Me fail English?

That’s Unpossible!

 

Well it’s what... 3 weeks? since my last update and to be honest not much has changed.... I was told today that my contract has been extended for another month but I told them I can’t do it. I’ve asked for just an extra week which will give me some extra spending money.

 

This will probably be a long post as I have some random recourses that I think are worth talking about.

 

TIME LEFT: 100 Days!
Application was sent off about 3 weeks ago, haven’t had response yet.

 

TEFL:

Well checkpoint one has been completed but I still can’t bring myself to do checkpoint Two: Grammar! There was a small burst of motivation after making a bet with Jane but she’s got the head start as I’m now not continuing until this job finishes (and we never did decide on a forfeit).

 

My sister taught English in Germany for 5 years so I’ve raided her collection of materials. She swears by Murphy’s grammar books for both self teaching and material for the class and I have to say they are damn good books!

 

Essential Grammar in Use: Elementary

 

Essential Grammar in Use: Intermediate

 

Other than those I have a Scholfields & Sims Key Stage 2 Grammar workbook (it was £1.20), print out of all the summary PDF’s, and some random bits and bobs I can’t bring myself to look at.

 

Mandarin:

Speaking – Well it’s still pretty much non-existent. I’ve found it very hard to get motivated on listening to the language and getting my head around the tones. Not sure what it is but I’m struggling... maybe now I’m not working it will be better.

 

Reading/Writing – I have been spending some time on this while working, just taking 10 minutes here and there throughout the day to try and remember details. While my methods are a bit sloppy at the moment it’s better than nothing.

 

This site: Zein.se has some interesting information. It has a list of 3000 most common simple Chinese characters listed in order of frequency used.

 

Amount of Characters and estimated understanding:

100 characters → 42% understanding

200 characters → 55% understanding

300 characters → 64% understanding

400 characters → 70% understanding

500 characters → 75% understanding

600 characters → 79% understanding

700 characters → 82% understanding

800 characters → 85% understanding

900 characters → 87% understanding

1000 characters → 89% understanding

1100 characters → 90% understanding

1200 characters → 91% understanding

1300 characters → 92% understanding

1400 characters → 93% understanding

1500 characters → 94% understanding

1600 characters → 95.0% understanding

1700 characters → 95.5% understanding

1800 characters → 96.0% understanding

1900 characters → 96.5% understanding

2000 characters → 97.0% understanding

2100 characters → 97.4% understanding

2200 characters → 97.7% understanding

2300 characters → 98.0% understanding

2400 characters → 98.3% understanding

2500 characters → 98.5% understanding

2600 characters → 98.7% understanding

2700 characters → 98.9% understanding

2800 characters → 99.0% understanding

2900 characters → 99.1% understanding

3000 characters → 99.2% understanding

 

I’m currently at 30 characters and trying to learn 1 a day (and all meanings) – Not just from that list but also relating to the sentences I’m learning.

 

Other resources:

Easy Peasy Chinese – Still working through this nice little book & audio CD. Not much to add over last time, it’s colourful, simple and teaches realistic things.

 

ChinesePod.com – Lots of radio show styled lessons teaching ‘real life Chinese’ and give accompanying vocab & dialogues that can be printed. You have to sign up to the website but you get 7 days trial. I downloaded about 15 ‘newbie’ lesson MP3’s and PDF’s to get me started – If I finish them and want more I’ll probably pay for a couple months.

 

Lonely Planet Phrasebook – Awww it’s such a great little book! £2.50 or something off Amazon and has 3500 two-way phrases and some local tips. Mo wo zher (touch me here!) Hahah!

 

Russian:

Well I ordered a phrasebook along with the Chinese one but haven’t looked at it. Doubt I will anytime soon.

 

Japanese:

Does anime count?

 

Vodka & Chopsticks

Note: Standard shot in Russia 100g (ours is 25g) - Urrrgh no more, please. I’ve had to cut down on the Chinese food for both the health of myself and the health of my wallet! Chopstick usage is going to continue as much as possible but I seem to of got to the point where I can just about manage but still look like I’m struggling... more vodka will help, I’m sure.

 

Travel Plans:

Put reservation down on the Budapest to Moscow and the Trans-Mongolian trains, turned out to be about £70 cheaper than I was expecting so quite happy about that. Most things cannot be confirmed until 90 days before actual date so still a few weeks away.

 

Exit Festival ticket & camping purchased. Turns out that as of last year they have moved the camping to the fortress with the festival (it was on the other side of the river in 2006) and they have also turned it into a 10 day mini festival while the main 4 day is going on so that’s extended my stay there.

 

Still to sort: Visa’s - Need to wait till I find out about the placement before sending my passport off for Russian and Mongolian visas as I need to know what Chinese visa I’m getting. Timing is going to be a bit close on this one. Eurostar and Sleeper trains from London to Budapest still need to be booked.

 

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Well that’s about it. Suppose I should get back to work. I’ve got my new camera now and been playing with it the last couple of weeks – next time I might do some kind of video blog, not something I’ve ever done before but I’ll be doing a few while out in the world to update friends & family so it will be a good test.

 

How’s everyone else doing?