My Goal for 2012: 52 Weeks of Chinese

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Week 0 of 52 Weeks of Chinese

A new year gives us the chance to think about changes we want to make and ways we want to grow. For a while now, I’ve been thinking about my own Chinese. As time goes by, I’ve become less satisfied with my level. So I’ve come up with a plan for how I’d like to improve my Chinese in the new year.

Week 0:

Why do this? Don’t you speak Chinese?

I do speak Chinese. I can also read and type at a nearly fluent level. But I have a lot of reasons for wanting to study more.

1. It’s hard to write about learning Chinese when you aren’t learning about it. I want to get back into the learners mindset. I also hope a more personal touch might be offer more chances to engage with readers of my blog.
2. My Chinese level is in a slow decline. At it’s peak, my Chinese was really good. My tones were on, my vocabulary was rich and I was able to effectively express myself whenever I wanted to.
3. It’s getting harder and harder to express myself. Now, I’m finding it harder and harder to express myself. Some of these challenges are situational: expressing feelings and talking about emotions with my wife is much harder than talking about the news; but much of it is structural: not being able to think of the right word, sentences flowing out in an awkward fashion.

What to look forward to

This year, posts will mostly consist of weekly reports about my study habits with occasional digressions on topics I’ve been thinking of. I’ll also write some Monthly reports to track the larger goals I’m working towards.

My ultimate goal:

My goal is still the same: I want to be able to express the same personality in Chinese and English. I want to be me in both languages.

What do you think?

Do you want your very own 52 weeks of Chinese? Have any suggestions for software, websites or materials I might want to look at? Leave a message in the comments.