This challenge being my first has been a rollercoaster for me. excited to keep going personally until the 5th hoping the app keeps me on one focus and measures progress will also study the waveform on troubled tones definitely an awesome challenge. it has also been helpful reading others journey and things to try.

I was debating an app purchase today just to gamify my learning which includes speaking sentences to it until it says you got it right and its very good at not letting you mess up tones. it is using google translate technology to judge you but it was still fun I was looking between the HSK 4, 5 or 6 app and couldn't make my mind up which to purchase but what I found the most motivating today was that even in the HSK 6 I was now able to read and guess what the word might mean based on what am learning through characters. It's an amazing feeling to be looking at new words and having an idea what it means and how to pronounce it. the last time I purchased a monthly of this app I had barely anytime to use it but now that am practicing tones again a new found reason to use it to practice. A lot of time spent listening and repeating along with each game.

really good rewatch to help motivate me this morning. New Game unlocked differentiate even when listening which tone I heard when in a sentence https://www.youtube.com/live/iL072NQaqsk?si=s5-8-0GHpjxtmU3b

I found a new way to check a waveform without complicated install on a desktop. The ipad voice memo app so I can see the dip on tone 3 and just familiarise myself with my own voice and the tone switch and not put all my trust in google translate on my pronunciation. I was recording on my android phone which doesn't show waveforms. Its definitely different when saying Sentences than just the words.

Practicing words like this 联系练习 definitely keeps it fun.

5am shuoshuo Chinese book lesson for making sentences really enjoyed making the sentences I did speak the sentence out so I confirm I know it but also screenshot for later Pronounciation exercise

her recent video 97 sentence watched about 10 mins and repeat after. it was also very easy sentence so it was good to not get stuck on a particular word and it really encouraged me to know that my listening is helping with my speaking. I may have issues with some pronounciation but keep going even when sometimes it feels like I just need to go back to the sound chart which I still review regularly but i am definitely just need to keep moving forward whilst also reviewing the past lessons.

This week I am on chapter 4 immersion listening of the teach yourself Dialogues will try using those today and this week for my pronounciation excercise
I need to catch up doing the excercises but need to focus on MB Sentences and try not to over do it.

Though I tried to keep pressing on I still spent 5-10mins on each sentence counting only 30mins because I do get distracted easily. 他像在睡觉
打电话的男人说话有点快
听电话的是警官李亮
这一天是6月9号
stopping now to focus on other things.

The annoying thing is I thought I already had this sentences down but on a different day different results.

woke up early but conscious my flat is quiet thin walled. I usually wait till about 10 before I start belting out my words but I am feeling clear minded enough to get going now. Reading along to the book is helping keeping the tones in a sentence rather than spending time making my own. Elongating on areas I get stuck but what I plan to do is note it down and press on. So then I have sample sentences to practice stretching with after just doing intial read out.

The pronunciation mastery was on discount this weekend so I have just purchased that to see if there is any tips in that to fill in the gaps and hopefully help me with some of my challenging sounds like T and C. Would love to sign up for the course here too at some point but currently trying to use the same course provider see if the course link together with what am already learning.

listen and read along to Teach yourself Dialogues. This i find is a better approach to reading the tones in a sentence. So will continue reading out loud and when note down trouble tones, initials and finals

listen and repeat with teach yourself mandarin audio they have a bit where it focuses on just the vowel in each tone and guessing which tone. Stopped about 11:30am on and off LLR with doing the lessons. Will do my tone drill before bed then review tomorrow still trying to find a balance in reveiwing my efforts without obsessing
I also dont want to use my google translate but my ears more to review and use sentences.

just reading the list is getting tedious so am either going to cut the word list down or just put about 10 in a sentence to get use to that tone and practice at different time of the day that same tones. challenge is getting either finding them in existing sentences am using as I dont want to be memorising any sentences but perhaps ones I am already using and like.

