The 2012 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread

[laurenth]

Update time again after 6 months:

• "read my first book in Chinese. With book I mean a book aimed at native adults. In my case, it will most probably be 活着"
  

Done! I've read 余华's 许三观卖血记, an excellent novel (活着 is still on my shelf).

Having read 许三观卖血记, I thought I was ready to dive into other contemporary authors. It turns out, however, that 余华's mandarin is really an exception as far as I'm concerned. I haven't found any other author that I could read with pleasure at this stage.

So I've read translations, comics and short stories for kids. I've read well over 200,000 chars worth of fiction (without trying to actively study the vocab).

I've also been “actively”reading short snippets of news on an almost daily basis with LWT (by “actively” I mean: read, look up vocab, feed it into SRS and study).

Next six months: read at least the same amount of fiction for kids, etc. Keep reading snippets of news with LWT.

• In January, I said: " I want to add 20-25 words daily to my Anki "word" deck, drawn from daily readings and listening. "
  

• After 3 months I said: That's way too much. I went down to 12/day and will be happy if I can keep that pace for the rest of the year.
  

I guess I kept at it, however I'm not entirely sure, as my daily “formal” intake of words is now split between three SRSs (Anki, Pleco Flashcard and LWT). I try to be very careful not to burn out and to remember that SRS is a crutch, imho. All I really want to doo hoo hoo is read.

• "Add at least 2 characters/day to my Anki "characters" deck."
  

On track, however, as I was overwhelmed by the number of revisions, I have lowered the “leech threshold”(number of failed repetitions after which a card is blocked) considerably... with the result that 393 cards (on 2412) have now temporarily been removed from my learning queue. That result is a shame :-(

Next six months: keep at it. When the revision queue will be lower, start re-studying “leech” characters.

• Listen to some Chinese everyday, anything
  

OK, mostly passive listening though, as the time available for Chinese is entirely taken by the rest. My listening comprehension is still terrible.

• Continue taking 2 hours/week of formal class
  

On track.

• "Take new HSK 4 if it's not organized too early during the year."
  

There's a session in December. I'll try at that time.

Next 6 months: start formally studying HSK4 vocab. Do mock tests.

[peterlkj]

Ok - so I didn't write out my goals at the beginning of the year so I guess I'm a bit late to the party, but it's good to reflect on progress in any case.

January: my spoken Chinese was getting pretty hot after spending all December working on a project in Beijing with an all Chinese team. Then my partner's family came to visit and I gave definitely the most stressful Chinese speech of my life - telling her family that we planned to marry.

Febuary - April: total disaster from a Chinese language pov - spent the entire time working like crazy and only made it up to Shanghai once for a two day trip. Way too tired every day to even think of speaking Chinese with my now fiancée.

May - now: recovery time... reviewed all the HSK vocab in Pleco AGAIN - back to around 11,000 words in my "learnt" list - still trying to spend 30 minutes a day reviewing when on the MRT etc. Have a total of 26,000 words in the list, but it's a) increasingly easy to learn them and b) probably increasingly pointless to put much effort into them - still - it's there, and I'll keep going... Trying to get good reading habits - going through 圈子圈套 a chapter a day. It should be so easy - I don't usually have any problem to understand the text - but just keeping going more than a page or two is so damned hard.

Also doing 4 hours of skype lessons a week and talking more and more with my partner, as well as watching TV. Very happy with the recovery. Will be moving (permanently) to Beijing in a couple of months, so I feel the extra push now is justified.

Goal for June & July: Finish 圈子圈套, find and watch an episode a day of TV series I can watch with my partner (probably gonna be a dubbed Korean one, based on her taste!), get the habit of listening to 锵锵3人行, read the headline article of 南方周末 daily.

[imron]

but just keeping going more than a page or two is so damned hard.

It gets easier the more you do it

[jbradfor]

now fiancée.

Congrats!

[querido]

My report is the same as last month's.

We're on track to finish CSLPod Intermediate this year.

We're conversing in Chinese at this low but useful level for an hour or so at a time, and this is getting less exhausting.

[edelweis]

May update:

Immersion: it got too much as I described in the 圈子圈套 thread. Gave myself culture shock without even being in China. So I stopped watching Chinese TV for a while, and read mostly non-fiction after finishing 圈子圈套 and 和空姐一起的日子. Feeling better now, I'll try to borrow 圈子圈套2 from the library tomorrow. I started watching the TV series 都市外乡人 but it might have too much drama ...

