So Cycle 37 (Jan 9 to March 19) in the Confucius Institute of Ateneo in Ateneo Business School ended where I retook Chinese Basic 2 and Chinese Basic 3 with the wife. I’m going to enroll in Cyle 38, which is April 16 to June 7, and hope I can get Chinese Basic 3 again, but this time as a weekday, and I and the wife will take Chinese Basic 4.
Definition of Mastery and Goals
Mastery, to be clear, simply means that I can recognize the word as quickly as I can recognize something in my language of proficiency like English. If I had to think about it then It wasnt mastered.
In sentence and paragraph structure Mastery means stringing 3-7 bit chains of words and ideas to form a cohesive one, the same way my brain really function in my native language.
Master is Narrow, as my teacher gave in his talk as even he has limits to his mastery and choosing a scope
So in Mastery there are:
- Mastering the HSK1-2 Characters of up to 300 words (still here)
- Goal is Listen, Speak, and Read.
- in Listen I need to be able to follow a 300-400 word per minute typical speech patern (as opposed to the teachers 60 words per minute for students)
- I’ve trained to listen at 400-500 words per minute in english and I understand how much of a difficult feat this is in a language I didnt learn when my brain had plasticity.
- Mastering a large number of Stock Phrases
- Mastering a Paragraph and Complete idea structure.
- Mastering Storytelling Structure.
Why Retake Again?
- Also retaking is a 50% Discount! See Refresher Course in the Brochures.
- Having more than 1 class a Cycle is a discount.
- More Significant Reasons
- I took CB2 again and it was great. On the second time around I saw a new layer of complexity that I could not see when my Working Memory was overloaded with the Book. I was able to ask more questions about nuances of the language I observed.
- There is no short cut to making the language an mastery, i really need as much exposure as possible and being able to converse with the teacher was a cheap excuse to add
- Hacking my Brain. Learning a Language, particularly Chinese, is a real BRAIN hack. I work near the Confucian Institute and I love how I have both Western, Philippine and Chinese History under my belt. I believe with the language I would be able to bridge the understanding gap as well navigate this more globalized world better.
Reaction Post to Various Articles on the Subject
- Why Language Classes Don’t Work: How to Cut Classes and Double Your Learning Rate (Plus: Madrid Update)
- There are many disclaimers here as to the broad claim/thesis of this article. Why I can’t really suggest the “Cafe” vs Classroom strategy is that I will need to build a relationship to make the Cafe work. A relationship to juggle vs the economic relationship with a Teacher.
- Note that its seems Tim Ferriss can focus on tasks and can minimize his distractions in life vs regular people so his strategies are great if you have the economic freedom to do so.
- Foreign Languages Are A Waste Of Time
- Another broad claim that need to be prefaced with: Why Foreign Languages Class Requirements or Electives are a Waste of time vs Pursuing language for personal reasons.
- How to Learn Chinese
- Tim Ferris preface of rapid learning is how to hack your time and practice to be most efficient.
- My reservation about this is the productive hours of the Day heuristic I have and how self control erods as we spend our mental endurance to pursue certain goals in a day and in long range. So while there is the align everything to hack at this is great for people who have the circumstance to do so, for the rest of us may only allocate an 30-90mins a day but take his efficiencies into consideration.
- The 10,000 hour rule – Blood, sweat and tears
- A good article on learning over all, and focuses on what are the things you can consistently weekly vs more ambiguous measure.
Importance of Pleco and Self Testing apps
My classmates are mostly like me: People who bit more than they can chew. The few people in class who really have the time to study are the retirees and the parents whose kids are grown up. Otherwise everyone has problems finding time.
Testing and Being able to Meditate on Mistakes is the best way for me to form connetions. From my observation and the confirmation bias of my understanding of how we learn neural connections are formed from
- Spaced Repetition
- When we put relevance or novelty to the Idea so that it can be held long enough to be practiced.
- Stress and Frustration. This is my brain trying to connect Ideas It cannot. Whats important is that IT IS trying to connect. The more successful connections over time the more successful I can be in connecting the ideas.
setting up the Testing system is as follows:
Android
- Go to Menu that opens up the Left Side Bar
- Go to Import/Export > Import Cards
- File > Download Flashcards List (this brings you to your browser and allows you to download a list of prepared HSK flashcards).
- Download those HSK flashcards.
- Go to Import/Export > Import Cards > File > Choose File and choose the txt file you downloaded
- Menu > New Test (ignore any ongoing test) > Basic Settings
- Card Categories (choose the HSK categories you will want to learn) I chose HSK 1 and 2 for a total of 300 words and the sub-character components (20+ or so “radicals” that help guess the meaning of a character).
- Choose the Test Type, I started with the easy default one and migrated to “Fill in the blanks” and have a 30% score average from a 80% of recognition.
- Find a Test method and processes that I can do sustainable and change stuff a bit now and then. I typically do this with a notebook where I draw the character as I take the test to build repetition and add kinaesthetics to the memory.
Switching to Night Mode, as you can see last thing before bed if possible and first thing to try when waking up.
I will be switching to Traditional as primary, the Blue circle, so I can improve. I’ll work on Traditional Recognition but not Writing.
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