How do people learn?
As children we learn, step by step. We are spoon-fed. Which makes sense. Learning is an experience as we grow up.
But we reach a point where learning isn't an experience. It becomes a mass of information. We've reached a stage where learning becomes an exercise in organization. We read concepts, we filter, we sort, and finally we re-gurgitate. Analyze and then synthesize.
How does this apply to language learning? I hate learning by memory. It's terribly slow. I prefer getting all of my concepts all at once. And then begin to break down the constituent components until I can surmise the function of a component from it's position to the rest of the components. Architecture is king. Why learn piece-meal when you can get a blueprint?
Why is a blueprint more valuable than the experiential approach? Because a blueprint is a model which we can understand at-a-glance, we can re-use learning techniques (from one analogy to another), breadth-first-search (when the entire map is unknown) is an exponential algorithm whereas depth-first-search (with knowledge of the entire map) is more efficient. Hmmm, ... learning a language isn't a search algorithm.
I did a search for "comprehensible input". Dr. Krashen's theory on second-language learning. Below is a link with a great deal more advice as to language learning. The information provided is very useful.
http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/languagelearning/essaysonfieldlanguagelearning/langglrnnginthrlwrldfrnnbgnnrs/LanggLrnngInThRlWrldFrNnBgnnrs.htm
Showing posts with label chinese language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chinese language. Show all posts
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Learning Cantonese
I've been trying to learn Cantonese since coming back from Hong Kong in October of 2009. I realized that my understanding was limited when I wanted to communicate with someone and found it extremely difficult. I hate feeling like I'm an idiot. I realized that I needed to give Cantonese time and effort. So I looked around for resources so that I can begin studying Cantonese. I found a meetup group that I hoped would help me find a voice. What I learned from the meetup group is that talking to strangers was a real chore. Initially I found it uncomfortable. I'm not used to talking about myself to strangers. However, I had the disadvantage that I just didn't want to talk about anything. I had to learn to open up. So my problems were larger than the fact that I didn't know Cantonese.
At that time (in 2009) I signed up to attend a Cantonese class offered by the Toronto District School Board. I started class in January of 2010 and by May 31st I had completed the beginner class as well as the intermediate class. Which brings me to my current thoughts.
What is Intermediate level as opposed to Beginner level and Advanced level?
This thought came to me a few weeks ago. Since coming back from Hong Kong I've been thinking about language learning and how I should approach the process. You see, the TDSB course was good but it wasn't great. The TDSB course was a chance to go to a classroom and get into the mindset of speaking Cantonese. At first I had difficulty adjusting. Thinking and working in English, I had to adjust my thinking for class to begin communicating in Cantonese. I adjusted Ok. I was fine. But the demands in the class was to be able to read the material "with acceptable intonation". My tones could use a little work. But I was fine with tones. What I had issue with was that I could not formulate complete correct sentences.
Long story short, I have thought of a lot of strategies on how to tackle language learning. Here are some of those ideas.
1. stories
2. composition
3. transcription
4. verbal performance
In essence the idea was to use storytelling as a mode in which to learn Cantonese. I think it's a good idea. But it begs the question of how. The deeper I delved into this quandary the more I learned about language learning in general. The more I learned the more I had to change my strategy. The more I learned the more I learned about myself and my mode of communicating and my personal preferences towards other people.
Which leads me to my initial question of 'What is intermediate level?'.
I'm defining intermediate level as the ability to communicate about general subjects (I'll call them beginner subjects) beyond a 3 response interaction. I use the analogy of tennis to explain. A beginner tennis player can put the ball over the net. It's not about the ability to do it consistently either. A beginner tennis player can put the ball over the net most times at the start of a rally. Therefore what marks a beginner tennis player is that a beginner cannot respond to the ball being returned to him/her. The rally dies. Usually the rally will die to about 3 hits on both sides (at most). Therefore, I'm defining intermediate level in terms of the ability to respond at least 3 times (and keep it going).