Eight 15' tasks

Average for this month 4.7/8 (up from 3.9), that's about 1h10 of active studying per day. (but the actual time spent is higher, since for instance HSK mock up test listening lasts 30').

1) pass HSK4.

Preparation for this involves learning the vocabulary (SRS + targeted listening + writing) and practicing with the mock-up tests.

SRS:27/31

Listening: 23/31

Writing: 12.5/31

Vocabulary: 10/31

Mock-up tests: 5

2) drill 600 to 800 new characters (up to the 2100th most frequent one at least)

This must be complemented with daily reading otherwise they just fall from my head.

Up to: 1710 characters

Drilling: 26/31

Reading: 24/31

3) keep attending the weekly class.

This involves mainly grammar, and some speaking, and just going to the classes.

Classes: 2/3 (felt poorly for two days and missed one class)

Grammar: 12.5/31 (should have done more!!)

Speaking/Spoken language: 12.5/31

May tasks:

05-1 Perfect day challenge

Success yesterday (Thursday). After completing the 8 tasks during the course of the day, I had two free hours from 20:30 to 22:30 so I watched twice a 45' TV series episode and then "read" for half an hour from a 2nd hand Shaolin kungfu manual in traditional characters.

Actually, with my current routine, completing all eight 15' tasks does not seem so impossible any more (although it happened only twice so far), but I was starting to believe that adding the 2 hours of passive learning was too much. Well, it is possible, although it means there's no time left in the day for anything beyond work and study. Not for everyday, but doable.

05-2 Review Arabic lessons 3 and 4.

Failed.

05-3 Read the first 3 chapters of Trilogía de las Tierras.

Read only 1 chapter.

05-4 Don't forget to send the check for the HSK4 exam.

Done.

05-5 Get the English SciFi books out of the way.

Failed.

I think I forgot that these tasks were supposed to be "little" and "easy"...

June tasks:

06-01 Perfect day challenge

06-02 Spend 15' on Arabic

06-03 Read one chapter of Trilogía de las Tierras

06-04 Move a dozen English Sci-Fi books out of the way

06-05 Figure out a realistic goal for the 2nd semester to replace the HSK4 one (perhaps I am a little too confident, but so far I had a passing grade on every mock-up test I took)

(still waiting for my Dangdang order to arrive.)

[OneEye]

I've been more or less "off" for a week because my mom is visiting me and my wife, so the majority of my time has been spent in English. My stuff is still packed from a trip to 墾丁, so if I'm unclear on specifics in this post it's because I haven't taken my textbooks out to look at exactly where I am.

May's Goals:

1. Mini Radio Plays (class): We should finish the book, and maybe start on Newspaper Reading I.

Finished. Did not start on Newspaper I.

2. TOCC: Finish Lesson 7

I think I'm on Lesson...5? Or 6? I don't know. These lessons have gotten really easy for me as far as reading and listening, so I've been doing them periodically and not systematically in any way. I'm going to keep going through the book the way I have been, and I also want to work on getting the sentence patterns into my active repertoire.

3. New Radio Plays: Finish Lesson 6

The recordings are getting really annoying with their heavily Mainland-accented Taiwanese Mandarin. Nobody talks this way except Taiwanese teachers of Chinese as a second language, and their students who don't know any better than to say 「垃圾（lèsè）桶在哪兒？」Of course, this is how most learning material is in Taiwan, so maybe it's just that my patience with this sort of thing is growing short now that I'm able to use native material more easily and thus have little need to put up with such things. There's also a lot of awkward, contrived speech (it's a textbook, after all), so I have a lot of "nobody would say it like that!" moments. It's interesting that the book is intended to be like a series of lectures, but when I listen to actual lectures from Taiwanese professors, they (in stark contrast) all speak very naturally and my head doesn't hurt at the end.

I may continue using it occasionally, but it will very much be supplemental. I've replaced this with listening to podcasts (old 黑米公主 podcasts) and watching TV shows (我可能不會愛你 and 半熟戀人 were popular amongst my classmates last term, so it's been those).

