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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| dragonfly Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6470 days ago 204 posts - 233 votes  Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, Mandarin | Message 33 of 128 20 November 2009 at 9:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for your congratulations!
Almost a month has passed since I posted last time. All I've been doing lately was Mandarin studies: - listening to Pimsleur I (now at lesson 29) - listening to MT's Advanced Chinese Course (I wonder to whom it occured to call it Advanced) - scriptorium of Chinesepod Newbie podcasts (I think Newbie is not challenging enough, time to switch to elementary) - I bought the second volume of my textbook, so my hands are itchy to do with the first one, I'm now doing the last unit in it - worked with a book "Reading and Writing Chinese Characters" - my Anki deck was lost when the system failed, then there were 550 entries. I think it's not so awful as it may seem. Time to start a new life! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dragonfly Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6470 days ago 204 posts - 233 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, Mandarin | Message 34 of 128 25 November 2009 at 3:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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I finished listening to Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese I. I think it helped me a lot. My textbook which is aimed at University students has a feature that many Russian academic textbooks have. It's very particular about teaching pronunciation, tones, intonation, calligraphy, but it fails to teach you speaking on daily topics (at least at early stages). It is supposed you should have a good foundation before you actually start speaking. Pimsleur, I can say, helped me to breach this gap. Now I won't get lost if I find myself in China.
Pimsleur, of course, has its disadvantages. If you only listen, you can fail to repeat the sounds correctly, so I prefer to have printed material accompanying the recording, but Pimsleur doesn't have it. Besides, I'm not a 100% audial, I need smth to look at to retain the material better. So, I suppose, if I didn't have a foundation in the language, everything wouldn't go so smoothly. I now feel a need for a good grammar book. Grammar is well explained in the second volume of my textbook, but there are no drills or exercies. If I compare Pimsleur with MT, I can say, I liked Pimsleur more. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dragonfly Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6470 days ago 204 posts - 233 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, Mandarin | Message 35 of 128 05 December 2009 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Finished listening to MT's Advanced Chinese Course. After Pimsleur the deliberate slowliness of the speech irritated me a bit. Nevertheless, by the end of the month I'm going to revise some of the lessons to get the most of the course.
I began working with a book called "Chinese Fairy Tales". The tales are adopted by method of Ilya Frank: the original text is given, for every sentence there is pinyin, literal and idiomatic translation of the words and phrases, and grammar. If the explanation is given once, it's not repeated any more. So it's inferred that you retain the word when you come across it many times and the number of the unknown words decreases by the end of the book (by the way, our version of Assimil dialogues is remade in the same way). It is suggested in the book that you read a tale in a week and cover the book within a month. I don't think I'll be so fast as I write out every unknown character or phrase, write a line or two of it and then make a flashcard. I plan to shadow every tale thoroughly, to learn every tale by heart. And scriptorium, of course. I'm now beginning to feel wanderlust, but not concerning languages, but language materials. I have acquired so many that I hop from one to another. Anyway, it helps me not to get bored with the learning process. Edited by dragonfly on 07 December 2009 at 11:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dragonfly Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6470 days ago 204 posts - 233 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, Mandarin | Message 36 of 128 07 December 2009 at 11:50am | IP Logged | ||
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If you happen to read this journal, please, follow the link and help me with my research: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=18175&PN=1 Edited by dragonfly on 20 December 2009 at 7:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dragonfly Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6470 days ago 204 posts - 233 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, Mandarin | Message 37 of 128 09 December 2009 at 8:55am | IP Logged | ||
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Done with Michel Thomas Advanced Chinese Course, turnes to Pimleur Chinise II. Plan to finish it by the middle of January.
Anki reinstalled, already 114 cards. Began the second volume of the textbook, working on grammar and new characters. Also working with the first tale. Began collecting material for the next year. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dragonfly Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6470 days ago 204 posts - 233 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, Mandarin | Message 38 of 128 19 December 2009 at 5:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mandarin:
I'm still on Unit I of my textbook and Tale I. Too many new characters, it takes time to write them and remember them. Began listening to Chinesepod Elementary podcasts, later I'll do the shadowing and scriptorium of the ones I like most. Continue listening to Pimsleur II. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dragonfly Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6470 days ago 204 posts - 233 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, Mandarin | Message 39 of 128 19 December 2009 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Time to announce my goals for 2010.
Mandarin. Mandarin will be my main language for 2010. So the resourses and goals are: - Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese II and III - have it done till March; - study volume II of my textbook the title of which can be roughly translated as "Chinese for beginners" and begin volume III (if I don't choose to take up another textbook for further study); - the book of Chinese tales - study 1 or 2 tales a month and cover the whole book in a year; - Chinesepod Elementary podcasts - listen to them regularly, work thoroughly at one podcast a week; - the book named "Everyday Chinese" (the Russian version of Assimil)- finish it by summer. My methods are the following: - when listening to Pimsleur, I try to say all the phrases ahead of the speaker and repeat after the speaker, if the material seems difficult to me, I repeat the Unit 2 or 3 times; - when working with texts (texts from the textbook, dialogues, tales, podcasts) I write out every character I don't know and all the nice phrases, write 1 or 2 or 3 lines (depending on its difficulty), but not at one sit, but several during the week, also I make flashcards and import the words to Anki. I read the text many times and write it 2 or 3 times (at the same time saying what I am writing). Ideally I do smth like shadowing (I don't march as Professor does in his video, I just try to read along with the audio); - grammar - I write out the explanations and examples in a way that is more visual to me in a special notebook and consult it when necessary; - exercises - just do it in the regular way, but I must confess I skip exercies that ask you to count strokes in characters. Edited by dragonfly on 19 December 2009 at 7:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hobbema Senior Member United States Joined 5732 days ago 541 posts - 575 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, French, Dutch | Message 40 of 128 20 December 2009 at 5:03am | IP Logged | ||
I tried pasting the address in my address bar, but it keeps bringing me to the beginning forum title page. I was curious where it would take me. I am interested in your comments on Pimsleur. I myself went to great lengths to develop written materials, making flashcards and lists of phrases, even importing them into Interlex. I think I gained from that, but wow it was a lot of work. I haven't been doing it so much lately since working with FSI. Keep studying and best of luck! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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