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Hitchhiker’s guide to the Chinese Galaxy | ||
Tags: Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4959 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 1 of 230 13 March 2013 at 6:48am | IP Logged | ||
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No prolix intros, no verbose manifestos. just a brief explanation of why "now".
After three years very patiently holding off on Mandarin and working hard on my three target Indo-European languages, I feel I have reached a level in them where I no longer need to do active daily grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary study. Pure reading, listening, writing, and speaking will be my maintenance and further improvement. This clears up significant time. Additionally, I will cut down study time in all three overall, still confident I will continue to improve (if perhaps at a slightly slower pace). Thus, I have been building this "spaceship to Planet Chinese" for quite some time. And I now officially have been cleared for lift-off! Wed March 13, 2013 (lucky 13). Time for the preflight checklist. (for the record, others are welcome any time from this point on to participate in this journal) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4959 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 2 of 230 14 March 2013 at 12:26am | IP Logged | ||
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Materials (thus far purchased)
Basic Spoken Chinese: An introduction to speaking and listening for beginners by Cornelius C. Kubler Tuttle Publishing, 2011 (includes 2 discs: accompaning audio/video + special pronunciation practice drills) Basic Spoken Chinese, practice essentials by Cornelius C. Kubler and Yang Wang Tuttle Publishing, 2011 (includes CD-ROM: audio + printable practice) Basic Written Chinese: an introduction to reading and writing by Cornelius C. Kubler Tuttle Publishing, 2012 (includes disc: audio of reading passages + vocabulary) Basic Written Chinese, practice essentials by Cornelius C. Kubler and Jerling Guo Kubler Tuttle Publishing, 2012 (includes disc: audio + character/vocab flashcards) Tuttle Learner's Chinese-English dictionary by Li Dong Tuttle Publishing, 2005 The first 100 Chinese characters, Traditional Character edition by Alison and Laurence Matthews Tuttle Publishing, 2006 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4959 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 3 of 230 14 March 2013 at 12:56am | IP Logged | ||
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Planned materials
Intermediate Spoken Chinese: A practical approach to fluency in spoken Mandarin by Cornelius C. Kubler Tuttle Publishing, 2013 (includes 2 discs: accompaning audio/video dialog) Intermediate Spoken Chinese, practice essentials by Cornelius C. Kubler and Yang Wang Tuttle Publishing, 2013 (includes CD-ROM: audio + printable practice) I also plan to get the Intermediate Written Chinese and the Intermediate Written Chinese, practice essentials, but they will not be out till later this year. I am also probably going to take out the Chinese Pimsleur that is available in my local library. I don't know old the versions there are, and I have never used Pimsleur before, but based on what people here say, it just help me significantly to drill some of the most basic Chinese phrases, vocab, etc. I am mulling whether to get flashcards already made, or to use Anki (which would also be my first time) PRIVATE TEACHER I will meet with a tutor once a week, probably starting in April sometime. I already had a free session and I think it will prove invaluable to accelerate the learning process, and provide focused direction which will avoid some natural "trial and error" that comes with learning completely alone. The books I would be using in these classes (and at home for homework are: New Practical Chinese Reader, textbook, 2nd edition by Liu Xun Beijing Language Culture University Press New Practical Chinese Reader, workbook, 2nd edition by Liu Xun Beijing Language Culture University Press New Practical Chinese Reader 2, textbook, 2nd edition by Liu Xun Beijing Language Culture University Press New Practical Chinese Reader 2, workbook, 2nd edition by Liu Xun Beijing Language Culture University Press Volumes 3-4 of this series would also be planned, if I continue with the tutor beyond 4-5 months I am scheduling thus far. Edited by outcast on 15 March 2013 at 6:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5272 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 4 of 230 14 March 2013 at 1:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Good luck, outcast! I look forward to following your journey with interest. I've seen your dedication to getting Portuguese right and I know you'll give Mandarin your best shot too. Boa sorte!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4959 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 5 of 230 14 March 2013 at 1:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Time allotment
