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Mandarin Journal, after 1 year | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| aerozeplyn Senior Member United States Joined 5140 days ago 141 posts - 202 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 41 of 107 18 May 2011 at 8:10am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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As I am now keeping a mini language log in an excel spread sheet, I am finding this very useful. Especially when
studying rapidly (every day) or many items at once...the small spread sheet helps keep me organized. Definitely! I have also tweaked my audio extraction routine a bit: recently I will listen to as much of my audio lessons as I can with the audio already in Apple Logic. I may have mentioned this before, but this is very helpful because I can grab phrases as I am working on them. While it can get distracting, sometimes these feel like good distractions. However, as I am just finishing Pimsleur 3 Unit 25--with some of the most recent lessons being unusually difficult for Pimsleur--I am also managing to rapidly acquire this information very well. ANKI + audio flash cards RULES. So lately I have been VERY satisfied with my learning. Many things that I talk about or say I end up realizing that I can completely say that in Mandarin. This feels great, but it would feel even greater if i WERE speaking the Mandarin :) So because of this, I am starting to exercise speaking out loud--to myself! Wish me luck with that :) But another source where I have observed much of my improvement has been from listening to iMandarinPod.com podcasts. It is pretty exciting because for some of the 2-star-rated podcasts I can understand the dialog entirely--and these 10-15 minute dialogs are completely in Mandarin :D Well, it looks like I have at least improved on my listening skills. So it is now time to beef up speaking skills.... Anyhoo, here were the entries that I put in my mini spread sheet log throughout the week: May 12: Pimsleur 3 Unit 20; FSI Biography Module tapes 2D-1 and 1D-1 (review). Notes: "Drill tapes are good. Unable to actively recite all drills." May 13: Pimsleur 3 Unit 21; FSI Biography Module tape 3C-1; the 5/11/2011 episode of 日常用语 (show from imandarinpod.com). Notes: "wow, I understand most of the iMandarin Pod episode O_O ... seriously, it's pretty awesome mixed with the learning guide PDF. I think I want to start studying these... however, I will need a speaking partner damn it!! :)" May 14: Pimsleur 3 Unit 22; FSI Bio Module tape 3P-1. Notes: "ANKI only took 32 minutes. Starting to extract FSI audio..." Through May 15, 16, and 17 I did 1 unit of Pimsleur per day. Each day's ANKI drill time elapse is written in the notes section, and I am finding that on average I spend around 30-35 minutes using ANKI. I would like to keep this at or below 30 minutes! Btw, I mentioned a speaking partner, and since I am looking for one the main place I can think is echinese learn online or something (via skype lessons). i'm not sure if there are any mandarin speakers in Florida during the summer, but ya never know... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| aerozeplyn Senior Member United States Joined 5140 days ago 141 posts - 202 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 42 of 107 18 May 2011 at 8:12am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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btw, did I mention that i am literally forcing myself to do 1 Pimsleur a day? I also force myself to do my ANKI
workouts...no matter how exhausting my day has been. I feel like this is a doctor's order or something. Anyhoo, gotta stick to my goal: FINISH Pimsleur. Plus Li Fei and I are seeing who will finish Pimsleur first hehe :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6371 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 43 of 107 18 May 2011 at 8:55am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Good for you. I tried and tried to do Pimsleur but I just couldn't. I really like Pimsleur, but I think it's too inefficient for the amount of study time I have right now.
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| martyall Newbie United States Joined 4931 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes | Message 44 of 107 18 May 2011 at 11:38am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Me either. I amazed with the post. I think it is really good wright up. Thumbsup. :D 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
 Li Fei Pro Member United States Joined 5115 days ago 147 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 45 of 107 18 May 2011 at 12:19pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Nooooo, you are beating me! I am only on Pimsleur 3.23. But I could in theory finish 24 today...and then if
you missed a day...victory could still be mine. Look out! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6042 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 46 of 107 18 May 2011 at 1:20pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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加油！ ：）
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| aerozeplyn Senior Member United States Joined 5140 days ago 141 posts - 202 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 47 of 107 22 May 2011 at 8:49am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
wow, thank you all for your responses! that was quite a surprise, and a motivating one too :D
that pimsleur guy's nerdy voice had me from the start....love it!!! :) i have continued using pimsleur mainly because the program has spent a lot of time on the "basics". but i agree with you...you definitely gotta use something that makes you happy with the material you learn.
i am very glad you're enjoying it :D i hope it helps you with your studies as well.
ya i just missed some days too :) i gotta look over my shoulders...i can feel you catching up!!!
seeing mr irrationale write here made my day. not because everyone else sucks, but because i've read irrationale's mandarin log at least a few times :) now if only he'd sign onto skype more.... ;) Anyhoo, it hasn't even been a few days since i've written in here. But i just wanted to mention that i have only finished 2 pimsleurs within that time...kaksldfjioawjf. My goal of 1 pimsleur per day faded as life crept up against me, but i am still happy. Oh, I also didn't do ANY ANKI within the past few days. Pimsleur's review reached up to a few hundred cards due. However, in the past 15 minutes I did about 100 cards...so perhaps I can get these out of the way today. The past 100 cards I studied were pretty easy. A lot of these mandarin sentences fly off my tongue much faster. I am very happy because it appears that my speaking ability is improving, and I am also noticing more situations in daily life where i could've communicated my intentions (or thoughts) in Mandarin. This feels great....I think the boost is coming from my improved listening skills combined with drilling and exercising my tongue/mouth to speak Mandarin syllables, words, phrases, etc. Having improved on my muscle memory for speaking has really cut out a lot of "thinking time" i had to do whenever i wanted to say something. Even though I haven't done any FSI within the last week...I definitely plan to do some of this :) I remember that FSI's drills and production tapes for the biographical unit really exercised my weaknesses. FSI and iMandarinPod are 2 things that I want to focus on more once I complete Pimsleur. In fact, I even got a job offer in a city that's about an 1.5 hours away. I will have to relocate. I am sure this will work out--I will know by this monday. I also intend to purposely get an apartment exactly 30 or more minutes away from my work environment hahaha. That way I can actively listen and speak Mandarin audio in my car's MP3 player to and from work. Thank you all once again for your encouragement. I have 3 more pimsleur units to study... finally almost done, and what a milestone! :D 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| aerozeplyn Senior Member United States Joined 5140 days ago 141 posts - 202 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 48 of 107 26 May 2011 at 10:08am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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It is about 3:50 AM, and yesterday evening marks the time that i FINALLY completed Pimsleur 3. It sure feels
good :) the last 2 units had an unusually amount of extra vocabulary for me--maybe my mind is just having a harder time accepting some of the information? Anyways, i already chopped up all of the lesson audio that i had trouble with, and i am about to create a bunch of ANKI audio flash cards! Pimsleur 3 had well over 1100 audio cards; however, I would strongly recommend this audio card method for anyone :) What's next... i am pretty set on focusing more with extracting audio from iMandarin Pod and FSI. I really like both solutions. However, i am pretty confident that i will also need some regular speaking partners, and unfortunately i will not be attending the local university mandarin class. This is because i got a job offer in a nearby city, and the school will be more than an hour away. Maybe i will find a school--or an English-as-a- second-language exchange--in that new city? :) will write in here once i get my new learning routine down :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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