Tuesday 8 January 2013

Mandarin Overload

OK! first night back and college went extremely well :) 非常好!

I was happy with my retention of characters and sentence patterns since the Christmas break.  I was also really glad to be getting back into the whole structured learning process.  It's starting to hot up now with classes twice a week and I am experimenting more and more particularly at learning to write new characters.  I am still taking on the challenge I set up on Skritter as talked about on an earlier blog so its all go.  I forgot to mention about me using the fabulous Anki flashcard app on my phone whenever I get a spare few minutes, in bed usually just before I go out to graze for the night.  I really love this app.  I am you could say in complete Mandarin overload....but its all good .  这是真好!


I also bought a game for my phone.  What the hell was I thinking. I am a person with a compulsive addiction disorder, so maybe, just maybe this wasn't such a good idea, however, I have what you would call a control measure in place.  It's called a HTC battery :-)  The game is called  Mandarin Madness  and its pretty cool, lots of fun and it's surprisingly quite addictive.  It has some pretty good content and I was amazed at the amount of material contained within the game.  It's not going to revolutionise the learning process but I would definitely recommend it as a good acquisition for any language learners who enjoy games.


Back to the serious stuff.  This is what's on the agenda -
  • Skritter list to complete before end of week.
  • Revision of class material.
  • 2 x 3 hour evening classes every week. 
  • Revise new characters and grammar learned in class.
  • Play a few games....its still learning right? 
  • Anki flashcard revision for around 20 minutes a day, usually before I go to bed and based on New Practical Chinese course content. 

I was also thinking of sneaking a few Chinese Pod pod-casts in on the way to and from work (20 minutes). This is my idea of some light entertainment.  I live a very sad an uneventful life but who wouldn't love those quirky podcasts of old with Ken and Jenny.  Ken is some chancer.....an Irishman being fluent in Chinese, what next, a Chinese man becoming fluent in Irish? see below.  However, and I'm not afraid to admit it....but...ahem.....I am quite enjoying my wife's Bruno Mars CD :) so I might skip the pod-casts for now.

I will continue to do this after a hectic day at the office......oh yeah,  did I mention I have a young family as well.  It's a good job I only sleep around 6 hours a night.   That's just the reality of a part time language learner and full time father.

As they say  - 加油

 





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