Well, the teaching period has ended, and I started my vacation on Wednesday. This means that I may have more time to dedicate to studying. The first part of my vacation will be dedicated to traveling, so studying may take a back seat. I intend to maintain my discipline of studying Anki everyday. Anki is a flashcard program that I am using to work on many areas of Chinese learning. Right now, I am focusing on pronounciation. I created an Anki pronounciation file that will likely take 11 months in total to complete. I have been working on it for over three months so far, so I have another eight months left. Although I am focusing on pronounciation, I am also working on other areas as well. I am in the process of listing all the information from a Chinese character textbook onto Anki. I practice my writing as well as my pronounciation, but I am not focusing as hard on the character writing right now, I spend between 20 - 30 minutes per day on character writing. I also work on files that were created on a now defunct website known as 'Smartfm'. They have been produced for Anki, but they have been adapted to suit the Anki format. I am not really focusing on these study tools as greatly as the others. I also have an Anki lesson that pertains to HSK preperation sentences, chinese characters, and a lesson that pertains specifically to food related vocabulary.
I also created a file that I use to learn words that I learned using Chinesepod and from my grammar textbook. This also takes a pretty good chunk of studying time. In all, I spend over an hour per day on Anki. In the short-term, I expect that that time will increase, then maybe in 6 months or so, decrease back to the level that I am at now.
A few weeks ago, I made the jump from Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate on Chinesepod. It was quite hard. I am still doing Intermediate lessons as well as I find that I can still learn new content. Despite daily Chinese studying, my score on the Chinesepod placement exam has not improved considerably. Perhaps in a few more months, I will find improvement on that exam.
So after three years of studying, my Chinese is still not that good. It is improving at a moderate pace over a considerable period, but I still have a long ways to go.I can understand simple conversations, and I do pretty well if I am talking to someone speaking the standard dialect, and speaking carefully. If they try to talk to me like they would a Chinese person, they easily blow me out of the water. Anyhow, thats all for now.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
November 11th, 2011 ChinesePod Profile Update
Updated on November 11th, 2011 -- I started learning Chinese on November 23rd 2008. I have been diligently studying Chinese everyday. I am using three means to study: 1. Using Chinesepod, studying roughly one Upper-Intermediate and one Intermediate lesson every week. Using a computer program to do review, and I work with a tutor to help with Grammar. I think these measures are helping me greatly. I hope to continue to progress.
You can keep track of my progress at;
(http://amesbury georgechinesestudy .blogspot.com/) without the spaces or paranthesis. I must confess, I have not updated this page in quite a while because I cannot log onto this site while I am in China. If you do go to that page, I would be interested to know that people are reading it. Feel free to follow the blog, or comment so I know of your presence.
You can keep track of my progress at;
(http://amesbury georgechinesestudy .blogspot.com/) without the spaces or paranthesis. I must confess, I have not updated this page in quite a while because I cannot log onto this site while I am in China. If you do go to that page, I would be interested to know that people are reading it. Feel free to follow the blog, or comment so I know of your presence.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Chinese ramp-up
Well, I am really ramping up on the Chinese studying. I have taken actions that indicate that I am putting my money where my mouth is in terms of Chinese learning. Today, I extended my registration with Chinesepod for another two years. Recently, I hired a Chinese girl to serve as a tutor. I will meet with her three times per week for an hour and a half each time. I have also been using Anki, the flashcard program that I mentioned in a previous blog post. I plan to start working out of my hanzi writing textbook again.
Although it isn't perfect, Chinesepod is the best online Chinese teaching website that I have found. It isn't perfect, but it is decent. I have been doing business with them since 2008, and never had any serious issues. They have a 20% off promotion going on, so that if I bought a 2 year subscription, It would cost me about $14 per month. I think the service is worth that. I suppose I could find a way to download the lessons for free, but I figure that they do put effort into producing the lessons, I should pay them. I normally listen to the lessons, and I do use the glossary frequently, but I don't usually use the other tools very often.
