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FSI Chinese drills

  Tags: FSI | Mandarin
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
ihoop
Newbie
United States
Joined 4609 days ago

29 posts - 66 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin

 
 Message 1 of 3
16 October 2012 at 3:27pm | IP Logged 
Hey all,

I have a question about the drills in the FSI Chinese course and was wondering if any
on this forum could give me any input.

My method for using FSI has been the following

1. Listen to the comprehension tape until I can understand the dialog and all target
sentences perfectly.

2. Create a "shadowing" tape from the C-1 tape and shadow frequently throughout the
day.

3. Do the P-1 tape after shadowing a couple times. If I can give the correct responses
for all questions at the end of the P-1 tape I will go onto the drill tape.

4. Do the drill tape around 2-3 times, once with the book open.

I can usually execute most items on the drill tape quite well, but sometimes there is a
drill that will really throw me off. I will repeat this drill, but I can never really
do it perfectly. My question is this......Do I repeat the drill tape until I can
execute every drill perfectly, or do I move on when I can do most of it right? I feel
like to do the whole drill tape perfectly I would have to spend a couple days on each
unit, which would slow down my progress. If anyone can provide any advice I would
greatly appreciate it! I know there are many different opinions about learning
something to perfection when it comes to languages....


Thanks in advance

-Ian
1 person has voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4706 days ago

5310 posts - 9399 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

 
 Message 2 of 3
16 October 2012 at 3:58pm | IP Logged 
If it isn't sticking I move on. I have more things to do than nail one particular small
element of a language (which the drill is designed to reinforce). If it really is that
important it will come up again later and if not it's either irrelevant or I can always
go back later and correct it.

90% correct is still good enough most of the time, perfectionism is a paralytic. Get the
Chinese ball rolling, and if there are some leftoever elements to clean up, do it when
you know how Chinese works and understand/have the feeling how to construct sentences and
can pinpoint those small errors more accurately.

Wanting a 100% success rate initially is too perfectionistic for my tastes.
2 persons have voted this message useful



pfn123
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 5082 days ago

171 posts - 291 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 3 of 3
19 October 2012 at 1:55am | IP Logged 
I think Tarvos is right. Move on.

To that I'd add: Mark the drill (whether it seems important or not, as Tarvos said), and come back to it down the road. It will be easier when you come back to it, just by having done other drills. I've gone back and revised things that, when I first studied them, were really challenging. But on going back, I find them easy, and wonder how I could have struggled. I find this to be a good motivator, as it reminds me how far I've come, as well as being useful revision.

Best of luck.


1 person has voted this message useful



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