Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Chinese Galaxy

[outcast]

- BOYA CHINESE Book 3 lesson 15: completed
- HSK 5 prep-book lesson 3: completed grammar, reading, in depth-vocab comparison, and collocation vocabulary sections
- Spoken Chinese series Book 2 review 12-16: completed
- Spoken Chinese series Book 2 lessons 16-20: completed
- Review some radicals: NOT completed
- Review my typed notes from my Skype sessions with my tutor: completed

As I am writing this I am still working on reviewing Spoken chinese lessons 12-16, as I tend to do any reviews of studied material before bedtime. It was a good day, I wasn't 100% up to it but I would say 90%, so no big challenges getting through. The HSK Lesson was loaded with grammar and words though, took me some time to get through. The example sentences were unusually loaded with unfamiliar words or new uses of old words (切 fourth tone, that's a new one as I only knew first tone use). I did not complete one task, is OK. I think I am giving myself a schedule that is possible to do but "full and a little plus" effort, so if I fall just a bit short is OK. Shoot for the moon....

Day 2: success!
- - - -

Day 3 Goals:

- BOYA CHINESE Book 3 pre-intermediate: complete lesson 16. (END OF BOOK)
- HSK 5 prep-book: complete Lesson 3
- Spoken Chinese series Elementary level Book 2: review lessons 16-20
- Review some radicals (finally I'll get to it???)
- Review my typed notes from my Skype sessions with my tutor
- extensive listening (60 to 90 minutes: probably listen through the BOYA CHINESE book 3 reading sections as a form of review since I will finish the book. I need to up my audio input as first two days were mostly reading and working through textbook lessons.)
- New Practical Chinese reader: begin review of lessons 39-43 (due to finals and Christmas and New Years the good old NPCR got sidelined. Time to bring it back)

This seems like a challenging schedule. We'll see how it goes.

[outcast]

- BOYA CHINESE Book 3 lesson 16: completed
- HSK 5 prep-book lesson 3: completed
- Spoken Chinese series review lessons 16-20: completed (in next 20 minutes)
- Review some radicals: not completed
- Review my typed notes from my Skype sessions with my tutor: completed
- extensive listening (60 to 90 minutes): completed
- New Practical Chinese reader: begin review of lessons 39-43: semi-completed

So today was challenging because first of all I had to spend an hour plus getting my final grades, signing off on things for the semester and asking about my January funds. Then and without getting too personal I have a bit of the blues at the moment as many friends are leaving to go back home. I get rather attached to people, even those I don't even talk to much, so it affects my mood and being a bit sad definitely makes studying a language harder to focus on (or anything else for that matter). But I have to say I stuck it through and am very proud of my efforts. Didn't bother with radicals, again, 算了。NPCR review was a little less than hoped because I was distracted on the cell phone and also one of the CDs is scratched and can't really use it for one lesson, tried cleaning it but to no avail.

Day 3: success is a fair grade.

- - - -

Day 4 goals:

- BOYA CHINESE Book 5 intermediate level: continue Lesson 1 (now with book 3 and 4 and a chunk of 2 complete, I can finally move forward with complete new material at my level)
- HSK 5 prep-book 上: begin lesson 4*** (see below)
- Spoken Chinese series Elementary book 2: begin audio listening and basic shadowing of dialogues. Review grammar and memorize ONE SENTENCE of each grammar pattern.
- Spoken Chinese series Elementary book 3: complete lesson 1
- Review my typed notes from my Skype sessions with my tutor
- extensive listening (60 to 90 minutes): NPCR lessons 39, 41,42, 43
- New Practical Chinese reader: continue review of vocab, grammar, and phrase patterns

*** I discovered that HSK books 4, 5, and 6 have a 上 and 下 volume, that is two say, two parts. For the life of me can't figure out why I didn't notice before. Already ordered the 下 versions on Taobao.com. More material to read through, great.

I will start tomorrow with Elementary Spoken Chinese book 3. No time to waste.

It's the weekend, it's like Monday all over for me.