4. Shadick: At least through Lesson 22 (finished Lesson 10 today). Finishing would be better.

I didn't do much on the 文言文 front this past month. I think I'm on Lesson 15 or thereabouts.

5. Keep reading, or finish, Harry Potter.

Once Harry Potter got easy to read, I lost interest in continuing because I already know what happens and thus had no real motivation to push on. I've been reading 《死亡筆記本》(Death Note, a Japanese manga), which has really remedied that. I've also been reading newspaper articles here and there, along with picking up some magazine (can't remember the title right now) dealing with Taiwanese politics, with a big story on the riots that took place around the time of 馬英九's inauguration a couple weeks back. I may or may not be starting a new book soon, we'll have to see how difficult it is.

6. Keep up with SRS reviews.

I've done much better with this recently. I'm a little behind right now due to my mom being in town, but it will be easy to catch up.

7. Keep reading other stuff.

As mentioned in #5, I've been reading 漫畫, newspapers, a magazine, etc.

8. Don't quit Japanese.

I haven't quit, but I haven't progressed either. I really need to hit this hard. I start a new term on Monday, and I hope to have Assimil Japanese nearly finished by the end (three months).

So fairly successful this month I guess. I really need to step up my 文言文. I may be joining a 文言文 study group this summer whose main focus will likely be the Shadick text (文言文入門 or A First Course in Literary Chinese). I'll be a good bit ahead of many of the members as far as that, but it should still be good. After I finish Shadick, I (finally) want to return to Fuller and finish the "Advanced Texts" and "Tang and Song Dynasty Selections" sections of the book.

The new class I'm taking this summer will likely be one in which we read recent newspaper articles or watch recent news stories at home, and then discuss them in class. The class is subtitled "口語訓練", so I'm hoping for a fair dose of drilling and error correction. If the class doesn't turn out to be what I hope it is, then I may choose one that focuses on reading about and discussing cross-straight relations. We'll see. Either way, I'm not setting any goals there because there's no textbook and I'll be keeping pace with the class one way or another.

Like I mentioned, I want to work on solidifying the sentence patterns used in TOCC. I'll continue with that as well as with listening and reading the lessons passively like usual. Once I finish studying the book passively, I'd like to (again, finally) move on to studying 思想與社會 passively. I want to take that book as a class this fall, but I'd like to become familiar with the material and vocabulary before then so I can focus on activating that knowledge this fall. Thinking about this now, it probably sounds like a weird approach, but for me it's been easier to learn a lot of stuff passively first and then later learn to actually use it in conversation and writing. This allows me to read and listen to stuff way above what I could actually produce, but when it comes time to produce I've likely already seen it in context a lot, so it's easier to start using.

I want to continue reading like I have been, although I think part of that will be taken care of automatically by the class I'm enrolled in. The book I'm thinking about trying is 《雪山飛狐》 by 金庸, though like I said before, it may be too hard. I flipped through it at the bookstore today and it didn't seem absurdly difficult, so maybe I can work through it slowly. If I can average 3 pages per day, I'll finish it by the end of the summer term. 《死亡筆記本》has been fun, though it's mainly been weekend reading for me. I think I'll have more time during the week this summer to read this, so I should finish it fairly quickly (I read the first volume in two days).

OK, so here are my goals for June:

1) Finish TOCC, continue working on sentence patterns

2) Continue with Shadick every day. Hopefully finish, or at least get close. Maybe occasionally use the junior high 文言文 textbooks I have.

3) Read a lot from newspapers, magazines, websites, and maybe 雪山飛狐.

4) Listen to podcasts and watch TV shows, at least some every day.

5) Assimil Japanese through Lesson 30.

I tend to get too complicated in my goals sometimes, which sometimes results in me not even trying to adhere to them. The important thing right now is for me to do as much as possible in Chinese using material intended for native speakers, to do the work I want to do with TOCC, and to study 文言文 and Japanese a lot. The other things I was originally going to put down as goals (other textbooks mainly) are superfluous when it comes down to it. Reading through 中國曆史故事 (a textbook), while it may help with some cultural background knowledge that I'm lacking, won't help my language ability anywhere near as much as struggling through 金庸 and newspaper articles, or sitting back and enjoying a TV show or 漫畫. So I'm trying to stick with only what will give me the most improvement, while doing the other stuff only when I have time and feel like it. This gives me a lot more flexibility in my schedule, too. Go to class, study from TOCC and Shadick, then spend the rest of the day reading, watching, listening, and talking.

