01 year 01 week into study
Purrfecdizzo
November 30, 2008, 09:54 PM posted in General DiscussionHello everyone,
I have decided to write a weekly (or thereabouts) post to give an update on how my studies are going. I must say that, overall, I am pleased with this week's study. I have written flashcards for 198 terms, obtained acquisition on about 170 terms, and proficiency on about 100 or so. The explanation on how I am using these terms follows;
Acquisition - This means that I have been able to recall this term at least once. I have not mastered the term yet, and I may mix it up with terms I learned earlier.
Proficiency - I can typically identify these terms immediately, or with short delay. I might mix these up with newer terms, but I am able to discriminate quickly. I would say that I know these terms.
I read in an article that a well educated Chinese person can understand between 6000-7000 characters, and that a person needs to understand between 2000 and 3000 to read a Chinese newspaper. With that being said, I also understand that simply understanding the characters is not the goal. I also need to understand the grammar and the actual usage of the language in order to understand what I read. On the other hand, 100 words is 5% of 2000.
The verbal side is an area where I wish I were doing better. I have achieved acquisition on about 8 lessons, and proficiency on about 5. I am having difficulty with the spoken part, some of the sounds are difficult for me to make, i.e. the term for very 'hen'.
My curve seems a bit slow; however I must juggle these studies with my part time job, and full time enrollment in college. In a few weeks or so, the semester will be over and I can devote more time.
As I remarked elsewhere, overall I am happy with my experience with Chinesepod so far. Some of the things I think are good are the lessons shows, dialogues, and fixes. Ken and Jenny do a good job. I agree with the idea that it is important to understand how the language is actually used, rather than just understanding the language without such specificity. I think that while the community isn’t very strong right now, this aspect could have real potential. I wish to be helpful in making a stronger Chinesepod community.
Some of the things I don’t like so much are the things like the interface. It is so cumbersome, and it is a bit awkward to navigate around the site. The vocabulary tab is nearly useless except to enlarge the characters while I transcribe them to flashcards. Sometimes, when I click on a word, it doesn’t get added to my vocabulary list. This can be annoying because this results in me having to return to the lesson and clicking on it again.
The good far outweigh the things I don’t like, so I plan to stick around. After all, I can’t expect everything to be the way I want them. I guess that requires a little giving on my part.
Feel free to leave your thoughts and other feedback
Purrfecdizzo
December 01, 2008, 02:01 AMmy university offers no such course, which is ironic because the teaching job is through a partnership through my university. There is, however a Chinese professor at my school, maybe he would be willing to offer some help. Thanks for the feedback.
pearltowerpete
December 01, 2008, 02:16 AMHi gcharestiii
I think many poddies will be very interested to follow your progress. If your learning experience is like mine, you will have bursts of learning, with some frustrating plateaus. Just keep plowing on through.
The bit about needing two to three thousand characters to read a newspaper is commonly cited, but a bit misleading. This is because characters can be mix-and-matched to form multiple compounds. So you may recognize each of the two or more individual characters in a compound, but you may not understand the compound. Plus, particularly in the government and entertainment realms, there are many abbreviations and newly coined words that complicate matters. My point is not to discourage you. I just hope you have realistic expectations of yourself.
Your suggestions, particularly about the forums and interface, are useful. I will discuss them with the rest of the CPod team. Thanks for telling us what you need.
It sounds like you've made a strong start. The rest of the CPod community and I will be very happy to keep taking your questions and suggestions. Good luck, and 加油！
henning
December 01, 2008, 05:05 AMA good metric to measure progress:
Go to the level that is one step above your head, select a lesson you haven't heart before and count the number of unknown words or phrases you find in the lesson dialogue (including those you forgot). Wait three months, than repeat.
Purrfecdizzo
December 01, 2008, 05:13 AMThanks everyone.
Purrfecdizzo
December 01, 2008, 06:01 AMI just attempted the 'see how many words I don't know at the next level' method, but the dialogue was so fast that I couldnt count all the words I don't know. I tried the 'Leaving luggage at the Hotel' exercise. I will listen to the lesson again in 3 months, and hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised.
Purrfecdizzo
February 25, 2009, 05:32 PMTo follow up on my last comment, I just did the 'see how many words I know at the next level' method, and there were a few words that I knew. I didn't necessarily feel that the dialogue was blazing fast as I mentioned in the previous post. I understood about 5 words in this dialogue. I will try again in about 3 months to see if I am better at understanding Chinese than I am now.
Purrfecdizzo
June 24, 2009, 04:18 AMok, so it is a little more than 3 months, but I am up to about 14-15 words that I understood in this dialogue. Lets see how I do in September.
jamestheron
December 01, 2008, 12:22 AMI noticed in other posts that you plan to be in China by next Fall. I suggest that if your university has Chinese courses, take at least for the first semester. This will help get the pinyin and pronounciation down and a head start on characters. Without feedback from some sort of teacher, it can be real tough going.
When I started, learning 20-30 new words per week was the most effective and the best I could do.
Good luck with your studies.