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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 105 of 740 27 February 2009 at 6:56pm | IP Logged |
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It's been a busy week so I've gotten much less done. I'm doing my periodic "bang head here" about memorizing characters....really hope the audios for my reader will help.
At the time of my last post, the cassettes that I found for the next volume of my reading series was way past what I am willing to pay. Since then the cost has almost doubled. It makes one wonder whether mentioning studying specifics on this forum is a bad thing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 106 of 740 03 March 2009 at 2:29am | IP Logged |
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I didn't get a lot of studying in this weekend. However it felt a bit like Christmas. My friend, who visited her family in Taiwan, brought back a childrens’ novel and a great dictionary for kids learning English. She also gave me a ton of movies and several TV series, which she is done with. It will take months to watch all the disks. On the flip side, it's looking like there may be less time for studying in the next few months due to my job...will have to see how things go.
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 107 of 740 05 March 2009 at 1:47am | IP Logged |
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On lesson 10. Got a notice from the vendor that they don't have the set of used cassettes for this reader (inventory hiccup). Sigh.
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 108 of 740 08 March 2009 at 3:00am | IP Logged |
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Got less done this week which shows in my SAFMEDS numbers. Also was working through a subtitle and realized that I can need more generalization on characters.
Another native Mandarin speaker joined the work project this week. He's originally from the mainland and worked there within the recent past. He also volunteered to help with my Mandarin. I really need to get over my shyness in speaking practice. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 109 of 740 10 March 2009 at 7:58am | IP Logged |
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This week is shaping up to be another with less studying....trying to get reading in on top of the usual listening work, and the SAFMEDS is suffering again. This weekend I visited a new Mandarin speaking church and met someone from Beijing. She asked for my Chinese name, which I wrote in traditional characters (only way I knew). Then she showed me the simplified version. Afterward I was introduced to other people, using my name in Mandarin. These were a first for me.
On the last portion of lesson 10...going through at a snails pace between lack of time and the characters falling out of my head. I'm beginning to see more of the same characters used different words which I think is helping. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 110 of 740 13 March 2009 at 4:54am | IP Logged |
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Fun with translation (or lack there of)....some different words for monster;
怪獸 (simp 怪兽) guai4 shou4 =rare animal; mythical animal 怪物 guai4 wu5 = monster; freak 妖怪 yao1 guai4 = devil / monster ...The first one is used for "Monsters, Inc". 怪獸公司 (guai4 shou4 gong1 si1) is the title on the box of my movie. ...The second one is used in Shrek 2 and in multiple other movies/TV series that I have. 怪物公司 (guai4 wu5 gong1 si1) entered on the nciku site comes up with Monsters, Inc (go figure). ...The third is what Shrek is referred to as, in the movie. In the American original, Shrek is an ogre. The yellowbridge dictionary translates ogre into 象鬼的人, xiang4 gui3 de5 ren2. 象鬼的人 doesn't show up in nciku or the other online dictionaries that I tend to use. A search for ogre on the nciku site brings it up as the name of a person. Ogre does not come up in the other online dictionaries I use. Really getting very little done this week. I haven't been sleeping well so most of my energy has been spend on the job. Edited by Snowflake on 16 March 2009 at 2:53am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 111 of 740 15 March 2009 at 9:06pm | IP Logged |
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Still working on job related items this weekend and am not getting much Mandarin study in. Did visit another Mandarin speaking church today, the 5th one. It helps a bit with my characters since the songs and hymns are in traditional characters. My listening comprehension is better when the sermon has alot of stories.
I am starting to run into some noticable differences between the Mandarin used in the mainland and Taiwan, besides the simplified or traditional characters, besides 國語 (simp 国语, guo2 yu3, national language) or 普通話 (simp 普通话, pu3 tong1 hua4, common language).... Like how my given name is interpreted in the mainland. My given name, the way I had always understood it, has a Confucian slant which seems to be avoided in the mainland. That’s not surprising though was unexpected. Jiao3 zi5 (trad 餃子, simp 饺子) basically is a mainland term. In Taiwan it’s 水餃 (shui3 jiao3) when boiled. A friend, from Taiwan, said it would be OK if I say jiao3 zi5 as she knows what it is. The yellowbridge dictionary, which seems to have under pinnings from Taiwan, also lists the following when 水餃 is entered; 蒸餃 zheng1 jiao3, steamed dumpling 煎餃 jian1 jiao3, fried dumpling but not 餃子. A search on 餃子, in that dictionary, does not also list 水餃, 蒸餃 and 煎餃. Update; Hmmm, found some Cantonese entries in the yellowbridge dictionary. Edited by Snowflake on 04 April 2009 at 5:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 112 of 740 19 March 2009 at 12:36am | IP Logged |
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Just when I thought I was doing OK on listening comprehension, a native speaker at work wanted to ask an English question and first asked whether he could ask in Mandarin. Argh! I totally missed what he said.
Update; talked to my friend from Taiwan, the one who gave me the kids dictionary, about what happened today. She asked what my level of Mandarin is. Since I have no idea how to assess, I explained (mostly in Mandarin) what I've been able to understand from church services. She said not to worry as comprehension is harder when there's no context set up.... eg keep at it. I am thinking of breaking my speaking and listening comprehension apart from reading. As far as materials, I have my 2nd year college text and an old movie transcript with Yale romanization and traditional characters (no actual DVD or VHS). Edited by Snowflake on 19 March 2009 at 4:34am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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