The 2009 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread

[querido]

1. (New Concept Chinese for Children vols. 7-8.)

In vol 3 now. Let me clarify: This *is* first grade "for children of Chinese-speaking parents". The goal is to later weave in the (comparable but initially much more difficult) People's Education Press "Yuwen" series for Chinese children in China- partly because of the presumable cultural value of that vast hoard of texts and coordinated workbooks, storybooks and writing books.

2. (Chinese Breeze graded readers level I, six volumes)

Oops- harder than expected: 167 new characters to learn so far, though I am already familiar with most of them. First volume is parsed with Wenlin. Now I'm torn about this goal delaying progress of #1.

3. (Reabsorb "Modern Chinese, A Basic Course")

Same as #2: 112 characters to (re)learn at the expense of #1. This goal is set aside for now.

5. (Tear myself away from economics blogs)

Failed.

For one month I went cold turkey, then slipped recently due to almost irresistible morbid fascination.

Thanks Renzhe for the bump; right now I delete my economics links and try again.

See you next month!

[querido]

Main objective concerning mandarin: find the best audio source possible to learn.

One platonic ideal is found in a test intended for people wanting to work in education or broadcasting in China, the 普通话水平测试 (Pinyin Proficiency Exam).

audio: http://www.szit.edu.cn/pthcs/course/lddown.htm

transcripts: http://www.pthxx.com/01ld/index.htm

Thanks to imron for the links, but I don't know the *exact* source, status, or authority of these materials.

Other opinions are all over this forum, e.g., here

[Shadowdh]

Ok I will add my list here and then it will (hopefully) give me the impetus I so sorely need right now...

1. Read more books, start to finish instead of just start to page 3 or 4...

2. Utilise my study time more effectively as well as study more

3. watch at least one episode of the tv shows covered in the first ep thread on this board a day, even if its the same episode as I will need to cover each episode more than once to understand properly.

4. listen to each of the podcasts I download at the moment at least once a in a day, hopefully more as again at least at first it will prove very beneficial for my learning.

5. Do more writing practice, daily lists and sentences at least...

6. gain more fluency by practicing with my language partners and Chinese friends more...

7. finish and post the book review I have only half done from the great big book give away on this board (apologies to Roddy and Elina)...

8. on a more personal level, train more regularly (weights and taiji) and more effectively... eat better/more healthily...

9. Anything else that crops up that I should do...

*edit* 10. Finish my masters and undergrad dissertations...

Hopefully now I have committed them to a list I will actually get around to doing it, and with monthly updates it should kick me in the rear...

Edited February 5, 2009 at 06:29 PM by Shadowdh

[simonlaing]

Thanks Roddy

Chinese

Chinese writing: Didn't do well on this 0/2

Keep on with at least one Tutor class a week - doing ok though the festival was disruptive

Listen to Chinese radio or Chinesepod - doing this and getting into Ah niu simple songs

Participate actively in Chinese at office meetings.- did this but people would rather I speak in english

Read some short novels during vacations (spring festival is coming up...) - not so good gonig to work on

Use Chinese to teach Migrant worker kids.

New habits- Learning about 30 high level words, with www.mdgb.net and plugging them into quizlet.

Fitness

Go to the Gym at least 3 times a week. good

Work to the goal of pull ups. Change the goal, just be able to run long distances

Keep playing Ultimate frisbee and play a match against Shanghai or Ningbo.-ordering Frisbees to get more players.. so good.

The lack of Chinese writing is a problem so B grade.

[OneEye]

4000 漢字

On the way. Actually doing reasonably well here.

be able to follow basic movies without subtitles (we're talking Disney movies and such)

Eh...need to do more listening. I have started having Chinese TV playing whenever I'm at the computer, but I need to bring my iPod along with me more when I'm out.

find a buddy to practice speaking with - shouldn't be too hard once I'm ready

Not ready.

I'm also studying Spanish a bit on the side for work. Mainly brushing up on what I've forgotten and working on conversation (my reading ability is much better than my speaking ability).

Yeah scratch that. Chinese only. Too much else on my plate right now.

I have a long list of books I'm reading through, but I don't have any specific goal other than to not neglect them. All different subjects - personal development, finance, history, philosophy, fiction, etc.

Reading More's Utopia right now.

I want to be active more than I am. 2-3 days in the gym and 2-3 days of cardio per week is my goal.

I'm sore right now so I guess that's a good sign. I'll probably go running tomorrow morning with my wife.

I'm also in a different job now, so I'm going for a promotion to Store Manager by the end of 2009.

Going pretty well. I met with my District Manager last week and apparently she liked me a lot, so that's good. I'm supposed to start traveling to other stores soon so we'll see how that goes.

All in all pretty good I guess.

Edited March 2, 2009 at 05:18 AM by OneEye

[renzhe]

Bump for a monthly overview.

I've added a goal for this year:

10) improve writing my characters. Be able to write between 1000 and 2000 characters by hand by the end of the year. I'd like to hit the 1000 mark by April, when I'm planning to take the HSK Intermediate.

