Now and then, I take a peek at an Intermediate lesson. After they bring in the crash cart and use the jumper cables to resuscitate me, I try going through the dialogue line by line. My impression is that, while there’s certainly more new vocabulary than I’m used to absorbing in a single sitting, the real difference is volume. There’s just so much of it.
When I was doing the Practice Plan with Aggie, I had started off as a Newbie and ended as an Elementary student. It was just the push I needed to get me over that threshold. We were doing two Newbie lessons or an Elementary lesson on every call. On some of the challenging Elementary lessons, I’d spend nearly two hours going through the expansion areas and really drive home the new vocabulary. Sadly, I just don’t have that kind of time to devote every day. I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever get to that Intermediate level.
Not that I’m discouraged! No, no. I just know that I’ll have to hunker down and show the same dedication I did during the Practice Plan sessions, and I’ll have to do it every day. My life, and my work schedule, just don’t allow it right now.
I’m a little anxious for some sign of forward progress, but the main thing for me is not to feel like this is too much like work. Learning Chinese and being a part of this community has always been a lot of fun for me. I think if I lost that, I’d start to see a real decline in my desire to continue.
How about you? What motivates you? Are we having fun yet?
Technorati Tags: chinesepod
What motivates me?
Actually its the challenge and the mental exercise. That may sound a bit trite and hokey…. but its true for me. Even when working as a computer scientist, you only progressed if you continually challenged yourself and kept learning new things. It became a life habit.
I started learning Chinese after traveling to China in 2001. But since I retired it is more of a serious hobby. I figure that it will take a lifetime (or two?), but places like Chinesepod keep my interest high and keep my mind heavily exercised. I have friends in China and my goal is to live there for about 6 months to really immerse myself in the language.
Sometimes only stubborness keeps me going. My ulitmate goal is to be about as fluent as a sixth or seventh grader might be. This if fluency in a real language, not text message language. Realistically, my goal is just to make it through one lesson, CP or otherwise, at a time.
Doing the practice plan helps keep this going. I started the practice plan with four elementary lessons and one intermediate per week for the first month and finished the second month with three intermediates every week. I have lessons and my meetup group while I’m in school part time, but it is still hard to beat Vera and Aggie.
The hardest part is making it through the first few months as a newbie/elementary student. Second hardest is getting through the intermediate level followed by getting out of elementary level. Sticking to it is the only thing that helps.
Hi Frank,
I’d recommend taking a concerted stab at an intermediate from time to time, but give yourself longer. Set aside 3 or 4 days if you need to - there’s no need to rush. Study it, and then come back to it and listen again. Try to do more with the new vocab (maybe run them through the dictionary to find related lessons where you can see the words in action elsewhere). If you are an elementary, then the bulk of your study should be on that level, but there’s no harm in pushing yourself from time to time, as long as you aren’t setting yourself up for disappointment, so make sure you give yourself extra time with the intermediates. This way they will start to click (which will feel good!).
cashewdog - I know exactly how you feel. My true dream is to go over and really immerse myself in the language for at least a year. I think it’s doable. I just need the stars to align. My goal is to be there within 5 years.
James - Did you start off as a Newbie on ChinesePod?
Steve - As simple as it sounds, that’s actually quite a brilliant idea. I kept waiting for the Intermediate lessons to come to me as easily as the Elementaries did when I was a Newbie. There was just a stage where the Elementary lessons didn’t seem hard anymore and I just jumped into them. I know that folks have clamored for a more gradual bridge between Elementary and Intermediate and now I see why. That distance is daunting. Still, I’ll give it a try! Thanks for your comment!
I started listening to the CP lessons late 2005 while taking a first semester university Chinese class. Probably November/December 2005. So, I started with both Newbie and Elementary lessons and was not really a true CP Newbie.
James - Still, if you’re at an Intermediate level, that’s pretty damned good. I see others here moving up the ranks as well (Bazza comes to mind), and I can’t help but wish that I had the time to really devote to it. Learning the ins and outs of filmmaking really took a good chunk of my gray matter for a while there!
My motivation is that after I finish my degree back in Finland, I want to come and live here. And I want to be able to speak with the parents of my fiancé. And I want to read the two books he has written
Frank, just keep digging away at the lessons, at your own pace. The feeling that I love the most is when I start to see the new words coming up at different places, and then you just say “hey, I learned that and I understand what it is!”
Also one thing that keeps me studying is my thirst for knowledge. I want to know what people say or think and I want to read different things.
Congrats on being able to make those furtive stabs at the Elementary level. Pretty impressive considering that this is technically supposed to be a Newbie blog….
You still coming out in January?
Arrgg… Intermediate. I meant INTERMEDIATE.
*crushes head in vice*
Dave, I’ll be there in February, my friend! Don’t leave town! I mean it!!!
The next level of a game is always more challenging than the one before, but it is still not work, isn’t it.
Feel the defiance, Frank. And then channel it! Tackle the next-level monster despite its gruesome fire-breath of complex vocab. Each piece of vocab, each language point will seem to drag energy but in reality it will make you stronger and stronger. There are times when you think the number of new enemies is indefiniate, but after a year or two suddenly you will find vast areas cleared up.
And one day you will face the boss-level (AKA media). But on the way you collected enough weaponery to attack without risking sudden-death.
:)