Spring semester

Well, the semester has started, and I am ramping up the studying as well. I am using similar methods to study that I have described in earlier blogs, so nothing really to add. I am proud to say that I haven't missed a single day of studying since last year! (actually since early August of 2011). Despite these efforts, my score on the Chinesepod placement exam has not improved in the past year. Actually, it has gotten worse. I guess that I need to renew my efforts. The placement exam states that I am an elementary level learner, but the elementary lessons are so easy that I cannot bear to listen to them. Even the Intermediates are a bit on the easy side. Upper-Intermediates are hard, but I enjoy the challenge. Guess thats all for now.

Vacation Chinese Studying

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.

I am still studying Chinese, but not with quite the intensity that I had before. I spent lots of time studying in June and July, but cooled off considerably in August and September. For most of August and September, I was traveling around the Northern part of China, and therefore had less time to commit to studying.

I was not very motivated to study, this is especially true for the latter part of September. We are in October now, and now I want to renew my efforts to study and make progress. What I can say about the past few months is that my reading level has not really increased that much, but my speaking and listening has. My speaking and listening is catching up to my reading. My handwritten Chinese is still very poor. When I switched to Intermediate, I really felt the change in difficulty. While I was learning a lot more, I really could feel the strain of the increased difficulty. It requires a lot more effort to study the intermediate level lessons than the elementary lessons. There is a huge difference.

I guess that I am in a transition period right now in terms of my Chinese learning. I don't know which direction to go. Here are some possible outcomes;
- I could stop studying. This happened to me last year at this time. I simply stopped studying Chinese for my first few months here. My increase in responsibility and the realization of the fact that my Chinese was so poor was too overwhelming, so I simply stopped studying. I am facing a similar situation now. In the past week (before the 1st), my studying had been lackluster at best. I did study a little bit, but it was just a token effort. I want to acknowledge this situation so that I can do work to prevent a complete stop in studying.
- I could work solely with Chinesepod. This is a possibility. I use a number of resources to study Chinese. I may simple stop using the rest, and stick with Chinesepod. I am seriously considering this option. I will, however, use a tutor if one becomes available.
- I could diversify my study efforts. I may seek out additional resources to use to study Chinese.

I don't know which direction I will choose. Today, I hope that I don't simply give up.

Yesterday, I started going through the flashcards I was using last year to see how many I remember. I am about a third through the stack, and I can read more than half. It is interesting because I am using a better developed thinking process to attempt to read the words. It is like trying to solve a puzzle. So far, I feel satisfied with what I am finding with this process.

Today, I took the Chinesepod placement test. I seem unable to do well on this test. According to this test, I am still a Chinesepod newbie. The test seems very difficult. Despite all the time that I have spent studying Chinese, my score is not improving. I do believe that I am improving, but the placement test does not support this belief.

Well, I don't want to think too much about the placement test. Instead, I will focus my efforts on improving my Chinese.