It occurred to me that after over a decade on ChinesePod, I don’t think I’ve ever done a self-introduction.
I first went to China in 2005 teaching English, then in 2007 I quit in order to go to school at Northeast Normal University for 4 years. School really pushed me on reading and writing, but most of my speaking and listening ability came from ChinesePod.
My current language goals are to do 200 Advanced ChinesePod lessons, score a 270 on the HSK 6, and read a number of 刘慈欣’s short stories, working my way up to reading 《三体》.
I’ve used ChinesePod in a number of ways over the years, but what I do now is:
“Preview” the lesson during my commute. I’ll listen to the “full lesson,” the dialogue, and the review.
During free time during the day, I’ll get onto the website and do the exercises.
I have a number of tutors through iTalki, and I’ve sent them the Advanced lessons I’m working on. I’ll do the same lesson several times, with a different tutor each time. Not only does each tutor handle it differently, the big issue is that at my age, repetition is more critical than ever!
I actually only do 2 new lessons a week, with the vast majority of my time spent on review. Something I’m just starting is that: The 5th time I do a lesson with a tutor, I’m the “teacher” and my tutor pretends to be a student of Chinese. This forces me early on to stop my passive learning, and be proactive at learning how to explain what I’m learning.
