The 2019 Aims and Objectives Progress Topic

[Tomsima]

21 minutes ago, roddy said:

I've been trying 12-week years for... well, just over half of one

 

really interesting idea, let us know how it goes. id be really interested in trying this out if you see a really noticeable difference in results

[AdamD]

1 hour ago, roddy said:

So aim for an 84 day chain, then reassess.

 

It’s a good idea, but honestly I think the goals which work for me are the real world hard-and-fast ones, like exams and travel plans. Day-to-day motivation has never been a problem.

 

It’s probably too early to say, but is the 12 week year working for you?

 

Right now my only goal is to do the parts I enjoy and make friends I want to stay in touch with. In past visits I’ve been panicked about speaking all Chinese all the time, but this year I’m just going with the flow. If I make good friends with people who speak mostly English, eh, it’s fine, I’ll end up coming across their friends who most likely won’t. Paradoxically my best times there have been playing games like Cards Against Humanity with great people.

[imron]

3 hours ago, AdamD said:

…I’m trapped in this language, aren’t I?

You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave ?

[AdamD]

加州宾馆

[Shelley]

Slightly off topic but is this the 伊戈尔斯.  Is this the correct translation for the Eagles? 

[Tomsima]

 

18 minutes ago, Shelley said:

Is this the correct translation for the Eagles? 

 

taken from baidu:

 

《加州旅馆》（Hotel California）是美国著名乡村摇滚乐队老鹰乐队（Eagles）的歌曲

[roddy]

17 hours ago, Tomsima said:

id be really interested in trying this out if you see a really noticeable difference in results

So far I'm liking it. I'm not going to pretend I've done everything I've set out to, but I've probably done more than I would have otherwise.

 

15 hours ago, AdamD said:

It’s a good idea, but honestly I think the goals which work for me are the real world hard-and-fast ones, like exams and travel plans. 

Absolutely, and where I have something like that coming up I'll work around it rather than some arbitrary date. But if an exam date is 9 months in the future, I need some kind of milestone, artificial or not, between that and now. 

[∞保罗∞]

Note: （我有四个孩子哈哈-太多太多-三个女儿一个儿子，他们也学习中文）

 

这只是关于我2019的中文学习目标的快更 新！

Just a Quick update on my 2019 chinese learning goals !

 

我不太满意我最近 的中文进展，但情况就是这样。

I'm not feeling great about my recent progress in Chinese but things are happening.

 

我刚从中 国回来，我待在那里10天,而且我在那里有很多机会练习日常对话。

Just back from 10 days in China and had lots of opportunities to practice speaking everyday.

 

我本来应该参加3月23号举办在都柏林的HSK4考试，但是因为那一趟中国旅行，我错过了报名费的付款截止日期，我只晚了几天，他们说我必须等到11月。

I was meant to sit HSK 4 exam in Dublin on 23rd of March but because of the China trip I missed the payment date by a couple of days and they said I would have to wait until November.

 

我跟我家人四月会在上海，而且我刚订了4月11号到4月15号要带家人去台北的机票，所以我们会有很 多练习中文的机会。

I'm going to be in Shanghai with the family for the month of April and just booked tickets to bring family to Taipei from 11 April - 15 April so we will get lots of practice. 

 

我考虑过参加4月举办在上海的HSK4考试，但是那个需要用中国的银联卡付款，这真的很伤脑筋！而且我 会错过截止日。 而且两天前，我的微信钱包被锁起来了！在中国，没有微信钱包会是一场恶梦！微信钱包现在要求我必须有一个中国银行户头，(我以后会认真考虑办一个，但是我不确定开一个中国银行 户头会有多难！)

I looked at sitting HSK 4 in Shanghai in April but needed a union pay card so it's a total pain to pay and will end up missing cut off date. I also got my wechat money blocked 2 days ago so it's going to be a nightmare trying to get around China without wechat money - it now requires me to have a chinese bank account (will seriously need to consider this in future but not sure how difficult it will be to open).

