Despite the current hubbub around the coronavirus and the international panic it’s causing, I’m still finding time to study my Chinese. I mean, what else am I suppose to do?
As you can see, I’ve managed to put in quite a bit of contact time with the language, around 67.5 hours in the month of January, in addition to what I put in studying Japanese (about 46.5 hours). You might be thinking, imagine if I just focused on one language, how much more could I get done!
I don’t think too much more. You’ll recall in December 2019 that I spent about 90 hours studying Chinese, but you have to look at where a lot of that time came from. I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of it came from passive listening, not more intense study such as characters, reading or the HSK books. Taking out the passive listening (which I’ve kinda done in order to make time for Japanese) means that the number of hours is down, but the core studies are still going strong. This is a good thing.
The big success is that I’m able to maintain my focus while reading and, to a certain extent, when listening to the TV news (lots about the coronavirus!) As a result, I’ve slowly been making my way through that stock market magazine I bought months ago and have also chipped away at the HSK readings. That is, with the HSK textbook, I’ve gone through each chapter and done only the readings and texts and will now go back and probably do the easier exercises before going through once again to finish up all of the grammar stuff.
Why this approach?
Because the HSK is kind of boring.
Although the readings aren’t entirely irrelevant, they do require some concentration since they introduce new vocabulary and grammar structures throughout. That being said, it is getting easier and I don’t dread doing the reading. Moreover, since my work has been cancelled for the next month or so and the official “holiday” has now been extended to February 9th, I don’t think the HSK tests will be scheduled any time soon, and that gives me a bit more time to prepare.
So, my plan is now to go through the other parts of the book for 30 minutes a day. By my calculations, spending 30 minutes per day and there are 10 chapters to go through, and I’ll have to go through the book two more times to finish everything, it should take me about 10-15 more hours give or take to finish the whole book. Add in the workbook, which takes one hour each chapter for a total of ten hours. And then the extra HSK tests that take about an hour and there are 10 of those. So, all in, it should take me about another 30-35 hours to finish the whole book. Already I’m seeing that I won’t finish this before my trip to Japan which means I should finish the level sometime in March.
In addition to the HSK work, I’m still working my way through my AnkiDroid deck of HSK 4 vocab and have about 200 more “new words” to go through, adding five new words each day. At my current rate I should be able to finish the deck by the end of February. I should note that the wordlist in AnkiDroid is the exact same as the list found in the HSK textbooks, but in flashcard form.
I am watching the news a little bit on TV both to keep up with events surrounding the coronavirus and to practice my listening comprehension, but this is kept to a minimum.
Finally, I continue to read other material such as a stock market magazine and some easy-ish books from which I develop word lists to study. For these word lists I use a Chinese dictionary APP called Pleco, which was easier to use than trying to figure out how to make flashcards in AnkiDroid. Each day I pick a list or two (in addition to the HSK vocab list) and go through them for about 30 minutes. I’d like to do more but it’s not the most entertaining half hour of my day. haha
One other notable addition to my reading list is a book by Yu Hua, a rather famous Chinese author. I’ve just started Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (許三觀賣血記, Xǔ Sānguān Mài Xuě Jì) and it seems accessible enough for me.
You’ll recall that I’m also reading through a history book of China through objects in addition to the above. I’m finding it difficult to schedule time for all of these readings but it is my goal to finish all of them by the end of this year, if not sooner. It also helps make Chinese a bit more of a living language rather than just a subject to study.
And so that’s what’s keeping me busy during this extended time off. Chinese, Japanese, and I’m slowly piecing together getting a workflow in place to push out more audio and video content. With the way that things are going, it looks as if I’ll have quite a bit of time to do some things. That being said, why is it that I always finish the day thinking I haven’t gotten everything done that I wanted to?!