Again, too long of a post. I tend to do that.

[Meng Lelan]

Not doing anything except readying for Middlebury in a month and applying for a position as China project coordinator with the Perkins School for the Blind, but it's a long shot since I'm only halfway through my blind rehab program. Ah well, I guess my 2013 Aims and Objectives will be to just finish out the program.

[edelweis]

June update

Immersion: what immersion? practically none. Should get back to that.

Eight 15' tasks

Average for this month 4.5/8, roughly the same as last month. That's about 1h07m of active studying per day.

Now I feel the need to document a little, because last year I also tried to do those 8 tasks, but felt very frustrated about it. This year it's going better, so what has changed?

(this will be long! feel free to skip - putting it in spoiler tags so that it does not take up all the space on the page)

- lowered my expectations for some tasks (for instance writing, see below)

- lowered my expectations about completing all 8 of them each day - that won't happen every day, even once a month is challenging enough. Instead I just keep a log of what I did or did not do, without committing myself to a given score.

- simplified the whole thing - no more complex schedule with 5 different vocabulary sources for instance.

- bought a smartphone, this helped distribute the workload during the day.

- bought comfy earplugs!!

- switched to anki - 3 way flashcards, variable delays, works on Android smartphone etc...

In detail:

SRS

last year: used jmemorize, ended up with a huge deck which was eating lots of my time in reviews, basically gave up.

this year: switched to Anki on my smartphone, started from scratch with a premade HSK1-4 deck, and I limit myself to 15' on weekdays, more if I want on weekends. Additionally the touchscreen is good for review since I can draw the characters without needing to fetch a pen and paper. I want to start adding HSK5 words now, we'll see how that goes... I think I will need to regularly suspend old cards to keep reviews manageable.

Vocabulary:

last year: had a complex schedule of 4-5 different words sources, wasted time searching for sample sentences on jukuu, wasted time creating jmemorize flashcards...

this year: have been using mainly HSK核心词汇天天学, which has sample sentences and exercises. Last year I also tried to use it, but since the sample sentences are not really easy, it was very difficult. I'm doing much better now, because my reading ability has increased a lot.

Occasionally I also learn some vocabulary from the manual we've been using in the weekly classes.

One thing which is not optimal is that the vocabulary in the old HSK book does not match the new HSK vocabulary that is in my SRS deck, but it's so much simpler to use the book I have that I think it will stay this way, although I will perhaps make an effort to import the words into my anki deck once a week so that I can review them more easily...

Another thing which is also not optimal is that my consistency in doing this task is still quite poor despite how much easier it has gotten. But it was not a priority so far since I was focussed on the new HSK4. That will change now.

Grammar:

last year: I used mostly "Chinese Grammar Without Tears". The explanations are somewhat lacking and there is no translation for the sample sentences and exercises.

this year: have been using the manual from the weekly classes (C'est du chinois T2). It is in my native language, explains the grammar in detail, has translations for all the example sentences (and there are lots of them) and for the lesson text, and has exercises. Most days I just translate from the French to the Chinese text, and when required I do the exercises to be corrected in class.

The class itself was an additional source of motivation although it was not perfect.

Characters:

I have not changed much about this, since it worked not too badly last year. I just dropped the weekly amount from 25 to 15, then went back up to 20, and basically gave up on learning the traditional forms for now - not that I learned them before anyway.

How it works now is that ideally twice a week I sit with a pen and paper and learn 10 new characters, and read and copy some words which contain those characters from cedict. The next day I usually review the last 20-30 characters with Wubi input. On other days I mostly test myself on wubi input or on reading single characters and words made up from already learned characters.

The end result is not perfect, since I often soon forget either the pinyin or the meaning of some characters, but I do retain some (hopefully most) of them thanks to reading and encountering them in SRS words.

Reading:

Last year I started reading novels. It increased my reading ability a lot and made everything else a little easier. Most days I read 圈子圈套2 without bothering to look up words unless I really can't guess their meaning and they appear crucial to understanding the story.

Sometimes I read technical stuff or 圈子圈套2 on the computer with a pop-up dictionary.

