The 2020 Aims and Objectives Progress Topic

[∞保罗∞]

Hi Guys, I just got my HSK 4 and 5 exam results back results posted to HSK results thread here

 

The 2019 thread and previous threads have been a source of inspiration for me and I hope no one minds that I get the 2020 thread started a little early.

 

While I failed HSK5 fairly hard, I was happy that I did most of what I had set out to do in 2019 with massive amounts of listening practise and watching of TV shows - I saw a big improvement in general communication.

 

2020 I'd like to pass HSK5 with a 200+

Get into structured classes again.

At some point during 2020 - turn off the subtitles on the tv shows.

 

Thanks !

 

 

[roddy]

Thanks, 保罗. Will make this a sticky topic. You're now personally responsibly for posting on the first day of every month, though...

[PerpetualChange]

These are my goals for 2020, as of now...

 

Daily: 

• 30 minutes reading time
• Deeply focus on at least 5 unknown new words
• 30 minutes active listening (active TV watching, LCTS, etc)
• Diary entry 
• "Teach" my wife for 15 minutes per day (as long as she stays interested... this can just be a basic conversation together based on her vocabulary)

Weekly: 

• Continue at least 1 hour formal tutoring (online)
• Write a 500-1000 word essay
• At least two 30-minute conversations with language partners 

Yearly

• Read 6 novels
• At some point, begin a more serious study of Classical and Literary Chinese

 

Thoughts? 

[Tomsima]

On 12/16/2019 at 4:03 PM, PerpetualChange said:

Deeply focus on at least 5 unknown new words

 

Great goal, thats deep study of nearly 2000 words in 2020, will be a massive asset to your Chinese abilities

[Tomsima]

My 2020 study goals:

 

1) Move all my Chinese typing on computer and phone to cangjie. I can already type pretty comfortably using cangjie, but at present 九键 requires almost no brainpower, whereas cangjie I still have to frequently think of how to decompose characters before typing, so I just cant get into a good habit of using it. My reasons for wanting to use cangjie: I find it fun, and its useful to some extent for character retention. This is going to be very difficult at first, but I reckon if I can make it through January I should be good to go.

 

2) Don't give up on Cantonese. I have so little time left in my day for this it has been so difficult. In 2019 I did a few weeks of Japanese and a few weeks of Cantonese. I didn't really enjoy Japanese very much past learning the hiragana/katakana. But Cantonese has been really fun and I've loved learning new characters and tones, its familiar yet different at the same time! My 2020 goal is just to keep things gradually improving, a concrete goal is to finish Elementary Cantonese II by Sidney Lau.

 

3) Submit entries to at least two calligraphy exhibitions. I submitted two in 2018 but was not shortlisted. 2019 was so busy I didn't have time, but I would really like to try again in 2020.

 

Thats it! Good luck to everyone else laying out their 2020, exciting times ahead

[道艺]

get a Chinese driver's license

do a full immersion summer volunteer retreat

[jannesan]

my goals for the next year:

 

whole year:

• take HSK5 and pass with a good score
• read a few easy Chinese novels

each month:

• write at least one essay longer than one page

each week:

• take 2 classes with 50/50 focus textbook/free talk
• read a few news articles
• watch at least one episode of a TV show / consume some other video content

each day:

• vocabulary study (~10 new words)

[ZhuoMing]

I have been studying Chinese for just over 3 years now, while also being a college student. I have just passed HSK5 a few months ago, but I feel like my progress is the greatest while I have more time to myself, during summer and winter break. I just graduated 3 days ago, and have a job in America set up to start in mid-September. As such, I will be following my dream and living in China from December 31 to August 31. During this time period, I will be spending 14 weeks doing 1 on 1 lessons for 16 hours a week in Chengdu. I am hoping for some major improvements, and will be working hard to reach my goals. I will first break down my goals by each ability, then summarize with some general goals. 

 

Speaking:

Current Level:

Currently, I can speak to people, but it sounds awful, and I am not comfortable doing it. I can speak about simple topics with bad grammar, and greatly struggle to say anything remotely advanced.

