Opinions on my study plan?

[ChrisL]

Hello everyone! This is my first post on here; I've just started learning Chinese and would like to share my plans with you all to see what you all think and if I'm on the right track.

 

I'm coming to the end of the Michel Thomas Advanced Course and may move on to the Vocabulary Builder (is it worth it?) afterwards. After this, I'm going to work my way through the entire Pimsleur course, one lesson a day.

Then I then want to complete the FSI Chinese modular course.

 

However, none of this gives me exposure to Chinese characters, which worries me. How and when should I start learning them? What would be the next step after FSI? Should I change any parts of this plan?

 

Thank you very much for reading, I would really appreciate your feedback!

[Shelley]

Well this is a much debated topic, if and when should you study characters.

 

Welcome to the forums

 

IMHO I firmly believe you should start learning characters as soon as you can, from what you said about how far you have got, I would suggest you start now.

 

I would try a text book like New Practical Chinese Reader (NPCR)series, there are textbooks, workbooks, audio and video available. This takes you through at a well thought out pace integrating speech, listening, grammar and characters.

 

All of the things you have mentioned I have not come across except for Pimsleur which is very good for listening practice.

 

I use NPCR and Pimsleur, i also use Hanzi Grids for practising writing characters see here http://www.hanzigrids.com/  

This is well worth the small cost for the full program.

 

I would also recommend Pleco see here  http://www.pleco.com/ I think no student of Chinese should be with out a copy of Pleco on their smart phone or tablet. The basic bundle which is fine to start with is very reasonable.

 

If you can manage the subscription fees Skritter is also very good for practising writing characters on your smart phone or tablet.   http://www.skritter.com/

 

I hope this helps and that you do choose to learn characters as it will add so much to your understanding of Chinese and Chinese culture.

[edelweis]

It depends on what your priorities are.

If your first concern is to be able to speak, then FSI is fine, and you can start learning the stroke rules and character components on the side. The thing is, after FSI, you might have trouble finding intermediate material in pinyin or audio + English format. So at that point you will either need to get a teacher (if you want to continue to improve your speaking) or basically restart from beginner dialogues as you catch up on your reading skills so that you can use teaching material in hanzi.

However if your prefer keeping a balanced skill set, perhaps you'd better focus on an integrated textbook like NPCR or Integrated Chinese or PAVC. You can still use FSI if you want as supplementary material for speaking skills...

What are your goals, priorities, interests?

[abcdefg]

Agree with the others about starting to learn Characters early in the process, regardless of your priorities.

 

If your main goal is to quickly develop conversational skill, then only spend a little time on characters. If your goal is a more rounded skill set, spend more time from the outset on reading and writing simple material. You don't necessarily need to write by hand, though it might be best.

 

After this, I'm going to work my way through the entire Pimsleur course, one lesson a day.

 

Regardless of your goals, build in time for periodic reviews; don't just blast through the material at a speed of one lesson per day without pausing and looking back.

 

And I agree that you will soon become lost without a textbook. You don't want to just turn into some kind of magic parrot. Need to acquire some understanding of how the language works.

[edelweis]

well, FSI does have a textbook (in addition to the many tapes), only without characters.

edit: also, rather dry (very few people have claimed to have finished it) and without modern vocabulary.

[ChrisL]

Thank you very much for all of your comments!

 

Shelley your advice is immensely useful, thank you.

 

Edelweis: I have found resources online which have translated the pinyin of FSI into characters, so depending on whether I like FSI I may do that in conjunction with learning pinyin and going through the course. I am aiming for a balanced skillset, but my priority first of all is to make sure I know the tones as well as I can, and learn pinyin. I'm actually (hopefully) going to be doing a study program in China for a year, following Mandarin Chinese lessons for 20 hours a week, but that will be in 2-3 years' time and want to get to a decent enough level beforehand to take advantage of the immersion experience.

abcdefg: Yes you're right, a textbook is important and I will probably move on to the NPCR series based on the advice here! However, I didn't think one lesson a day of Pimsleur would be 'blasting' through it? It's only half an hour a day.

[abcdefg]

However, I didn't think one lesson a day of Pimsleur would be 'blasting' through it? It's only half an hour a day.

 

Sure, you're right. It's not much if your retention is good. Just need to check that through periodic reviews.

[edelweis]

re the character transcript of FSI : just keep in mind that there are thousands of characters and some have multiple meanings and/or readings.

At the beginning it's easy to confuse 千 with 干 unless you have some basic idea of the difference between the strokes. And later on, when you have hundreds and then thousands or characters to juggle, you need some basic knowledge of radicals and phonetic components in order to avoid going crazy...

A normal textbook will have explanations about strokes, stroke order, meaning, and at least the radical of each component... all this makes memorisation much easier than just having the text written in characters+pinyin.

[ChrisL]

@edelweis: Yes, I completely agree with you. Perhaps it is best to go for NPCR instead.