Mack's log: Mandarin, damn the torpedoes!

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Dr Mack Rettosy
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Oct 14th 2020 – December 12th 2021: One Year and Two Months Update

Postby Dr Mack Rettosy » Sun Dec 12, 2021 8:33 pm

Oct 14th 2020 – December 12th 2021: One Year and Two Months Update

Reading Input
Completed another two books. The first was in the Roald Dahl's collection, James and the Giant Peach. 38,000 characters at 40 CPM. Two things that made this a challenging book: 1) Less dialogue and more descriptive writing (setting scenes, describing characters appearances). 2) Non-native vocabulary/hanzi choices. I've talked about this issue in the past when starting the Mandarin Companion books. I sometimes get the sense that the language being used isn't "authentic". In this book, the descriptive vocabulary and amount of unique hanzi set off the same suspicions. This could be a translation effect which is a well noted phenomena in western-translated Chinese literature. But I'm also beginning to wonder if this is just a reaction to different writing styles combined with learning the language and getting a sense for how people use it. Anyway, as I said last time, my intuition for Mandarin still needs thousands of hours of input, so I don't really trust my ability to determine what's authentic language.

The second book was the last Rainbow Bridge advanced graded reader, an abridged version of "Journey to the West". 25,000 characters at 61 CPM. This book has been on my radar for many months now. The last time I tried reading it was a few months ago before starting children's books and it was too difficult. Well, I picked it up a few days ago and ripped through it, not because it was good but because it was easy. The story was fun in that it tied together some famous Chinese fables from the other graded readers, like Chang'e, Sun Wukong, Jade Rabbit, Xuanzang, etc. But it was a really poorly executed translation. All 37 chapters were broken up into lessons, where characters were introduced at the beginning with challenging extensively detailed descriptions (way beyond what was necessary to know for the core story).

For example 灵感大王, a

"goldfish raised in a lotus pond by Guanyin, he listens to the goddess reciting Buddhist scriptures every day. Over time, he transforms into a demon because of the power of the words spoken by Guanyin, Soon after, he makes his way to the Togtian River with a ninepetal copper hammer and seizes the old tortoise's residence. He poses as a deity and requires the villagers living nearby to sacrifice their young children to him in return for favorable weather for farming"


All this for a two-sentence cameo at the end of the chapter. I understand that the essence of the rich heritage is in these characters, but please, for an abridged version, spare us the details. These descriptions at the beginning of the chapter were taking longer to read than the chapter itself so I ended up just reading the English translations. I almost did not finish, but the completionist in me pushed through. So that's it for graded readers! A chapter in my Mandarin learning journey is over:

Rainbow Bridge Graded Readers: 15 / 15 / 15 higher books; 25 May 2020 - 12 Dec 2021

Listening Input
I think I've watched every Peppa Pig episode available on the Mandarin youtube channel, which is confusing, because there are hundreds of videos, but every video I seem to watch repeats the same ~eighty episodes. I circled back to using subtitles. My comprehension is solidly at a Refold Level 4 sometimes Level 5. More and more, I understand long stretches. And my short term memory is better in that I can repeat whole sentences after hearing them.

I've started watching a slightly more advanced (and entertaining) show on netflix called "Octonauts". It's a group of animals that live in an underwater base, adventuring in aquatic environments and helping marine life they encounter. Each episode is 10 minutes. The dub is actually quite good and some of the voice actors are really fun, particularly the mainlander accents. It's also less shrill than Peppa Pig, there's only so much giggling and crying an adult language learner can take..

Still doing a decent amount of passive listening which is slowly becoming more comprehensible. A youtube channel geared for learners (大鹏说中文-Speak Chinese With Da Peng) has a good series in which he interviews other learners. Most episodes the interviewees are really good, they speak slowly and with correct tones. However, there are other episodes that need to be avoided (interviewees speaking too fast, incorrect tones, with filler language 那个,很多,所以,等等。). I've been listening to these over and over for a few months, each time picking up new things.

Finally, I've been watching casual traveling vlogs on youtube. There's a lot of such channels, a young guy traveling solo through the Chinese country side. 阿龙的旅行 A Long Life is one that I've been enjoying recently. He uses simple, clear speech that I can (mostly) follow.

Overall Outlook
Happy with progress, noticing real comprehension gains. However, I'm beginning to notice I have less patience with certain learning content, particularly children's shows, graded readers, etc. Will be important in the next half year to start transitioning to more advanced native material, which I'm already doing for books but have yet to do with my listening input.

