely focus on

learning Chinese. Since I am rather young and my time in China isn't long, I'd like to get the studying done early in the day and spend the rest of the day going out to places and having fun.

 

In the month of January, I went through the Glossika 3000 sentences, both utilizing GRS and GSR. That was very intensive but I was very satisfied by the end of it. During this time, I chose to ignore the characters for the time being and solely focused on transcribing all the sentences using pinyin. When I arrived in Beijing, I found out that I can do stuff.. not "intermediate" or "advanced" but still   I was able to form sentences using the little that I know. I am sure more objective assessment would be more useful for you readers to understand where I am at.

 

Mainly, I am making this post to get some critique/suggestions on the self-made curriculum that I made.

Note that I speak English and Korean.  So I will be using the resources written in English or Korean.

I suppose the main study "method"　I intend on using is "多听，多说".

Specifically, by 多听, I mean http://www.pagef30.com/2011/03/most-effective-method-for-learning.html

and by 多说, I mean shadowing.

 

 

 

What I will be learning from and how

1. 섀도잉 중국어 (Shadowing Chinese) This book has dialogues recored at natural speed that cover a variety of interesting topics.

I've been shadowing for 1 week in the following manner. Using WorkAudioBook program http://www.povalyaev.com/, I play 1 recording per day and shadow each line at least 10 times after listening to the recording for 10 minutes or so. Then, I would play all the previous recordings and including the recording that I covered on that day and just listen to it. Then, either right away, or later in the day, I would shadow all the dialogues one time that I covered until that day.

2. 중국어는 뻔한 패턴의 반복이다 고급 (Chinese language is a repetition of predictable patterns advanced level)

As you can tell from the title, this book introduces 90 sentence patterns with example sentences.

Using the WorkAudioBook program, I would type what I hear onto the Word document that I already imported the Table of Contents of the book into it. I timed myself transcribing 10 sentenc patterns and editing the recordings after so that I have another set of "review" recordings that only contain the sentences that I couldn't perfectly transcribe. This took me less than 1 hour on both occasions.

90/10=9 and I have already transcribed the first 20. So I found another similiar type of book named "드라마 중국어회화 패턴 (Drama Chinese Conversational Patterns). This book contains 233 patterns. Of course, some overlap with the patterns that I learned using other books in the past.

3. Here is another collection of recordings that I'd like to transcribe http://www.audio-lingua.eu/spip.php?rubrique9〈=fr

From what I can tell, based on the several recordings that I listened to, the recordings seem to cover a variety of interesting topics.

One bad thing is that it does not provide transcriptions of the recordings that I can use as answers to check my own transcriptions.

I have a Chinese friend who I can ask to do transcriptions for me. So, I think this part is covered.

This past week has been sort of a "test-week" and I found out that there is a lot that I am not hearing in these recordings.

I am debating if I should keep the intensity level and just try to transcribe the recordings.

4. Since, I feel that above resources mainly focus on internalizing the sentence patterns/structures/grammar of Chinese language, I have decided to read from the University of Iowa Reading World http://collections.uiowa.edu/chinese/topic_beginning.html.

Last month (April), I was consistent about reading 1 unit per day and even made the flashcards of the vocabs that troubled me on that day's reading using Quizlet.com. Sadly, I was not diligent enough to review the flashcards to retain the vocabs.

5. Have you heard about My Chinese Picture Dictionary? Well, it's a picture book that has more than 3000 vocabs with visuals broken down into themes. I also plan on memorizing 1 chapter from the book using quizlet.com as my tool of attack.

6. That's a lot that I wrote I will learn. Anki seems to be "the" tool that I should be using to maximize my learning efficiency.

Moreover, Quizlet.com or the slow internet speed is giving me some trouble. So, it would be nice to have 1 ultimate tool that I can use to learn and review what I learn.

