using cpod expansion sentences

[suMMit]

Wat do you think of this activity?:

*This is in addition to many, many other things i do(book with tutor, online character course, real life speaking)

Ive been going through the chinese pod EXPANSION SECTION sentences for each lesson, newbie, which is a little 'below' my level. So i dont even listen to the podcast.

I read the sentence in English, try to translate it out loud to chinese, read the hanzi to check it, check the pinyin if its a new/forgotten word, listen to it, listen and shadow, say it again without looking at anything, repeat shadowing as needed.

I then download and listen to tgese sentences on the subway, at night to put me to sleep etc.

I feel like these are nice little sentences about all sorts of topics. Perfect models of pron and grammar that ive already mostly come across before. There are typically 10 to 20 sentences and have positive/negative/questions/answers they are relatively easy and it seems that if i can master these to come out quickly/clearly/fairly naturally in many situatations it may in some ways be better than struggling with longer sentences (for now anyway).

examples:

天冷要多穿衣服。

 

tiān lěng yào duō chuān yīfu。

When the weather is cold you must put on more clothes.
.....

英国冬天的温度是多少？

 

Yīngguó dōngtiān de wēndù shì duōshao？

What is the temperature in England in the winter?
...

这本书大约五块钱。

 

zhè běn shū dàyuē wǔ kuài qián。

This book is about 5 RMB.

[DavyJonesLocker]

i think it's a good idea, it's easy to get into the trap of just going through single word flash cards

 

Bear in mind though that there can be several translations for one english sentence, and vice versa so don't be concerned if you didn't get the answer exactly right. This is especially notable at high levels (e.g HSK4 and above) . 

 

e.g. 

When the weather is cold you must put on more clothes. 

（当）天气冷时，你必须多穿些衣服。

（当）天气冷时，你必须穿上更多的衣服。

these alternatives seem ok to me but I'll let the folks here tell if it sounds unnatural 

 

[abcdefg]

59 minutes ago, suMMit said:

天冷要多穿衣服。

 

I guarantee this is one you will hear a whole lot. Even after living here a long time, when the temperature drops even a few degrees, I always get kind reminder messages from quite a few of my female friends. At those times, it feels like I have a dozen mothers. 

 

Usually abbreviated to 天冷了，多穿一点衣服。

[suMMit]

There are around 450 lessons 左右 in newbie, so im estimating around 4 months to complete all of them. My hope is that the repetitiveness will make half or more of the sentence patters come out of my mouth as easily as 你好