My Progress 2013/14

[pprendeville]

Going to start up this as something like a blog of my Chinese studies. I'll try to post in it once a week. Hopefully it will act as some sort of yardstick as to how I'm progressing. I can look back and see where my difficulties lay and gauge whether or not I've made progress and hopefully get some good pointers along the way from all the Chinese learners on here.

Just some background on myself. I've been studying Chinese since September 2011. I'm still at elementary level. This is my third year of a Chinese and International Business degree. From September '13 until June '14 I'm in Minzu University, Beijing. My second year of university was a bit of a write off as we had our third baby and it was really hard to get into any routine of study. My progress practically stalled and I fell miles (km for the metrics) behind especially on my characters after having worked really hard in 1st year. Also, my oral Chinese went nowhere but this was my own fault for not making more effort to practice using it. Given the fact that my wife is Chinese one would think I'd be at a higher level. Up until this year we didn't speak much Chinese together, in the habit of speaking English I guess and it's hard to revert. Also pretty tired at the end of the day after coming back from college and spending time with the kids I'm not really in the mood for practising more Chinese. Our kids are being raised bilingually so I speak English with them and my wife speaks Chinese with them but again I was being a bit lazy by not having practised consistently with my wife when I had the time.

Have got a bit frustrated recently with my progress since arriving here in Beijing. I have found that the first two months have been about catching up mainly with my characters. My spoken ability has definitely improved but to bring it to the next level will require me going outside of my comfort zone. I'm also pretty overwhelmed by the speed at which we're moving through our course material even though the units are short, there is a lot of grammar and vocab being introduced. It seems no sooner have we studied it then we move onto something completely different which doesn't give me the time to actually use it constructively and after a while of this everything becomes jumbled up. I'm not sure is this the way language is supposed to be taught? Recently I've taken notice of the way our kids learn the language. In particular our youngest daughter. If she picks up a new word she will repeat it several times to us (actually over and over until I change the subject - she's 18 mts). I guess the reason is to confirm that what she is saying is correct in terms of pronunciation and association. She might use the word 50 times in the day and touch or taste the object. Kids have that advantage of having time for things to sink in and making sure what they have learned is correct. Would be nice if we were given the time to allow what we've learned to be absorbed but I guess it doesn't work this way for adults. Anyway, moving on...

I have done a few things to try and help improve my Chinese outside of the classroom (actually a lot of this is still classroom related). These include:

- Getting a private tutor who only speaks Chinese, she only has a few words of English. We meet twice a week for 1 hour each time. It was 2 but I found the marginal utility went down a huge amount somewhere between 60-90 mins and after that I was wrecked after already having studied for most of the day before the class.

- I signed up for the University classes on Popup Chinese. I have access to all of the online material and I have an hour of tutoring online per week on Skype.

- I have a Chinese language partner who I go for lunch with most days (5/7). I'm in the process of finding another language partner just to do some exercise with in the evenings.

- I've started watching Spongebob in Chinese.

- Got my wife an iPad so now we've started Facetiming once kids are gone off to bed (she's staying with here family in Hebei province) and going over stuff I'm learning, 95% Chinese unless I don't have a clue.

- Reading more graded readers as I've finally copped on to the fact that textbooks are mindnumbing after a while if solely used (but they have their uses)

TUTOR

Starting off with the tutor was very similar to doing a class which I didn't want it to end up like. I made a few suggestions. Initially I wanted to focus on grammar and spoken Chinese but I've dropped the grammar. It's just too boring to study. I'll do it on my own and try and pick it up naturally through reading and seeing patterns being repeated. I had lived in China for a year before and had a good ear for basic Chinese grammar patterns. The simple grammar in 1st year was easy for me as it just sounded natural, I'd know if something wasn't right just by the sound of it, unfortunately for the more difficult grammar which I didn't grasp back then it's different. Kind of hard to explain what I mean but I hope that as my fluency advances I can pick things up more naturally rather than trying to "learn" the grammar points. Last class with the tutor I told her I wanted to make some dramatic changes to the structure of the class. Basically I wanted it short and snappy. When I was playing hurling back home in Ireland, we had a great physical trainer who advocated short, snappy drills in training. She had a timer and when the time was up we moved straight onto another drill. So I've adopted this principle and it felt like the last class flew by. I didn't feel knackered after it either. It was broken down into 10 mins practicing characters together, 10 mins practicing dialogues - Reading and discussing, 5 mins characters, 10 mins discussing Chinese Breeze (1 chapter, I'd summarise and them she'd ask questions), 10 mins free talk, 5 mins characters, 10 mins flash cards (I make out flash cards for the Boya Chinese book we use and I try to recreate the story with them or just use them to make random sentences to make sure I know how to use the new word).

