|
 |
Mandarin Progress Report 05/03/2012 | ||
Tags: Mandarin | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Superking Diglot Groupie United States polyglutwastaken.blo Joined 6483 days ago 87 posts - 194 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 3 03 May 2012 at 5:03pm | IP Logged |
|
As of May 2012, I've entered month 5 of year 2 of my Mandarin studies. I can't remember what my progress in Spanish looked like at the 17-month mark compared to Mandarin; it's probably impossible to remember, since knowing something so often makes it difficult to recall not knowing it. But I'm pleased with my progress; the going may be slow, but it's going. My theory of throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks each time has produced pretty consistent results and I've faced very few frustration moments so far. I think as long as I trust the process and remember that fluency is a long and hard-fought battle, and not something you can get overnight, I'll be fine.
My grammar studies in particular have been very fruitful this year due to a grammar book I picked up -- I don't remember the title off-hand, but it's got Oxford in there somewhere I believe. It's full of typographical errors, as is my wife's English textbook, which makes me wonder if that's the current state of L2 pedagogy but I digress; otherwise it's a fantastic resource and my Mandarin has a much sturdier skeleton than this time last year with the addition of several new grammatical constructions to my repertoire. After a short grammar binge, I've decided to spend some time bolstering my vocabulary -- if grammar is the skeleton of the language, vocabulary is the muscle and they have to both be developed to be useful. I've found that my old vocab technique from Spanish carries over very well to Mandarin, only I have to have three entries (Hanzi -- reading -- meaning) and sometimes four (classifiers for nouns) instead of the usual two. Writing things down by hand helps me immensely, and it's been a crucial part of remembering how to write the Hanzi. Without it, I may recognize a Hanzi when I see it and know its meaning and reading -- which is enough, no doubt -- but I'm still uneasy about not knowing how to physically write something. So, write I shall. Right now, the spoken language is an important aspect, but not at the forefront of my studies. I will work on conversation and listening skills when my grammar and vocabulary are a bit stronger, but for now I'm still very much in my beginner stage. I could no doubt have some basic conversations right now, so I'm sure it won't be long before I start trying to dabble in it a little. My big stumbling block right now is reading. If a text is full of characters I know, then reading presents no challenges to me -- reading Chinese is not that difficult for me. But I still have an obvious deficit of Hanzi knowledge, because I struggle to read many basic texts due to the large number of unknown characters. This will only be overcome with diligent vocabulary practice. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Maux Diglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 4465 days ago 37 posts - 51 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 3 03 May 2012 at 9:10pm | IP Logged |
|
Would you mind elaborating on your technique for studying vocab? I've been using Iversen's approach myself
(though coupled with a Gold list-like method of doing reviews), but I'm always interested in learning how others tackle the problem. Do you also study the characters in isolation, or only within the context of vocabulary? While at your stage you probably already have your own methods, whenever I feel uncertain about stroke order, I use the 新化写子字典 (xin hua xie zi zi dian). There's also some good online alternatives though, like mdbg.net . Finally, are there any specific textbooks you're using, or are you working from grammar guides, dictionaries and reading materials? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Superking Diglot Groupie United States polyglutwastaken.blo Joined 6483 days ago 87 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 3 03 May 2012 at 10:28pm | IP Logged |
|
I don't claim that my methods are necessarily the best or most efficient, however it is what works for me.
I never study characters in isolation. The reason for that is that I find that searching for the so-called "meaning" of an individual character can give you an imperfect picture, or even be downright deceiving. Mainly, Mandarin isn't spoken (or written) in individual characters, but rather in words that are often multisyllabic and therefore made up of more than one character. Characters stick a lot nicer in my head if they're a part of something concrete -- just knowing the character 发 isn't enough. If I put it into the framework of my knowledge, which is that tou2fa1 means "hair," fa1zhan3 means "develop," and fa1song4 means "transmit/send," then the character is doing something meaningful. Depending a lot on how far along you are, you'll find yourself internalizing the rules for stroke order as you go along. One thing that can take a lot of the intimidation factor out of Chinese is knowing that yes, there are thousands of different characters to memorize, but they are made up of a finite number and combination of strokes. I had a head start as I took a year of Japanese and was quite find of learning Kanji, but nevertheless, if you write consistently, stroke order will begin to feel natural to you. Finally, regarding textbooks, I only have one so far, and that's Schaum's Outline of Chinese Grammar by Claudia Ross. I can tell you that the book has helped me a lot with my grammar, but I can also tell you that I cannot recommend this book 100%. It's fraught with typographical errors and the author accidentally prints traditional characters as simplified so often you almost begin to think she's doing it on purpose. The good outweighs the bad, but be careful. For vocabulary I don't use textbooks, I just try to make wordlists that follow specific themes (recently I've done parts of the body, things found in an office, rooms in a house, etc.) and do written repetition and get comfortable writing it. The more comfortable I am writing it and seeing it, the easier it will be to recall when I go to read something. 2 persons have 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. |
