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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 17 of 107 26 December 2010 at 9:57am | IP Logged |
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Every day I have been DYING to write in this log...but of course it has been a little busy around the holidays. I
have so much great things to say, but I will make it very compact because I only have a limited amount of "high" energy to study Mandarin :D A) After over a week of searching, the night before Christmas was HELL. That's because I decided to FINALLY buckle-down and figure out how to rip dvd audio content into a file. I nearly paid for another application....until about 8 hours later I realized something cool. I use a mac, so even though I have great software choices...I don't have nearly as many choices as the windows peeps. Here's what I did... 1) legally rip the DVD onto my computer using RipIt (awesome app) 2) Using another awesome application called Toast Titanium 10, I went to the Convert section to convert media for use on iPods/iPhones, PS3, Apple TV, etc. 3) then I click VIDEO_TS folder and drag the DVD's video folder into Toast. 4) My Conversion settings (click the gear at the bottom to access) were for Playstation 3, CUSTOM. 5) For the export settings, under Video you can select "None" for video format. This is awesome because welll...I just want to listen to the audio :) 6) Under the Audio settings I was pretty limited; I could only select AAC-LC (music), but I don't think I would have selected the other options. This created an MP4 for me that I could put onto my iPhone. And this is incredibly AWESOME because the file is like an audiobook: even though it is a large audio file, it is automatically broken up into chapters that relate to the DVD's chapters :D Yay!! Now I can study 1 dialog at a time with easy access....sweet.... ...just to log this down, I did find another way to rip the audio. there were 2 severe drawbacks: it took me 2 extra steps to complete the task (and much more time), and I ended up with (sometimes) a 2-hour-long video with no chapter markers. For anyone else out there doing DVD rips for study, I STRONGLY recommend the legal methods (for the USA) of RipIt and Toast 10 Titanium. The money would even be worth it if I ONLY used these applications for ripping DVD audio for my language learning :) B) Ever since I began practicing the Pangu Shengong exercise (only once a day so far) my sleep has been improving a little--noticeably though. The biggest notice I realized is that I am once again VERY focused. But this focused is a very peaceful, relaxed focus. While listening to mandarin audio tapes (Pimsleur/FSI), it first sounded like the audio was WAY slower. In fact, my first thought was that there was something wrong with audio player lol. Because of the quickly noticeably performance differences since I began practicing the shengong again, I have now made it a personal goal of mine to also practice the shengong at LEAST once a day. It is too powerful of a study technique for me to neglect it any further... There's much more I can say, but other than these 2 pieces of great news, I did cut back a little on FSI since I also have not been around my personal computer much within the past few days. Maybe I was just being stubborn because I didn't have the FSI workbook in front of me....I GUESS I could've moved on without it :) 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 18 of 107 28 December 2010 at 12:01pm | IP Logged |
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Earlier tonight (today?) I FINISHED...
1) Pimsleur Mandarin 2 Unit 27. Almost done! :D 2) FSI unit 3 3) New Practical Chinese Reader 1, Lesson 1 through 4. 4) Up to 375 entries in my Gold List. In a couple of days will be my first distillation on 75 entires... Pimsleur is getting pretty easy so far--not PERFECT yet :) However, while doing today's Pimsleur, I was very happy that I responded to a good chunk of the lesson without thinking. The words just came naturally off my tongue--I only needed to "feel" what I wanted to communicate! This felt GREAT :D I think this has a lot to do with not only the Pangu Shengong exercise, but also doing "active" (yet passive) listening to AWR Mandarin radio (some podcast). I have passively listened to a few podcasts so far; however, I specifically chose to spend most of my focus on AWR Mandarin because the lady's voice sounded more "kind" and loving. Your body accepts and internalizes kind information much easier; when relaxed, you will learn more, and you will learn quicker. FSI's drills and especially production tapes are GREAT at this point. They still give me a good workout. I started New Practical Chinese Reader 1 the other day. I REALLY like how the information is placed in the book. This is definitely a material that I wish I had in the beginning :) However, the information so far is verrrry easy for my level. Not only will I need to increase the speed of the audio...a LOT...but today I did 4 lessons. I went through these lessons to pick up any information that I didn't listen to in the past, and as well found it to be a good exercise for me to touch up on my pronunciation technique. For ANY words that I come across that I don't know--OR that I don't know how to write!--I put these words/phrases into my gold list. Other than these things, I will continue to listen to mandarin podcasts and ripped DVD audio. I kind of "setup" another long term goal for myself. I have some books written completely in Chinese that I got as a present from my mom--before I started studying mandarin! One book is "Beijing International Health and Longevity Forum & Health Industry Expo 2008", with at most 1/5 of the book written in English. I have a feeling the English parts are translations of certain thesis's. and the other book has a title that I don't understand at all :) that book is 100% chinese...zero English. Except the "made in china" sticker on the back. Haha just kidding... My goal is not to study these books, but to see how well I can read them at the end of 2010. DON'T LET ME FORGET THIS!!! 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 19 of 107 29 December 2010 at 9:34am | IP Logged |