[outcast]

I have been ruminating on what my overall language improvement goal should look like after this 60 day period (ending on the semi arbitrary March 5th, when the new school semester will be in it's 2nd week and thus revving up). I would say my level now is Intermediate-Mid/High (low B1), because sometimes I have surprising fluency, other times I have total breakdown even in making simple statements. Larger numbers in Chinese are still problematic. I would think a difficult but attainable goal in 2 months is to jump 1.5 ACFTL levels, to a somewhat confident Advanced-Low. This is comparable to a B1+ CEFR. My speech may not reflect this jump since my focus is input, so it's possible I could be near B2 in reading and B1+ in listening, but still an lower B1 in speech, which will have to be brought up to near B2 in the early spring.

To be frank I have no idea if anything above is reasonable, but it's good to have a rough mental map.

[outcast]

- BOYA CHINESE Book 5 intermediate level: worked on lesson 1*
- HSK 5 prep-book 上 lesson 4: worked on lesson 4*
- Spoken Chinese series Elementary book 2 listening and basic shadowing of dialogues, review grammar and memorize ONE SENTENCE of each grammar pattern: did basic listening + shadowing. Did not do memorization
- Spoken Chinese series Elementary Book 3 lesson 1: completed
- Review my typed notes from my Skype sessions with my tutor: not completed
- extensive listening (60 to 90 minutes): NPCR lessons 39, 41,42, 43: completed (in progress as I am typing)
- New Practical Chinese reader: continue review of vocab, grammar, and phrase patterns: not completed

* I worked on these lessons more assiduously than expected, close to completed both.

While I set certain goals for the day the night before, as the day goes by I may adjust depending on my mood, situation, and other factors. So on the negative side I did not really do much of the shadowing, but that's OK, I was just trying it out for the first time. Now I know what I want to do, so tomorrow I am ready to go with it. I didn't really review NPCR grammar, as I spent more time on the other books, as mentioned above. I didn't feel it today, so I was just going through the motions. Later in the day I did make a comeback and thought the learning of the lessons was productive. BONUS: I did add a bunch of new entries to ANKI. I think I will have four decks:
1. Chengyu (proverbs) + regular idioms (入乡随俗，知足常乐，冬暖夏凉, etc)
2. four syllable adjectives, verbs （糊里糊涂，啼笑皆非， 丢三落四... this kind of stuff)
3. Important language connector discourse phrases (总的来说，也就是说，占总数的...)
4. Proper names （贝多芬，裘力斯凯撒，梅西, et al)

Day 4: surprisingly successful.
- - - -

Day 5 goals:

- Boya Chinese Intermediate Book 5: finish lesson 1, quick glance preview grammar, vocab lesson 2
- Boya Chinese Pre-intermediate Book 3: review lessons 9 and 10
- HSK 5 上: finish lesson 4, work on lesson 5
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2: listen and basic shadow lessons 1-4
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 3: complete lesson 2
- continue to type notes from class written notes in computer (1 hour)
- NPCR book 4: thorough review of lessons 39, 40 (for real now)
- Extensive listening: listen to 轻松汉语 listening audio book (1 hour)

Maybe the above is too much. But I want to try to push myself. An early good start will be crucial.

[outcast]

- Boya Chinese Intermediate Book 5 finish lesson 1, quick glance preview grammar, vocab lesson 2: completed
- Boya Chinese Pre-intermediate Book 3 review lessons 9 and 10: completed
- HSK 5 上 finish lesson 4, work on lesson 5: completed
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2 basic shadow lessons 1-4: completed
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 3 Lesson 2: completed ... BONUS: Lesson 3 COMPLETED
- continue to type notes from class written notes in computer (1 hour): not completed
- NPCR book 4 review of lessons 39, 40 (for real now): completed
- Extensive listening 轻松汉语 listening audio book (1 hour): completed

This was a marathon at an 800 meter pace. This day has worn me out a bit, but it was a great day. I got basically all the tasks done, in an extremely demanding schedule. Will I be able to keep the pace of today? Highly unlikely, but it is good to shoot for it. I did tons of reading, very satisfying reviews, and new lessons. Because Lesson 2 of Book 3 Spoken Chinese Elementary level was short, I added lesson 3 and completed it. Between the new lessons, the reviews, and the extensive listening (plus the shadowing, see below), I had tons of audio and reading input today. Reviewed a lot of grammar patterns too. In short, I was firing on all cylinders. Can I do it tomorrow? It will be a massive uphill battle, I will try to go for it though.

