Creating My Lists

Within one week I have collected the following:
60/100 Nouns
28/100 Verbs
12/100 Adjectives

I am supposed to have 300 words all together, but I am kind of short by 200. I have a feeling - due to using Rxsetta Stxne in the past - that the next few units are going to start having a lot of adjectives. Skinny, fat, short, tall, hungry, thirsty, cold, hot, sick, healthy, strong, weak, fast, slow etc. The thing I like most about learning any Adjective is learning its complete opposite.

It would be very nice if I could keep up at this 100 words a week pace for an entire year. I'd have a great vocabulary of 4,800 words within 12 months. However, that will not happen. The more you learn, the easier it is to forget the old stuff. That is why it is so important to keep track of what you HAVE learned. This way you can review it each day. Once I get to the 600 word level, I think I will start each day reading each word out loud in reverse order from which I learned them.

Easy Character Exercise

What I do when I get bored is I will goto Gxxgle Images. I type in the Simplified Chinese characters I am learning and see what results I get. Then I continue to combine them. Pretty much Gxxgle is acting as your typing tutor. If you are correct, you will get images of what you want, if you are not correct you need to fix what you typed. So it is an easy and fun way to learn.

Amount

As I have been putting together my lists for 100 Verbs, 100 Nouns and 100 Adjectives I came to the total of 69 words so far. This is not including the Pronouns or Articles. This is about 9.8 words a day. I still don't know all of them perfectly. I'd say I know about 50-75% of them. My goal is 3.4 words a day. I am almost going 3x faster than needed. This is certain to stop within the next week as you learn the most when you first start. I don't believe I would be able to keep learning 10 words a day anyway.

Actually, I am sure I would be able to learn 10 words a day of another language, but with Chinese I need to constantly go back and make sure I am pronouncing with the correct tone. Otherwise I am just wasting my time. Once I gather my lists, I will learn those until 100% perfect as I slowly learn the Traditional Characters.

My main goal is to be able to have basic working knowledge of the language to the point that I can leave the house on a daily basis without speaking English. I want to obtain this within 1 year. I am on week 1.

Active and Passive

I learned a technique which holds true with what it has set out to create. Transferring information from your short-term to long-term memory. Active learning is the process of drilling countless hours to achieve perfection. Passive learning is the process of utilizing what you have learned in real world scenarios.

This can be done in conjunction with another language you are learning or not. I have been learning Tagalog so here is an example of how I will do it.

Week 1 and 2: Study Chinese for long hours and learn as much as possible. Go out and speak the Tagalog you already know.

Week 3 and 4: Study Tagalog for long hours and learn as much as possible. Go out and speak the Chinese you already know.

This actually makes sense, because during the time I was only learning Tagalog, I found I got my best results when I stopped learning for a week or two. Just completely ignored the learning part of it and just used the small amount I knew. Then when I went back to hit the books, my mind was ready for new input.

Refined Method

I have been learning Chinese for 7 days. During this time I have had the opportunity to see what is easy and what is hard. I have also been able to figure out how to focus on the very simple aspects of the language and learn a large amount in a short time. The tones and pronunciation are difficult but become easier each day, almost to the point where I can see a word written in Pinyin and pronounce it correctly.

I have decided to come up with a new refined method for learning which is altering my original plan. The original plan I had was to pretty much stay on course with Rxsetta Stxne. Work with 4 Lessons and learn everything in it to include the Simplified Chinese characters. What I have found is - without trying - I am picking up the characters as I go without studying sheets of paper for hours. Which, by the way, is a deterrent for learning, because you spend so much time learning very little.

First a little background information. The question I ask myself is how many words do I need to know to get by at a basic high school level. At that level you have working knowledge of the language and a good vocabulary. In English the average person is far from knowing every single word in the language. You don't need to know every single word. A doctor or scientist is going to have extensive vocabulary pertaining to their profession, but it is unlikely they each know the others "special" language. I have read several sources that say you need to know anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 words. One source I read said 60,000 words. I cannot imagine that being anywhere near the truth. Other sources say 4,000 to 6,000 for a college graduate.

A good experiment would be to write down every single word you speak for a week straight. Only write each word once. Type it into a database on the computer or excel. Put each word in alphabetical order. You can use that as your "Everyday" vocabulary. Then you need to consider there is "Special" vocabulary for events that do not occur every day.

My new plan of action is the following. Make several lists to include:
100 Verbs
100 Nouns
100 Adjectives

I believe these lists will take me a month to complete. After that I am going to write sentences that combine different parts. I am also signing up for a Chinese Social Network so I can get some friends and try this out. The more you use it, the better you learn. I will also find a few friends I can get on microphone/webcam with.

After using this list for 2-3 months, I am again going to make new lists with 100 of each. Let's say 300 words every 3 months. That will be 1200 words a year. About 3 words a day. I am sure this plan will be refined once again.

Ate. Eating. Will Eat. Nevermind.

I have found one major weakness in Chinese. You do not conjugate verbs. You learn one form of a verb and you are done. Forget Past, Present and Future. Learn one form and use it. This is usually how I figure out how to learn the most of a language immediately. Find the weakness that makes it so simple.

I am going to find a list online of the Top 50 or Top 100 verbs, Then translate it into Chinese using Gxxgle, Rxsetta Stxne, Yxu Tube, Chinese Friends and any other source. I will be cross checking these to make sure they are correct. This will be in my back pocket at ALL times. When I speak aloud or even in my head, anytime I use a verb I will say it in Chinese. When I do use a verb, I will highlight it on my list to know which I actually use.

After doing this for about 2-3 months I should be setup for success. I will publish a list as soon as I compile one. As of right now I only have about 15-20 verbs. This should get me started.

Back Track

I just started Lesson 3 and realized two things. First, I remember the Chinese i've been taught already, but I am having trouble with speaking it. When I was learning for hours a day I could pronounce it pretty good and without a problem. So I am going back to basics and I am going to redo Lesson 1 and 2. Tomorrow morning I will redo Lesson 1 and 2 again and continue onto Lesson 3 and 4, spread throughout the whole day. Then the following day I will redo Lesson 3 and 4. I think I will stick with these 4 Lessons for another week until I fully grasp everything 100%.