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.

Alguns Conselhos para os que Ensinam e Aprendem Chinês

Note: This post contains a Portuguese translation of the previous post. Thanks to the one who provided the translation.

Recentemente, ao preparar um curso de Mandarim para os interessados no campo Chinês, um irmão me pediu para compartilhar quaisquer dicas e conselhos sobre o assunto. Abaixo estão os pontos compartilhados, baseados em minha própria experiência como professor e estudante de Mandarim, que também está de acordo com aqueles em que conversei com experiência no processo do aprendizado do Mandarim. (Na maioria das vezes estes pontos também se aplicam ao Cantonês.) Espero que estas dicas sejam realmente de ajuda.

• Enfatize a necessidade de aprender muito bem o pinyin e os tons bem no começo, e de ser disciplinado em dominá-los com precisão.


• Isto servirá de alicerce sobre como os estudantes irão ouvir e falar Mandarim. Se o alicerce de uma casa não for lançado corretamente, a estrutura inteira sofrerá todos os dias depois disto.


• Especialmente para os estudantes que nunca antes estiveram expostos aos diferentes sons e tons do Mandarim, em que o início é quando os estudantes estão formando hábitos no idioma, é que um pouco mais de esforço e tempo gasto em aprender bem no início pode ser útil em poupar anos de tempo e esforço em desaprender e superar maus hábitos e erros que de outra forma seria mais fácil.


• Obter um bom “som” do Mandarim é como aprender a tocar um novo instrumento musical. A pessoa tem que entender a teoria, mas também nada substitui a prática, porque os mecanismos físicos do corpo dela estão envolvidos – o mecanismo da audição da pessoa tem que aprender a distinguir corretamente os sons do Mandarim (Jó 12:11), e o mecanismo da fala e os músculos envolvidos, etc. tem que aprender a produzir estes sons. É exatamente a prática que faz com que estes mecanismos desenvolvam a “memória muscular”, terminais nervosos, etc. que os permitirá eventualmente a distinguir e produzir os sons corretos de modo inconsciente, assim como um bom pianista pode tocar mais rápido do que sua mente possa conscientemente guiar seus dedos, porque através da prática seus dedos “aprenderam” e “lembraram” por conta própria a como fazer.


• Enfatize a necessidade dos estudantes a trabalharem nisto de modo regular, em arranjos contínuos para continuarem a aprender mesmo depois quando o curso acabar, talvez em algum projeto pessoal.


• Tem se notado a tendência que alguns estudantes de Mandarim progridem até certo nível, fruto do curso inicial de Mandarim, daí “estacionam” ou até mesmo regridem depois disto por que não fizeram nada em específico para conter esta tendência.


• “Use-o ou perca-o” tem se provado veraz em se aprender e usar línguas.


• O progresso persistente por um bom período de tempo, mesmo que lento, acrescenta muito. Isto tem dado melhores resultados do que um progresso rápido em um curto período de tempo, seguido por negligência—o estudante deve ser como a tartaruga, não como a lebre.


• Por outro lado, alguns acham que não estão fazendo muito progresso, mesmo que estejam tentando já por um bom tempo. Na verdade, provavelmente devem estar progredindo gradualmente mesmo sem notar. Por exemplo, se alguém olhar continuamente para um relógio analógico que possui apenas os ponteiros da hora e minutos, vai parecer que não está se movimentando. Contudo, se a pessoa se ocupar com outra coisa e mais tarde olhar para o relógio, se o mecanismo do relógio tiver funcionando, ela vai ver claramente que o relógio se movimentou. Assim é progredir em aprender o Mandarim, se mantermos o mecanismo do aprendizado funcionando, o progresso é automático.

Advice for Those Teaching and Learning Chinese

Recently, a br. preparing to put together a Mandarin course for those interested in the Chinese field asked me to share with him any advice I had to give. The points I shared with him, based on my own years of experience as a Mandarin teacher and student, and that I find are agreed upon by those I've spoken to with experience in the Mandarin-learning process, are below. (The points generally apply for Cantonese as well.) I hope they will be found to be helpful.

• Emphasize the need to learn the pinyin and the tones very well from the very start, and to be disciplined about getting them right.


• These are the foundation for how the students will hear and speak Mandarin. If the foundation of a house is not laid right, the whole structure will suffer every day after that.


• Especially for students who have not been exposed to the alien sounds and tones of Mandarin before, the beginning is when students are forming habits re the languages, and a little extra time and effort spent getting it right at the beginning can save possibly years of time and effort unlearning and overcoming bad habits and errors that would otherwise be picked up.


• Getting good at the “sound” of Mandarin is like learning a new musical instrument. One has to understand the theory, but there is also no substitute for “hands-on” practice, because physical mechanisms of one’s body are involved—one’s hearing mechanism has to learn to properly distinguish the sounds of Mandarin (Job 12:11), and one’s speech mechanism and the involved muscles, etc. have to learn to produce those sounds. Practice is what allows those mechanisms to develop the “muscle memory”, nerve connections, etc. that will allow them to eventually distinguish and produce the right sounds without conscious thought, like a good pianist can play faster than his mind can consciously guide his fingers, because through practice his fingers have “learned” and “remembered” on their own how to do so.


• Emphasize the need for the students to work out regular, ongoing arrangements for themselves to keep learning after the course is over, perhaps by choosing projects for themselves.


• Some have noticed a tendency for Mandarin students to progress to a certain level as a result of their initial Mandarin course, then “plateau” or even gradually decline after that if they don’t do anything specific to counter it.


• “Use it or lose it” has been found to truly apply to learning and using languages!


• Persistent progress over an extended time, even if it's slow, adds up. That ends up with better results than quick progress for a short time, followed by neglect—one should be like the tortoise, not the hare.


• Some may feel that they are not making much progress, even though they have been trying for an extended time. Actually, they probably have been making gradual progress without noticing it. E.g., as one stares at an analogue clock with just hour & minute hands, it does not seem to be moving. However, if one gets busy with something and checks back later, as long as the clock mechanism was working, one will see that the clock hands have indeed moved. Progress in Mandarin can be like that, as long as we have a learning mechanism set up and it keeps working.

Update: There is a very good article that language-learners should read in the January 8, 2000, issue of Awake!, pages 12-13, called “You Can Learn Another Language!”. It is currently online here.

Update: This subject is explored in more depth in the “General Advice for Those Teaching and Learning Chinese” series of posts over at tiandi.info, starting with this one.