Jackpot

Just found a great firefox add-on. It translates simplified and traditional characters for you. A great way to learn new words.

Pera-Kun

My method of study

I've been reading how other people study Chinese, and it's very different from how I'm doing it. Usually people will delay learning the writing system, or not push it that hard in fear of burnout. I am doing the opposite. I'm not actively studying words, grammar, or sentences just individual characters. After learning enough characters to read everyday material, then I will get serious about words and sentences. I think reading is the best way to learn the rules of grammar intuitively which is needed for near native fluency. You simply cannot learn the rules of grammar and then force individual words through a grammar algorithm. Computers can't do it effectively, and neither can we.

The other thing people do is listen. However, most people refuse to listen to things they cannot understand. I have been listening to Chinese constantly, whether I can understand it or not. I have noticed an improvement in remembering Chinese words after listening to Chinese constantly. My mind is becoming so familiar with the sound of the language I don't forget a word 5 seconds after learning it. I can also pronounce new words correctly after the first or second try instead of having to say it over and over again. The other cool thing that's been happening, I'll hear and word over and over and I can say the word perfectly but I don't know what it means. Then I'll be reading something and come across the word and *bang* it's instantly locked in my memory from hearing it repeated 10,000 times.

I used to completely block out the sounds of the Korean language when I lived in Korea. My mind simply did not want to listen to it. I did the same thing with Chinese initially, only listening to English music and watching English DVDs. Now, my mind craves the sound of Mandarin. I have no desire to listen to English music anymore, I just want to hear Mandarin, even though I can't really understand it.

I think there is a lot to be said for complete immersion, even when you can't understand the language. For the record, I'm still a newbie in Chinese. I can't hold a conversation and I can only use a few words here and there. I'm only up to 390 Chinese characters, but I've got my method down and time will take care of the rest.

Overdrive

My brain has been on overdrive lately. I've been cramming my brain full of Chinese characters, making it adjust to new contact lenses I bought with the help of a friend, and forcing it to learn Zhangzhou style Mahjong. Needless to say, it's pretty tired. For the record, I'm up to 335 characters. I only have 1 month left to reach my goal of 700 before the school year starts.

Study method

I've tweaked my study method slightly. I've started listening to Chinesepod podcasts continuously over and over and over and over allllll day long. I've broken them up into groups of 5 episodes, each between 8 to 12 minutes long. Each day I listen to another group of 5 episodes and absorb what I can. It's kind of amazing how well it works, sometimes I don't even pay any attention to it but it's playing in the background and I still pick up things. I even listen to it when I sleep.

The other thing I have to start doing is adding complete words and sentences to Mnemosyne. Ideally, I should just power through all 6000 individual characters but I need to learn actual language for my survival. So, I'm jumping the gun a bit by starting this phase while only knowing 220 characters.

QQ

I finally got QQ to work on my English XP machine. I followed these simple instructions.

1. Start -> Run -> Intl.cpl
2. Switch to Advanced Tab, and choose "Chinese (PRC)" for Language for non-Unicode Programs and click OK.

What is QQ? It's an instant messenger program used mainly in China. It's use outside of China is pretty limited. But, if you live here you're pretty much going to need to use it. My friend had to get a QQ number (screen name) for me because the sign up page is in Chinese.

So this is what it takes...

...for me to learn a language. The idea of learning a foreign language is so huge in my mind that I would rather do just about anything than try to learn one. But, I have finally found out what it takes to actually do it. Some people can just make a decision to learn another language and they do it. They can become fluent while not even living in a country that speaks the language. I am not one of those people. The only way I can overcome my resistance to learning the language is to put myself into a situation where it becomes necessary for survival.

That's kind of sad.

Past 4 days...

...I haven't done much. I haven't learned any new characters, words or sentences. But, today my motivation is back. On Tuesday my new Chinese teacher asked me to go to KTV (karaoke). She invited 3 other teachers from our school and after singing for a few hours one of the teachers asked me to go play pool with her. I've come to the realization that unless I learn Chinese my chances of a decent social life are pretty slim. She asked me the dreaded question every male expat is asked, "how long will you stay here?" The question is impossible to answer but this is the best I can do..."If I'm just by myself I can't stay long because it's too boring, maybe just 2 years. But, if I can learn Chinese and make a lot of friends I'd like to stay much longer."

