The 2016 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread

[Guest realmayo]

but I think I'm just a bad student. I noticed that I'm really not good at preparing for sessions and don't really know how to use my tutor effectively

 

Same here, I think the potential from italki is awesome but usually after two or three good initial and largely introductory sessions with an enthusiastic tutor, I begin to find I have no idea what to do next with them and the classes then quickly disappoint. I wish I knew how to use online tutors properly.

[stapler]

Last year I began to make some drastic changes to my Chinese learning. I've really started toning down the amount of flashcard drilling I've been doing and trying to replace it with just more outright speaking to people and reading books. In my first years learning Chinese I realise I got too bogged down in learning vocabulary and characters. This is not to say this wasn't useful as I can now say that I am "functionally" literate. But this has been to the detriment to my speaking and listening.

 

reading/writing

 

I recognise around 4000 characters now and the new characters I encounter have been getting less and less useful. When I encounter new characters I add them to my phone to practice later. The last two months I added 磙，靡,鬈, 沐，踵，媲，榷，嫣，糯，囁嚅，褻瀆，芍，鷙，豺，芻，笈. Usually I would practice writing these characters and add them to a long term flaschard deck. Now I review them a few times in Pleco flashcards (and also add some words that use the characters if applicable) and delete them. I feel like I learn new characters quicker than before because they "stick out" so much when I see them now - like when I encounter a new word in English, it's jarring. More so, I just don't care enough about learning some of these characters - again, like when I see a new word in English. This has been very liberating. I kind of feel like I "now know the Chinese alphabet" and can stop investing so much time into learning characters.

 

Like characters, last year I decided that from now on I was only going to add vocab to pleco, review the new words a few times, then delete them. Most of the words I add now are largely literary in nature and fixed expressions. I feel it is a waste of my time to invest too much energy in "learning" these. The one permanent vocab flashcard deck I have is an HSK 1-5 vocab list. I recognise all the words in the deck, but I'll keep it around and review it (very quick and easy) to really try to solidify the "core" words in Chinese. I'm going to continue this practice for the foreseeable future, making sure I never spend too much time drilling vocab.

 

One aspect of flashcard drilling I am going to continue is adding all the sentences from Chen Ru's 330 Common Chinese Patterns. I add all the 10 or so example sentences from each structure (including the "write your own" sentence exercises, which I get a native speaker to check then also add to my flashcard deck) then add cloze deletion brackets to the pattern characters. It feels like whenever I add a new pattern I immediately start seeing it in what I'm reading and suddenly stuff starts making a lot of sense. For example the 夠。。。了 pattern. I kept reading 夠什麼everywhere and understood the idea it was conveying, but it felt awkward and uncomfortable when I read it. I didn't even realise the 夠 was connected to a 了. After reading the description and drilling the example sentences this pattern feels very natural to me. I actually feel a bit ashamed not knowing this pattern as it's so elementary, basic, and common! When do I get tripped up in my reading, it's almost always because there is a pattern at work that I don't fully understand (but can kind of decipher from context). Having the patterns made explicit makes everything feel more much lucid.

 

I started looking into classical Chinese and did the first few exercises in Rouzer's book. I didn't get far, but even the limited bit I did still helped my reading ability quite a lot. After doing the first part of this book written Chinese started to make a lot more sense, as well as the various fixed expressions in the language. Written Chinese is so different from spoken Chinese and I feel like without an elementary understanding of classical Chinese it just seems nonsensical. I've read so many stories about people reading books to help boost other parts of the language they're learning - typically something like French or German. I feel like this doesn't really apply to Chinese, or rather, does not apply anywhere near to the same extent. Anyway, I think I'm going to leave classical Chinese on the backburner for a while, or save it for when I need a break from Mandarin. I feel it is useful for learning Chinese, but while other parts of my language abilities are in such a poor state this isn't a wise investment of my time.

 

On the whole, last year I think my reading ability got to a level I am comfortable with in that I can generally tackle native content (though not necessarily with ease). My "goal" for 2016 is to make sure I continue to avoid the temptation to go crazy drilling new vocab and characters, and keep on focusing on actually reading. I've actually got some material I quite enjoy now after a fortunate trip to Taiwan and 誠品書店 (the mainland just cannot compete in terms of interesting books, thanks censorship and hostility to Western/Japanese books...)

