The 2019 Aims and Objectives Progress Topic

[Tomsima]

Also see here for Aims and Objectives topics of years past.

 

Its already December 31st, and we haven't got this thread going yet, so I thought I'd get the ball rolling. Looking forward to hearing what others have got planned. As for me, last year I went for small daily goals, such as 30 mins of shadowing every day. I then bought a year calendar and crossed off every day as a kind of motivating reward, don't break the chain style. I got a 9 month long chain going before it broke (fell asleep early and slept for about 17 hours by a mistake after seeing the terracotta warriors in Xian).  But the drive to keep the chain going kept me plowing through some depressing, frustrating times. So I'm gonna go for a similar style small daily goal for 2019:

 

Goal 1: Watch 新聞聯播 every single day of 2019. This is related to my interpreting course, but its great for practicing listening to official talks and understanding Chinese politics, if you're that way inclined. I'm going for the whole year, not just any time I feel like I can 'take it'. 

 

Goal 2: 30 mins Chinese cursive practice every day. As in, be able to write confidently and fluently using 草書, both with a hard-nibbed pen for note taking, and with a brush, for 書法 purposes.

 

Other more abstract goals include, doing more interpreting practice, interpreting speeches live etc., and to keep studying Pitman shorthand.

 

I will post my crossed out 2019 diary here in a years time, hopefully this time I can make it all the way to very end.

[歐博思]

Just coming from my handwriting character identification post, I must say I highly admire your Goal 2. In 2019 I need to start actually doing my Pleco flashcards regularly. They're all just sitting in there...waiting... ?

 

(whipping my flashcards out at 12 am tonight, regardless of where I'm at?. Here's to everyone's 2019 Chinese goals?)

[anonymoose]

Goal 1: Pass professional exams at the end of 2019. I envisage this taking up most of my time, and all my other goals are essentially subordinate to this.

 

Goal 2: Learn Japanese to at least JLPT level 4. Level 3 would be nice, but with a limited amount of spare time, this might be pushing it. Actually, I've already almost finished Genki 1 and 2 (though I've been working on this for over 10 years), and I've completed Pimsleur 1, 2 and 3 several times. I am also using Chinese Japanese books. I really need to organise a Japanese teacher, maybe via italki, to gain some oral skills. I might try and travel to Japan at the end of April if I don't go to China.

 

Goal 3: Learn some basic Cantonese. I already have a potential language partner, but due to being too busy/lazy, I haven't got round to organising anything. Might try Pimsleur Cantonese (I do a fair bit of driving, so plenty of spare time there).

 

Goal 4: Try not to let my Mandarin slide further. Difficult with limited exposure and limited spare time. I'm a regular on HelloTalk, but it can't compete with being in a Chinese environment.

 

Goal 5: Survive until 2020.

[fabiothebest]

Goal 1: pass HSK 5 by the end of 2019

 

Goal 2: increase my writing, speaking and listening skills in general

 

Goal 3: finish reading some novels in Chinese (I often stopped after the first chapters due to too many new characters to learn)

 

Goal 4: watch some movies and tv series in Mandarin and be able to understand everything (studying the words I don't know if I can find transcripts ideally)

 

Goal 5: do some Chinese MOOCS (I'm currently half way through the Intermediate Chinese course by Shanghai Jiaotong University on icourse163.org and I plan doing others afterwards)

[Shelley]

I think I would like to try just getting back in to my learning habits before my cataract operations upset my routines not just in Chinese learning but in other things in my life.

 

1) Hit the textbooks daily.

2) Write more, at least every other day. 

3)Listen and speak, get back into my HelloChinese routine.

4) Learn to love Pleco flashcards again, I need to understand better how to use them to remember writing characters, my recognition is good, but I can freeze entirely when it come to remembering how to write them. 

5)Dust off Hanzi Grids.

6)Make Tofu part of my regular routine.

 

Much as I would love to set aside a specific time everyday for study, I find this very hard to do as other things take precedence, but this is the one big thing I am going to try and do. When I took classes in person or online the deadlines I had forced me into sitting down for specific times and work. I may try and find something similar to help me make time.

 

I enjoy so many things that I find it hard to fit it all in, but 2019 is the year for promoting my Chinese studies to the top of the pile.

 

2019 is 51 minutes old here, so I will join  歐博思  now with Pleco.

 

 

[agewisdom]

9 hours ago, Tomsima said:

Goal 2: 30 mins Chinese cursive practice every day. As in, be able to write confidently and fluently using 草書, both with a hard-nibbed pen for note taking, and with a brush, for 書法 purposes.

 

Admirable. I've given up on pen and paper since I started using my handphone for writing practice. Obviously, there's an element of cheating as compared to pen and paper, but it's way too convenient for me to give it up

[Tomsima]

12 hours ago, agewisdom said:

it's way too convenient for me to give it up

 

I think I would be the same to be honest, but I have pen and paper exams to take, as well as the requirements for note taking whilst doing interpreting, and with being pretty into my 書法, it makes using a keyboard for writing characters impractical (im pleased to say...)

[js6426]

Goal 1: Read at least 1 Chinese book per month.  I have just started reading my first book, which is from the 淘气包马小跳 series for kids.  Stuff for teens or adults is still too far above my level, but at least this is something native and not from a textbook!  Hopefully I can increase the difficulty of the books every couple of months.

 

Goal 2: Get back on track with Pleco flashcards.