Other goals:

3) I've finished the Condor Heroes

4) I've read 棋王, I'm going to read Ah Q next, and my copy of "家" is coming some time in April.

5) New characters are coming along very slowly. I'm getting better at the ones I know, but I don't think I'll hit 5000 by the end of the year.

6) My speaking has improved a lot. I attend a bi-weekly speakers' corner, and it really helps.

7) I've finished watching the 2003 version of the Condor Heroes, and could follow most of it.

[querido]

Thank you Renzhe.

3. Reabsorb "Modern Chinese, A Basic Course" AKA "Modern Chinese Reader"

I decided to do this after all.

I'm more than halfway through.

5. (Tear myself away from economics blogs)

Partial success.

There were other severe distractions.

See you next month.

[Shadowdh]

Ok here is my list and progress report...

1. Read more books, start to finish instead of just start to page 3 or 4... This is not going so well as I have to do an awful lot of reading for Uni, but I am getting through more news articles and some short stories, so its a partial success... but once uni has finished this will happen better.

2. Utilise my study time more effectively as well as study more Progressing well, doing more study and I hope better.

3. watch at least one episode of the tv shows covered in the first ep thread on this board a day, even if its the same episode as I will need to cover each episode more than once to understand properly. Have watched the first episode of 天龙八部 and moving on to the second, so good there...

4. listen to each of the podcasts I download at the moment at least once a in a day, hopefully more as again at least at first it will prove very beneficial for my learning. work to do here

5. Do more writing practice, daily lists and sentences at least... have been writing presentations and re-writing articles so good here..

6. gain more fluency by practicing with my language partners and Chinese friends more... needs more work here...

7. finish and post the book review I have only half done from the great big book give away on this board (apologies to Roddy and Elina)... Oh dear, yet again been put on hold due to other things taking up time, but its nearly finished...

8. on a more personal level, train more regularly (weights and taiji) and more effectively... eat better/more healthily... sigh, working on this but not going well either...

9. Anything else that crops up that I should do... so much has and so far I have been covering it...

*edit* 10. Finish my masters and undergrad dissertations.. working on these and making progress...

Over all its going ok, but I still have some work to do...

[Meng Lelan]

Oh, progress report time. Ok, I bump here:

1. Get a Chinese guy somewhere in Texas.

2. Get a full time job teaching first and second year Chinese in a public high school somewhere in Texas.

1. Failing. I can't seem to meet anyone. Depressing.

2. Not there yet. The teacher recruiting season is going to start up again in May. Still teaching Chinese on weekends as my part time job, but I'm still wanting to teach high school Chinese as my full time job. The economy here in the US might be a problem though, I don't know how much hiring the schools will want to do this year.

It is very satisfying to be a (part time) Chinese teacher now that my former students are writing me emails --- in Chinese.

I did start a Chinese Conversation Group here, four people came, not bad at all for San Antonio.

Still going to Houston on weekends for wushu training.

[renzhe]

April, when I'm planning to take the HSK Intermediate.

Scratch that.

I've just tried a practice test and I'm dispirited enough to give up on the idea forever.

[Meng Lelan]

I've just tried a practice test and I'm dispirited enough to give up on the idea forever.

Did the new version of the HSK come out already? I'm assuming you did the practice test for the new version of the HSK?

[renzhe]

No, it's the old one. I think the old one is being offered over here.

I know that there is no way to calculate your score from the number of correct answers, but I was kind of expecting that I'd get most of them right. Now that I've done a timed run, I've given up on taking the test before I'm 60.

[OneEye]

4000 漢字

Not so good this past month.

be able to follow basic movies without subtitles (we're talking Disney movies and such)

Not happening. I need to make a more focused effort here.

find a buddy to practice speaking with - shouldn't be too hard once I'm ready

Not ready.

I have a long list of books I'm reading through, but I don't have any specific goal other than to not neglect them. All different subjects - personal development, finance, history, philosophy, fiction, etc.

Still working on Utopia (putting it down and picking it back up here and there). Also read a bit of Herodotus and Marcus Aurelius last month.

I want to be active more than I am. 2-3 days in the gym and 2-3 days of cardio per week is my goal.

Not going so well.

I'm also in a different job now, so I'm going for a promotion to Store Manager by the end of 2009.

Still going well. It turns out my goal may have been a little ambitious, so I'm changing it to "Get invited to career meetings by the end of the year."

I need to step it up.

[jbradfor]

10) improve writing my characters. Be able to write between 1000 and 2000 characters by hand by the end of the year. I'd like to hit the 1000 mark by April, when I'm planning to take the HSK Intermediate.

Renzhe, how are you practicing writing? The old fashioned way, on paper? Or are you using a computer program?

[renzhe]

It's more about knowing the composition of the characters than actually practicing writing (my handwriting is, and will probably always be atrocious).

I have prepared an SRS deck of the most common 1000 simplified characters, where I'm presented pinyin + definition and have to produce the character. I "write" the character on the surface of the table using my finger, and then compare with the answer (which is the character I'm looking for). It's very easy to see if you can write it or not.

