I have been working very hard lately at my Chinese lessons. I lost a bit of motivation in mid-August as we prepared for the Skype call and then anxiously awaited the results of that call. But toward the end of the month, my motivation and momentum picked up speed. Over the past week, I've been studying over an hour almost every single day (including weekends!).
This morning I decided to take a look at my learning logs to see how far I've come. I started the Beginner Conversational Course at Yoyo Chinese on February 4th. Due to an extended family emergency in April and May, I finished the six month course on September 6th. Not bad for missing an entire month in the middle of the course.
I started the Yoyo Chinese Intermediate Course on September 7th and have already finished the first week of assignments. I have an ambitious goal to finish the class by the end of the year but we'll see how well that works out. The Intermediate Course is definitely harder and more involved than the Beginner Course!
This week I also started trying to read materials written in Mandarin for native Mandarin speakers. Whew. I'm in way over my head but it's still encouraging to recognize words and very basic grammar. Unfortunately, most of what I've found to read uses very complicated grammar so I am completely lost.
Once we find out if we will be allowed to travel to Taiwan to meet our girl, I will order some grader readers in Chinese. This should, theoretically, allow me to start reading Chinese materials at my beginner level. I found one website that carries a Chinese version of The Secret Garden that is written specifically for beginners, as well as one of Sherlock Holmes' cases. I am loathe to order my first ever e-book but I will sacrifice my "hard copy only" policy so that I can learn to communicate more effectively with my future daughter!
I'm also hoping to start writing (typing) in Chinese! When I was learning Japanese, I used the website Lang-8 to exchange writing assignments with Japanese speakers. They would correct my Japanese and I would correct their English. I hope to soon start doing the same with Chinese.
Onward and upward! 加油!
2 comments:
Have you heard anything more from the agency?
That seems as good a reason as any to break your hard copy only rule. ;)
(And I love that you have that rule.)
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