Really like this tip https://youtu.be/mfjbSKP9Rac?si=w2pa8OAepwX3YCRM will try it when reading out loud for 5 mins. I was mimicking along to a chinese breeze book this morning for intonation help will try using it as a mouth work out more as well.

worked on challenges with my tutor and received some really good advice about placing the words perhaps the challenging word in a sentence. I can definitely see how this would help. On my pronunciation that I felt was wrong she said was right so there are times where I just think it sounds wrong but am just really not listening to myself but my feelings about it should sound. elongating vowels if unsure have said chu or qu. she pointed out that when it's words with a vowels canting I am leaning towards saying santing but with cuxin I am leaning towards saying tuxin.

I did spend another 30-40 mins yesterday going over the difficult ones but I didnt come back to log it as I tried to move on quickly to other things and not obsess. I then got bugged down by flashcards and I also ended up picking up lots of vocab from the teach yourself book free audio the native speaker on there is just amazing (using the Moses FLR method of listening to a chapter a week but am inconsistent) and random phrases I mimicked that caught my attention from TV shows. I re-watched a few episodes of Love 020 TV show whilst cooking and doing the dishes and noticed there were so many words (mainly HSK) I am hearing more now that I didnt notice before.

writing now in case I dont get to it later. I just practiced the first attempt for T1+T4 and that was my worst one yet and the reason why am doing this exercise. I find as am reading or talking I tend to lose track on my tones and now cant tell what key am in lol 😂 For the HSK download from hacking Chinese there is about 30 words per tone combination. Today whilst reading them, about 15 words in I was in T4+T2 for 7-10 words not sure how that happens but I did catch myself when I got to words I know very well in that tone and reset back to T1+T4. I should be catching this sooner than 10 words. I am thinking one way is to just stop trying to rush to the finish line 慢慢说 and actually listen to myself.

I did tone 1+3 some challenging areas identified I am going to go through the difficult ones again later today to make a 2nd attempt and perhaps a further 3rd on the more difficult pronounciation.

Transcript output(example for reference will not log this here)

Zhōngwǔ bīnguǎn, qī guǎn qī chǎng kāishǐ qiānbǐ, shēntǐ. Hēi biān hēibǎn, hēibǎn jǐnlǐ bùyào zhǔn fāzhǎn. Fāngfǎ gōnglǐ.

00:36
Jīyú jìnlái.10 Gōng mǔ wèi jǐ léi bìqiú? Jīngcǎi! Quēdiǎn quēshǎo shāng qíng. Xiāng qíng wēi xiǎng wēi xián túrán. Shīmián, xiāngféng xīnkǔ! Xiūnǚ. Yāoqǐng, yīncǐ yǒudiǎn yīncǐ? Yīncǐ yōudiǎn bāoguǒ bāoguǒ.

01:25
Biāodiǎn sān kǎo chāo cháng! Cōngmáng!Q bǎn? Chī kǎo chūkǒu. Bā biǎo fāgāo fēnshǒu benq gēnqián gāngtiě gēnběn gōngchǎng gōngzhǔ. Gōngxǐ! Guāndiǎn hūnlǐ jīběn jiārù ba! Jiānbǎng? Jiāng kǔ jiāo'ào!

reviewing the difficult sounds from the day before. spend a lot of time on fachou coming up like fachu, faqiu realising I need to make a t sound at the beginning of my pronounciation like tchou in order for it to not come out as chu. Learning that even if I think am ok with the sounds it doesnt hurt to keep repeating so my mouth can just do it without thinking.

This is becoming quiet addictive and this morning I was quiet obsessed with 去and出 as I had a word in tone pairs T1+T2 called 初级。I record and then use the transcription to mandarin to see if there were mispronunciation I noticed google translates 空调 and 突然 with the wrong pinyin tone so I wasn't actually saying it wrong. Hope to get tutor feedback but I also need to spend some time listening back to myself. I finally nailed 通知 but i definitely still have an issue with T and C I dont know if its too aspirated spent a lot of time on 推迟 but I think I got it now.

For the 3 weeks I plan to do the 20 tone drills 1 a day until the 5th of November. I just finished T1+T1 I recorded and can see so many areas I thought I was ok but can see I need to work on e.g I didnt know I had a problem with T and C words . Even with practice I couldn't quiet pronounce TongZhi, CuXin so will see where the problem is this weekend and discuss with tutor at next lesson.