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.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
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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