My Studies

I am in the depths of study. My mind has been taken over by the urge to learn and recoup my Chinese knowledge. Last time I was in China, I picked up a pile of books to help me learn, and I have picked up one that has been not only helpful but interesting. I want to go through it as much as possible. My speaking and listening have picked back to a respectable level (respectable by my standards). In this little work hiatus, I will be aiming to get all the knowledge I can about both the HSK (Chinese exam) and the Japanese Proficency test and even check if there is an equivalent Korean test. And then bulk up on my knowledge of all of them.

My mental immersion into Chinese brings some thoughts of what I can achieve with a bit of mental elbow-grease. I found myself correcting one of my common language learning mistakes: that is, learning in an undirected fashion, e.g. just reading the newspaper and learning words from it. That is not to say it is bad, but a lot more can be achieved with directed learning. Undirected learning is for the bus. Directed learning is for a set time devoted to learning.

Anyway, my last morning of set work for four weeks is tomorrow so I will go freshen my mind, basking in the moonlight on my bed.