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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 6051 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 25 of 181 14 November 2008 at 3:12am | IP Logged |
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Just finished Lesson 46.
This lesson was harder than the last couple, but not too bad really. I'm having no trouble with the lessons anymore. Actually, I have been considering doing two a day..but I am going to hold off on that for now. I can feel the language coming together in my head, I just need the cause-relator and handle future time, whatever it is in mandarin, to complete the basic picture. I think by Level 3 I should be ready to start FSI, or Chinese Reader simultaniously with Pimsleur. By then I will be done with FSI Spanish, and can focus my the majority of my brainpower on Mandarin grammar, and memorizing more vocab and characters. I can use about 250 characters now. Edited by irrationale on 14 November 2008 at 3:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6051 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 26 of 181 16 November 2008 at 4:58am | IP Logged |
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Lesson 48, 260 something characters.
Okay, I am to the point that Pimsleur stops teaching me so much grammar, and starts teaching me uneesecary words. It is already becoming too easy, and I feel I could go faster and learn more. I'm sure this will get worse in Level III, as I waited in Spanish for the PAST I overview and verbs that never came. I will continue with Pimsleur to learn the useful conversational fillers it teaches, as well as the vocab that IS useful. But I will start with FSI Mandarin tomarrow, on Unit 3 of MODULE 2. I have decided to do FSI and not Chinese Reader because 1) I might take a class that uses Chinese Reader, which I hear is popular 2) I trust FSI's method because it has proven results in my Spanish. The only thing I am worried about really is the writing, which I will have to learn totally on my own, with dictionary, Anki, and translating vocab and sentences from FSI. It will be a ton of work. It would be nice to have some support but oh well. Perhaps if I take a class I can check my work with a native speaker. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6051 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 27 of 181 21 November 2008 at 9:31am | IP Logged |
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Finished lesson 53. (Level 2, 23) 316 characters in use.
Started on FSI Mandarin Unit 3 MOD 2. I have begun to divert most of my mind and time to Mandarin. This means memorizing somewhere around 15 to 20 words a day (and their characters), for now. I feel I slacked off a little by only memorizing 5 to 7 characters a day, and I can do more than that now. I hope to get to a steady ruitine of memorizing 20 to 25 words a day off of the HSK A, a Pimsleur lesson, and possibly a Unit of FSI every two or three days. I will start active conversation via LiveMocha whenever I have basic literacy...probably in about a month, I predict. At least this is my goal. It is very imporant to start conversation since I don't have any natives around me. Speaking of FSI Mandarin...wow!!! I am impressed thus far. Basically a SUPER-Pimsleur. Taking listen and repeat to another level. It includeds even a nice lady explaining the grammar for you while you listen and repeat the phrases. I think this may be superior to FSI Spanish...we will see. I am a little worried about the vocab, but I will memorize all the HSK eventually anyway, so I suppose I can choose which words to know how to write and read. I think when I finish Pimsleur, I will get Chinese Reader for good measure. If I am advanced enough, I will get some basic chinese reading material instead or in addition, since FSI includes no reading whatsoever. Edited by irrationale on 21 November 2008 at 9:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Biujee Newbie United States Joined 5849 days ago 8 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 28 of 181 23 November 2008 at 11:04pm | IP Logged |
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Hi irrationale,
Can I just say thanks so much for posting your progression with Mandarin. It has been so encouraging for me to read today as I started Mandarin about two weeks ago. It has been a life long dream of mine to speak Mandarin, so after searching these forums for the last few months I came across your thread and was really happy that someone was going through the same though patterns, using the same teaching aids I am.. Please keep going with your posts and be sure that I will be constantly reading them. I am currently on Pimsleur Mandarin 1 lesson 9. I have ordered Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters Volume 1 and also have FSI and Rosetta stone. Hopefully I will fall into a pattern where week by week I will see steady progress.. I am looking forward to the point where it all starts to fall together and I can start actually conversing with native speakers. I live in Los angeles so perhaps when I am a bit better we can skype and pratice our new vocab etc! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6051 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 29 of 181 25 November 2008 at 6:03am | IP Logged |
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Biujee
