More practice using Du Chinese.

More practice with Du Chinese.

Mimicked the recordings on my HSK4 class (week 2, lesson 1).

Used skritter to work on tones and pronunciation.

Used the HSK 4 dialogues (Week 1, Lesson 5) from my online class to practice pronunciation.

Practiced with Du Chinese.

Practiced pronunciation using Du Chinese.

Yesterday I only had a quick pronunciation practice using Du Chinese.

My husband helped me work on some words I have been struggling to pronounce correctly.

I have been using simple dialogues to practice my pronunciation, so I could work on errors that I have been making for a long time. At first it was nice to use easier material and focus purely on pronunciation, but I have been getting a little bored. So today I started to use one of the short stories on Du Chinese. I will use the same method as before but focus on finishing one chapter a day.

I reviewed some dialogues from the previous days.

Listened to and mimicked a dialogue on Du Chinese a couple times.

Completed some dialogues on Du Chinese.

My husband helped me practice tones for a bit (especially the third tone). He would tell me something in English and then I would translate it to Chinese and try to get all the tones right without overemphasizing them. When I got something wrong, he would help me quickly drill it until I was pronouncing it correctly.

Spent some time listening to and mimicking the passages for my online HSK 4 class (week 1, lesson 4).

Listened to and mimicked the passages from my online HSK 4 class (week 1, l. 4 & 5).

I studied another dialogue from Du Chinese. I tend to overemphasize the tones, especially the third tone, so my husband ended up helping me today. I would read each sentence and then he would tell me what I needed to work on and helped me drill it. Specifically, he helped me to understand that, when speaking fast, the third tone is more of a lower sounding version of the first tone. So I ended up drilling all of the third tone words in the dialogue and feel a little more natural and less like a robot!

Selected another short dialogue from Du Chinese and completed the same steps as before.

Yesterday I completed another dialogue on Du Chinese.

I listened to and mimicked dialogues from my online HSK 4 course (week 1, lesson 3).

I reviewed all of the dialogues I have studied since starting this challenge.

Read another short dialogue on Du Chinese and used the same method as the other days.

I read another short story on Du Chinese and used the same method as the other days.

I quickly reviewed the dialogue from yesterday. Then I selected a new dialogue and did the same method as the previous days. It was a little difficult for me to focus today, but, overall, I am really enjoying this method.

First, I quickly reviewed the material from yesterday. Then I selected a new dialogue, recording myself reading it, listened/mimicked until I felt like I had it, and then recorded myself a final time in order to compare the before/after. I can already see the benefits of this method, but, while I am trying to speak with a more natural rhythm, I end up mispronouncing more of the tones (at least 30% or more). I am hoping this method will begin to help me this.

I selected another dialogue from Du Chinese and completed the same steps as before. I have been selecting dialogues that are easy for me, because my main focus for this time is to improve my speech patterns. After comparing the videos, I can really see how this method is already helping me.

My goal for this challenge is to improve my rhythm while speaking. I recorded myself reading a dialogue on Du Chinese. Then I listed to the recordings and mimicked them. I continued listening to the dialogue and mimicking it until I felt I had achieved a natural flow. Then I recorded myself reading it again and compared it to the first video.

I reviewed the Du Chinese dialogue from yesterday. Then I selected a new dialogue, recorded myself reading it for the first time, listened to the audio, mimicked, and then repeated this until I felt satisfied with my progress. At the end, I compared my first and last recordings.