Post 8- Week 4

This is what I had planned to be done in Week 4 in my plan:

Previous Plan:
Week 4- Keep on practicing speaking and writing of the corrected self-introduction from week 2. At this stage, there should be at least 6 sentences done for the self-introduction (week 2- 3 sentences, week 3- 3 sentences). Keep on adding sentences to the self-introduction. At least 3 sentences needs to be done this week. After finishing this week’s sentences, again give it to the native person for a check. Get the native person to check for mistakes then practice speaking the self-introduction with them. A small check-list will be handed to the native person to see if my pronunciation and writing skills have improved from week 2.

New Plan:
Week 4- Keep on practicing writing of the corrected self-introduction from last week. At this stage, there should be at least 6 sentences done for the self-introduction (week 2- 3 sentences, week 3- 3 sentences). Keep on adding sentences to the self-introduction. At least 3 sentences needs to be done this week. After finishing this week’s sentences, again give it to the native person for a check. Get the native person to check for mistakes then practice speaking the self-introduction with them.

Due to having exams and assignments for other courses, I did not have as much time to practice my vocabulary on Quizlet. I was planning to spend 90 mins this week on the Language Learning Challenge, however, I only spent 19 mins in total this week. All the time was spent on rewriting my corrected version of self-introduction from last week and adding 5 more extra lines, and an extra few minutes on going onto Quizlet for a game. 

This is what I had written for this week. After rewriting the corrected version, I handed it over to the native friend for a check. The verbal comments she made to me were in Chinese, and if translated into English it would be:

"The amount of traditional characters that I needed to correct has comparatively decreased from last week, however, there are still many characters written in Traditional Chinese. 遊楽地区 is not incorrect, however, it is more classified as Taiwanese Chinese, and not Mainland Chinese, therefore using 主题公园 would be more appropriate if you were writing a Simplified Chinese self-introduction."









When using Quizlet this week, I decided to use my desktop computer instead of my ipad to study. I realised that for the desktop version, things are called differently.

Desktop Version

Ipad Version

For example, Scatter is called Match on the ipad version and Cards are called Flashcards on the desktop version. For the desktop version, there are more activities that can be played around with.
An example is Speller which is an activity where you type in what you hear and see.

Scatter and Match they have the same icons on both the desktop and ipad version, however, the activities are slightly different. On the desktop version, you need to pair the Chinese and English up by dragging it, while on the ipad version of Match it is just simply tapping on two icons in a table as introduced in Post 7- Week 3.

Desktop Version

For the desktop version, I believe it takes longer as you need to drag it over to correct one, while the other is just tap and tap. For Scatter, it annoyed me in some ways because firstly it takes time to drag and your competing with the time. Secondly, even if you drag it, and you are not making the pairs overlap, it would not consider it as being correct. This is an example.

The two pairs are so close to each other and if you look closely, there are overlapping but the computer just doesn't believe in that. When this kind of a problem occurs, I then need to redrag it and make sure it OVERLAPS, so then I can move on and finish my game. This kind of a problem makes me quite annoyed since I know the answer, but then the computer just doesn't accept it, therefore my score time will be lowered.

Post 7- Week 3

Due to last week's change in plan, therefore there are also some slight adjustments for this week. Last week's plan was:

Previous Plan
Week 3- Practice speaking and writing the corrected version of the self-introduction. Keep on writing the self-introduction. Again, search up vocabularies and phrases and put them into sentences. Have at least 3 sentences done for this week. Start making vocabulary flash cards on Quizlet, as this will be able to help me memorise and recognise characters.

New Plan
Week 3-  Keep on writing the self-introduction. Again, search up vocabularies and phrases and put them into sentences. Have at least 3 sentences done for this week. Once this is done, give it to the native friend for correction. Then, start making vocabulary flash cards on Quizlet, as this will be able to help me memorise and recognise characters.

This week went really smoothly with writing the self introduction and testing out the apps. I also started to use Quizlet to practice vocabulary. 

However, I did come to pick up on some problems when I was making Quizlet sets. I realised that there was a vocabulary that I had written on my vocabulary list not being simplified Chinese, but instead traditional Chinese. This was Tiramisu, it was meant to be 提拉米苏 written in the simplified version however for some reason I wrote it as 提拉米蘇. I have forgotten which website or app I used for finding this vocabulary. Or it may have been I used this app (Translator- Translate Text and Speech) and entered I wanted a traditional translation instead of simplified. 

I most probably chose the wrong targeted language, instead of clicking onto the 2nd one, I clicked onto the first one. 

