September Update

Sorry for only updates at the moment. I do plan to do more.

Chinese has become my main activity outside work. It consists mainly of listening and some speaking.

Listening - This has improved since August. At the end of August my girlfriend and I went away with two other friends. I notice that when she was speaking to her other friends about something that we have done I was able to follow the conversation pretty well. I haven't really been able to do this before so I was very excited and happy about this breakthrough.

Listening at the moment is mainly - ChineseOnline -- a Chinese podcast, Youtude, Taiwanese TV including news (difficult), chat shows (difficult but fun), some Children TV (some of which is easy to understand), listening to when my girlfriend talks to her friends (previously I found this boring and hardwork but now I enjoy it) and about 4 hours per week with a friend. (She does most of the talking, though she is prone to translating, which is really annoying).

Speaking - not sure whether this has improved. I'm in a dilemma as I don't want to push myself to speak if I'm thinking too much about what I want to say. If it doesnt' 'pop' then I'm not ready to say this. This annoys my friend as she thinks I should speak more.

Photography - earnings are down this month, though I've started to upload more.

Getting Fit - after the summer heat I think it's time to get exercising again. I went for a jog and a swim last week.

Giving up work, I still haven't handed in my notice. The main thing holding me back is that I'm worried I'll end up doing nothing with my freetime. Though I've had ideas about earning extra income, I haven't really done much towards realising this.