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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 33 of 181 27 November 2008 at 7:06am | IP Logged |
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Finished Unit 8 MOD 2, Pimsleur 56. 348 characters.
Some important things occurred today. First, I discovered the entire vocab list for "New Practical Chinese Reader" on the net. I was annoyed at the HSK vocab list for several reasons. Now, with Pimsleur, FSI, and NPCR, I will be racking up the vocab, somewhere around 15 to 20 a day, plus their characters. I plan to increase to 20 to 30 when it feels right. Second, I discovered a new memorization technique for characters that should increase the speed and ease, and thus allow me to memorize even more. It is hard to explain, but basically I try to burn the image of the character into my mind, photographically. I don't have a photographic memory, or anything like that, but it seems to work and I can visualize, probably based on the focus. I can only do it with one character at a time. Also, I discovered that memorizing the first radical (one writes) in the character very well essentially allows you to remember the whole character, because your muscle memory takes over after you write it. (I repeatedly write all the characters I learn at first in a notebook). Third, my lack of real conversation is unacceptable. I should be having dreams in Mandarin about now, like I was in Spanish. This is because my mind hasn't conceptualized the language yet...it is floating in space and not grounded to situations. I realized that I MUST start having REAL convos. NOW. Not livemocha, there is too much delay and the mind treats it differently. Later, yes, but real convo is the absolute best, and really whips the language into shape very fast, even after a short convo. Therefore, I am looking for a tutor in my area that I can chat with. I live in Seattle so it shouldn't be hard. We'll see how that goes! It can be assumed by anyone reading this that I am studying around 3 to 5 hours a day. I don't keep track. Edited by irrationale on 27 November 2008 at 7:10am 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 34 of 181 29 November 2008 at 5:21am | IP Logged |
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Decided to go through the Module 2 review tapes today. Did well, besides the irrelevant FSI specific vocab, so I'm moving on. I have to admit though, the process verb, action verb, state verb thing has made it more complex than I first thought. I get a feeling that Pimsleur wasn't going to touch that, but that is why I am doing FSI as well :).
Finished Pimsleur 58, memorized a fair amount of words...somewhere around 20 or 25, and 19 characters. Really really tired today, I need to get a sleeping schedual going to increase alertness... 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 35 of 181 02 December 2008 at 5:24am | IP Logged |
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Module 3 Unit 3 done, and Pimsleur 61. 413 characters. Memorized fair amount of words and their characters today. Somewhere around 30 or 40 words...didn't keep track. I want to maintain 20 to 30 words a day, more or less, from now on.
I found two awesome things, dict.cn, which actually gives me a context and some sentences for my words to throw into ANKI, and the transcript TOTALLY IN MANDARIN, of Pimsleur Level 3. This will hopefully help accelerate my reading skills, and get me used to reading characters. Unfortunately, I have already found a couple of mistakes in the transcript, but oh well... How hard is it to find a mandarin tutor/conversation parter that doesn't charge 51952$ an hour, and that will HELP me teach myself mandarin, not teach it TO me. Just give me a poor college student for god's sake. I've tried craigslist, and its all too professional and gimmicky (business mandarin, all that BS). I also need some mandarin children's books, or at least simple books...I have no idea where to get these. 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 36 of 181 05 December 2008 at 10:44am | IP Logged |
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Module 3 Unit 5 done, 450 characters. Pimsleur 66.
Due to the insane amount of cards, I am using a different strategy with ANKI. Opening up two ANKI windows, and only putting sentences/phrases in one, and pure vocab in the other. Also had some problems with schedualing, I was getting swamped with cards that I didn't need to review. I moved the schedualing back to default (I had the times decreased). Learned a lot of things over the last two days. Finally learned propositions thoroughly, and impersonal pronouns. How to say "the things that I bought",..I wondered what "that" was going to be in mandarin, or that idea. Of course it is 的, haha. Or at least it is right now. Edited by irrationale on 05 December 2008 at 10:52am 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 37 of 181 09 December 2008 at 3:23am | IP Logged |
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FSI Mod 4 Unit 1, Pimsleur 69, 483 characters.
Trying to get my sleep back in order so I can study more in the mornings before work. Thats my main problem right now! 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 38 of 181 12 December 2008 at 5:43am | IP Logged |
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FSI Mod 4 Unit 4, Pimsleur 72, 518 characters.
Both FSI and Pimsleur are starting to annoy me for various reasons. I am waiting too long to know what I want to say...for example, I still don't know how to say "about" in Mandarin...this is ridiculous. I don't need to mention Pimsleurs dubious choice of vocab. I am figuring out more and more that if you want it done right, you have to do it own your own, and this is just a logical extention of the general process. I ordered a Mandarin Grammar book and will simply start using it in conjunction, looking up whatever I want to know, and memorize. I am also trying to talk to myself more. I finally found a tutor/conversation partner, and I am excited to have actual convos! As of late I have been reading and writing VERY basic letters to people in mandarin, for example... 你好！ 这是我的普通话写。我普通话写的不好，是吧 ？ 我的普通话错了，请你可以告诉我？ 谢谢，因为我需要学很多。在这儿有没有一个 人念这些句子？ For anyone that can read that, I'm sure its horrible...but its improvised ok!! :) Feel free to correct. Edited by irrationale on 12 December 2008 at 5:54am 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 39 of 181 18 December 2008 at 5:37am | IP Logged |
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FSI Mod 5 Unit 4, Pimsleur 78, 580 characters.
The insanity continues. Ok...so..I get it... there is no all-purpose "about" or Spanish "de" in Mandarin. This makes sense I guess...why should there be? Going from Spanish I guess I just exepected it as a feature of all languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 吕明扬 Newbie United States Joined 6057 days ago 30 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 40 of 181 18 December 2008 at 2:31pm | IP Logged |
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in mandarin about is ambigious, it depends on the context. 有关系 is what i would try to fit in to the sentence somewhere. 差不多， 左右 are also used as about. But in the numerical sense of the word, like "its about 5 dollars. 差不多五块美元。
1 person has voted this message useful |
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