 

speaking/listening

 

I've always known my speaking and listening abilities have lagged far, far, behind my writing/reading. I think this is a part of the environment I'm in, viz. not China. While I do have opportunities to speak Chinese with some of my friends, it feels weird and unnatural, especially when they also speak pretty fluent English. And they're my friends, not my language teachers. I absolutely cannot afford a tutor in Australia. So that means my only real opportunity to practice speaking Chinese is on the Internet (and looking at iTalki, doesn't seem cheap at all) or with a language swap. Both would be easy but I feel too uncomfortable to actually do it. When it comes to language swaps, the contrived nature of it makes me feel awkward. Speaking over the Internet, well I just don't like it. Even when using English. I like to think of myself as more of a "face to face" kind of person.

 

I just came back from a few weeks in China (rural China actually). While there all of a sudden I found speaking Chinese great fun. It was fun because it felt "normal". No one speaks English, and furthermore, many people just speak Mandarin to you at full speed, and don't care that you're "just a beginner". On my train trips I had many long and interesting conversations with other people. It was great fun because I'm generally curious about people's lives and their stories. I probably got more serious speaking practice in a few weeks than I have all the years here. I'm seriously starting to believe that my spoken Chinese will only develop properly living in a Chinese speaking country.

 

The other interesting part of my stay was that I actually rarely heard Mandarin. Only people aged under 10 could speak "standard" Mandarin. Most people I spent my time with were dialect speakers (I have even started picking up the basics of the dialect!) and the few who could speak Mandarin spoke with incredibly strong accents. When they realised I couldn't understand their Mandarin their solution wasn't to speak slower, but louder. The idea that I couldn't understand The Common Language didn't make much sense to them. So of course it just must be because my hearing is bad! Anyway I find these kinds of experiences a real boost to my Chinese speaking/listening and confidence. I realised that many Chinese people are struggling with Mandarin too. But more than anything else, after a few weeks of listening to the dialect and "dialectised" Mandarin, when you arrive back in a major city, or Australia, and hear standard Mandarin everywhere, it sounds crystal clear and super easy to comprehend. I like to think of it as Goku training in Dragonball Z. Being around dialect speakers is like you're training in the gravity room with lead weights around your ankles. When you get to a big Chinese or Australian city and hear standard Mandarin, it feels like everything is easier than ever!

 

What does all this mean for my "speaking" goals? It means I only have one goal, move to China. But that probably won't happen because of life. I can however improve my listening. I asked some people to recommend me some Chinese dramas while here in Australia and people told me 奮鬥，咱們結婚吧, and some other show I saw in a thread on this forum. I couldn't really understand what people were saying at all in these shows. But when I was in China I noticed something really strange. There were many shows on TV I did find reasonably clear. What was going on? I just looked at the aforementioned TV dramas again. Now I realise what was happening. They aren't speaking standard Mandarin, they're all speaking 北京話. This 'dialect' is even harder for me to understand than it was for me to understand the villagers heavily accented Mandarin in southern China! Now I know learning to understand the Beijing dialect is important given how ubiquitous it is on TV. But I'm going to add this to next to classical Chinese as something unimportant, but nice to have later. Anyway after realising that I was watching shows filled with Beijing dialect I set about trying to find something with standard Mandarin. I found a show called 美丽的秘密. It's utter and complete rubbish. But Jesus Christ is that some clear Mandarin. Watched a whole episode last night and didn't even realise I was "watching it" rather than "studying" it and suffering like I had with the 北京話 shows until the episode finished and I realised I hadn't even pause it once to study the subtitles and rewind. Woah. This has been a huge revelation for me. Just as when I realised I could read Chinese novels it turned Chinese reading into a task I could enjoy rather than suffer through, I'm hoping now I can start watching Chinese TV and also turn it into a task I enjoy rather than have to suffer through.

 

So my goal for listening in 2016 is to watch one episode of any Chinese TV show each night, and to find only ones with very standard Mandarin. After I get more practice I'll move over to the heavy dialect accented shows.

 

Goals for 2016

Continue to scale down the amount of flashcard drilling I'm doing, continue reading Chinese novels, drastically increase the amount of Chinese I listen to through TV shows, continue to ignore speaking.