Last week, I started taking Chinese lessons with a Chinese girl. She is a student at our university. So far, she has been the most patient with me. So far, it has been hard. She is hard for me to understand. Besides the occasional term that she defines in English, we communicate entirely in Chinese. This means that I spend 4.5 hours each week, talking in Chinese and getting direct feedback on my mistakes. It is pretty difficult. It is mentally exhausting, but I hope that it will pay off in the long run.
I mentioned Anki in a passing remark in a recent post, but I have really been using it. I try to spend at least an hour per day using it to review my Chinese, but lately, it has been closer to two hours. It is the best vocabulary review tool that I have found. I can use it to prompt me on Hanzi, pinyin, english definitions, and spoken. I have also started using it to learn the Japanese vocabulary.
The handwriting textbook is the same one that I used before. I plan to return to doing work out of it. I cannot depend on using pinyin to produce Chinese characters forever. I should know how to write them as well. My reading is pretty good, but if you ask me to write it by hand, I have a hard time.
Well, I will give this a try and report back later on my results of my ramp-up.
Although it isn't perfect, Chinesepod is the best online Chinese teaching website that I have found. It isn't perfect, but it is decent. I have been doing business with them since 2008, and never had any serious issues. They have a 20% off promotion going on, so that if I bought a 2 year subscription, It would cost me about $14 per month. I think the service is worth that. I suppose I could find a way to download the lessons for free, but I figure that they do put effort into producing the lessons, I should pay them. I normally listen to the lessons, and I do use the glossary frequently, but I don't usually use the other tools very often.
Last week, I started taking Chinese lessons with a Chinese girl. She is a student at our university. So far, she has been the most patient with me. So far, it has been hard. She is hard for me to understand. Besides the occasional term that she defines in English, we communicate entirely in Chinese. This means that I spend 4.5 hours each week, talking in Chinese and getting direct feedback on my mistakes. It is pretty difficult. It is mentally exhausting, but I hope that it will pay off in the long run.
I mentioned Anki in a passing remark in a recent post, but I have really been using it. I try to spend at least an hour per day using it to review my Chinese, but lately, it has been closer to two hours. It is the best vocabulary review tool that I have found. I can use it to prompt me on Hanzi, pinyin, english definitions, and spoken. I have also started using it to learn the Japanese vocabulary.
The handwriting textbook is the same one that I used before. I plan to return to doing work out of it. I cannot depend on using pinyin to produce Chinese characters forever. I should know how to write them as well. My reading is pretty good, but if you ask me to write it by hand, I have a hard time.
Well, I will give this a try and report back later on my results of my ramp-up.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
My happy everyday Chinese life... As posted on Facebook
This note will contain the same kind of content that I shared in my previous notes that are titled 'The life of a Chinese learner living in China... ', although it may not be as specific to language learning as previous notes. As far as the title, Chinese people will, from time to time, send me a text message saying 'I wish you happy everyday'. It is a Chinese thing I guess. Although I am not 100% sure, it is a literal translation of 我祝你天天都高兴.
Anyhow, not to brag, but I really feel that my speaking has really improved in the past couple of months. A big reason for this may be all the traveling that I have done in the past few months. I have had opportunities to practice the skills that I have been working on over the past couple of years. Tonight, I was talking to a Chinese friend at a restaurant. When I first met her, her English was way better than my Chinese. Now, the difference is not as great. We spent most of the time talking tonight, and I understood most of her, and she understood me. Actually, I may have passed her, but it is definitely not the blowout that it was when I first met her.
I was able to order water delivery for myself, yet another way that my language learning is allowing me to be more independent. I don't think I made any serious mistake with my Chinese, but it helps if I tell the water company the correct apartment number. I live in apartment 601, not 106. Ha ha ha.
I have changed my studying method (for those of you who care, you can read about it at length on my blog 'amesburygeorgechinesestudy.blogspot.com'). I hope to really improve with my new method.
