Intermediate level, and stuck in a rut!

[tcmzueck]

Hey all,

I've studied Chinese in China for 3 months now, and I'm feeling a little stuck. The textbooks I go through now have about 100 new words per reading, with most of them being pretty specific (like rice paddy 水稻）or something along those lines. I've started to read some of the short stories that have English on one side and Chinese on the other, but I'm curious what other ways could help me improve my vocabulary, other than just rote memorization which I work on everyday. I get so excited when I read the little story books and see a word I just studied, but oftentimes there are a lot of unknown words in there which are too much a pain to look up. I remember when I was little learning English I would kind of browse over those words I didn't know, and after seeing enough of them and their context the meaning came kind of natural. Doesn't seem to be as helpful in Chinese... Any other tips to break out of this rut?

Thanks!

[muyongshi]

Sorry but wow if you are intermediate after 3 months I don't know what you are worrying about, you'll be fluent in no time.

But in terms to your specific thing about the seeing the characters multiple times, it will help, but since the pronunciation is not spelled out for you, you will have to spend a bit more time getting familiar with the character, looking up the pronunciation every now and again and the same for the meaning. Sometimes the meaning you won't forget, just the pronunciation, sometimes it's the other way around.

[Lu]

If you are indeed intermediate (which would be quite a feat in three months), you already know most of the more general words, and so what is left are the more specific ones. This can't really be helped.

If I were you, I'd just go with the textbook (or find another textbook that you like better) and learn all the words. The thing is, you often just don't know which ones are going to be useful, and in my experience, sometimes once I've learned a word it starts showing up everywhere even though I never missed it before.

[wowokala]

Hi, there,

First, I'd like to know the "Vocabulary" you refered to is oral or written characters? I mean whether your aim is to understand other people and speak fluently, or can "read",which means you can recogonize those Chinese characters...

I think these two kinds of "Vocabulary" are not the same because of Chinese's speciality. Just as you know, the pronunciation and its character don't related that much. Somtimes you probably have no idea of it's image of character, but there's no difficulty in understanding the speaker's meaning.

While, as for oral or listening vocabulary, my suggestion is to watch CCTV everyday, especially CCTV-4 and CCTV-10.

The CCTV-10 channel is mainly about education, science and some talk shows and conversation, and usually the interview is focus on some celebrities but not those movie stars, the interviewees are really classic and has a high reputation in China's society. So, the interviews are of high quality. So not only can you learn Chinese, but also get to know our country.

As for CCTV-4, it's an international channel. And there is a programme to teach foreigner learning Chinese. It's hosted by Dashan, he is a native Canadian, but he is the most fluent chinese speaker that we've ever seen. He even can play the Chinese crosstalk

very well. So, I suggest you to watch his programme, and it's just for you beginner. The things he teaches is very simple, but really practical.

And for the written or reading vocabulaey, you can read some bilingual books or the Chinese , hope they may help a lot.

Hope you can come over these difficulties and learn the beautiful language well.

[tcmzueck]

Watching TV is something I definitely should be doing. Listening comprehension is most difficult for me, no question. I'm getting a bit frustrated learning the difference between written 书面语 and 口语. Once I finish with this textbook (实用汉语课本5) I think I'll get one with a bit more emphasis on oral Chinese.

Thanks for the suggestions all!

[tcmzueck]

I think I've found a cure. I've picked up a textbook focusing on spoken language. Things are so much more fun now!

[wowokala]

huh, A Cute Idea~~~

[kumori]

what textbook did you buy?

[Hero Doug]

If you're in China and conversing in Chinese carry around a small pad of paper and a pen. WHen you need to say a word you don't know, write it down and study it.

If you're not living in China, start thinking in Chinese, or narrate what your doing in Chinese, "Pouring a glass of milk" If you don't know how to say "pour" then learn that word.

[tcmzueck]

I got Business Chinese for Beginners, by New Century Business Chinese Series, the Spoken Language version. The vocabulary is really easy, but it's the way the talk that I love. Just like you here on the street, complete with all the 呢，嘛，啦，呀，阿，etc.

[wrbt]

Try "Across the Straits" from C&T.

22 dialogs using two speakers (one from mainland, one from Taiwan) to increase your tingli. The audio is very clear, the topics aren't too boring, and it's got a transcript book in addition to a vocab/grammar book.