The 2015 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread

[Meng Lelan]

Yes, as usual , getting a jump start. Here are mine for 2015.

 

1. Read 三國演義 in the original along with the 3kingdoms podcast transcripts online. In between episodes study Rouzer's  New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese. Why I chose to read this in the original, I want to quote John Zhu of the 3kingdoms podcast:"The Chinese version of the novel can be difficult to understand at times because it's written in an archaic style. But there's a beautifully efficient and poetic rhythm to it as well. "

 

2.  Continue learning the forms for 南拳, 南棍,  南刀.

 

3. Visit friends in Taiwan for the December holidays in 2015. 

 

I'm fading in and out of the Chinese world for this coming year because my Real Goal in life now is to find a Real Career as an orientation and mobility instructor for the blind/deafblind somewhere that is top notch and top drawer ......and that's not going to be possible anywhere in San Antonio where I am now. So I am going to be out a lot, looking. 

 

Post away, everyone!

 

Admin edit: and here's some links to previous years

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

[maomao2014]

The same goal for me- finish reading 三国演义

[Mr John]

1. Save enough money to go back to China and study in a private school intensively for between one and two months.

 

2. Try to achieve greater parity between my reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.

 

3. Improve my level sufficiently that I'm able to watch a Chinese t.v show and understand the bulk of what is said.

 

4. Abandon perfectionism. (Nobody cares how well you can say 你好 if you can't say anything else).

 

5. Take and pass one of the HSK exams. HSK 3 would be acceptable, HSK 4 if possible.

[jobm]

This coming winter break, I am planning to prepare for 高二:

 

1. Review my 中二 books

2. Polish my grammar

3. Gain the Chinese accent and improve my 口语

4. Improve my 听力

5. Pass HSK 5 and 6 mock exams

 

Yeah, those are too broad so what I am really going to do is to record myself while practicing my 口语, listen to podcasts, to the audio of my books, and to native content. I am planning to post my essays on lang-8.com to have it checked by native speakers and review even the basic vocabularies. This time, I would make a lists of common things you would need everyday but your teacher did not teach you in 初级班 like parts of the body (lungs, knees, thigh, ankle, etc.), things to be found in the house (broom, faucet, etc) and so on.

 

Why am I going to do these things? Because I am maximizing my stay here in China and I am using this winter break to jump to 高二 from 中二 because 高一 will be just a review of 中二 and my progress would not be that big. Actually, my skills before I went to China was like 中一 but I chose to attend 中二 since I would like to challenge myself and I know my progress would be really big. So, when I attended our classes, I was giving double or triple effort compared to my classmates because sometimes, I did not know anymore what had been happening in our class! Fortunately, I think I really improved my Chinese here in Dalian but I am not still satisfied with my skills; so, I hope, I would be on that 高二 class next semester

 

祝大家成功！

[imron]

3. Improve my level sufficiently that I'm able to watch a Chinese t.v show and understand the bulk of what is said.

This is a great goal to have, but with regards to this, don't think you can just do some generic activities to 'improve your level' and then you'll be able to watch TV shows.  If you do that you'll find you start watching a TV show but don't really understand much and so think, oh well, I guess my level isn't improved enough and I need to improve it again.  Then you spend a bit more time 'improving your level' before starting to watch a TV show and once again find you don't really understand all that much, and so on and so forth in a negatively reinforcing cycle - i.e. you keep putting in effort but still don't see the reward.

 

The reason for this is that the skills required for watching a T.V. show are unlikely to be gained just by generic attempts to 'improve your level' and involve far more than just increasing vocabulary and grammar points and or understanding sentences spoken in textbook type recordings.

 

This is firstly because there may not be much vocab overlap in what you want to watch with the sources of vocab that you'd otherwise be learning, secondly because content on T.V. shows is far more likely to contain slang and spoken language that you might not readily find in textbooks or other reading materials and is more likely to be spoken quickly and with regional accents that you are not exposed to from other sources, and thirdly because T.V. shows generally contain non-stop continuous speaking and you need to learn not just to understand, but understand at a speed that means you're not still processing one sentence while the characters have already starting speaking the next one.

 

The best way to learn all of those things is to actually start exposing yourself to T.V. shows and pausing, rewinding, listening again, noting down new vocab and phrases, and doing this over and over again until shows start to make sense.  See here for a description of one process that might help, and see here to find a list of T.V. shows (with difficulty levels) that you may or may not be interested in.

 

This way you are getting exposed to the vocab that is necessary for you to understand the show, are getting exposure to a range of accents, and are getting hard feedback about whether your listening is able to keep up.

[Guest realmayo]

study Rouzer's  New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese

 

ooh me too!

[HerrPetersen]

As my second child is on the way (due in August) I will have to limit my goals to before that. I might go for the HSK5 in early September though.

