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Mandarin Journal, after 1 year | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5807 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 105 of 107 02 February 2014 at 8:17pm | IP Logged |
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Hey (Robert?), it's really cool to read about your progress!
How do you do the MCD cards? I don't know if you've mentioned it before or not. I think something like that would be great for my Mandarin, i was thinking of doing sentences the way mentioned on this site, as they mention some of the potential problems i saw with MCDs. I just finished NPCR 4 not that long ago, but am finding that vocab and context is my biggest issue. I'd really like to take a more intensive approach. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| aerozeplyn Senior Member United States Joined 5090 days ago 141 posts - 202 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 106 of 107 10 February 2014 at 9:09am | IP Logged |
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Crush: MCDs are working out awesome for Mandarin. It has improved my vocabulary considerably, especially for
verbs or adjectives that literally mean the same thing, but are only used for certain contexts. As for your link, the author links to another article that talks about single-character cloze deletion. I use that and all of the methods mentioned, except the "Bold Cards". Sometimes the single-character deletion is no longer necessary, and then I do a deletion on the entire word (2-3 characters). I agree that sometimes you're just memorizing the cards, and there's nothing wrong with that ... especially considering the fact that when you listen to people of your own language, do you really ever hear every single word they say? No, you mentally "fill in the gaps", sort of like MCDs. Also, a "massive" amount of cards is important, because you're definitely going to have some sentences that are just not predictable as for context. But you must continue to make them that way, which includes cloze deleting words that you already know, but are an important part of the context. Anyway, here's an MCD example that I feel is a great example of illustrating my goal for MCD creation: ANKI Text side: {{c1::烹调}}{{c2::结束}}时，{{c3::微波炉}}会{{c4:: 发出}}{{c6::哔哔}}的{{c5::声音}}。 ANKI Extra / Answer side: The microwave will bleep when your meal is ready. 烹调 [pēng tiáo] cook (dishes)； 结束 [jié shù] finish；done 微波炉 [wēi bō lú] microwave oven； 哔哔 [bi4bi4] beep 声音 [shēng yīn] sound The full sentence reads: 烹调结束时，微波炉会发出哔哔的声音。 I love this card because I learn (and remember) that a microwave, or anything electronic perhaps, makes the 哔哔 sound, and that the sound is emitted by 发出 rather than just 发. This will probably make no sense to a beginner for Mandarin, but well...just start making MCDs already and you'll see!!! Finally, I think it's important to check your MCD cards with native friends. I do this often, and it's funny because natives seem to have a lot of fun guessing (or saying) the cloze deletions. It's like a game to them :) What has also been a huge help, and I don't know what I would do without this information, is learning how to take advantage of ANKI's system for making cloze deletion cards. This manual page is very, very helpful ... and very short ... it is especially helpful if you're already making MCDs, because in the midst of creating and studying the cards, you sometimes realize some (and learn the) features that would be very useful: http://ankisrs.net/docs/manual.html#cloze-deletion As for my progress ============== 1) finally have a handle on these ANKI cards. I've gotten myself into such a habit, that I didn't have enough cards to study...so then I added a bunch of new cards from the illustrated dictionary :) 2) I've finished 125 of the 150 pages from my Illustrated Vocabulary. The vocabulary is getting easier, even though I'm learning more complex words...I think this is because of Chinese's logical structure. 3) I actually have 237 notes (core sentences), all spread across 726 cards. Looks like I have an average of 2-3 cloze deletions. 4) The FSI audio flash cards are down to 30 due cards. I can't wait to one day get so good with audio flash cards, that I have to start weening myself away from it :) Some recent milestones ================= 1) I listened to my first iMandarinPod.com podcast and understood nearly EVERYTHING. We're seriously talking about 99% understanding here. I can read nearly the entire podcast script now, too. Anything I don't understand can easily go into an MCD. 2) As for my many recent FSI audio cards that sound too fast to possibly speak at the same speed ... I can comfortably speak at nearly that speed. And I definitely understand that speed. 3) I'm understanding noticeably more from TV shows and movies. I like when subtitles are around, but I willingly disregard the subtitles when I'm working on my listening, which is most of the time. Really, I think subtitles are evil, unless you're using them for studying purposes...I don't want to become one of the many people that secretly rely on them. 4) I now have a couple more online friends where we talk entirely in Mandarin...especially since they don't speak english. About 1/4 of the time I need to use translation, and I pick up new words. Their sentences are literally gold mines, though I don't study them as much as I should :D MCDs?!?! 5) I'm starting to realize that my Mandarin is almost as good as the English of some of my old Mandarin speaking friends. Sweeet. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5807 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 107 of 107 11 February 2014 at 12:14am | IP Logged |
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Wonderful post, thanks! I have a couple questions still, though. You talk about doing 1-character cards (cloze-deleting one character of a multi-character word), though in your example you cloze-deleted the entire word. I think deleting a single character would be a nice alternative. When deleting the whole word, do you give yourself any other clue? Do you put the English translation of the word you're looking for underneath the Chinese sentence? And how do you learn how to read the character you're learning?
Vocabulary and context are the two biggest things on my plate right now. I've also picked up quite a few fun expressions from people online. For example, i learned the "word" for to snore (打呼噜) the other day when a friend was complaining about a relative snoring next to them making it impossible to sleep. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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