Since I know the top 1000 characters extremely well passively, I can already write most of them, and I'd like to be able to write all of them. In most cases, it's a matter of going from a rough idea of a character to a clear image (consisting of familiar components). If I can see it in my mind, I can write it.

[jbradfor]

Then what are you hoping to gain by your method? Since you're not really working on your handwriting, as you say. And I would expect that by just visualizing it, you're making small mistakes you don't notice. Do you find it helps you remember how to read the characters?

Sorry, didn't mean that as an attack, in spite of how that sounds. It's a real question. I'm debating how much time to spend practicing writing. Given pinyin-based IME, I really don't see much practical need to learn to write. But there's a coolness factor to being able to write Chinese characters that is appealing to me.

[renzhe]

And I would expect that by just visualizing it, you're making small mistakes you don't notice.

I don't think so. I actually write down each individual stroke, usually with my finger, but sometimes I use a pen. If I remembered any stroke incorrectly, I fail that character.

Do you find it helps you remember how to read the characters?

Maybe, but that's not my motivation. Like you said, I write most of the stuff using a computer, so I don't need excellent writing skills (which would justify countless hours of repetitive writing). The most I need is jotting a note here and there, which is a nice skill to have.

My motivation was preparing for the HSK test. For intermediate, you need to fill in the blanks, and for advanced, you have to write a whole essay. So knowing how to write the most common 1000-2000 characters is a useful skill. I figured, since I can read most of those very easily (and write a bunch of them from memory), I might as well evaluate how much effort is needed to fill in the gaps.

[Lu]

Read more Chinese, and perhaps even learn the words I don't know so that I remember them for longer than two pages.

Translate a lot and get paid for it.

(Objective for a future year: translate a book.)

I am reading, finished one book, finished a 中篇小说 BOTM, now reading another book with 短篇 and 中篇小说. Goal is 10 pages a day.

Translating is going ok, 3 poems so far this year, one novella at the end of this year, and probably some more in between. Unfortunately the periodical that is publishing all this and paying me for it is now on its last feet. Which is sad for many reasons.

Next step will be a book. Yay!

[wushijiao]

Lately, I’ve been doing fairly well, I’d say, on working on my Chinese(s). Here has been my plan:

Mandarin

-Listen to 中國從談everyday, plus other podcasts. (I’ve also deleted my subscriptions to some of my favorite English-language, wasting time podcasts, like “Around the Horn”, “NPR Books”etc…so that I can make more time for Chinese listening practice, mainly Cantonese.)

-Read 爭鳴 (my favorite HK political magazine) cover to cover, and read 廣角鏡 (great for it’s sophisticated grammar and sentence structures, which helps me get better at writing through osmosis, I hope. I also like to see myself as a 決策者, or sorts).

-Write more. I’ve been writing a lot on Tianya this week (actually, more like battling the fenqing), but I think it’s good for developing my writing capabilities.

Cantonese

-Listen an hour per day

-Finish all the books that I’ve bought by the end of March, 2009

-Try to have at least a few Cantonese conversations per day, and in the long run, switch to Cantonese working language with co-workers.

[heifeng]

ehh, better late than never

1. Maneuver my way into getting sent to China for work for once..or give up Chinese all together and just learn how to Samba j/k .

2. Continue recording an article every other day.

3. At least read a few articles in 新京报daily.

4. Read all the books I just bought in China.

5. Know how to say the technical stuff I have to say at work in English, but in Chinese...Try to find industry news in Chinese and stay updated.

6. Get back into doing some translation work after I finish some applications and exams..ugh.

7. Practice more E=>C translation as a subsitute for keeping a journal...which I always get bored of writing around the 1/2 yr mark.

8. Oh yeah, hurry up and study for the GMAT, my new standardized flavor of the month.

9. Stay on top of PSC, HSK, and CATTI exam stuff so one day I can finally achieve levels 2B,11, and 2, and complete my all around cycle of torture, also known as my 2008-but-temporarily-sidelined-examination-goals.

1. Ok, finally on China related project...we'll see how this turns out

2 &3. So-so

4. Finished one book, started 2 others

5 & 6. Pretty good here. I think I actually have worked up a pretty good specialized vocab (oh, found some interesting resources here http://www.docin.com/)

7. Started blog, will give link (maybe), after I am convinced I like my format..etc

8-9. Not so much, but I need to start practicing b/c I have another Chinese exam to take in June to be admitted to a part time program I am interested in..fingers crossed..otherwise I'm gonna be in a super bad mood for a very very long time:tong

Other: I've been listening to CRI in the morning; I keep a notepad at work of words that I need to look up later, at night I am still addicted to watching Melrose place, but I at least finished watching 暖春 after a few marathon sessions. Also I've printed out some lyrics to songs so I can keep up my KTV skillz as I walk each day

Score for Feb: B

Goals for rest of March.

1) translate work stuff into Chinese & read more industry related forums

2) Post to blog at least 2 x's wk + occasional longer article

3) get cracking on some exam related stuff..

Edited March 14, 2009 at 02:11 AM by heifeng