It has been a long time since I have updated this. I moved back to the United States back in late June of 2014, and since then, haven't been really studying. I have been reviewing almost every day over the past few months, but it has been an effort of simply maintaining the skills I had before. I feel that my Chinese is getting worse because I don't have the same type of environment that I had before, but I do try to talk as often as I can. I have a few Chinese contacts that I can talk to, and usually am able to do so at least once per week.
I am in a process of deciding what direction I want to go in the future in terms of language learning, (and life in general). Recently, I have been working on three languages; Chinese ( trying to maintain), Spanish (have an OK vocab, but no real fluency), and Russian ( a newcomer to the language). I don't know where I want to direct my efforts right now, as I am going through some adjustments in my life outside of language learning.
I have been using two avenues of approach in my Chinese learning.
1. I speak to Chinese people as often as possible. In recent weeks, I have been able to talk to Chinese people 2 - 3 times per week. This is better than it was at the beginning.
2. I still use Anki, but mostly to review (and also vocabulary build for Russian and Spanish)
Thats all for right now.
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Monday, November 4, 2013
05 year 50 weeks into study
Hey guys, Im still at it, but been busy with other things as well. I would say that over the past three months, I have studied every day, but there were a few days where maybe I studied only 20 minutes or so. Really, my life lately has be centered on four things.. Socializing with the other foreigners, studying Chinese, going to the gym, and working. I have been busy, and I feel it. Today, I have decided to scale back a bit on the Anki, I have set the decks so that there is about an 20-25% decrease in my daily workload. I feel this is necessary because I need to do more than simply review Anki. Seriously, besides having conversations with people in the city, I haven't been doing any work besides reviewing Anki, but that takes between 2-3 hours every day. I have also started studying Japanese, but only dabbling in it just a little. I haven't had time, and it is hard to really jump into it when I don't know if I will go to Japan or not.
Guess thats all for right now.
Guess thats all for right now.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
05 year 39 weeks into study
Three things I would like to talk about today... Anki, Memrise, and follow up on the plan I mentioned in the previous blog entry. I will begin with Anki. As I have stated in the past, Anki is a computerized flashcard program. It is decent, and about a year ago (or so) they introduced a new version (2.0). Initially, I was not too impressed with the new version. After using it on an irregular basis, my opinion has started to sway. At this point, I think I like the newer version better overall than the first. Initially I did not. Anyway, I will talk about the pros and cons...
pros -
1- the algorithm is really good, better than for 1.0.
2- all the decks are grouped together, but may also be examined separately. This is better than in Anki 1 where they were all in different decks and I needed to open each deck to examine them.
3 - because they are all combined, I can search all decks for a common term, very convenient and much more powerful
4 - seems faster than the previous version.
cons -
1 - adding terms seems a bit clunkier than 1.0. This may be the result of me not really understanding the new system, or taking ample time to learn it.
2- sometimes when importing decks, I run into problems with the fields as such that I may have set more than one field, but Anki 2 incorrectly groups the wrong fields for some of the cards.
3- I miss some of the graphs that I found in Anki 1.
Well, Anki 2 is improving, and it is certainly better than it was at release.
The next thing I want to talk about is Memrise, a learning site that I recently learned about from the message boards on Chinesepod.com. I have been using the site for a week, and so far, I think it is fantastic. Because I am doing other things, and I am afraid that they are going to soon start charging for their service, I have been loathe to pursue this site with full vigor, but it does look really good. It reminds me of Smart.fm back in 2010, but I think this one is better, and not exactly the same, but similar idea.
Now to follow up on the previous post. I kind of gave up on the increased structure of study. I will go bullet for bullet and update on what I have done.... Green text is the plan listed in my last entry.
- I plan to study an upper-intermediate and an advanced Chinesepod lesson each week. Yes, I have been doing this, but not in a very systematic way. I have selected 7 adv and 7 upp lessons to review over the summer, and been working at it half-steam.
- Work my paper flashcards and Anki every day- specifically, I want to catch up on my hanzi deck. Right now, I have about a 650 card backlog (yeah, and lately it has been whipping my ass). I did catch up, and still working both Anki 1 and Anki 2. More and more with Anki 2 as I continue to migrate the data.
- Do some type of practice test once per week, either out of the HSK exam book, or on Chinesepod. I haven't done this.