 

反正我觉得我的动力有点下滑，但是我的日常对话能力变好了！我现在可以开心坐下来跟客户和家人边吃晚餐边聊天，并且听得懂大部分的内容， 而且我发现现在有一种以前所没有的化学反应，那就是当中国人看到外国人学中文 到一个不错的水平的时候(以我的例子来说，我觉得是中级)，他们会比较友善很亲切。

Anyway feel like motivation slipping a bit, but I am getting better at everyday conversation - happily sit and talk to clients or family over dinner and be able to understand most things and I've noticed there is a chemistry that wasn't there before - when Chinese people see foreigners learning Chinese and getting to a fairly reasonable level (In my case I (think) I could say intermediate) - they are even more friendly and nice.

 

HSK5 的课程很 好也很有趣，我还是持续上线上课程。

The HSK 5 class is good fun and I'm keeping the online classes going.

 

即使在我最懒的情况下，我还是会看中文电视节目或是youtube节目，所以至少我还是让自己充斥在被动学 习的环境里！

Even at my laziest I still watch chinese tv shows or youtube channels so at least I'm getting good passive learning exposure! 

 

您们加油!

 

 

Edited March 9, 2019 at 04:02 PM by ∞保罗∞
Tried to upload video kids practising chinese from today's lesson but it came out weird

[roddy]

On 2/19/2019 at 8:58 PM, Tomsima said:

really interesting idea, let us know how it goes. id be really interested in trying this out if you see a really noticeable difference in results

I'm liking it! I added in a six-week review to keep an eye on how I'm doing. So far I'm doing fairly well - won't say I've hit all targets, but I've had at least a respectable effort, and the ones I've completely missed I can set aside for a later date. 

 

Running: Doing good. Run as far so far in 2019 as I did in the entirety of 2018, and got my 5km time down to 27m, 30s faster than I was aiming for. Next stop, 25m, which puts me about as fast as I was in 2016, last year I did any substantial running. Hopefully get there end of June and then decide what to do for the rest of the year. Going up to 4 runs a week now the weather's nicer. 

Spanish. I love learning Spanish. I've started doing it a dozen times now. But been more regular so far this year, and am (in 7 minutes) trying out online tutoring for the first time. 

Music: Put in decent hours, did ok in a couple of very amateur performances. Stalled a bit after that, but can restart now with new goals set. 

Meditation: Did a good few weeks, but then drifted off course. Not going to worry about it, scrapping this for now as I don't feel too much of a need for it. 

Outdoors: Hoping to do 28 nights in the tent in 2019. None so far. Kind of ok, as it's the colder months and this is always going to be a summer thing, but if I'd been more organised I could have got a few nights ticked off.

[艾墨本]

On 1/24/2019 at 10:29 PM, 艾墨本 said:

So the goals:

 

1) Finish one Chinese book every month. With a stretch goal: put the top 300 most common unknown words into a Pleco deck and learn them (10 new words a day, 3600 new words by the end of the year).

2) Pick one phrase that I am struggling on the pronunciation with per day and put it on a note card in a sentence. Have a Chinese friend record themselves saying it and work on imitating them.

 

And that's it.

 

So far I'm trotting along, working on these two goals.

 

So far I have read two 皮皮鲁和鲁西西 books and 假面山庄 by 东野圭吾. Although the latter is a translation, it was translated wonderfully and was an intense page turner, a mystery that completely mis-directed me.

 

I'm now reading 看见 which, while interesting, has certainly turned up the difficulty a good amount. I'm going to keep going for a few more days and see how it goes. But I'm also going to buy some more 东野圭吾 because I want to read more!

 

That said, I've done little to know daily vocabulary. I just can't seem to get myself doing it.

 

My second goal has transformed in a brilliant way. I'm now going hard on pronunciation with a wonderful tutor. The goal: pass the 普通话水平测试（二甲). I'm spending about an hour a day working on past problems that have cemented pretty deep in my pronunciation. So progress is slow but rewarding.

