In Korea I was always struggling with the motivation to study Korean. I had books, plenty of online resources, plenty of willing teachers, but no time. I worked 6 days a week and was exhausted and the last thing I wanted to do was study. Besides, I knew I wasn't going to stay there much longer, it's just such a difficult place to live.
In China I have plenty of motivation to study Chinese. This isn't the type of country you want to live in without knowing the language. Many people do live here 5, 6 even 7 years without learning Chinese. However, I find one of the big regrets people have is not learning the language. The problem I have here is, how do I begin? I have a book and some audio, but my study habits are horrible. This is going to be really hard to explain so bare with me. I need structure outside of myself to force me to study. I want to study, I REALLY do, but it's SO much easier to not study. Path of least resistance. I need to go to school, but this city is too small so I can't go to school. I want to make flash cards but then I have to go hunting for them and take the time to write them up. My only option is to use some kind of computer software. Well finally I found it. It's called supermemo. I can create my own vocabulary lists and it schedules repetitions for me. All I have to do is click on the icon and sit in front of the computer. I will need some help with pronunciation so I'm also using a website called chinesepod. Plus, one of my co-workers agreed to help me study Chinese. We'll see how that turns out. But, the good news is I have the motivation, and now I also have the structure to begin my study. My current vocabulary list has about 80 words.
I've been in China 2 months now and I was in Korea for 1 year. I already know more Chinese than Korean.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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4 comments:
Where can I find information about supermemo?
www.supermemo.com
I think "Integrated chinese" is a great set of books.
But I think that your only hope it to take a 6 month break from teaching and join a serious program. A serious program is one that has classes 4hrs per day and a language pledge.
Good luck. I loved how you handled the two ppl laughing and pointing.
The best way I learned was from TV, going out with friends and to events. The best way I also learned was from the Mormons. They gave me the books they were given that had perfect examples and the lessons were easy to follow. They also had a cool cheat sheet in their pocket that I made a copy of that helped alot. It had common verbs and all the congigations for the different tenses. Not sure how it works in chines but I know the FBI always hits up the Mormons after a mission cause the Mormons pick up the language like no others. No matter how much people hate on the mormons they helped me a lot in Brazil. Both American and Brazilain Mormons were a big help.
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