- Continue to transcribe the Qing wen lessons to my notebook I transcribed about 8 or so lessons. It is hard to stay motivated because I am still on the early ones that had Amber and Clay, and they seem somewhat childish, so it is sometimes painful to listen to them, but I will be past them soon and move onto other hosts.
- work on listening extensively, i.e, while on the treadmill at the gym, I will listen to Advanced level lessons. I did so-so with this, but I could do better.
- other stuff to a lesser extent than before. Yeah, Ive pretty much stopped all the other stuff I was doing in June and early July. One thing I have been doing is, is listening to more Intermediate level lessons. For the most part, they are too easy. If I can listen to a dialogue and understand everything, then I just look over the vocab, expansion etc to see if there are any terms I don't know, or any phrases that I want to memorize. If there are parts I don't understand, I will certainly do more work.
Yeah, thats pretty much it for now. Until next time.
pros -
1- the algorithm is really good, better than for 1.0.
2- all the decks are grouped together, but may also be examined separately. This is better than in Anki 1 where they were all in different decks and I needed to open each deck to examine them.
3 - because they are all combined, I can search all decks for a common term, very convenient and much more powerful
4 - seems faster than the previous version.
cons -
1 - adding terms seems a bit clunkier than 1.0. This may be the result of me not really understanding the new system, or taking ample time to learn it.
2- sometimes when importing decks, I run into problems with the fields as such that I may have set more than one field, but Anki 2 incorrectly groups the wrong fields for some of the cards.
3- I miss some of the graphs that I found in Anki 1.
Well, Anki 2 is improving, and it is certainly better than it was at release.
The next thing I want to talk about is Memrise, a learning site that I recently learned about from the message boards on Chinesepod.com. I have been using the site for a week, and so far, I think it is fantastic. Because I am doing other things, and I am afraid that they are going to soon start charging for their service, I have been loathe to pursue this site with full vigor, but it does look really good. It reminds me of Smart.fm back in 2010, but I think this one is better, and not exactly the same, but similar idea.
Now to follow up on the previous post. I kind of gave up on the increased structure of study. I will go bullet for bullet and update on what I have done.... Green text is the plan listed in my last entry.
- I plan to study an upper-intermediate and an advanced Chinesepod lesson each week. Yes, I have been doing this, but not in a very systematic way. I have selected 7 adv and 7 upp lessons to review over the summer, and been working at it half-steam.
- Work my paper flashcards and Anki every day- specifically, I want to catch up on my hanzi deck. Right now, I have about a 650 card backlog (yeah, and lately it has been whipping my ass). I did catch up, and still working both Anki 1 and Anki 2. More and more with Anki 2 as I continue to migrate the data.
- Do some type of practice test once per week, either out of the HSK exam book, or on Chinesepod. I haven't done this.
- Continue to transcribe the Qing wen lessons to my notebook I transcribed about 8 or so lessons. It is hard to stay motivated because I am still on the early ones that had Amber and Clay, and they seem somewhat childish, so it is sometimes painful to listen to them, but I will be past them soon and move onto other hosts.
- work on listening extensively, i.e, while on the treadmill at the gym, I will listen to Advanced level lessons. I did so-so with this, but I could do better.
- other stuff to a lesser extent than before. Yeah, Ive pretty much stopped all the other stuff I was doing in June and early July. One thing I have been doing is, is listening to more Intermediate level lessons. For the most part, they are too easy. If I can listen to a dialogue and understand everything, then I just look over the vocab, expansion etc to see if there are any terms I don't know, or any phrases that I want to memorize. If there are parts I don't understand, I will certainly do more work.
Yeah, thats pretty much it for now. Until next time.
Friday, July 26, 2013
05 year 35 weeks into study
So I, at least for the timebeing, have returned to the original title format that I used when I started this blog. Anyhow, a few days ago, I decided to develop a more focused plan of study. It is rather ambitious, and seems a bit too much right now. I will go ahead and describe the plan that I have designed...
- I plan to study an upper-intermediate and an advanced Chinesepod lesson each week
- Work my paper flashcards and Anki every day- specifically, I want to catch up on my hanzi deck. Right now, I have about a 650 card backlog (yeah, and lately it has been whipping my ass).
- Do some type of practice test once per week, either out of the HSK exam book, or on Chinesepod.
- Continue to transcribe the Qing wen lessons to my notebook
- work on listening extensively, i.e, while on the treadmill at the gym, I will listen to Advanced level lessons.
- other stuff to a lesser extent than before.
