|
 |
Miss Kay’s Mandarin Mania | ||
Tags: Mandarin | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| KayJane Newbie United States Joined 4517 days ago 21 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Persian | Message 17 of 20 16 August 2012 at 3:46am | IP Logged |
|
After much consideration, I have decided to continue my trek with Mandarin. It was interesting because I found a way to beat wanderlust: Get rid of everything having to do with Persian. While my Persian book saved from the fire, all of my grammar notes, vocabulary lists, and printed work was destroyed. And no, I don't mean trashed. I actually burned everything. With much-needed assistance, I got rid of any trace of my Persian study and I must study Mandarin.
In order to kick off my renewed journey to Mandarin proficiency, I will set new goals. My main goal is extremely lofty and bordering insane, but I have lived a safe, sheltered life for far too long! Goal: Know approximately 3,000 words by September 2013. While I won't be counting the number of words that I know, I should be able to figure out a rough estimate. Breaking down this goal, I have: -about 250 words a month -about 9 characters a day Resources (to achieve goal): -CCTV/CNTV -FSI Mandarin -Anki (I really don't prefer this, but I really need to make sure those words stick) -DLI Mandarin Reader -DLI Reading & Writing Exercises -Harper Collins Chinese Dictionary (with a list of radicals) -ChinesePod -Learn Chinese Online -Day Day Up Chinese -PopUp Chinese -Wikipedia I believe that by breaking the goal down into parts, it will be manageable. I must also say that this is not my first language learning experience. My first language was Spanish and I got to B1 (with a lot of reading and watching rtve). I never really liked Spanish, though, so it has been strange learning a language that I enjoy learning. My schedule should also be a little less hectic since I registered with the college that I will be attending classes. *If I manage to read and understand Chinese fairly well (75% for dramas and short articles) by September of next year, I will reward myself by beginning to learn Persian that following January. Edited by KayJane on 16 August 2012 at 3:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4699 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 18 of 20 16 August 2012 at 9:10am | IP Logged |
|
Well done and It's good to hear that you will be continuing your journey with Mandarin. I will look forward to reading about It.
All the best. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Waylon Newbie United States Joined 4283 days ago 10 posts - 14 votes Studies: French, Georgian, Persian | Message 19 of 20 22 March 2013 at 3:23am | IP Logged |
|
*Okay, so I had a few issues with my previous account (KayJane) and against my better judgement, I wanted to change the email address I registered with and...apparently I didn't input it correctly (even though I could have sworn I did), so here I am, losing my 200 and some odd days as a member. It had just occurred to me that I could use my old journal, so yeah....With my bemoaning aside, though, I decided that I would learn Persian in December and I have been slowly working at it over the passed few months.
Regarding Mandarin, I will admit that I did make some progress, but after school started, I forgot nearly everything, but now that I have become a better planner, I came up with a good schedule: March-May: Finish Living Language: Spoken World (Farsi) May-September: Work through easypersian.com and hopefully get to a point where I can listen to music and watch television comfortably. September-June: Persian My goals that I hope to meet by September 2014: -C1 in Persian -low B1 in Chinese As of now, I spend between 30-45 hours a week learning Persian and my main resources are Spoken World, GLOSS, BBC Persian, and Chai and Conversation. I am also using some minor resources that I don't use as often as the ones mentioned above. I started tracking my hours so I will have exact updates every week or at least bi-weekly. Now, I will outline my in-depth plan. 2013: Persian 2014: Mandarin + Persian 2015: Mandarin 2016: Mandarin + French 2017-2020: Arabic (MSA + Dialect) Just because a language isn't listed doesn't mean I won't still be learning it, but it will be a side language and not the main focus. Currently, I study Persian from 4AM-6AM and 6PM-8PM on the week days and 4AM-12PM on the weekends. I know I shouldn't be doing that weekend thing the way I am now, but I had to cut back my AP study schedule because I probably lost half my brain cells trying to study for four tests everyday for two hours. And yes, I am aware that at this present moment, my log is quite messy, but I will be organizing it with these sections: - Overall language updates - Persian Updates - Persian Sentence/Paragraph - Mandarin Observations (from my 30 min. mandatory study) - Word of the Week - Junior (wannabe) Sommelier Fact of the Week (in Persian, when I get to an advanced level) *I'm studying to be a sommelier if anyone was wondering about that last one* And now that I think about it, my log has a very misleading title... Edited by Waylon on 22 March 2013 at 3:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Waylon Newbie United States Joined 4283 days ago 10 posts - 14 votes Studies: French, Georgian, Persian | Message 20 of 20 24 March 2013 at 5:25pm | IP Logged |
|
This Week in Review...
