Game in the Brain

The HSK Article in Wikipedia is very informative, I’ll be talking about that and my experience so far. I know I had to learn thousands of words, but I didnt know that the HSK 1 to 3 was a total of 600 words (150 for HSK 1 and 2, and 300 for HSK 3).

Rate of Improvement in Reading.
Currently I’m able to master READING handful of words a week (assuming I study 5 days out of the week, less if I dont get my study quota). Since reading is active the speed varies on the amount of energy I have. Until I have more chinese READING exposure in my daily life then I wont accelerate. This is why some people changed their Device Settings to 汉语. Of course if you’re not used to reading Hanyu then like me you will need it in 150% font size you’re used to.

Ambitious Goals.
The goal is the 5,000 words of level and having them all in my Pleco Dictionary and Device and testing myself everyday. Of course I should work from HSK 1 to up. Since I’m tone deaf I need to know the most common sentence structures to know by context what is being said. Reading the level description if I want to RUN games in Mandarin then I need level 6! I hope I get there by 45 lolz

Need for a Simple Way to switch language Settings – the Search begins
One possible way of transitioning being able to Change ALL my language settings in one click or one hotkey. Its the same with Learning linux – people are morelikely to try and succeed if they can easily take a break.

Notes on the Pinyin Keyboard
BTW I’m using a pinyin keyboard in my xubuntu. Sometimes it wont start working immediately after ctrl+spacebar. I need to hold alt before I start typing to get the pinyin. ProTip use Tab to choose between characters and move the options.

Radicals or Sub-Strokes or Sub-Characters
Radicals. is what counts as “letters” or sub characters in 汉字. I ended up learning it and trying since its easier for me to break down each group of radicals. I’ve also begun mapping similar characters into groups. Some have meanings and are their own characters, some have none. My current problem is this common radical that looks like an R with a horizantal stroke and the script B. Cant seem to find that.

Listening
Mastering LISTENING is an entirely seperate domain. It also means no Audio Novels while I’m listening to this. Just listening and paying attention at 120-130% speed. I need to get used to a faster pace of pronouncing and work my way to 150% speed since chinese speakers actually talk at this speed as compared to the language tutorials. We have so many chinese expats and tourists these days I’m surprised by the frequency I bump into them. I’m always trying to understand.