Well, I started off strong, but yesterday and today, I just... basically... Don't fucking feel like studying Chinese... period.... Yeah... so I am going to put my notebooks down and ... like do no more studying related work at all this evening. I hope I feel better about this tomorrow than I did today, or I may need to rethink my priorities, or scale-back the plan that I have.
Thats all for tonight.
- I plan to study an upper-intermediate and an advanced Chinesepod lesson each week
- Work my paper flashcards and Anki every day- specifically, I want to catch up on my hanzi deck. Right now, I have about a 650 card backlog (yeah, and lately it has been whipping my ass).
- Do some type of practice test once per week, either out of the HSK exam book, or on Chinesepod.
- Continue to transcribe the Qing wen lessons to my notebook
- work on listening extensively, i.e, while on the treadmill at the gym, I will listen to Advanced level lessons.
- other stuff to a lesser extent than before.
Well, I started off strong, but yesterday and today, I just... basically... Don't fucking feel like studying Chinese... period.... Yeah... so I am going to put my notebooks down and ... like do no more studying related work at all this evening. I hope I feel better about this tomorrow than I did today, or I may need to rethink my priorities, or scale-back the plan that I have.
Thats all for tonight.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Return to ChinesePod.com
Hey guys,
I want to talk a bit about some changes I have made to my studying plan. I have, for the time being, dropped the Japanese learning. I did this in order to focus more on the Chinese. In my last entry, I wrote that I decided not to renew Chinesepod, but I had a change of heart. A few days ago, I did a practice HSK 4 exam. It was a humbling experience, but I learned a little bit about my abilities. I have areas that I am really strong, and I have areas that I need to work. I felt that it was a bit hard, and I don't know how the exam is scored, so if I had to guess, I would say that either I barely passed it, or barely failed it. I did good with writing, it was a piece of cake, but I had some trouble with the listening. I felt caught off guard, and felt that, although I understood most, the questions were difficult to answer, and I needed more time to think. For the reading, I knew almost all the characters I saw, but I didn't know all the words. There were a few words that appeared on the exam more than once that I don't think I had ever seen. To sum up the experience, I felt that the way that I am learning Chinese is not really matching the curve of the HSK. In some aspects, I might be a strong level 5, in others, maybe a 3.... if you know what I mean. Couple this experience with a meeting I had with a potential tutor, I feel that a change was needed in the way I was studying. Ive been meeting with people to find a potential tutor. The process has not been easy, and I have met with many excellent, seemingly qualified people who are willing and eager to help me improve my Chinese. Choosing one is not easy, and I have more people to meet with. The day after taking the practice exam, one of the interviewees suggested I use a system to learn Chinese. I am thinking that maybe she is right, but it would be hard to find a good system to jump onto at my level. Anyhow, taking a practice HSK is an eye-opening experience. In light of this, here are the actions that I am taking to learn Chinese....
1. Suspend Japanese (mentioned this already)
2. Suspend learning traditional characters for the time being.
3. Renew my subscription to Chinesepod.
4. Try to spend at least an hour per day diligently working on listening to difficult stuff.
5. Still using the paper flashcards, grammar textbook, and reading books, but backing off a little on these to focus more on Chinesepod.
6. Really drill down using Chinesepod, especially doing the hard stuff. The harder the lesson, the better I feel. Oh, by the way.... I am listening to Advanced lessons on Chinesepod now....
So yeah, increase my listening and vocab (not necessarily individual characters) using Chinesepod. I am working on grammar using a textbook and Chinesepod. I use Anki to learn and review individual characters. I will find a tutor to help me improve my speaking, to become more accurate and natural. I have a reader that I use to help me improve my reading.
Thats all for now.
