Becoming fluent in Chinese: March Goal Check-In
It’s time for my monthly Mandarin goals check-in!
Listening
13 episodes of Chinese TV and 24 episodes of American TV. A big fail! I finished with 幸福三颗星 and found a new series I enjoy called 夫妻那些事, but I still haven’t managed to get hooked on it as well as to my American TV favourites.
I think that the best part of watching those English language series is to get a small break to my other so full of Chinese life. I will continue to let myself to have those breaks, but I also want to get the numbers more even.
Besides watching TV I’ve also started to occasionally listen to the radio. Beijing Story Radio is excellent listening material because it’s mainly talk and there isn’t any visual clues.
I don’t have a listening course at the university this semester, but because all of my courses are in Chinese, I get to listen to a lot of Chinese daily. It’s a new challenge to listen to a lesson about Chinese history in Chinese.
Writing
I published two blog posts in Chinese this month: 吃惯中国菜吗? and 最近怎么样?
At the university I have a writing course where we learn to write opinion essays.
Reading
I have to finally admit that my book (失恋33天) is too difficult for me at the moment, there haven’t been any progress this month. I’m going to the book store during this short holiday and try to find a book with a similar level to 单身公主 (which I read last year). I will try 失恋33天 again later this year.
Skritter
I’m not skrittering daily but recently I’ve been skrittering more than last month. I used Skritter for 8 days this month, total of 2,3 hours.
Speaking
I had a presentation about my travels in China at my spoken Chinese course. Unfortunately our teacher doesn’t really give us feedback and the course in whole isn’t has helpful to me as I would like to. Luckily I chose a selective course 中国国情 (China’s current situation) and there are plenty of opportunities to speak. We can give small presentations about different topics and have discussions.
Conclusion
All in all this month didn’t go as well as I planned. I’ve been feeling very busy with my courses, but still haven’t been as hardworking as I should be. I have a feeling all the time that I’m not improving as fast as I should.
Goals for April:
- Find a new Chinese book that fits my level and start reading regularly
- Shoot more short video clips of myself speaking Mandarin
Did you enjoy this blog post? Then click here and subscribe to my rss feed in order not to miss any new posts!