Goal:

By the time I return from China I hope to develop a sort of confidence in my spoken chinese. I want to be able to much more comfortably talk about simple to medium topics, and be able to converse about complex topics, albeit perhaps a bit slower, or with some grammar problems. I believe this goal is fairly achievable, since my passive vocabulary is far greater than my active vocabulary thanks to way too much time on anki. I have honestly had very little practice with speaking in comparison to reading, so I hope that being put in a Chinese-speaking  environment will finally allow my speaking to "catch up" in a sense. 

Method:

Daily conversation with my teacher. Hanging out with friends that don't know any English as much as possible. Speaking to as many people as possible. My goal is to spend at least an hour every day speaking to someone in Chinese. This shouldn't be too hard to achieve considering I don't know any other foreigners there, and the Chinese friends I do know there all don't know English. 

 

Listening: 

Current Level:

Similar to speaking, I feel that I have most of the necessary vocabulary, I just lack the practice. I have the knowledge vs proficiency problem that I sometimes hear about.

Goal:

I hope that living in China and talking to many people will give me the listening practice I need to allow me to understand the same amount of speech that I can understand while reading. Currently, my listening is a sort of embarrassing point for me, as I struggle to understand some fairly basic sentences unless the person repeats it or speaks slowly, I also am entirely incapable of understanding speech from people with any sort of an accent. I hope to reach a level where minor accent differences (sh->s, n->l f->h etc) won't throw me off, and I can comfortably understand pretty much everything spoken to me in conversation. I don't expect to be able to fully understand things like TV shows and the news quite yet. Since I will be living in Chengdu, I hope to reach a full level of comprehension for people with sichuan-accented mandarin( 川普), and perhaps understand a little 四川话. 

Method: 

Same as speaking, lots of conversation. I will also try to get into Chinese TV shows, movies, music, and podcasts as much as I can, and listen to some kind of Chinese audio (a podcast or the news) while getting ready in the morning. 

 

Reading: 

Reading has always been my strongest skill. I really enjoy reading Chinese, and I review vocabulary in anki on a daily basis, which has brought my passive vocabulary up to an unproportionally high level, and I can read simple novels (余华), even though I wouldn't be able to understand a single sentence if it was read aloud to me. Since I enjoy reading, and it is much easier for me to practice outside of China, I think I should definitely put it on the back-burner while in China, in order to focus on my speaking and listening. That said, I plan to  read a lot of Chinese social media and news on a casual basis. 

 

Writing: 
In terms of handwriting, I enjoy writing characters, and practice it with my anki deck daily. I will keep this up every day just so I am good at writing characters. I know many people argue that being able to hand-write characters is pretty useless nowadays, and I totally agree. That said, it is something I enjoy doing, so I will not give up on it. As for actual writing, I will tell my teacher to have me write an essay every once in a while, or perhaps some kind of small paper every few days. Although I don't enjoy writing, I think it is pretty helpful for improving grammar, especially if I have a teacher to look at my writing and go over all the mistakes with me. 

 

General Goals To Reach By December 31, 2020:

• Can comfortably converse in Chinese - be able to put any idea into speech, and understand nearly everything spoken to me by another person.
• Read 5 novels (These can mostly be done after my return from China, in September - December) 
• Have decent comprehension of some simpler Chinese podcasts and shows

During China (January - August): 

• Spend an hour conversing in Chinese every day. 

After China (September - December):

• Every day: spend a half hour watching a TV show, or listening to a podcast. 
• Every week: Spend an hour either talking to a friend over wechat, or an italki teacher if that is not possible.

 

 

 

[mackie1402]

On 12/21/2019 at 10:20 PM, jannesan said:

each month:

• write at least one essay longer than one page

 

I see you're based in Europe. Sign up at Dalarna university online for free Chinese courses. I'd sign up for Written Chinese 3. I did it last semester. It's only 8 classes, and they're every 2 weeks, but each week you learn a new style of writing using Chinese, then you have to write a short essay of 500-700 characters each lesson. The topics are pretty interesting, too. One week we were reading and writing about Vikings, another week about the affects of smoking and how to be healthy, helping the environment, divorce rates in China. We also had some casual writing about tourism around China and a special event in our life. It really got me writing more and I learnt a lot. 

[jannesan]

13 minutes ago, mackie1402 said:

I see you're based in Europe. Sign up at Dalarna university online for free Chinese courses. I'd sign up for Written Chinese 3.