[Chris Two Times]

1. Just make sure I am studying/using Chinese regularly and consistently (on a daily basis, no more of this 2-3 days go by and hey what happened? haven't used Chinese in a while...ERRR!  ) starting on 1-1 and going til 12-31 (and beyond!)

 

2. Apply for Chinese Government Scholarship for 2015-2016

 

3. Take HSK 5级 in the spring

 

4. Be enrolled and ready to go in a full-time one-year Chinese language program at a Mainland university on September 1, 2015

 

Good luck to all for your aims and objectives in 2015, the Year of the...BAAAAAAAH!...Sheep.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[jobm]

I recomment 青年医生！It is really famous here right now And my friends told me it is good. I have watched the first episode and 挺好啊~

[imron]

starting on 1-1 and going til 12-31 (and beyond!)

Why not starting 12-30 (ie today)?

[Mr John]

Hey Imron,

 

Thanks, I'll heed your advice.

 

I tried watching a few episodes of 家有儿女 a while back and I was depressed to discover how little I could understand. Based on what you've said, it looks like if I'm serious about my goal, I will need to treat each episode as an object of study.

 

This whole learning a language thing is beginning to feel like a full time job: It's a good thing I enjoy it. Most of the time.

 

Regards,

John

 

P.S - Thanks Meng Lelan, that's the one. I could have sworn I originally chose 儿... haha

[Meng Lelan]

家有二女 

 

 

家有儿女 isn't it?

[imron]

I will need to treat each episode as an object of study.

Yes!  The thing is, you could study for years and still find yourself depressed by how little you understand when you start to watch TV shows, when actually if you haven't been studying to watch TV shows then it should be no surprise that you are not good at it yet.

 

Practice what you want to get good at, do it regularly and consistently and eventually you'll start to get good at it.

[Chris Two Times]

 

starting on 1-1 and going til 12-31 (and beyond!)

Why not starting 12-30 (ie today)?

 

 

So let it be written, so let it be done.

 

12/30/2014~12/31/2015 (and beyond!)

 

This evening it will be studied.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[ouyangjun]

Become more proficient at giving work speeches in Chinese.  I need to get better at this... The best way is to keep doing them, but if anyone has any golden gems of advice I'm all ears.  The next speech I need to give is next week, then one in mid-January, followed by the Chinese New Year speech.

[anonymoose]

My goal in 2015 is to accomplish the goals of 2014 which I should have done in 2013 because I made a promise in 2012 to do what I had planned in 2011.

[renzhe]

My goal in 2015 is to accomplish the goals of 2014 which I should have done in 2013 because I made a promise in 2012 to do what I had planned in 2011.

That perfectly describes my quest to finish Water Margin....

[maomao2014]

@Mr John

 

Have you seen 《爸爸去哪儿》. It is a reality show made by Hunan TV channel (or people call it Mango Channel 芒果台). It is a reality show about 5 celebrity fathers took their kids to spend 3 days in an isolated but beautiful village. I think it is easier to understand and fun to watch. 

[AdamD]

My theme for 2015 is to achieve goals I couldn't manage in 2014.

 

1. Be able to understand clear 普通话 speech.

 

This is 2014's failed goal all over again. The difference is that I'm throwing everything I've got at making it happen, using suggestions people have given me in these forums, but also recognising what doesn't work and changing it quickly. It's also a critical goal to achieve if I'm going to make any conversational progress at all.

 

2. Learn the HSK 5 word list.

 

I started this in mid-2014 but my other goals took over, chiefly finishing a book (which I did). I'm flagging HSK 5 words that I see/hear in context and studying those first.

 

3. Pass an HSK level.

 

In 2014 I failed HSK 4 because I couldn't understand the audio. I need to do one of the following in 2015, in order of preference: (1) fix my listening and attempt HSK 5; (2) redo HSK 3 so I don't lose my 2013 accreditation; (3) resit HSK 4.

 

4. Extend my reading and listening chains to 400 days.

 

dontbreakthechain.com is my motivator here. If I continue to read for at least 15 minutes every day and listen for at least 15 minutes every day, I'll hit 400 unbroken days in both.

 

2014 wasn't a language write-off by any means, but that listening comprehension problem has set me back enormously. I need to conquer it in 2015. I'll also read a load more books, and I've enrolled in a university language diploma, so it could be my hardest-working year yet.

[amandagmu]

My goal is to start speaking regularly again... in any capacity. (I've spent too much time just reading and my tones and ability to recall lots of vocab has noticeably gone down the toilet.) I've re-upped my italki.com account after an embarassingly long hiatus, and I've started to re-contact old friends.

 

But 2014 was a big year for me - I had a baby and got my PhD (FINALLY!) - and my real goal for 2015 is to just get more sleep.