The two comparisions of Tiramisu, the first one being simplified Chinese, and the second one being traditional Chinese. 

I handed my work for my native friend to correct and most of the errors she picked up was my characters being in traditional instead of simplified Chinese. When I first learnt Chinese it was traditional Chinese, that may be why I am more familiar with that than simplified Chinese. 

Another interesting thing that I picked up on was when I wanted to translate the word keep. As in I want to keep a dog. I typed the word keep into 2 different apps, Translator- Translate Text and Speech and Chinese English Dictionary Bravolo they both gave me words that are not to be used in the right scenario. The keep meaning that they have provided me is to maintain (保持 bao chi). After my friend corrected my work, she told me the difference, Chinese is like Japanese, and there is special word for keeping a pet which is 养 (yang). After she told me this it once again made me think, this is the difference between face to face learning and technology learning. What I believe is that technology is indeed a great resource as it provides you with great deals of information, however, is it always reliable? For example translation, does this particular technology know in what situation you are using this vocabulary? Therefore what I think is that it is good to use technology for learning up to an extent, however, it is still necessary to find a professional/native person to teach you, especially languages. 




This week, as planned I also started making Quizlet flash card sets. I made 3 sets. I named them as Others (mainly adjectives, adverbs, verbs), Vocabulary (mainly nouns) and Place Names (Location names). I thought that if I sorted them into groups, it would also make it easier for myself to learn. 

To show an example of the Quizlet format on my ipad, I clicked into 'Others' and it comes up with all the vocabulary I have added in my 'Others' list. On the top, it has 4 tabs, 'Cards', 'Learn', 'Match' and 'Test'. I personally like the 'Match' learning system, therefore this time I will talk about how this works. I tap on it and the next screen that comes up is this.
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It gives you the instructions of what needs to be done and once your ready, press 'Start game'. What I thought was thoughtful and considering about this step is that, this 'Match' learning system is a beat your record game. Therefore you would not want to be not ready and play. Once you press start, this is the next screen.
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Tap onto a square and it turns blue, and find the matching one as fast as you can. If it is correct, the correct matched pair will turn green, however, if the pair that you touched on is incorrect, the pair will turn red. Due to the speed of the colours changing, I was not able to screen shot the process. Also there is a timer on the top right corner, allowing the learner to keep track of how fast/slow they are going.
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Once you have collected correct pairs, they disappear.
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Once you have cleared all pairs, it takes you to this screen, telling you what your best score was and your score this time. I believe in doing this, it gives the learner motivation to want to keep on trying hard and beat their best score. 









For something to end with, I will touch on this week's reading briefly, In this week's reading it touches on how "we have passed the peak of exclusive literacy, where only written artefacts had merit, and information only resided only in the written message". This leads me in thinking of digitization and how much people rely on digital technology in the 21st century. An example I thought of was, when I was still in high school, we would receive weekly newsletters from the school to take home, however, now, it is e-newsletter, the school no longer prints out a hard copy but just sends it through email to the parents and students. The same as filling out consent forms, the school would give us, the students hard copy forms to take home and return it, but due to the advancement in technologies, its all directly sent to the parents via email now. Something that I thought of was, what if you aren't able to keep up with all this advanced technology. How would you communicate with the school, if you were a parent. 

Post 6- Week 2

For week 2, everything was progressing well until the last component, when I was asking my native friend to check my work. Due to personal reasons my friend was not able to attend the meetup therefore my work was not able to be checked. This has been changed to week 3. This means that I need to slightly alternate my plan. 

Previous Plan
Week 2- Using MDBG Web Translator and iphone apps to search for vocabularies and phrases that I am not familiar with and start writing my self-introduction. Have at least 3 sentences done by week 2 and give it to a native person to check and receive feedback.

New Plan

Week 2- Using MDBG Web Translator and iphone apps to search for vocabularies and phrases that I am not familiar with and start writing my self-introduction. Have at least 3 sentences done by week 2. 

This week, I have added a few more sentences to my self-introduction. After self-correcting the pretest, I have picked up on vocabularies that I have written in Japanese, and changed it into Chinese after checking up with the translator. As stated in my original plan, I have also looked up phrases and vocabularies on the MDBG Chinese Web Translator and iphone apps. 

These are pictures of my: self corrected pre-test, accumulated self-introduction and vocabulary and phrase list

Looked up some obvious errors, such as vocabulary written in Japanese, place names, and Chinese written in the traditional way, instead of simplified.

Updated self-introduction using various technology tools and apps to search for vocabulary (these technology tools and apps will be discussed later in this post.)

