Hitchhiker’s guide to the Chinese Galaxy (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

Hitchhiker’s guide to the Chinese Galaxy
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Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log

230 messages over 29 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 26 ... 28 29 Next >>

outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 201 of 230 03 June 2015 at 5:36pm \| IP Logged
	The word count is now proving a challenge, especially as I am not noticing a substantial increase in near homonyms, and also words with the same syllables but in different order (yet sometimes with related meanings!), and even homonyms with no relation at all: near homonyms: 高兴，高信 homonyms: 高薪，高新 (high salary / high tech) "dyslexic" words: 建议，意见 (to suggest / suggestion... but also can mean "angry"!!) 统一，同意 (to unite / to be in agreement, to agree... so could be confused, though the tones are different, it's still hard to tell in fast speech). Like this more and more examples now are popping up. The GOOD thing is that I tend to recall that "I have heard this somewhere before" and it forces me to go back and find where I have heard this word before, to find out they are not the same words at all!) 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 202 of 230 06 June 2015 at 6:57am \| IP Logged
	Unit Completion Entry 84 Unit 13 Lesson 1 Intermediate Spoken Chinese 6.5.2015 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 203 of 230 09 June 2015 at 5:43am \| IP Logged
	Unit Completion Entry 85 Unit 13 Lesson 2 Intermediate Spoken Chinese 6.8.2015 - - - - Had not watched the Chinese cartoon in about a solid month or so. It was an unintended experiment, but I would say my comprehension of the same series (and thus same language difficulty level), compared to one month ago is up by at least one-third. I certainly can pick up some details now, which makes the understanding of the overall story far more complete. I still get left behind often enough, but the improvement was stark. I got NPCR 5 in the mail, since I have made it a habit of ordering the next level book from the one I am about to begin (level 4), in order to motivate me. I picked a random part of a text to read and was surprised by how much I can already read-- even in texts of higher degree of difficulty. I think my character knowledge and vocabulary knowledge are starting to make an impact. OTOH, I am deeply entrenched in this period of language acquisition by adults where one day (or even one hour to the next), you feel on a roll in comprehension and speaking, the next like you went back 2 levels. I have mentioned this phenomenon before as I had it with French and German, it is unnerving at times, I just know by now I can't let it fool me into euphoria, or sink me into despair. 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 204 of 230 11 June 2015 at 3:53pm \| IP Logged
	Unit Completion Entry 86 Unit 13 Lesson 3 Intermediate Spoken Chinese 6.11.2015 - - - - Oddly enough the oral practice sections for this lesson were super long. Literally twice as long as the 2nd next biggest lesson. Which I don't mind, certainly the longest lesson to wrap up. After this one all other lessons will seem small. Also, I mentioned in another entry that I go through sleep phases: in the "good" phase, I can go to sleep at 1am and wake up a 7 in the morning and go at it all day. Then for a few weeks I am crashing at midnight and have to sleep until 9am. I'm in the latter phase right now. Still chipping away though. 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 205 of 230 13 June 2015 at 6:07am \| IP Logged
	Unit Completion Entry 87 Unit 13 Lesson 4 Intermediate Spoken Chinese 6.13.2015 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 206 of 230 17 June 2015 at 12:14am \| IP Logged
	Unit Completion Entry 88 Unit 14 Lesson 1 Intermediate Spoken Chinese 6.16.2015 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 207 of 230 17 June 2015 at 12:22am \| IP Logged
	MAJOR MILESTONE 9 The New Practical Chinese Reader is comprised of 6 volumes and 70 total lessons. Meanwhile, The Basic / Intermediate Spoken Chinese are two volumes with 24 Units / 96 Lessons.Thus it is a grand total of 166 individual lessons. Having just completed #88 overall, I am halfway through this stage of my learning. I still have other activities to perform when I "re-do" the courses as I always do, mainly the workbooks and extra listening/writing activities. It has been a ton of hard work, and now I am on the 2nd half of this initial great climb. Last couple of sessions have been the best of my Chinese speaking abilities. I can now on occasion think "off the cuff" if the topic of conversation suddenly changes, and keep the conversation going. Until now, if things went off script I would immediately stumble from not having "thought out" the conversation prior to actually partaking in it. I am very pleased with this development. 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 208 of 230 23 June 2015 at 4:11pm \| IP Logged
	Unit Completion Entry 89 Cycle Three (Lessons 27-50) Book 3 Lesson 36 New Practical Chinese Reader 6.22.2015 1 person has voted this message useful