I want to talk a bit about some changes I have made to my studying plan. I have, for the time being, dropped the Japanese learning. I did this in order to focus more on the Chinese. In my last entry, I wrote that I decided not to renew Chinesepod, but I had a change of heart. A few days ago, I did a practice HSK 4 exam. It was a humbling experience, but I learned a little bit about my abilities. I have areas that I am really strong, and I have areas that I need to work. I felt that it was a bit hard, and I don't know how the exam is scored, so if I had to guess, I would say that either I barely passed it, or barely failed it. I did good with writing, it was a piece of cake, but I had some trouble with the listening. I felt caught off guard, and felt that, although I understood most, the questions were difficult to answer, and I needed more time to think. For the reading, I knew almost all the characters I saw, but I didn't know all the words. There were a few words that appeared on the exam more than once that I don't think I had ever seen. To sum up the experience, I felt that the way that I am learning Chinese is not really matching the curve of the HSK. In some aspects, I might be a strong level 5, in others, maybe a 3.... if you know what I mean. Couple this experience with a meeting I had with a potential tutor, I feel that a change was needed in the way I was studying. Ive been meeting with people to find a potential tutor. The process has not been easy, and I have met with many excellent, seemingly qualified people who are willing and eager to help me improve my Chinese. Choosing one is not easy, and I have more people to meet with. The day after taking the practice exam, one of the interviewees suggested I use a system to learn Chinese. I am thinking that maybe she is right, but it would be hard to find a good system to jump onto at my level. Anyhow, taking a practice HSK is an eye-opening experience. In light of this, here are the actions that I am taking to learn Chinese....
1. Suspend Japanese (mentioned this already)
2. Suspend learning traditional characters for the time being.
3. Renew my subscription to Chinesepod.
4. Try to spend at least an hour per day diligently working on listening to difficult stuff.
5. Still using the paper flashcards, grammar textbook, and reading books, but backing off a little on these to focus more on Chinesepod.
6. Really drill down using Chinesepod, especially doing the hard stuff. The harder the lesson, the better I feel. Oh, by the way.... I am listening to Advanced lessons on Chinesepod now....
So yeah, increase my listening and vocab (not necessarily individual characters) using Chinesepod. I am working on grammar using a textbook and Chinesepod. I use Anki to learn and review individual characters. I will find a tutor to help me improve my speaking, to become more accurate and natural. I have a reader that I use to help me improve my reading.
Thats all for now.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Just to fill you in ....
On what I have been doing over the past year in terms of studying... First, I want to say that I have been studying. Lately, I have been studying hard. I have been pounding Anki everyday, and it runs me between 1.5 hours and 3 hours every day lately. I mentioned in a previous post that I had been focusing on a pronunciation deck and starting with writing... Well, I finished the pronunciation deck, and now I am up to my neck in the Character writing deck. Right now, I am overwhelmed. I have about a 1500 card backlog, and I am adding 25 cards per day. I study around 340 cards per day, and I will work my way up to at least 350 cards per day. I hope to seen be able to chip away at the backlog. The pace I am working at now, I figure I will be finished with all new cards in the early part of November, or late October... It is hard to say for sure right now.
Although I am focusing on Anki, I am also doing other work. I am also using paper flashcards, studying Chinesepod, using a reading textbook, a grammar textbook, HSK practice exams, and I meet with a group of Chinese friends on Sunday to drink tea, and I use this time to practice speaking. I am also dabbling a bit with Japanese, and learning to recognize traditional script.
I would say that my Chinese at this point is 'OK'. I am reasonably fluent at the conversational level, and my reading is pretty good as well. Handwriting is not so good, but lately, I have been practicing writing more often than before.
I decided not to renew my subscription to Chinesepod right now. I have enough lessons right now to hold me over, and it is somewhat expensive to do. Maybe in the future, I will purchase another subscription to download more upper and advanced lessons and pdf, but right now, no plans.
One thing I would like to do is hire a tutor to help me with my learning. I think it would be useful, but I would need to be somewhat picky. I need someone to help me work on speaking. I don't necessarily need someone to practice with, but someone to teach me how to speak Chinese well.
Guess that's all right now.
Although I am focusing on Anki, I am also doing other work. I am also using paper flashcards, studying Chinesepod, using a reading textbook, a grammar textbook, HSK practice exams, and I meet with a group of Chinese friends on Sunday to drink tea, and I use this time to practice speaking. I am also dabbling a bit with Japanese, and learning to recognize traditional script.
I would say that my Chinese at this point is 'OK'. I am reasonably fluent at the conversational level, and my reading is pretty good as well. Handwriting is not so good, but lately, I have been practicing writing more often than before.
I decided not to renew my subscription to Chinesepod right now. I have enough lessons right now to hold me over, and it is somewhat expensive to do. Maybe in the future, I will purchase another subscription to download more upper and advanced lessons and pdf, but right now, no plans.
One thing I would like to do is hire a tutor to help me with my learning. I think it would be useful, but I would need to be somewhat picky. I need someone to help me work on speaking. I don't necessarily need someone to practice with, but someone to teach me how to speak Chinese well.