POPUP CHINESE

I signed up for Popup Chinese mainly because I wanted to get access to a tutor who has proper experience as I wasn't sure whether the tutor I'd got in college was any good (turns out she's not bad at teaching). I also listen to the podcasts and these are definitely much more interesting than what's in our books and more relevant. So the Skype class is total of one hour per week and we usually break that down into 2 x 30 minute sessions. Usually try to cover one of the chapters from my book so it's an open discussion and one of the dialogues. We also discuss one of the chapters from the Chinese breeze graded readers. I find that this is a good way of helping me to speak more naturally because I'm very familiar with the Chinese Breeze content as it's something more interesting than reading a dialogue from Boya Chinese. New words and phrases that pop up during conversation, the tutor will IM me using Skype so I can add them to Pleco and Flaschard them or just go over them again until I know them.

LANGUAGE PARTNERS

As to the language partner, I'm testing the waters here with this. The current partner who I have casual lunch with is not great as she doesn't really know how to slow down to my level and I end up only getting about 10% of what she's saying. I have a simple graded reader that we discuss. Not the most exciting conversations but I'm using Chinese all the same (along with some English for her benefit). Kinda copped on recently that I can't be spending every minute of the day learning Chinese in a indoors so I put up a poster on campus looking for someone who is into sports (running, push ups, chin ups etc) with the intent of limiting the replies I'd get. Got about 30 texts in one day but I rekon 1/2 if not more have no interest in fitness. Plan is to go through the list this weekend and find most suitable person to train with. Gets me out and keeps me fit. Again, plan is probably to use something like a graded reader to discuss while jogging. Partner may have some other suggestions as well.

SPONGEBOB

I found it difficult to watch anything on TV here as I've no interest in any of the shows. Interest is the key for me. Recently I came across a thread here mentioning Dora and Spongebob. I used never watch the latter in English but I love the Chinese version I must admit. Actually, voice overs are better I think than the English version which I had a brief look at. Quite difficult for me to understand what they're saying but I get a few words and phrases here and there and its gas as well. I tend to watch one episode 2-3 times and each time hope to pick up a little more than the previous time.

FACETIME

This is going well so far. My wife is helping me review the chapters of my college textbook (Boya Chinese) and she basically quizzes me on the contents to make sure I understand everything. I'm forcing myself not to use English with her during these sessions and it's slowly paying dividends.

GRADED READERS

I got most of the Chinese Breeze series last year. It was slow going at the time even reading a page but now I can get 90% of the content on the first read so it's much more enjoyable when you don't have to consult Pleco every 2nd character. I have to read it 3 times to fully understand it however. I asked one of my classmates would he be interested in reading some of the books and we could meet up and discuss them. At the moment were reading through 错错错 and 你最喜欢谁. He reads a chapter of one of the books and I read a chapter of the other and then we swap. Once were done reading a chapter of each book we meet up and we discussed in Chinese the chapters constant and summarise it. It's much easier to practice speaking Chinese with somebody this way. So I'm looking forward to writing about The Secret Garden on the thread posted earlier today.

One thing I'm finding especially difficult is that I'm trying to hit all the bases, i.e. I'm trying to cover all materials we're learning in class as well as reading additional material such as Chinese graded readers like the Chinese Breeze series. Just focusing on college work I know is not enough but if I don't put enough time into that I don't perform very well in classes. It feels like a catch 22 situation where if I don't put enough time into that college work I don't know it very well but it's pretty boring in comparison with for example watching SpongebobBob or reading Chinese graded readers.

I think this post has gone on long enough. All feedback welcome. Cheers.

[Marguerite]

Sounds like you're really putting some effort in now, pprendeville. I especially like the "drill" method you mention, because that seems like it would keep the brain focused briefly on short, concrete tasks. Have you tried doing the same with the balance between college work and the "fun stuff"? Or maybe just do enough to get by in the college bits for now, and try to get the grammar and whatnot from 1) the sessions with your wife and 2) the fun stuff. Then, as you know more, the college bits might start getting easier. (Alternately, for each grammar topic you cover, try to find examples of it in Spongebob or the readers, or use it with your language partners.)

