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Manic Quest for Mandarin - TAC ’14 Team 鹊 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4103 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 9 of 52 18 December 2013 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | ||
Sounds very similar to the FSI Cantonese course, in which the instructions only got more complicated as the course progressed. Personally, I stopped attempting to do them as instructed and just used them as vocabulary review, if I understood all the words and grammar in the lesson I moved on. But when you've progressed far enough away it might be fun/useful to go back and see if you can do them after you've developed more automaticity with that vocabulary. Other FSI courses I've used don't have nearly as complicated drills that require so much memory. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BaronBill Triglot Senior Member United States HowToLanguages.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4538 days ago 335 posts - 594 votes Speaks: English*, French, German Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Persian | Message 10 of 52 19 December 2013 at 5:39am | IP Logged | ||
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This has the makings of a great log. I'm really looking forward to following your progress this year. Now you've got me thinking seriously about the FSI pronunciation module for myself in the next couple of weeks.
Go Chinese TAC '14! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5934 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 11 of 52 19 December 2013 at 1:30pm | IP Logged | ||
I know what you mean! I haven't done FSI but Assimil has similar lessons. I have the problem that I can repeat the dialog perfectly but I have no idea what I'm saying until I look at the pinyin and characters. I need to stay with the lessons, but I don't want to spend too long on them. I have a schedule to keep so I'll probably move on and come back to the more difficult spots. if you find the drills useful then I would stick to them, but if you don't think you'll need to say that someone has 2 sisters or 3 brothers, or 2 bowls of soup (Assimil), then I'd move on. The basics are important, but maybe the numbers would make more sense in another, more immediate context. The vocabulary usually repeats itself in another lesson. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LangWanderer Diglot Pro Member Australia digintoenglish.com Joined 4387 days ago 74 posts - 97 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, French, Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 52 19 December 2013 at 2:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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@YnEoS and Sunja: It's interesting that some of the other FSI courses don't rely on short-term memory to the same extent. I guess the best strategy is to use them for as long as they are helpful and then move on.
As a single guy, I don't really need to know how to produce, "I have a wife, three sons and no daughters" anyway, which is what the current unit is teaching. (Well, I won't need to say that sentence for at least nine months and one night anyway.) Sunja, I agree that some of the Assimil vocabulary is not hugely relevant. I've heard Linguaphone is worse though - the first lesson talks about a pomegranate tree! @BaronBill: Thanks! If you can find the time and the patience, the FSI pronunciation module is definitely worthwhile. It seems like the Chinese TAC team will be very active next year. I can't wait! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LangWanderer Diglot Pro Member Australia digintoenglish.com Joined 4387 days ago 74 posts - 97 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, French, Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 52 29 December 2013 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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As gut-wrenching as it is to limit my language learning, I've been travelling and spending time with family over Christmas and haven't been able to devote any time to FSI. I've yet to find a way to do FSI drills during long trips in a full car or during family meals without getting strange looks whenever I say, "Mr. Zhang's address is 42 Dali Street" aloud in Mandarin.
I have managed to keep up with my Anki reviews though, and I've even studied all of the new cards from FSI and Assimil that I had added frantically before things got too busy. Thankfully, I know that this is only a temporary situation and I'll have much more time when the TAC begins in the new year. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| proudft Senior Member United States Joined 5002 days ago 124 posts - 156 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 14 of 52 30 December 2013 at 6:28am | IP Logged | ||
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I had a lot of trouble with FSI until quite a few months later on in my Mandarin progress. OK, more like a year.
I agree that it seems to be a memory thing. Until I actually already knew all the words they were saying from other sources it was just too much for me to try and (a) figure out what they were saying, (b) figure out what parts are important for the answer, and (c) formulate the answer, all in 5 seconds or whatever. I am a big fan of the FSI tapes but they are not easy. I can handle them now but it took quite a while. I imagine doing them over and over and over again right at the start might ameliorate this a bit - sort of brute-forcing it - but I don't have that kind of patience. But they'll eventually make sense at some point! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Silbermond Diglot Groupie United Kingdom xuexisprachen.wordprRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4205 days ago 64 posts - 79 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 15 of 52 02 January 2014 at 1:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know about FSI for Mandarin in general, but I've used it off and on for other languages and totally agree with proudft - the dialogues are really difficult at first, but so useful once you start to get the hang of them. I absolutely recommend the pronunciation drills for Mandarin as well. I used them last year (I've been learning Mandarin solidly for three years now), just to go over the tones again because my pronunciation was absolutely shocking. They're so good~
I love our team already; everyone seems so active and dedicated! And your log looks super organised so that's awesome :) haha. 加油！ Edit: missed a word -_- Edited by Silbermond on 02 January 2014 at 1:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LangWanderer Diglot Pro Member Australia digintoenglish.com Joined 4387 days ago 74 posts - 97 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, French, Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 16 of 52 04 January 2014 at 12:26am | IP Logged | ||
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@ProudFT & Silbermond: Thanks for reading. I'm glad that you both found the tapes useful eventually, even if they are tough at first.
I remember hearing Professor Arguelles recommend that FSI be used once you have already reached an intermediate level. That way, you can focus on areas that you're having trouble with and skim or skip parts that you're comfortable with. Thinking rationally, I know that this makes sense, but I have a nagging thought that, "If I get through FSI, I'm going to be awesome at Mandarin. I might as well do it straight away so I can become awesome straight away." I know that this isn't necessarily true, but I just can't get it out of my head. I suppose FSI is a good choice for as long as you can manage it, until it startes to become a chore. I can imagine it gets to a point where setting yourself on fire would be preferable to doing another drill. At that point, it's probably best to realise that stopping FSI for a while will not bring shame to your family or extinguish all hope of you ever speaking Mandarin well! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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