|
 |
Mandarin somehow eventually | ||
Tags: Mandarin | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| dcbaok Groupie United States Joined 4484 days ago 46 posts - 63 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 35 19 September 2012 at 4:04am | IP Logged |
|
As I close in on my 4th month of active Mandarin study I am beginning to think that I'm actually going to stick with it this time so I'm starting this language log to celebrate. I've been interested in learning Mandarin for a long time. I've taken 2 classroom Mandarin courses in the past couple of decades, and have had periodic episodes of self- study, never carried through for very long. I've collected a small library of self- study materials (books, software, audio, web links, youtube downloads, DVDs, etc.) Despite this, I've failed to progress beyond rank beginner in my ability with the language. My latest discovery is LingQ where I have now logged almost 4 months of daily study. The passive listening and reading approach feels much more natural than rote memorization, grammar rules, and artificial practice exercises. I'm enjoying the content of the dialogs rather than worrying about memorizing every vocabulary item. In the beginning I felt I was improving very quickly, but progress seems slower now. I understand this is fairly typical. I'll update this log when I've reached a milestone, have questions, need motivation or I suppose if I just feel like it. Hopefully this will be the time I finally break through and learn the language. Edited by dcbaok on 19 September 2012 at 4:05am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4702 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English* | Message 2 of 35 20 September 2012 at 11:44pm | IP Logged |
|
Good luck and all the best on your Mandarin journey.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| dcbaok Groupie United States Joined 4484 days ago 46 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 35 24 September 2012 at 4:21am | IP Logged |
|
I find it harder on weekends to put in the time studying because my daily study
centers around my commute. I'm on the subway for 45 minutes to an hour twice a day and use this time to listen, read and study flash cards on my smartphone. I've spent some time this weekend finding new lessons and loading them on my phone. Tomorrow is officially 4 months since I joined LingQ. I know I'm making progress but I'm not sure whether there's a metric that describes it. I'm finding listening to new lessons somewhat easier, as I can distinguish sounds more easily. Learning to read characters is one of my main interests so I'm enjoying being able to read or recognize more characters. I'm still very much at beginner level. Looking forward to the commute tomorrow - dedicated study time! Edited by dcbaok on 24 September 2012 at 4:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dcbaok Groupie United States Joined 4484 days ago 46 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 35 28 September 2012 at 5:20am | IP Logged |
|
I'm feeling rather destroyed after a demanding week at work, but did listen and read
and do flash cards today. I passed the 4 month mark at LingQ this week, to celebrate I went through my vocabulary and marked a bunch of words as "known" bringing my known word count above 100, another milestone. My local public library branch, which has been closed for 3 years for renovation, has finally reopened. I went today to check for Chinese instruction materials and found a single item "McGraw-Hill's Chinese Dictionary & Guide to 20,000 Essential Words" by Quanyu Huang, Tong Chen and Kuangyan Huang. I'll have to request some loans for other material. Next week should be easier at work so I'll have more energy to study. Edited by dcbaok on 28 September 2012 at 2:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dcbaok Groupie United States Joined 4484 days ago 46 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 35 03 October 2012 at 2:34pm | IP Logged |
|
I'm still using LingQ and have been putting in my hour or so listening & reading each
day. I did skip listening Sunday, but reviewed some flash cards and read a short dialog. I think it's important to do something every day, but I don't want to stress about it and make myself crazy. Slow but steady progress this week in aural comprehension, as well as reading and vocabulary. I've been trying out some more advanced lessons (Beginner 2 and Intermediate 1), as the beginner material has become a bit too simple. The iLingQ smartphone app is a little buggy and has begun to annoy me occasionally. Starting a new lesson is typically a low point because I'm confronted with unfamiliar vocabulary and the bugs in displaying hints bother me a lot more. No milestones this week in language acquisition but do I have one for my study method, I've finally decided how I will use the vocabulary status numbers: 1. New words, phrases or characters. 2. I know the tone and pronunciation when I see the characters. 3. I can come up with a definition or meaning. 4. The vocabulary item is well known, I can produce (2) and (3) easily when I see the characters. Next week: more listening, reading & flash cards Edited by dcbaok on 03 October 2012 at 2:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dcbaok Groupie United States Joined 4484 days ago 46 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 35 11 October 2012 at 3:38am | IP Logged |
|
I'm on night shift this week which is death for learning. My routine is destroyed & I
get no sleep. I'm putting in at least 20 minutes listening daily, did about 2 hours today, but I don't have the energy for reading or flash cards. I requested "New Practical Chinese Reader" from the library and it arrived today. Many years ago I took a class which used the original PCR as the text, so I was curious to see the updated version. Gubo is present in reference but Palanka has disappeared. I'm not interested in textbook learning as I'm committed to listening and reading with LingQ, but I'll flip through it a couple of times. I've also requested the audio for the lessons but am still waiting for it to arrive. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dcbaok Groupie United States Joined 4484 days ago 46 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 7 of 35 11 October 2012 at 11:38pm | IP Logged |
|
New goal: Read stories & books by Mo Yan, winner of the
2012 Nobel Prize in Literature ... in the original Chinese! Edited by dcbaok on 11 October 2012 at 11:39pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| dcbaok Groupie United States Joined 4484 days ago 46 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 8 of 35 14 October 2012 at 12:59am | IP Logged |
|
Came across 加拿大 (Canada) in my vocabulary today, prompting me to review pinyin rules for
apostrophe use, which I'm writing about here so I won't forget. The supplied pinyin is "jiānádà" which I initially read as "jiān á dà" rather than the correct "jiā ná dà". I knew that an apostrophe can be used in pinyin to separate ambiguous syllables so I searched Google for "jiānádà" and "jiā'nádà", finding several orders of magnitude more hits for the former. This supports the idea that "jiānádà" is the correct spelling. Searching Google for pinyin apostrophe rules will bring up this pinyin.info page. Which explains that the apostrophe is only used before syllables that begin with one of the vowels a, e or o. So "jiānádà" is correct and the absence of the apostrophe indicates the pronunciation "jiā ná dà". 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
