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Mandarin: Climbing the Hanzi mountain | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| DavidHallgren Triglot Newbie Sweden Joined 5994 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 2 21 June 2008 at 3:20pm | IP Logged |
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As I wrote in another thread the other day I have decided to begin actively studying Japanese and Mandarin again after break during about a year and half. I also decided to try writing a logbook to track my progress and hopefully have interesting discussions about these languages and how to study them. I will keep separate logbooks for the two languages and this one will focus on Mandarin.
I have been flirting with Mandarin on and off for about two years now. My study materials have mainly consisted of Assimil’s Chinese with Ease and the podcasts ChinesePod and Chinese Learn Online. Thanks to my knowledge of Japanese learning the hanzi has been relatively smooth so far and it is mainly pronunciation that is the main obstacle. However, me and my girlfriend spent two weeks in China in May this year and to my surprise I was able to limit my use of English to one occasion when negotiating prices in a small “hidden behind a oh so secret door concealed as a shelf”-store on Nanjing Road in Shanghai. Except that I was able to talk to taxi drivers, by a train ticket from Beijing to Xian and order at restaurants etc. using Chinese only. This was a huge boost for my confidence and more importantly my passion for studying the language actively again. I went to a huge book store in Beijing (图书大厦) and perused their section dedicated to learning Chinese. I found New Practical Chinese Reader, which I had not read about before but immediately liked after having flicked through it for a few minutes. I read a few chapters from each book and decided that I could probably skip book 1 and 2 but bought book 3, 4 and 5 as well as a few short novels for teenagers and a couple of DVDs. So, going forward my main study materials will be NPCR 4 and 5 (I have almost finished 3 already). I will complement this by shadowing all the Assimil Chinese with Ease lessons put at random on my iPod while taking walks. And to further improve my listening skills I regularly listen to ChinesePod, CSLPod, Chinese Learn Online and iMandarinPod.com which I have put in a smart playlist showing only episodes I have not yet listened to. Since I am studying both Chinese and Japanese I am in the same position as many others on this forum trying to learn two or more languages simultaneously and would really like some input on how you handle this. My method for the last few weeks has been to study one of them for two days and then switch and study the other one for two days and then switch back and so on. The main reason I went for two days is that I like to be able to learn a lot of new things the first day and then have it settle in my mind during night and then review it the second day before switching to the other language. So there you have it. My first entries in both log books have now been written and I will try to write at least a short entry every other day about my progress during that two day session with one of the two languages. Please share your methods for learning more than one language at the same time! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sammychanforeve Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6060 days ago 43 posts - 51 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Japanese Studies: French | Message 2 of 2 16 September 2008 at 9:11pm | IP Logged |
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David,
Have been looking forward to an update but...nothing so far. I am especially interested in how the "2 days Chinese, 2 days Japanese, repeat" is working out. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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