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My tongue is sore O_O
Today I did the usual Pimsleur lesson (level 2 unit 28), but I only did NPCR Lesson 5. I found all sorts of extra vocabulary that wasn't part of the dialogs/conversations, and I was DYING to add these words to my Gold List. However, I feel like maybe I should only focus on the words that are being covered in the lesson dialogs.... this is probably what I should do! For anyone out there with NPCR experience, care to share your thoughts? :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 20 of 107 30 December 2010 at 12:36pm | IP Logged |
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I received a Disney collection package (4 DVDs) in the mail. Time to rip some audio for passive listening :) So far
I've listened to Snow White... it is such a beautiful story, but in Mandarin it is indeed VERY beautiful. Also, today was my first Gold List "distillation". I did manage to remember about 1/3 of my 75 words/phrases/kanji from 2 weeks ago. Actually, I remembered all phrases; however, writing the Kanji is what I was really where I tested myself. The creator of the Gold List is definitely right about enjoying the process. I believe this "enjoyment" and relaxation is a process to condition your body to accept the new information better. This makes a better environment for your long term memory to sample from the short term memory...however you'd like to categorize those phrases! Speaking of the Gold List, at times I feel like I am running out of words. However, with NPCR, I am now feeling pretty indecisive about writing down EVERY unfamiliar word I come across, especially since I've been warned before about studying Mandarin vocabulary out of context. Oh well, I'll figure something out; maybe nciku.com can help me out with all of the context situations? :) For now, I am just going to write down unfamiliar vocabulary as long as I can also see how it was used in context. Also speaking of vocabulary, for you Mandarin learners, check this out... games and stories in Mandarin: http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Chinese/games/games.html Now that I am sort of getting into a routine, my next week--maybe month--will consist of the following: 1) One Pimsleur a day (possibly 2 if I am also reviewing) 2) Within 2-3 days, I will also work out an additional FSI Module's unit. 3) New Practical Chinese Reader 1: I will work through a lesson (or 2, or 3) until I finish my 25 Gold List words for the day :) Anyhoo, time to get some rest. 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 21 of 107 08 January 2011 at 9:05am | IP Logged |
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I am so happy to write in here today (night) O_O
Of course I did not get to study as much as I wanted to, but isn’t that usually the case with something you want to learn in your spare time? I over-estimated how much I wanted to accomplish this week, and I think this is mainly because every year I keep forgetting that the first week of January is usually pretty busy. Right when I am happy the holidays are over and things are less busy...I end up having 1 more week to go :) Gold List Method: I am now at 500 words/phrases, which is 20% of my goal. I have already distilled 6 head lists, remembering about 30% each time. I create the head lists a little differently now, but I definitely want to point out that the Gold List method is helping A LOT!!! While I am listening to spoken Mandarin, I now pick out more words than I could previously, and many of these words/phrases are things I mindfully wrote into my gold list 1 or 2 days prior. Considering I am using the Gold List method in order to get kanji writing into my long-term memory, I am VERY excited about this! Anyway, here’s what I am now doing differently than before. As I come across words/phrases that interest me, I write them into a scrapbook. Once that scrapbook reaches 25 new words/phrases, I then create another Gold List entry. I believe this is referred as a head list...? This way I am not stressing about finding 25 new words/phrases every day or searching for new words/phrases. This is what I did before...eww. I should also note that during my distillations I obviously note the approximate 60% of kanji characters that I forget how to write. Here’s my distillation procedure: 1) Note the kanji characters that I forgot or had mistaken. 2) After I am done testing my long-term memory, the kanji characters that I didn’t remember are then mindfully re-written 3 times each. 3) After rewriting all characters, I then proceed to create the new list of 17 words. I start this off by writing each definition on paper. 4) Then I look at each definition and rewrite the pinyin next to its associated definition/information. This is sort of like another review for myself. 