In study hall today, I went through my Persian flashcards from the first lesson of Spoken World. There was also a pep rally today, so I went home early-I don't want to seem pretentious, but what has the world come to when spraying cheese wiz on teachers and screaming the loudest are socially acceptable forms of "spirit"? I have gotten verbally attacked for expressing my opinion of the pep rallies in school, but I suppose my classmate are not able to respect an opinion. But I digress...Anyways, I have come to the conclusion that my sleeping habits are less than desirable. According to physicians, teenagers should get about 9.5 hours of sleep. I find that difficult to reconcile with because I usually wake up early, so to get my 9.5 hours, I have to go to bed around 6. My sleeping habits are especially problematic for my study schedule because I have to meditate, work- out, do yoga, shower and brush teeth, hair and makeup, and Persian. Two hours and fifty minutes is not enough time to accomplish everything on my agenda, consistently, every day. I wonder during which part of the day most people study languages, though... I also did about 2 hours of Chinese and 30 minutes of Persian in school on Friday (one hour of Chinese was actually at 5am, though). I realized that I wasn’t really the multiple languages kind of person. I can easily retain everything I learn, but I begin to lose motivation when I learn more than one language. I suffer from wanderlust, though, so that just makes matters worse. So, I am going to continue with Persian everyday and listen to one episode of Coffee Break French everyday so I won’t be completely engulfed by wanderlust. However, I am not learning how to write in French and while I am familiar with most spelling conventions, I am not confident in my writing abilities. So I am not sure if I will just forget about French. The French Dilemma I am learning French because I would like to visit Bordeaux and Alsace, French cuisine, and its history. A large motivating factor is becoming a sommelier, though. I have searched around about speaking French as a sommelier and while it doesn't seem required, it would be helpful. I don't believe learning a language for work is a very good reason, so that supposedly motivating factor is demotivating. I think I may want to take a French class next year, but I want to at least get passed the beginner classes (which, looking at how the language is taught, wouldn't be difficult at all). My main issue is the fact that I can speak okay and I have a decent accent, but I'm not learning written French. Mandarin I went through the FSI vocabulary list that I have and I reviewed the 是。。。不是。。。 construction and the 是。。。还是。。。 construction. I also practiced writing 是，我，你，人，大，and numbers 1-10. In retrospect, I broke my rule for the third time this month because Mandarin isn't scheduled until 2014, so I will be scrapping my 30 minute plan and replacing Mandarin with French. That way, I won't be studying a language more difficult than my main language. Persian I'm at the end of Lesson One of Spoken World and I noticed that هستيد is pronounced هستين， but thankfully I had figured out that it was one of those speaking vs. writing rules (diglossia, maybe?). I feel as though Spoken World relies heavily on one's intuitive thinking in order to figure out these little rules and patterns. I just find it different from most of the "spoon-feeding" courses I have tried. I know a fair amount of words, but I noticed that adding ه to the end of a name can be used in a sentence such as “My name is ____ ” but I could also say “Esm-e maen ____ haest" apparently. I am still wondering why the - aem isn't added on the end, though. For right now I am keeping down the wanderlust with my favorite show...Afghan Star! For some reason, it is so addictive. Goal!!!! As of now, I am at 50 hours of Persian, French, and Mandarin. My goal is 1000, so I will have to do a lot of immersion over the summer. To meet this goal I would have to spend approximately 11.4% of the year studying languages. Of course I don't expect to meet 1000 since I did not start recording my hours until March. I can do about 30-45 hours of I'm pushing it, but as long as I'm actively listening to audio (at the least) I can get study time. I believe 750 would be easily doable, so I may alter my goal. If, however, I meet 600 by August, I will maintain my 1000 goal. Word of the Week The word of the day was Garonne, but while explaining the two banks, I couldn't decide if the Gironde or the Garonne divided Bordeaux, so I will have two words next week after I make a definitive decision. The words will be proper nouns and I will explain the etymology, interesting facts, and other little tidbits related to the language of origin. Edited by Waylon on 24 March 2013 at 6:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
