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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 97 of 107 03 October 2013 at 9:00am | IP Logged |
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Speaking skills seem to be improving...things "flow" better. When I find syllables that are difficult to transition with
each other (such as drills in the NPCR book), I practice saying those syllables together many times. I do this just as someone would do a musical instrument exercise drill. I'm working very hard to finish Module 4 (Directions) for FSI, but it is just jam-packed with drill opportunities. I'm also taking Skype lessons, and I have asked the teacher to never type what she says unless I ask. She repeats a lot :) This is also helping the next skill... Listening skills: they are improving greatly. My brain hurts a lot when I work on these. And wow, I should really begin utilizing the Pangu Shengong exercise again... it would help me adapt much quicker as it has in the past. To work on my listening skills, what I do is I pick a show or something I like. Usually I like something if I can understand some of it :) Or if it's about something I'm interested in, such as New York City. Even though I also use audio from TV shows, other youtube videos (especially the ones with pinyin and characters), and podcasts, my favorite for listening practice is the "wan niu yue" youtube channel... http://youtube.com/wanniuyue ...she transcribes her whole video in the video comment section. I get to double check myself, and this is of course very helpful :) At first, transcribing 30 seconds of spoken audio took me nearly 15-20 minutes! It is now taking me less and less time to transcribe 30 seconds worth. Working on this skill every day is helping noticeably, and I hope to one day transcribe 30 seconds in less than 2 minutes! Reading skills are doing great: I'm nearly 1/3 complete with the NPCR volume 2 book. iMandarinPod.com's PDF files and audio lessons are a great addition to NPCR. I still haven't begun my simplified Chinese copy of the "Steve Jobs" biography, but I know I'll eventually get there! As for the illustrated dictionary, I'm on page 92 of 150 for ANKI input. YESSS!! I can't wait to crack open the 4500-word illustrated dictionary... but then again, I might just learn all of those words with the Gold List method instead of inputting everything into ANKI. Gold List method *does* save a lot of time, and I can't imagine any of the 4500 words being more common than the 1500 words in the first illustrated dictionary that I'm working with. Writing skills: I haven't worked on any Gold Lists, but I am not worried about it considering the method allows me to basically pick up where ever I left off. My writing skills are temporarily on hold, because next week I am going to Flushing, NY (for a full week) to interact and speak with all of the Chinese. I am also meeting a Mandarin teacher there...where I'll be taking spoken lessons nearly every day! Planning this trip has been motivating, especially the past few days. I've studied soooo many hours to prepare @_@ I should plan a China trip... Overall: I wish I started working on my active listening skills much earlier. Even though there is still a lot I don't understand, I am feeling very comfortable with the Chinese language. I can communicate with Chinese who speak barely any English, and the language itself seems like much less of a mystery. Reaching a basic fluency in this language doesn't feel far away, and it feels like only time will bring me there. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| aerozeplyn Senior Member United States Joined 5140 days ago 141 posts - 202 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 98 of 107 07 October 2013 at 9:38am | IP Logged |
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At this point, my Mandarin level is at the highest it has ever been. I'm working on listening skills a lot, and preparing
for my trip to Flushing, NY. I started grabbing words from the "My Chinese Picture Dictionary" (the 4000+ words dictionary) that I believe I will readily use in Flushing. I'll likely entirely use the Gold List method for acquiring vocabulary from that book. And It definitely is very true: the basics of a language is the listening and speaking skills. I believe there should be more emphasis on the active listening skills. Two things I wish I did differently in the beginning: get an illustrated dictionary and specifically work on my active listening skills. Anyhoo, I shall get back to my listening practice... Edited by aerozeplyn on 07 October 2013 at 9:43am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| aerozeplyn Senior Member United States Joined 5140 days ago 141 posts - 202 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 99 of 107 28 October 2013 at 12:08pm | IP Logged |
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Just some updates on where I am...