 

Wow, that is so cool! Thanks so much for the tip, I'm on their website now, checking how to sign up.

[∞保罗∞]

Mackie thanks for the heads up on Dalarna- it looks great - also I’m in Dublin does that mean it’s free for me as well? How does it work all fully online ? 
 

[lechuan]

Mandarin:

- Finish learning HSK4 Grammar Points

- Review HSK4 Vocab

- Read a lot of HSK4 level material

- Write HSK4 Computerized Test

 

Cantonese:

- Be able to carry on a basic conversation by end of the year

- Finish Pimsleur Cantonese 1

- Finish "A shortcut to Cantonese" textbook.

- 15 minutes a day of Glossika

[mackie1402]

10 hours ago, jannesan said:

I'm on their website now, checking how to sign up.

universityadmissions.se

 

8 hours ago, ∞保罗∞ said:

Mackie thanks for the heads up on Dalarna- it looks great - also I’m in Dublin does that mean it’s free for me as well? How does it work all fully online ? 

Basically all countries in the European get free education at Swedish universities (I believe that's how it works). So I've been studying there for a year now doing 45 credits a semester. It's been free so far, but I believe when I start courses next September (2020) I'll have to pay tuition fees because of Brexit (as I'm from England). The courses are fine, not amazing. On my course the classes are really mixed. There are people who have passed HSK5 in the same class as people who still can't really read and struggle to pronounce a lot of words. As it's free, it's not got the most serious students learning there. But as long as you turn up to class online, do the assignments and take part in the lectures, you'll see a big improvement. 

[rebor]

My post in the 2019 thread is here (mostly for my own reference).

 

Basically, flashcards are a routine for me for quite a few years now. This year I nuked my cards from the old HSK and began studying words from novels analyzed with CTA. Right now my deck is at 8k cards, consisting of the New HSK and cards from a few novels. The change of focus was a great move, it is tempting to check off these word lists, but it isn't a good learning strategy. Learn the words from your text books and then from your reading/watching materials instead. Don't be like me kids! But of course I knew this too when I started grinding through the HSK6 list, and then ALL of the old HSK lists... Now flashcards do not take up much of my time, which leaves room for...

 

…reading. I finished 圈子圈套 , read 许三观卖血记 and then finished of the year by completing 圈子圈套 2. I have used Pleco Reader and I have cheated myself by checking to many words, but I still feel I have made some progress. I definitely know more characters, my reading speed has improved and I’m much less fatigued after a session. I haven’t really read much else at all, so I spent some time with an article from 南方周末 this morning, and even without the Pleco training wheels I was able to read it. Note, not 100% comprehension or recognizing every last character but I could easily summarize it and think I got some of the finer points. And not only that, but I can now drop fun facts about Shanghai’s garbage recycling at cocktail parties (article  here , for my own reference).

 

I set a goal in last year’s thread to read a page every day. I haven’t read every day, but I’ve read reasonably consistently over any given week, so I’ll call it a success anyway. The plan is to start 家 on paper, to quit the pop-up habit cold turkey. If I don’t have access to the book, I’ll read some article on my phone instead (in Safari, no addins). I’ll maintain my goal of one page a day; I’ll do less when I’m busy, more when I have free time.

 

Since reading is reasonably under control, I’ll also work on my listening skills. I have a hard time keeping my interest up when it comes to podcasts directed at learners, so I’ll have to find some native material (perhaps a TV show) and do my best with it, even if it means pausing a lot. I watched a few clips before posting this to gauge my level, and it’s bad. Vocabulary is less of a problem now, but making out the words, and then fast enough is a challenge. I’ll have to drill quite a bit to get somewhere. I’ll be realistic and aim for two hours/week to start with.

 

So another year of horribly unbalanced, slow and spotty progress. At least I enjoy it

[mackie1402]

Thought I’d finally take part in this type of thread.

 

Take the HSK 5

I’ve told myself I’d take it for quite some time now, but I never actually book a time. I don’t need to get any particular score, just taking the test will do for now.

 

Commit to a book

Whether it be a short story or a textbook, I just want to finish a book. I’m sure a lot of you are like me, where you study a chapter or two, then find another exciting book and jump onto that, and the process continues. Before you know it, you have started 10 books and finished none. I think I just want to finish a book this year. 

