Ideas for Language-Learning Projects

Last week’s Wt. study emphasized that it is good to have personal study projects. Recent blog entries here also mentioned that it is good to have language-learning projects to help one continue to progress in the language and avoid stagnation. Here are some ideas for language-learning projects that I could think of so far:

• Vocabulary
  
  
  • Set yourself a goal to learn a new word (or expression, or character, or idiom) every day, or five words every week, or something like that.
  
  
  • Seek to master the key expressions related to subjects you know you will soon be dealing with.


• Speaking and Reading
  
  
  • Try to use Chinese as much as possible when speaking with others. Remember, “use it or lose it!”
  
  
  • Set for yourself the goal of sounding like a native speaker. Be patient with yourself, but don’t be content to have a “外国人 (wàiguórén)” accent.
  
  
  • Seek to display all the qualities taught in the Theo. Min. School in your Chinese speech, just as in your native tongue.
  
  
  • Regularly practice reading Chinese out loud as well, since that is a separate skill from understanding the words in your mind. It is also a separate skill from conversing in your own words.


• Meetings
  
  
  • If there are Chinese meetings in your area, then prepare comments and assignments well and view them as opportunities to develop and learn better ways of expressing yourself in Chinese.
  
  
  • If you attend a Chinese Theo. Min. School, then especially view every talk assignment as such an opportunity.


• Field Ministry
  
  
  • Learn selected new magazine presentations from the pinyin km. Or, if you’re up for it, learn all of them! Rather than just memorizing them (although that’s a start), try figuring out how they are put together and adapting them so you can say them in your own words.
  
  
  • Memorize Chinese scriptures. Also, try to understand them in addition to just memorizing them. Practice saying them out loud, since, again, that is a separate skill from memorizing them in your mind.
  
  
  • View return visits and studies as opportunities to learn how to explain certain subjects in Chinese, and prepare accordingly.


• Pinyin and Chinese Audio & Video Publications
  
  
  • Maintain a complete collection of all the pinyin and Chinese audio & video publications from the Society that you might possibly use. Those that you receive may come in handy when you least expect it, and even if some items turn out to not be available in your area, then at least your order will help the Society to be more aware of the need for these publications. If you don’t order everything you need, then they may get the message that the need for pinyin and Chinese audio & video publications is not as great as it really is.
  
  
  • Make good use of whatever pinyin and Chinese audio & video publications are available to you! Use them while studying and preparing for meetings, talks, the ministry, etc., and take special note of characters and pronunciations you are not yet fully familiar with. Have the appropriate pinyin publication with you whenever the material is being discussed at a meeting, study, etc. A lot of special effort goes into producing these publications, especially the proofreading of the pinyin material, which takes a lot of time and effort, and if you think about it, the pinyin publications are produced pretty much just for those relatively few people like us who are still learning the language—the Chinese-speakers themselves sure don't need them, as a rule. So, don’t let them go to waste!


• Fun
  
  
  • While our work is serious, and lives are involved, it is not necessarily best to maintain a grim and humourless approach to learning the language. As human beings, it can be easier for us to stick with something and do well at it if we find something about it that we enjoy. So, see if you can find something that you like about the Chinese language, culture, people, or their history and check it out.
  
  
  • If there are certain Chinese movies or songs that you like, try following the dialogue instead of just reading the subtitles, or figuring out the lyrics instead of just listening to the music. You may even enjoy learning some Chinese songs well enough to have a go at them in a karaoke setting. :-) (Of course, be selective, as with any entertainment.)


• Links File Resources
  
  
  • Go over the many resources now listed in the Links file, and see if there are any that you may be able to use more fully. Part of the process of developing the extensively redesigned next version of the Links file requires me to carefully analyze each resource to decide how to summarize what it can help with, and even I was surprised at the scope of the usefulness of some of these resources which I had not analyzed so deeply before. (Note that the current “official” version of the Links file is still the 2006-09-01 version, but prototypes of the next version are available for those who are willing to help with “beta” testing, and the next “official” version should be ready soon. Stay tuned!)
  
  
  • Carefully study the translations in 3-line material that has been proofread, such as the Require brochure material. The Require brochure material especially has been carefully translated and proofread so that the English translation reveals how the Chinese is put together, including how certain characters are used in certain contexts. This material often also reveals the meanings of the individual characters used within common expressions, offering opportunities to gain greater understanding of why those expressions are put together the way they are. Hopefully more such proofread 3-line material will become available in the future as well.
  
  
  • Consider helping with some of the translating and proofreading work involved in producing and improving the 3-line materials. I can say from personal experience that regularly analyzing Chinese this way can help one improve one’s Chinese and gain greater insight into it. If you would like more information on how you can help with some of the 3-line projects, just email me.

Can any of you think of any other ideas for language-learning projects? If so, email me to let me know, and if I get a few good responses, I may list them in a future blog post.