Guess that's all right now.
Friday, August 31, 2012
September 1st, 2012 ChinesePod Profile Update
This was posted to Blogger on September 15th 2012 at around 600 Beijing time, but I backdated it to when I wrote this.
Updated on September 1st, 2012 -- I started learning Chinese on November 23rd 2008. I have been diligently studying Chinese everyday, haven't missed a day in over a year. Lately, I've been using three means to study: 1. Using Chinesepod, studying lessons in a somewhat haphazard way. If I see a lesson I want to study, I study it. 2.I use Anki, an online flashcard program that I may download for free. With Anki, I focus on pronunciation, Hanzi writing, and intensive vocabulary and sentence reading review. During the academic year, I work with a tutor to improve conversational skills. I also occasionally review my grammar textbook and other resources. In addition to Chinesepod, I also use Nciku, which is a pretty good resource. 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. 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.
Updated on September 1st, 2012 -- I started learning Chinese on November 23rd 2008. I have been diligently studying Chinese everyday, haven't missed a day in over a year. Lately, I've been using three means to study: 1. Using Chinesepod, studying lessons in a somewhat haphazard way. If I see a lesson I want to study, I study it. 2.I use Anki, an online flashcard program that I may download for free. With Anki, I focus on pronunciation, Hanzi writing, and intensive vocabulary and sentence reading review. During the academic year, I work with a tutor to improve conversational skills. I also occasionally review my grammar textbook and other resources. In addition to Chinesepod, I also use Nciku, which is a pretty good resource. 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. 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, February 26, 2012
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.
February 26th, 2012 ChinesePod Profile Update
Updated on Febuary 26th, 2012 -- 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 two Upper-Intermediate lessons per week. Using a computer program (Anki) 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.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
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 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.
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.
Monday, November 22, 2010
The life of a Chinese learner living in China... part 3 As posted on Facebook
At this point in the game, I can do alot in China. In this way, I am fairly independent. As I commented on before, people speak with different accents and dialects. Some are easier to understand than others. With some people, it is like I can't speak Chinese at all. With others, they can understand everything I say. I talk with one Chinese woman who runs a gift shop downtown. She can understand me. I am able to speak what is commonly understood to be the main dialect of Chinese. If I am in Beijing, I can talk with almost anyone. I have a fairly decent vocabulary, but my grammar is awful. From what I'm told, my accent isn't that bad, but not that good either. People are able to understand me. My listening is not that good. I can read some Chinese, but there are limitations to what I can do. I can understand a basic text message from a Chinese friend, but I cannot read a newspaper. What I hope to improve on is listening and grammar. I think that if these things improve, I will be able to speak Chinese quite well. I guess that is all I want to say right now.
Monday, October 4, 2010
October 4th, 2010 ChinesePod Profile Update
Updated on October 4th, 2010 -- I started learning Chinese on November 23rd 2008. During the past few months, my Chinese learning has been really poor. I study a lot, but seem not to make much progress. Nevertheless, I will continue to work at it.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
The life of a Chinese learner living in China... part 2 As posted on Facebook
Things have improved since my last note. About two or three weeks ago, I was spending time with some friends. I was talking to Charlie, a Chinese man, and like usual, really having trouble communicating. Shortly thereafter, I started talking to him, and I was understanding some of what he said to me. I am not trying to say that after that moment, I was fluent, but I was more confident. I have been spending time at the local store talking to the women that work there. I find that I can express many of my ideas in Chinese, what a great feeling! After so much time of frustration and heartache, my work is paying off. There are many words I do not know, but I have a lot of linguistic tools at my disposal that I can use. Granted, those women have to use some language barrier gymnastics to understand my GaoYuan Hua (高原话） GaoYuan (高原) is my Chinese name, and hua (话) is one of the Chinese words for language. What I am saying is that I make many mistakes when speaking Chinese that sometimes I feel I am speaking my own dialect of Chinese.
I find that I am better able to express myself if I feel confused, frustrated or upset. These are things I could not do in the past.
Where I live, people speak different types of Chinese. Some people are easier to understand than others. Sometimes, I talk to people whose pronunciation is so different that I cannot understand them at all, and sometimes I want to correct them. The local accent is very difficult for me to understand, it is remarkably different than standard Mandarin. Well, at least I think it is. Perhaps a native speaker may not think so.
I guess that is all I want to say right now.
I find that I am better able to express myself if I feel confused, frustrated or upset. These are things I could not do in the past.
