Learning Chinese, changes in approach

A New Approach to Chinese

I’ve been in Taiwan for three and a half years, so I’m running out of excuses why my Chinese is still poor. So over the past month, I’ve been looking at top language learners and teachers, reading about language learning and generally looking at ways to improve my Chinese.

I feel that this spurt of Chinese learning has been productive and that the techniques I’m using this time are proving to be more successful.

I’m mainly concentrating on speaking and listening, though I have an interest in reading Chinese too.

So the changes I’ve made have been.

Listening more

Sounds obvious, but by this I mean comprehensive learning (listen to stuff you can understand – using a text for example) and listening to this stuff many times over.

I’m currently listening to ChineseLearnOnline podcasts. They use a lot of dialogues (semi-authentic), so I listen whilst reading the dialogue 5x and then listen without the dialogue 10x. I also review the lesson the next day and test myself by writing out the dialogue.

One online English Teacher said that learning to speak English, your studies should be 80% comprehensive listening.

Results;

I definitely think my listening has improved. In one-on-one conversations I have better comprehension and can now provide better answers. I’ve gotten involved in many more conversations recently because my confidence has improved and I feel I’m getting more out of them.

Group conversations, I’m getting the gist much more now but it’s still hard for me to participate in these conversations.

TV listening is slightly better though this is still too fast for me. I can occasionally get the gist of what they are talking about, though this is also through the fact that I can read some characters.

Review more

With the listening exercises, I make a point to listen to them at least a few times the following day and if I like the lesson, then I’ll listen to them more.

Result

Reviewing has deepened my understanding of the language and I feel that my ‘language’ has grown much quicker as a result.

Learn phrases, don’t learn words

I’ve found that listening to dialogue repeatedly, has made it a lot easier to recall the dialogue. One of the exercises I do, is to recall the dialogue and then check how accurately I recall this. I then work on the more difficult bits. I’ve found this to be useful as it feeds back into listening as well. I also feel that I’m working out the grammar of Chinese without actually studying ‘grammar’.

Results

I feel that it’s much easier to recall phrases and sentences than to recall single words. Also when accompanied with a sentence, you get a much better understanding of how the word can be used.

Getting involved in more conservations

To really learn a language you need to use it. I’ve read about conversations connectors, these are phrases that help a conversation follow and can also buy you time to think about your replies. Conversations connectors are things such as, thanks for asking me, by the way, me too! So, I my plan is to get a list of common connectors translated into their Chinese equivalences.

Results

I’ve gotten involved in many more conversations recently and this has definitely helped my Chinese. Though I’ve probably gotten involved and have been able to continue them because my comprehension has improved.

Pronunciation

I was having trouble with certain sounds in Chinese. So I got some help with these sounds. One of my friends was able to tell me about tongue position in the mouth for certain sounds and since then I feel that my pronunciation of these sounds has improved.

Result

As well as my confidence, I’m also better able to hear the difference between sounds. A lot of sounds in Chinese are similar and being able to hear these differences has definitely been a help.

Summary

I really do think I’ve made progress, especially in speaking and listening. So I’ll continue to do listening exercises everyday. I feel I could do more listening, once I’ve got my mp3 player working, I’ll be able to use ‘deadtime’ (sitting on a bus) to listen to Chinese.

I will also continue to review stuff through listening, rewriting the text and rehearsing the dialogue in my mind and then checking it.

I don’t plan to learn grammar, characters and writing characters for the foreseeable future. The stuff I’m learning at the moment, I can understand why the words are being used and I don’t want to get bogged down in learning grammar, as my main goal at the moment is to speak.

Also learning characters is time consuming, especially writing. When my speaking is better I’ll have a blitz on reading as I feel this would be useful, especially for extensive reading. Also, I don’t think it’s that difficult to learn characters in Taiwan, as you’re surrounded by them all the time and also I’m fascinated by them.

There are opportunities all around

Be Different












I can see that there are opportunities all around us. Unfortunately, I've missed quite a few this month.

June's opportunities

Working on English Camps, new experience, good rate of pay and different to my day to day job - missed

Entering a travel competition with a realistic chance of getting to next round. This one was also missed, mainly because I left it to the last minute. I'll see about other competitions as I think they are great motivators for improvement. I found myself looking at other entries, being inspired by their ideas and wondering how I could do things better.