In my first three languages, I dedicated time to listening almost right away (after a few weeks of initiating my studies). Usually 1-2 hours, then 1 hour of grammar and exercises, and then vocabulary/reading. Given the radical departure of Chinese vocabulary and the characters, I doubt listening to native material (even with subtitles), will provide much benefit until I successfully complete the basic level of vocabulary, grammar, etc. And independent reading outside my textbook sources will not be possible until much later on. Thus very little time will be taken on those tasks for now. My preliminary thinking is this: 60 minutes a day on pronunciation practice I have practiced Chinese sounds already, so I would just review the basic sounds. My focus would be on drilling tone sequences, listening to tones, and lots of practice on the various tone changes. Repeat, repeat, and repeat. Here I would use both the audio exercises from the textbooks, and perhaps the Pimsleur. 60-90 minutes on grammar and phrase/vocab building I will study grammar introduced on my textbooks, both from the tutor and my own personal study. Memorize the dialogues end expressions outright, and I mean really memorize. Do all the provided written exercises and oral practice provided by my materials, of which there is a TON of. 30 minutes on studying characters and stroke practice Just study meaning, and practice to build character/radical understanding and familiarity. Read materials that aid in character understanding and history. That would be the minimum daily. If I can study more time on any certain day of course that is permitted. This part is subject to change as I begin full-time study and get a feel of what I struggle more with or do better at, and more basically what requires more time. Since I will still be doing study in may other languages (rotating them in some weekly sequence), that will also depend how much time I can dedicate to Chinese, since I don't intend by any means to abandon the others. Edited by outcast on 14 March 2013 at 1:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4959 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 6 of 230 14 March 2013 at 1:53am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks a lot! Right now I'm doing all the "preflight" check-ups for Mandarin. I am confident that my experience in language learning will help me quite a bit, I now know much better what works for me, what doesn't, and better yet I know not to be scared of those dreaded off-days (nor too excited about those "leap" days!), and just overall know myself and how I feel on any given day to determine if it's a day more suitable for grammar, vocab, or whatever. I don't know if others are the same, but there are some days I'm great with learning new words, and others where nothing sticks. Those days I review or learn new grammar, etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4959 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 7 of 230 15 March 2013 at 6:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Goals
Reading the respective preface and orientation sections of both the Basic/Intermediate Chinese series and the New Practical Chinese Reader series, it is fairly clear that by the end of both series (which include two texbooks and two workbooks for the Tuttle series, and six textbooks and six workbooks in the New Chinese reader series), the goals are: After 1st textbook Tuttle series CEFR: A1 ILR: 0+ / 1- ACTFL: novice high After 2nd textbook Tuttle series CEFR: A2+ / near B1 ILR: 1+ ACTFL: intermedieate mid / intermediate high After first 4 volumes of New Practical Chinese reader CEFR: A2 ILR: 0+ / 1 ACTFL: novice high / intermediate low After volumes 5-6 New Practical Chinese reader CEFR: near B1 ILR: 1+ / 2- ACTL: intermediate high The New practical chinese series volumes 1-6 is done in college settings at the pace of 1 volume per semester, which would yield three years of study. Considering that I would be studying every day, with no "school recess", that I have some basic working understanding of some of the concepts of Chinese, and the benefit of my prior language learning experiences, I would estimate I could go through the six volumes in half that time (12-18 months). I would also estimate that going through the Basic and Intermediate Chinese by Tuttle series will take between 12-14 months). If I am succesful, by the end of that time (circa summer 2014), I should be at around a very high A2, low B1 level. Beyond that, I have not made specific plans of what material would help me beyond that yet. However, some sort of exchange or scholarship to China for 6 months or even one full year would seem needed if I am really serious to go from the level of B1 to a higher B2. I am being purposely conservative in my estimates, to provide for any contingencies in learning or in the every day, which of course can always occur. Edited by outcast on 15 March 2013 at 6:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4959 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 8 of 230 15 March 2013 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Approach
When learning my three indo-european languages, I also followed a comprehensive, wide-scope approach, which some others have here discussed: pronunciation, listening, reading, grammar, writing, speaking, culture, idiomatics. Not all course materials covered these, or if they did to a level that I felt was necessary. So plenty of independent research and learning took and still takes place. I intend to do the same with Mandarin. However, I will not overclomplicate myself in the basic level, I will wait until the intermediate level to begin more independent diving into each of these areas of a language (exception being pronunciation, which I tackle heavily from the beginning). I will trust the materials I will be using to guide me through the first levels. I generally have very high confidence in the initial levels of any language course, since these are usually the most widely researched sections and aspects of any language. Thus the degree of convergence between language courses on what the basics of a language ought to be and must be taught to the learner is generally very tightly clustered around the same basic structures, vocabulary, etc. So for the first few months, I will pretty much remain anchored to whatever my texbooks and Pimsleur/other sources I use impart for me to learn. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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