The 2020 Aims and Objectives Progress Topic

[js6426]

13 hours ago, Lu said:

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.

Thanks for directing me to this thread Lu.  Not only was it incredibly helpful, it was also wonderfully entertaining! 

[Jan Finster]

My goals for 2020 are:

1) read, listen to and "shadow"/chorus  every episode of Chinesepod Elementary and Intermediate before my subscription runs out on Black Friday 2020: those would be around 4-5 episodes per day.

2) watch Chinese dramas (at least 5-7 episodes per week) and review the subtitles (read the subtitles on Lingq and SRS study important words).

3) Listen to Chinesepod, audio from Chinese dramas and other audio products on the go (gym).

4) try to work on my oral speaking skills with a tutor on Skype or iTalki. This, I have neglected recently due to loads of stress at work.  I hope I can get tutoring at least 1-2 hour per week. I am not really keen on preparing homework for my tutors, but maybe there is a way around it...

5) try to learn some medical Chinese vocabulary (still have not found a good western medical textbook translated into Chinese, only TCM books (!?))

[Wurstmann]

• continue adding 10 sentences to Anki every day.
• continue to watch at least 3 hours of Chinese movies/哔哩哔哩/TV shows every day

[StChris]

Ok, let's do this.

 

I'll be in China for the first quarter of the year, and then in the UK after that. I estimate that I will have around 6 months of full time Chinese studying, after that I should be busy with whatever job I manage to find.

 

Goals:

 

1. Improve my writing - I plan to write at least 3,000 characters per week. I've already been writing 2,000 characters essays fairly frequently this year (although not on a weekly basis, haha). I think I can easily increase my output next year. I always have plenty of ideas, and never have much trouble writing once I start, but I just need to be more disciplined.

 

2. Improve my memory in Chinese - I still find it much harder remembering details in Chinese than I do in English, although this area has naturally improved a fair bit this year (I'm much more likely to remember a character's name in a movie I watched the day before, for example). To further improve it I'm going to change the way I write essays. Normally I take a lot of notes (both of details and useful words/phrases) and then use those notes when writing my essay. From now on I want to attempt to commit as many of the details and new vocab to memory as I can, and then just write the essay without referring to any notes. I also want to get into the habit of trying to describe a movie (in writing or to a friend) the day after watching it, trying to remember character names, plot points, places etc.

 

3.Improve my pronunciation - I plan to start making videos in the next couple of years, and that is enough motivation to get improve my pronunciation. It's already pretty decent now and I can't remember the last time I was misunderstood due to a pronunciation issue, but it's definitely still far form native 北方人 level. I will devote an hour to recording my voice once per week and making adjustments as necessary.

 

4. Improve listening ability and cultural knowledge - I've recently switched from mostly watching TV dramas to watching movies and online videos. As my listening ability improves, I find myself becoming much more picky in terms of what I'm willing to watch, and most TV dramas are just not up to standard. I've been watching a lot of 80s and 90s Hong Kong movies recently (Mandarin versions), which are not only more fun to watch and much shorter, they also fill in some gaps in what I call my "Chinese cultural knowledge", as these were movies that Chinese people my age grew up watching. This is often underestimated I think, and it gives me an extra topic of conversation to chat about (or at least not be completely lost if the conversation moves on to these things). Imagine a Chinese English speaker who has never watch Terminator 2, Alien, Jurassic Park etc and you can understand what I'm aiming at.

 

I haven't been missing out on TV drama goodness too much though, it's just that now I sample their delights via various 吐槽 online videos, my favourites being 哇哇哇妹 and 开心嘴炮. In these videos, the host takes the worst dramas, describes their stories and then basically rips them apart, criticising the actors, script etc. A lot of fun, and the language tends to be much more difficult to understand than watching the TV dramas themselves (very fast pace of speaking combined with plenty of 成语). I plan to watch these more carefully this year, making sure I understand all the unfamiliar words, nuances, and cultural references. 