 

I found this the other day and thought it was surprisingly funny. Maybe you and your teachers / partners could get together and create something like it based on the other readers in the series?

YouTube parody of "Two Children Seeking the Joy Bridge" (I haven't found a YouKu version yet, but maybe it's up there.) Since the language is based on the graded reader, it's pretty basic, and they speak slowly. I'm also fairly certain the people in the video are putting on bad 'Chinese learner' accents, too.

[imron]

so I put up a poster on campus looking for someone who is into sports (running, push ups, chin ups etc)

The best way to find someone into sports is to find out where they do sports on campus and go and do sports there.  Guaranteed there will be people doing this somewhere at your university - just go to the running track, or the exercise parks, or wherever and just join in.  Likewise your university will almost certainly have various different clubs and associations.  Find one related to sport/fitness and join it.  That will be much more effective at finding people with a similar interest compared to just sticking up a poster.

 

I'm also pretty overwhelmed by the speed at which we're moving through our course material

One thing I'm finding especially difficult is that I'm trying to hit all the bases,

Keep doing that - even if it feels like you are missing them.  What is actually happening is that you're constantly being exposed to new things and constantly pushing your boundaries, and this makes you constantly feel that you're not making any progress because everything is always new.  The reality is, you are making progress, it just doesn't seem that way when compared to the day before.  Look back at the stuff you were doing 2 months ago and that you found difficult.  I bet you don't find it anywhere near as difficult now.  That means you're learning, so keep doing what you're doing.  As long as you put in the work, every step will bring you closer to your ultimate goal.

[roddy]

Quite the write-up, looking forward to following your progress. 

 

Don't forget for sports stuff you've also got 首都体育馆 just down the road from you at 白石桥. I might have mentioned, but I used to live round there many years ago - in the big ugly brown buildings over the road from the library. 

[abcdefg]

Going to start up this as something like a blog of my Chinese studies. I'll try to post in it once a week.

 

The comprehensive writeup is great as a way of taking an initial inventory, but I think once a week is too often to critically assess yourself. It will lead to hang wringing and despair because small gains are not always immediately apparent.

 

Learning Chinese is like any other long-term process in that there will be normal fluctuations in your rate of forward progress. Sometimes you will think you have stalled when you really haven't. This relates to the last part of Imron's point above in #3. 

 

I know people who are trying to lose weight who weigh themselves every single day and get discouraged if today is not measurably better than yesterday. Weight loss doesn't work that way. Needs to be viewed through a different lens over a longer span of time. Learning Chinese is similar in that respect.

[Meng Lelan]

>>>YouTube parody of "Two Children Seeking the Joy Bridge"

Oh I nearly passed away from this parody being funny to no end whatsoever and even forwarded the link to my three boys for their viewing.

[tysond]

Haha they have made 错错错 too.  I love the background music while the detective cracks the case.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BLiXZDFfhI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUqMbtNAkGsRSyoENQU59ZDw

 

 

[Meng Lelan]

Another Andy Nguyen Parody. This guy is stellar. Quick, let's start a new thread on parodies of Chinese readers.

[pprendeville]

Week 1 - Update

辅导

上个星期我有两节课跟我Popup Chinese的辅导老帅。先我问她一个谜语。在chinesereadingpractice.com找到了。（it goes like this 怎么说？）：我有面没有口，有四只脚没有手，虽我有四只脚自己不会走。我是什么？她猜对了很快。我有一点儿惊奇。我不会猜这个车西是什么。我感觉有一点儿笨蛋。然后我们讨论秘密花园一会儿。如果有一些语法我不太清楚她会给我用简单汉语说清楚。最主要之间的区别和她还有别的老帅是她如道哪种语言用和我（what I'm trying to say here is "I suppose the main difference between this tutor and others is that she knows the appropriate level of language to use with me". She has more subtle skills than this but I'm just going to point out that one which is really important for me).

上星期我没见面我民族辅导的老帅。我们安排明天见面。

语言伙伴(language partner??)