On the positive side.

I didn't miss every chance. Last night I started a conversation on the bus home, purely to practice my Chinese. If I can make this a habit then I'll get a lot more practice of speaking Chinese. I've also started 'classes' with a friend that has been very useful too.

And I got my first article off to Matador Travel, which got refused because there was another article similar to it. Lesson to learn - use more keywords to found what they have on their database.

Getting started in microstocks

If you have a DSLR camera, a passion for photography and an appetite for learning then microstocks could be for you. Treat it as an experiment and the very least it will do for you is to broaden your photographic horizons.

You have a choice of agencies to start with but some require that you qualify for photography status first before you can submit i.e. Shutterstock, Istockphotos and Stockxpert.

I’d suggest that you first try Dreamstime, Fotolia and 123RF because;
• You can summit photographs straight away.
• If your photographs get rejected, you can still submit more.
• You will learn from rejections and be in a better position to submit more photos.

You can build up a portfolio and also understand which photos are the most suitable to use to gain qualified status at Shutterstock, Istockphotos and Stockxpert.

Shutterstock is now considered to be the number one in microstocks. It certainly is in my experience but it’s also notoriously hard to get accepted. It took me three goes and knocked my confidence. After my first rejection, I didn’t try microstocks for another year and Shutterstock for another 15 months.

Here are some tips for submitting to Shutterstock.

Only submit photos that were taken at ISO 100 or less.
Submitted photos should be different from one another.
Use the Shutterstock forums to help. They have (http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4) one specifically for critiquing new submitters.

And good luck. I’ve found that once you have been accepted by Shutterstock that they are fairly constant with what they accept and reject. It’s now my favourite site.

A similar approach with Stockxpert will get you accepted though I haven’t really summitted many more as I found their keyword requirements complicated.

Don’t ask me about Istockphotos; I’m still to be accepted there. They have an artistic qualification system where you submit three photos and they accept you depending on ‘artistic’ quality. I think if you have good stock photos of people then you’ll get accepted.


Submit Photos to Shutterstock and make $$$!





http://www.fotolia.com/partner/200870006

Why Travel?

Why eat? Because it’s essential to your body! So why travel, because it’s essential to living, to growing, to your mind. It can give you insights to the world, to other people as well as yourself that sitting in a cubicle or reading a book won’t give you.

If life is all about experiences then travel is the ultimate experience rich medium. Exotic locations, different people, continuously changing situations and challenges face you.

You learn, or is it, relearn to appreciate things. Simple things start giving you pleasure again; like eating a new fruit, seeing a waterfall, walking through a forest, hearing a foreign language and getting up for sunrise.

In truth you can have many of these pleasures at home but the business of life and time has the effect of closing ourselves and our senses to these things. When you travel many of these senses reawake. You feel alive, you start to be creative, you deal with problems and you get along with people, most of them anyway.

There are some experiences that you can’t have at home or are just simple better when you go traveling. These include exploring other cultures, learning a foreign language, studying meditation with an Indian guru (maybe in New York or London) and this is just the tip of one gigantic iceberg.

Some experiences I had so far whilst traveling.

• 17 day trek in Nepal – changed my view of trekking and reconnected me with my inner child that fantasized about climbing icy peaks and walking across the Antarctic.
• Disastrous climb of Adam’s peak – taught me many valuable lessons about getting prepared for trekking and big challenges.
• 2 day white water rafting in Nepal
• Teaching English in a Jungle Refugee camp in Thailand – an amazing experience that taught me how resilient people can be.
• Climbing Santa Maria, Guatemala, to witness a mini explosion of her side cone, which sent a plume of smoke about a kilometer into the air – simply awesome!
• Gate crashing a Halloween Party at an Intercontinental in Columbia, when we weren’t even suppose to be in the country
• Being freaked out in Burma (Myanmar) by the terrible political situation there.
• Two weeks of hedonistic indulgence in Goa

This is why I want to break free from work and go traveling again. This time with a view of making money to sustain it and to experiment with different styles of traveling.