By defining what intermediate level is I can set a goal to reach it. But to achieve that goal I need to understand what is required to encompass that range of language learning. Here I use past material to grasp that range.
Example: Learn Mandarin in 500 words. My Mandarin book that I used in Fu Lao Shi class at Tzu Chi Academy. I don't know the theory behind 500 words (maybe it's 1000 words?) but it doesn't really matter. 500 words is a start. The important part is the content. Now learning 500 words, I feel, is completely arbitrary. I need a more systematic approach to learning (we don't have 10 years like we do when we're a child to learn a language) so those 500 words should be well chosen. I'll use my Mandarin book once again to determine the essence of the Chinese language and apply those same concepts to Cantonese. Words like, 都， 也， 已定， 有， 其實， 但是，不過， 還， 如果， 可以， 能， etc. are used often. Having a catalogue of most useful words would be helpful.
Hence my desire to write a document that incorporates all that I've described into a single document. Of course a lot of the material is already available. My job is to re-fashion it into a learning platform that I can use with my friends in my meetup group as well as have some fun with it.
My ideas are:
1. A document that teaches Cantonese at a beginner level
2. Explanations of concepts (particles, classifiers, pronouns, names, titles, question forms, etc.)
3. Grammar
4. Exercises on grammar (arrange the characters to form a correct sentence)
5. Memory tests (nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives)
6. Dialogue (scripts)
The important thing about this document is that at the end of the exercises there should be a script. The dialogue script can be dialectic or not (monologue). But it should contain the essence of beginner level Cantonese. By reviewing this script (alone or in a group) will allow you to re-affirm your understanding of beginner material. My hope for the material will be that this script (designed in a manner that can be customized to the person that is delivering it) can be spoken at the start of a meetup group to introduce oneself and/or "perform" it as in a drill to affirm knowledge/skill and understanding. The dialogues, exercises, quizzes and composition work, in the document (book) will build skills and build the script. By the end of the document a learner should have mastered the material and have understanding of his/her script.
So this document will represent what you need to know to consider yourself beyond a beginner. I'm interested in passing a certain stage in my learning. I need a goal. And hence I want to define that goal. This document will represent that goal. So I want the document to break down conversation into types, e.g. About people, about place, about thing, about time. These are too general but you get the point. The goal is to develop conversational skills beyond 3 responses over beginner subjects. So here I will define beginner subjects. More specific subjects becomes a topic for Intermediate level Cantonese. And that is where I want to go.
One added note. I purchased Sidney Lau's Cantonese material from the Hong Kong Government Publication department. Mr. Lau's material was developed for a radio program in teaching Cantonese. I purchased all the material including the elementary, intermediate and advanced level material. Mr. Lau's material will be used to re-inforce my approach and most likely modify the content.
At that time (in 2009) I signed up to attend a Cantonese class offered by the Toronto District School Board. I started class in January of 2010 and by May 31st I had completed the beginner class as well as the intermediate class. Which brings me to my current thoughts.
What is Intermediate level as opposed to Beginner level and Advanced level?
This thought came to me a few weeks ago. Since coming back from Hong Kong I've been thinking about language learning and how I should approach the process. You see, the TDSB course was good but it wasn't great. The TDSB course was a chance to go to a classroom and get into the mindset of speaking Cantonese. At first I had difficulty adjusting. Thinking and working in English, I had to adjust my thinking for class to begin communicating in Cantonese. I adjusted Ok. I was fine. But the demands in the class was to be able to read the material "with acceptable intonation". My tones could use a little work. But I was fine with tones. What I had issue with was that I could not formulate complete correct sentences.
Long story short, I have thought of a lot of strategies on how to tackle language learning. Here are some of those ideas.
1. stories
2. composition
3. transcription
4. verbal performance
In essence the idea was to use storytelling as a mode in which to learn Cantonese. I think it's a good idea. But it begs the question of how. The deeper I delved into this quandary the more I learned about language learning in general. The more I learned the more I had to change my strategy. The more I learned the more I learned about myself and my mode of communicating and my personal preferences towards other people.
