May wrap-up / June goal

May's 30 day challenge has not actually ended. Yes, May is over but I got a late start to my cheesemaking and it took longer than I expected. The cheese will be ready to taste-test on Wednesday. At that point, we'll decide if it's edible. If so, we'll be making pizza with it.

I've been thinking about June's challenge and I don't think I can set one. We are still hoping to travel to Taiwan at the end of July, though if the judge doesn't issue first ruling soon, we may not be traveling until August. I have an overambitious list of things I want to accomplish before travel. I don't think it's wise to concentrate on just one challenge this month. Instead, I'll be working my way down my list.

Here's what I am hoping to accomplish before travel.

Packing test run
Finish KonMarie'ing my house
Deep clean my house
Write up a menu for the first two weeks home
Grocery shopping for all non-perishables for the above menu
Summer clothes shopping for Jeff, Cin-Ru, and myself
Plan the actual trip
Finish blog design and launch my new blog

And, I want to make decent sized strides in my Chinese ability. I did join a June mini-challenge to read Chinese materials for at least half an hour each day. This means something written by native Chinese speakers for native Chinese speakers, not for those learning Chinese. There is a huge difference. This is in addition to my normal flashcards and my writing attempts.

Looking at my list, I'd better get busy!

Writing practice

Last night I wrote a Lang-8 post. I received a few corrections and rewrote my post based on the suggestions. My writing is still fairly simple but I am learning a lot. Hopefully I will keep improving. Here's what I wrote:

今天晚飯
今天晚飯我做壽司了. 非常喜歡壽司. 壽司當作晚飯是最好的.
晚飯後, 我跟我的先生去吃冰淇淋. 我吃了巧克力冰淇淋. 好吃!
明天早上我要去圖書館. 我得還幾本書. 圖書館是我最喜歡的地方.

Tonight’s meal
Tonight, I made sushi for dinner. I love sushi! Sushi is my favorite meal.
After dinner, my husband and I went to eat ice cream. I ate chocolate ice cream. It was delicious!
Tomorrow morning I want to go to the library. I need to return a few books. The library is my favorite place.

Chinese milestone reached!

I just finished the Intermediate Course at Yoyo Chinese. I am incredibly proud of myself! It took a long time but I have learned so much. I highly recommend the website for anyone who wants to learn Chinese.

Since I love numbers, I crunched a few.

Beginner level course
Started - February 4, 2014
Finished - September 6, 2014

Intermediate level course
Started - September 7, 2014
Finished - May 27, 2015

Anki vocabulary deck
Cards: 2,789 (roughly 1,300 words and phrases)
Total: 58,825 reviews
Average for days studied: 108.3 cards/day
Total study time: 76 hours
Due tomorrow: 106 cards

Anki sentences deck
Cards: 1,890 (roughly 900 unique sentences)
Total: 19,481 reviews
Average for days studied: 39.8 cards/day
Total study time: 61 hours
Due tomorrow: 45 cards

Total study time: 316.4 hours

This study time total includes Anki, grammar lessons, writing practice, watching Mandarin television (only logged in 1/2 time since it's not active), etc. This is EVERYTHING I have done to study Chinese in the past 15 months.

Note - it is said that it takes 10,000 hours to reach full academic fluency in another language. At this point, I am only aiming for conversational fluency, not academic fluency. I have a long, long way to go...

All of the vocab and sentences for the last few lessons have been entered into Anki, but I still have to learn a number of them. I have a feeling it will take awhile before my Daily Due numbers decrease. However, I have many, many more vocabulary words to learn in order to become fluent!

I'm not yet sure what I will tackle next. I know that I need to continue watching Mandarin shows in order to gain listening practice. I also need to start writing regular entries on Lang-8 to practice my writing and reinforce the vocab and grammar I have learned.

I will probably start following a Taiwanese blogger (native Mandarin speaker). I already have several blogs bookmarked and need to pick one. That way I can get a feel for the writer's voice, learn the vocab words they use regularly, and get practice reading. I also need to find a way to start speaking Mandarin.

At some point, I need to find a grammar book that picks up where Yoyo Chinese left off. I have no idea which grammar book to use.

I am thrilled that I have come this far and can't wait to see how long it takes to reach conversational fluency. Another year or two? Hopefully my soon-to-be-daughter wants to keep her native language and will talk to me in Mandarin. We shall see!

吃吃看吧!

