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Richard Perry
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Languages,
Mandarin,
Challenges
Since early 2009 I have been learning Mandarin Chinese off and on. This may seem an odd language to choose so let me explain. In 2007 a good friend of ours told us about a Scouting trip he was organising to Russia, Mongolia & China (further details available here. This seemed like a good idea at the time, and, to cut a long story short, Rosie & I decided to stay on in China for a further 5 weeks. The time we spent in China was absolutely amazing and I gained a real appreciation for the country, the culture and the language and I wanted to learn more. I decided to learn the language to better understand the culture. Since then, it seems that my language...
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Richard Perry
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Languages,
Mandarin,
Challenges
It has now been a month since I started my Mandarin Chinese language challenge, so I think it’s time for an update on how I’m doing. To be honest, it’s not being going all that well. The first week went quite well, I was generally following my study plan (except for some evening sessions), but then it became unworkable. I guess I didn’t really plan it well enough, so I have amended the plan in an attempt to make it easier to follow without reducing the commitment needed. Well, it still isn’t really working. Here is a summary of the key points from this month. The Good I do listen to Mandarin radio most of the day in work; I have kept up with my vocabulary...
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Richard Perry
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Languages,
Mandarin,
Challenges
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...
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Richard Perry
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Languages,
Mandarin,
Challenges
It has now been 3 months since I started my Mandarin Language Challenge so it’s time for another update. This month has been very slow going and I have achieved pretty much nothing. I started the month with the intention of reviewing all the Pimsleur lesson I had learned so far and reciting the conversations from each lesson as SoundCloud items. However, it wasn’t until 15 November that I uploaded the first two lessons, and then I haven’t continued since. I have therefore decided to pretend that November didn’t happen and try to continue from where I left off at the end of October with the same goals etc. carrying forward to December. For those that are interested, here is the only audio clip I have uploaded...
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Richard Perry
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Languages,
Mandarin,
Challenges
So my 4 months are up and unfortunately, the last 2 months have been a bit useless for various reasons, so needless to say I haven’t really managed to achieve my goal. Over the last month I have probably only spent about 10 hours learning Mandarin, and the bulk of that was probably reviewing characters on Memrise. I have still not yet completed all 30 lessons from Pimsleurs Mandarin 1 so that is still on my todo list. I have improved by reading comprehension and my speaking a little, but I don’t think I would be able to hold a 5 minute conversation yet. Ah well. I have enjoyed it and so I will continue to plod on at my previous pace and see how it...
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Richard Perry
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Languages,
Mandarin,
Challenges
So things kind of stalled on my Mandarin Language Challenge after I finished in 2012 (actually, it stalled before the end, but that’s another story ). Since then, I’ve dipped in and out a bit here and there, but I haven’t really done anything concrete, and I haven’t kept it going for any length of time. Now it is time to actually do something about it. Since the start of the year I have been very busy with my marathon training, but now I have a lot more time and I feel it’s time for another challenge to try to kickstart my learning again. This time, I am looking at a much more concrete end goal with some mini goals in between. I will be...
Since early 2009 I have been learning Mandarin Chinese off and on. This may seem an odd language to choose so let me explain. In 2007 a good friend of ours told us about a Scouting trip he was organising to Russia, Mongolia & China (further details available here. This seemed like a good idea at the time, and, to cut a long story short, Rosie & I decided to stay on in China for a further 5 weeks. The time we spent in China was absolutely amazing and I gained a real appreciation for the country, the culture and the language and I wanted to learn more. I decided to learn the language to better understand the culture. Since then, it seems that my language...
). Since then, I’ve dipped in and out a bit here and there, but I haven’t really done anything concrete, and I haven’t kept it going for any length of time. Now it is time to actually do something about it. Since the start of the year I have been very busy with my marathon training, but now I have a lot more time and I feel it’s time for another challenge to try to kickstart my learning again. This time, I am looking at a much more concrete end goal with some mini goals in between. I will be...