Which leads me to my initial question of 'What is intermediate level?'.
I'm defining intermediate level as the ability to communicate about general subjects (I'll call them beginner subjects) beyond a 3 response interaction. I use the analogy of tennis to explain. A beginner tennis player can put the ball over the net. It's not about the ability to do it consistently either. A beginner tennis player can put the ball over the net most times at the start of a rally. Therefore what marks a beginner tennis player is that a beginner cannot respond to the ball being returned to him/her. The rally dies. Usually the rally will die to about 3 hits on both sides (at most). Therefore, I'm defining intermediate level in terms of the ability to respond at least 3 times (and keep it going).
By defining what intermediate level is I can set a goal to reach it. But to achieve that goal I need to understand what is required to encompass that range of language learning. Here I use past material to grasp that range.
Example: Learn Mandarin in 500 words. My Mandarin book that I used in Fu Lao Shi class at Tzu Chi Academy. I don't know the theory behind 500 words (maybe it's 1000 words?) but it doesn't really matter. 500 words is a start. The important part is the content. Now learning 500 words, I feel, is completely arbitrary. I need a more systematic approach to learning (we don't have 10 years like we do when we're a child to learn a language) so those 500 words should be well chosen. I'll use my Mandarin book once again to determine the essence of the Chinese language and apply those same concepts to Cantonese. Words like, 都， 也， 已定， 有， 其實， 但是，不過， 還， 如果， 可以， 能， etc. are used often. Having a catalogue of most useful words would be helpful.
Hence my desire to write a document that incorporates all that I've described into a single document. Of course a lot of the material is already available. My job is to re-fashion it into a learning platform that I can use with my friends in my meetup group as well as have some fun with it.
My ideas are:
1. A document that teaches Cantonese at a beginner level
2. Explanations of concepts (particles, classifiers, pronouns, names, titles, question forms, etc.)
3. Grammar
4. Exercises on grammar (arrange the characters to form a correct sentence)
5. Memory tests (nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives)
6. Dialogue (scripts)
The important thing about this document is that at the end of the exercises there should be a script. The dialogue script can be dialectic or not (monologue). But it should contain the essence of beginner level Cantonese. By reviewing this script (alone or in a group) will allow you to re-affirm your understanding of beginner material. My hope for the material will be that this script (designed in a manner that can be customized to the person that is delivering it) can be spoken at the start of a meetup group to introduce oneself and/or "perform" it as in a drill to affirm knowledge/skill and understanding. The dialogues, exercises, quizzes and composition work, in the document (book) will build skills and build the script. By the end of the document a learner should have mastered the material and have understanding of his/her script.
So this document will represent what you need to know to consider yourself beyond a beginner. I'm interested in passing a certain stage in my learning. I need a goal. And hence I want to define that goal. This document will represent that goal. So I want the document to break down conversation into types, e.g. About people, about place, about thing, about time. These are too general but you get the point. The goal is to develop conversational skills beyond 3 responses over beginner subjects. So here I will define beginner subjects. More specific subjects becomes a topic for Intermediate level Cantonese. And that is where I want to go.
One added note. I purchased Sidney Lau's Cantonese material from the Hong Kong Government Publication department. Mr. Lau's material was developed for a radio program in teaching Cantonese. I purchased all the material including the elementary, intermediate and advanced level material. Mr. Lau's material will be used to re-inforce my approach and most likely modify the content.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Chinese computing
I've been learning Mandarin Chinese for 2 years now. I've been attending a Mandarin language school with Tzu Chi http://en.tzuchi.ca/canada/home.nsf/home/index . My teacher is 傅老師 (Teacher Fu) and we've been learning from a book named 五百字說華語 (Speak Mandarin in Five Hundred Words).