Where I live, people speak different types of Chinese. Some people are easier to understand than others. Sometimes, I talk to people whose pronunciation is so different that I cannot understand them at all, and sometimes I want to correct them. The local accent is very difficult for me to understand, it is remarkably different than standard Mandarin. Well, at least I think it is. Perhaps a native speaker may not think so.
I guess that is all I want to say right now.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
The life of a Chinese learner living in China... As posted on Facebook
I think that I can understand how hard it is for a foreigner to learn a new language. I have been living in China for 8 months now, and in addition to that, I had studied Chinese for around 10 months while living in the states. I have some experience with this. I must say, it can be difficult at times. Learning Chinese for an English speaker is probably easier than it would be for a Chinese person to learn English in the United States, because many people can speak at least some English. When these Chinese people see a foreigner, they are often friendly and eager to use the little bit of English that they know. This means that they may be willing to be helpful, and patient when I try to speak Chinese. However, there are not many Chinese speakers in the United States, so this is not very likely.
Anyhow, my life in China is filled with constant frustration, confusion, and irritation. Doing any task in the street is always difficult, because my Chinese is not good. I study Chinese for several hours on most days, but I still know very little after all this time. Everyday, the fact that my language skills are poor is immediately apparent. As I learn more Chinese, I find that, in some ways, it actually gets harder to function. When I knew very little, people were more patient with me. Now, people expect me to be able to speak better than I actually can, so they just get frustrated with me. Sometimes, Chinese people, meaning to be helpful, will sometimes throw English words in their Chinese sentence. This causes problems for two reasons; first, their pronunciation is often very poor, so I don't realize that they are trying to speak an English word until later. And second, they will say the English for words that I already understand the Chinese for anyway. In this way, this is no help and serves only to frustrate matters worse.
I recently hired a Chinese person to help me work on my oral Chinese. I am one of the very few Chinese learners whose reading and writing is better than my speaking. For most people, their speaking and listening is good, but they cannot read or write. After my first lesson, I got discouraged because she spent lots of time talking in English. I might have to find a new tutor.
I get so frustrated sometimes. Some days, I might spend a three hour session studying Chinese, then go to the street to do something, and fumble, stumble, and crawl my way through the most basic Chinese interaction. As I said earlier, I am constantly reminded of my poor speaking ability. My reaction sometimes is to simply say 'screw it, this is too hard. Perhaps I will just play video games during my spare time' but I know that if I practice, I will improve. I know this because I am improving. It is very slow, but I am getting better each day. I just have to maintain the regimen of studying that I have been doing since around January or thereabouts.
I know this is not well written, but it is a first draft, and I don't really care to revise and edit. This is what you get. Sorry.
Anyhow, my life in China is filled with constant frustration, confusion, and irritation. Doing any task in the street is always difficult, because my Chinese is not good. I study Chinese for several hours on most days, but I still know very little after all this time. Everyday, the fact that my language skills are poor is immediately apparent. As I learn more Chinese, I find that, in some ways, it actually gets harder to function. When I knew very little, people were more patient with me. Now, people expect me to be able to speak better than I actually can, so they just get frustrated with me. Sometimes, Chinese people, meaning to be helpful, will sometimes throw English words in their Chinese sentence. This causes problems for two reasons; first, their pronunciation is often very poor, so I don't realize that they are trying to speak an English word until later. And second, they will say the English for words that I already understand the Chinese for anyway. In this way, this is no help and serves only to frustrate matters worse.
I recently hired a Chinese person to help me work on my oral Chinese. I am one of the very few Chinese learners whose reading and writing is better than my speaking. For most people, their speaking and listening is good, but they cannot read or write. After my first lesson, I got discouraged because she spent lots of time talking in English. I might have to find a new tutor.
I get so frustrated sometimes. Some days, I might spend a three hour session studying Chinese, then go to the street to do something, and fumble, stumble, and crawl my way through the most basic Chinese interaction. As I said earlier, I am constantly reminded of my poor speaking ability. My reaction sometimes is to simply say 'screw it, this is too hard. Perhaps I will just play video games during my spare time' but I know that if I practice, I will improve. I know this because I am improving. It is very slow, but I am getting better each day. I just have to maintain the regimen of studying that I have been doing since around January or thereabouts.
I know this is not well written, but it is a first draft, and I don't really care to revise and edit. This is what you get. Sorry.
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