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outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 201 of 230 03 June 2015 at 5:36pm \| IP Logged
	The word count is now proving a challenge, especially as I am not noticing a substantial increase in near homonyms, and also words with the same syllables but in different order (yet sometimes with related meanings!), and even homonyms with no relation at all: near homonyms: 高兴，高信 homonyms: 高薪，高新 (high salary / high tech) "dyslexic" words: 建议，意见 (to suggest / suggestion... but also can mean "angry"!!) 统一，同意 (to unite / to be in agreement, to agree... so could be confused, though the tones are different, it's still hard to tell in fast speech). Like this more and more examples now are popping up. The GOOD thing is that I tend to recall that "I have heard this somewhere before" and it forces me to go back and find where I have heard this word before, to find out they are not the same words at all!) 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 202 of 230 06 June 2015 at 6:57am \| IP Logged
	Unit Completion Entry 84 Unit 13 Lesson 1 Intermediate Spoken Chinese 6.5.2015 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 203 of 230 09 June 2015 at 5:43am \| IP Logged
	Unit Completion Entry 85 Unit 13 Lesson 2 Intermediate Spoken Chinese 6.8.2015 - - - - Had not watched the Chinese cartoon in about a solid month or so. It was an unintended experiment, but I would say my comprehension of the same series (and thus same language difficulty level), compared to one month ago is up by at least one-third. I certainly can pick up some details now, which makes the understanding of the overall story far more complete. I still get left behind often enough, but the improvement was stark. I got NPCR 5 in the mail, since I have made it a habit of ordering the next level book from the one I am about to begin (level 4), in order to motivate me. I picked a random part of a text to read and was surprised by how much I can already read-- even in texts of higher degree of difficulty. I think my character knowledge and vocabulary knowledge are starting to make an impact. OTOH, I am deeply entrenched in this period of language acquisition by adults where one day (or even one hour to the next), you feel on a roll in comprehension and speaking, the next like you went back 2 levels. I have mentioned this phenomenon before as I had it with French and German, it is unnerving at times, I just know by now I can't let it fool me into euphoria, or sink me into despair. 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 204 of 230 11 June 2015 at 3:53pm \| IP Logged
	Unit Completion Entry 86 Unit 13 Lesson 3 Intermediate Spoken Chinese 6.11.2015 - - - - Oddly enough the oral practice sections for this lesson were super long. Literally twice as long as the 2nd next biggest lesson. Which I don't mind, certainly the longest lesson to wrap up. After this one all other lessons will seem small. Also, I mentioned in another entry that I go through sleep phases: in the "good" phase, I can go to sleep at 1am and wake up a 7 in the morning and go at it all day. Then for a few weeks I am crashing at midnight and have to sleep until 9am. I'm in the latter phase right now. Still chipping away though. 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 205 of 230 13 June 2015 at 6:07am \| IP Logged
	Unit Completion Entry 87 Unit 13 Lesson 4 Intermediate Spoken Chinese 6.13.2015 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 206 of 230 17 June 2015 at 12:14am \| IP Logged
	Unit Completion Entry 88 Unit 14 Lesson 1 Intermediate Spoken Chinese 6.16.2015 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 207 of 230 17 June 2015 at 12:22am \| IP Logged
	MAJOR MILESTONE 9 The New Practical Chinese Reader is comprised of 6 volumes and 70 total lessons. Meanwhile, The Basic / Intermediate Spoken Chinese are two volumes with 24 Units / 96 Lessons.Thus it is a grand total of 166 individual lessons. Having just completed #88 overall, I am halfway through this stage of my learning. I still have other activities to perform when I "re-do" the courses as I always do, mainly the workbooks and extra listening/writing activities. It has been a ton of hard work, and now I am on the 2nd half of this initial great climb. Last couple of sessions have been the best of my Chinese speaking abilities. I can now on occasion think "off the cuff" if the topic of conversation suddenly changes, and keep the conversation going. Until now, if things went off script I would immediately stumble from not having "thought out" the conversation prior to actually partaking in it. I am very pleased with this development. 1 person has voted this message useful
outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4960 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish, English, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean	Message 208 of 230 23 June 2015 at 4:11pm \| IP Logged
	Unit Completion Entry 89 Cycle Three (Lessons 27-50) Book 3 Lesson 36 New Practical Chinese Reader 6.22.2015 1 person has voted this message useful