I am not really learning new vocabulary from such extensive reading, but mostly reviewing already learned words and characters, getting a feel for how real Chinese is written, and globally improving my ability to guess the meaning of sentences without knowing all the words.

Writing:

last year: wanted to write everyday on Lang-8, without specific method. My inspiration waned after a while.

this year: my goal is now to handwrite some sentences that contain 5-6 words from the new HSK lists, or do writing exercises from the class textbook, every other day.

Inputting the text on Lang-8 using Wubi, and correcting Chinese people's French on Lang-8 counts as "writing" practice the next day.

I think I will try to work up to HSK5 essays next.

This is also a task that I've had difficulty with, and my new goals are not impressive at all, but I'm hoping I will be able to keep at it better in the future.

Listening:

last year: I mostly listened to CSLPOD intermediate and upper intermediate, without much of a method. The lack of a smartphone and comfy earplugs hampered regularity.

this year: having downloaded a bunch of podcast-with-transcript resources from the internet, I would randomly selected a podcast that contains a word from the HSK4 list. Then I would listen to the audio several times and try to understand and retain as much as possible. Afterwards I would read the transcript and check what the randomly selected HSK word was and whether I remembered hearing it. Finally I would listen again to the audio.

I am still keeping this format, but I will now try to select 4-5 new HSK5 words per podcast. I will prepare the podcasts once or twice a month, and import the words into Anki (to be learned in Anki immediately, podcast list to be used later).

Regularity has greatly improved on this task. I like to think that my listening skills have improved, although they are still lagging far behind my reading skills.

Speaking:

last year: I tried chineseteachers.com but had no real idea about what to ask the teacher to help me with. Also I tried going to language exchange meetings, but it's far from home and so on. And, well, speaking is not my strongest ability or interest whatever the language.

this year: ideally I do FSI tapes while getting ready for work, or while doing the dishes. I should be doing langdu at night but that hasn't occurred very frequently. Also I do have to speak a little during the weekly classes but not that much.

This task is still difficult. I have been thinking about changing my writing task to write longer essays, and then book a session on chineseteacher.com every week or every fortnight to get the essays corrected orally, and have the teacher make up drills according to what I got wrong in the essay or while speaking. Not clear whether that will happen.

About textbooks: last year I also tried using various textbooks but somehow stopped. Now I am regularly using the textbook from the weekly class for the grammar task, and occasionally for the writing or vocabulary tasks. But I also received 科普汉语听记 which I'd like to study, and I'd also like to study a 报刊 textbook from the library. How will that fit with the above? Will I manage to keep at it? No idea yet. The closest that has happened this year was counting mock-up HSK4 tests as reading+writing+listening tasks on the weekends.

Now, report on my goals for 2012:

1) pass HSK4.

Preparation for this involves learning the vocabulary (SRS + targeted listening + writing) and practicing with the mock-up tests.

I think this goal is achieved, since I took the test this month and I probably (?) will pass. Edit: I also did the shortened reading+writing mock-up HSK5 test on chinesetesting.cn. Got 191/220 points. However there was lots of guessword involved in the reading, and of course my listening and essay writing will be insufficient since I have not learnt the vocabulary.

SRS:27/30

Listening: 22/30

Writing: 17/30

Vocabulary: 7/30

Mock-up tests: 4 + 1 actual test

I'm now making a new goal to replace the above one:

1b) learn more HSK vocabulary. Each month I will add XX (starting with 120) words from the HSK5 list to my anki deck, and use those same words in targeted listening. Additionally I will write sentences or essays using HSK4 and HSK5 words, and keep using my old HSK vocabulary book. Lastly I may add other words to my anki deck provided I can keep up with it, and I will suspend at least 20 old easy words from the deck each month.

2) drill 600 to 800 new characters (up to the 2100th most frequent one at least)

This must be complemented with daily reading otherwise they just fall from my head.

Up to: 1780 characters

Drilling: 21/30

Reading: 23/30

3) keep attending the weekly class.

This involves mainly grammar, and some speaking, and just going to the classes.

Classes: 3/4 (on summer break now.)

Grammar: 13/30

Speaking/Spoken language: 5.5/30

June tasks:

06-01 Perfect day challenge

Failed. (did not try very hard)

06-02 Spend 15' on Arabic

Done (today). I reviewed chapter 3 of my old textbook. 连فعل这个动词的意思我都忘了。

06-03 Read one chapter of Trilogía de las Tierras

Done. The book is actually getting interesting despite the terribly cheesy descriptions of the machines.

