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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 633 of 740 20 December 2012 at 4:30am | IP Logged |
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Starting to make the transition from SinoSpoon to Neutrino. It looks like Neutrino uses both a variable schedule of reinforcement (VSR) and variable reinforcement (VR). The use of VSR and VR (especially VSR) makes behaviors resistent to extinction. A common analogy used is being addicted to gambling. Ham, the chimpanzee that went into outer space as part of the American space program, was trained using VSR to the point that he would do one million behaviors for each reward he received. That was to address the possibility of equipment failure....So if the reward dispenser failed then Ham would still do what they needed him to do. In this case, I think Khatz will get us even more addicted to doing things in Chinese. Behaviorally that is a monumental leap from regular SinoSpoon.
Update; Actually think I no longer have access to the SinoSpoon pages, just Neutrino. Edited by Snowflake on 20 December 2012 at 6:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 634 of 740 28 December 2012 at 7:37am | IP Logged |
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I’ve been looking for ideas to address my sieve memory. That has included checking posts in Khatz’s forum and rereading parts of Heisig. That’s helped as my retention stats are slowly creeping back upwards now. I’m now at about 1,060 characters with a number of leeches off to the side.
Changed over my Skype interface to display in traditional Chinese. Received some Christmas money so I’m looking at ordering more movies and books...add to the immersion environment! Even though I'm slowly reading through a translation of "The Hobbit", I'm eyeing another which is touted as a completely new translation (全新修訂譯本). The other thing is that handling the loose papers, from printing the version found online, is extremely annoying when commuting. A recent book order had a partial refund issued due to an item being unavailable. Since my profile says communications should be in Chinese, I had to work on understanding the email notification. Still not getting to my Mandarin small group meetings....for the time being, I try to stay in contact with them by email. Stumbled across this cartoon...not totally sure what it is. The subtitles are in simplified. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z40EFxIKfo Edited by Snowflake on 28 December 2012 at 7:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 635 of 740 29 December 2012 at 8:28pm | IP Logged |
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Various ramblings....
I'm trying to do activities with Mandarin playing louder in the background so it’s harder to focus. Previously I would turn down the sound or entirely stop it. But I really should acclimate to doing the exercises with Mandarin audio playing in the background especially since I can focus reasonably well with English audio playing. This year I’m not attending the Mandarin speaking conference between Christmas and New Years. Given my circumstances, I feel there’s more value in working characters. I’m starting to look at the 50+ VCDs which a friend previously gave to me. SinoSpoon/Neutrino frequently asks us to buy new media so it’s finally time to look at those. On that note, I downloaded the animated movie about the Monkey King from YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDrPx3RCqCE). The audio is mostly Chinese opera music with some dialog, no singing. My husband and I both grew up with Chinese opera, the Cantonese type. In addition to hearing recordings, occasionally our parents took us to a live performance. We're not fond of the singing though found the music by itself to be rather nice. Looked up the translator of the traditional Chinese edition of The Hobbit and LOTR, 朱學恆. Evidently he also translated the newer traditional character version of The Hobbit. I've been thinking of getting the electronic version though am not fond of the idea of being tied to a single device. My overseas chat partner says that ebooks are extremely popular in Taiwan. If I go that route, believe I'm tied to overseas software and websites. Most US reviews mention problems displaying Chinese characters. I also checked out the new devices and was told that they do not support Chinese. I don't have an iPad though am considering getting the mini. I generally like my iTouch though would prefer a larger screen for reading purposes. Of course a paper book is generally good for those times when I have to take a flight. The version of The Hobbit which I'm reading evidentally has older language. At one point I asked about 好奇地打量著. Here's the full paragraph; “這看起來是相噹不錯的兵器，”巫師拔出寶 劍，好奇地打量著：“這不是食人妖做的東西 ，也不是這一帶的人類現在能夠製作出的刀劍 。等下我們可以在陽光下詳讀上麵的符文，應 該可以知道更多它們的來曆。” I thought that the phrase in question meant that curiousity made them size things up. My chat partner said that meant he curiously looked at it. He then said we usually say "好奇地看著" in the 21st century. Update: The 1st set of VCDs is some sort of Taiwanese soap opera, complete with someone suddenly falling ill, ending up in the hospital with her mother screaming at her in episode 3. The English name is "Love Contrast". This sort of program is not my cup of tea though it can be played for background noise. Edited by Snowflake on 04 January 2013 at 2:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ling Diglot Groupie Taiwan Joined 4579 days ago 61 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Indonesian, Thai | Message 636 of 740 30 December 2012 at 5:06am | IP Logged |
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I might interpret 好奇地打量著 as "curiously assessed it".