Goals
Ongoing goals:
Roald Dahl Collection: 1 / 9 / 9 books
Read: 460000 / 10000000 /10,000,000 汉字
Study: 1020 / 5000 / 5000 hours

Completed goals:
✓ HelloChinese Maincourse [14 Oct 2020 - 29 Nov 2020]
✓ HelloChinese Immersions [1 Dec 2020 - 6 March 2021]
✓ Heisig's Remembering the Simplified Hanzi Vol I [31 Jan 2020 - 22 April 2021]
✓ Read Rainbow Bridge Graded Readers; 20 starter books [04 May 2021 - 24 May 2021]
✓ Read Mandarin Companion Readers; 17 books [July 6th 2021 - Oct 8th 2021]
✓ Read Rainbow Bridge Graded Readers; 15 higher books [25 May 2020 - 12 Dec 2021]

Suspended goals:
X Read 500 HSK1-5 TCB articles in pinyin [read ~250 HSK1-3 articles; 1 Dec 2020 - 25 March 2021]
X Anki Spoonfed Chinese [reached 886/8017 cards; 25 Mar 2021 - 13 Aug 2021]
X Heisig's Remembering the Simplified Hanzi Vol II [never began]
Last edited by Dr Mack Rettosy on Thu Dec 23, 2021 4:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mandarin goals:
Read: 2146000 / 10000000 /10,000,000 汉字
Study: 2006 / 5000 / 5000 hours

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Massive Input Masterlist: BOOKS

Postby Dr Mack Rettosy » Wed Dec 22, 2021 2:37 pm

I'm sure this will come to no surprise, but I am officially declaring myself a massive-comprehensible-input-immersion-native-content-language-aquisition-AJATT-refold-Krashenite-lazy-whatever-you-wanna-call-it learner. I stand on the shoulders of giants, and one individual who has been of special influence is Patrick Wilken and his approach to learning German (Language Learners log and HTLAL log). I want to do something similar, so what follows is a masterlist that will serve to record all the media I consume.

THE BOOK LIST

c = character count in book, i.e. book length.
cpm = characters per minute, i.e. reading speed.
DNF = did not finish
Native works' title and author are in Chinese, translations' title and author are in English.

2023

79. Next to read: The Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie. 53,000c.

78. Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl. 58,000c. Currently reading.

2022
77. 现实一种 by 余华. 70,000c. 68cpm. Collection of three short stories. The first story was a gut wrenching read about two brothers and the death of their young children. The second story was a murder-mystery that was gripping but a bit confused about the ending. The third was very experimental as 余华 occasionally does, which bounced between narratives, settings, and times.. almost DNF this last story but I stuck it out.

76. 推理之王 - 坏小孩 by 紫金陈 154,000c. 64cpm. Murder detective story, second of trilogy. I enjoyed this. Premise is a group of kids capture a murder on video then proceed to blackmail the murderer, but it takes them down a dangerous path.. This was adapted to a TV show that I'd like to watch.

75. 头发保卫战 by 曹文轩. 19,500c. 60cpm.

74. 推理之王 - 无证之罪 by 紫金陈. 135,000c. 53cpm. Murder detective story, first of trilogy. Bit of a slog.

73. Re-read MC2 Dr. Jeckyl and Mr Hyde. 15,000c. 138cpm.

72. 我胆小如鼠 by 余华. 42,000c. 66cpm. Three experimental short stories. Had to skip the second, although easy language, the perspective and timeline was disorienting, much like a Joyce or Faulkner book.

71. Re-read MC2 Greater Expectations (Part 1+2). 30,000c. 122cpm.

70. 流浪地球 by 刘慈欣. 21,000c. 57 cpm. First science fiction, pretty challenging read.

69. 大林和小林 by 张天翼. 39,000c. 70 cpm. Surreal children's fairy tale.

68. 黄昏里的男孩 (The Boy at Dusk) by 余华. 63,000c. 64cpm. Collection of a dozen short stories, most contained adult themes like infidelity, violence, poverty. Reading short stories is more challenging at this point because each has a new set of characters, setting, vocabulary to learn. Although it was definitely readable, I'd like to stay away from more short stories for awhile.

