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TAC 2014 - 鹊 (què) Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4266 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes  Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 9 of 18 21 February 2014 at 6:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Besides going through phrase books, I also watched a number of TV programs. I especially enjoy listen to radio
discussions on any topic. Even if there is a word or phrase I missed I'd write down the approx. pronunciation and look it up with Pinyin. There are certain videos I really enjoy watching while picking up words & phrases along the way. The first is from Singapore available on YouTube which is a half-hour TV series call: 梁細妹 / 搞笑行动 (Liang Xi Mei / Gao Xiao Xing Dong) and later 梁婆婆 (Liang Po Po) where the same character plays the role of a grandmother. Each episode is based on 1 theme and contain simple words & phrases which are easy to follow. Apparently there is no subtitle in English / Chinese so you need to keep your ears open. I recently found a show posted on YouTube from Taiwan: 今晚哪裡有問題：聽懂口音暢遊世界 in 5 parts which is quite interesting. The show was aired in Mandarin in Taiwan and discussed various English accents including Chinese, Indian, American, etc. such as how an Indian person would pronounce: "Can you tell me how to go to the train station"? This is another way of learning Chinese by watching videos of how the Chinese learn English. The other day I was watching a documentary on YouTube someone posted called: The Ultimate 10: Unexplained Mysteries 世纪十最之十大未解之谜 that someone have dubbed the narration in Mandarin over the original... starting with Crop Circles, Loch Ness Monsters, Big Foot, Ghosts, Holy Shroud of Turin, etc. Interesting and didn't find the Chinese dialog too difficult to follow because most of us have read or heard about these things somewhere. Otherwise you can easily locate the original in English and then flip to the Mandarin version and compare them. When it comes to writing the characters I find it a challenge to remember some of them but in the long-run not a problem because I do most of my "writing" including letters & Emails on the computer so as long as I know the Pinyin, I can find a character. To date I've compiled a computer list over 300 words & phrases in Pinyin alphabetic order & over 50 4-character proverbs done using Traditional characters. If you want to access it I can make it available. Right now I am focused on French. Some of the time I would find videos of how the French learn English and study words & phrases from it. 继续努力, 加油... Edited by shk00design on 21 February 2014 at 7:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dhaubles Newbie Afghanistan Joined 3774 days ago 16 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 10 of 18 28 February 2014 at 4:13am | IP Logged | ||
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shk00design> thank's for the heads-up listening/watching
mandarin>english material sounds like an awesome idea. crush> learning to write radicals and the basic characters sounds like something that I won't be able to avoid; I'm going to try and see how I can fit this into my schedule. UPDATE: I've been pretty good this week. I've easily maintained my min. of 1 hour of studies and on most days I'm reaching about 2 hours. I'm currently on Pimsleur 2 lesson 9 and though this is not where I would have liked to have been I'm still pleased with myself for maintaining a daily study schedule to the requirements I set out to achieve. I am finding that Pimsleur's approach on Pimsleur 2 is becoming more exciting/useful/enjoyable- we're now touching on compound sentences! - but ultimately inconsistent and less useful for the communication of appropriate grammar usage. Some examples. He lives in Beijing Ta zhu zai beijing He has lived in Beijing for how long? Ta zai bejing zhu le duo jiu le before having lunch lets go to wangfujing avenue chī wǔ fàn yǐ qián qù wáng fǔ jǐng dà jiē ok, but before that lets go to wangfujing avenue hǎo kě shì zài nà yǐ qián qù wáng fǔ jǐng dà jiē There are many other examples and try as I might to wait to see the logic revealed to me, it just doesn't happen, instead I usually end up rote learning the phrases. Because of these reasons I haven't been able to move on to more advanced lessons sooner, repeating the same lessons over and over again trying to remember both the new vocab and the changing logic. In other news: I've created my Anki decks for the whole of pimsleur 1 and FSI MOD1 and am going through them. Most days I'm doing at least 30m. Goals for the new week (study 2 hours everyday min.): at least 50 cards of Anki everyday or 30m at least 1.5hr of pimsleur figure out a study plan for FSI have a look at assimil figure out a long term study plan to learn basic chinese characters and radicals A final word: despite not being able to do a pimsleur a day I'm overall pleased with myself for being disciplined enough to continue. I am becoming more and more aware of the need for personal sacrifice if I really want to obtain second language proficiency. I think actually that this counts for a lot of worthy tasks. In order to obtain high level fluency or some mastery over a certain skill, whether it be learning a musical instrument, learning a language or getting better times in the swimming pool, significant time sacrifices are necessary. The guys I know who are master guitar players now - where I am not ! - were practicing at an appropriate level for 3-4 hours a day for several years! I think the same can probably be said about people - though I haven't met any as yet - who develop high level proficieny in a second language. I've never really been that disciplined in my life and so for me to see this through and work 50+ hours a week, means I don't have time to watch tv, procrastinate on the internet, excessively idle away with the gf, or sleep late (because it means I won't be able to concentrate the following day). In many ways its very exciting in others its a very controlled and scheduled lifestyle very unlike what I am used to. Hope I keep it up! Edited by dhaubles on 28 February 2014 at 4:15am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dhaubles Newbie Afghanistan Joined 3774 days ago 16 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 11 of 18 11 March 2014 at 8:45am | IP Logged | ||