 

Complain less

I’ve mastered the knack of complaining in Chinese now. Cold food, poor quality products, taxis going the wrong way, I can complain about it all like a native! Let’s just say I picked up some bad habits from my wife. This year I hope to master the knack of appreciation. Let’s work on that EQ in Chinese. 

 

In the past, I’d have aims such as “Pass the HSK 5 with 220 minimum”, “Finish 1 book every month” or “Talk to a different person in Chinese every day”, but let’s be honest, while they’re not exactly unreachable goals, they’re not always realistic when you are busy. I run a business, study a degree full time and now have a beautiful son at home, they will come first this year. Any extra boost to my Chinese will be a bonus!

 

Good luck, everyone! 

 

 

 

[dougwar]

My primarily goal is consistency,  to study every day without break the streak.

1-My current streak is 56 days I want to put more 365 days on it.

2- finish pismleur chinese: 4 / 150 units

3-finish hsk 4 vocabulary and study grammar and do the exam in September.

4-Estudy 34 new cads a day in anki

 

[道艺]

I'm really psyched to see so many motivated ppl with measureable goals. Really cool. But I'm a little surprised there are much more 'non-interactive' study goals than 'interactive' ones. Isn't the goal of learning a language to, well, use the language? Anyone think they can sub out one of their flash card goals or vocab lists for conversations or social activities with Chinese? 

 

I promise, it will be at least 3x more effective than looking at a piece of paper ?

[大块头]

Other than my current goals to improve or maintain my reading, speaking, and listening skills, I would also like to develop my handwriting ability such that:

• My penmanship is indistinguishable from that of a college-educated native speaker.
• I can write about typical topics without having to constantly reference a dictionary.
• My handwriting is neat and legible, but does not necessarily ascribe to any specific calligraphic standard of beauty.

To work towards achieving the goals listed above, I will spend 25 minutes a day performing the following tasks:

1. Complete the exercises prescribed in《席殊3SFM实用硬笔字60小时训练》. I will keep a blog on Chinese-forums with my answers to the problems in this book, as there does not appear to be an answer key.
2. Devise a mnemonic system for remembering how to write words. Rote memorization with Anki has worked OK for me in the past, but a minority of words has always tripped me up. I will come up with something similar to the Heisig approach, but applied to whole words instead of individual characters.
3. Finish learning to write HSK 1-6 vocabulary.

Completing task 3 may take a couple years, but I hope to get a good start on it this year.

[js6426]

1. Spend more time actually speaking Chinese.  With a class of 40 students the time I get to spend speaking at uni isn't anything like enough.  I am still trying to figure out the best way to make more Chinese friends.  With a wife, two kids and a degree, it can be quite challenging.  I am also not the type of person who spends a ton of time in bars or anything, so I'm not sure the best way to go about meeting/making Chinese friends.  There may be things at uni I can try and get involved in, although I want to avoid the whole language exchange thing!

 

2.  Flashcards in Pleco.  I have been doing much better with this, and want to really keep on top of it this year.

 

3.  Read more.  I am using 微信读书 and my original goal was to reach a certain amount of time (I can check how long I have been reading for).  However, I prefer paper books and I just bought a couple to start, so time won't be my focus.  I am close to finishing 《棋王》which I understood fairly well, and really enjoyed.  Yesterday I just bought ，《狂人日记》，《啊Q正传》and 《断魂枪》，these are all still above my level, but for my 论文 this time next year I will use one of these types of book, so I want to get a head start. I also have 《三体》which I'd like to try because I've read and enjoyed the English version.  Then finally 《三国演义》and 《西游记》, although these are of course the versions for young people, and are still way, way too difficult for me!  But it's always good to have a challenging goal I think!

 

4. For listening I'd like to watch some more Chinese material.  Not going to put a certain amount of time per week or number of episodes or anything like that, just going to work on watching more stuff.

[Lu]

10 hours ago, js6426 said:

I am still trying to figure out the best way to make more Chinese friends.

Read Takeshi's advice here (and his other posts in that thread too). In summary: making Chinese friends is great, but if your main goal (or an important goal) of that friendship is language practice, anyone who speaks Chinese with, to or at you suffices, they don't have to be friends. You don't even have to like them.