 

5. Improve reading speed and comprehension - I've been reading 财经 pretty regularly over the past year, but can never finish an issue before the next one comes out. This will be my goal for 2020. If I continue reading and learning vocab I'm confident of achieving this. In addition, I plan to read two series of books, 平凡的世界 and 圈子圈套. I completely ignored novels in 2019 in favour of news and non-fiction after a heavy novel-focused 2018, but I'm ready to jump back into it now. 10 pages a day should do it (plus I have audio versions of both books, so I can improve my listening ability too). Unlike my 财经 and other non-fiction reading, my aim is primarily to improve speed, with minimal stopping to look up new vocab (which hopefully won't be too much anyway). 10 pages per day should do it.

 

6. Pass the HSK 6 - I've never taken any level of HSK before, but my teacher thinks my current level would be enough to get a passing mark, so I hope I can pass without issue at the end of 2020. I'm a bit weird in that I think doing too much specific HSK practice is kind of cheating, and I want to be able to pass "naturally". That said, I did take a couple of months worth of HSK 6 classes at the end of 2018, so I am already familiar with the types of questions they ask. I might even go for the HSKK exam too, if I'm feeling confident. Hopefully all of the above will be sufficient preparation. 

 

7. Watch the news every day - I actually need some help with this one. I got into the habit of watching the news from 9-10pm on regular TV every day earlier in 2019, but I got fed up with the format (lots of footage of the President visiting some country with bands playing etc). Can anyone recommend a place where I can find short and concise news bulletins, so that I can pick stories I'm interested in at my own leisure? (rather the having to sit through boring ceremonies)

 

Non-Chinese goals:

 

1. Play classical guitar for at least 15 minutes per day - I always feel much more relaxed afterwards and always see a slight improvement, so there's no legitimate reason not to.

 

2. Restrict unfocused internet usage and unhealthy eating to one day a week - I've done this at various times throughout 2019 and always see a improvement in my life from doing so (I feel I have more time and less fat), but always eventually give in to temptation. I'm determined to stick to a healthy information and food diet this year.

 

3. See how much Japanese I can learn in a week - I find myself playing Japanese games and consuming Japanese media more and more and it seems a shame to let all that listening practice go to waste. After finally (somewhat) nearing the end of my formal Chinese studies the last thing I want to do is embark on a new multi-year Asian language journey, so this will be just a fun challenge to see how much of the basic language I can pick up in a week of intensive learning.

 

I'll report in at the end of every month to keep myself on the straight and narrow. Good luck everyone!

[Tomsima]

31 minutes ago, StChris said:

Can anyone recommend a place where I can find short and concise news bulletins, so that I can pick stories I'm interested in at my own leisure?

公大资讯 is a fairly decent shot, its a 公众号 on wechat that does daily news bulletins around 15-20 mins long. Its radio format, ie no video, but the content is good. Most importantly, no sitting around bored watching xi jinping walking around on red carpets with other world leaders...

[StChris]

6 minutes ago, Tomsima said:

公大资讯 is a fairly decent shot, its a 公众号 on wechat that does daily news bulletins around 15-20 mins long. Its radio format, ie no video, but the content is good. Most importantly, no sitting around bored watching xi jinping walking around on red carpets with other world leaders..

 

Thanks a lot, that sounds just what I'm looking for. I hope they include plenty of international news too, as some of the domestic stuff leaves me a bit lost (I think it's as much to do with my lack of knowledge of the political system as a language issue).

[Lu]

I haven't really thought about my goals very thoroughly, but here's what I got.

 

Chinese-related goals:

- Read more popular Dutch books. If I want more Dutch people to read Chinese books, I need to get a clearer idea of what kind of books they (we) like. It will also be helpful when pitching books to publishers.

- Read more Chinese literature, both novels and short stories.

- Publish something Chinese literature in translation. I don't care what it is and who pays for it (the Chinese government, likely), but something. A book with a serious Dutch publisher would be best, but anything is good.

 

And in general:

- Take good care of myself and feel good & happy. Includes being outside every day, eating vegetables every day, regular exercise (rowing yay), finding fun things to do and doing them with people I like, getting into and out of bed in time.