 

Goal 3: Spend more time talking to native speakers.

 

Goal 4: Watch something in Chinese every week.

 

 

[Alex_Hart]

14 hours ago, Tomsima said:

I think I would be the same to be honest, but I have pen and paper exams to take, as well as the requirements for note taking whilst doing interpreting, and with being pretty into my 書法, it makes using a keyboard for writing characters impractical (im pleased to say...)

We need to see some pictures of your 书法 now! I'm with agewisdom. After spending the first two years filling notebooks and notebooks with Chinese writing, I rarely pick up a pen anymore except to take notes. My handwriting in English is awful so I doubt the world will miss my Chinese handwriting. 

 

Goal 1: Finish my thesis! (before March)

Goal 2: Pass my defense! (April)

Goal 3: Pass HSK 6! (after April)

[agewisdom]

3 hours ago, Alex_Hart said:

Goal 1: Finish my thesis! (before March)

Goal 2: Pass my defense! (April)

Goal 3: Pass HSK 6! (after April)

 

Good luck on the thesis. Sounds taxing to defend your thesis. How many people are there to discuss (or rather... grill you) on your thesis? Sounds a bit terrifying...

[Lu]

- Start and maintain a blog about Chinese literature. Reporting on my reading here has been more useful and helpful to me than I had expected and I think I am now ready to start a blog. It will be in Dutch, sorry for all the non-Dutch-speakers here.

- Continue to diligently study Cantonese

- and keep learning Mandarin vocab.

- Take and hopefully pass the test in May that will make me a certified translator.

- Make more money than last year.

- Exercise twice as much (from once a week to twice a week). I actually, honestly really like rowing and should do more of it because it is all kinds of good for me.

 

I'm not going to include 'translate a book' in this list because that is really out of my hands. I know I am in a great position to translate another Chinese book, the publishers know it too, and now it all depends on someone deciding to publish a Chinese book in Dutch and ask me to translate it.

[Shelley]

2019 is 48 hours old and my technology has rebelled. The SD card in my tablet stopped working. Yes really,  like I put in a long list and it said oh no ...POP. So all on hold til new one that has been ordered arrives.

 

Meanwhile work from my textbook and some character writing.

[Alex_Hart]

12 hours ago, agewisdom said:

Good luck on the thesis. Sounds taxing to defend your thesis. How many people are there to discuss (or rather... grill you) on your thesis? Sounds a bit terrifying...

Committees for MA students here are generally 3 professors, but they might ask a fourth professor from a different university if they have special knowledge on the topic, or if nobody on the committee has studied your topic. Fortunately, it is nowhere near as difficult as a PhD defense. Your paper has already been "cleared" by your adviser and maybe the department so the defense is just an opportunity to clarify some points. The professors will generally tell you what your paper is lacking and you have a month or two to edit it.

 

9 hours ago, Lu said:

 - Exercise twice as much (from once a week to twice a week). I actually, honestly really like rowing and should do more of it because it is all kinds of good for me.

 

This is my goal, too. I was swimming ~2-3km three times a week, but that has dropped considerably since the cold weather and rain arrived. Have to stop making excuses and just get there!

[Shelley]

Is a dissertation the same as defending your thesis?

[Alex_Hart]

1 hour ago, Shelley said:

Is a dissertation the same as defending your thesis?

Not quite, but the difference between the two depends on where you are in the world. In the United States, a thesis refers to a paper you'd write when graduating from a BA or MA program while a dissertation is written by doctoral students as the culmination of their research. A thesis is basically proof of your knowledge in the subject while a dissertation is a piece of original research/knowledge. I looked it up online thinking it might be different in England, and it seems like Europeans use them in the opposite way; in England, a dissertation is what you write for a BA/MA while a thesis is for your PhD. A defense is when you present your paper to a panel of professors who will question you on it. Both a thesis and a dissertation might be defended , but not many MA students will need to defend their thesis in the United States. This is usually reserved for honors students or for PhDs. 

 

In China, it's all called 论文 and you add on words to differentiate what kind of 论文. You might write:

课程论文 at the end of a class which is generally 4,000-10,000 characters for an MA student (depending on the subject) and determines your grade. This is basically just a 文章, an essay.

学位论文 / 毕业论文 which earns you a "degree."

硕士学位论文 is for MA students and is equivalent to an American thesis. MA programs might be 1 year ("international business"), 2 years (for most majors including linguistics, etc) or 3 years (history, some science majors). In my program, it requires somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 characters. At least in ZheDa, all students must defend this.

博士学位论文 is for PhD students and generally takes several years to complete and requires a defense in most unis around the world.

[imron]

13 hours ago, Lu said:

It will be in Dutch, sorry for all the non-Dutch-speakers here

We're all just disappointed it won't be in Chinese

[Lu]

5 hours ago, imron said:

We're all just disappointed it won't be in Chinese

My written Chinese is pitiful. Barely good enough to write emails. But mainly, Dutch people can't read it and then I won't be able to achieve my goal of starting a 中国文学热 around here.

[Shelley]

@Lu I am a bit confused about  中国文学热. What is the use of 热  rè   here? I can't find any other meaning except hot, heating up or fervent.

 

Thanks for any help.

[Lu]

热 is used for something that is very popular. 三毛热 'Sanmao fever', the author Sanmao being very popular and all the rage.

[Shelley]

Ah yes ok that makes sense. I can see it now.