I wish the guo yu ribao had a more adult oriented content, but it does seem to hold promise.
If you’re interested in the same style of learning you can also go to Chinese bookstores. They have student versions of classical texts, such as San Guo Tse, (sorry for my brutal pinyin). They’re also labelled on a scale of difficulty, or at least that’s what I guessed it to be, from 1 to 30. The levels may be different according to publisher. The books are also pretty cheap.
You can buy a book from anywhere from $100-150 NT. I imagine they’ll take a while to read. I’m actually on my way out to buy one now. I’m excited to be reading something with meaning, as opposed to the lame conversations and stories that seem to be in most of the Chinese text books I’ve read so far.
I’m completing the end of my second month and here’s the report.
The initial shock of having the class all in Chinese wore off at the end of the first month. I had to study really hard the first month because I was a lesson behind and there were ALOT of words and characters I just didn’t know (added to the 20 or so new characters for each lesson). I really enjoyed that firsy month being so difficult for me, but now it’s all different. I’m always a chapter or 2 ahead of class, people aren’t prepared as I am and the discussion goes off topic a lot which means there a lot of vocabulry they say that I just haven’t learned yet. So now we’re either working on something I already know from studying at home, or they’re talking about something that’s sometimes difficult for me to follow. If I could speak as well as the people in class, I don’t think I’d need a class, I could just study by myself at home.
So, for next month I’m going to try one on one classes twice a week and see how I like the progress. I have my own plan as to how I want class taught and I’m going to request that it is done that way (no tests, no writing, etc.).
I did like the class, the teacher is really good (not boring), class was always funny and informative. I just felt like I was being held back in terms of reading and pushed to much in terms of speaking (this was my first class).
I’de be glad to go into that class! Can you tell me the time slot that you’re in and what level that is. This way i can register without too much hassel. How many hours a week did you go?
[quote=“roseha”]I’de be glad to go into that class! Can you tell me the time slot that you’re in and what level that is. This way I can register without too much hassel. How many hours a week did you go?
Thanks!
Rose[/quote]
Mon, Wed and Fri 7-9. I think you’d like the class a lot (you mentioned the social factor in another post). It has a nice mix of people.
Cool thanks! I just went down there today and the lady I talked to was really nice. I’m going down on Wed to sit in the conversation class. Hmm but from what i remember i think she said it was the 5pm class.
That’s a different class. I’ll be at the seven o’clock one. You could just go at 6 and see half of both classes. 6-7 and 7-8, I don’t think they’ll have a problem with that. Just tell them a firend is in the seven o’clock one.