My 中文(ZH) & தமிழ் (TA) logs

[samothin]

大家好，vaṇakkam,

I'm from Malaysia and my native language is Malay. I started learning ZH a year ago, and TA for 2 weeks.

ZH is my L2 where I spend Mon - Fri learning it, while I plan to study TA as my L3 (laddering on ZH) during the weekends.

My ZH study plan
1. FSI Standard Chinese - A Modular Approach (as an audio course) twice per day, to and from work. Currently listening to Module 05 Transportation.
2. 10 new words per day based on HSK list. Currently at HSK 4. I create cards with example of usage in phrases or sentences.
3. Review of SRS for HSK 1 - 3 word lists, in isolation. Twice per day, 20 reps.
4. Review of cloze-test SRS for HSK 1 - 3 word lists, in context (Clozemaster). Twice per day, 40 reps.
5. Review of SRS for target list in FSI module. Twice per day.
6. Review of SRS for new words created based on HSK list. Twice per day.
7. Translation exercise for 1 4-panel comic per day.
8. Read 1 entry of Chinese Grammar Wiki, and 1 topic of Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar.

My TA study plan - to do list
1. Create Survival Tamil list (to check translation with native speaker). Review it twice in each day.
2. Read and listen 1 chapter of Routledge's Colloquial Tamil for each day.

Hopefully I could achieve around B1~2 for ZH soon, as well as A1 For TA.

[samothin]

-to edit

[samothin]

- to edit

[Axon]

I'm very interested in your Tamil journey! It's not too commonly studied and I'm thinking of trying it out as a new language for next year. How are you laddering it with Mandarin?

[samothin]

I could only find Routledge Colloquial's as a resource. I paired it with Mandarin as my L1 when reviewing my SRS cards.

Progress has been quite slow, comparing to when I first started learning Mandarin. I'll try a few ideas and put in this log.

[samothin]

Studied 1 chapter for Tamil during the weekend. This is my first experience with agglutination. Feels impossible to master.

[samothin]

I feel like the frustration arise due to the fact that I apply the same strategy for Mandarin in learning Tamil.

Decided to stick solely with Routledge Colloquial's, and have a higher focus on grammar/agglutination part in Tamil. Maybe mind map etc. We'll see.

[samothin]

Started reading Harry Potter 1 yesterday. I'm currently using the DuShu app from Play store and it's significantly easier.

Based on the analysis, apparently only 15% of words are from HSK4-6, while 25% is not in HSK.

Took the plunge and started reading. Definitely intensive reading, I've completed only 20 sentences so far.

[samothin]

Just bought the premium version for DuShu today. Hopefully I will stay motivated in reading the HP1 book. Could really feel the improvement so far, mostly on the confidence level for the words that I've known.

[samothin]

I've read 52% of Chapter 1 in Harry Potter 1 in Mandarin. It's still hard but this is my first crack of consuming native material. Thanks to DuShu/@Voice TTS app for making this easier. I think I can do L+R as my main study method after finishing with the FSI course.