Attack of the New Leaf

Having decided that last semester was largely wasted and much more Chinese could have been learnt through better employment of our time, we, as a group of three [but mainly me and Holly], decided to turn over a New Leaf. Note the capitalisation. This proverbial New Leaf includes such additions as All-Chinese Wednesdays, where we speak Chinese even at home, and such subtractions as western television. It's actually going well so far [baring in mind it's the second week of term]: I've successfully made and stuck to a new timetable, making my working day essentially 8-till-8; found and begun watching semi-OK Chinese programs; and going to bed super early whilst going out less on the weekends. It all sounds wonderful.

This preamble, however, leads me to my material point and the crux of this post: Can you be too hard-working, and therefore over-productive? The answer, of course, is yes, you can. I know this because at exactly 16:21 this afternoon (GMT +8:00) I ran out of things to do. I can hear you, though, protesting, clamouring to tell me that when learning a language such as Chinese there's always something to do. Read a book, practice some characters, watch some tv, translate some song lyrics, preview the next 42 lessons. There are two things wrong with the point you're trying to make.

First of all, you have mistaken this post for some sort of discussion or debate. It's not. It is, in fact, me forcing my opinion on to you. So shut up and read.

Second of all, I've actually already done most of these things - being one of those people who puts doing and being above and beyond at the top of her list, I've even marked all the tones on the characters for lessons we have yet to come to. But, if I preview any more lessons, I won't actually understand what I'm reading; if I read any more  'above my level' Chinese my head might just fall off; if I practice any more of the same characters, they'll be etched into my eyeballs for eternity; if I watch any more tv, I'll finish the good series too quickly and have to move onto the truly terrible ones all too soon; if I listen to any more Chinese music, I'll just throw up. And so herein lies the problem.

Why not do some other timetabled activities, like Dissertation reading perhaps, or maybe some light post-graduate research? BECAUSE IT'S A SCHEDULE AND YOU CAN'T DEVIATE FROM THE SCHEDULE. Hmph. It's OK. I'm sure my HSK [Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi - Chinese Level Test] book gets more interesting the more you read it...

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