So, yesterday I was too busy brooding over my terrible social life to study Chinese when it hit me. I've got to try harder. So, today my motivation is back and the studying has resumed.

Mnemosyne

I'm just starting to appreciate the power of the program Mnemosyne. First of all, I can spend just a little bit of time learning a single character because I know once I put it in Mnemosyne I'm going to see it again tomorrow, and probably the next day, and on and on until it finally sticks in my mind. It takes time to learn this way, but the effort required is much less than writing it out a billion times. The other cool thing is that it knows which characters I have trouble with, and it'll show me those characters more often. The characters I know very well, it will show me less frequently. I don't need to worry about keeping track of thousands of flash cards since it's all computerized. All I need to do is use the program every day and I'm all set. I'm up to 140 characters.

It's back to 10 a day

I don't know what I was complaining about, it's not like I have a busy schedule right now. So it's back up to a minimum of 10 characters a day. I bought some English books in Xiamen the other day, one of which cost 99rmb. Can you say rip off...only good thing about the trip is I now know where all the bus stations are and my Chinese is good enough to get me there and back.

Chinese language

I'm only up to 120 characters so far. I've been slacking big time. I'm going to have to cut it down to 5 characters per day for now because these bad boys just don't stick in my head the way I want them too. But, 5 characters per day is about 1800 in one year so that's not too bad.

Today, it's off to Xiamen for some shopping and site seeing. The vacation has begun, all two months of it.

Beijing?

I've been reading a bunch of articles lately that talk about how tourism is down in Beijing. Being so close to the Olympics tourism should be much higher. It got me thinking...personally I am afraid to go to Beijing during the Olympics. I have a friend there now who invited me to go and visit her but I just gave her the "maybe" answer. I've been reading all kinds of articles about police sweeps in bars and apartment complexes where foreigners live looking for visa violations, it scares me, and I'm completely legal with all the proper paperwork. Now, imagine someone who has never been to Asia before reading these same articles, do you think they want to go to Beijing?

Not leaving...

Got an email the other day. It's my decision if I want to go to Nanjing or not. I decided to stay here. In the long run Nanjing would be better, but when I think of leaving things become much more complicated.

Nanjing?

I might be moving to Nanjing in September. Ironically, that's where I requested to be placed initially. I got a call today and was asked what I thought about moving there. At first I said no, but after thinking I changed my mind. Nanjing is a much bigger city, the school is better, and Zhangzhou isn't so great. So, we'll see what happens.

Characters

I've been doing well with my daily repetitions on the Chinese characters I already know. However, I've been quite lazy with adding new material. I'm embarrassed to admit that so far I only know 110 characters. I've had enough time, but not the motivation to cram more info into my brain. I should be doing about 10 characters a day, but I've been doing about 10 a week. If I actually do 10 a day in 2 months I'll know an additional 600 characters for a total of 710. Well short of the 4000 I need to learn. At 10 characters a day it'll take me about 14 months to learn 4000. I have a feeling I won't reach near native fluency in 2 years.

It takes me quite a while to learn 10 characters. Basically, I learn the pronunciation and the stroke order for each character. Then I write the characters down 10 or so times each until I get the hang of it. I put the characters into Mnemosyne and go do something else. A couple hours later I go back to Mnemosyne to see how well I remember what I learned. On the question side I put the definition of the character. Once I see the definition I write out the character and pronounce the word out loud. If I get it correct I mark it as a two and Mnemosyne reschedules it for repetition. If I don't get it correct I mark it as a one or zero and redo it until I get it correct. This process takes quite a while. I've found that if I just try to memorize what the character looks like without learning to write it, it doesn't stick in my memory very well.

I could go the lazy route and just learn speaking and not reading and writing, but whats the fun in that?

Class is canceled, but don't tell the teacher...

I went to class this morning and I go to pickup the key to the room. They couldn't find the key so they gave me another one but that classroom was already spoken for so I had to go back and grab another. I finally got an empty room with about 5 minutes until class began, and I still don't see any of my students waiting for me outside the old classroom as they usually do. Fine I think, they are tired today they will filter in late. The bell rang and still no students. I called one of them up and she told me the class was canceled today. So my question is, why do all the students know class is canceled but I don't? Waste my time much?