Resource to self-study

[GFontes]

I know this is quite a repetitive topic, but I have read several of the responses and was not able to come to a conclusion.

 

I'm currently living at Beihang Uni, level A1. My plan is to take HSK5 in around 2 years. I'll be going back to my country (Brazil) in July so I wanted to take some material to continue my studies since the costs of them in Brazil will be prohibitive. I will not have access to a teacher or other chinese students, unless on the internet. 

 

I'm currently using the Jump High from BLCU.  My plan was to acquire as many Graded Readers as possible, Textbooks that could give me some structure to study and maybe a Grammar or HSK prep book.

 

But I cannot decided with books to buy, I was thinking first about the New Practical Chinese Reader collection (1-3) and Basic Chinese: Grammar and Workbook. But I'm not sure I'll be able to continue my studies to the level I want. My focus is conversational and reading.

 

Any one can give me some suggestions? I'm sorry for the repetitive topic.

 

[Shelley]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

 

I have self studied for many years now and have tried many books, courses etc. I now use The New Practical Chinese Reader  and the Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar and Workbook as my core texts.

 

I also use a few other things which I have written about in my blog here http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/blog/108/entry-605-my-learning-materials-and-resources/

 

I also have written about how I use NPCR here http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/blog/108/entry-602-learning-schedule-for-npcr/

 

I hope this is of some help and you can find some resources to take back to Brazil to continue your studies.

[GFontes]

Take very much Shelley, it really helped, specially your description of your use of the NPCR books. I decided to buy them (Vol 2-3).

 

Thank you so much

[LinZhenPu]

@Shelley How is your Chinese level now? By now it should be higher than 'lower intermediate'.

[Shelley]

@LinZhenPu Thank you for your confident expectations of me.

 

I have been studying for many years now, I learn for pleasure and have no need to use my chinese for work or life. Consequently I don't test myself and therefore I don't know what level I am at. Also I have no one to speak chinese with so I know my speaking level is way below my reading and writing, my listening is in between.

 

My grammar was terrible but is improving in leaps and bounds now i have started preserving sentence order described here in more detail http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/50055-preserving-word-order/

 

I might try a couple of mock HSK test to see where I am these days, but for interest only. It might help to show my strengths and weaknesses, I also may surprise myself as to what I can do. I will let you know if I do it.

[LinZhenPu]

Why not try to get a one-year Confucius institute scholarship and go to China for a year?

[Shelley]

Lovely idea but I have health issues, nothing terrible just enough to make it too difficult, also I have a severe peanut allergy and imagine spending my entire time scared to eat anything.

 

Also I am not as young as I used to be, life here is too settled to pickup and go, business, partner, cats.

 

I enjoy learning and have taken courses at my local university and we even have a Confucius Institute at the university, but at the moment I am happy studying at home.

[GFontes]

Thank you very much Shelley, your description on how to use the NPCR cemented my decision. Thank you very much

[Shelley]

I am very glad my blog was of help.

 

I hope your studies go well and remember chinese forums is a great place if you have any questions or you just want to share something.

 

Keep us updated on your progress and how you get on in Brazil

[yifeng]

@GFontes For self-study, textbooks are essential, but a good learning software is also a great help. Because a textbook contains fixed and limited content, learners tend to get bored. We like to recommend you our learning software - Smart Chinese Reader. You can choose Chinese news, stories, or essays interesting to you on internet, and use Smart Chinese Reader to explore them. Compared with dictionary apps, it is designed for deep reading, i.e. to gain more language knowledge from a text, rather than just to get through the text. It make your Chinese learning more effective.

 

Besides definition, Smart Chinese Reader provides a wealth of example sentences for each word to give you a sense of how the word is used in various contexts. Better still, it exposes you to the structures of Chinese sentences. Parts of speech (verb, adjective, adverb, noun, or even "place name", "person name") of Chinese words in a sentence are marked with respective colors. This is useful for developing a clearer understanding of Chinese syntax. To make the best use of this feature, please refer to http://www.nlptool.com/faq.aspx?id=10

 

It can pronounce a whole sentence in any text naturally. This is especially valuable for self-study. Speaking is an important aspect of learning a foreign language first because you hope to communicate with native speakers face to face, and second because reading aloud helps you become familiar with rhythms of the language and develop a good feel/intuition of the language. For speaking, Smart Chinese Reader can replace a human teacher at the largest extent.

 

My plan is to take HSK5 in around 2 years.

 

Smart Chinese Reader can help you prepare for HSK test in several ways. For example, it provides vocabularies of HSK 1-6, in which Known and To-learn words are labeled with different color borders. This serves as a clear picture showing which HSK words you have been familiar with, which HSK words you haven't, and which you want to study further. 

 

Smart Chinese Reader has other features for self-learners. You can download it form http://www.nlptool.com. It is a trial version but has full features. If you encounter any problems, please report them in the discussion topic http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/50512-smart-chinese-reader-20/

 

We have selected you as our monthly lucky user, if you find the software meets your need and want to continue using it after the trial period, please contact me  yifeng_yu@nlptool.com and we will give you a free license. 

[chinesemadrush]

Hi Yifeng, could I be your monthly lucky user for August? Your software seems nice to use. Thanks. Willing to do up a review post if you wish.

[yifeng]

@chinesemadrush OK, we select you as our monthly lucky user for August. We appreciate user reviews because they help us better know pros and cons of our software and improve it. 

 

User reviews are especially valuable for Smart Chinese Reader, because they make it easier for people to understand the software. As an innovative learning program, SmartCR incorporates many new features that are strange to people and need time to try. Although we have provided manual and tips on our website, user reviews are helpful to clarify usage of the software and save people time to become proficient with it. 

 

Please email me yifeng_yu@nlptool.com to tell me your name which will be included in license file of SmartCR, and I will send you a free license.

[chinesemadrush]

Sure thing, would drop you a mail.

[mjXueHanYu]

I am planning to do something like this, following the Coursera HSK courses and as well reading something like The Chairman's Bao, learning all the words of a HSK 1 story and the grammar rules of one piece of story, before reading the next article