As part of my Chinese studies, I have started watching a Taiwanese television show titled "The Patisserie With No Name." I stumbled across this show and was delighted to discover that not only does it have English subtitles, it has Mandarin subtitles! This means I can listen, test my comprehension, and look up words if I wasn't able to catch what was said (this happens a lot because I have a hard time following speakers at native speed).

In tonight's episode, I heard some familiar words but wasn't sure what they meant when used together. I know what each of these words means individually but have never heard them used as a phrase. 吃吃看吧 - After digging around in the dictionary, I discovered it basically means "give it a taste!" when offering someone a new-to-them dish. So I searched google.tw to see if it's a commonly used phrase and found a blog I have to follow and learn how to read. This recent post looks like a review of a pastry shop in Taipei. I am drooling!

Skype and hotpot

I wrote this last week but didn't get to share it with Cin-Ru on our Skype call. Instead, I'll share it with her tomorrow. I'm trying to show her that I am making a genuine effort to learn Chinese. My Chinese skills might be incredibly basic, but I keep plugging away at it.

上個星期，我們去了一家中國餐廳. 在那裡我們吃了火鍋. 我們都非常喜歡! 我喜歡那裡的蘑菇和豆腐. 而爸爸喜歡蘑菇和土豆. 我們想和你一起在那裡吃飯.

"Last week, we went as a family to a Chinese restaurant. There, we ate hotpot. We both really liked it! I like the mushrooms and tofu. And baba also likes mushrooms and potato. We want to eat there with you."

I can't believe we already have another Skype call. I am so grateful because I miss her already. I can't wait to spend time with her in person and truly get to know her. Skyping is hard, but I'm glad that we have the opportunity to talk with her while we wait for the court process.

Skype call

Our Skype call with Cin-Ru is tomorrow! I am super nervous but am looking forward to it. Just in case they ask me to say something in Chinese, I prepared a short introduction. This is my very first Chinese paragraph. I posted it on lang-8 for correction and only had to correct one sentence. Not bad for my first try!

我很高興認識你. 我叫Cassandra. 我三十二歲. 我是家庭主婦. 我非常喜歡看書. 你呢.　我學了一年的中文了. 不好意思. 我的中文不太好.

The above basically says: "I am very happy to meet you. I am Cassandra. I am 32 years old. I am a homemaker. I love to read books. What about you? I have been studying Chinese for one year. Sorry, my Chinese is bad."

Hopefully she'll be able to laugh at my attempts and it will help lighten the mood and allow her to open up to us.

20 hours and counting!

December Goals - Wrap up

The last week and a half of December were a complete wash as far as decluttering went. Our house is cleaner than it was but I still have plenty of work to do. I'm on the hold list at the library to borrow The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up but it will definitely be awhile before it is available. I am hold number 125 on 73 copies of the book. Hopefully soon. A friend of mine said it's a wonderful book and that her house is now cleaner than it's been in years!

My Chinese studies have made some progress but slowed down over the holidays. I fell behind on my flashcards half way through my MIL's visit, which was expected. No grammar progress this week but I'm still thrilled with my overall progress in December.

Totals for the month:

Grammar lessons - 9 completed
Time spent studying - 25.8 hours

I hope to make lots of progress in 2015 because I'm hoping our daughter will be home by this fall! The more I learn, the easier it will be to communicate with her. That is great motivation to keep pressing forward.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

聖誕快樂!!

December Goals - Week Three

I don't have any pictures of my decluttering work this week but hope to have some next week. I was able to finish the bookshelf upstairs in our dining room, as well as some other small things upstairs. I cleaned the bathroom downstairs but that doesn't count toward my goal. My mother-in-law will be here in about five hours so I don't expect I will get much more work done this week. I want to relax and enjoy my time with her. I am pleased with the progress I've made, though I still have a long way to go.

I did make huge progress with my Chinese study goal, though. I studied over 8.5 hours this week and completed three grammar lessons. I only have three more grammar lessons to complete before the end of the month in order to make my goal.

Totals for the month:

Grammar lessons - 9 out of 12
Study hours - 20.25

I don't expect to keep up this pace all week, but hope to stay on top of my flashcards and at least make some forward progress. But if, just IF, I can be diligent about studying over the holidays, I will shatter my record of how many hours I've studied in one month (27 hours in September). Reachable goal or unattainable due to the holidays? We shall see!

December's Goals - Week Two

I made progress last week on both of my December goals. First up was lots of cleaning and decluttering.

Here's the wet bar, though we don't use it for that. We actually turned the water off to this faucet. I'm so confused about why this was installed right next to the fireplace, but what do I know? I think the neighbors have a book case in this location, which I would love to have!

