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Snowflake’s Mandarin Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes  Studies: Mandarin | Message 89 of 740 29 January 2009 at 7:41pm | IP Logged |
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Hitting a wall in terms of what I’m retaining .... lots of new vocab and characters via reading. On a good note, yesterday a phrase from a movie came to me out of the blue which I now know.
Think I have discovered a way to practice with one of the native speakers at work who generally won't correct me (he's being polite). I intended to ask how his wife is doing... 你的妻子好不好? (ni3 de5 qi1 zi5 hao3 bu hao3?) but used the wrong tone for 妻. His face showed that he didn't understand. So I explained and asked how 妻子 should be said. The key to getting corrected seems to be carefully watching his face and directly asking. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 90 of 740 31 January 2009 at 11:33am | IP Logged |
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I've been “monitoring” the vocabulary presented in my texts since these were originally published after the revolution. I'm finding the vocabulary in the HSK lists, recent TV dramas and my movies. The movies I've been listening to were all released in the past 10 years. So in general the language seems to have changed relatively little.
This week has been light on the reading. I am doing more watching of a Taiwan produced TV drama. After my small eureka in December, the listening comprehension seems to have moved pretty slowly. Now that I've slacked off a little on the reading, the listening comprehension has improved at a more noticeable pace. I have no idea whether those things might be related. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 91 of 740 01 February 2009 at 7:11pm | IP Logged |
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Feel like I'm sorting through accents, though it must be a normal stage of listening comprehension...especially since all the material involved is out of Taiwan. A phrase that keeps popping up is 挵壞了 (nong4 huai4 le5, simp 弄坏了) which means ruined, like ruining your clothes or breaking something. Sometimes I think I hear something closer to nong4 hui4 le5 or nong4 wei4 le5. In one sense, "Finding Nemo" was easier as that movie used the Beijing accent.
Edited by Snowflake on 01 February 2009 at 7:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 92 of 740 02 February 2009 at 9:13pm | IP Logged |
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Hmmm, there is a word 毀 (hui3, simp 毁) which means to damage/to destroy/to ruin. I wonder if the times 挵壞了 seems to sound closer to nong4 hui4 le5, maybe 挵毀了 is really being said...something to check out.
While weaker on characters than I'd like, am hip hip hooraying a little. A vendor sent a happy Chinese new year postcard which was in traditional characters and English. I checked out the characters first. For some sentences, I understood enough to piece together what was being said...the parallel English was the verification. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 93 of 740 04 February 2009 at 9:14pm | IP Logged |
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Doing my periodic bang head on wall...characters are not sticking was well as they should. Thoughts are also scattered.
I was watching 籃球火 (English title “Hot Shot”). Found it interesting that a sign for a corporation, in the series, was in simplified characters... 东方 (dong1 fang1) instead of 東方. 籃球火 is a Taiwanese production. Got around to listening to a clip of Jay Chou from one of his movies. I read that his manner of speaking is supposed to be fashionable among young people in Taiwan. It sounded like he was trying to speak, as much as possible, in a monotone which seemed a little odd when contrasted to the voice of the person he was interacting with. Looking at different ways of pretty much saying the same thing....gan4 me5? 幹麼? (simp 干么?) The fellow from Jiangsu said that is, what are you doing (in general). I've also heard this used as a sort of what's up?! He said in comparison zai4 gan4 me5? 在幹麼? (simp 在干么?) is short for 你在幹什麼? and is what are you doing (right now or in particular). Edited by Snowflake on 04 February 2009 at 9:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 94 of 740 06 February 2009 at 10:03am | IP Logged |
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Reading at a pretty slow pace given all the new vocabulary and characters.
Got some supplemental readers… “Strange Stories From a Chinese Studio” by Hsia and Yeu, and “Chinese Mythical Stories” by Chang. The former book, in the front, has the stories in traditional characters while the latter part has the same stories in simplified... a pleasant surprise. This should help later when tackling simplified. Under looking at different ways of pretty much saying the same thing.... Shen2me5 shi4? 什麼事? (simp 什么事?) Shen2me5 hui2 shi4? 什麼回事? (simp 什么回事?) The fellow from Jiangsu said the first sentence is asking in general. The second is used when you already know something has happened. update; questioning my choice of simplified characters and tones for 幹麼 as I came across 干吗 and 干麽 (both gan4 ma2) with the right definition. Edited by Snowflake on 06 February 2009 at 9:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 95 of 740 09 February 2009 at 11:48am | IP Logged |
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More variations on the use of 幹 (干) mined from subtitles.
你到底想幹麼? Ni3 dao4di3 xiang3 gan4 ma2? What do you really want? 你幹什麼? Ni3 gan4 shen2me5? What are you doing? 你來幹嗎? Ni3 lai2 gan4 ma5? Why did you come? This weekend at a family gathering, I found myself talking to my mom using something inbetween Mandarin and Toishanese. She understood me though that mix is not good. While characters are slipping out of my head at an undesirable rate, the ones I’m supposed to know are appearing A LOT. So my older reader is definitely on the right track. Edited by Snowflake on 09 February 2009 at 11:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 96 of 740 11 February 2009 at 4:42pm | IP Logged |
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I’ve been on the same lesson, in the reader, for over a week. It’s going slowly since the characters falling out of my brain are now back to haunt me. Soooo I’m working on establishing a daily habit of doing SAFMEDS.
It's nice that I ran into 到底 (dao4 di3) a few days ago.... am noticing it in several movies. Update: my friend who was in Taiwan for two months returned. She was going to bring back grammar school textbooks for me, but after looking at them, felt those would not be appropriate. She brought back two books for me. She also bought, for herself, a number of Korean and Chinese movies which she will loan to me. She said my Mandarin has gotten better since we last talked at the end of November...YAY! Edited by Snowflake on 11 February 2009 at 9:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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