It’s been almost a full week now since I had my last session with Aggie. The time off has given my brain a much-needed rest. The next six weeks without a break will certainly be challenging.
One of the things that I’ve realized about my study habits, in particular with The Octagon (Yeah, that’s right! I’m gonna keep calling it that!), is that I tend to “cram” each day’s lesson, keeping it in short-term memory until I have my review call with my counselor, and then I do a massive brain dump. Trying to review the first two weeks of lessons has shown me just how much of that information is lost. It’s not intentional, mind you. It’s just how it happens.
If learning Chinese was my only after-work activity, I think I could devote more time to it. As it stands now, I give it at least an hour a day and much of my retention and memorization is on the verbal part. The new audio gets highest priority and the characters are lost pretty quick.
Oh, that’s another thing… the review area under the Premium Services tab? It occurs to me that while it’s useful for review the characters, it really boils down to being able to differentiate the new characters among other new characters. I find that when I see those characters mixed in a sentence with ones I know very well, I have no idea what they mean anymore. On the plus side, I do find that gets better with repetition. I never imagined that I would know as many characters on sight as I do know. On the Newbie and Elementary lessons, its rare for me not to be able to read the sentences without looking at the translations. I’ve really come a long way!
It’s Friday night here on the east coast of America. The weekend is about to start. For me, that means more studying, more writing, and, if I’m lucky, maybe an hour’s extra sleep. 
Thanks for those of you who posted questions to answer. Look for those replies soon!
Zai jian!
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If you were open to another name for “The Octagon” I’d go with “The Ocho”. That would be both a humorous pop culture reference (of course it IS a reference to a Ben Stiller movie) AND a nod to the upcoming SpanishPod.
If you can dodge a wrench…
Sean - I gotta give you credit there, man. That’s just sharp. It’s so sharp it almost draws blood. And nobody makes me bleed my own blood! NOBODY!!!
But then again The Octagon has definite Chinese-related connotations, what with the bagua and all. It would definitely help the feng shui of the blog…
It’s just not quite as funny (to me anyway).
No no… you’re right. Nothing beats “The Ocho.” That’s comedy gold right there.
Why not try to break things up, listening to bits of the podcasts thruout the day, and repeating over the week. I found this really worked well when I was going thru the newbie, elem levels.
You could just called it ‘八个星期’
Or even 八边形, that’s octagon in Chinese.
That’s brilliant, Bazza! Thanks!
Lantian - Sorry I missed this comment earlier. My biggest problem with the method you propose is simply one of time. I have too many things on my plate. I have to dedicate a certain amount of time to each one every day or everything falls apart. So, for now, my Mandarin studies are limited to my morning drive and the hour I give it after work. Any more than that and I’d have to give up breathing or eating.