I have not even picked up Heisig 2 in about four weeks. Just too much happening at the moment, I really don't have time. I get a few minutes to do Chinese each day, and right now I spend it going through flashcards while travelling to and from work. That's it.
If I can get through August and get work under control again, I'm sure I'll pick it up again in September. I'm sure that I'm sure.
I think.
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Hi Greg,
ReplyDeleteI'm new to Chinese, to Heisig, and to your blog
I've just started Heisig 1, got stuck after the 300th character, so I went around looking to see what people before me had done
Your entries on the Heisig approach help me clarify a lot of things and find solutions to the problem that I run into
All in all, good job! Your blog gives me motivation to keep going (after all, someone else had succeeded doing this before!")
I'm sure you will find time for Heisig 2 later
Hi Anna, thanks for your comment
ReplyDeleteI'm glad this blog has helped you - good luck now that you have a fresh momentum. And trust me ... the feeling of finishing book 1 is amazing! Keep us updated on your progress :-)
I see you are from Vietnam. I have been travelling more regularly to Vietnam on business this year, and I see that your language has tones too! So I guess it was easy for you when you started learning Chinese, in terms of getting control of the tones?
Yes, the Mandarin 4 tones are a breeze for Vietnamese speaker (Cantonese 9 tones are a nightmare though because there are tones that Vietnamese doesn't have)
ReplyDeleteI've finally reached the 475th character (end of chapter 19) and had a serious concussion with chapter 18 for cramming 78 characters into one chapter
I was hoping to finish book 1 before the end of this year :)
I find that it is much easier to study vocabulary after I know the characters
Now every time I go to Chinatown, I randomly understand about 1 out of 5 characters that I see, and then the 1 character that I understand makes me really curious and impatient about learning the rest of the characters
ReplyDeleteI just bought book 2 by the way
At the end of it, in the index, the author demonstrated the impossibly complicated character for biang biang noodle which reads as "eat nightmare for dinner" to me :))
Hi Anna, thanks for clarification of the tones in Vietnamese - glad that it makes Mandarin a little easier for you to start!
ReplyDeleteAnd well done ... you're nearly at 500, which is quite a good mark. Did you see my post when I reached 500?
Greg, thanks for pointing me to that post. It was very helpful!
DeleteI know absolutely no character before Heisig, so 500 words don't really help much (if anything) with reading yet - I still rely on pinyin.
but compared to the time I tried to memorize by writing repeatedly (and miserably retained nothing), it''s already a huge improvement (zero to 500 characters) and I feel very encouraged.
I agree totally! 0-500 is a massive improvement. The most important thing is that now that you have a study HABIT, getting from 500-1000 is actually EASIER. I accept that the characters get a little more difficult, but once you have the habit established, it just gets easier and easier. Let us know when you get to 1000! :-)
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