The thought that I want to leave with today is a little bit of a tirade. I am a little upset with people who are critical to those who cannot speak English well. After living in China for over a year, and spending most of this time studying hours per day, and trying to get things done on a daily basis, and making mistakes all the time and confusing myself and others, I can really say that I truly know what it is like to live in a foreign country where I can't speak the native language well. For those of you who are hard on those who live in the US, but cannot speak English well, come back to me and complain after you have lived abroad in a foreign country. Okay, I'm done, and thats off my chest.
I guess that is all I want to say right now.
Anyhow, not to brag, but I really feel that my speaking has really improved in the past couple of months. A big reason for this may be all the traveling that I have done in the past few months. I have had opportunities to practice the skills that I have been working on over the past couple of years. Tonight, I was talking to a Chinese friend at a restaurant. When I first met her, her English was way better than my Chinese. Now, the difference is not as great. We spent most of the time talking tonight, and I understood most of her, and she understood me. Actually, I may have passed her, but it is definitely not the blowout that it was when I first met her.
I was able to order water delivery for myself, yet another way that my language learning is allowing me to be more independent. I don't think I made any serious mistake with my Chinese, but it helps if I tell the water company the correct apartment number. I live in apartment 601, not 106. Ha ha ha.
I have changed my studying method (for those of you who care, you can read about it at length on my blog 'amesburygeorgechinesestudy.blogspot.com'). I hope to really improve with my new method.
The thought that I want to leave with today is a little bit of a tirade. I am a little upset with people who are critical to those who cannot speak English well. After living in China for over a year, and spending most of this time studying hours per day, and trying to get things done on a daily basis, and making mistakes all the time and confusing myself and others, I can really say that I truly know what it is like to live in a foreign country where I can't speak the native language well. For those of you who are hard on those who live in the US, but cannot speak English well, come back to me and complain after you have lived abroad in a foreign country. Okay, I'm done, and thats off my chest.
I guess that is all I want to say right now.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
My first post of my 3rd year of learning Chinese
After I wrote the last post, I did continue to study. I spent lots of time working with Smart.Fm. It has really been a great help for me with learning characters. From October until late December, I worked heavily with Smart.fm, and I also studied with ChinesePod. I also bought some Chinese textbooks that I dabbled with, but never really pursued. I have not done anything out of my handwriting Chinese textbook, but I am thinking about resuming that work.
Last month, I learned that Smart.fm will be closing, and it will be replaced with a pay site (called iknow.jp) . Currently, I cannot get the new site to work. I feel reluctant to study using Smart.Fm since it is closing in the not so distant future. If I do use the new site, I will have to find a way to pay in yen. They do not accept American money.
At the beginning of the new year, I spent time traveling around China. For the first three or so weeks, I did no studying. For the latter part, I was spending an hour a night studying with Chinesepod. I still work with the Intermediate lessons, but I don't try to do everything in each lesson. I focus on two areas; the dialogue and the vocabulary words. I don't work with the expansion sentences anymore, they are just too difficult. I work on a 3X4 schedule. Lets suppose that I am going to work with four lessons;
Lesson A
Lesson B
Lesson C
Lesson D
I have a rhythm that works like this;
day 1 - Lesson A show, lesson A review (for every review, I only focus on vocab), play the dialogue, then audio review a second time
day 2- Lesson A show, lesson A review, play the dialogue, then audio review a second time
day 3 - Lesson A show, lesson A review, play the dialogue, then audio review a second time
day 4 - Lesson A show, lesson A review, play the dialogue, then audio review a second time
day 5 - Lesson B show, B review, A dialogue, A review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review
day 6 - Lesson B show, B review, A dialogue, A review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review
day 7 - Lesson A show, A review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review, B dialogue, B review
day 8 - Lesson B show, B review, A dialogue, A review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review
day 9 - Lesson C show, C review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review, C dialogue, C review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review
day 10 -Lesson C show, C review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review, C dialogue, C review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review
day 11 -Lesson B show, B review, A dialogue, A review, C dialogue, C review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review, C dialogue, C review
day 12 - Lesson A show, A review, C dialogue, C review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review, C dialogue, C review, B dialogue, B review
Now, on day 13, I drop lesson A and begin lesson D and continue the cycle as outlined above.