Tuesday I have to clean my room (my roommate leaves then), and starting then I will be all by myself. The good news about this is I can then start doing some of the drills and and transformation exercises from The Basic and Intermediate Spoken Chinese by Tuttle series. In the past four months I could not do them. because it would be too disruptive for the other person living with me. So starting then I will re-incorporate that series into the study rotation.

About the shadowing. While I am not doing the style that the true experts advocate doing, and thus I am probably not getting the optimal results as I am no linguist, nor am I anywhere as accomplished as some of the great polyglots that have designed such shadowing strategies, I felt it was GREAT as a tool for language learning. My "way" is this: I listen to the dialogues once and simultaneously read. Then I go over the dialogues (no listening), to tackle parts I think are difficult. Then I listen again without reading. Then I listen 3 more times and do the actual basic shadowing: repeat as soon as I hear. First two times I just listen and repeat, no reading. The final time I read and repeat as in the first time to iron out any kinks. It is messy at times, also frustrating as I know I did not get some words in, but it felt great to see improvements in the 2nd and 3rd runs. The read and listen runs I did while doing slow walk, the actual shadowing at a brisker walking pace.

It feels that the reading the "difficult points" beforehand (and keeping them in mind by force as a form of mental tension), combined the recall pressure of the shadowing itself, plus the actual brisk walking all worked in tandem to make me remember the lines well after the exercise was done. In fact I still remember quite a few of them. So just on that measure alone I feel it was very worthwhile and certainly on the plate tomorrow. Awesome!

Day 5: BEST so far !

- - - -

Day 6 goals:

- Boya Chinese Intermediate Book 5: Complete lesson 2
- Boya Chinese Pre-intermediate Book 3 review lessons 11 and 12
- HSK 5 上 : complete lesson 5
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2 basic shadow: 40 minutes
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 3: Complete Lesson 4 and 5
- NPCR book 4: review of lesson 41
- Extensive listening: listen to 轻松汉语 listening audio book (1 hour)

The first five days are gone... now we get into the meat of things. The unsung filler days that will pay off long term.

[outcast]

psssssssssssssss...... (sound of the gas coming out of yesterday's balloon)

- Boya Chinese Intermediate Book 5 lesson 2: completed
- Boya Chinese Pre-intermediate Book 3 review lessons 11 and 12: not completed
- HSK 5 上 : complete lesson 5: completed
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2 basic shadow: not completed
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 3 lessons 4 and 5: completed
- NPCR book 4 review of lesson 41: completed
- Extensive listening 轻松汉语 listening audio book (1 hour): completed (in progress)

Today was a hard one. It started on the wrong path, one hour behind as I woke up at 8 and not 7. Already an hour behind, I decided to surf the internet (including posting here). Another lost hour later, I wanted to get something to eat. So 30 minutes later, I slowly started. Three hours lost later... I hit Lesson 2 of Boya Chinese book 5. It was like hitting a titanium wall. This lesson was an *expletive*. The reading passage seems to have jumped almost a level in difficulty from the first lesson to this one. I spend a good four hours plus on this one... which means by the time I was done with it (and an hour break in between for lunch and talking to a friend in Chinese that I ran into), it was 2:30 afternoon. The lesson had completely drained my mental energy (which probably was already depleted from yesterday). So I started the second assignment only at 4, that one also felt difficult... So obviously I was mentally tired. I did persevere though, and I fumbled through this day. Not even the weather cooperated, it is nasty cold and damp, no way I could do the shadowing exercise. So basically just wasn't mean to smoothly. And all that said... I still got a lot done. I am very proud of the effort I put in.