5) Finally, I write the kanji characters next to their associated pinyin. At this final stage of creating the new and distilled list, I will usually write all of the kanji characters fine. Even though I may feel a little timid, I just relax and trust myself. If I made a mistake then I simply just correct it :) New Practical Chinese Reader 1 finally became more challenging at Lesson 7--or at least now there’s actually a lot more reading material and vocabulary. Score... I am now in a routine where I am continually referring to nciku.com. However, very often I get an error on the website, “Not found (error to origin).” Instead of waiting for nciku to get its act back together, at this point I will consult the following websites... http://www.chinese-tools.com (mainly to find the correct characters for the pinyin I wrote from listening to the audio tape) http://www.chinese-learner.com (they have a great stroke-order dictionary with around 2500 entries. When nciku fails, I am here quickly!) What I completed within the last week: 12/30- Pims unit 30. 12/31- Pims level 3 unit 1, reviewed unit 24 and 25 (both level 2). 1/2- Reviewed pims unit 26 (level 2). Maybe I just had a bad day, but it was pretty hard. Also reviewed unit 27. 1/3- Pims level 3 unit 2. NPCR lesson 6. 1/4- Pims 3 unit 3 -- hard :( 1/5- Pims 2 unit 28 review. Pims 3 unit 4 = hard. 1/6- rest day :) so I listened to some elementary Chinese pod episodes. I do like chinesepod.com, and I’ve been thinking of signing up for a membership. 1/7- Reviewed Pimsleur 2 units 29 and 30. Hmm, and I guess I forgot to write this down. But somewhere within the week I completed FSI Orientation Module 1. Edited by aerozeplyn on 08 January 2011 at 9:06am 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 22 of 107 17 January 2011 at 12:54am | IP Logged |
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Still pushing forward with Mandarin... but I don't understand why I'm neglecting FSI as much as I am. I haven't
done it once since my last log! Perhaps it is because I am already in another habit working with a lot of other materials. However, lately I did start creating audio flash cards with Anki. Audio flash cards RULE--it's sort of like my own Pimsleur...kinda. Also, I am frequently visiting with my language exchange partner. She told me that chinesepod.com's language is very modern and up-to-date, and that she believes studying the dialogs will help me. Because of this, I have been using Chinese Pod's dialog-only and audio review MP3s. The audio reviews especially make great audio flash cards with Anki, not to mention there's plenty of vocabulary for me to add to my Gold List! >D For any language learners out there wanting to create audio flash cards, you can use the free choice Audacity, available for most operating systems. If you have a Mac, you can spend some money and use Logic Express. Maybe Logic Express is also for windows, but I definitely prefer to use Logic. This is because I can "Bounce" the audio to MP3 (I think Audacity wouldn't let me), and Logic by default comes with a filter that will allow you to speed up the audio by 150% (or more!) WITHOUT the voice sounding like a mandarin-speaking-chipmunk :) This is great for getting NPCR and CPod's audio to a more native-speed. Now only if there was a voice "mumble" plugin... ;) As for audio, I feel like my Mandarin listening ability is improving a lot. I am picking out more words and phrases in my DVD audio rips that I could not previously understand. I also understand my speaking partner more of the time--even when she's mumbling or going a little fast. As for reading/writing for NPCR, I have also neglected that part--however, my Gold List Method for writing characters is still going well. The Gold List Method ROCKS!! Now I just need to improve more with my speaking ability....hopefully Anki audio flashcards will aid more with that :) Before, I nearly forgot the importance of drilling vocal/speech for muscle memory. In fact, while reviewing my Anki cards, I treat my flash card as "wrong" ("soon" button) if I have any slight hesitation with the word pronunciation, phrase, or the context sentence execution. I'll write more about my audio method later...as I feel it is definitely important for learners of a foreign language to create these flash cards by themselves, rather than just downloading them. For the next week, I will be continuing with Pimsleur and hopefully finish Level 3 in early February. I will also definitely continue reviewing (and creating) Anki audio cards, Gold List Method head lists, and listening to Mandarin movies / talk shows as much as possible (passive or active). Unfortunately a deer uncle of mine was killed a couple nights ago... *sigh*. i'll be going to the funeral. The plane leaves tomorrow, and hopefully with staying in New Jersey for a couple of days--along with 2 plane flights of course--I will get some great time to study. Edited by aerozeplyn on 24 January 2011 at 8:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Li Fei Pro Member United States Joined 5115 days ago 147 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 23 of 107 17 January 2011 at 1:29am | IP Logged |
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Good luck from another student of Mandarin. Seems like you are making great progress.
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| aerozeplyn Senior Member United States Joined 5140 days ago 141 posts - 202 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 24 of 107 17 January 2011 at 4:57am | IP Logged |
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thanks Li Fei! in fact, i was just reading your log as well... :)
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