最近我的语言伙伴晚点儿下课。有的时候她给我发短信说她有事，不能跟我见面所以我觉得我会换一下儿別一个人。

海绵宝宝

我非常高兴找到了这个漫㐫。Most days I try to watch at least 1 episode 怎么说（我不习惯写这么多我自记的汉字。我现在累死要命）。看更多一个episode，会更了解漫㐫人说什么（This sentence is definitely wrong and I can't remember what Chinese word is used to describe a cartoon character). 我和我的同学一起看它。看完一戶我们问一起几个问题，比如说你最喜欢哪一个隌分，我们也开玩笑。

FaceTime (有汉语名字吗）

Too tired to write Chinese now so taking the easy option.Getting this in most nights with my wife and it's good to review previous chapters from the book. I find it much easier doing it 2nd/3rd time round and it tends to stick a little better in my mind.

分级读物

Read a few chapters of 你最喜欢谁. Discussing it with a classmate is interesting as I can visualise what he is saying and it helps to hear someone's else's take on events in the book. Sometimes I can visualise a character in my minds eye when I hear it being spoken in context (but outside the context of our class books - heard the word 脆 in Spongebob yesterday and it has stuck now which is great) which before I found difficult to do.

Thanks to everyone for all the tips and advice. I'm up the walls at the moment so I don't have time to reply individually but thanks to all especially for correcting my Chinese. I must also take the time to rewrite it by hand so I can learn from my mistakes. That's where the real learning will take place. I have to prepare for a performance which is going to be held on 27 Nov. Our class doing a marriage thing (my English is gone to the dogs) which does be on Chinese TV. Should be a bit of craic I imagine. Teacher prepared the dialogue but I don't fancy trying to learn it off as last time I did that I went blank up on stage. I don't like learning stuff off unless I've come up with it myself. It's just much harder and there's loads of new vocab in there. So I plan to rewrite some of the content in my own words and might post up here for cross reference if time permits. I'm the presenter by the way. Also have to do this business project as part of my college year which is a real pain in the arse as it takes away from my language study (it's done through English and intended to develop our business awareness skills here which I know is necessary but I'm under enough of stress already).

《相亲男女》独幕剧 剧本

场景：电视相亲节目

人物：主持人——来自爱尔兰

女嘉宾——来自中国的白福梅，人送昵称白富美。向往浪漫的异国爱情，但是！已婚。

一号男嘉宾——来自法国，自大多情，会唱歌

二号男嘉宾——来自立陶宛，居家型好男人，想要很多孩子，大于等于5个。

三号男嘉宾——来自乌兹别克斯坦，自恋，娘炮，能跳舞

四号男嘉宾——来自意大利，热情，具有艺术气息，爱喝酒。

五号男嘉宾——来自……，运动肌肉男，但事实上是个文艺小清新，出口成诗。

老公：女嘉宾白福梅的老公。

旁白：

所谓男大当婚，女大当嫁。每当月圆之夜，你是否也在望月兴叹，孤独倍增，希望有一个肩膀依靠话心肠。这样的孤寂对于一个孤身在异国的学子来讲，更为浓重！而这个留学中国的你，是否也想邂逅一个中国女孩，能够漫步在北京的大街小巷，顺便练习汉语呢？

主持人：唉呀妈呀，可想死我了（东北口音），你们好吗？（跟观众热情的打招呼）。欢迎大家来到《相亲男女》的民族大学“留学生”专场，我是你们最爱的主持人——李耀宗。（飞吻）早闻民大帅哥美女如云，（孙悟空姿势）今日一见，果真如此。真是后悔结婚太早啊。（摇头）

啊，言归正传，《相亲男女》“留学生”专场，经过了九九八十一道工序，大火狂炒五个小时，小火炖了十天十夜之后，终于挑出了五位如花似玉，貌比潘安的男嘉宾，让我们期待他们今天的表现吧。

旁白：（音乐起）有请我们五位人家人爱，花见花开，车见爆胎的男嘉宾闪亮登场。

首先是一号男嘉宾

一号：（仰着头，趾高气昂的走上来，戴着墨镜，走一段路以后转身）高端大气上档次，低调奢华有内涵。爱享受、爱奢侈、爱放纵，我不是穷人，我不是救世主，我就是我，来自浪漫的法兰西的李明智，（摘下墨镜）相信大家一定会觉得我才是高富帅的代言人。

现在让我们有请二号男嘉宾登场

二号：（抱着一个孩子上场，还有孩子的啼哭声）我是来自立陶宛的百分百居家好男人尤曼迪。不想做晚饭，没关系，我来做；不想洗衣服，没关系，我来洗；不想带孩子，没关系，我来带。我的理想，成为成功女人背后的小男人。（孩子啼哭）哦，宝贝，不哭不哭。