Too many words... too many words! How the heck will I assimilate so many darn words?? It can't be done... it can't be done (I sound like Doc Emmit Brown). I need a language flux capacitor. The most discombobulating aspect for me personally is that Chinese loves to *expletive* with my memory: 适合，合适 / 喜欢 ， 欢喜 / 负担 ， 担负 / 互相， 相互 / 答应， 应答 ... WTF? How am I supposed to get all these straight in my head? I just learn them as separate vocabulary for now, but because I find I learn better by making word category associations (learn several near synonym words, or synonym-antonym pairs together helps me), when I have to learn these dyslexia inducing pairs it seems like not a very good idea. Chinese has so many words... because "words" are not exactly fixed like in European languages. You can plug in syllables and make other words. It's an art to know when that works or doesn't... it's hard stuff.

Well today is pretty much over (actually it is tomorrow already), so I can only just be satisfied that I worked very hard and I did learn quite a bit. Did not feel like a good day at all, but actually it was a solid effort.

Day 6: relative success, but not where I want to be tomorrow.

- - - -

Day 7 goals:

- Boya Chinese Intermediate Book 5: review lessons 1 and 2
- Boya Chinese Pre-intermediate Book 3 review lessons 11 and 12
- HSK 5 上 : re-read / listen lesson 5 text 2 times; work on lesson 6
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2 basic shadow: 40 minutes (if weather cooperates)
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 3: lessons 6 and 7
- Tuttle Spoken Chienese series: Drills and transformations, review grammar notes Unit 1
- Extensive listening: watch Chinese television (1 hour)
- (time permitting): review ANKI decks

[outcast]

- Boya Chinese Intermediate Book 5 review lessons 1 and 2: not completed
- Boya Chinese Pre-intermediate Book 3 review lessons 11 and 12: completed
- HSK 5 上 re-read / listen lesson 5 text 2 times; work on lesson 6: completed
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2 basic shadow: completed
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 3: lessons 6 and 7: completed
- Tuttle Spoken Chienese series Drills and transformations, review grammar notes Unit 1: grammar notes completed, drills NOT completed
- Extensive listening: watch Chinese television (1 hour): completed
- (time permitting): review ANKI decks: completed (in progress)

Average day, so it was a good day. I again kept up the pace for the most part. I feel a little tired, I think I need a little more sleep, but I want to at least get to day 10 before doing a "light day" and catching my breath. Again started slow in the morning, this time because I had to help my roommate move out, etc. So tomorrow, I should have a better morning routine than the last two days. It feels a little strange being my myself now, first couple of hours almost uneasy in the stillness. Turning the TV on helped, mainly on mute as I studied and listened to material, but now I have it on watching some sort of Chinese sitcom as part of the extensive listening. Will do a round of ANKI before hitting bed, not a long time since I don't have that many cards yet. Really not much else today, could not get to review of the first two lessons of book 5. I just need to keep reading (actually even read more), and increase my audio input time. I feel the shadowing is good but maybe 40 minutes of such high intensity is too much, I will break it down into 20 minute sessions and see what happens.

Day 7: fine, no complaints.

- - - -

Day 8 goals:

- Boya Chinese Intermediate Book 5: review lessons 1 and 2
- Boya Chinese Pre-intermediate Book 3: review lesson 13, quick re-review of lesson 10 (already reviewed but want to revisit a point)
- HSK 5 上 : finish lesson 6, complete lesson 7 (this will be a tall order)
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2 basic shadow: 40 minutes (split in two 20 minute sessions in the day)
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 3: complete lesson 8 and 9
- Tuttle Spoken Chinese: continue Unit 1 drills and transformations, review grammar notes
- Extensive listening: watch Chinese television (1 hour) + HSK book 3 audio/following reading (1 hour)

It is a very tough schedule tomorrow. So I am going to sleep right after Anki. Good night.