 

I'm sure there are a few goals from last year I can recycle, but setting few, achievable goals generally works best for me.

[Weyland]

5 minutes ago, Lu said:

If I want more Dutch people to read Chinese books, I need to get a clearer idea of what kind of books they (we) like.

Someone is swimming against the current.

[taijidan]

Daily

Finish working through the mandarin blueprint method https://www.mandarinblueprint.com/

Continue learning 3 new characters per day (and related words).

Read the new articles on the chairman’s bao https://www.thechairmansbao.com/

Read the new articles and stories on Du Chinese https://www.duchinese.net/

 

Monthly

Work through the graded readers on my bookshelf and those in Pleco. Like 3 heroes and 5 gallants, Autumn and The Besieged City.

Memorise and recite a short passage, like an opinion piece, lyrics from a song, a joke or a movie scene.

[Lu]

On 12/31/2019 at 7:27 PM, Weyland said:

Someone is swimming against the current.

I'm sure I agree, but in what sense do you mean here?

 

ETA: Weyland sent me a PM which included these lines:

18 minutes ago, Weyland said:

Dutch public libraries already have bilingual (English-Chinese) versions of Chinese stories, both ancient and modern. Quite a few of these get gifted by the several "Chinese outreach Institutions" based here. But, sooner or later these books will go into storage as people don't know such books are even available.

This is exactly part of what I aim to change.

 

(Also, not all Dutch libraries have such books; Dutch people are often able to read English, but most of us prefer reading Dutch.)

[suMMit]

*At least half hour a day on graded readers ~ I dont enjoy reading that much, but i find it one of the best ways of learning.

 

*3 lessons a week with my teacher.

 

*Go out of my way to make some real world speaking situations everyday.

 

*Do an online resource everyday. Firmly reach the Cpod Intermediate level.

 

*Record a speaking task several times a week

 

*Keep a positive attitude with language battles.

[jiaojiao87]

Since I've lurked here for a long time, figured I'd start joining in the discussion.

 

Last year was a big year for me: I read both 或者 and 许三观卖血记 - my first two "real" Chinese novels.  I also read extensively from other sources: both of DeFrancis' Beginning Chinese Readers (for traditional character exposure and to improve reading speed), several books aimed at children, and a few comics.

 

So in 2019 I massively improved my reading skills, but did not focus on improving speaking.  I have found that I enjoy conversing with people in Chinese, and so improving my speaking ability would likely bring enjoyment for me.  Therefore, I'm dedicated 2020 to improving my conversation skills!

 

Goals:

1. Continue to improve my vocabulary:

• Learn 10 words per day from material I am consuming (shows, books, classes)
• Learn 10 characters per day (I'm using Remembering the Hanzi for the ordering of characters, but not using this technique, as I find it unnecessary and cumbersome)

2. Improve Output:

• Online Classes at least 3x/week.
• Daily practice/recordings of myself speaking.  Goal here is: take a paragraph or so of text, listen to a native speaker's recording of the text, try to mimic it as closely as possible.  Doing this as both shadowing to get cadence/pronunciation, as well as just recordings of myself for text that I don't have audio content for.  Also receiving feedback from various native speakers on errors.
• Study a grammar point every day.  I selected a (probably) unnecessarily complex system, where the first day I study a grammar point I write out 6-10 sentences, then each subsequent day for a week I write out another 2-4.  The idea being that I repeatedly force myself to use a grammar point to really cement it into my mind.  Just working through the AllSet Grammar Wiki for any points that I find I do not ACTIVELY use in my speech.
• Take up opportunities to speak with Chinese friends/coworkers as much as possible, but I have already been doing this, so no major change and nothing to track.

 

If others have suggestions on alternative methods for improving the fluidity of speech and reducing grammar issues, I'm always open to ideas!

 

 

 

[BearXiong]

I've been learning Chinese for nearly 5 years now. I could have done more but I'm happy with the very modest progress I made. I can recognise about 3200 characters, read simpler novels, chat online with people about lots of different topics, watch TV shows etc.

