01 year 18 weeks into study

30Mar09-Hi Everyone,
Not much to report this week. My method is the same as before, and I am making progress each day.
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02Apr09-Hi Everyone,
Here is my latest stack photo.

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05Apr09- Edited to fix typo in the title of this blog post.

01 year 16 & 17 weeks into study

Hello everyone,
Well, I must say that essentially, no Chinese studies happened while I was in Spain. It was just too much. I was struggling to recall the little bit of Spanish that I learned years ago, and the Chinese was frustrating that effort. Well, it was for the first few days anyway. I resumed my Chinese studies in full swing upon my return to Massachusetts on Saturday. The 10 new characters per day totally fell flat, so I am back to the 5 per day.
I feel mixed right now about my progress. For the positive, I scored at elementary (low) on the listening test on the Chinesepod website. I feel that testing at elementary is an important milestone, and performing as such indicates that I am making progress. For the negative, I just struggle with the feeling that this Chinese studying is pointless, and that I will never master the language. I feel this way despite the overwhelming evidence to the fact that I am learning the language. I have been studying since November, but I am where I should be if I were studying since January. It's cool though, I am just going to continue to work at it everyday and trust that I will improve.
I hope to be able to speak enough Chinese to be able to express my most basic needs when I arrive in August. My trip to Barcelona, and the frustration resulting from the language barrier has demonstrated to me the types of things I will need to learn in order to communicate in a foreign language. Perhaps I should have traveled to China for the break, but I cannot take back the past, and I have to live with decisions that I have made.
My studying routine is the same routine that I have outlined in the update in week 16. If you are reading these blogs, I would really be interested in knowing about your presence. Please feel free to become a follower or comment.
thanks

01 year 15 weeks into study

I am still maintaining my studies at close to the same intensity as the last update. I have made one minor change to my procedure, on account of the fact that I will be out of the country for a week. I didn't feel it prudent to bring my entire stack of review terms to Spain with me. I plan to leave them home. So therefore, I am going back to the 10 new characters per day for 10 days and doing no review of the stack. This means that my learning stack will grow, and then contract again at roughly the time I return from Spain. Then I return to reviewing the stack of acquired terms.

I am really happy with the progress I have been making with the speaking part of Chinese learning, it is much better than what I was experiencing in early weeks of the studies. Here is a recent photograph of my acquired term stack:



This photograph does not show it very well, but the top of the stack is now higher than the wood paneling in the back. I have hit a good stride at this point. The only thing that I find difficulty with, is finding motivation to listen to the podcasts for one hour each day. Well, I'm not sure if I will be able to post this coming week, but if not, then I will do so next week.

01 year 14 weeks into study

Hello everyone,

I wanted to do this week's update earlier than normal. I have switched from posting at ChinesePod to using Blogspot because of a number of reasons that I may or may not get into in a later post. In the last few days, I have really gotten back into the swing of studying Chinese. I have entered a relatively relaxed period academically, so I can focus on the Chinese learning. It is going well, and it feels good. As I mentioned last week, I have tried a new strategy in my studies. I emphasize the speaking/listening part more than the character acquisition focus that I had previously. When I did focus on acquisition, it was very effective for my learning of the written vocabulary. With this being said, the verbal/speaking suffered. I have learned over 600 flashcards, but only 68 lessons after over three months of study. While I would say that I was doing well before, I think that now I am beginning to lag when compared to others who have started learning Chinese back around late November. Here is a summary of my routine;

On days that I have no work or academic demands -

I spend one hour listening to podcast shows and audio reviews. I listen to one new lesson and learn those words during this time. After this, I normally listen to audio reviews of lessons that I have listened to in the past so that I can really get those terms down pat. Because this is the part that I enjoy the least, I do it first before moving onto the flashcards.

I have a learning stack, of which I add 5 terms a day. I use a similar method of rotation that I have used in the past. I also review a subgroup of my acquisition stack each day.

On days that I have demands -

I make the best I can do with the above idea given the amount of time of which I have to work.

Here is the lastest stack photo. Obviously the stack is not growing as fast as it was before. I plan on stepping up the studying in a huge way when the semester is over.

01 year 15 weeks into study

Hello everyone,
I have decided to stop doing these weekly updates, at least via the community forum. This will be the last one. If you want to follow my progress, I plan to continue to update my profile on a regular basis.
I have changed my plan of attack for studying Chinese. My new plan involves more speaking and listening, more review of terms that I learned already, and less emphasis on learning new written words. Not really in a talking mood right now so I am going to sign off.