Last Friday the 13th, I met my Chinese italki teacher Anthony Davis for the first time. What stood out for me was his patience and honesty. I know little to no Chinese at this point, and he told me a full hour was too tiring for both of us at this point, given that he was the one primarly speaking Chinese. I am looking forward to my second lesson, which starts in an hour, and I still need to prepare 5 - 10 questions and answers that we can discuss. Better get going!
Takeaways and lessons learned
- Agile way of Chinese learning with consistent and frequent (3x a week) shorter lessons of ± 30 min instead of a full hour
- Anthony suggested the following structure for each upcoming lesson:
- Warm-up part. Questions and answers (5-10) that I prepare myself.
- Base part. Did I learn something else I want to practice?
- Last part: Little Fox Chinese videos discussion. Priority is Mrs. Kelly’s Class. For lesson 2, I will watch videos 1-3.
- For myself, I decided to also review the words learned during the lesson by using flashcards. I started using Quizlet, but am now trying to develop something myself to have an easy 3-face system: Hanzi > Pinyin > English. Please check this out here. That way I prevent overly relying on Pinyin, as I now already feel this is a danger.
Preparation for lesson 2
| Question (Chinese) | Question (English) | Answer (Chinese) | Answer (English) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 你叫什么名字 | What is your name? | 我叫 Stijn | My name is Stijn |
| 你住在哪里 | Where do you live? | 我住在比利时 | I live in Belgium |
| 你从事什么工作 | What is your job? | 我是科学家 | I am a scientist |
| 你家有几口人？ | How large is your family? | 我有女朋友和宝宝 | I have a girlfriend and a baby |
| 你的老师是谁 | Who is your teacher | 我的老师是康康 | My teacher is Kang Kang |