67. 许三观卖血记 (Chronicles of a Blood Merchant) by 余华. 98,000c. 66cpm. Very good book, I would peg this easier than 活着. Vocabularly is introduced section by section and almost deliberately repeated. I would highly recommend this for anyone looking to read their first native novel.

66. Re-read MC2 Journey to the Center of the Earth. 15,000c. 109cpm.

65. 圈子圈套 (The Circle Trap) Part One by 王强. DNF. Spent 10+ hours grinding 24,000c out of 170,000+ character book. Political and business intrigue, follows a character trying to climb the ranks of an international software company. I read the first 3 chapters at a painful 38 cpm, and although I was following the story, was missing a lot of nuance. Going to set this book down and pick it up when I'm more advanced.

64. 秃秃大王 (King Tu Tu) by 张天翼著. 34,000c. 67 cpm. A surreal children's story about a tyrannical king that eats his subjects. Easy reading but can't say I enjoyed it..

63. 活着 (To Live) by 余华. 76,000c. 49cpm. This is an account of a man's life and the struggles he and his family encounters during the cultural revolution. The language is simple yet the story is compelling and presents mature themes, reminded me of Ernest Hemingway's writing. I was brought to tears several times, a very humanizing read. Highly recommended for low intermediates looking to try a native novel.

62. 细米 (Xi Mi) by 曹文轩. 109,000c. 45cpm. Set in a small farming village during the cultural revolution. Focuses a young boy Ximi and his family receiving a young woman for reeducation. A long slow read, but never felt in over my head. There were a lot of sections that had me page turning to find out what happened next. Some tough "literary" language. Overall, enjoyed.

61. Matilda by Roald Dahl. 60,200c. 59cpm. Starting to get a little bored of the Roald Dahl collection, I may not continue..

60. 埋在雪下的小屋 (The Snow Buried Hut) by 曹文轩. 24,900c. 46cpm. Story of a group of children that take refuge in a log cabin to escape an avalanche. They try digging themselves out only to slowly succumb to starvation. I have heard 曹文轩 works having dark themes despite being a children's author. This story had me flipping pages to find out what happens, really happy to find an author that I enjoy! Will definitely be reading more 曹文轩 in the future.

59. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. 48,000c. 62cpm.

58. 兔子什么都知道 (Rabbits Know Everything) by 夏正正. 57,000c. 49cpm. My second native book. Couldn't have asked for a better book to read at my current level! Chapters are comprised of short dialogues between animals, lots of 冷笑话 (corny jokes) that were actually pretty funny. Vocabulary was at a good level which made tackling the grammar and meaning easier. Highly recommended for beginners looking to try a native material.

November - December 2021
57. The Witches by Roald Dahl. 49,000c. 47cpm. Surprisingly readable and enjoyable. Think this may be the easiest Roald Dahl translation.

56. Journey to the West, abridged graded reader, by Rainbow Bridge. 25,000c. 61cpm. Almost did not finish because it was too condensed and the language unnatural, consider this my graduation from graded readers!

55. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. 38,000c. 40cpm. High unique character count.

54. House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne. 47,500c. 56cpm.

53. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. 44,500c. 41cpm. Much of the plot revolves around play on words that is misunderstood by characters. These often don't translate well and are hard to pick up on.

June - October 2021
52. 狮子大王和太阳 (The Lion King and the Sun) by 孙幼军. 54,000c. 36cpm. A tough first read. Native language, colloquial speech dated from mid-20th century, a story I'm not familiar with.

35-51. Mandarin Companion graded readers, 17 books (MC0, MC1, MC2) in total. 165,000c. 30-65cpm. This series is excellent. Highly recommended for learners beginning to read.

21-34. Rainbow Bridge graded readers, 14 (R1, R2, R3) higher books in total. 63,000c. 20-40cpm.

April - May 2021
1-20. Rainbow Bridge graded readers, 20 (R0) beginner books in total. 20,000c. 10-20cpm.

2020
0. The Chairman's Bao graded news, several hundred HSK1-3 articles. Read in pinyin.
Last edited by Dr Mack Rettosy on Mon Jan 16, 2023 6:23 pm, edited 13 times in total.
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Mandarin goals:
Read: 2146000 / 10000000 /10,000,000 汉字
Study: 2006 / 5000 / 5000 hours

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Dr Mack Rettosy
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Massive Input Masterlist: MOVIES/TV

Postby Dr Mack Rettosy » Wed Dec 22, 2021 2:39 pm

THE MOVIES/TV LIST

This list only includes material made for entertainment, and DOES NOT include material made for learners, of which I have watched hundreds and hundreds of hours...