 

 

I wrote 70 days because I will be participating in the “Learning Chinese Language, Experiencing Chinese Culture” summer camp, hosted by the Confucius Institute Headquarters and organized by Beijing International Chinese College (BICC) between July 6 and July 26th. Mainly speaking, the participants will spend the morning doing spoken Chinese and the afternoon doing cultural activities. So, I am not keen on getting to speak the language with the native speakers in the mean time. I have been aggressive about meeting people in the first 2 months and I discovered that it's rather to find a suitable person that will help me with my Chinese. Thankfully, I did make few friends who are very kind and welcome me to bother them when it comes to asking questions on Chinese language. Before the program starts, I'd like to spend time studying Chinese intensively to learn some vocabs and grammar.

 

 

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The main problem is that I have not yet set up Anki and I am not sure how best to use it.

I believe that "learning vocabs in context using sentences" is generally agreed upon to be a good idea.

So when I sit down to learn vocabs from the picturebook and UIOWA Reading World, I'd like to also extract sentences in fast way.

Now, I am using the Perapera Chinese plugin for Firefox whenever I come across the vocab that I want to learn while reading the texts at UIOWA Reading World. What would be the best way for me to extract the sentences? Audio-wise, for the time being, I will be satisfied with generating recording using the Anki plugin named TTS https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/301952613

Also, the vocabs coming from the picture dictionary all have associated visuals with them. Should I bother trying to find example sentences for them? and audio?

 

 

I am very overwhelmed because there is a lot of stuff to learn and I do want to do a lot in the short time. I will probably have more questions. I'd like to keep talking to you guys to get insight/suggestions/comments/any other input and make big progress in 70 days.

 

 

 

Goal? I don't' really have a specific goal.. except to continue learning intensively for as much as I can until that summer camp starts. Then, I am hoping that I can get a lot of guaranteed speaking time during that time and be confident about speaking in Chinese.

[RY101]

Since I am in China and the VPN that I purchased doesn't seem to be actually working for me, it seems that I am not able to use the Anki TTS plug, which utilizes Google Translate to generate voices for Chinese language. Bummer.

 

 

Technical difficulties in China make me really regret not having done more work back in the states.

[RY101]

How do I go back and edit the post/reply I wrote?

[roddy]

Edit link at bottom right of your post - it's not visible to new members, but you'll be able to see it now. 

[Shelley]

Interesting, as an exchange student are you allowed to just quit classes but remain in China?

[RY101]

If I were to follow all the expectations, it is impossible. Without going into too much details, I will just say that it is academically safe for me to do so for the current semester in China.

[Shelley]

Ah ok, sounds like you have a good plan for study, hope it works out for you

[Lu]

I think Shelley meant whether you're safe visa-wise. If you have a student visa, you often have to go to class. But that's not what you're asking about, so I won't go into that any further.

 

Your plan sounds good overall. If I were you I'd add two things:

- learn vocabulary. Yes it's most useful in sentences, but personally I find that I understand more sentences and understand them better if I know more words. Make sure you only learn words of which you understand the meaning and what they do (for example, don't learn 以 yǐ if you can't use it yet, but do learn 电脑 diànnǎo and 跑步 pǎobù and such). There are all kinds of ways to use Anki, you can make it as complicated as you want, and add as many bells and whistles as you can think of. Don't do that, spend time on studying instead of on bells and whistles. The most basic way of using it is by making your own flashcards or by downloading an existing set. Read around a bit on the forums, there are all kinds of setups.

- assuming you're learning Chinese for the long haul, learn some characters. No need yet to learn all the characters for all the words you learn, but try to learn a few every week. When you see a simple one or one that seems interesting, learn it. Or ask a Chinese friend to teach you some simple ones (人, 不, 北京 and such).

 

Good luck!

[RY101]

Yes, I am in it for the long haul.

I have decided that the ability to hand-write the characters is not what I need for the time being.

So, when I learn the vocabs, I'd like to make sure that I can at least type the words out, which required knowing the pinyin, and the ability to select the right characters. Quizlet does allow me to do this, but, at the moment, Quizlet seems to be running very slow for me.