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BELATED UPDATE:
This week and a bits been pretty steady, I'm back to my usual pace of a Pimsleur a day and am now on Pimsleur 2 Lesson 19. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make my goal of 2 hours every day and averaged around 1.5hours on most days. Presently I do 1 hour of Pimsleur - the previous days lesson + a new lesson - and 30m of Anki. I'm beginning to think, at this rate, that given the amount of time I am able to allocate to learning Chinese, I might be better served if I postpone character study for the while until I have better spoken fluency. I am feeling pretty good about my progress with Pimsleur but really want to begin FSI. My reasoning goes that if US personnel begin with spoken language and pinyin first, then I might benefit from a similar approach. Besides I also would to introduce things like Chinese TV with English subtitles and maybe some Chinese music... Goal for the coming week: maintain 1.5 hours of study: consider switching to 30m pimsleur, 1 hour FSI 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| js6426 Diglot Senior Member Cambodia Joined 4342 days ago 277 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English*, Khmer Studies: Mandarin | Message 12 of 18 11 March 2014 at 9:33am | IP Logged | ||
Sounds like you are getting on pretty well! One cool thing about doing characters right from the beginning is that it opens you up to a whole load of native written materials which you will be able to mine vocabulary from. I don't think there are many books written in pinyin that are native. Also it's super helpful when watching Chinese TV/movies, because almost all of them seem to have subtitles in Chinese, and this really helps to know what is going on. If you just learn to read to begin with and do a small number every day or two, I imagine it wouldn't take up much time and the benefit would outweigh the time you spend on it. Obviously I can only speak as someone who is in the process of learning and did characters right from the start! Just my 2 cents! 加油! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dhaubles Newbie Afghanistan Joined 3774 days ago 16 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 13 of 18 12 March 2014 at 10:07am | IP Logged | ||
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js6426> thanks for your input! I will more than likely maintain some level of effort for
the characters - maybe once a week or when procrastinating at work - but as for the minimum goals I set for myself, they will mostly be dedicated to listening/speaking. I figure if, as a Chinese child, you can learn to speak very fluently with little introduction to written materials, than I should like to simulate that experience for awhile. I want to introduce tv/movies/radio/music and all of that takes hours away from writing/reading. I just started FSI today and am pretty excited for where this might take me! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dhaubles Newbie Afghanistan Joined 3774 days ago 16 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 14 of 18 14 April 2014 at 4:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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UPDATE:
Life's getting pretty hectic up here, despite my lack of updates I am still continuing on in my studies, I have been consistent. I am now on Pimsleur 3 lesson 12 and FSI BIO. I average only 1 hour a day and unfortunately at the moment this is all pimsleur. I find it difficult to do FSI because there are many references to the textbook which make it difficult to do when in transit. I have to figure out a more reliable study plan as I really would like to be spending most of my time doing FSI. Anyways goal for next week will be to average 1.5hours study minimum with optimal 2hours. I really should not have joined TAC as I feel that I am not so inspiring as the other more active members. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5687 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 15 of 18 14 April 2014 at 10:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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I spent most of my time with FSI walking to/from work. I don't remember how exactly i went about it, i think i just scanned through the lesson after going through a tape once and then set the book aside. But it should be possible to get through FSI just fine without needing to lug around a bunch of papers or stare at a computer screen :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dhaubles Newbie Afghanistan Joined 3774 days ago 16 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 16 of 18 05 May 2014 at 4:37am | IP Logged | ||
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QUICK UPDATE> I have been having trouble listening to my tapes to and from work for
lack of a decent pair of earphones. I have now sorted this out but I think this must have slowed my progress- I am now on Pimsleur 3 Episode 21 when perhaps I might have been finished with Pimsleur. Still trying to figure out a way to do the FSI tapes without being attached to a book. I find I am able to do the c1 and p1 tapes but I cannot do the c2, p2 or d tapes without reference to the book. There seems to be a reliance on games or activities that require reference to diagrams that I can't get around. Anybody got any tips for this? On another note, I am in the process of seeking out some 1on1 language assistance for my endeavours. I've heard this can be an effective way to improve, we'll see, I shall try them once a week or so for awhile and let you all know how it goes. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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