[roddy]

" 磙，靡,鬈, 沐，踵，媲，榷，嫣，糯，囁嚅，褻瀆，芍，鷙，豺，芻，笈"

My first thought when I saw that was that we had an encoding problem. Glad to know it's just some advanced character study. Good work!

[Wurstmann]

Yeah! I knew one of them (囁嚅).

[uni419]

So, belated goals for 2016.

 

Daily Chinese Goals

 

1. Process one half episode of 鏘鏘三人行 per day.

 

(I record the audio using Audio Hijack of the show's website, split each episode into two 12:30ish chunks, upload the transcripts into the MP3 files from the Phoenix TV site, and then listen to one each day while reading thru them with Pleco's excellent lyric reader, which also lets me add unknown vocab as SRS flashcards. I then feed the file into an smart playlist in Itunes which lets me re-listen to each clip at 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 14, and 21 days after I first process it while I'm commuting to/from school or doing household chores)

 

2. Prepare one 10min episode of 一口七讀完大清史 per day, using the same method again.

 

3. Complete Pleco SRS cards before 3pm each day.

 

4. Learn one new song per day. I add one per day to process, go thru each lyrical line at least 10 times using Anytune's StepItUp repeat feature (up to 30 if I can't enunciate quickly/smoothly enough) on the second day. Sing thru while looking at the lyrics every day for five days and then either graduate it to my workout shuffle playlist or recycle it back to day one if it still needs work. Taiwanese Rapper 蛋堡 is really fun to try to mimic, but I'm running out of good material. Cosmos People (宇宙人）are filling in for now but I'm probably gonna be thru

 

5. Keep pace on Skritter, adding 10 new characters per day, review either before bed or before heading out for the night. Right now it's mostly characters that pop up during QQSRX and the history reading that I thought had an interesting meaning or serve as an integral piece of a chengyu or suyu. One days where I don't find ten I just add high frequency characters off my wall-chart.

 

6. Maintain motivation to get thru Glossika. I'm trying to increase my speaking fluidity by tackling Glossika Everyday, Fluency 2, 3, and Bussiness before my planned return to Taiwan in the May/June time frame. The lessons are always tedious, I only got thru one week of Everyday before giving up on it last Summer. That said I was amazed how well I remembered Day 1-4 on this second run thru. Currently on Day 10 and while the grammar/vocab remains basic I think I'll have noticeable gains in verbal proficiency if I just stay dedicated.

 

 Non-Chinese Goals

 

1. Keep running 2 miles everyday.

 

2. Execute 5x5 Strong Lifts strength training program. Tu/Th/Sa

 

3. Apply for China Power Internship with CSIS

 

4. Apply for ICLP's Summer Program

 

5. Successfully graduate university

 

6. Buy plane tix for summer back in Taiwan

 

 

I've actually got some material I quite enjoy now after a fortunate trip to Taiwan and 誠品書店 (the mainland just cannot compete in terms of interesting books, thanks censorship and hostility to Western/Japanese books...)

 

Chengpin is love, Chengpin is life. Enjoy it while it last, rumors say the Dunhua Flagship store is going away in 2020.

[AdamD]

誠品書店 are everywhere and some are reasonably big, so losing 敦化 wouldn't be the end of the world. Maybe another branch will open 24 hours to compensate, perhaps the 西門町 one.

 

Also, there's that insane (but not 24-hour) strip of bookshops along 中正區重慶南路一段.

[Naphta]

Hi, I'm new here!

 

I've been learning Chinese for about five years, but it is only now that I learn seriously, although not full time.

 

I'm going to attend the TOCFL exam in a couple of weeks. I feel quite confident with the reading test, but I still find extremely difficult to understand spoken Chinese.

 

I've been learning by my own for a while but since last October I'm also working with a Taiwanese Italki teacher who actually is very good. We are almost done with the Practical Audiovisual Chinese 3 book so my current goal is to have learnt half of the fourth book within the following six months.

 

I keep reading and learning new vocabulary and characters that I find on my own.

 

I'm also learning Literary Chinese using Rouzer's method and my goal is to have studied half of the book by the summer.

 

And I try to speak Chinese as much as I can but this is the most difficult part for me, it depends on the partner though.