Vocabularies that I needed to translate into Chinese as I didn't know them in Chinese. 

When writing my self-introduction once again, I picked up on some challenges. I realised that I have a language barrier. There were some vocabulary that I could not express myself in English, but am able to do so in Japanese. An example was お菓子(okashi) which means "confection" in English. As MDBG Translation site, is a English⇔Chinese site, therefore I had to find different ways to concur this challenge. I first decided to use a Japanese⇔English Translation site, Webio to translate お菓子 into English, then went back to MDBG Translation to translate that into Chinese, however, I thought it took too much effort and time, therefore searched for an app on my ipad. 

English⇒Chinese Translation

Japanese⇒English Translation

There were 2 apps that I found throughout this week. These were Translator- Translate Text and Speech and Chinese English Dictionary Bravolo.

Firstly I will talk briefly about Translator- Translate Text and Speech. This app suited me very well as I could choose what language I would like to translate from and to. I used both English⇒Chinese and Japanese⇒Chinese. I found this app a rather interesting one as it is different to the normal translation apps or sites I have seen. The formation of this app is like a chat conversation. Though I found this app very useful and fun, however the demerit of it is that there is a limit to how much you can translate daily. Once it reaches to the limit, you need to either pay $2.99 for unlimited translation or wait till the following day. 

The second app that I tested was Chinese English Dictionary Bravolo. I would say it is a very recommendable app for translation and learning. This app gives you a number of different usages of the vocabulary. For example: I typed in "name" and it gave me possible usages such as when I want to use it as a noun, adjective or verb. It also gives an English Explanation, Example sentences and related words(including the pronunciation in English). I believe that is it good that this app gives a lot of information however, due to the amount of information given, it allows myself to think, is it actually relevant to give that much information, wouldn't it just make the learner more confused? 

The time taken to write this week's self introduction was rather smooth compared to last week. I looked up the words that I was not familiar with and wrote it on my vocabulary list. The time taken was not particular shorter but I sensed gaining improvement in my Chinese level rather than thinking why do I even not know this. Adding up all the time that I spent on doing this is 2 hours and 10 mins, this includes looking for new potential apps, browsing through to see how the app works, translating vocabularies to Chinese, and making corrections to my pretest introduction and making the original self-introduction longer. 

This week's reading and lecture recording was on dictionaries. It pointed out many things that I haven't thought of before. Such as, the features of a good dictionary. In the reading it points out two types of definitions of a gene, both having the same meaning, but worded differently.
Definition 1: The basic unit of inheritance which is transmitted from parents to offspring.
Definition 2: A gene is a DNA sequence ending in mRNA(protein), tRNA or rRNA. 
Definition 1 can be understood easily by people who are not experts in this field, and Definition 2 is using scientific terms which is simply too hard for laypersons to understand. For myself, I would classify Definition 1 as a good explanation, as it states in simple terms what are genes. 

Post 5- Week 1

In week 1, I started my language learning challenge. I was rather surprised about the amount of Chinese I am familiar with. My Chinese writing skills has really gone down hill. I am able to read them, but when it comes to writing, I guess my mind just blanks out, which also really shocked me.

This week, I have followed my plan, which was to.

Week 1- Give myself a pre-test. Write down what I am able to write currently for a simplified self-introduction. After writing it, brainstorm what I would like to have in my ideal self-introduction. In particular, the vocabulary that needs to be looked up, for example noun and verb vocabularies. These many include name, age, doing words for hobbies, etc.

The time taken to write my pre-test self introduction was 15 mins for 7 sentences. I personally believed I took too long for simply short 7 sentences. It may have been because I did this at 10:30 at night and my brain wasn't functioning properly, but it did rather shock and annoy me, because of my Chinese level dropping that much. 

Another thing that I picked up on that I found interesting was the fact that my Japanese writing interfering in with my Chinese. An example can already be seen in the 1st sentence, where I wrote:

「我的名前是黒田祐理。」  (My name is Yuri Kuroda.)

After looking over at what I wrote carefully, I realiｓed that it actually was a mixture of Chinese and Japanese. The correct version should have been:

「我的名字是黑田祐理。」  (My ｎame is Yuri Kuroda.)

As I was composing it, I was speaking Chinese to myself, however from the pre-test it can be seen that I bring in my Japanese skills unconsciously. I said 名字 (ming zi meaning, "name" in Chinese) to myself when I was writing it, but it turned out to be I automatically translate it into Japanese and wrote 名前 (namae meaning "name" in Japanese). I believe something similar happened once again, when I wrote my own name, since I am more familiar with the Japanese way of writing my own name, I wrote the Japanese version 黒田祐理 instead of 黑田祐理. 

