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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6907 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 24 31 March 2007 at 5:30am | IP Logged |
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This is a kind of all-in-one post: goal, milestone, brick wall - you name it.
I've been thinking of learning Mandarin for several years, and in the summer of 2005 I finally decided to give it a go. I had to start somewhere - I borrowed Teach Yourself Beginner's Chinese from the library and had a glance at Teach Yourself Chinese (both by Elizabeth Scurfield) which I already had. Just around Christmas same year I got the three Pimsleur volumes, and shortly after, the audio for TY Chinese. By then I had abandoned TY Beginner's Chinese, but used the the other book as a reference (for reviewing grammar). I probably did a few Pimsleur lessons per week - I remember that I had done at least 20 lessons around Easter last year. Work (and other languages) came in the way, so I started all over again in May/June. I had also started watching Chinese TV series in VCD format (no subtitles) just to practice my listening skills. During the summer I was eager to finish the course, and by the end of September I had completed the three volumes. Fast forward to January 2007, when I started studying Mandarin at the university (no previous knowledge necessary). I felt I had to change focus for a while, at least to follow the schedule, and maybe do some other things if I have time. Apart from chorusing the sentences and completing whatever assignments we're asked to do, I also import the word lists into Memory Lifter. Each lesson becomes three chapters: one with all the characters (pinyin as a clue) and translations, one chapter for the sentences, and one chapter for the useful phrases that accompany each lesson. I've thought of duplicating the "words", but as a "non-pinyin" chapter. To this date I haven't yet written a single character (manually). A few weeks ago, after having read so many posts about Assimil, I decided to give it a chance. A Swedish book store sells the courses for nearly half the price of what Assimil itself charges. I do one lesson a day, just as intended. Once in a while I also shadow all the lessons up to the current. Obvious goals: University lessons. One each week would be more than we're supposed to study in detail, and that's what I aim for. Burning the characters in to my long-term memory with Memory Lifter. Chorusing the sentences. --- Keep doing an Assimil lesson each day. I have thought of entering those words and sentences into my program too, but haven't made my final decision yet. --- If have time: Quick revision of Pimsleur 1-3 FSI TY and/or Learn to Speak Chinese (another course I happen to have) --- Semi-passive methods: Movies and TV series My weakness is characters, and for that there is a book written by the Swedish author Johan Björkstén "Lär dig skriva kinesiska tecken". He also has a course (book + two cassettes) in which he talks about "sentence patterns", something he got from the Swedish sinologist Göran Malmqvist. So, I think that I may get some good stuff by reading their books. Somewhere in my collection I have Elementary Chinese 1+2. This will serve as an introduction. I won't write each time I finish a new lesson... :) Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 21 November 2007 at 9:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6580 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 2 of 24 03 April 2007 at 2:44am | IP Logged |
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Heh, I'm in the same (online) class as you, if you recall. Well, I was supposed to be. It's actually the second time I've tried doing an online class (first time was Latin), and I got about as far as last time. That is, not beyond the first chapter. Yeah, I'm a drop-out. To my defense, though, I'm very busy.
At the moment, after recently finishing all Pimsleur, I'm doing totally audio-based learning (well, more of it), combined with Rosetta Stone. It consists of listening to ChinesePod and some FSI (without doing any of the boring drills) all day long. I'm passively listening to it when working, and actively when commuting. It's a hell of a lot of listening, and it does stick (after hearing the same Cpod episode twenty times ... ). And RS really helps with vocabulary, as well as getting some passive understanding of the characters. So, I don't know when this turned into a thread hijack to tell you about my progress, but I don't want to delete all this I've written now. Anyway, keep it up, Jeff. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6907 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 24 03 April 2007 at 4:47am | IP Logged |
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Only yesterday I had a look at the exercises for the first three or four lessons and found out that I could do them without much thinking. (Bear in mind that I have done flashcards nearly each day now since the course started, so I assume the sentence patterns are burned into memory forever;) )
So, have you quit the class or have you taken a... break? :) I don't think the tempo is that high. You could probably catch up and do bonus exercise #2. Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 07 May 2007 at 3:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6580 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 4 of 24 04 April 2007 at 5:47am | IP Logged |
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I don't think I'd gain much from taking the class, actually. Jag trivs bättre här, där jag kan lukta på blommorna. It focuses on written Chinese, and I'm really just doing spoken Mandarin at the moment, trying to get to movie comprehension as fast as possible (and with as little effort as possible).
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6907 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 24 07 May 2007 at 4:03pm | IP Logged |
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I've been busy with a lot of stuff recently, so I haven't studied as much Mandarin as I should.
Yesterday I sent in the third and last assignment for correction - 29 sentences to be translated into good Mandarin. Today I did a quick review of Assimil lessons 29-35, and studied lesson 36 in detail (aiming for the second wave in a couple of weeks). No more flashcards - my laptop crashed a while ago, and that's where I'd saved my flashcard entries. I can easily rebuild the database as I know exactly what I had entered, but I might consider doing other kinds of vocabulary training for some time. Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 20 May 2007 at 4:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6907 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 24 20 May 2007 at 4:03am | IP Logged |
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I started the second wave a few days ago, but will try to catch up so I do every revision lesson on a Sunday.
Two days ago we got the final exam as homework, so that will keep me busy for the following week. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6907 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 24 03 September 2007 at 6:44pm | IP Logged |
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It has been a while since I updated this log. I passed the exam in May.
I've worked more than usual during the summer and haven't had the time to study as much as I wanted. Two weeks ago I went through the first Assimil volume as a shadowing exercise, and last week I did a more thorough study of the first "second wave" week to "get into shape", so to speak. From now on I'll try to manage one lesson a day in addition to my online class (starting this week), so tomorrow it's time for lesson 58 (and review of lesson 9). Oh, I almost forgot that I spoke Mandarin a few weeks ago. Not much, only "ni hao", "wo hen hao" et.c. It was during a weekend seminar in xing yi quan (martial art) in Stockholm. The teacher is from Shanghai and only speaks Mandarin, and although we had a great interpreter it was a very good listening exercise for me (apart from the actual training, of course). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6907 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 24 21 November 2007 at 9:54am | IP Logged |
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A few days ago I did the 105th (and last) lesson of Assimil Mandarin. I've done a couple of the remaining active lessons.
Right now I'm focusing on the university course (final exam for this level in the middle of December). Longer sentences, more grammar covered, a lot of vocabulary... However, things also get easier. I recognize more and more characters. Mostly passively, although I have started writing hanzi in the order they appear in in "Writing Chinese with Ease". I copy each character several times, then the dialogue, the exercises and the fill-in-the-blanks sentences. I'm not aiming for a career as a calligrapher, so it's merely a way to reinforce my learning. There is no harm in being able to write what I can say. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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