YT = youtube
NF = netflix

2022
18. 家有儿女, Home with Kids (2004), YT. Season 2, 100 episodes, 20 min each. The classic sitcom continues... (currently watching)

17. 鞋底骑车环球旅行 travel video log, YT. Young guy (鞋底 Xiedi) traveling through Africa, Middle East, Eurasia. He is extremely prolific and videos are language dense with simple, descriptive vocabulary. Fun free-spirited personality, he interacts with people and explores his environment in a fun way. (currently watching)

16. Hilda, NF. Geared toward young teens, storyline is pretty simple. Creative animation and funky sound effects. Voices are pretty quick and subtitles aren't perfect.

15. 辛花路放 travel video log, YT. Young woman traveling China, which is a nice change from all the young men vlogs.

14. 小白的奇幻旅行 travel video log, YT. Focuses on history and geography. A bit self centered. Pretty poor editing which makes watching sometimes frustrating. I think he is mainly posting to bilibi or xigua so aspects of the video are not transferring well and they are not uploaded chronologically.

13. 阿龙半斤 travel video log, YT. Travels around China in a car with his dog. Very logistic and people oriented. Makes friends with locals, in a respectful and curious way. Great editing.

2021
12. Octonauts, NF. Season 1.

11. Peppa Pig, YT. Hundreds of episodes, all rewatched dozens of times.

10. 霍元甲, Jet Li's Fearless (2006), NF.

9. 家有儿女, Home with Kids (2004), YT. Season 1, 100 episodes, 20 min each. Classic sitcom, must watch. Characters never truly develop unfortunately.

8. 影, Shadow (2018), NF. Mainland. Beautifully shot Wuxia film. Takes a while to pick up steam. Gritty violence.

7. 少林三十六房, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1979), NF. Hong Kong. Fun Kung-Fu movie.

6. 幸福城市, Cities of Last Things (2008), YT. Taiwan/France/US. 24 episodes, 10 min each. Sci-fi, little hard to follow the backwards moving storyline.

5. 刺客伍六七, Scissors Seven (2018-2019), YT. Hong Kong. Seasons 1-2. First anime, actually really well done. Quirky writing and art, a bit heavy on the action scenes.

4. 即日启程, Set Off (2008), NF. Hong Kong. Fun movie!

3. 我是老板, I'm a Boss (2009), YT. Mainland. 40 episodes, 40 min each. First Mandarin TV show that I could stomach. Jiang Wu is great in this. Lots of lovely Beijing accents.

2. 剃头匠, The Old Barber (2006), YT. Mainland. Slow and atmospheric with a great ending. Addresses themes of aging and urbanization.

1. 阳光普照; A Sun (2019), NF. Taiwan. A solid drama/thriller. Taiwanese media can really hold its own. Hard to follow audio because of accents.
Last edited by Dr Mack Rettosy on Sun Aug 21, 2022 5:43 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Mandarin goals:
Read: 2146000 / 10000000 /10,000,000 汉字
Study: 2006 / 5000 / 5000 hours

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Dr Mack Rettosy
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Re: Mack's log: Mandarin, damn the torpedoe

Postby Dr Mack Rettosy » Thu Jan 06, 2022 1:54 pm

I’ve adapted to the new work load and am finding balance with Mandarin studies. I dedicate 75 minutes in the mornings, less than 5 min of Anki and the rest reading. Throughout the day I do 60-90 minutes of listening, typically a blend of passive and active. It’s becoming more obvious that my reading skills are advancing faster than my listening, my technology set up is such that vocabulary acquisition with reading is much less of a hassle than it would be for listening. May need to start intensive listening practice at some point..

I can’t tell if this is real or in my head, but I think my English is ever so slightly atrophying :!:

The effect is subtle and only with my active skills. Words seem harder to find in conversation, especially at the end of a long work day. The most notable is my hand written grammar. I’ve always scribbled notes to myself at work and often I find myself writing something and the grammar immediately collapses, it’s so strange. I toss the words down on paper in any order my poor brain can muster. I expected something like this to happen but not so soon, heck, I haven’t even started activating the language yet..! How can reading and listening to one language effect my speaking and writing of another? Maybe I’m not getting enough English input, but that can’t be it I’m constantly using it. Perhaps my Mandarin is starting to take a significant portion of my language centers processing power?