Thank you so much for you comment! :) I too am encouraged by people in this forum, especially with a difficult language like Mandarin. How are you learning the characters now? Its good you have the right motive for learning; talking to people! I think if you don't have this as a motive, or just learning the language because it is "interesting", you will fail, or lose focus. Mandarin is a beautiful language, but it is LOTS of work (assuming you want reading and written fluency). Especially in the period we are in, the time where we are still learning but yet cant really hold a good convo...this is NO MANS land! Thanks for your encouragement, and I will definitely keep this going! When I can converse well, I will definitely practice with you! I have finished Unit 7 MOD 2 on FSI, and lesson 54 Pimsleur. Command 321 characters. Trying to develop a routine here...I am thinking of doing one Unit a day (for now, they seem pretty easy). I will study at least 1.5 a day on FSI, 30 min Pimsleur, and 1 to 1.5 writing/reading with ANKI, memorizing somewhere around 15 to 20 words a day (all their characters of course), including the ones that come with Pimsleur and FSI (if there isn't enough I will add words). If the FSI get hard enough (and when I finish Platiquemos), I will increase to 3 hours a day FSI. My routine for FSI will involve doing a drill of the last lesson on the next day, to improve memory consolidation that occurs over night. I will try to do something with mandarin in the morning before work as well, to improve consolidation. Hopefully I can keep this up and be up to Module 7 FSI and 800 characters in a month, to have good written (chat) and spoken conversation via Livemocha. I don't think I pushed myself hard enough when I learned Spanish, I only studied 30 min a day for the first 3 months, and only ratcheted it up on the forth month. For anyone wondering, yes; I study at work (about half of my studying) with mp3 player. I get home and immediately get on the computer and stay at ANKI until my memorization times go beyond the night. This isn't for people with lives or sanity!!! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Biujee Newbie United States Joined 5849 days ago 8 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 30 of 181 25 November 2008 at 9:50am | IP Logged |
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You are more than welcome Irrationale :-)
Yes, you are totally right... This is not for people who have a life or wish to keep their sanity for long. For the last few weeks since I have been learning, I have tried to immerse myself in all things mandarin. When I have been doing mundane things at work, I have my headphones in listening to Chinese radio, always trying to listen so that at least the sounds of the language don't feel alien anymore. It's great when I am listening then I suddenly hear a sentence or phrase I understand.. that feels very rewarding in a weird way!!! The pimsleur course has been my main tool, I also have the Rosetta Stone which seems to give you a totally different way of learning. A few days ago I got the FSI chinese lessons and the book "Learning Chinese Charaters" by Tuttle which I am going to use to start learning the characters today. I think that the characters may give me the most trouble with the language but I heard this book is really good so looking forward to starting this morning!! I am interested in using the program Anki also.. would you recommend it?? I thought I would post below a couple of videos that really encourage me to keep going with Mandarin when sometimes it feels like I am certainly in no mans land, or even too far from ever being able to conversate!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYlnJpvRwX8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WseemkcbXxs 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6051 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 31 of 181 26 November 2008 at 1:38am | IP Logged |
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About using anki...like I asked; how are you learning the characters?
This is important, IMO, because the reading/reading is BY FAR the hard part about mandarin, and what earns it the spot atop the worlds hardest languages. Learning characters is one thing (hard), reading and recongizing thousands of characters instantly is another. I would absolutely recommend ANKI, or an SRS, to help you. ANKI is custom made for Kanji, includes 3 sided cards (character, meaning, pinyin), etc. It is best to associate the characters with the sound/meaning as early as possible, IMO, that is why from 2 months ago, I have been throwing everything I learn into ANKI; nearly everything. It shows me a English phrase/word, and I write the character, check the card. Be sure to do both production and recognition, that way, it will show you a string of characters you can translate back to English. Also, I would recommend not learning the characters themselves, but in the words. Be sure to add sentences later on. By doing this I now have a basic reading ability with what I know. I never bothered with Pinyin. Only sound/meaning and characters. Do whatever works for you! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Biujee Newbie United States Joined 5849 days ago 8 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 32 of 181 26 November 2008 at 2:10am | IP Logged |
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Ahh I see...!!
I have downloaded iflash for OSX in which for the first time today I put in the 14 characters I learnt from the Learning Chinese Characters book from Tuttle. iFlash seems fairly straight forward but I am going to try and check out Anki too as I have heard goo things. I am trying to learn the pronunciation of the characters as well as the meaning at the same time. I don't want to have to go back at any stage because I wasn't thorough initially. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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