下面一位男嘉宾会给我们带给什么样的惊喜呢，大家请期待。

三号：（梳着摩斯头，一扭一扭的走上来，手上拿着化妆盒，说话尖声尖气）不要问我是谁，因为我不会告诉你我是乌兹别克斯坦的第一美男子，（照照镜子）我知道我来这个节目一定会有很多少女心碎的，因为我不仅比男孩子帅，最重要的是我让女孩们也觉得自己不美了，摄像师记得给个特写哦，对了，忘记说我的名字了，我是巴哈，巴哈的巴，巴哈的哈。还有，对我说话要小声一点，人家会害怕的啦~~。

Oh my god,第一次见到这样的男嘉宾，希望下一位要正常一点

四号：（背着画板）哦，美丽的世界啊！为什么我的眼里常含着泪水，是因为我爱的这个世界太美丽。世人都笑我太疯癫，我却笑世人看不到美。我的眼睛是专门用来发现美的（推一推自己的眼睛）天啊，这里实在太美了，我一定要把他画下来（取下画板，走到自己的地方，坐在地上画起了）

嘿，四号，四号男嘉宾，你还没介绍你的名字呢。算了，我们的艺术家已经完全沉醉在自己的世界里了，那么我来介绍一下吧，四号男嘉宾，达里奥，来自达芬奇的故乡意大利。

现在，让我们有请最后一位男嘉宾

五号：（转篮球，迈着大步走上来）我是。。。。，（秀肌肉）我是肌肉男，也是小清新。（朗诵的口气）啊！美丽的女嘉宾，我要为你朗诵一首诗，（一颗会开花的树/教我如何不想她）

在介绍完我们这五位优秀（手比引号）的男嘉宾之后，现在全场的观众朋友们，用你们最最热烈的掌声欢迎我们今天第（话还没说完）

女嘉宾：（故作害羞状，用手绞头发）感谢CCTV,感谢MTV，感谢民大电视台，感谢daddy，感谢mummy，让人家有机会在这里和大家见面，小女子名叫白福梅，年方18，金陵人氏。小女子这厢有理了（半蹲作揖）。

主持人：通过刚才男嘉宾们的介绍，相信你对他们也有了一定的了解，现在，你可以问他们每个人一个问题，最后选出两个人进行终极PK。

女嘉宾：一号男嘉宾，你除了有钱，还会什么？

一号：哦，我的女神，我还会唱歌，（爱情买卖歌词）

女嘉宾：哇塞，你唱的实在是太好了。那二号男嘉宾，你说你可以带孩子，那你想要几个孩子呢？

二号：（抖着怀里的孩子）最少得五个吧

女嘉宾：什么？（捂嘴惊讶状）五个？你被pass了

二号：为什么？我这种优质的好男人竟然也会被pass掉，为什么？（痛哭下场）

女嘉宾：三号男嘉宾，你的皮肤真好。

三号：谢谢。

女嘉宾：你每天会花多长时间保养皮肤？

三号：像我这样天生丽质的，大概十个小时吧。

女嘉宾：那你能告诉我你的保养方法吗？

三号：（自恋的照镜子）没问题。

女嘉宾：四号男嘉宾，四号男嘉宾？

四号：（没有听见，继续画画）

女嘉宾：哦，我真难受，我惋惜你看尽了世界的美，却遗失了我这样的绝世美女！

四号：（抬起头）怎么了，怎么了？

主持人：你可以下去了。

四号：（背起画板，下场）

女嘉宾：五号男嘉宾，你愿意一辈子都陪着我吗？我喜欢吃水饺，你能每天都做给我吃吗？

五号：什么？被子？睡觉？你很困吗？想睡觉吗？

女嘉宾：pass,你的汉语一定是英语老师教的吧！

五号：道一声珍重，道一声珍重，那一声珍重有蜜甜的忧虑——沙扬娜拉。（转身离场）

主持人：现在我们场长只剩两位男嘉宾，现在你们需要展示你们自己，获得女嘉宾

一号：白妹妹，白妹妹

主持人：的芳心。（面对观众），怎么今天老是被打断呢？

一号：天上掉上个白妹妹，似一朵清云刚出岫。

二号：白妹妹，白妹妹。树上的鸟儿成双对，绿水青山带笑颜。

二号：选我吧，选我吧。让你成为女人公敌，让我们成为一对永远不长痘痘的“龙儿与过儿”