[大块头]

My original goal statement:

 

Passive Vocabulary

I am working on an Anki deck based on the SUBTLEX-CH word frequency list. I have approximately 6000 more words to learn, and I intend to learn them at a rate of 20 words a day. Consistently studying my Anki cards has always been a struggle for me, so I created a stickK goal to motivate myself.

 

Listening

I intend to spend at least 4 hours a week passively listening to Chinese podcasts and radio. I will have a 30 minute walk to and from work at my new job this year, so I can easily find time to do this. I created a Google form to log the time I spend practicing and track my progress as I gradually understand more and more of what I'm listening to.

 

Reading

I intend to spend at least 30 minutes every week reading Chinese. I created a Google form to log the time I spend practicing and track my progress as I increase my reading speed and reduce how much I rely on a dictionary.

 

Speaking

I intend to spend 30 minutes every week speaking Chinese with a language exchange partner.

 

Writing

I intend to write at least 3 journal entries (length ≥ 50 characters) a week on Lang-8.

 

 

Passive Vocabulary: satisfactory

I only missed one day of Anki reviews in February, but my daily review time was beginning to push past my 90 minute per day limit. I held off learning any new material for two weeks to let things settle down, and I am now learning new words at a rate of 15 cards a day. I am no longer going to count leeched cards against my learning rate.

 

Listening: satisfactory

I continue to spend my morning and evening commutes listening to ChinesePod podcasts. I am burning through the upper-intermediate lessons and will likely be into the advanced ones soon.

 

Reading: dissatisfactory

I have not found enough time to work on this aspect of my study goal because the passive vocabulary part of my studies ate up all my time.

 

Speaking: satisfactory

I am meeting weekly with a language exchange partner..

 

Writing: dissatisfactory

I have not found enough time to work on this aspect of my study goal because the passive vocabulary part of my studies ate up all my time.

 

[AdamD]

I don't know where to put this. Right now I'm in Taiwan and I just had a half-hour conversation with an Uber driver. I understood at least 95% of the conversation and kept up my part with only a few stumbles. The only parts I didn't understand were the technical terms for Chinese character strokes which I've never heard before. It's 10 pm and I'm incredibly tired but this actually happened.

This, after three days of understanding lots and lots of spoken Chinese and also finding myself unintentionally code-switching, even after only getting three hours of sleep after flying in at 1.30 am (4.30 am in my brain). When I was here four months ago, my Chinese was so bad I was ready to give up. And now this.

I have finally busted through the intermediate hump. Thank you to everyone here who's offered me tips and encouragement.

So that's a 2014 goal ticked off.

[imron]

Well done!  Glad to hear you managed to push through the plateau.

 

Keep in mind that language plateaus are cyclic, so you'll also certainly find yourself in a similar spot in the future - i.e. frustrated at not being able to understand the things you want to understand and communicate the things you want to be able to communicate, and feeling like all your effort has been for nothing.

 

When that happens, keep this positive memory in mind, and how you were able to break through this last plateau and as long as you keep at it, you'll break through the next one and the next one also.

 

It's worth mentioning also, that I doubt it's only the work you've done in the last 4 months that was responsible for the improvement.  Everything before that (that is, your several hundred day long chains) was laying the groundwork to get you to this point.

[AdamD]

Keep in mind that language plateaus are cyclic (…) When that happens, keep this positive memory in mind, and how you were able to break through this last plateau

Definitely. I've made that mistake before, so I'll keep this one at the front of my mind and try to coast on it long enough to get things moving when I get back home. It helps that I've since had several more (3? 5?) half-hour conversations with strangers, which confirms that the first one wasn't a fluke.

Your suggestion to treat Chinese words as synonyms was the tipping point. That's how I think about all my language study now.

It's worth mentioning also, that I doubt it's only the work you've done in the last 4 months that was responsible for the improvement. Everything before that (that is, your several hundred day long chains) was laying the groundwork to get you to this point.

Yeah, the false plateau. Weird to think I've helped others understand that phenomenon but didn't recognise it in my own progress, perhaps because this plateau went on so long it felt chronic.

[imron]

perhaps because this plateau went on so long it felt chronic.

It's like Daniel-san in the Karate Kid.  He's been waxing cars and painting fences all summer long and doesn't see the point of it and doesn't feel like he's making any progress towards his real goal.

 

In reality he's building up muscle stamina and muscle memory and when Mr. Miyagi finally clues him in, it's like he instantly has all this skill - though the reality is, he wouldn't have that if he hadn't spent his entire summer waxing cars and painting fences.

 

Your suggestion to treat Chinese words as synonyms was the tipping point

It's the same advice you've probably heard a dozen times before - think in Chinese, don't translate to English etc, etc, just expressed in a different way.  Translating things to and from English adds a cognitive load that makes it very difficult to maintain sustained, fluent interaction at an advanced level.  My guess is that once you removed that hump, all the skills you'd developed over several hundred days of unbroken chains was able to come to the fore.

[AdamD]

when Mr. Miyagi finally clues him in, it's like he instantly has all this skill - though the reality is, he wouldn't have that if he hadn't spent his entire summer waxing cars and painting fences.

Never thought I'd say this: I really need to watch The Karate Kid again.

It's the same advice you've probably heard a dozen times before - think in Chinese, don't translate to English etc, etc, just expressed in a different way.

Three years ago a teacher told me to do that, but he didn't say how, so of course I didn't do anything. If only he'd gone into the next level of detail.

My guess is that once you removed that hump, all the skills you'd developed over several hundred days of unbroken chains was able to come to the fore.

Definitely. The last two days have been struggletown, but I think it's more to do with the accents of Tainan taxi drivers, and just generally being tired from loads of walking.

[Yadang]

Sorry about jumping in so late in the game, but I've been wanting to start sharing goals via the aims and objectives thread for about 2 years, and for some reason haven't gotten my self to do it. I figure better jump on this one late then wait until next year...

 

So, I have two main goals for this year, and another thing to do if I have time, as well as another one to keep doing but not in any strict way:

 

 

 

1. Memorize 2500 Chinese sentences

 

2. Read 許三觀賣血記 by 余華

 

3. Experiment around with using TedxTaipei as a learning resource

 

4. Keep watching Chinese TV series

 

 

 

For the first goal, when I had gotten sick of taking classes and learning grammar formally, and tried out the method using Glossika sentences, I ended up memorizing about 800, and I liked the result. At that point, I really started to notice the difference they were making in my Chinese:

 

1. when I learned new words through the process, I seemed to learn them much more "naturally.” When I thought of the word, I would just have a feeling of how the word sounded, and I'd have to actually think about it to discern the tones, even though when I said it, I said it using correct tones (AFAIK) - much how many natives are. They use tones, but they don't necessarily know what tones they are using, until you ask them about it, whereby they go in the reverse process of many Chinese learners - they say it and discern the tones based on how they said it.

 

2. Another difference that I noticed, was how much easier it was to incorporate the grammar patterns I was learning into my daily conversations. Here I was learning all of these sentences, which I knew to be correct, and all I had to do was substitute a few words here or there to make my own sentence, which I knew would be correct most of the time.

 

3. The process also helped me hear (and replicate myself) the super fast sentences in movies that I don't catch. I hope after a lot of doing it myself, my comprehension of those super fast sentences will go up.

 

 

This time, instead of using Glossika as my media source, I’m going to use sentences from media by Chinese speakers, made for Chinese speakers - mostly movies, and maybe some TV shows. The reason I’m not going to use Glossika like I did last time, is that I have a deep mistrust of anything made for Chinese learners, because it seems like without fail, I always end up learning things that natives don’t actually say, or say only in the most formal of times. I suspect Glossika is better in this respect, but I don’t want to take my chances. Furthermore, memorizing sentences from movies that I like makes studying them more enjoyable than studying Glossika sentences.

 

This way, apart from learning grammar patterns and words, which a textbook would allow me to do, I’ll be learning the grammar patterns and the words (including slang) that Chinese speakers actually use and understand, not some Chinese teacher’s contrived sentences/words/grammar based off of their idea of what a good Chinese student sounds like.

 

I’ve been using subs2srs and anki, and it’s working well. I would have a 3000 sentence goal (so I’d get about 65 days of vacation if I studied 10 sentences per day), but even though I already have some under my belt from February and March, I started late.

 

 

My second goal, to read 許三觀賣血記, was a goal a year ago that I somehow forgot and never carried out. However I recently discovered that I can buy that book, along with four others by 余華 from Amazon for my kindle for about 8 USD. Also, I’ve rediscovered how awesome Imron’s Chinese Text Analyzer is, so I’m excited about putting it to good use.

 

 

My third goal is pretty self explanatory: If I have any extra time, I want to use subs2srs to extract audio clips from TedxTaipei talks, and use that as a study resource.

 

Finally, I want to keep watching (and enjoying) TV in Chinese. I’ve already finished watching two Taiwanese TV shows this year: 海派甜心 and 我可能不會愛你 (both of which, admittedly are relatively short). This has been really cool, because this is the first time that I’ve started to really enjoy native media. So I will keep doing that, but no specific goals about how much to watch. I do want to focus on some more mainland stuff however, to get used to the difference in accent (all my Chinese has been learned in Taiwan).

[大块头]

My original goal statement:

Quote

 

My goal this year is to pass the HSK level 6 internet-based test and the advanced speaking test on December 4, 2016.

 

To achieve that goal I will do the following:

 

Passive Vocabulary

I am working on an Anki deck based on the SUBTLEX-CH word frequency list. I have approximately 6000 more words to learn, and I intend to learn them at a rate of 20 words a day. Consistently studying my Anki cards has always been a struggle for me, so I created a stickK goal to motivate myself.

 

Listening

I intend to spend at least 4 hours a week passively listening to Chinese podcasts and radio. I will have a 30 minute walk to and from work at my new job this year, so I can easily find time to do this. I created a Google form to log the time I spend practicing and track my progress as I gradually understand more and more of what I'm listening to.

 

Reading

I intend to spend at least 30 minutes every week reading Chinese. I created a Google form to log the time I spend practicing and track my progress as I increase my reading speed and reduce how much I rely on a dictionary.

 

Speaking

I intend to spend 30 minutes every week speaking Chinese with a language exchange partner.

 

Writing

I intend to write at least 3 journal entries (length ≥ 50 characters) a week on Lang-8.

 

- - - -

 

Depending on how much time work and school takes up, I may adjust the amount of time I spend on each of these components. I will post an progress update to this thread on a monthly basis.

 

Passive Vocabulary: satisfactory

I missed a couple days, but I've managed to mostly keep up with this part of my studies. 

 

Listening: satisfactory

I continue to spend my morning and evening commutes listening to ChinesePod podcasts. I am burning through the upper-intermediate lessons and will likely be into the advanced ones soon.

 

Reading: satisfactory

I've started reading 三体 instead of industry news. It's a lot easier to find time for reading because I enjoy it more.

 

Speaking: satisfactory

I am meeting weekly with a language exchange partner..

 

Writing: dissatisfactory

I've started writing more on Lang-8, but not as much as I intended to.

[AdamD]

I've just quit my increasingly stressful job (something I should have done a loooooong time ago), which in retrospect cut heavily into my Chinese ability and study time. Once I start to wind down (I'm still coiled like a bloody mouse trap), I should have plenty of headspace to study properly again. That's pretty much the only goal I can manage right now.

 

I've wound down. I've also just finished my last semester at uni; definitely no HD this time but I think I did well enough to graduate.

 

My listening has improved and stayed there. I still miss loads of words, but at worst I pick up more than half of all clear speech the first time through. If this continues to go well, I'll have another go at HSK4 in a few months.

 

If I can get it together and find work that has something to do with Chinese language and/or an organisation with a presence in China/Taiwan, I'll have reached a 2014 goal. Yay?

 

I'm actively pursuing this now. It's hard. Knowing which organisations to approach, who to speak to, how to get connected without looking opportunistic, etc. Networking has never helped me but I'll keep at it. Meanwhile I'm trying to pick up super-short contracts to bridge what I hope doesn't become a years-long gap.

 

Separately I've started early work on a software concept for English speakers to learn and memorise characters. This has been boiling away in my head for a few years. My only goal here is to flesh it out and make it real.

[Chris Two Times]

1. submit a CSC application to attempt to gain a scholarship to support one year of Chinese language study in a non-degree program at a mainland university

2. end up on a mainland campus as a full-time student studying Chinese (either from a scholarship or through self-financing)

3. take HSK, Level 5 at the end of 2016 and see what happens

4. (from September onward) make sure I tick the boxes on a daily program of reading, writing, listening, and speaking practice

 

I've completed goal #1, waiting on the final word from CSC and the Embassy. Next, it will soon be time to make good on #2 and #4.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[Lu]

I'm planning to mostly continue on the current path. Keep reading, keep translating, keep learning words, hopefully learn some more chengyu because that didn't really happen last year. I need to find a new language partner/friend/person to talk Chinese with as my last language partner left. And perhaps I should look into how to go to China and/or Taiwan again this year. Also, apart from the thing I'm currently writing, I want to write & publish at least one more thing about Chinese literature, so I don't only translate it but also get more knowledgable about it.