06-04 Move a dozen English Sci-Fi books out of the way

Done.

06-05 Figure out a realistic goal for the 2nd semester to replace the HSK4 one (perhaps I am a little too confident, but so far I had a passing grade on every mock-up test I took)

Done - I think.

July tasks:

06-01 Perfect day challenge

06-02 Spend 15' on Arabic

06-03 Read one chapter of Trilogía de las Tierras

06-04 Move a dozen Sci-Fi and Thriller books out of the way

06-05 Do DLI Spanish tapes while sorting out clothes

(I tested it this month, and added a little Spain flag onto the washing machine's door handle as a reminder.)

06-06 Study one chapter from 科普汉语听记

(uh oh...)

06-07 watch one episode of a Chinese TV series, or a Chinese movie

(restart the immersion slowly)

I need to decide whether I will stay with the same weekly Chinese class in September, or switch to a conversation class, or take a calligraphy class instead. Calligraphy might be relaxing and teach me traditional characters, but I really need to improve my grammar and speaking.

And, yes, my dangdang order has arrived. One of the books is a disappointment (the book was published in 2011, and the online description and outer cover carefully omit to mention it's about Linux 0.11 which was released 20 year ago and they even wrapped the book in plastic so people can't check the inside in bookstores -《Linux内核设计的艺术：图解Linux操作系统架构设计与实现原理》published by China Machine Press - don't buy it!), all 9 other books are as expected although a bit dusty and with bent corners (those were not wrapped in plastic ). Edit: dunno when I will have time to read all that.

[icebear]

Update since March. Overall pretty happy with how the habits set in; there are plenty of days where I only get the minimum of a article read and some Skritter time, but on average I feel like I managed alright considering all the other significant/pressing obligations I had, and importantly feel continuing improvement especially in reading. Looking forward to being back in an immersive environment for speaking and planning on scaling up the the regularity/intensity of the additional habits/routines I've built over the last year or so.

• Relocate to Beijing - should be in Beijing within 2 weeks, for at least 1 year on this stint!
  
• Skri​tter - average 10-15 new words per day (although half of these deliberately are very easy/obvious/low hanging fruit) over 2 x 20 minute sessions. Up to about 2250 characters and 4800 words. Have turned down the strictness (retention 87%) and am instead using the extra time to hammer more on reading of books or articles.
  
• ChinesePod - Averaging around 15 lessons per week - catching up on 12 or so very easy newbie and elementary lessons just for the sake of material to add into Skritter (which I also have some context for) and rounding out with another 2-3 of intermediate and upper intermediate lessons. Should exhaust all lower level lessons in the next month or so and then will focus on just 5-6 lessons at the intermediate and higher levels per week.
  
• NPCR - Up to lesson 36, will finish volume 3 before leaving for Beijing. Would like to keep on a lesson a week schedule through volume 4.
  
• Chinese Reading - Read 活着; read 我的祖国不做梦; just getting started on 猫城记. Many days I skip reading of the novel and instead opt for a article, although I'd like to make both a regular habit. Would like to get into a book per month habit once back in Beijing (or faster, depending how it goes), as well as reading the majority of the newspaper at least on Saturday/Sunday.
  
• Chinese Media - Finished 奋斗; a few episodes in on AA制生活.
  
• Chinese Speaking - used iTalki lessons for around 2 hours a week through April and May. Will scale up with a significant level of 1-on-1 courses once back in Beijing.
  

[OneEye]

June's goals:

1) Finish Talks On Chinese Culture, continue working on sentence patterns

Well, I finished in the sense that I decided not to continue with it. I wasn't learning much from it anymore, so it wasn't worth going on with. I'll still use it here and there because it has helped me to be able to express myself about more serious topics, but I won't be using it steadily or setting any goals with it. I've replace this book with Thought and Society (思想與社會), and finished the first 3 chapters.

2) Continue with Shadick every day. Hopefully finish, or at least get close. Maybe occasionally use the junior high 文言文 textbooks I have.

Same deal here. This has been replaced by reading for the 文言文 study group I'm in/the Grand 文言文 Reading Project. I'm also reading a high school textbook called 《文言文40篇大探索》.

