My challenge: Being brought up in Australia by Taiwanese and Japanese parents, I am able to speak 3 languages, however, when it comes to writing and speaking skills in particular, I have spent more time on Japanese compared to Chinese. Therefore meaning these 2 skills of mine in Chinese are rather weak. Many people believe that since I am able to write Japanese at a very high level, my Chinese ability should be around the same, but this is not the case. Though Chinese and Japanese both use similar characters, the character amounts differ, therefore also making it more difficult for myself to study.
At one stage, my Chinese speaking and writing skills were better than my Japanese, but since it's learning a language, it is easily forgotten if the skill is not used frequently. As to my Chinese speaking and writing skills being so poor, I would like to take this opportunity to relearn how to be able to speak and write simple Chinese using technologies.
My Learning goal: Throughout these 6 weeks, I have 2 major goals.
Goal 1:
Firstly is to be able to remember how to write simplified characters that maybe useful for writing a self introduction.
Learning vocabulary such as name, age, family members, pets, etc. My goal is that I am able to recognize these words and know how to write them.
Goal 2:
Secondly, I would also like to learn daily useful phrases. For example, when I am at the supermarkets, the useful phrases I might be able to use. Asking someone where bread is, could be an example.
My learning styles and strategies: From the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) survey I attempted in class, it has shown that I learn best at "compensating for missing knowledge". Then the next being "managing my emotions" or "learning with others". I do believe that I learn rather well when I am learning with someone else, however, I am unsure about "compensating for missing knowledge". Maybe it is something I have not figured out yet, maybe I do learn well by doing that. As my goal is to be able to improve in my writing and speaking skills, I believe that remembering is very important. From the survey done, it shows that I am not the best at remembering. This may be a little tough for myself, however, I would like to give it a go, and see what kind of a result I will achieve after 6 weeks.
The technologies I am going to test: From what I have planned now, I am planning to use Google translate and Iphone apps. The iphone app that I have found now is called "中国語”, it is an Japanese app that teaches phrases. For example, if you would like to know useful phrases for when shopping, you tap into the "shopping" icon and it pronounces and shows you the phrases. This technique is very suitable for me, as I am able to see how you write the characters and simultaneously hear how it is supposed to be pronounced.
My plan:
Goal 1:
Week 1- Brainstorm what would like to be written in my own self introduction.
Week 2- Search up on google translate or iphone apps vocabulary that I do not know and translate them into Chinese.
Week 3- Put my short self introduction into a paragraph.
Goal 2:
Week 4- Brainstorm what useful expressions I would like to learn. For example, the topic on 'health'. Think of what expressions I would like to be able to say and jot them down on a piece of paper.
Week 5- Search the expressions that I would like to learn on google translate or iphone apps.
Week 6- Practice those expressions 15 mins per day.
My evaluation approach: For the evaluation component of the learning challenge, I am planning to update and show what I have been doing every week on the blog. I will have native speakers of Chinese correcting my writing and listening to my pronunciation. This is planned to be done weekly for now, however, it has not been finalized just yet.
At one stage, my Chinese speaking and writing skills were better than my Japanese, but since it's learning a language, it is easily forgotten if the skill is not used frequently. As to my Chinese speaking and writing skills being so poor, I would like to take this opportunity to relearn how to be able to speak and write simple Chinese using technologies.
My Learning goal: Throughout these 6 weeks, I have 2 major goals.
Goal 1:
Firstly is to be able to remember how to write simplified characters that maybe useful for writing a self introduction.
Learning vocabulary such as name, age, family members, pets, etc. My goal is that I am able to recognize these words and know how to write them.
Goal 2:
Secondly, I would also like to learn daily useful phrases. For example, when I am at the supermarkets, the useful phrases I might be able to use. Asking someone where bread is, could be an example.
My learning styles and strategies: From the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) survey I attempted in class, it has shown that I learn best at "compensating for missing knowledge". Then the next being "managing my emotions" or "learning with others". I do believe that I learn rather well when I am learning with someone else, however, I am unsure about "compensating for missing knowledge". Maybe it is something I have not figured out yet, maybe I do learn well by doing that. As my goal is to be able to improve in my writing and speaking skills, I believe that remembering is very important. From the survey done, it shows that I am not the best at remembering. This may be a little tough for myself, however, I would like to give it a go, and see what kind of a result I will achieve after 6 weeks.
The technologies I am going to test: From what I have planned now, I am planning to use Google translate and Iphone apps. The iphone app that I have found now is called "中国語”, it is an Japanese app that teaches phrases. For example, if you would like to know useful phrases for when shopping, you tap into the "shopping" icon and it pronounces and shows you the phrases. This technique is very suitable for me, as I am able to see how you write the characters and simultaneously hear how it is supposed to be pronounced.
My plan:
Goal 1:
Week 1- Brainstorm what would like to be written in my own self introduction.
Week 2- Search up on google translate or iphone apps vocabulary that I do not know and translate them into Chinese.
Week 3- Put my short self introduction into a paragraph.
Goal 2:
Week 4- Brainstorm what useful expressions I would like to learn. For example, the topic on 'health'. Think of what expressions I would like to be able to say and jot them down on a piece of paper.
Week 5- Search the expressions that I would like to learn on google translate or iphone apps.
Week 6- Practice those expressions 15 mins per day.
My evaluation approach: For the evaluation component of the learning challenge, I am planning to update and show what I have been doing every week on the blog. I will have native speakers of Chinese correcting my writing and listening to my pronunciation. This is planned to be done weekly for now, however, it has not been finalized just yet.