1) I'm learning the IPA symbols for pronunciation, inspired by Idahosa. That part is just for fun, but my ultimate goal is to just go through his Mimic Method for Mandarin: I want to pin-point and eradicate any pronunciation issues. Idahosa is pretty awesome, and he listens to your recorded voice, giving feedback on precisely which pronunciation issues someone is having. So far, he hasn't found any issues with my pronunciation, and I will surely consult natives in the near future... I really wish all of my Chinese friends could see this guy's website, especially for their English... http://mandarin.mimicmethod.com 2) I'm not as consistent with my active listening practice, but I'm getting there. I blame this insane week of constructing a new project...where I've mainly had time to just hammer out my ANKI decks. Regardless, I keep myself "immersed" with TV shows, podcasts, youtube, etc. Also, Considering the illustrated dictionary has greatly helped my vocabulary, it seems to just be the "character context" that has helped a lot with understanding other Mandarin words. For example, it's almost like there are many roots, suffixes, prefixes, etc that I am picking up from looking at a broad range of vocabulary in a contextual manner, such as the illustrated dictionary. ...and because of this, I stumbled upon the AJATT website's "MCDs" flash card method -- Massive-Context Cloze-Deletion Cards. This method seems pretty obvious, but it greatly took my attention because it reminds me of the vast improvements I've had with illustrated vocabulary. However, instead of boosting my vocabulary "context", this flash card method is for full-sentence contexts. I am thoroughly excited! I'm not sure if I'm doing this method correctly yet, but I actually had a lot of fun making the cards. I don't yet know how to describe this method, but here's a good link to get anyone started if they're interested: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/10000-sentences-is -dead-long-live-mcds I'm sooo happy about this :) Edit: btw, some of my biggest helpers for mining context sentences are: www.iciba.com *** www.nciku.com I have a feeling Facebook and Skype will be my next favorite spot for mining these sentences!! Edited by aerozeplyn on 28 October 2013 at 12:27pm 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 100 of 107 11 November 2013 at 2:53pm | IP Logged |
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i have lots of ANKI decks growing @.@
MCD deck method is great, and it is better preparing me to use these words in context. I feel awesome :) My focus this week is simply catching up on ANKI studying and getting those decks under control. Only that will be my "active" study. Perhaps I'll do some Gold Lists or just watch a bunch of Chinese TV for fun to compliment the study... 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 101 of 107 15 December 2013 at 12:07pm | IP Logged |
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I'm still swearing by the MCD deck method. Grabbing a few example sentences and expending them into MCD decks
is sooo helpful. I often find myself on iciba.com mining sentences. However, I took a break on that, because I was creating cards faster than I was learning them :) My MCD deck has 301 cards, and only 1/3 are considered mature and in my brain. A word of advice for others: speaking the MCD decks out loud is greatly helping my verbal technique. It's awesome...and learning the words in so many contexts is great. I believe saying these MCD questions/answers out loud is helping my listening skills. I say this because while I have not actively practiced my listening skills, I have actively listened to podcasts, chinese tv shows, and even read some news on QQ. I'm understanding what I hear and more than before, and it is exciting! As far as reading news, honestly I only understand about 60-70% :) Lately has been another busy life moment. Business is improving, and luckily I've been able to stick to ANKI and my Gold Lists. I am almost completely caught up with the many new ANKI cards I made. The only deck that I need to catch up on is the FSI deck (about 220 cards are due for review). I listened to an "optional" module for FSI on automobiles...and WOW. FSI's optional modules are truly loaded with awesome information. If I were to compare the optional modules to anything else, I would compare them to the illustrated dictionaries and MCDs: very contextual :) of course, FSI is awesome anyways. But I have made a final decision: for my NEXT illustrated dictionary (the one with 4200+ words) I will definitely use only the Gold List method. The first illustrated dictionary from McGraw is still a work in progress, now that I finally have that ANKI deck under control. Going forward, I do not plan to write in this log much. I'm super busy with business, and I'm also very busy learning Mandarin. Therefore, I think I've reached a point where it is better to update the log when I reach milestones, such as realizing I understand 90% of newspapers, finishing the first Illustrative dictionary, finishing an FSI module, etc. Or interesting stories! For example, recently I spoke Mandarin with a Korean girl. Her Mandarin was very good, but mine was definitely better :) I could even hear a Korean accent... Final thought: what do I believe the next steps to basic fluency are from myself? From now on.... * Tons of MCD decks and sentence mining from Facebook, books that I like, QQ news, and really anything that I study. This includes NPCR, iMandarinPod, and possibly ChinesePod once again in the future... * Illustrated