I don’t hear this talked about in the language community, but surely language trade offs must be a real phenomenon? It makes me wonder how anyone can juggle more than a few languages without losing some expressivity in another?
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Mandarin goals:
Read: 2146000 / 10000000 /10,000,000 汉字
Study: 2006 / 5000 / 5000 hours

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Re: Mack's log: Mandarin, damn the torpedoe

Postby Beli Tsar » Thu Jan 06, 2022 4:45 pm

Dr Mack Rettosy wrote:I can’t tell if this is real or in my head, but I think my English is ever so slightly atrophying :!:

The effect is subtle and only with my active skills. Words seem harder to find in conversation, especially at the end of a long work day. The most notable is my hand written grammar. I’ve always scribbled notes to myself at work and often I find myself writing something and the grammar immediately collapses, it’s so strange. I toss the words down on paper in any order my poor brain can muster. I expected something like this to happen but not so soon, heck, I haven’t even started activating the language yet..! How can reading and listening to one language effect my speaking and writing of another? Maybe I’m not getting enough English input, but that can’t be it I’m constantly using it. Perhaps my Mandarin is starting to take a significant portion of my language centers processing power?

I don’t hear this talked about in the language community, but surely language trade offs must be a real phenomenon? It makes me wonder how anyone can juggle more than a few languages without losing some expressivity in another?

Or is it simply that your brain is more tired, because language learning takes up a good deal more mental energy than is apparent? I certainly notice this kind of thing on a day I've studied languages hard, but it goes away as soon as I'm rested, so hopefully it's that?
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Dr Mack Rettosy
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Re: Mack's log: Mandarin, damn the torpedoe

Postby Dr Mack Rettosy » Thu Jan 06, 2022 5:20 pm

Beli Tsar wrote:
Dr Mack Rettosy wrote:I can’t tell if this is real or in my head, but I think my English is ever so slightly atrophying :!:

The effect is subtle and only with my active skills. Words seem harder to find in conversation, especially at the end of a long work day. The most notable is my hand written grammar. I’ve always scribbled notes to myself at work and often I find myself writing something and the grammar immediately collapses, it’s so strange. I toss the words down on paper in any order my poor brain can muster. I expected something like this to happen but not so soon, heck, I haven’t even started activating the language yet..! How can reading and listening to one language effect my speaking and writing of another? Maybe I’m not getting enough English input, but that can’t be it I’m constantly using it. Perhaps my Mandarin is starting to take a significant portion of my language centers processing power?

I don’t hear this talked about in the language community, but surely language trade offs must be a real phenomenon? It makes me wonder how anyone can juggle more than a few languages without losing some expressivity in another?

Or is it simply that your brain is more tired, because language learning takes up a good deal more mental energy than is apparent? I certainly notice this kind of thing on a day I've studied languages hard, but it goes away as soon as I'm rested, so hopefully it's that?


Yes that could very well be, especially with the learning curve of my new job. And I suppose there’s always the slow decline of aging to take into consideration lol.
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Mandarin goals:
Read: 2146000 / 10000000 /10,000,000 汉字
Study: 2006 / 5000 / 5000 hours

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Dr Mack Rettosy
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Re: Mack's log: Mandarin, damn the torpedoes!

Postby Dr Mack Rettosy » Mon Jan 17, 2022 4:06 pm

Two more books read and about half way through another.

The Witches by Roald Dahl. 49,000c. 47cpm. As a child the movie always creeped me out so I expected not to like the book but to my surprise enjoyed it. Also was quite a bit easier than James and the Giant Peach.

兔子什么都知道, by 夏正正. 57,000c. 49cpm. My second native book. Good fit for my current level! Chapters are comprised of short dialogues between animals, lots of 冷笑话 (corny jokes) that were actually pretty funny. Vocabulary was at a good level which made it easier to understand the grammar and meaning.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Currently reading. So far the descriptive language of the settings are a bit slow. The transliterations of names is also a sticky point. Oh and I would be okay if I never had to say 金奖券 jinjiangquan (golden ticket) again.