[outcast]

- Boya Chinese Intermediate Book 5 review lessons 1 and 2: completed
- Boya Chinese Pre-intermediate Book 3 review lesson 13: completed
- HSK 5 上 finish lesson 6, complete lesson 7: completed
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2 basic shadow (40min): completed
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 3 complete lesson 8 and 9: completed
- Tuttle Spoken Chinese: continue Unit 1 drills and transformations: completed
- Extensive listening: watch Chinese television (1 hour): completed (in progress)
- HSK book 3 audio/following reading (1 hour): completed

I am extremely happy tonight. My effort was outstanding and I deserve to preen. I am also mentally tired, I feel parts of my head right now I didn't know I could feel. It's not a headache nor an exhausted feeling, just the feeling of having a complete cognitive workout, every neuron had to fire today. I did ALL my tasks for the first time. Still working on the tail end of it as I write but it's the extensive listening and notes review, so it's a very light activity. What I am even more happy about is that I stuck through the two days prior, which I now look back upon as typical trap days between good sessions. If you can still manage good amount of work on the days you are just not up to it, then that is awesome. I actually feel a bit of progress. My reading was sensibly faster today than the previous days, and it did not feel as hard to follow the characters, things just flowed better. Listening is still on and off, sometimes I feel things are becoming much clearer others I still don't get basic speech, but today the time this happened was when I think the 老板 at the dumpling shop tried to make a joke with me and I just am not at the level of catching jokes. A girl next to me, bless her, attempted to translate into English but I didn't really understand her either, so I just left. So its odd... reading is improving, my speech is improving too, but the listening still I just don't get it, why sometimes there is just no comprehension. I really do think I have a hard time with languages that are heavy on monosyllabic words... I had this issue in French too, a language that has many homonyms and shorter words from attrition of sounds. It took my quite a while to feel comfortable with catching all words in French, and that's a language very close to a mother tongue of mine.

Tomorrow will be day 9. If I can hold out till Saturday with this challenging rhythm of very heavy reading volumes, constant listening intensive and extensive, interspersed with grammar study, bursts of shadowing, and a session of mechanical drills it will be great. Saturday I will take it very light, my brain will need a rest, and I also do need to do grocery shopping etc.

Day 8: A+ = success!!

- - - -

Day 9 goals:

- Boya Chinese Intermediate Book 5: begin lesson 3
- HSK 5 上 : complete lesson 8
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2 basic shadow: 40 minutes (split in two 20 minute sessions in the day)
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 3: complete lesson 10 and 11
- Tuttle Spoken Chinese: complete Unit 1 drills and transformations, review grammar notes
- Extensive listening: watch Chinese television (1 hour) + HSK book 3 audio/following reading (1 hour)
- Review grammar notes from last semester classes

[outcast]

- Boya Chinese Intermediate Book 5 work on Lesson 3: completed
- HSK 5 上 complete lesson 8: completed
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2 basic shadow: 40 minutes: not completed
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 3: complete lesson 10 and 11: completed
- Tuttle Spoken Chinese: complete Unit 1 drills and transformations, review grammar notes: 1/2 completed
- Extensive listening: watch Chinese television (1 hour) + HSK book 3 audio/following reading (1 hour): 1/2 completed
- Review grammar notes from last semester classes: not completed

So this has been my weakest effort so far, just not much going today. However, I did do all the heavy tasks (new lessons, vocab, extensive reading and some extensive listening). I still got a fair amount of language workout so I'm not that disappointed (although the weather was beautiful for shadowing session, I just didn't get to it). I do enjoy going back reviewing completed beginner stuff, like Unit 1 of the Tuttle Basic Spoken Chinese, the first book I used. It's funny to look back on how things that are now pretty much automatic in the mind, at the time were radically bizarre. I actually find going back to material so basic gives you a sense of perspective and inspires you somehow by reminding you that hard work pays off.