As this week's work, I have also noted down what types of sentences I would like to have in my self introduction. Possible vocabularies that I may need to use have been listed out too, and I am planning to use the technologies as planned, the MDBG Web Translator and iphone app to search for the vocabularies and phrases in Chinese. 

I have only done a short list of what vocabularies I may need, however, this list will get longer and longer every week, as there will be more and more vocabularies I realise I need to use.

Post 4- Language Learning Challenge Proposal

Title: Improving my Chinese writing skills

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 skills in particular, I have spent more time on Japanese compared to Chinese. Therefore meaning my writing skills in Chinese is 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 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 writing skills being so poor, I would like to take this opportunity to relearn how to write a short introduction in simplified Chinese using technologies. 

My Learning Goal 
My goal is to be able to write a self-introduction using simplified characters in Chinese. I would need to learn how to write vocabulary such as, name, family members, pets, hobbies, my likes and dislikes in simplified Chinese. I would not only like to learn how to write it, but I would like to be able to say the self-introduction.

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.

Another test that I attempted was the VARK questionnaire, it has stated that I am an aural learner. Therefore I prefer people to tell me information, instead of reading information myself. As my goal is to be able to write a self-introduction in simplified Chinese and be able to say the self-introduction, it is a good idea that I read out loud of what I am learning. Pronouncing vocabulary out loud as I learn them, as this will also allow myself to remember what I have learnt. I will also use this strategy to learn and memorise the characters. In addition, link the characters with sounds. The VARK questionnaire website suggested that I may make up or use interesting stories or jokes to remember information, I have not used that method for learning a language, therefore am curious whether it will work or not. I will give it a try and see the results. 

The technologies I am going to test: From what I have planned now, I am planning to use “MDBG Web Translator” website, iphone app, and Quizlet. The web translator is a site specifically for translating Chinese⇔English. It doesn’t just gives you translations but also gives you a variety of synonyms to choose from. Depending on the scenario and situations, you can choose the most suitable vocabulary. The iphone app that I have found now is called "Chinese". For example, if you would like to know useful phrases in self-introduction, you tap into the "greetings" icon and it pronounces and shows some phrases that may be used in writing. The web translator website and iphone app both comes with pronunciation.  By having 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. Another technology I would like to test out is Quizlet. I will like to use this website for my own Chinese revision. I will be making flashcards on this website, then practicing it and testing myself.

Since I am using the web translator an iphone app that translates phrases for me, the language pedagogy here would be the Grammar Translation Method. In this situation, I will learn everything through translation. It is believed that this website translator and iphone app will be useful and handy for me when writing and speaking the self-introduction as it visually shows me the characters and I am also able to hear the pronunciation of it. However, the constraints for these apps would be that at times, phrases may sound a little weird. Like all translation devices, there will always be something that does not fit with the context. This will be when my native friend can give me a hand, as they aware of the scenario, therefore will be able to tell the correct vocabulary that I should use.

My Plan
Week 1- Give myself a pre-test. Write down what I am able to write currently for a simplified self-introduction. After writing it, brainstorm what I would like to have in my ideal self-introduction. In particular, the vocabulary that needs to be looked up, for example noun and verb vocabularies. These many include name, age, doing words for hobbies, etc.

Week 2- Using MDBG Web Translator and iphone apps to search for vocabularies and phrases that I am not familiar with and start writing my self-introduction. Have at least 3 sentences done by week 2 and give it to a native person to check and receive feedback.

Week 3- Practice speaking and writing the corrected version of the self-introduction. Keep on writing the self-introduction. Again, search up vocabularies and phrases and put them into sentences. Have at least 3 sentences done for this week. Start making vocabulary flash cards on Quizlet, as this will be able to help me memorise and recognise characters.

Week 4- Keep on practicing speaking and writing of the corrected self-introduction from week 2. At this stage, there should be at least 6 sentences done for the self-introduction (week 2- 3 sentences, week 3- 3 sentences). Keep on adding sentences to the self-introduction. At least 3 sentences needs to be done this week. After finishing this week’s sentences, again give it to the native person for a check. Get the native person to check for mistakes then practice speaking the self-introduction with them. A small check-list will be handed to the native person to see if my pronunciation and writing skills have improved from week 2.

Week 5- Practice the accumulated self-introduction from week 2 to week 4 in writing and speaking. At the same time, finish off the self-introduction and give it to the native person to check. Once I have received feedback, I will need to practice speaking it and writing it. Use Quizlet as a revision tool for vocabularies.