Dictionaries! These will go into the ANKI decks and Gold Lists. The material doesn't have to be from illustrated dictionaries alone, but I also really look forward to finding medical diagrams... geographical diagrams... all sorts of stuff that I'll love to learn :) * FSI audio: the modules and audio are always extremely helpful for when I'm learning (and exhausting the possibilities) of basic speaking and listening comprehension. Even though I've taken it slow, FSI continues to be insanely powerful... welp, here's looking forward to more audio flash cards! * Speaking with other people constantly! And learning from them. Perhaps I should always bring a notepad with me? A friend of mine, who is a Chinese native, will be in town ... and you bet I plan on speaking with her constantly! Yes, I need to dedicate a spiral notebook just for this season... And final question: for anyone else who has studied Mandarin, or is studying Mandarin, have you found things that you strongly believe are going to bring you to basic fluency? Or if you already learned Mandarin and speak it fluently, what was your biggest help? I wouldn't expect anyone who became fluent in Mandarin to read this, but incase I'm lucky enough to have you reading, I value your input on how you feel about my learning, what will be helpful, etc. Thank you! 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 102 of 107 25 January 2014 at 11:52am | IP Logged |
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I had a lot of ANKI decks growing in review size. The large number of reviews really isn't a bad thing...I have just
been slowly going at them day by day, and gradually my decks "calmed down" :) Here's my progress... * MCDs: I have nearly 500 cards. Online conversations, new grammar usages, maybe something I read online or in a book, etc. All stuff goes in here. I put a ton of new vocabulary in here, and that vocabulary is mostly stuff that is not in my illustrated dictionaries. I have this "Online Friends" deck which is just your normal format for flash cards (front and back) ... and my goal is to convert all of those "Online Friends" cards into MCD-style cards. They will engrain into my brain so much better. This contextual learning is awesome @.@ The NPCR book would be a great source of ton's of words, grammar, sentences, etc that I could stuff into MCDs @.@ * Illustrated Vocabulary book: I'm on page 116 of 150. I'm more than 75% done!! And it looks like the rest of the words are very basic things that should've been in the beginning of the book. This ANKI deck is looking nice, too; I'm all caught up! * Gold List Method: I work on this maybe once every 2 weeks. Sometimes I get on a roll and do it every day. Right now I'm just distilling past lists. Once again, the next illustrative vocabulary book will use this method heavily, as most of that vocabulary is probably not stuff I'll say right away. Then again I'm not sure...maybe I should put everything into the ANKI vocabulary deck...? * Listening Skills: I really only actively listen when I lay down to sleep. I believe the MCD method has actually helped my listening skills. But more importantly, I believe MCD decks are helping because I always read the cards out loud. As for my FSI ANKI deck, I also repeat every piece of audio. Other than the above items, I am often chatting on QQ or Skype with Chinese friends; I do this a lot. And I have made such insane improvements over the past month. But the reality is...if I want to improve my ability to SPEAK this language, I'll need to actively listen so much more, and have so many more conversations. I'm still (slowly) going through the Mimic Method for Mandarin ( http://mimicmethod.com ), and the founder (Idahosa) finds my pronunciation perfect. Many Chinese comment on this, so I believe I'm going to just start accepting the fact that I have a "very standard" Beijing accent. I like it :) As far as speaking goes, I'll focus on that later, because at the moment I am very focused on improving my reading skills and core vocabulary. I'm not saying I won't talk with people, because the truth is I *do* manage to have conversations here and there. They just happen, and I'm quite comfortable with speaking my generic thoughts, feelings, and surroundings :) 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 103 of 107 25 January 2014 at 12:07pm | IP Logged |
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Oh ya, as for the FSI deck, I still have 164 reviews to do. I'm glad that this at least some progress; last month
(according to this log) I had ~200 reviews due :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 104 of 107 02 February 2014 at 6:38pm | IP Logged |
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FSI deck has under 75 reviews to do. Man, this has been brutal...it must be what I need: to communicate my
intentions! As for my reading, I'm doing great with this. I'm still learning a lot of contextual things through the MCD decks. I have 560 cards now. Over 1/3 are "mature" and in my long-term, over another 1/3 i'm still learning, and just barely over 1/4 of the cards I haven't seen yet. Hehe. Regardless, this has become a great way for me to do drills, and for me to really exercise/test my contextual learning. I'm grabbing sentences from iciba.com like crazy, but honestly, I think my time would be better spent grabbing sentences from all of the NPCR books, and as well the contextual dialogs from a book my good Chinese friend bought for me for Christmas :D 1 person has voted this message useful |
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