Getting more out of language exchange while still a beginner

[andyfastow]

I've met quite a few new language exchange partners over the last few weeks and I've been meeting with a few of them regularly in addition to my daily 1 or 2 hours of tutoring. I think I have enough willing LE partners that I could get in at least a couple of hours of LE every day, but I am looking for a way to make these sessions more useful.

 

Here is what I've been doing so far: I pick a dialogue out of a textbook like NPCR 1, Colloquial Chinese, etc and I read the dialogue out loud. My LE partner corrects my pronunciation and helps me understand any words or sentences if I can't figure them out on my own. ...and that's about all we do.

 

I'm sure this is helpful for improving my pronunciation, but I don't feel that it is a particularly helpful way to improve my conversational ability. I am, after all, just reading pinyin out loud. Although my pronunciation can still use lots of improvement, for the most part I can be understood when I speak slowly. I think the problem with this current method is that there isn't really anything spontaneous going on. I often don't feel very engaged in the exercise and I'm wondering if there might be a better way to use my time with LE partners.

 

Can anyone offer some suggestions about what I could do to make our time more useful? I am still pretty far below the level of just being able to have a spontaneous conversation, although I can sometimes Tarzan my way through some short and simple conversations, like what tv shows I like to watch, why I like them, what I did yesterday, etc. I think that whatever I do with my LE partners I'll have to rely on some kind of material to structure what we are doing, but I would like to add more spontaneous back-and-forth interaction rather than just me reading some sentences and having my pronunciation corrected and new vocab explained.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions about what I can do to make these LE session more useful? I would appreciate any input, thank you.

[grawrt]

One of the exercises I often do with my teacher involves forming sentences using the new grammar I learned. Usually my teacher will give me one or two examples of how it can be used and then ask me to make some sentences myself using the same structure. Afterwards she'll tell me if its okay, bad, or how it can be made to sound better. For instance, if I use a word that doesn't normally work in the sentence she'll provide me with an alternative and then explain why we don't use that word in the sentence. Sometimes I cant even THINK of a sentence as silly as that sounds so she'll give me a sentence in english using the grammar structure and then ask me to translate into chinese.

I find this exercise particularly helpful because it involves me mentally processing it, rather than just simply reading from the text. But it's challenging and often involves a lot of patience from your teacher/partners part.

 

I've never done an LE before though so I'm not sure how these sessions usually work, but I don't see why you cant ask them if they can focus on the grammar points you learned.

[PaulSav]

When you're a beginner trying to have a conversation, there are three main obstacles:

1. Vocabulary: You simply don't know enough words to be able to express what you like.
2. Grammar: Even if you know the words you may be unable to form sentences that correctly convey your ideas.
3. Listening: Besides potentially lacking the vocabulary and grammar to understand what the other person is saying, you may not be used to listening to native speakers.

It sounds like you're working on all these things with your LE partners, which is great. However, if you'd like to have a more conversational-type exchange, here's a possible idea:

 

A few days before you meet with your LE partner, come up with a topic you'd like to talk about. Preferably something fairly simple (your favorite TV show, your classes, etc.) with not overly specialized vocabulary. Then, spend a little bit of time amassing some vocabulary you think is useful, probably mostly consisting of simple nouns and verbs. Once you've gotten your vocabulary you can start working through it as you like. During this time, try to imagine that you're having a conversation with your LE partner. What kinds of things would you want to say? What things would you expect them to say? This will probably give you some new words to add to your list, especially little "connecting words" you might not have thought of (such as 然后 or 所以).

 

Next it's time to move on to grammar. Try writing out some sentences you might want to say, and see if you can guess the grammar. This will allow you to organize your thoughts, practice the new vocabulary, and come up with some questions for your LE partner. There will almost certainly be some sentences you don't know how to say. It might be worth going to the Chinese Grammar Wiki or looking at some grammar book to try to get a guess.

 

If you do all these things ahead of time, once you meet with your partner you'll have plenty to do. You can start by practicing the vocabulary (including your pronunciation). Then you can "test out" the grammar patterns you think you got right, and perhaps try some simple substitution drills. You can also ask them to correct your more complicated sentences, and try to find out why what you wrote was incorrect. Finally at the end, you can try putting all this together to have a simple conversation. You now should have some vocabulary, and the ability to convey (at least some of) your thoughts on your chosen topic. Obviously this isn't "spontaneous" conversation, but as you said (and as I outlined above), having spontaneous conversation as a beginner can be extremely difficult. Also, I wouldn't be afraid to use some English words if necessary. Since your goal is to practice conversation, having to stop every thirty seconds to look up a word is a problem. Finally, don't be afraid to make mistakes in the conversation portion. The more you speak, the easier it will be to organize your thoughts on the fly next time. Good luck and 加油！

[Lu]

Some good ideas above about making sentences to practice new structures.

Another idea is to have your LP ask you questions about the dialogue you just read. In the beginning these questions have to be really simple, but that way at least you're made to listen, speak and make sentences.

小王去哪里？

Ok: 书店

Better: 小王去书店。

小王去书店作什么？

Ok: 买书

Better: 他去书店买书。

Etcetera.

[abcdefg]

When I was at your stage, I would also paraphrase 复述 the dialogues for my teacher or language partner using different vocabulary or structures.

[tysond]

Questions about the story you've read are great.  I did this with a teacher for a while and it was super useful.  Graded readers like Chinese breeze do this in writing, you could also read a few pages and then take questions (a native speaker can read it very fast, or read it and ask questions at the same time).

 

Also I do quite a few role-plays based on dialogs.  My textbook frequently gives this as an exercise - e.g. a description of a football game.  Then we role-play two friends discussing the game, the plays, the excitement, the venue, the slow motion shots, etc.

 

Using a text helps your partner keep the vocabulary in a certain frame.  If it's on the page, it's fair game.  Otherwise they can add all sorts of words to the dialog which you get lost with.  

[andyfastow]

Thanks for all the great suggestions here. Grawrt, earlier today I tried your idea of taking a sentence that came up in the text and using the structure with different words. This really challenged me to think about what I was doing and how I could use the sentence structure myself. That was very helpful and I feel like I got a lot more out of that session. I'm going to try to implement a lot of these other suggestions over the next week too. Thanks again!

[roddy]

Andy, how are you getting on with the language exchange? Were the ideas above useful?

[gaoshancha]

Great advice in this thread, I have found myself in the same situation as someone trying to learn to speak Chinese but having very little listening/speaking ability at this time.  I have a weekly tag-up with a Chinese tutor and so far I have struggled to feel like I am making progress developing speaking and listening skills.  The issue is that I understand the dialog/vocab/grammar in my textbook, but I just have trouble trying to string language together to make my own sentences that vary from the dialog.  The other issue is that if I don't have much to review, my tutor tends to go off on tangents and stories and I quickly lose track of the main point.

 

I think another big aspect is preparing for the meeting.  I know I need to do better with that, I have met four times now and each time I say I'll prepare more, but before I know it, it is the night before and I'm rushing to get things ready.  Just need to do better in that aspect!

[abcdefg]

#9 -- @gaoshancha --

 

The other issue is that if I don't have much to review, my tutor tends to go off on tangents and stories and I quickly lose track of the main point.

 

You need to address this issue with your tutor. With only one meeting a week, time is precious and he or she should not be wasting time like that.

 

During class are you speaking Chinese or English?

[Lu]

It's of course better to prepare more, but if you keep finding you don't get around to that, perhaps you & the tutor need to amend the lessons a bit so that they can be useful even when you don't prepare. Resolving to do better next time is good, but being realistic about what you'll actually do can also be very useful.

And I agree with abcdefg, your tutor should not be telling stories. If you don't have much to review, s/he should come up with something else to do (practice old stuff, perhaps?).

[Lu]

In the other thread you mention that she's a volunteer not a trained tutor, so that changes expectations a bit. But you can talk with her to find a way to make the sessions more useful to you. For starters, requesting her to talk slow & simple Chinese and to make you talk more is not unreasonable, in my opinion. Look around the forums to find some more things to do with tutors or language partners (what you have now is basically a one-sided language exchange. Which is the best kind :-) ). You can't expect her to explain grammar points or the finer differences between two almost-synonyms, but there are many other things that she can help you with. It'll be more interesting for her as well when she feels she's really teaching you something.

And for the Taiwanese pronunciation issue: for all new words you learn from her, ask her the characters and look the words up after class to check the pronunciation.