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Mandarin journey (FSI, Pimsleur, NPCR) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6048 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 17 of 181 25 October 2008 at 4:46am | IP Logged |
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Finally finished lesson 30, Level 1.
Wow, what a month and a week. It has been a little under a month since I started characters, and 5 weeks since I started Pimsleur mandarin. My mind is adapting to the language, slowly but surely. At the beginning remembering the words was difficult, now I am not having any problems. The same is happening with the characters. I am not having nearly as much trouble remembering as in the beginning. Both of these aspects are due to, I suppose, the fact that I can now see subtle patterns in the sounds and characters and my mind has begun associating it all together. Now I am just waiting for my mind to pass that crucial point of the language "making sense" on a global level. This happened sometime around the end of Level II in Spanish. Speaking of this process, I laugh at anyone who doubts Pimsleur, or quits after the 4th lesson. At first, I was wondering whether this would be qualitatively different from Spanish Pimsleur, or be the same words, etc. It IS different. It is tailored to the language. For example, Lesson 30 was essentially a review lesson of Mandarin word order, which was exactly what I needed and what WAS needed at the time. Pimsleur varies and permutes exactly the right things that NEED to be changed in order for you to intuit the grammar. I can't say enough great things about Pimsleur. My regimen of characters piggybacked with what I learn in Pimsleur is working out well, and I know and can use approx 180 characters. I am going to start inputting even more sentences into Anki to gear me up to the point of full reading (whenever that will come). I am also looking forward already to what comes after Pimsleur, as I remember the last level of Pimsleur is basically a vocab builder and fairly easy (at least for Spanish). I also need to find a good transcript for level II. The logic of chinese is starting to come to me. I know now how "atomic" this language seems, and how they combine opposites and similars to produce new words, not flat out coin them as in English. A different set of irregularities. If I remember, the first month was far and away the hardest in Spanish, and maybe for any language. Now this is gone, I can't wait for more mandarin and Level II. And I can't wait to start really reading and conversing. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Aquedita Triglot Senior Member Poland myspace.com/aqueda_v Joined 6012 days ago 154 posts - 164 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 18 of 181 25 October 2008 at 5:07am | IP Logged |
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Glad to hear you're somewhat gaining confidence with your Mandarin.
I'm studying Chinese myself and since I know Japanese it isn't that hard for me to "see" what a text is generally about. But when I'm suppose to read the text out aloud or say it in my own words - forget it! I mix up all the tones :P Hope you will do better then me, good luck ;) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6048 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 19 of 181 02 November 2008 at 5:41am | IP Logged |
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Thx for the encouragement :)
Finished lesson 6, Level 2. Having some trouble with word order. That is definitely the more difficult part about mandarin. Other than that just spending most of my brainpower on reading and writing, this is the challenge. Curious how mandarin is going to handle all the "tenses". I don't even know if there is a progressive way of speaking. Surely there has to be something like this. Also waiting for the rest of the core words of the language to be taught. Waiting for the peices to start fitting together, I suppose. Still haven't had a convo. If I remember I started having full convos somewhere in Level III Spanish. Edited by irrationale on 02 November 2008 at 5:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| neil-flynn Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5959 days ago 116 posts - 117 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2, Mandarin | Message 20 of 181 02 November 2008 at 8:06am | IP Logged |
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I started learning Mandarin at about the same time as you, and i had exactly the same feeling at the start as you did. But ive found that there are so many resources available for Mandarin, and there are many more people than i expected learning it! In the past few years, the impression that Chinese is an impossible language for a westerner to learn has began to disappear, although when i tell people that i'm learning it, they don't believe me!
I started out with Michel Thomas, so i got experience about the sound of the language and the grammar. I found that this really built my confidence up and made me want to learn the characters. It was daunting at first, but i find them fascinating. At the moment, i know close to 200 characters, something which i never thought i would say. Within the past month, i lost interest as i had uni work to do, but ive decided to start learning again. Im using Chinesepod and Chinese In Steps, but when i was in Borders yesterday, i saw a great book which takes you through the characters needed for the HSK 1 exam. I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, but im definitely interested in that book. What i've found so far is that its actualy an easy language to learn. Ive been speaking Spanish for years, and i still get mixed up with the verb conjugations, but chinese doesn't have that, which is great! My aim for Christmas is to know 500 characters and about 700 words. It seems like a realistic goal, and it would surprise many people! haha Good luck with your learning! Neil 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| neil-flynn Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5959 days ago 116 posts - 117 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2, Mandarin | Message 21 of 181 02 November 2008 at 8:09am | IP Logged |
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Could you give me some advice. How are you finding Pimsleur? Im tempted to get it, but i don't want to pay for it if its not very useful.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6048 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 22 of 181 03 November 2008 at 6:11am | IP Logged |
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neil-flynn;
Thx for the encouragement :) Well personally, I see here in the US the reputation Chinese has still standing strong. A survey conducted (not sure if only in the US) showed only about 3% of university students learning it, compared to around 50% Spanish. I think it is becoming more popular in the UK though, and I see many the people learning it from the UK (insert negative comment about Americans here). The main reason for Chinese's difficulty, as this site's owner points out, is in my opinion VERY well deserved; the writing system. Honestly, I don't see Chinese approaching anywhere close to the popular languages simply because of this. How do I like Pimsleur? Well, there seem to be two camps on this board, and I am in the "pro-Pimsleur" camp. I hate having grammar explained to me; I want to have my mind sort it out its own way. I am also much more auditory based and a global learner right brained type. I think I wouldn't like MT, so maybe you wouldn't really like Pimsleur? If these traits don't describe you, probably not, but personally I think it is great (and in my opinion the fastest program) for building a speaking center that gets at the "core" of the language. You must use it in conjunction with something else to get to the advanced level. Of course, whether you like it, buy it, or not, how about a challenge; we can write to each other in Mandarin when I finish Pimsleur. That will be a true test of if it is effective or not! It will be pertinent because we are at about the same progress level it seems (I know 209 characters). Good luck to you too! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| neil-flynn Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5959 days ago 116 posts - 117 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2, Mandarin | Message 23 of 181 03 November 2008 at 1:56pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah, we seem to be at a similar level. When we get to, say, 500 characters, we'll start writing to each other. That should take us another month or so. Im still surprised at how quick learning Hanzi is.
Ill check out Pimsleur this weekend. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6048 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 24 of 181 04 November 2008 at 5:46am | IP Logged |
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Lesson 37 (7 level 2) was unusually hard. I have to do it twice today. Included at least 2 forms of grammar never covered before, and not many repititions. Also some very long phrases.
Making a change in memorization. Going to start imputing the sentences that give me the most trouble into anki, as well as a good example of every type of sentence. I am curious if this will help my ability to memorize this way./ I am also curious at to whether memorizing groups of words in a sentence (with context) is superior to individually. Right now I am doing both; for function words with essentially no translation, I always use sentences. For nouns and object words, I use individual translations. I will see what works and what doesn't. If anyone has advice feel free :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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