一号：选我吧，选我吧，我长得又帅又有钱。

女嘉宾：（独自走到前面，问观众）我到底该选谁？

老公：你们干什么？！这是我的妻子。

老公和女嘉宾下台。

主持人、两位男嘉宾：（捂嘴，吃惊）内什么，what ! 她结过婚了？？

[abcdefg]

# 9 -- Prendeville, how long did it take you to write this post? Cut yourself some slack. The risk of pushing too hard and doing too much too fast is burning out. Burning out is usually followed by discouragement and giving up.

[陳德聰]

上个星期我有两节课跟我Popup Chinese的辅导老帅。先我问她一个谜语。在chinesereadingpractice.com找到了。（it goes like this 怎么说？）：我有面没有口，有四只脚没有手，虽我有四只脚自己不会走。我是什么？她猜对了很快。我有一点儿惊奇。我不会猜这个车西是什么。我感觉有一点儿笨蛋。然后我们讨论秘密花园一会儿。如果有一些语法我不太清楚她会给我用简单汉语说清楚。最主要之间的区别和她还有别的老帅是她如道哪种语言用和我（what I'm trying to say here is "I suppose the main difference between this tutor and others is that she knows the appropriate level of language to use with me". She has more subtle skills than this but I'm just going to point out that one which is really important for me). 

上星期我没见面我民族辅导的老帅。我们安排明天见面。

I'll leave grammar to your tutor, but you consistently wrote 帅 shuài instead of 师 shī and you wrote 车 chē instead of 东 dōng in 东西. Finally, 如 rú instead of 知 zhī for 知道.

我非常高兴找到了这个漫㐫。

 

I believe you were looking for 漫画, but Spongebob is a 动画片.

 

比如说你最喜欢哪一个隌分，我们也开玩笑

 

Should be 部分, but close!

Sorry I won't get to the rest but I am super impressed by your resolve.

[pprendeville]

It too me about an hour to write in Chinese about the Fudao and language partner. Obviously performance was cut and pasted in. At least our teacher has decided to simplify it. We just did a practice and it was terrible. Too many new characters for any cohesiveness.

My characters are pretty crap but thanks for pointing out the mistakes.

[imron]

Out of curiosity, what IME are you using?

[pprendeville]

Whats IME stand for?

[Marguerite]

Input Method Editor. It's what you use to input (in this case) the Chinese characters. For example, I just have the default setup on my Windows laptop here, so when I check my language bar settings, my keyboard for Chinese (Simplified, PRC) is Microsoft Pinyin New Experience Input Style. (My Mac is also set to use its default pinyin for simplified method. I should really learn Canjie or one of those.)

Google and Sogou offer their own pinyin-based methods. Canjie's a different type of input method, one that's based on components rather than phonetics. The list is actually pretty long, but I think there are a few really popular methods.

[pprendeville]

When I'm writing Chinese I hand write it on my iPad with one of those pens with a rubber tip so as to make it more realistic (I believe the term used is to use muscle memory or something along those lines - it makes sense anyway to me). Then copy and paste it into whatever, in this case Chinese-forums.

[imron]

I should really learn Canjie or one of those.

If you use Simplified then you should probably learn Wubi instead of Cangjie (there a quite a few threads about Wubi on the forums if you do a search).

 

Anyway, @pprendeville I was asking because the mistakes made above are clearly not made by a pinyin based IME, so I was wondering if you were perhaps using something like Wubi, but the fact that you were handwriting explains the discrepancies just as well.

[roddy]

That's as great way of doing things, but you might want to be paying a little more attention - you've got a relatively high rate of similar-looking, but not correct, characters. 

[pprendeville]

Had a bit of a disaster of a week, the first really bad week since I got here. As previously mentioned, I think I had gone and burned myself out and was being a bit hard on myself. This whole learning Chinese is a step by step thing and I guess the key is consistency. The little sabbatical has left me feeling refreshed (although the hangover from Friday night still lingers so hopefully the upcoming week will be more productive. at this stage, I'm looking forward to getting the 1st semester exams done and dusted and having a bit of time to review everything we've done so far. Will hopefully post more in the graded readers section soon as well.

[roddy]

You were sounding a bit frazzled - slow and steady, just like that tortoise.