NPCR 1 done! And some tips for selfstudying students.

[Gune]

Hi guys.

 

So I just finished NPCR(New Practical Chinese Reader) 1 a few days ago and started the NPCR 2 yesterday. To be this book has been excellent so I really recommend it to anyone wanting to selfstudy Chinese. My only concern with the book so far has been that the grammatical explanations can get a bit technical.

 

I am sure there are plenty of tips for beginners but I thought I would share my thoughts on the matter as well, it might be useful to some people just starting out or if they're using the same book as I.

 

Create a study plan.

For me atleast, having a study plan is a great help. It's a good way to view your progress as well, I have my schedule on a paper with a box for each day of the week. At the end of a lesson I mark it off with a check mark, it may sound silly but doing so gives me a sense of accomplishment and progress. Likewise, if I didn't do what I should have done that day according to my schedule, I feel bad having to put a big X on it haha.

 

Change your study plan.
My first revision of a study plan was a bit too intense, and in the beginning I didn't want to change it since I felt I would learn less if I studied less. What I found however was that after changing my study plan to be a bit less intense, I started enjoying it far more, removing the element of stress.

Don't burn out, but keep at it.
This is mentioned quite a lot on this forum but it's a good point. If you ever feel your studying is becoming a chore or something you dread doing, revise your schedule a bit to allow for some rest. However you may still want to do something on those off days, I usually write characters on those days. It's important to keep up as often as you can but daily hourly sessions of studying can easily turn into taking shortcuts and ending up not retaining as much as you would have with a lighter schedule.

Use different sources for study.
I found that using different Chinese sources kept everything fresh. Instead of using a single book for studying, I try to mix it up by using podcasts or YouTube to get some additional vocabulary. This made it way more fun, and getting exposure to more people speaking different dialects has also proven helpful.

Be prepared to be confused.
Now, this isn't as harsh as it sounds. What I mean is that in the beginning you will have a lot of questions wondering why something works the way it does, and for me atleast, all those pieces kind of fell into place the more I studied. So my advice is, don't stress it too much. Chinese for me feels like a language that starts out difficult, but gradually gets easier with time.

Learn the tones early.
This helped me a ton. What I had issues with early on wasn't so much the tones, but switching from say 2nd tone to a 4th, or doing a 3rd into a 3rd into a 1st. I was very worried that what I said couldn't be understood by a native speaker. I am not exactly great at it currently but I've made a ton of progress. Once you learn how to say a word that uses say 1st tone into 2nd, you will be able to apply that to most other words with the same structure. Learn to listen and try to remember the "sound" or "music" of the word, and reapply that with different pronounciation.

Stroke order helps.
I had a lot of issues in the beginning remembering characters, as most people do I assume. Something that helped me a lot was using the correct stroke order. It helped me commit the character to muscle memory and also helped me write characters that use similar radicals. The "Skritter Chinese" application is excellent for this and I really recommend it, I use the Android version myself.

Thats all I can think of at the moment, I had a lot I wanted to write so I may have forgotten something. If anyone wants to chime in, go right ahead!

Good luck with your studies!
Stefan Larsson.

[Bigdumogre]

Great advice in here

I'm working through the first npcr text and workbook ATM. How long did it take you to finish each chapter? ATM I try and go through a chapter a week and go through it plenty of times to make sure I know it. My problem is that if I don't get it 100% I keep going till I do. Did you just continue on even after only lets say 85% understanding the chapter?

[Gune]

 

Great advice in here

I'm working through the first npcr text and workbook ATM. How long did it take you to finish each chapter? ATM I try and go through a chapter a week and go through it plenty of times to make sure I know it. My problem is that if I don't get it 100% I keep going till I do. Did you just continue on even after only lets say 85% understanding the chapter?

Ah well, I started with doing 1 lesson per week but found that to be too much, I was unable to retain all new words/phrases(Later chapters have around 40 new ones per lesson). So I revised it to 1 lesson per 2 weeks. I wrote about my schedule in another thread, you'll see both the 1 week and 2 week schedule in there->

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/48174-feedback-on-my-study-plan/

There were times where I moved on to the next one yes, if I was unable to remember a certain word I would just move on and not get stuck on it. I do however try to understand all of the text, but I'm not aiming to be able to free-hand every new character after each chapter from memory, that's a bit much. For me, learning characters come down to repetition, I use Skritter Chinese for that.

 

Stefan.

[Balthazar]

I am well on my way to finish the third book of the series, probably a month and a half or so to go. Just put in an order for the fourth.

 

I too like the series, although I can't say I've tried many others. (I finished the first book of the Integrated Chinese series after the first NPCR book, for the sake of comparison. I don't have a very clear idea of why, but I didn't like it as much as NPCR. Perhaps I had already gotten too used to the latter.) Agree with you when it comes to the grammar, I think that's one of the most common complaints. I've used "Basic Chinese: a Grammar and Workbook" as a supplement in this area, which I have found very useful. I'm almost through that one too, and just put in an order for the "Intermediate Chinese: a Grammar and Workbook." I think some sort of grammar supplement is a must no matter which textbook you use.

 

As for how much time to spend on each chapter of the NPCR books, I guess it depends on how much time you have on your hands. Most of the time I will stick with the same chapter for two weeks, sometimes I've had to use three. I try to not go beyond that, though, and I haven't had any problems so far (although once in a while I get to a chapter that poses a particular threat initially, most of the time soon to be resolved).

 

While I agree that it's good to use many sources, I think it's best to also have a core regiment that one sticks to. At least as a beginner. So if I have an extremely tight week I'd rather work a bit on my NPCR lesson every day than to try and include all my favorite learning materials within that week. Diversity is great, but not always possible, and if I have to choose I'll go for the more focused option.

 

I don't have any clear study plan, though, beyond "study a bit every day" and "make slow, but steady progress". A clear plan would probably be even better, but I feel like my system has worked pretty well for me so far, although many people have gotten much further in a shorter period of time. The race is only with yourself, and in the end you need to make it one that's not so intense as to make you collapse and quit, and also not so dull and slow as to take away the interest.

[Gune]

 

I don't have any clear study plan, though, beyond "study a bit every day" and "make slow, but steady progress". A clear plan would probably be even better, but I feel like my system has worked pretty well for me so far, although many people have gotten much further in a shorter period of time. The race is only with yourself, and in the end you need to make it one that's not so intense as to make you collapse and quit, and also not so dull and slow as to take away the interest.

 

Definately agree with this, what I do works for me and may not work for others. I guess thats another valid point, even if others may complete a lesson per week that might not work for you. It is way better to find your own rythm so that you don't get discouraged or feel the studying is a pain.