My Chinese Language Needs-Analysis

Early this morning I had my first “Needs Analysis” session with Aggie from ChinesePod. I wasn’t too sure what to expect and will admit that as I sat there, headphones on, my heart did start to beat a little faster. Would I be asked to speak Chinese? Would there be a test? Would she be appalled by my incredibly slow progress? The session lasted just over half an hour but we managed to cover some of the biggest challenges I have faced with self study. Read on to find out more.

The first thing we covered was my motivation for learning Chinese. I hadn’t thought about this before but it struck me that, for me, learning Chinese is about more than just learning the Language. The language is a gateway to a deeper understanding of the Chinese culture, the Chinese people, and in particular one Chinese family. It’s all a big ask from someone who, through his own choice, managed to make it through school without learning any modern language other than English.

因为我的女
朋友是中国人

With “a good motivation” behind my study, we moved on to looking at my approach. I described what I thought were my main challenges with learning Chinese. The key difficulty I have had is getting into the habit of regular study. Other challenges I have faced are the lack of a suitable MP3 player (I’m looking for a new one) and ChinesePod being blocked at work. But despite all my reasons why I couldn’t study regularly, Aggie had a number of good suggestions for how I could modify my approach and make learning Chinese a habbit.

So, starting next Monday, I am going to be studying three lessons a week. Monday’s lesson will be slightly harder than those on Wednesday and Friday. My approach is to listen to the lessons on the way to work. During the lunch break I am going to review the lesson transcript and key vocab. And, in the evening, I have to try and use some of these words in conversation. And this is where Xiaoshuang is going to have to help. Creating your own sentences from a few key words is undoubtedly the best way to learn, but I’m going to need the help of my very own native speaker if this is going to work.

Whilst the session didn’t reveal anything too surprising, it was definitely useful to talk through my approach to self study. It is comforting to know that the challenges I have faced are not unique and that there are some simple practical things that I can do to get the most out of the lessons, things like; printing out the lesson transcripts so that I can access them during my lunch break, and trying to work the key vocabulary into every day sentences.

I look forward to receiving my practice plan but, more than that, I look forward to getting stuck in to improving my Chinese. Expect more on my progress towards the end of next week.

Related posts:

1. The 3 P’s: Practice Plan Progress
2. Learning Chinese
3. Lesson 10: The Four Tones