3) Read a lot from newspapers, magazines, websites, and maybe 《雪山飛狐》.

Big success here. Instead of 《雪山飛狐》 though, I'm reading 《文字學概要》by 裘錫圭. I'll do a novel later. I'm also reading the outstanding 《從精讀到泛讀》 The Independent Reader, which is a collection of 52 essays collected from various journals and different topics.

4) Listen to podcasts and watch TV shows, at least some every day.

Not so much here. Not so worried about it either, for right now.

5) Assimil Japanese through Lesson 30.

Let's just say I didn't quit.

I think I can say this month has been my most productive this year. I've read a ton of stuff, and there has been noticeable improvement in my reading ability and comfort. My mornings until my class starts at 12:20 pretty much consist of reading in Chinese, whether modern or literary. In class we spend half the time discussing the news and half the time reading. After class I read some more if I can.

July's goals:

1) Finish Thought and Society through Lesson 7

2) Spend an hour on 文言文 per day, reading texts with the group and otherwise.

3) Continue reading newspapers, magazines, websites, 《文字學概要》, etc.

4) Read at least one article per week from The Independent Reader.

5) Assimil Japanese through Lesson 30 (yeah, same as last month).

[Meng Lelan]

Leaving for Middlebury on Monday. Not doing anything these days except reading 三國演義, which is the only novel in my entire life that maintains my reading attention for more than one page. I think because I can relate to all those wars, warlords, and battles considering my special ed job is seemingly related to wars, warlords, and battles.

[abcdefg]

Leaving for Middlebury on Monday.

Glad to hear that is still on track. Was wondering about it.

[laurenth]

@Edelweis #129

having downloaded a bunch of podcast-with-transcript resources from the internet, I would randomly selected a podcast that contains a word from the HSK4 list.

May I ask you to elaborate on this? Where do the podcasts come from? How do you select a podcast "that contains a word from the HSK4 list"? Does "a word" mean "at least one word"? Thanks

[edelweis]

Well, slow chinese, cslpod, clavis sinica, some of the University of Iowa stuff, Chinese Platform Stories, and some textbook CDs that I bought (NPCR) or that are available online (David and Helen) etc. I even have some RFI stuff, but I'm not using it right now, way too hard for me. You can find lots of references in the Chinese podcasts with transcript thread.

As to selecting a podcast, I have a script that reads a word list and makes a text search on the transcripts. This is not 100% foolproof, since there is no check that the string of characters really is a word in the context of that transcript. I guess you could use a customised Google search to do the same on online stuff without having to download it.

And of course the transcript may contain other HSK4 words and other words that are way beyond my level. I've ended up listening to stuff that is too hard or too easy, but that also helps keeps boredom away since I never know what the topic will be.

Actually using one of those new HSK4 preparation textbooks would probably be way easier, or, if not preparing for HSK4, just follow a textbook with CD.

I just like to mix my interest in programming silly little scripts and hoarding books and internet resources with other interests, and I have not been very successfull at following textbooks on my own in the past.

[Meng Lelan]

Glad to hear that is still on track. Was wondering about it.

Well considering the severe situation at home and at the job, Middlebury is still going to be a major battle just even trying to concentrate and stay on task.

[abcdefg]

#136 -- Best of luck with it! Hope it all works out!

[amandagmu]

Meng Lelan - good luck at Middlebury! Just remember that even if something is so difficult, time-consuming, or frustrating you want to cry, you're not alone and it will be worth it in the end! 加油!!!!

[querido]

Meng Lelan, I also hope you do well.

I had another "flush everything and start over" event.

I'm forced to add physical fitness to my studies to try to keep my brain alive.

For $4.95 I downloaded Cathe Friedrich's "Total Body Stretching - Basic Stretching" video.

If we can and will do that, we'll try the "Low Impact" series; I have permission to rearrange the living room! :-)

The goal is to improve my endurance for studying and for living in general.

Finishing CSLPod Intermediate this year is still possible.

[Meng Lelan]

Thanks to all for your good thoughts. I am here at Middlebury trying to hang on even though the situation at home in Texas is becoming increasingly questionable for reasons I am not going to explain here. In addition, some things about Middlebury are questionable so hard to predict right now what will happen. I may stay or I may go home. I don't know.