Problem: I recently installed Ubuntu Linux on my computer at home. I figured out how to install and use the Chinese input method offered in the Windows OS. I used the Windows New Phonetic 2002a code table for input because it allowed me to use pinyin for input and obtain traditional chinese characters for output. Ubuntu has a input method (IM) framework so that you can add multiple language input methods and create your own easily. It's called SCIM (Smart Common Input Method). Unfortunately it has multiple input methods but not one suited for me. It does have Pinyin but it produces simplified characters. Not being able to find the one I wanted I went online to read about all of them. I found that 五筆字型 (wu bi zi xing) was the coolest. It's difficult that's for sure but it's also efficient when you've acquired the skill and the memory for the character strokes. Since the system is built around how the characters are written with a brush it means that I kill 2 birds with one stroke (if you will). I can learn characters, character strokes and an input method all at once. And when I finally build up the repertoire of characters I won't be (necessarily) defficient in any particular area (that is the hope anyway).
It was a problem at first. Because 五筆字型 produces simplified characters. Further research indicated that there are more than one wubi method. wubi86 supported the GB86 character set. There was an update called GBK which included traditional characters as well. However, GBK wasn't very popular and it was because GBK wasn't backward compatible with wubi86. And so wubi 2000 provided support for GB 18030-2000 which was backward compatible with GB86 but also contained traditional characters. I was looking for a wubi code table which supported GB 18030-2000. I couldn't find it.
Lucky for me, after starting this entry for my blog I discovered a method for looking up input codes for various chinese characters (until I actually know some of these codes) and I discovered that the wubi input in Linux does have traditional characters contained in the table. So that the character 謝 (traditional) and 谢 (simplified) both have the same wubi code "ytmf". So I'm not limited to a particular character set after choosing a specific input method.
My next step is to begin cataloguing the characters I've learned from my chinese textbook and inputting them into a table for quicker lookup. I'm also contemplating how to produce a database to store the various methods of locating characters.
There are various systems available for looking up characters. Radicals, pinyin, ... I will probably begin cataloguing these methods to get a better picture of how to go about searching.
More later.
Problem: I recently installed Ubuntu Linux on my computer at home. I figured out how to install and use the Chinese input method offered in the Windows OS. I used the Windows New Phonetic 2002a code table for input because it allowed me to use pinyin for input and obtain traditional chinese characters for output. Ubuntu has a input method (IM) framework so that you can add multiple language input methods and create your own easily. It's called SCIM (Smart Common Input Method). Unfortunately it has multiple input methods but not one suited for me. It does have Pinyin but it produces simplified characters. Not being able to find the one I wanted I went online to read about all of them. I found that 五筆字型 (wu bi zi xing) was the coolest. It's difficult that's for sure but it's also efficient when you've acquired the skill and the memory for the character strokes. Since the system is built around how the characters are written with a brush it means that I kill 2 birds with one stroke (if you will). I can learn characters, character strokes and an input method all at once. And when I finally build up the repertoire of characters I won't be (necessarily) defficient in any particular area (that is the hope anyway).
It was a problem at first. Because 五筆字型 produces simplified characters. Further research indicated that there are more than one wubi method. wubi86 supported the GB86 character set. There was an update called GBK which included traditional characters as well. However, GBK wasn't very popular and it was because GBK wasn't backward compatible with wubi86. And so wubi 2000 provided support for GB 18030-2000 which was backward compatible with GB86 but also contained traditional characters. I was looking for a wubi code table which supported GB 18030-2000. I couldn't find it.
Lucky for me, after starting this entry for my blog I discovered a method for looking up input codes for various chinese characters (until I actually know some of these codes) and I discovered that the wubi input in Linux does have traditional characters contained in the table. So that the character 謝 (traditional) and 谢 (simplified) both have the same wubi code "ytmf". So I'm not limited to a particular character set after choosing a specific input method.
My next step is to begin cataloguing the characters I've learned from my chinese textbook and inputting them into a table for quicker lookup. I'm also contemplating how to produce a database to store the various methods of locating characters.
There are various systems available for looking up characters. Radicals, pinyin, ... I will probably begin cataloguing these methods to get a better picture of how to go about searching.
More later.
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