Hedge’s Mandarin Learning Log (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

Hedge’s Mandarin Learning Log
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Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log

16 messages over 2 pages: 1 2 Next >>

Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 1 of 16 26 July 2008 at 9:14pm \| IP Logged
	Hi, I decided to start a learning log for my Mandarin studies, both to track my progress and to keep notes on the experience. Background: I started learning Mandarin full time at the end of August 2007 in Shanghai, China. I did this by doing 1 on 1 lessons, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week at a private language school. It’s coming close to a year now, but in that period I have had about 3 months of traveling without any study. Also, I skipped a lot of class and did little self study. My main problem was that I found learning a language using normal “classroom” methods (memorizing the vocabulary for a chapter, then reading it, then doing the accompanying “fill in the blanks” homework) was not very motivating or interesting. Starting Level: So, for the above described period I had probably studied around 600 Hanzi (read and write) and 800 words, but only retaining around 300 Hanzi (read and write) and 400 words (these are guesstimates). I can manage fine in daily life and express myself (such as shopping, directions, small talk, simple conversations), although using only basic sentences. When listening to radio and watching movies, I can only pick up some words or phrases. New learning method: Over the summer I have been researching ways to acquire languages and have adapted a method which suits me. It’s basically the “10 000 sentences” and immersion method from alljapaneseallthetime.com, but adapted for Mandarin. I started using this method on 19 July 08. This is the basic outline of my plan: * Learn 3500+ Hanzi, including writing, using Heisigesque method and SRS. * Review 10 000 sentences using SRS, mined from many different sources. * Immerse myself in Mandarin, listening to Chinese radio, watching dubbed Hollywood movies and read books. * 3 hours per day, 5 days a week, 1 on 1 tutor where the focus will be on talking and getting questions I have answered. Current goals: * Complete Learning Chinese Characters by Matthews, 800 characters. * Learn the 1400+ characters I don't know from Reading & Writing Chinese by McNaughton. * Mine all needed sentences from 40 Lessons for Basic Chinese Course, Book 1. I will be posting “week in review” posts, reviewing what I did the previous week (Monday through Sunday). First week review coming later today! Edited by Hedge on 24 August 2008 at 6:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful
Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 2 of 16 27 July 2008 at 10:04am \| IP Logged
	Week 1: The Matthews book didn’t arrive before Friday evening, so I have been mining sentences from the 40 Lessons book (which is one of the books we have been using in class). I am mining sentences from the start, covering the lessons I have already done, so it’s pretty basic stuff. I started the Matthews book on Saturday and will be focusing completely on this until it’s done. The characters I did this weekend went quickly, as I already knew or had seen most of them. I still want to add them to my SRS, as I have forgotten some and I need to learn all the “building blocks” so I can use the mnemonics method effectively. Went to all classes (total 20 hours, next week starting 3 hours a day). I did my SRS sentence repetitions every day. I did all the Hanzi reps on Sunday. As to immersion, I have listened to some podcasts, but not enough. Watched an episode of Bleach in class and an episode of 家有儿女. Barely understood anything. I watched half of The Incredibles (no English subs) and actually understood quite a few sentences. Only added one sentence, as I just want to watch the whole thing once or twice before I mine from it. Stats for the week: Sentences mined: 173 Total sentences in Anki: 173 Hanzi added: 139 Total Hanzi: 139 Goal for next week is to do at least 350 Hanzi. 1 person has voted this message useful
notespad Newbie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6015 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Japanese	Message 3 of 16 31 July 2008 at 9:23am \| IP Logged
	good luck, I will start my mandarin study soon too . . . but I am like a lazy beginner XP 1 person has voted this message useful
Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 4 of 16 20 August 2008 at 7:50am \| IP Logged
	NOTE: I have been lazy with both studying and updating due to other activities. So here comes some late week updates. Week 2: Did not add any Hanzi on Tuesday or Saturday. Reviewed every day, but not hard enough. Went to all classes (15 hours). Stats for the week: Sentences mined: 0 Total sentences in Anki: 173 Hanzi added: 217 Total Hanzi: 356 1 person has voted this message useful
Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 5 of 16 20 August 2008 at 7:52am \| IP Logged
	Week 3: No Hanzi added or reviewed. Went to all classes (15 hours). Stats for the week: Sentences mined: 0 Total sentences in Anki: 173 Hanzi added: 0 Total Hanzi: 356 1 person has voted this message useful
Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 6 of 16 20 August 2008 at 7:52am \| IP Logged
	Week 4: No Hanzi added, reviewed only a little on friday. Went to all classes (15 hours). Stats for the week: Sentences mined: 0 Total sentences in Anki: 173 Hanzi added: 0 Total Hanzi: 356 1 person has voted this message useful
Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 7 of 16 24 August 2008 at 6:05pm \| IP Logged
	Week 5: As of Thursday I am back on track. Reviewed Hanzi thurs-sun. Added new Hanzi fri-sun. I finished watching The Incredibles and watched the first half again. Definitely understanding more the second time around. Read first 4 chapters of 我一定要找到她. Understood almost all of it, very motivating books to read, although quite simple. Went to all classes except Monday (12 hours). Stats for the week: Sentences mined: 0 Total sentences: 173 Hanzi added: 214 Total Hanzi: 570 1 person has voted this message useful
Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 8 of 16 24 August 2008 at 6:14pm \| IP Logged
	I also updated my current goals, as I will be using Reading & Writing Chinese after I'm finished with the Matthews book. The Reading & Writing Chinese book doesn't have mnemonic stories, but I should be able to do that my self by now. It does however show the characters in a good learning order, which is what I need. Edited by Hedge on 18 September 2008 at 8:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful

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Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 1 of 16 26 July 2008 at 9:14pm \| IP Logged
	Hi, I decided to start a learning log for my Mandarin studies, both to track my progress and to keep notes on the experience. Background: I started learning Mandarin full time at the end of August 2007 in Shanghai, China. I did this by doing 1 on 1 lessons, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week at a private language school. It’s coming close to a year now, but in that period I have had about 3 months of traveling without any study. Also, I skipped a lot of class and did little self study. My main problem was that I found learning a language using normal “classroom” methods (memorizing the vocabulary for a chapter, then reading it, then doing the accompanying “fill in the blanks” homework) was not very motivating or interesting. Starting Level: So, for the above described period I had probably studied around 600 Hanzi (read and write) and 800 words, but only retaining around 300 Hanzi (read and write) and 400 words (these are guesstimates). I can manage fine in daily life and express myself (such as shopping, directions, small talk, simple conversations), although using only basic sentences. When listening to radio and watching movies, I can only pick up some words or phrases. New learning method: Over the summer I have been researching ways to acquire languages and have adapted a method which suits me. It’s basically the “10 000 sentences” and immersion method from alljapaneseallthetime.com, but adapted for Mandarin. I started using this method on 19 July 08. This is the basic outline of my plan: * Learn 3500+ Hanzi, including writing, using Heisigesque method and SRS. * Review 10 000 sentences using SRS, mined from many different sources. * Immerse myself in Mandarin, listening to Chinese radio, watching dubbed Hollywood movies and read books. * 3 hours per day, 5 days a week, 1 on 1 tutor where the focus will be on talking and getting questions I have answered. Current goals: * Complete Learning Chinese Characters by Matthews, 800 characters. * Learn the 1400+ characters I don't know from Reading & Writing Chinese by McNaughton. * Mine all needed sentences from 40 Lessons for Basic Chinese Course, Book 1. I will be posting “week in review” posts, reviewing what I did the previous week (Monday through Sunday). First week review coming later today! Edited by Hedge on 24 August 2008 at 6:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful
Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 2 of 16 27 July 2008 at 10:04am \| IP Logged
	Week 1: The Matthews book didn’t arrive before Friday evening, so I have been mining sentences from the 40 Lessons book (which is one of the books we have been using in class). I am mining sentences from the start, covering the lessons I have already done, so it’s pretty basic stuff. I started the Matthews book on Saturday and will be focusing completely on this until it’s done. The characters I did this weekend went quickly, as I already knew or had seen most of them. I still want to add them to my SRS, as I have forgotten some and I need to learn all the “building blocks” so I can use the mnemonics method effectively. Went to all classes (total 20 hours, next week starting 3 hours a day). I did my SRS sentence repetitions every day. I did all the Hanzi reps on Sunday. As to immersion, I have listened to some podcasts, but not enough. Watched an episode of Bleach in class and an episode of 家有儿女. Barely understood anything. I watched half of The Incredibles (no English subs) and actually understood quite a few sentences. Only added one sentence, as I just want to watch the whole thing once or twice before I mine from it. Stats for the week: Sentences mined: 173 Total sentences in Anki: 173 Hanzi added: 139 Total Hanzi: 139 Goal for next week is to do at least 350 Hanzi. 1 person has voted this message useful
notespad Newbie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6015 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Japanese	Message 3 of 16 31 July 2008 at 9:23am \| IP Logged
	good luck, I will start my mandarin study soon too . . . but I am like a lazy beginner XP 1 person has voted this message useful
Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 4 of 16 20 August 2008 at 7:50am \| IP Logged
	NOTE: I have been lazy with both studying and updating due to other activities. So here comes some late week updates. Week 2: Did not add any Hanzi on Tuesday or Saturday. Reviewed every day, but not hard enough. Went to all classes (15 hours). Stats for the week: Sentences mined: 0 Total sentences in Anki: 173 Hanzi added: 217 Total Hanzi: 356 1 person has voted this message useful
Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 5 of 16 20 August 2008 at 7:52am \| IP Logged
	Week 3: No Hanzi added or reviewed. Went to all classes (15 hours). Stats for the week: Sentences mined: 0 Total sentences in Anki: 173 Hanzi added: 0 Total Hanzi: 356 1 person has voted this message useful
Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 6 of 16 20 August 2008 at 7:52am \| IP Logged
	Week 4: No Hanzi added, reviewed only a little on friday. Went to all classes (15 hours). Stats for the week: Sentences mined: 0 Total sentences in Anki: 173 Hanzi added: 0 Total Hanzi: 356 1 person has voted this message useful
Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 7 of 16 24 August 2008 at 6:05pm \| IP Logged
	Week 5: As of Thursday I am back on track. Reviewed Hanzi thurs-sun. Added new Hanzi fri-sun. I finished watching The Incredibles and watched the first half again. Definitely understanding more the second time around. Read first 4 chapters of 我一定要找到她. Understood almost all of it, very motivating books to read, although quite simple. Went to all classes except Monday (12 hours). Stats for the week: Sentences mined: 0 Total sentences: 173 Hanzi added: 214 Total Hanzi: 570 1 person has voted this message useful
Hedge Bilingual Diglot Newbie China Joined 5957 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English^C1, Norwegian Studies: Mandarin	Message 8 of 16 24 August 2008 at 6:14pm \| IP Logged
	I also updated my current goals, as I will be using Reading & Writing Chinese after I'm finished with the Matthews book. The Reading & Writing Chinese book doesn't have mnemonic stories, but I should be able to do that my self by now. It does however show the characters in a good learning order, which is what I need. Edited by Hedge on 18 September 2008 at 8:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful