72 Hours of ChinesePod
pchenery
November 28, 2008, 04:52 AM posted in General DiscussionI will be going to Phoenix, Arizona to compete in a 72 hour ultra-running event December 29th to January 1st. Yes, that is 3 straight days of continuous running around a 500 meter track.
I have decided to use this time wisely, by listening to CPOD lessons as I run. My calculations show that I could listen to all the Intermediate and Upper Intermediate lessons within that timeframe. Or all the Media and Advanced lessons.
If you had 72 hours to study Chinese continuously, how would you study ? Select only your favorite lessons and listen to them repeatedly ? Listen to only Qing Wen over and over until you got those patterns burned permanently in memory ?
What would be, in your opinion, the best way to invest 72 hours that would result in the most effective learning ?
pearltowerpete
January 08, 2009, 07:33 AMHi pchenery
过分谦虚就是骄傲 ；-） Your performance still sounds pretty impressive to most ordinary mortals.
For your guided lesson, I was actually thinking more along the lines of a hands-free phone. But if you run your next race in China, we might be able to send a CPod cheering section. If you do it in Shanghai, I'll come cheer you on!
pchenery
November 28, 2008, 05:15 AMThanks for the advice Jess. Actually, I had thought that mixing it up based on content might be a good plan.
Pete, my fellow runner, that's an awesome idea...I completely forgot about using Chinese music to help keep me on pace and motivated ! I already have "Yueliang Daibiao Wo de Xin" and "Qing Cun Wu Qu - Dance of Youth" on my iPod...but I'll download some Jay Chow too.
My goal is 300 miles (100 miles per day or about 4 marathons per day, if I can stay awake that long).
henning
November 28, 2008, 05:25 AMpchenery,
that is indeed crazy - and probably a medical experiment at the same time. Why not make it even more hard core and only listen to the audio reviews for Upper Intermediate and Advanced? Tell us afterwards how this transformed you - if you are still in our dimension.
Seriously: Better get a backpack of playlists prepared to chose from according to your current physical and mental conditions.
bababardwan
November 28, 2008, 05:26 AMpchenery,
Whoa ! Do you have any limits mate? Talk about pushing the envelope.72hours of CPod I could match you on ,but not the running.Yeah,what about sleep etc ? Can't wait to hear more on this.I'd have as many lessons on there as possible and make sure I knew how to heat the repeat button while running for any lesson I wanted to go over again.Good luck champ.
pchenery
November 28, 2008, 05:50 AMHenning, good advice !
Day 1 will be mixed content, Day 2 will be UI Audio Reviews and Day 3 Advanced Audio Reviews. Hope to be fluent on Day 4.
Bababardwan, thanks, but my biggest problem will be finding a way to re-charge the iPod. I don't think the battery will last 72 hours.
bababardwan
November 28, 2008, 07:51 AMPchenery,
Maybe you should speak to the people at Apple and see if they can make a dynamo so that your energy can be harnessed to keep the ipod running. :)
nial
November 29, 2008, 03:22 AMMost I've ever been able to do is 7 hours on a car trip. After that my brain reached saturation. So I guess my advice is, to avoid burnout... don't tax the brain too much. I've also tried it while running and it makes you run slow! However, if you're just running for a set length of time and not distance/speed... no worries :)
Another piece of advice would be to put a Chinese song between each lesson, that'll mix it up for you.
Good luck!
RJ
November 29, 2008, 10:13 AMIt seems the record is 323 miles or so in 3 days. I dont think that allows for much sleeping. The average is somewhere around 140 miles.
At least you can break the Chinese learning record.
Good luck.
pearltowerpete
November 28, 2008, 05:05 AMHi pchenery
That has got to be the most hard-core thing I have ever heard of a civilian doing. Hats off, sir.
But for Pete's sake, don't just listen to ChinesePod. You'll go crazy! Of course you'll want some big chunks of advanced lessons and Media for Chinese immersion, but break it up with easier stuff.
And get some good songs or something in there. I recommend Shin 信樂團 -- One Night in 北京, 死了都要愛。 And of course my main man 周杰倫 Jay Chow.
Finally, the song that got me through the Taroko Gorge Marathon on November 1-- “Suspicious Minds” by the King of Rock'n'Roll. Listen to the Aloha concert version. I cried for joy when the background singers started in.
Good luck on your insane mission, and let us know when you get done!
jono_19
November 30, 2008, 05:59 PMHi
I think you should vary it, otherwise the learniong method gets a bit stale.
Loved Arizona when I was there, Phoenix is great, but check out Scottsdale and Tucson...Pinnacle Peak is a must!!
Best wishes
Jono
Sue
November 30, 2008, 06:39 PMI don't know about Apple - but I certainly think Chinesepod ought to sponsor you ! Good luck and look forward to hearing what you decided to do in the end and how it worked. Sue
pchenery
November 30, 2008, 10:02 PMThanks for all the great advice and encouragement folks ! I'll keep you posted on the results.
pretzellogic
December 01, 2008, 03:54 AMnot sure of the size of your ipod, but i've found after some longer runs that the 50/50 mix of lessons and music is best. I've also found that, for me at least, it really matters that I put the lessons into the dialogue/lesson/fix order, otherwise, I don't seem to grasp the overall lesson as well. if you get bored with music and cpod, its easy to take the earbuds out your ears for a few miles and listen to the night.
I havent found a way to record streamed radio stations from the web down to an ipod, but it would be cool to create an mp3 of a Beijing radio station, and then try and decode the 30 minutes of live DJ speaking mandarin at you at 800 mph. But that's what you listen to at 3am, when you're really bored and tired.
pretzellogic
December 01, 2008, 04:03 AMnot sure of the size of your ipod, but i've found after some longer runs that the 50/50 mix of lessons and music is best. I've also found that, for me at least, it really matters that I put the lessons into the dialogue/lesson/fix order, otherwise, I don't seem to grasp the overall lesson as well. if you get bored with music and cpod, its easy to take the earbuds out your ears for a few miles and listen to the night.
I havent found a way to record streamed radio stations from the web down to an ipod, but it would be cool to create an mp3 of a Beijing radio station, and then try and decode the 30 minutes of live DJ speaking mandarin at you at 800 mph. But that's what you listen to at 3am, when you're really bored and tired.
pchenery
January 08, 2009, 04:48 AMHere's my report:
The mixing of CPOD levels and Chinese music was the perfect combination. I created a playlist on my IPOD that included;
1. All of the Intermediate Audio Reviews
2. A selection of favored Upper Intermediate Lessons
3. Chinese Music ("Cloudless Day Doll" was my favorite)
4. About 15 Media and Advanced Lessons
5. All of the Qing Wen Lessons
6. Audio reviews of the Upper Intermediate Lessons
7. Johnny Cash Songs ( i tried to translate these into Chinese in my head as I ran). 圈子的火
8. Dialogue only Lessons (Intermediate / Upper Int.)
9. Some Chinese Learn Online lessons
Day 1:
It was quite difficult to focus on the lessons. My main focus was on the race 公路赛, the pain 痛苦, my race strategy, pacing, re-fueling, porta-pottie breaks 大小便 etc... anything but language learning...my hope was that what I was listening to would permeate my brain subliminally.
And then disaster...after 90 km, my pre-race injury ( an IT band inflammtion 发炎 injury...not sure how this translates into Chinese...)...
First, I stopped at the medical tent to get some foot blisters 水疱 lanced and dressed 医疗. When the medical crew fixed the blisters, I got up, went outside into the cold air 寒气...then my left hip 髋关节 muscle 肌肉 siezed up..I could not even walk 走路 ! I had to rest 休息 and stretch 走動 for several hours. Finally, I was able to walk / limp slowly, which I did for the remaining 2 days.
Day 2:
I waited until the next morning when a fesh wave of 24 and 48 hour runners started off. I now had the opportunity 机会 to focus on my Chinese lessons and actually do some learning. I could only walk slowly, at a rate of 3 to 4 km per hour. There were some German runners that kept lapping me. I engaged them in conversation using my high school German 德文 that I had learned over 30 years ago. I was surprised how much German was retained in my memory cells. They were really impressed...this just illustrates that language is a natural human thing...the Chinese that you are learning thru CPOD will be enduring 永存 !
Day 3:
I walked through Day 2 without much rest. I tried to lay down and sleep, but my body was one gigantic pain stick, sleep was impossible. 找不到睡觉.
During Day 3, I continued to listen to the CPOD playlist, abosorbing stuff that I had missed previously. One of the ultra runners asked me if I had any hobbies. I replied "apart from running, I am learning Mandarin Chinese"....
The days were quite hot in the desert but I was surprised how cold it became at night. I had to change into winter running gear (jacket, tights, gloves and a toque). Just climbing into the porta-potties (a few inches high) became a major ordeal.受不了
The End:
After 3 days of pure torture 磨折, my body 身体 was in total pain. I finished with 252.5 km, with 90 km of running and about 160 km of walking, 27th place out of about 50 competitors.
It is going to take me 2 or 3 more attempts at a 72 hour race to really to get "the hang of it".
Did I Become More Fluent in Chinese ?:
This is a really tough question to answer objectively. There were numerous repetitions of the lessons, broken up by rest breaks and non-Chinese music. I hope that this effort increased my ability, and I think that it did.
Only time will tell.
Exercise and learning...try it sometime..it's a great combination !
pearltowerpete
January 08, 2009, 05:06 AMpchenery, I am in awe. That is truly hard-core. And you really plan to do it again?
I think you must have made some serious Chinese progress. I guess the only thing that could have made it better would be if while running, you'd been having a "guided" session with one of the CPod teachers like Vera!
pchenery
January 08, 2009, 05:33 AMpete,
actually, i'm quite disappointed with my performance...i had an injury which did me in...so i'm determined to run more competitvely next time..
the winner, an Scottish guy, ran almost 270 miles..he ran solid for 6 hours, took a nap for 20 minutes and then ran 6 hours again...kept repeating this pattern for 72 hours...now, that is what i call awesome..
if Vera is a runner, she can run alongside me next time, i'll gladly sign up for the guided plan if she can keep pace :)
sebire
November 29, 2008, 11:11 AMAre you allowed to eat or sleep during these 72 hours?
I'd mix it up with an audio book or play and some music.
Jess_Andersen
November 28, 2008, 05:02 AMMy humble advice , for what it's worth, is to mix it up. language isn't just advanced or intermediate or simple, it's all at once at the same time. Choose based on content and not on level.
hope that helped.
Jess.