Mandarin Immersion in Hangzhou (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

Mandarin Immersion in Hangzhou
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Mackie1402
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4 posts - 4 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Mandarin

Message 1 of 6

17 January 2014 at 7:57am | IP Logged

Afternoon everyone.

I've been browsing this website for a while as it's full of so much motivation.

I'm currently living in Hangzhou, China. I have been working here for about 18 months
and my Chinese is still very limited.

I work three jobs so never got much time, but I am sick of bringing up excuses.
Therefore I've decided to keep this updated to keep me motivated.

I've got a collection of books at home but have decided to use a series I found in
China called "Short Term Spoken Chinese".

I'm reading through the threshold books at the moment. I can understand the whole of
Threshold 1 when it is read to me, or if I read the pinyin under the characters, but I
have very poor knowledge of the characters themselves. I am currently studying the
characters and I have finished Chapters 1-5 this week as I was just reviewing from the
past.

It comparison to many goals and accomplishments on this site, my first goal is very
important to me; just to finish one full book of study. Only 10 more chapters to fully
learn then I feel I will be well on my way to be motivated.

I'll keep you guy updated once I'm home and studying.

In the meantime, here is a little bit of Chinese I can put together.

大家好。

我叫Sam. 我来自英国伦敦。我23岁。下月是我的生日。我和我女朋友在英国Huddersfi eld大学见
了。她是中国人。她去年回去中国在工作。我们没见8� �月，所以我去杭州。我现在教英语。我有
三个工作。我现在没有太多时间了，可是我每天会学习中文。

Regards,

Sam

Edited by Mackie1402 on 17 January 2014 at 8:13am
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Silbermond
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Mandarin, Italian, Spanish

Message 2 of 6

17 January 2014 at 4:52pm | IP Logged

Hi Sam! How is it teaching English in Hangzhou? It's one of those things that keeps being mentioned this year as I'm finishing uni, but I'm debating whether I want to go straight away or in a few years.

Good luck with your Chinese studies too, of course! I think I've used the Short Term Spoken Chinese books before and quite enjoyed them; they go at a good pace. I'll definitely be interested in keeping an eye on your progress :D

加油！

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Mackie1402
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Mandarin

Message 3 of 6

05 February 2014 at 4:20am | IP Logged

Morning.

It's been a busy few weeks with Chinese New Year. After a lot of catch up work and
celebrations I had some free time to keep up some studying.

Short-Term Spoken Chinese - Threshold 1
Finished Chapter 7 last week. Looking to finish chapter 8 and possibly 9 this week.

Picked up my Elementary book for the first time in a while and since learning just a
few extra chapters of characters from the threshold books, its really motivating to see
a big progress in reading.

ChinesePod.com - Intermediate
Been listening and reviewing some Inter shows to and from work. Want to keep this up
however to improve my listening.

Michel Thomas Method
Just got the Michel Thomas Method for Chinese. I put on the foundation CDs and they
seem really slow for me so I was going to skip up a few CDs, however I really enjoyed
just having it on in the background whilst I done things around the house. Kind of
soothing.

I'm really looking forward to finish these 2 threshold books so I can start getting rid
of the pinyin under the characters!

Silbermond wrote:

Hey Charlotte. I originally came to Hangzhou as I met people from here at University in
the UK and came to visit them. It's such a beautiful city and a perfect distance from
Shanghai (40min bullet train).

I love teaching here. I never thought I would love a job so much I'd get 3 jobs!
Schools are getting a bit stricter though and I've had some friends have issues with
visas, so if you do decide to come make sure everything's a go. :)
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Mackie1402
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Joined 4859 days ago
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Mandarin

Message 4 of 6

07 February 2014 at 3:33pm | IP Logged

Short Term Spoken Chinese
Had a busy few days studying. Chapter 8 was okay and Chapter 9 was familiar characters
combined to make new words so was easy to learn. Currently going through Chapter 10
which is a lot of new characters so will take a bit more time. If anyone wanted to
know, these chapters contain about 25-35 new vocab words per chapter.

Turns out there is also a Short Term Listening collection of books too. I really like
these books but think I'll stick to Chinesepod for listening. Don't want to be buried
in too many materials.

Anki
I never was a fan of the updated anki, even although I was familiar with coding.
However I took the plunge into it again today. Entered all my vocab from chapters 1 to
10 to make reviewing easier.
1 person has voted this message useful

Crush
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Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto
Studies: Basque

Message 5 of 6

07 February 2014 at 6:50pm | IP Logged

For books on the spoken language, i think 30-35 is a pretty standard number. Reading/综合 books tend to be much more crammed, with most lessons having around 60-70 but some with up to 90-100 new words a lesson!

If you don't like the new Anki, you could try Memrise, Mnemosyne, or even install an older version of it.
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Mackie1402
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Joined 4859 days ago
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Mandarin

Message 6 of 6

13 February 2014 at 6:52am | IP Logged

Short Term Spoken - Threshold 1
Chapters 10-13. Half way through 13 at the moment. Only 2 more chapters until the end
of this book. That'll be a big motivation for me!

It's funny how many of these characters I'm seeing everywhere I look. Really love being
immersed in the language now.

I've been reading some of the higher levels without pinyin. Just looking forward to
finish these books. Can't help but read the pinyin sometimes which is very annoying.

Chinese Breeze Reader
Read half of a 300 character book the other day. Pretty interesting to read. Would like
to read a couple a week but they don't have many in their collection.

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