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Ziel HSK 3 - Target Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6088 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 49 of 84 18 March 2014 at 10:21am | IP Logged |
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I hope so, thanks Crush!
What helps is that I have some extra time to learn right now. I'm experiencing a bit of a lull in the tutoring business. Exams (Abi) are almost finished here in Hessen and a few of my customers have just dropped. Those are the ups and downs of self-employment. But "what one hand giveth the other taketh away" -- the extra time spent not working is spent learning languages..:)) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6088 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 50 of 84 22 March 2014 at 7:03pm | IP Logged |
This is the new Graded Reader. I think 500 words is the lowest it gets. We at the HSK2 level are grateful!! It gives me more stuff to read. I got this yesterday but I'm still reading the Chinese Breeze book for level "300", so 500 is way out of my comfort zone. I was a bit disappointed to see it has pinyin, because I know that they try to wean beginners off of pinyin with HSK3 exam (only selected words are given in pinyin) and HSK4 doesn't have pinyin at all. The Chinese Breeze books are right to abandon the pinyin crutch, -- but -- the Graded Reader 500 offers a neat little "guide", which comes with the book!  [/IMG]
I can mask out the pinyin (or hanzi if I so choose). I can't help dabbling in "500" this evening, but I know I need to go back to my level 300! The Chinese Breeze I'm reading, 你最喜欢谁？, is actually pretty good -- not brilliant, but better than I expected! I'm really enjoying it and after cramming for the HSK2 it's easy enough that I don't feel compelled to look everything up and yet the Mp3 is challenging enough to keep me practicing each chapter before moving to the next one. I've also been doing grammar with Memrise and I'm not sure if I'll stick with it, because I also have an exercise book from the Hefei Huang Publisher here in Germany, "Ziel HSK3". It's not terribly fun to work through, but it's necessary if I want to advance. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6088 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 51 of 84 23 March 2014 at 10:08am | IP Logged |
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I have to start studying German for my course but before I put my Mandarin stuff away for today I'm going to map out a plan for the next week (with the help of my log). It always happens that I have too many things going on in my studies so that it becomes hard to stick to just one thing. Assimil is becoming less interesting, but I have to get back to it. So for the week I have...
Chapter 3 in my Chinese Breeze 300 book, and review chapters 1-2 Review lessons 34 and 35 of Assmil, perhaps start a new lesson. These are the two items that I use to boost my listening comprehension. The first one is more interesting than Assmil because the pace is faster and the story is better. The speaker leaves me in the dust though, meaning I can't follow Mandarin at that speed, but with each successive session (ie really concentrated listening) I understand more and more. For grammar and vocabulary I've started using "Ziel HSK3". The workbook is huge and daunting. Just looking at it makes me wonder if I'll ever finish it. The customer review at amazon said one month but *tsk* I'm sure it's going to take me at least two. HSK3 vocabulary is still new to me. If I can manage it I'd like to continue with my HSK3 list which is also a part of my March challenge. I missed doing vocab work the past few days because of work and my new Graded Reader which grabbed most of my attention yesterday. AND I'm going to throw in a new activation phase into the mix! I looked at Italki, which is what Baron Bill is doing, but I'm afraid that would cut into my budget, so I'm taking normal flashcards and I'm jotting down sentences from my HSK2 prep books. I change the sentences around a bit to make them more personalized. Then I translate them from English to Mandarin. I've been doing this step already with HSK1 sentences and I notice how important it is to get past (master) these beginning sentences (telling time, ordering food, asking for directions). That stuff needs to be internalized so that I can recall it instantly. Have I forgotten anything? I'll leave my new Graded Reader by my bed so I can read a bit before I go to sleep. I never get very far (I have tons of foreign language books by my bed) because all I have to do is concentrate for a few minutes and I'm usually out like a light. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LangWanderer Diglot Pro Member Australia digintoenglish.com Joined 4541 days ago 74 posts - 97 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, French, Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 52 of 84 23 March 2014 at 10:42am | IP Logged |
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Graded readers with audio and a nifty guide for masking out the pinyin? Those books sound great!
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| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6088 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 53 of 84 23 March 2014 at 11:44am | IP Logged |
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Judging from this book jacket for the [Graded reader for 1000 Words it looks like it also comes with one of those guides*. Although I hope that by 1000 words I won't need pinyin, but hey, it saves us from looking stuff up all the time.
*edit: I see they call it a "pinyin-invisible card" :D I was sentence mining this morning and I stumbled across these childrens stories for English-learners. The sentences are in English-Mandarin and are geared for conversations with children. The sentences are short and if my children understood Mandarin, this would be excellent. Maybe I should try using 你们太兴奋了! and 坐好,我才要给你们冰淇淋吃 and see how they respond ;) Edited by Sunja on 23 March 2014 at 11:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| proudft Senior Member United States Joined 5156 days ago 124 posts - 156 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 54 of 84 24 March 2014 at 6:18am | IP Logged |
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I have Readers 1-3, they all have those grid things. I didn't know another book was out - to Amazon! :)
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| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6088 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 55 of 84 24 March 2014 at 11:23am | IP Logged |
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It's good to know they all have those.
I have one teeny-tiny word of criticism about the Graded Reader-500: I don't think it's as carefully constructed for beginners as are the Chinese Breeze books. The Chinese Breeze stories are made for foreign speakers whereas the Graded Readers are stories that have been abridged. That means there's still vocabulary that's not very useful for beginners like "balance beam" 平衡木上 but we'll just ignore words like that for now ;) Reading "balance beam" on the first page made me jump back to my 300-word comfort zone. I've really been spoiled with Chinese Breeze in that I can recognize everything (that's good!) I'll stay at 300 for another month, then move on to 500. I can't wait to get there! :) Edited by Sunja on 24 March 2014 at 11:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6088 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 56 of 84 03 April 2014 at 9:53pm | IP Logged |
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I'm on chapter 6 of my Chinese Breeze "300" 你最喜欢谁？， 中关村故事之一。 and I'm hoping to finish it this weekend. I've stopped translating everything which I know is not a good habit, but I still continue translating the more difficult syntax because it helps me to pinpoint what I'm hearing when I listen to the audio. I usually listen to the audio without looking at the book. Listening and reading at the same time would be too much for me! The audio is read rather fast (normal actually). It's making Assimil appear unbearably slow, as I predicted it would. I'm going to pause with Assimil and concentrate on it next week, along with my second Chinese Breeze "300" "Two Children Seeking the Joy Bridge". It doesn't look as good as the first story from Zhongguancun, but I could be wrong.
This is my main focus, but I'm also trying to get through the HSK 3 list. I'll see what happens to Assimil next week. It's certainly taking a backseat for the moment. Edited by Sunja on 03 April 2014 at 10:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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