Monday, October 08, 2007

Chinese Learning Process, Level Two: Processes

I ran out of words when it came to naming this level. By Processes, I mean the habits and routines that we form on top of our infrastructure or workbench. They can be pretty mindless, in the sense they are things to do, rather than things to think about.

In my software world, this layer represents the things that can be scripted, though we might not have done this yet. Perhaps we're waiting for the processes to settle down and become more predictable before we automate them. In any case, there's nothing much that is directly productive going on, but we are doing the necessary housekeeping that supports what comes next.

Following the language learning analogue, I synchronize my iPod with iTunes once a week for use in the car (car time, as Chris has recently pointed out, can be very valuable). I also agree with my study parner (more on that in a later blog entry) what scenarios we will try to replicate, what roles we will play.

What do you do? Do you collate your weeks new vocabulary? Do you set your VCR or equivalent to record certain shows? My processes are quite sparse I think. As I said in the last blog entry, I outsource a lot of gruntwork to Chinesepod: The range of materials I use regularly is relatively narrow, and so I can leave it to that service to manage things for me. If I were better organized I might try to arrange to speak with my Chinese colleague in a regular way rather than the haphazard manner it happens now, or tag my vocabulary in a way that made consulation more easy.

4 comments:

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

This layer is apparently shambolic in my case but there is method to my madness. I will keep up with a series of posts that expose how I learn
latest post

Only then will I have a chance to try to codify it.

Anonymous said...

Dear Brendan,

You may be interested in this site:

www.nciku.com

A online English/Chinese dictionary, it focuses on Chinese language learning English

speakers, provide Chinese hand writing input and human voice pronunciation.

Have a look, if good, add it to your site please, thanks.

Reagards,
Clark

Unknown said...

Hi Clark,
Yep - that's a great site. I'd love to see an offline version of something like that which I could get to work on my Nokia N800 (linux). Any ideas if such a thing exists?

Thanks,
Brendan.