 

That said, I don't have the same energy/motivation as I once did but also don't want to plateau at this level. I still do my Anki reviews daily and add words/characters I want to learn to Anki. However, in 2019 I didn't add as many words/characters as I would've liked. My goals for this year is simply to be a bit more aggressive with addings words/characters and keep up with consuming media. I figure over one year this might not make much of a difference but if I continue for another 5 years, even learning 2-3 words per day, which isn't so hard to do, will add up to ~5000 words which is quite significant.

[Weyland]

IF you missed your goals, then you can always start now. It's the Chinese New Year after all! *wink wink*

[∞保罗∞]

January was a crazy year! Thank god we made it through!

 

Joking aside for everyone In  middle earth/ Middle Kingdom -  hope you are safe and well looked after, The Hubei situation certainly puts our goals into perspective - we might as well do our best to learn Chinese this year and progress, and I know we can all do it.

 

I’ve registered for the HSK 5 in March and got through the first 3-4 chapters of the HSK5 Shang book. Realistically will probably need another 6-8 months before I pass this test. Hours for January are about 12 hours book time, lots of tv shows - finished 精英律师 which is on YouTube with English subtitles (put captions on).

 

  武汉加油!!!

[Tomsima]

well my 2020 goals have pretty much been thrown out of the window, time to revise:

 

Cangjie is still going strong, i do the majority of my typing with it now, unless it's a particularly urgent situation and i have to go back to pinyin as im still not quick enough without. This goal stays

 

All my cantonese stuff is back in the uk, pretty much back to square one. Considering how much time and progress has gone into my hubei dialect since being barricaded in here, I am thinking scrap canto altogether and just run with being that guy with putonghua + obscure dialect instead.

 

Pretty much all calligraphy exhibitions have been cancelled for the foreseeable future, so this goal is also out the window too it would seem. There is actually an 'online' calligraphy exhibition bring held by Hubei calligraphers association, with the theme of 'wuhan coronavirus'. Not really sure what kind of inspiration that will draw, but interesting nonetheless.

 

Revised goals:

 

finish learning to write out 千字文 in full, and cursive too if there's time.

 

be able to recite 100 poems. Im currently on 12.

 

[mackie1402]

On 12/23/2019 at 11:24 PM, mackie1402 said:

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. 

 

So it was only a book of short stories and it was incredibly easy, but it ticks the box! I'm halfway through the next volume and I'm really enjoying it. It's funny really, just writing this post and knowing I've ticked one of my list, I'm just about to sign into the chinese-test site to sign up for a HSK 5 test! 

 

Have read:

Graded Chinese Reader 500 words

 

Reading:

Graded Chinese Reader 1000 words

[oceancalligraphy]

A major goal for me is to become more familiar with seal script. I think this will help my calligraphy and seal carving immensely. 

 

I'll start with memorizing the 540 說文 radicals. Then I'll memorize 篆法百韻歌，a rhyme about the rules of seal script. 

Not sure how long this will take me, but the sooner I start, the better. 

[mackie1402]

On 2/16/2020 at 11:19 AM, oceancalligraphy said:

A major goal for me is to become more familiar with seal script. I think this will help my calligraphy and seal carving immensely. 

 

I love how learning Chinese is so vast. It's really nice to see this type of goal among a lot of general "improve speaking, learn this many words". 

[wschlender]

I've been living in Taiwan for 3 years now and my Chinese is solidly intermediate. Everyday simple Chinese is no problem but more complicated conversations are hard to follow.

 

Biggest challenges --> Vocabulary and related to this is my reading and writing abilities.

My plan is to spend 1 hour per day on studies with focus on reading and writing.

Goals -->

• Complete the 實用視聽華語 series (currently at volume 4).
• Reading fast and fluent... very few stops to look new words up -- I've begun to read 漫畫 and Chinese fairy tales and want to use these to increase vocabulary.
• Write my daily work plans in 中文.
• Flashcards haven't worked for me (they're boring) so I want to find something more interesting.

Of course I have tons of opportunity to speak Mandarin with my friends and family so I'm hoping this helps fill in some of the holes I have.