 

I'll also be taking the HSK 6 and HSKK middle level for my scholarship requirements next month. Not to concerned as I just need to pass.

[Flickserve]

47 minutes ago, 艾墨本 said:

My second goal has transformed in a brilliant way. I'm now going hard on pronunciation with a wonderful tutor. The goal: pass the 普通话水平测试（二甲). I'm spending about an hour a day working on past problems that have cemented pretty deep in my pronunciation. So progress is slow but rewarding.

 

Will be interested in the details.

[murrayjames]

1 hour ago, 艾墨本 said:

I'm now reading 看见 which, while interesting, has certainly turned up the difficulty a good amount.

 

What is 看见?

[imron]

28 minutes ago, murrayjames said:

What is 看见?

This?

[murrayjames]

Yeah, bet that's it. I searched for "看见 小说" on 百度 and Bing and couldn't find anything. How is the book, @艾墨本 ?

[imron]

14 hours ago, murrayjames said:

I searched for "看见 小说" on 百度 and Bing

DuckDuckGo has a link on the first page of results (but in the bottom half).  Google has a link to the book as the top result.

[murrayjames]

8 minutes ago, imron said:

DuckDuckGo has a link on the first page of results (but in the bottom half).  Google has a link to the book as the top result.

 

I'm in China ? Have used more Baidu and Bing in the last three weeks than in the last three years.

[Wurstmann]

5 hours ago, murrayjames said:

I'm in China ? Have used more Baidu and Bing in the last three weeks than in the last three years.

 

If you're looking for information about books or movies I would recommend to search on Douban.

[艾墨本]

Yep, that's the one @imron

 

https://book.douban.com/subject/20427187/

 

Good so far. Writing is a bit flowery which I like. I would describe her writing as an objective take on her subjective experience.

[Geiko]

Hello again! In January I came here to post my 2019 goals, but after a couple of weeks on and off, I must admit I abandoned almost all of them. I've been reading one Chinese novel per month, but then in spring I also fell behind with this task: I still haven't finished April's book, even if it's not particularly difficult, and I like it. As I said back then, I'm experiencing a lack of motivation in studying Chinese, combined with a lack of time due to new hobbies (basically running).

However, this fall I might have the chance to go to Hong Kong (nothing sure yet), and that got me motivated again, so I'm getting back on track and I'll start afresh as of today. I don't want to be too ambitious, so at first l'll only spend one hour a day studying Chinese, every day a different language skill, and if I stick to the plan, I might increase the amount of time.

• Monday: general study with Practical Audio Visual Chinese 5. I want to get as much exposure as possible to traditional characters.
• Tuesday: listening to a chapter of some TV series.
• Wednesday: practise handwriting in Chinese with the book "Developing Writing Skills in Chinese".
• Thursday: improving reading speed.
• Friday: reviewing HSK 6 words.
• Everyday including weekends: read a novel in Chinese, either simplified or traditional, hopefully one per month.

I think I'm not being too ambitious, I hope I can stick to the plan. 加油！

 

[Lu]

Update time, perhaps.

 

- Start and maintain a blog about Chinese literature: Not going too well, as happens with these things I've had trouble keeping up with posting when paid work picked up again. I'll continue to try and see how it works out. Meanwhile I am on Twitter and that I manage to keep up with no effort at all, about one (re)tweet a day about Chinese literature.

- Continue to diligently study Cantonese: I have unfortunately pretty much stopped studying when classes ended and at the same time paid work picked up.

- and keep learning Mandarin vocab: Going okay-ish.

- Take and hopefully pass the test in May that will make me a certified translator: I passed!! Yay! I need to do some more paperwork before I am included in the register and then I need to market myself, but this big first step has been completed.

- Make more money than last year: Not sure yet.

- Exercise twice as much (from once a week to twice a week): This is going very well. I go rowing twice a week most weeks and recently found, to my surprise, that I am actually more fit now than I was a few years ago. Didn't think that would work with still relatively little exercise. I'm tentatively planning to take the next-level exam and also join a 5 km race in September. Tentatively.