Participation
in Speaking challenge, April 2021
40 minutes 0.67h
Shadowing with Du Chinese + quick chat with husband.
30 minutes 0.5h
Shadowing with Du Chinese.
30 minutes 0.5h
Shadowing with Du Chinese.
15 minutes 0.25h
Quick chat with my husband.
30 minutes 0.5h
Shadowing with Du Chinese.
20 minutes 0.33h
More shadowing with Du Chinese.
30 minutes 0.5h
Shadowing with Du Chinese. When I first started doing this it was really difficult to say the tones at the faster paces, but I can see that it is slowly becoming more natural for me.
40 minutes 0.67h
I worked on more shadowing with Du Chinese and then practiced a tongue twister.
30 minutes 0.5h
I shadowed 2 short readings from Du Chinese. I practiced shadowing the dialogues at different speeds.
15 minutes 0.25h
Yesterday I practiced speaking by myself. I tried to incorporate new grammar.
30 minutes 0.5h
More shadowing using Du Chinese.
20 minutes 0.33h
More shadowing using Du Chinese.
60 minutes 1.0h
I practiced shadowing 1 chapter of the story I am currently reading. Then I spent some time shadowing a reading about the Ghost Festivals. While I am enjoying using the story for shadowing practice, I think I will start using more of the shorter content available on Du Chinese. That way I can practice more.
20 minutes 0.33h
Shadowing using Du Chinese.
20 minutes 0.33h
Practiced shadowing a chapter on Du Chinese.
40 minutes 0.67h
I did some more shadowing using Du Chinese. Then I had a quick video chat with my husband and his parents. His parents only speak Sichuan Hua, which makes it a little more challenging, but I was still able to talk quite a bit. It has been a while since I talked with them, so I was surprised by how much more I could understand/say in this convo. Moments like that remind me why I am studying Chinese. 我们一起加油吧！
30 minutes 0.5h
30 minute conversation with my husband.
30 minutes 0.5h
I used Du Chinese to practice shadowing. First, I read through the chapter to make sure I understood everything, then I practicing shadowing until I felt I had improved. In the beginning, I find it quite difficult to keep up with the recording while still keeping tone accuracy. My speaking pace tends to be slower than I would prefer, so I plan on focusing on that for the remainder of this challenge. I believe shadowing will slowly help me feel more comfortable speaking at a more natural pace.
30 minutes 0.5h
Yesterday my husband and I had a 30 minute conversation. He helped me work on tone and pronunciation mistakes.
| Challenge time progress: | |
|---|---|
| Goal progress: |
| Score | 9.33 |
|---|---|
| Rank | 5th |
| Hours reported | 9.33 |
| Goal | 14h |
I agree! Shadowing is insanely effective. I've noticed my tones and just general fluency have improved since I started working at it. Du Chinese is great for it. I've tried shadowing Chinesepod dialogues before and they are just way too fast unless you manually slow them down.