Anyway, I still feel there seems to have been a jump in my reading skills, as well as my speaking. Words come quicker to my mind now. It's funny that I think many people think extensive input (listening and reading) exposes you to so many new words and patterns and that is the most useful advantage of the exercise. I actually have a twist: I believe it helps you in making the most basic words and phrases become automatic, which means it helps you become far smoother and fluent in just the basic stuff. Of course you pick up many new words, but sometimes this other aspect of long sustained input is overlooked.

I received my HSK 下 books. More interesting stuff in them... actually I learn a lot about Chinese culture through these and Tuttle, Boya, NPCR series. So while a lot of people knock textbooks and advocate going to native material ASAP (I don't disagree at all), I am enjoying this because these materials bring together what I probably should at the VERY LEAST know about Chinese culture. I figure if the authors put this stuff in there, it's because it is what Chinese consider the most important things to know about their culture.

I want to try to really pull a heavy day tomorrow. Saturday will be quite light (mostly just listening all day to Chinese), so I want to bust the cranium before then.

Day 9: so-so, learned new stuff though.

- - - -

Day 10 Goals:

- Boya Chinese Intermediate Book 5: complete lesson 3
- Boya Chinese Pre-intermediate Book 3: review lesson 14
- HSK 5 上 : complete lesson 9
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2: basic shadow (40min)
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 3: complete lessons 12, 13, and 14 (yikes!)
- Tuttle Spoken Chinese: review Unit 2, do drills and transformation exercises
- extensive listening: HSK 3 (1 hour)

[outcast]

- Boya Chinese Intermediate Book 5 lesson 3: completed
- Boya Chinese Pre-intermediate Book 3 lesson 14 (review): completed
- HSK 5 上 lesson 9: completed
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2 basic shadow: completed (now first 9 lessons shadowed)
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 3 lessons 12, 13, and 14: completed
- Tuttle Spoken Chinese review Unit 2, do drills and transformation exercises: not completed
- extensive listening HSK 3: completed (in progress)

Solid effort. Learning was focused throughout the day, and not any part of the day felt worse. Did not feel heavy learning at any point, but steady learning all day. Shadowing session was very nice, review lesson was also nice, deepened my understanding of a few points. In short to recapitulate this day: chipping away.

So tomorrow I must go to the city center to the big box stores and do some shopping of 日用品 and 食品 (pantry). I also have to clean, and finish organizing. I also will eat out, so basically the time for intense study will be restricted. I will just go everywhere with my audio. I do, however, have to keep working on HSK and Spoken Series, as I have many lessons to complete before feeling caught up for next semester (since I intend to jump over a level to the highest available), and want to do well and not feel lost. I actually am probably already about ready for that level, but I want to excel and also use the classes to solidify gains and also gain new perspectives on the language usage. I will use the lighter load to try to complete my written notes >> to computer side project. If time permits beef up Anki decks with entries I picked up in the note taking and also from my sessions in Skype with my Tutor as well as the meetings with a Chinese speaking practice tutor in the USA last year.

Day 10: satisfied!

- - - -

Day 11 Goals: Time for a breather!

- HSK 5 上: work on lesson 10 (if possible complete lesson but no more than 90 minutes for this task)
- Spoken Chinese Elementary Book 3: complete lesson 15; work on lesson 16 (if time permits, limit 90 minutes)
- Spoken Chinese Elementary level Book 2 basic shadow: lesson 10

ON THE GO (not a task) - Extensive (with some burst of intensive) listening throughout day: NPCR series, Chinese news radio
AT home (try to work on) - Type written notes into computer

I am now in the double digit of days where I have been studying throughout the day, exposing myself to Chinese reading, listening, and vocabulary learning as well as grammar and cultural study. In total I have 47 full free days from Jan 6 to Feb 21st. I had said earlier when starting this mission I planned to go on to March 5th. I said this on the basis that the first week of school is always very light, and the second week I would just tough it out and let the light at the end of the tunnel "bring me home". But regardless, those last two weeks I still have to attend class, so I will not have as much time. Anyway in terms of the fully "time free" days, I am now basically a quarter of the way through...