I am still meeting once a week with my Chinese tutor, but I have to admit that I have not been making the most of it. I was really busy with school, which means I did not have a lot of time to prepare.
There are a couple of different things I am working on, but the main focus is speaking. I have a book of tongue twisters, and my tutor has me learn one or two per week. He picks the ones that have a lot of character combinations that I seem to struggle with (2-2, 3-2). I also use a textbook and do worksheets to prepare for the HSK (no idea when or if I am going to take it). In addition, my teacher also prepares a list of ‘technical’ or ‘related’ works for me each week. These are usually words I can figure out when looking at the Chinese, but would have no idea how to go from English to Chinese (example: 工商管理硕士gōngshāngguǎnlǐshuòshì MBA). The related words are specific to what I teach, so I can explain more clearly to people when I am in Shanghai in March/April. Examples include business communication, visiting lecturer, how to speak effectively, etc.
For writing/vocab, the plan is to submit an essay once a month. I think I am just going to work on a long essay about my impressions of Singapore, and each month’s essay will be a separate section.
On my own, I try to read articles, listen to podcasts, watch tv/movies, and make vocab lists on nciku. For the podcasts – I listen to Chinesepod (I have praised this site before), and ‘China Reel’, which is a BBC Radio podcast. The latter is about 14 minutes, and covers a specific topic (or two). Recent topic include the global economic crisis, Mao in China, migrant workers, etc.
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