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 637 of 740 30 December 2012 at 10:42pm | IP Logged |
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Hmm, your reading of that phrase is closer to what I was thinking. I suspect that an accurate translation may be a matter of perspective. I was talking to my overseas chat partner about a pet which his relative has, a dog which is half dingo. I referred to it as a 野獸 (yěshòu). He was startled and felt that was inappropriate as a 野獸 may turn on people and attack. Well, that was exactly my meaning. He felt that this half dingo/dog was quite tame and that 野生動物 (yěshēngdòngwù) was a more appropriate word.
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 638 of 740 04 January 2013 at 2:53am | IP Logged |
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I’ve been home for the holidays and have been very heads down doing Neutrino work. It’s pretty cold here so I was getting antsy (cabin fever). It would have helped if my overseas ordered items arrived but still nothing yet. So I domestically ordered a movie and a 西遊記 manga. The manga should be here tomorrow or Sat. I’m also following up with a friend about placing what will be a very large order for her husband to bring back with him from the mainland. A side note is that I found myself automatically uttering short Mandarin phrases...will have to see if that continues once I’m fully back in my regular job routine next week.
I'm leaning toward continuing to buy paper books. Sigh, I've mostly given up on correcting my wrong stroke order habit....started out that way mostly due to well meaning friends who thought it would be great if I just knew say 500 characters. They felt that correct stroke order was relatively unimportant. I'll have to see how this affects being able to read handwriting in the long term. Edited by Snowflake on 04 January 2013 at 3:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 639 of 740 13 January 2013 at 8:33pm | IP Logged |
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Attended my Mandarin small group meeting ....It was a smaller gathering, 17 other adults who were all mainlanders. People who hadn't been there in a while were asked to give a little update so I spoke in English with 2 sentences in Mandarin. I used the word 出差 (chūchāi) and made a grammar mistake. Someone immediately blurted out that my Mandarin improved with others nodding in agreement. The person then said that it’s hard for people to correctly say 出差. I was surprized since my schedule does not permit talking with native speakers more than once a week, if that. The majority of my speaking practice is a shadowing-like exercise which is part of SinoSpoon/Neutrino. Anyhow, someone said to take the comment seriously as the speaker and the others who nodded work as Mandarin instructors here.
My incorrect stroke order habit is affecting using software which allows written input. Some of those don't care about stroke order and some do. Some of my ordered items arrived, including a Kungfu Panda 2 DVD. Watching it, I realized that the panda purposely was cast with a non-standard accent. A while back, several mainlander friends complained about the panda's accent in the first movie. Anyhow in this second one, aside from the panda, wolves and maybe the seer, the other voices had noticeably "good accents"... strong r's and sh's, tongue rolling sounds, careful enunciation, etc. This time around I also got a better sense of why the movie was not well received in the mainland. There's an early scene where Shifu asserts something that Chinese sensibilities generally would find objectionable. That probably set the tone for the rest of the movie, aside from other ideas present which would not sit well. I’m at approximately 1320 characters; That number doesn't factor in leeches. The count for active cards is misleading since I delete or outright omit "easy characters". And no, I don't "know" every character in my active deck. ...Starting to run into Cantonese characters and probably Cantonese grammar and expressions. Edited by Snowflake on 13 January 2013 at 8:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 640 of 740 16 January 2013 at 5:58am | IP Logged |
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Feel like my brain is turning into mush lately, seems hard to cram more things in. Lately when fustrated, I remind myself of a maxim which goes something like believe that the technology works. Technology here refers to operant conditioning and behavior analysis, which is what Khatz is using.
Getting together a somewhat large order for Amazon in the mainland. I struggled with putting in a Hong Kong shipping address since that's where my freight forwarder is. For some reason Hong Kong is treated as an overseas address. Decided it would be easier to ship to a friends family in Shanghai since her husband is willing to bring the items back with him. So now I'm dealing with different screens and almost charged the items to the recipient, argh. Will try again tomorrow. It's interesting how much easier (familiar) Hong Kong and Taiwanese websites are for a westerner. Of course that makes sense given their relationship with the west. Found a Romance of the Three Kingdoms animated series for sale and then saw that it is available on YouTube.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7WouU5MtIE&playnext=1&list=P LCE665D4B895C32F3&feature=results_main Edited by Snowflake on 16 January 2013 at 8:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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