For each day, this process takes about an hour.
I am also working with a program called Anki. It is a flashcard program that I really like. It functions somewhat similar to Smart.fm, although it has some differences as well. The biggest difference is that I cannot test for pinyin. I use another program called ZDT that helps me learn the pinyin for the hanzi.
Okay, im tired. I am going to go to sleep.
Last month, I learned that Smart.fm will be closing, and it will be replaced with a pay site (called iknow.jp) . Currently, I cannot get the new site to work. I feel reluctant to study using Smart.Fm since it is closing in the not so distant future. If I do use the new site, I will have to find a way to pay in yen. They do not accept American money.
At the beginning of the new year, I spent time traveling around China. For the first three or so weeks, I did no studying. For the latter part, I was spending an hour a night studying with Chinesepod. I still work with the Intermediate lessons, but I don't try to do everything in each lesson. I focus on two areas; the dialogue and the vocabulary words. I don't work with the expansion sentences anymore, they are just too difficult. I work on a 3X4 schedule. Lets suppose that I am going to work with four lessons;
Lesson A
Lesson B
Lesson C
Lesson D
I have a rhythm that works like this;
day 1 - Lesson A show, lesson A review (for every review, I only focus on vocab), play the dialogue, then audio review a second time
day 2- Lesson A show, lesson A review, play the dialogue, then audio review a second time
day 3 - Lesson A show, lesson A review, play the dialogue, then audio review a second time
day 4 - Lesson A show, lesson A review, play the dialogue, then audio review a second time
day 5 - Lesson B show, B review, A dialogue, A review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review
day 6 - Lesson B show, B review, A dialogue, A review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review
day 7 - Lesson A show, A review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review, B dialogue, B review
day 8 - Lesson B show, B review, A dialogue, A review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review
day 9 - Lesson C show, C review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review, C dialogue, C review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review
day 10 -Lesson C show, C review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review, C dialogue, C review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review
day 11 -Lesson B show, B review, A dialogue, A review, C dialogue, C review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review, C dialogue, C review
day 12 - Lesson A show, A review, C dialogue, C review, B dialogue, B review, A dialogue, A review, C dialogue, C review, B dialogue, B review
Now, on day 13, I drop lesson A and begin lesson D and continue the cycle as outlined above.
For each day, this process takes about an hour.
I am also working with a program called Anki. It is a flashcard program that I really like. It functions somewhat similar to Smart.fm, although it has some differences as well. The biggest difference is that I cannot test for pinyin. I use another program called ZDT that helps me learn the pinyin for the hanzi.
Okay, im tired. I am going to go to sleep.
Monday, February 14, 2011
February 14th, 2011 ChinesePod Profile Update
Updated on February 14th, 2011 -- I started learning Chinese on November 23rd 2008. I am still studying Chinese. I do notice some improvement, especially with my speaking and listening. In recent months, I haven't been focusing on reading and writing as much as I was before. I plan on getting back into my reading and writing practice. I will continue to keep working at it.
You can keep track of my progress at;
(http://amesbury georgechinesestudy .blogspot.com/) without the spaces or paranthesis. I must confess, I have not updated this page in quite a while because I cannot log onto this site while I am in China. If you do go to that page, I would be interested to know that people are reading it. Feel free to follow the blog, or comment so I know of your presence.
You can keep track of my progress at;
(http://amesbury georgechinesestudy .blogspot.com/) without the spaces or paranthesis. I must confess, I have not updated this page in quite a while because I cannot log onto this site while I am in China. If you do go to that page, I would be interested to know that people are reading it. Feel free to follow the blog, or comment so I know of your presence.
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