bryzhome

Now that im at the end of my whole course i have started to just think back on how usefull learning online is.
Its easy and you can do it anytime you want, rather than having to go to class and having to learn the same day and time every week.
Now that i’ve finished the course, i went to the next step and looked under the ‘other resources’ link,
under that section they had books that were available, other commercial interactive courses and advanced resources.
I went through some of them and unfortunately some links don’t work anymore, but the once that did showed a wide variety of books and courses that can be purchased. I even found really useful software that was free and that i could download and instal it into my computer to learn even more!
The one that i found really good was the Chinese Homework Trainer, it has many features and functions that can teach you so much, and it even has a chinese dictionary that you can download and use. I also found another website link that has a really great chinese dictionary.
At this moment i have had a brief look at the software but wont dwell on it for so much and just use it for my own personal future learning. It has a number of steps and things that i have to set up first to be able to fully understand how to use it and that. But its really good and useful!
So there we have it, even more learning resources that i found through this BBC course, its great!

Chinese Homework Trainer - http://www.euroasiasoftware.com/ht/index.html
Chinese Dictionary - http://zhongwen.com/

How to improve:
‘Better @ languages’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/better/

I went through this short T/F course with questions.
Afterwards it showed me points based on my answers on what i should do to continue to improve my learning of new languages.
I found it really helpful.

Just for a personal reflection, edublogs is being really slow and causing allot of difficulties for me to edit and add my blogs in
so i hope it wont be as slow anymore from now onwards.
I have progressed further in my course and at this stage i have learnt quite allot of usefull sayings and words in mandarin.
I am now up to my final step in the beginners section and all the words and sentences that i have learnt so far have been very good and not too much of a difficulty to learn and remember. At this stage, the sentences are getting longer and abit more complex and as a result im finding myself spending more and more time on each step as i continue on. I have to repeat the saying a couple of times before i get it just right. At the same time im trying not to rush the course, so im taking it at a steady pace where i make sure i remember the things that i’ve learnt.
Now that i’ve finished the last section (Finding and booking a hotel), i have gone back to the beginning again and gone through all the sections at a quicker pace, just to see how much of the whole course i remember.
I dont bother going through the vidoes again since i’ve alredy watched them, and i also find no need to watch them again because i remember most of the words alredy.
So far now i have finished the introductory course for chinese mandarin, my next step is to check out the other resources available. It looks like there are many links to other courses and information about learning chinese. So im looking forward to finding some other usefull resources where i can learn further.

I thought as a breakdown i would reflect abit on my very last class of e-learning.
At the start of the class, we did some small activity where we all had to line up in ranks from 1 to 10. The question was something along the line of, wether we found blogs as a usefull learning tool. We then had to stand in a line starting from 1 being not very usefull at all to 10 being very usefull. We had quite a wide spread of responses, and had some people share why they are standing where they are. Some responses that came from people that found it not usefull was that, they prefer to write on paper like the old way, some just dont like technology and find it complicated.
Some answers that came from people that stood in the middle (ranked 5-6) said that it can be useful, but there mite be other means of learning and different learning tools to use.
People that ranked high (8-10) said that it was a very usefull and practical tool to use blogs to keep track of t heir learning experiences and their journey.
I personaly stood in the middle (ranked 6), and thought that yes its a very practical tool to use to learn, but i personaly mite not use it that often and learn more from real life experiences and just studying from books and learning from classes.
All in all, the last class waas enjoyable, Victoria was very kind and brought us some Vine and Chips, that was very nice, and we had a final reflection where we had to choose a card that reflects my own thoughts and feelings about e-learning.
Another great experience of learning and new discoveries have been made throughout this subject. Very enjoyable =)
Bryan..

My journey continues as i have done more of this online language course..
As im going through this language course, i have always gone through the same structure when i go through each step,
I first learn all the words and learn how to pronounce them, i spend a few minutes on each trying to remember them whilst listening to the sound and looking up the english meaning. Once i have gone through all of them, i click on the summary, where they go through all the words mentioned and taught in that section.
After that i click on the useful phrases section and spend a few minutes reading and learning the words that are on the list, which is related to the section i just did. Except in this list they break up each word seperately rather than having them in a sentence. This is also very helpfull too me and makes it easier to remember certain words.
Once thats done i go through the challenge (mini quiz/questions), this again is another great way of testing myself and seeing how much i remember of each section. Very helpful and interactive! =)
Finaly once i’ve done the challenge, i sit back and enjoy the very informative video that they have in each section.
So there you have it, i have described some of my sequencing and the way i approach this online language course.
Ofcourse once that is all done i just move on to the next section and repeat the same process again.

As i mentioned earlier, the flexibility of this BBC chinese (mandarin) course is really usefull and efficient for me as i can continue where i left off, whilst finish any time i want.
I have no progressed further and something i forgot to mention earlier is the usefull pronounciations they have. They have sounds that actaully say the words out loud to you, so that you know what it sounds like and how its abreviated.
It was quite funny for me at first, but its really helpful. Sometimes i find myself saying the word in one monotone voice, when they right way to say it is with emphasis on certain sounds and letters.
So the voice overs are really good, and i explored the challenges, where they ask you some simple questions on culture and what some words mean. I found that very interesting and fun to do.
Under the ‘useful phrases, they have a summary of what you have alredy gone through and it tells you in a list of all the words, what they mean and how to say it.
That summary page was also very handy, after i did each section i could test myself on how much i remembered and if i was saying the words correct.
The videos they have are also really usefull and very informative, it helps me to grasp a better idea of the culture and when and where they use the certain words that has been taught.
At this point i find the website really well structured, whilst being vry flexible, which takes on a more cognitive approach to learning.
Im looking forward to learning more, as its not getting boring yet.
untill next time..
bye..

I started the course a few days ago and its time for me to reflect on the start of this online language course.
Some of the categories that they have for the course include:

Beginners

Real Chinese

Short online introductory course with video

• For starters
• Introducing yourself
• Family introductions
• Saying a bit about yourself
• Ordering drinks
• Ordering a meal
• Doing some shopping
• Asking for directions
• Public transport
• Finding and booking a hotelWhat i began with was the first link which is ‘For Starters’ that included some things like, different pronounciations of simple words. They have both the spelling out of how it sounds, they have the chinese sign, and the meaning. Its nice and simple to understand, and at the moment i feel ok about the course.
  At this moment im reflecting 20mins into the course, at the moment its easy and simple.
  Im looking forward to report back on a later term.

I had a little difficulty in finding a e-learning course that was appropriate and good.
I was first looking at some online musical courses. Many of them were real courses that you had to pay for to do,
and at the end of it you would receive certificates. So i looked at online guitar courses, i managed to find a few but they
weren’t that specific and practical that Victoria wanted.
So i went to the BBC e-learning courses online.. and found a language course on Chinese (Mandarin).
The site itself has no set structure of the course itself. You can choose to skip the intro and go staright into it or you
can you learn the things that you are interested in. In my opinion i think this is alright, even though i like structured step by step
guides, when learning new things. But this does offer flexibility and it doesn’t restrict you to the steps that are not relevant to yourself.
Being Chinese myself, i find this course very interesting, i personaly speak a different dialect of chinese called Hakka. This is the language i grew up with. So learning mandarin will help me to expand my chinese. Both the languages sound quite different so its a usefull thing for me to learn aswell.