Since the very beginning, I started chatting to Chinese speakers on WeChat. That gave me the ability to read the most frequently occurring characters.

I intend on continuing to do this and using the Quizlet to get down the typing the vocabs part.

 

 

I agree that I should really understand the vocabs before I even attempt memorizing them.

That's one another issue I have. Chinese seems to have a lot of words that have similar meanings. It is understandable and predictable that I have such issue as someone who's not advanced in the language.

[RY101]

In case anyone is interested,

here is an update.

 

 

Setting up a plan is one thing but sticking with it is another.

Good thing is that I've been spending most of the time doing something with Chinese language.

Bad thing is that I am only doing some of the activities that I anticipated on doing. I expected this and I plan on adjusting what I do according to what I can actually do.

 

 

I have already went through the second resource I am using and I have therefore identified the sentences that I can and cannot transcribe. I also edited the recordings so that they contain only the sentences that I cannot transcribe correctly. I intend on repeating this until I can transcribe everything properly.

This past Monday, I had someone come in and transcribe the sentences that I cannot transcribe correctly at the moment.

 

The greatest news in last several days for learning Chinese is what this stranger on the internet told me

 

Anki does this automatically with the Chinese support extension. You just have to copy the Hanzi, and the program does the rest (it fills the fields with the english translations, pinyin transliteration and it even generates an audio file with the pronunciation).

 

 

I have always wanted to actually use Anki but it's always been a pain to add the matching audio for all the cards.

But, with this tool, the audio file can be generated quickly. Since I am in China and I don't have always have access to Google, I am using the Baidu Translator voice thing and I am actually happy with the audio quality. I've been mining sentences that I am interested from Naver Zhongwen Wordbook that provides Word of the Day, Quiz of the Day, and Dialogue of the Day. http://m.wordbook.naver.com/cndic/today/conversation.nhn?targetDate=2014.05.17

The Dialogue goes back to April 2013. I currently read all the dialogues up to May 17, 2014 and I plan on continuing to collect sentences from here.

 

 

I also have a list of sentences in an Excel format. I need to do some experimenting with technical stuff to figure out how to export the sentences from Excel spreadsheet and import them into Anki. Some sentences in this list come from a published book for Korean speakers learning Korean. I've been told that some sentences do not natural. Other sentences come from the conversations that I had with my Chinese speaking friends on Wechat. For now, I won't complain about the level of politeness stuff and just keep exposing myself to new stuff and, hopefully, also review. At least, I will have the matching audio for them now.

 

 

With this Anki tool, I can also see myself using it to collect the sentences that use the new vocabs while I read the texts at Chinese Reading World. No need to go elsewhere. I can just copy the sentence I see and paste it to the Anki.

 

 

 

About that Chinese Picture dictionary, I haven't touched it yet and I haven't yet figured out the plan of attack for it. I would just Quizlet the vocabs away but Quizlet doesn't like me at the moment.

[Shelley]

Setting up a plan is one thing but sticking with it is another.

 

This is one good reason to attend classes, you have to stick with the plan.

 

You might have what you consider to be very good reasons not to attend classes but i think you should and this shows why.

 

Still I admire your attempt to go it alone and hope it works out.

[RY101]

Yeah, of course.

But, I believe this problem occurs anyway even if you are in the classroom setting.

What's more is that I've had more exposure and learned much more than sitting in the classroom that goes very slowly.

Thank you for the encouragement.

[Shelley]

Is that why you stopped going , did it seem too slow?

 

If you progress at least as quickly as the classroom I guess you will succeed.

 

Keep at it

[RY101]

One reason is that the Chinese language class was too slow. Another is that the rest of the courses I am taking here in China are not directly related to my major back in my home country. Lastly, I am very much interested in being at least conversation before I return to my home country.

[RY101]

And because I have already learned intensively in January, I didn't feel like much learning was happening when I was still attending the class.

[RY101]

Hi all.

I am still busy doing shadowing and Anki.

No, not transcribing the recordings.

I plan on getting back to transcribing next week and also adding Memrise to routine.