Before

After
I forgot to take a picture of our entertainment center before I started cleaning it. The top was covered with several stacks of paper, remotes, and five pumpkins! This picture gives an idea of how cluttered it was:

Before

During

After
And, for fun, we put the Advent calendar there for the remainder of the holiday season, along with Cin-Ru's framed photo.

Here is my next project, to be tackled tomorrow.

Books, books, and more books
I also made some solid progress toward my Chinese goal (12 lessons completed before the end of the month). Last week I finished 2.5 lessons, which put me at 5.5/12 complete (I finished up the .5 lesson today). I studied 5.75 hours last week, which isn't too shabby. I just hope I can stay on top of everything when my Mother-in-law arrives on Sunday!

December's goals - week one

I have two goals this month - to clean my house from top to bottom and to make significant progress in my Chinese class.

Cleaning - I'm not doing too bad but I need to pick up the pace. There have been several days of adoption excitement and that took precedence over my cleaning. I did declutter several areas last week but there is lots more to do. Tomorrow I'll be tackling my upstairs bathroom.

Chinese - This is where all of my progress lies. Last week I completed just under six solid hours of studying, plus about two hours of listening practice by watching Taiwanese television shows. I finished three lessons from YoyoChinese, which meets my goal requirements. I've already studied an hour today and might squeeze in a bit more before bed. With the adoption process moving forward, I need to keep studying. I don't want to be in Taiwan wishing that I had learned more!

In adoption news, our photo album was mailed off today. We sent a photo album, a stuffed animal, and a small interlocking hearts necklace. Hopefully she likes everything! I can't wait to hear back the report from the social worker's visit with her later this month.

December goals

This month I have two goals.

First - I want to clean my house from top to bottom. My mother-in-law is coming to stay with us for a week at Christmas. I don't want to leave the cleaning to the last minute and be scrambling to complete everything right before she arrives. I've done that before with other guests and it's not fun! This is the first time MIL is coming to see us in Seattle so I want to make sure we all enjoy her visit! Having the house clean will take a lot of the pressure off.

Second - I need to make some serious progress with my Chinese studies. At the beginning of October, with all of the bad news we received, my studies fell by the wayside. November was much better with 16.5 solid hours of study. However, I'm not making as much progress as I would like. I had stated earlier that my goal was to finish the Intermediate Level of YoyoChinese by the end of the year. That is not going to happen. I just finished lesson 13 of 50. The class schedule is to complete two lessons per week; I am aiming to finish three per week. This is completely doable if I stay on top of my studying. At that rate, I will finish the year with 25 of the 50 lessons complete. I will be happy with that amount of progress.

I have a couple incentives for finishing the Intermediate Course. I promised myself that I would buy myself several graded readers once I complete the course. Amazon has several fun ones like a Sherlock Holmes book and The Secret Garden in Chinese. I also told myself that as soon as I finish the Intermediate Course, I will start writing on the Lang-8 website. I may rethink this goal, as I may already have enough Chinese knowledge to start writing short blog posts. Maybe I will set aside one day this month to see if it's possible for me to write a paragraph in Chinese.

I'm sure it will be a busy month but I'm looking forward to it! I love the Christmas season and look forward to sharing it this year with my husband and his mom.

Bible stories in Chinese

I decided tonight that it was time to tackle some stories in Chinese. It took a bit of searching, but I finally found some children's Bible stories written in traditional Chinese characters. What's great about these stories is that you can read them in both English and Chinese to make sure you understood everything correctly.

All I studied was the first three sentences and found 13 new vocabulary words to learn. Some of these will probably be used repeatedly throughout the stories. Here are a few of the words I need to learn:

Hanzi / Pinyin / English meaning

上帝 / shàng dì / God
天地 / tiān dì / heaven and earth
因此 / yīn cǐ / thus, consequently, as a result
怎樣 / zěn yàng / how, why
這些 / zhè xiē / these

I need to learn all 13 of these words before moving on to the next paragraph. I'm excited to see how quickly I'll be able to understand what I am reading.

My Chinese studies

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!

Milestone

Tonight I finished lesson 100 of my Conversational Chinese class. I love this series of lessons! Everything builds on the previous lesson and is explained really well.

20 lessons to go and I'll be moving on the intermediate lessons.

I haven't gotten much conversational practice, as this is a video series. Once I finish the Conversational Chinese class, I hope to start using a forum for language exchange so that I can start practicing producing sentences, rather than just trying to understand what is being said. I used lang-8 to practice my written Japanese and will use it to practice Chinese as well.