 

In non-Chinese goals, I should find some form of exercise that is not expensive and that I will actually keep up. Running has pretty much entirely fallen by the wayside.

Still reading (finally finished 三体 this weekend, just started on a new book which is fun so far).

Still translating: I have literary translations booked until summer 2017, and the project after that is already faintly glowing on the horizon. This is both very good and a little scary (what if I want to stop translating and I can't for at least a year).

Still learning words, although not many, and few to no chengyu.

Found a new language partner who is really young (well, that's what you get if you find a university student) but also nice and helpful.

Making tentative plans to go to Taiwan next spring.

Wrote an afterword for a book with three novellas translated by different people, it just came out and I'm really proud to have my name on the first page. Hoping to also write an after- or foreword for the book I'm currently working on.

 

So that's going pretty well, if I can just keep at it. Also looking into doing stuff I haven't done before, in order to learn new things and expand my experience/knowledge/general usefulness to the world, and that is working alright too.

 

Exercise is not going well. That is, it's not happening at all. I walk and that's about it. Will have to try harder there.

[lechuan]

June Update:

 

Threw something new and more time-sensitive in the mix to help keep me better on track: I signed up for lessons with tutorming.com last month, and have been taking regular lessons (I'll do a review thread later on once I've tried them out for a few months). They placed me at level 7 (out of 12), and suggested I take 3-4 lessons a week. I'm currently just doing one a week at the moment because I am getting about 60 new words per lesson, which takes me about a week to learn/review with Skritter.

 

I am also currently reading Mandarin Companion's "Great Expectations", and working through Pimsleur Level 3 during my commute to work.

[大块头]

My original goal statement:

Quote

 

My goal this year is to pass the HSK level 6 internet-based test and the advanced speaking test on December 4, 2016.

 

To achieve that goal I will do the following:

 

Passive Vocabulary

I am working on an Anki deck based on the SUBTLEX-CH word frequency list. I have approximately 6000 more words to learn, and I intend to learn them at a rate of 20 words a day. Consistently studying my Anki cards has always been a struggle for me, so I created a stickK goal to motivate myself.

 

Listening

I intend to spend at least 4 hours a week passively listening to Chinese podcasts and radio. I will have a 30 minute walk to and from work at my new job this year, so I can easily find time to do this. I created a Google form to log the time I spend practicing and track my progress as I gradually understand more and more of what I'm listening to.

 

Reading

I intend to spend at least 30 minutes every week reading Chinese. I created a Google form to log the time I spend practicing and track my progress as I increase my reading speed and reduce how much I rely on a dictionary.

 

Speaking

I intend to spend 30 minutes every week speaking Chinese with a language exchange partner.

 

Writing

I intend to write at least 3 journal entries (length ≥ 50 characters) a week on Lang-8.

 

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Depending on how much time work and school takes up, I may adjust the amount of time I spend on each of these components. I will post an progress update to this thread on a monthly basis.

 

Things really picked up at work and school during the last couple months and my progress on this project suffered a bit because of it. What follows is an update for the months of April and May 2016.

 

Passive Vocabulary: satisfactory

I missed a day or two, but I've managed to keep up with this part of my studies. I'm down to about 2700 more words to learn.

 

Listening: not satisfactory

Now that I don't have any classes, I don't have a walking commute any more. I'm having difficulty finding a good window in my day for listening practice.

 

Reading: satisfactory

I'm really enjoying 三体.

 

Speaking: not satisfactory

I was unable to spend as much time as I wanted to practicing with my language exchange partner. He is moving away this summer, so I've found some new language exchange partners online, which I think will be more convenient than meeting people in person.

 

Writing: not satisfactory

I only wrote six journal entries in Lang-8 over the past two months.

 

I will have a bit more breathing room this summer and next semester, but if my progress continues to be slow I think I'll create stickK/Beeminder goals for the parts that are lagging.