I just re-read my last entry and I feel somewhat ashamed at the amount of time I’ve been able to put into LangStudy, even Mandarin which is supposed to be my main language right now). So many things to think about, plan out, arrange, put in action. . .its killing my available time (working early in the morning and taking a 2hr nap doesn’t help much either -_-). . .I know, I know, same complaints. . .hopefully by the time I write the next entry I will be more proud of myself ^_^.
Anyway, on to the focus of this entry, my Mandarin Chinese Approach!!

I think I will do these language approach entries as a series of my own answers to good questions I would like to be reminded of when I look back and ask myself “Why and how did I spend so much time learning this language?”. My questions to answer for each language I write up will be: 1) Why *insert language here*?, 2) How did you get started?, 3)What’s the hardest part so far?, 4)What are your current study methods and goals?

1) Why Mandarin?
For Mandarin, the reason is pretty clear to me, and all it takes is to look around any urban development, (heck, even most suburbs now). . . yes, that’s right, Chinese people are EVERYWHERE! (no surprise considering the population is going 1.3billion strong). I’ve had a number of Chinese/Chinese speaking friends since middle school, even before I had any interest in languages or other cultures. I had heard of many Chinese traditions before I even cared for their meaning, loved Chinese food since forever, and thought every single Asian person I met was Chinese. Although the average Chinese individual my take offense to hearing some of these, it really speaks of the raw prolificacy of Chinese cultural influence. Looking back, I’m surprised I wasn’t studying Chinese since long ago. I guess this influence is what piqued my interest, and sparked one or two short rendezvous with the language in the past. Considering the vast number of Chinese I doubt I will ever be at a loss for native speakers to converse with, which is a definite plus.
{A little aside on this note. I took a trip with a friend to Chinatown in NYC the other day, and was dumbstruck by the Cantonese-ness of the place. All I heard left and right were the “ah”s and “la”s ever present in Cantonese speech, and met a number of native Chinese that spoke NO ENGLISH at all ONLY CANTONESE!. There was even a rambunctious black traffic cop who said the expression “Fai di la! Fai di la!“ [快啲啦] (“hurry up!”) with ease as my friend and I crossed the street with an old Cantonese woman who gleefully repeated it back to him. Got me thinking maybe the vast number of Chinese speakers are not really the demographic I imagined them to be (in other words not Mandarin speakers). Maybe I should have taken up Cantonese instead??? I actually did for a little while, but didn’t know there was a difference between Cantonese and Mandarin back then.}
In the present I would also add that the awe that results when a westerner says he/she is fluent in Chinese , notoriously known for its mystique and difficulty, is a major motivator. The debated boom in China’s economy and business is another aspect acting as a motivator, it would be nice to be in a position to take advantage of this when the opportunity strikes. . . hopefully, I can learn this language well enough to do so.
And lastly, I will admit there is some interest in expanding my relationship options by about 0.7billion…gotta love the petite Chinese girl ( but you best get that whole Asian persuasion/yellow fever mess outta here, [though somewhat present haha] mine would be more like a global fever~).

*I use “Chinese” in these paragraphs referring to all Mandarin/Cantonese/other Chinese dialect speaking peoples/countries. I know better than to put it like this but unfortunately this is just how I think most of the time. Bear with me~



2) How did you get started?
I first started in high school from a friend who taught me some expressions, the only of which I can remember now is “where is the bathroom?” [廁所喺邊度呀?] (chi-suo hai-bin-do-ah?). But as you can see, her family were Cantonese speakers and I ended up not really getting into it then.
Regained a lust for Chinese again, this time Mandarin, about 8 months ago, and shortly after decided to study it quite seriously (or as serious as I can when time allows) and made it my primary study language replacing Korean.

3) What’s the hardest part so far?
So far the hardest part is reading. I simply don’t have enough characters under the belt to read in any logical form of the matter. That is one of the crux’s of this language, there is no alphabet, only unique individual characters, that if you don’t learn and recognize. . .well, then you can’t read very well my friend.
Of course making enough study time is really the hardest part, because with enough time and devoted study, the characters WILL become familiar and you WILL be able to read.

4) What are your current study methods and goals?
For Mandarin I’m trying to focus mainly on learning characters, like I said before you can’t do so much without knowing the characters. Characters build words, and words build the phrases. I’m not learning characters exclusively, but word acquisition and understanding moves a lot slower without them.
To learn characters I am going through “The most common Chinese Characters in order of frequency” from the website by Patrick Zein. I printed out the list in groups of 500 and am going straight down the list testing myself on the meaning and pinyin for each given the character (recognition). I then write the characters I can easily recognize on a separate paper, and practice strokes for each given the pinyin (production).I try to do about 20 new characters a day and review the list I already know frequently. I initially planned to input the list in an SRS, Anki, but found it almost useless and impossible to remember unless I have some exposure to the chars already. Since SRS’ing is mainly for long-term memory I will probably start putting chars in from the beginning of the list once I get to about 1,000 or so chars that I recognize.
This approach seems to be working pretty well, since I’m able to read more and more Chinese online, so if I keep up with it I should cover the 3,000 or so characters supposedly essential for literacy in a few months, maybe by summer.

Because I would feel like I am not really learning the language by only studying characters, at the same time, I have been listening to the “ChinesePod” pod casts. I think this is probably the single best Chinese learning resource out there, and has done a lot for my listening comprehension as well as pronunciation. If you are learning Chinese you should definitely get an account , it is very cheap monthly subscription.
I listen to about 3 of their pods a day on my Ipod and try to just understand as much as possible the first time around. The 2nd time I just check to see if I picked up everything in the dialogue, by listening to it individually and seeing if there were any words I didn’t get. When I understand it all, I put a one star (rating) on the pod. The next time I eventually get to that pod I open up the PDF file for that lesson, containing the written dialogue, and enter the words that I don’t know from the lesson into Anki. I also copy down each sentence in the lesson in Chinese chars, pinyin, and English to later test my ability to reproduce them. Once this is done I put a 2 stars on the pod to show it is complete. After that its just a matter of coming across the lesson again and checking if I still understand and remember the sentences.
*Links to the resource websites i use can be found on the right under the language.

Anyway, I guess this sums up some of my thoughts on Mandarin. My two main study methods are just for the time being, and definitely subject to change. If I can think of other questions to ask myself I will edit and add them to this entry.

I think the most important thing to me for all of my languages is that they link me with people everywhere and in that way I become more linked with the world and what drives it at large. I think this will in return make me much more globally minded, if there is even such a thing, and appreciate our world and everything in it more profoundly. Mandarin is a great member in support of these ambitions

Reminder:
- This entry is only about now, write another entry for simple structured long-term method, 1-2yrs+ ahead and where want to be.
- In future entries make point of groupings (for example what am/will I be doing to progress Speaking, Listening, Writing, etc.)