Week 6- Allocate a time with the native speaker to have a post-test (speaking and writing) and grade me on whether I have improved or not throughout these 5 weeks.

My evaluation approach: For the evaluation component of the learning challenge, I am planning to have a pre and post test. I will also be getting the native person who checks my work to grade me on how I have performed. There is a plan of when I will be getting them to grade me, however this may change. I will also be posting up pictures on the writing practices and pictures of the work checked by the native person. 

Post 3- Change in Language Learning Challenge Proposal

After having a thought about my own Language Learning Challenge Proposal, there are a few changes I would like to make to it.

Firstly, I would like to change my goal to only one of them, as I want to be give myself enough time to digest the materials learnt. I thought about my previous plan and believe it would be better not to rush things and do it thoroughly.

[NEW]  My Learning Goal 
My goal is to be able to write a self introduction using simplified characters in Chinese. I would need to learn how to write vocabulary such as, name, family members, pets, hobbies, my likes and dislikes in simplified Chinese. I would not only like to learn how to write it, but I would like to be able to say the self introduction.


Secondly, I would like to talk about my Learning styles and strategies. I would like to briefly talk about my VARK questionnaire results.

[Additional]  My Learning styles and strategies
After having done the VARK questionnaire, it has stated that I am an aural learner. Therefore I prefer people to tell me information, instead of reading information myself. As my goal is to be able to write a self introduction in simplified Chinese and be able to say the self introduction, it is a good idea that I read out loud of what I am learning. Pronouncing vocabulary out loud as I learn them, as this will also allow myself to remember what I have learnt. As to memorising characters, I guess I will just need to practice it over and over, as many times as it may take for myself to remember it. The VARK questionnaire website suggested that I may make up or use interesting stories or jokes to remember information, I have not used that method for learning a language, therefore am curious whether it will work not not. I will give it a try and see the results.


Thirdly, as I have changed my goal, therefore my plan will also need alternation.

[NEW]  My　Plan
Week 1- Brainstorm what I wold like to write in my self introduction. In particular, the vocabulary that needs to be looked up, for example noun and verb vocabularies. These many include name, age, doing words for hobbies, etc.

Week 2- Using google translate and iphone apps to search for vocabularies that I am not familiar with. Using a variety of websites or apps will be a good idea as I am able to compare the vocabularies used. List them down get a native person to check the vocabulary.

Week 3- Put the vocabularies together into a short self introduction and get a native person to check the work. Work doesn't need to be fully corrected by the native person, but instead point out where something should be changed.

Week 4- Change the places that should be changed and find a time to sit down with the native person to get them to go through the work with me. Point out the mistakes that I have made in the self introduction and correct it together. In this session, also practice the self introduction that I have written with the native person. Ask the native person to point out my pronunciation mistakes, therefore I know where I went wrong and need extra practice.

Week 5- Practice writing and speaking the self introduction at least for 10 mins everyday if possible. Through out the week, make a time with the native speaker to check the fluency of the speaking and check the pronunciation of the Chinese. Make an extra note on the vocabularies that were not spoken properly and do extra practice at home.

Week 6- Keep on practicing the self introduction in writing and speaking. Hopefully have corrected the mistaken pronunciation. Throughout the week, allocate a time with the native speaker and get them to grade you on a scale from 1-10 (1-lowest, 10-highest) the spoken and written part of the self introduction.


This is what I have thought about for my new Language Learning Challenge Proposal. There will be further changes done next week.

Post 2- The VARK Questionnaire Results

Having done the VARK Questionnaire, it showed that I prefer aural learning.

I didn't really know what it meant by I was a "aural learner", therefore looked into it and the website gave me the following information. 

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Under 'Key Words' it states 'listening', 'discussing', 'talking', 'questioning' and 'recalling'. These words indeed do link in with how I learn things. I prefer to listen to people talk, and discuss things with me, rather than reading a whole bulk of information. 

It also provides what procedures I should take as I am an aural learner. Out of the 9 'Intake' suggestions below, it has proven that I need to open up from my own shelter and try and attend group discussions. Suggestions such as attend classes, using interesting examples to memorise things, and techniques in taking down notes are the ones I have been doing, but attending discussions is my main weakness. I will need to work on that. 

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As my goal is to be able to write a short self introduction about myself in Chinese, and it has been said that I am a aural learner, it may suggest that I should read my own writing as I write my paragraph. After having done this questionnaire, it has allowed me to think what type of a learner am I. I hadn't thought about this question till I completed the questionnaire. The results can be thought as accurate, as my highest 11 was aural, and lowest 5 which was read/write.