A New Reality

I find myself in a brand new siutation. Last week I had the hours to build up my savings for travel. This week I don't. I've lost 8 teaching hours and have gone from being able to save a lot to just covering my costs.

When I heard the news, I felt depressed and panicky. I feared that I wouldn't make my saving targets and that either I would have to work longer to get there or I'll end up teaching English again after my travels.

Since then, I've reviewed the situation and am now happy that I have the extra time. I can still break even from teaching English and now I have more time to build up other sources of income. Despite having just 8 hours less, I figured that this reduction gives me an extra 12 hours per week (preparation time and gaps between classes). This is excellent.

I plan to use the extra time for;

Travel Writing - aim to do writing related work for two hours per day.
Photography - to increase my microstock portfolio and improve my images.
Photoshop - to see how I can use this to improve the performance of my photo stock.
Chinese - to do at least one listening exercise a day and be more outgoing with my Chinese.

I'm glad that I dealt with my fear and that my 'child' of an entrepreneur is growing up. Yes, there are problems in life but there are plenty more solutions to them. It's all part of growing.

Passive earnings from Microstocks (Photography)




I’ve been doing this for about 7 months and have got my earnings up to $35 a month. Whilst the income is a bit disappointing, I would still recommend that keen amateurs still try microstocks.









Benefits for the amateur photographer;




· Feel accomplishment by getting your work accepted by stock agencies.
· Feel accomplishment by selling pictures. I know that money shouldn’t validate your photography but it’s still very gratifying to know that someone is willing to pay money for your photographs.
· It’s less complicated then applying to traditional agencies and some of the feedback you get on rejections is very useful.
· You will learn soft skills that you might not learn otherwise. All the microstocks agencies I’m with review the photographs you upload. Therefore you will get rejections and it’s from these rejections that you learn. For example; I now use ISO 100 most of the time because there less noise and more detail. This has forced me to use my tripod more and I also use my fast lens more.
· Try new types of photography.
· Increase motivation
· Ask more questions about how to commercialize your photography
· Join in with some active forums
· It’s a very low cost why to start a second income
· To learn from other photographers




These are some of the benefits. There are many more I’m sure.




Signing up is easy and free. Just click on the links below and start turning your photography into cash. You never know perhaps you’ll be the next microstock star!





http://www.fotolia.com/partner/200870006


Submit Photos to Shutterstock and make $$$!

Creating a Compelling Vision

I find this difficult and I believe a lack of it has meant that I've achieved my goals very slowly. I can close my eyes and see things but what I find difficult is to direct them into an ideal vision.

I can write down the ideas, make it attractive to me but the seeing, the feeling, they’re very difficult to repeat. Do other people have the same problem?

My current vision for the end of the year.

I’m diving into tropical water, splash, the cool water washes over my body. I feel the speed of entry into the water, it’s a deep, beautiful blue and full of colorful fish that dart playfully about. I look side to side and a big smile raises on my face.
(What I get when I try to visualize this, is a dark blurry blue, I feel the temperature around me rather than the coolness of the ocean, also, it’s as if I’m looking at another person, it’s not me. And the fish, are few and hazy)

Next, I’m walking uphill. A cool wind takes the heat out of the day. The scent of flowers floats by as do butterflies. The walk uphill is a challenge and it feels great. I can see the top, it far off and I’m really enjoying the walk up to it.

It’s sunrise, I can feel a slight warmth on my back, it’s a new day, the day and I’m excited about what’s ahead of me today. The light behind me, creates a huge shadow in front of me.

A clock ticks and money falls into a box with my name on it. It’s passive earnings, where I do nothing but my money goes up. It’s brings me freedom and happiness, as I know that my traveling isn’t costing me so much.

I've added an extra bit to passive earnings

As I sleep the money goes up, the money goes up, the money goes up, as I sleep the money goes up, up, up, up.

To the tune of Here we go round the mulberry brush. Part of visualization for passive income.

This is coupled with an image of me sleeping, with a smile on my face, we go up with the z,z,z,z, and a clock ticks. As the clock ticks, money falls into my bank account. It’s a beautiful sight and a happy one.

Do other people get clear visions? You know like a video or a movie?

Has your 'vision' sharpen over time?

I would love to hear about your experiences.