We are now into the third month of my Mandarin Chinese language challenge, so here is an update to how month 2 has gone. Lets start by updating you on my targets from last month.
1. Practice more than twice a week
This time I think I just about managed to practice more than twice a week, although still not as much as I would have liked.
2. Publish at least one journal entry to Lang-8 per week
The Lang-8 community are very helpful and I have been inundated with corrections when I have actually submitted an entry, but I did not manage to achieve the requisite on entry per week this month, maybe I will manage it next month. These are my entries for October for anyone that is interested.
Week 1 - 关于我 / About Me
我住在一个小城镇叫Pontypool。它是在威尔士南部。 我住跟我的太太和儿子一起。我的儿子是八个月大。 我是一个童军领袖。 我享受攀岩，皮划艇和步行。
I live in a small town called Pontypool. It is in South Wales. I live with my wife and son. My son is eight months old. I am a Scout Leader. I enjoy climbing, kayaking and walking.
Week 3 - 家庭的一天 / Family Day Out
昨天我的太太，我的儿子和我去看看在 Bristol 动物园的 恐龙。我们也看看企鹅，灰沼狸和猴。我们有一个非常愉快的一天， George 也有乐趣。我们吃晚饭在McDonald’s。
Yesterday my wife, my son and I went to Bristol Zoo to see the dinosaurs. We also saw the penguins, meerkats & monkeys. We had a very nice day and George had fun too. We had dinner at McDonald’s.
And I’m afraid that’s it for this month!
3. Publish at least two audio clips to Soundcloud
So I planned to record at least two audio clips to put up on Soundcloud during October, and it was very touch and go, but I just about managed it. The first clip was a basic introduction/about me discussion that was scripted (and corrected via Lang-8), although I didn’t practice it so it was quite disjointed. Hopefully it wasn’t too bad in terms of the Mandarin usage, but I haven’t had any comments so maybe this platform isn’t going to be the best way forward. I’ll give it a bit more time before making that decision though.
关于我 About Me
My second clip was a recitation of a lullaby sung by Jackie Chan in the Spy Next Door (quite a funny
film as it happens). I thought it sounded very gentle so I am now learning it to sing to George.
This is the level I am at with it at the moment (this was read from a script as I can’t remember
the words just yet 
).
Ba Ma De Hua
So both clips this month are a little disjointed, slow and hard to listen to, but it’s a start. I am aiming to do a lot more of this in future to improve the flow of my speaking. All in all I’m quite pleased so far.
4. Learn at least 200 new characters using Memrise
I tried really hard with this this month, but I missed a few days in the middle and have been trying to catch up every since. Still, I managed to get through nearly 150 new characters so I’m more than happy with that.
Conclusion
As I suspected, it still wasn’t a brilliant month for progress, but I think I’m definitely getting
better so I am much happier than I was at the end of September. Instead of looking back at how I did
this month, I am going to look forward to what I aim to do next month .
Plans for November
- Learn another 150 characters using Memrise;
- Publish at least three audio clips to Soundcloud;
- At least learn the words to Ba Ma De Hua by heart;
- Complete the remaining lessons of Pimsleurs Mandarin 1.