I will try out studying the vocabs from the picture dictionary and then reviewing using Memrise.

 

 

As far as the chengyu goes, I believe that the general consensus is that it should be avoided till when you are advanced in the language. However, as I am continuing to read the texts from Chinese Reading World, I am coming across a lot of them.

 

Here is the list. Most are chengyu, I believe. They mainly come from the "Beginner" level of Chinese Reading World.

 

小菜一碟
一事无成
人不可貌相
以身作则
日久生情
入乡随俗
知足者常乐
心不在焉
不足挂齿
 来日方长
后会有期
一分钱一分货
整整齐齐
大不相同
五彩缤纷
没精打采
一干二净
美中不足
不由自主
依依不舍
与众不同
毫不犹豫
津津有味
吞吞吐吐
津津有味
彬彬有礼
转来转去
坚持下去
哭笑不得
名列前茅
保持联系    
随时随地
料事如神    
一个接一个
不知不觉
鼓起勇气
年久失修
放在心上
接二连三
无忧无虑
昏迷不醒
不可思议
一年之计在于春
秋高气爽
阳光明媚
不甘示弱
一声不响
独一无二
千言万语
颐养天年
一模一样
善解人意
触目惊心
一错再错
众星捧月
百无聊赖
兴致勃勃
突如其来
雨过天晴
胡说八道
鸦雀无声
微乎其微
漫不经心
顺其自然
情不自禁
眼花缭乱
栩栩如生
目瞪口呆
梦寐以求
贫病交加
维持生活
欢欣鼓舞
一无所有
耳目一新
不可避免


I don't want to be 咬文嚼字 but I am not sure if I should make an effort to retain them now or just forget about forgetting and focus on other things for now.

[Lu]

I think you shouldn't avoid them, but perhaps approach them just like other words: learn them if they seem useful and/or not too hard, skip them for now if you don't think you'll see them again any time soon or if learning them seems too difficult for the moment.

[Qiaonansen]

HI Ronan,

 

I so wish that you were my student. If only all my students were as enthusiastic and motivated as you are.

 

Here are my thoughts:

 

My philosophy is not based on quantity, but rather quality. If you are going to put in the effort to memorize 20 vocabulary words, then you need to plan to be married to those words for at least the next 30 days. That means you're reviewing them for the next 30 days. Therefore, when you say "intensive", I would suggest being intense about the review process and not the quantity of how much you learn at the outset.

 

I actually just made a video and a post yesterday for my online students breaking down the process for how to memorize Chinese characters. I know that you do not want to focus on characters right now, however the system is the same for whatever you are trying to memorize. You can see the video and or read the transcript here:

 

http://learnchinesecafe.com/how-memorize-chinese-characters-and-never-forget-them/

 

It's a little long, almost an hour. However, it will save you countless hours in the future during the learning in review process.

 

I will summarize the principle here for you based on the materials that you are using.

 

The basic principle is any new vocabulary word, idiom, or sentence structure that you learn should then be reviewed daily for the next 30 days.

 

The first step is to determine how many hours a day you want to commit to your study. This will determine the quantity of new material that you can handle.

 

For example, if you have three hours a day to study Chinese, and it takes you three hours to thoroughly review 200 items, whether it be flashcards, sentence structures, idioms etc., then you should only be learning six or seven new items a day. If you are learning seven new items a day, and then you are going to review them for the next 30 days, that means by day 30 you will have accumulated 210 items. On day 31 you would be taking the items from day one out and add in seven new items, so your daily review items never exceed 210.

 

The danger that most students face is being too ambitious in the beginning, learning as much as they can every day, but then never reviewing it and eventually forgetting it.

 

Also, how long does it take you to thoroughly learn seven new items? You have to factor that time into your total amount of daily study time.

 

A final thought is don't think so much about studying Chinese, but rather think about developing a habit. Instead of thinking of all the Chinese you going to learn today, you need to instead be thinking about the daily habit you are trying to develop so that it eventually takes on a life of its own and it becomes like brushing teeth. It's just something you're going to do every day.

