Language Studies

           I started out the month going easy on myself because I honestly had no motivation to study much but as the month moved on I realized that if I left myself like this I would forget all the stuff that I learned and then I would have to start from the beginning again. So this week I bit the bullet and texted my teacher to let him know that I was ready to go back to taking weekly classes. I also decided to take Korean classes on italki and found a teacher through a series of trial lessons. She wasn't my first choice but my first choice doesn't have the time slots that I need and so I took my second choice. I've scheduled a series of five lessons and I will reassess after that. My Chinese lessons are still on going. 

          I also am focusing on one book at a time where it comes to Chinese and Korean and when that book is done I will move on to the next one. Doing two or more books at the same time was too much load work and made me confused at times. Focusing on one thing and later after it is done reinforcing it with the next thing is much better.

       So now for Korean I am working through Practical Korean after finishing Korean Grammar For Speakers and for Chinese I am working through Developmental Chinese with my Chinese teacher. Quality not quantity is what I am currently going for.

        Basically, when things aren't working change up your routine, don't stop and hope you retain when you have been doing while you get back your rhythm. At least not where language is concerned.

          As you can see from my tracker, there are days when only half a box is filled and that is okay. Half filled means I didn’t do all the tasks in this category but it can also mean I did half of them. I chose to see that I did half of them.

     

          

Chinese Language Study

          So I wanted to update you on my Chinese language studies. After careful consideration, I have decided to also get a Chinese teacher alongside my Udemy classes, if you don’t know what I am talking about please check my previous post about My Language Study Plans, and so far I have taken 3 classes with the teacher. 

          Each of these classes included a pinyin portion and then a dialogue portion. In case you don’t know what pinyin is it is the system used to teach you how to speak the characters in Chinese. Each syllable is made up of an initial (a consonant) and a final (vowels) and a tone. Tones, if read wrong can turn a harmless word into a curse 😬. So a Chinese pinyin syllable would look like this mā while its character would look like this 妈 in simplified Chinese.

  Where the dialogue portion is concerned, so far I can greet you, tell you my name, where I am from, what my occupation is, what my hobby is and what my dream is and why. 

     I’ve also started learning to write some Chinese characters too. 

 Not exactly pretty but definitely a challenge I loved doing. 

         So far I’m enjoying my classes with my teacher and he works well with me. I found him on Preply.com which is also where I found my Korean teacher. I was lucky with both.