Huge shout out to 阿龙和半斤 travel vlog on YouTube. I’m 110 episodes in and really enjoying it. The vicarious travel shows the natural beauty of China and the diversity of its history, people, culture, language, foods, etc. 阿龙 is also a very gracious and kind person, and I’ve learned how one can tour with curiosity and respect. This is the first native material that has hooked me so consider this a big win!! I’m also comprehending enough to pretty much always know what’s going on, more or less. The subtitles help a lot, and he often speaks plainly towards locals who might not speak standard mandarin.
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Mandarin goals:
Read: 2146000 / 10000000 /10,000,000 汉字
Study: 2006 / 5000 / 5000 hours

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Dr Mack Rettosy
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Posts: 134
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Re: Mack's log: Mandarin, damn the torpedoes!

Postby Dr Mack Rettosy » Wed Jan 19, 2022 3:44 pm

I stumbled across an infographic on Reddit

IMG_7191.jpg


When I started Mandarin I was obsessed with figuring out how many hours it would take to “master” the language. I used several anecdotes and data from the LSI to calculate an estimation on time to fluency. This is validating to see another person using a different source get almost the exact same numbers. Rest assured, 5000 hours to C2 is not an overestimate.

学海无涯 indeed.

It is also noteworthy how accurate this chart has reflected my own experiences. At 1100 hours, I feel pretty confident that I am on the cusp of the B1-B2 transition. Of course, I’m input heavy, my reading and listening are probably a low B2 where my speaking and writing are still somewhere in A land. But in my opinion this is a pretty accurate description of time required to attain various levels in Mandarin, and anyone interested in learning can use this information in consideration with their own time availability to set more realistic language goals.
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Mandarin goals:
Read: 2146000 / 10000000 /10,000,000 汉字
Study: 2006 / 5000 / 5000 hours

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Dr Mack Rettosy
Orange Belt
Posts: 134
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2020 5:53 pm
Location: USA, The Great Lakes
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16180
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Oct 14th 2020 – February 25th 2021: One Year and Four Months Update

Postby Dr Mack Rettosy » Sat Feb 26, 2022 1:42 am

Oct 14th 2020 – February 25th 2021: One Year and Four Months Update

I’ve been putting this update off for a couple weeks now, mostly because my days are so full and I’d rather just use any extra time working with Mandarin. But here it is anyway!

What I’ve been doing
Finished my first “literary” native material, 曹文轩’s novella 埋在雪下的小屋 (A Small House Buried in the Snow) and it was absolutely lovely. Sure he’s a children’s author, and indeed it was challenging a read, but good writing is hard not to notice. I’m going to make a short term goal to continue reading through his collection, probably alternating with the Roald Dahl translations. Speaking of which, currently halfway through “Matilda”. This was my wifes favorite movie growing up, so we’re planning to watch it after I finish the book.

Caught up with 阿龙’s travel v-log. Have at least four other travel v-loggers I’d like to watch. Keeping at the 大鹏 podcasts (more on that below). And yes I still watch Peppa Pig, probably 20 minutes every other day. I would say my comprehension is 70-90% with this show and it is great for extensive listening.

Intensive listening
I've been experimenting with intensive listening to 大鹏 podcasts. He produces three types of podcasts: 10-20 minute conversations with learners, 5 minute descriptions of phrases/words, 15-25 minute discussion of a topic. His content is top notch and the material is engaging.

Here is my process:
1) Sit on couch eyes closed and completely focus on listening through the whole thing
2) Listen-Read the whole thing
3) Read the whole thing looking up words I don't know
4) Listen-Read a second time
5) Listen only
6) Passive listen throughout the following days while I multitask (exercise, chores, etc.)

I tried this for a couple weeks and got bored and demotivated, but I did notice improvements so I think it certainly has a place, perhaps for a few days when I'm in between books? I'll dedicate a separate study material post to this in the near future.

Punctuated equilibrium
Every 100-200 hours it seems that I have a break through and am rewarded with awareness of my improvements. These happen less frequently than before, but at 90 minutes a day progress is still happening. Recently, content feels more approachable. Walls of texts are still intimidating, but taking it sentence by sentence, I can pick out things and sometimes get the gist. Everything I come across feels like it has a "frame" around it, like I understand a lot of individual words and structure of the sentence, but I can't quite see the full "picture" (i.e. meaning). Vocabulary is becoming the biggest hurdle, and there is just so much of it and the lack of flash cards in my routine is not helping.

