JINTIAN

     I attended my third Mandarin class jintian (today) since restarting last week. My lesson was entitled, Today, which built upon the last two classes of weather and dates. After my review of numbers yesterday, I was able to say the date (independently) and write it (while referring to notes). We moved quickly to some new vocabulary that I think will be useful at work - zhexie (these) and naxie (those). We practised using the words in context, then laoshi (teacher) Lui introduced words that contain parts of words I already knew, such as:
shuiwujiao (nap) = shuijiao (sleep) + wu (I recognized this from xiawu (afternoon))
dianying (movie) = dian (electric - I recognized this from dianti (elevator, or literally electric
                                 step)) + ying (shadow)
xilanhua (broccoli) = xi (west) + lan + hua (flower - I recognized this from huacha (flower
                                     tea))
     My learning curve has increased so much over the past few weeks, that laoshi Lui has suggested that I take the HSK 1 test by September 19 rather than just a practice exam. I have only eight classes left before completing all the material for the level and will also have time to write a practice test beforehand. I've decided to still keep my goal of passing HSK Level 2 by December 14, and have amended or added proximal goals to make my learning process more defined.
     In a natural context, I struck up a conversation with some ayis in the elevator. I mentioned, jintian feichang re (today it's very hot). The ladies responded with huge smiles and responded quickly trying to engage me in more dialogue. I have found that often, locals are excited when foreigners try to speak Mandarin, but have had little interaction with them in the past. Their speech can become too fast and too complicated to follow, and we end up resorting to gestures. This no longer leaves me frustrated; I find it an enjoyable part of the learning process. Next class, I will ask how to say, "Can you repeat that slowly, please?" to make native-Mandarin speakers know that I need more time.
 
    As PME-800 is coming to a close, I decided to post my update 'Monitoring Process' table now so others can see my progress.

​References:
Liu. “Today.” Unit 5 - Lesson 2. 1-on-1 Part-Time Mandarin Course, 14 Aug. 2018, 
     Beijing, That's Mandarin.