 

I suggest watching the video or reading the transcript of it above because I think it lays out a very doable system that will lead to mastery.

 

Finally, I would love to help you with transcribing audio or any other assistance that you need in learning Chinese. I'm willing to do that for free. Just let me know what I can do to help you with your study.

[RY101]

A quick update.

Although it's not "everyday", I've been studying pretty consistently on my own.

It's been 10 days since I started attacking the vocabs from the My Chinese Picture Dictionary book.

I first manually type the vocabs that I want to learn for that day into the Skritter.

Then, I hand-write the characters on a piece of paper as I continuously get quizzed by Skritter.

I like doing this more than trying to learn the vocabs from the Chinese Reading World texts, since the picture dictionary book is organized by themes and hence the vocabs grouped under the topic contain matching character component. Also, the vocabs are much more concrete and can be easily visualize, especially with the visuals in the book.

I've been using Anki consistently. But, yesterday, I unfortunately resetted the Anki deck.

So, I am starting anew. But, hey, this time around I am starting with the reassurance that I have truly learned the sentences that I have already covered.

So, that feels good.

I got a book called 드라마 중국어 회화 핵심패턴 233 (Drama Chinese core conversational patterns 233).

The format is exactly that of the Common Chinese Patterns 330, a short explanation of the pattern, example sentences, a short dialogue.

The Common Chinese Patterns 330 lacks audio and pinyin.

This book has audio and pinyin written in it so I can actually make use of it more.

As I listen to the part 2 of this radio show, http://tbsefm.seoul.kr/efm/SeoulLife/replay.jsp

I do sentence mining from the book. Of course, having studied a bit of Chinese before, the number of sentences that I mine are very small.

Also, I am focusing on selecting the i+1 sentences, the sentences where I almost know everything but a word or two. It's been my experience that using Anki, particularly the Recognition format that comes with the Anki Chinese Support add-on, to study these sentences helps me to not only learn the sentences that I have the intention of learning but also is effective at increasing the ability to recognize the characters. https://github.com/ttempe/chinese-support-addon/wiki/Frequently-asked-questions. Hopefully, by the time I am finished with sentence mining from the Korean book, which I anticipate to be at the end of this month, I will be able to do sentence mining from the Common Chinese Patterns 330 book with better character recognition. If not, I will just brute force myself to do the desired quota of sentence mining everyday.

The shadowing has also been going on. I also anticipate on finishing shadowing all dialogues by the end of this month. Then, I am considering all dialogues once everyday for 1 month in the month of June.

 

 

It is a lot. But, really, the process is simple.

[RY101]

In the previous post, I wrote

 

I got a book called 드라마 중국어 회화 핵심패턴 233 (Drama Chinese core conversational patterns 233).

 

As of yesterday, I finished going through the book and sentence mining from it.

I found that I know a lot of its content. There were still of course some stuff that I didn't know.

 

 

Last week, I came across the following

http://www.podbbang.com/ch/9116

It aims to provide the "real" Chinese that you don't see from the textbooks. (Sounds familiar)

I don't know about how "real" or not it is but I do think that the dialogues are spoken at more natural pace and

it was about the right amount of difficulty for me. Fortunately, the site allows one to download the recordings. So I did just that and I've been listening the recordings again and again for several days. Now, I do understand a lot more than the first time I gave them a listen.

 

 

Then, yesterday, I came across

http://beijingsounds.com/download-recordings/

These recordings feel very "real" and certainly do sound like the people that I encounter in Beijing.

Even the transcriptions of the recordings are available for free online.

This makes the recordings very useful. Because, the recordings are "real", some recordings contain extra noises that I don't really want.

It looks like I need to do some editing to normalize the volume across the recordings and cut out the extra noises.

Since the material is available and I have the time to do so, I am looking at applying the tysond's instructions on creating Anki cards using the Subs2SRS.

I suppose it will take me few hours to figure out and get it working for me.