Distractions? No, just a healthy balanced life
Starting to feel more pulls from other areas of life. I got really into the Theranos story and Elizabeth Holmes verdict. It’s relevant to my professional life and is a blend of things that interest me, science, fraud, venture capital, white collar crime, etc. I’m going to start commuting to work by bike once weather improves. That’s going to take a good 80-minute chunk out of my day. Less reading and more podcasts perhaps? I've cracked open a biography on Micheal Faraday. It sits on my nightstand and mostly puts me to sleep, but hey, I'm reading for pleasure in English again which is something I've previously restricted myself on. And there’s always the random pulls from other areas in my life, mostly they’re all fine, but just need to accept that there will be less time for language learning.

Conversations, mono-lingual transitions, and VPNs, oh my!
No promises on when exactly I’ll start talking, but the plan is between 1.5 - 2 years (i.e. April 2022 – October 2022). I’ll probably just pay a tutor and start with three sessions a week. I’m fairly confident my comprehension will be good enough to understand things, but I’m more concerned about my ability to express myself. The idea of conversing doesn't excite me too much, but my guess is after I start I'll wonder why I waited so long.

I should probably start the gradual shift to a monolingual dictionary, especially while reading with Pleco, there really is no excuse. I have experimented a little bit and usually fall down a dictionary rabbit hole going word to word to word. I suppose in this scenario it’s fine to just look up the word in English lol.

And get a VPN. This is self-explanatory. Now that I’m more or less literate, I'd like access to native media and websites.

Wonderlust
I want to learn Spanish. I have a good deal of it around me at work. I’m also curious how it will compare to the challenges of learning Mandarin. The latin alphabet, endless immersion material, opportunities for use.. I could go on but I’d better stop for Mandarin’s sake.

Goals
Ongoing goals:
Roald Dahl Collection: 3 / 9 / 9 books
曹文轩 Collection: 1 / 8 / 8 books
Read: 640000 / 10000000 /10,000,000 汉字
Study: 1179 / 5000 / 5000 hours

Completed goals:
✓ HelloChinese Maincourse [14 Oct 2020 - 29 Nov 2020]
✓ HelloChinese Immersions [1 Dec 2020 - 6 March 2021]
✓ Heisig's Remembering the Simplified Hanzi Vol I [31 Jan 2020 - 22 April 2021]
✓ Read Rainbow Bridge Graded Readers; 20 starter books [04 May 2021 - 24 May 2021]
✓ Read Mandarin Companion Readers; 17 books [July 6th 2021 - Oct 8th 2021]
✓ Read Rainbow Bridge Graded Readers; 15 higher books [25 May 2020 - 12 Dec 2021]

Suspended goals:
X Read 500 HSK1-5 TCB articles in pinyin [read ~250 HSK1-3 articles; 1 Dec 2020 - 25 March 2021]
X Anki Spoonfed Chinese [reached 886/8017 cards; 25 Mar 2021 - 13 Aug 2021]
X Heisig's Remembering the Simplified Hanzi Vol II [never began]
8 x
Mandarin goals:
Read: 2146000 / 10000000 /10,000,000 汉字
Study: 2006 / 5000 / 5000 hours

User avatar
Dr Mack Rettosy
Orange Belt
Posts: 134
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2020 5:53 pm
Location: USA, The Great Lakes
Languages: English (N), Mandarin
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16180
x 729

Re: Mack's log: Mandarin, damn the torpedoes!

Postby Dr Mack Rettosy » Fri Mar 25, 2022 8:45 pm

I am well into my first full length native Chinese novel, 细米 by 曹文轩.

It’s setting is a farming village during the culture revolution. The village receives 知识青年, children from educated families for countryside re-education. A young girl from this group meets a village boy. The boy helps her work the fields, and she gives him an art education to nurture his talent for making wood sculptures. There is plenty of mischief and coming of age sprinkled throughout.

Of all his books, this one had the smallest paragraphs and most dialogue, so thought it would be the easiest one to start with. It’s interesting, reading books in another language always come with a curve. The first chapter is steep, but once you get use to the author’s writing and learn the settings and characters, things smooth out. Pretty amazing how the mind adapts to challenges.

I am starting to appreciate native materials, and noticing differences in how language is being used differently in translations. I have a hunch that the authenticity of native materials makes language easier to acquire. After reading 曹文轩 my mind is alive with Chinese, but with translations the language stops when the book closes. This and the fact that there is just so much Chinese literature to explore, I kind of doubt I’ll go back to translated works…
11 x
Mandarin goals:
Read: 2146000 / 10000000 /10,000,000 汉字
Study: 2006 / 5000 / 5000 hours


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