Getting ready

Next week I start my fourth semester of Chinese classes. One thing I’ve learned from past experience is that it’s very easy to forget it, if you don’t keep studying, at least a little bit. To keep 中文 mostly fresh in my mind, I decided to deleted all my flashcards in Anki and started over.

In the classes, we use Integrated Chinese by Cheng & Tsui. As someone who is TESOL certified, it’s pretty good material for college age (and maybe high school age) students. In first semester Chinese (EALC-C131 at IUPUI), we covered chapters 1 – 5 of Integrated Chinese, Level 1, Part 1. In the second semester (EALC-C132), we covered chapters 6 – 10 of that, and chapter 11 of Level 1, Part 2. For the third semester (EALC-C201), which we just finished in December, we covered chapters 12 – 16. Supposing we cover five chapters this semester (in EACL-C202), we finish Level 1, Part 2 and begin on Level 2, Part 1. A syllabus hasn’t been posted yet, so I don’t know for sure.

When I created a new set of 生词卡 (flashcards), I began with the 40 or so radicals at the beginning of IC 1-1, then added the Chinese numerals for 0 through 10, plus 100, 100, and 10000. After that, I started adding the vocabulary from the chapters, finally finishing last night. I don’t know how many card there are, but it’s several hundred, at least.

Aside from trying to keep the Chinese words fresh in my mind, I think it’s probably also good prep for the HSK 3, which I plan to take in March.

I’ve written a page on Using Anki to learn Chinese, because how I use it is a bit different and it might be useful to other learning languages.

Next week I start my fourth semester of Chinese classes. One thing I’ve learned from past experience is that it’s very easy to forget it, if you don’t keep studying, at least a little bit. To keep 中文 mostly fresh in my mind, I decided to deleted all my flashcards in Anki and started over.…

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