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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 673 of 740 19 July 2013 at 10:54pm | IP Logged |
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“Study-wise” things are settling into a somewhat predictable routine. I read/skim most days, somewhat erratically do SRS reps and add hanzi/MCDs. The irregularity is due to my job and not necessarily feeling up to dealing with SRS work. Trying to physically hand write hanzi more often, get more shadowing/chorusing type work in while driving or walking, talk with native speakers somewhat regularly, attend my Mandarin speaking groups. I periodically buy books, DVDs, and music. Those are the wide-sweep items. The little details, the shaping that Khatz does via Neutrino, is pretty much at the heart of what is keeping me moving forward. If it weren’t for those details, would probably be pretty much where I was last Aug. That sounds depressing but frankly the very steep climb that is learning Mandarin would have overcome me.
Have my movies in hand now. Unfortunately my laptop is temperamental about playing some of them. Should start writing any emails to my native speaking friends using Chinese. Running into mistranslations in some material which I am very familiar with. The first time, I verified the meaning of the Chinese with a native speaker friend from Beijing who teaches Mandarin here. Then we compared it to the English. We both agreed the translation was in error (毛病). During this, discovered that this friend cannot easily read traditional characters as she did not recognize 後. This was a surprize since my Mandarin speaking groups frequently use materials which flip back and forth between simplified and traditional characters. Anyhow, I think my friend was impressed that I have Chinese books. Another person who is in Neutrino sort of suggested that I hurry up and finish going through Heisig, easier said than done. I'm officially somewhere around 2200 characters. Pretty close to halfway through 飛天巨桃歷險記 (James and the Giant Peach). The 湯圓 variation went quite well. Several people were very interested how it was made. I'll be experimenting with the noodles to make the recipe easier. This weekend, thinking of making "almond jello" (杏仁凍) for the Sat meeting....like this http://allrecipes.com/recipe/almond-jelly/ though the amount of sugar in the recipe can be cut down to 1/4 cup, maybe even less. Chinese desserts generally are slightly sweet. Edited by Snowflake on 20 July 2013 at 4:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 674 of 740 21 July 2013 at 10:08pm | IP Logged |
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Quick mumblings....
• Observed someone not knowing Chinese books traditionally were read from right to left...we had a Taiwanese edition and she was looking in the opposite place for something. She also cannot read traditional characters. Between her and the person mentioned in my prior post, it which makes me wonder how many mainlanders fudge reading traditional characters. Other forum members have said that mainlanders generally fudge it, though it's interesting to see for my own eyes since these group members generally say they can read both. Anyhow, I found the passage in the book for her. When my husband heard about this, he wondered whether she came from a rural area. • I previously said the almond jello is 杏仁凍... that came from my overseas Taiwanese chat partner. At the group (all mainlanders) they said it's 杏仁豆腐. • The older, white haired women at the group asked for the almond jello recipe. I thought the almond flavor needed to be a little stronger. One of them responded that when she ate it with a grape (from the can of fruit cocktail poured on top) she immediately felt 很高興/很高兴. This recipe is well known in the local Cantonese community and sometimes served in restaurants for dessert (without fruit cocktail). I thought there was more cross-over between the Cantonese and Mandarin speaking communities here but evidently not. Will have to get out my Taiwanese recipe books which are in traditional characters and English. The English translation is rough, but that's not a problem. These are older books (1970's or 80's) so some of the Chinese food terms may have changed. Edited by Snowflake on 22 July 2013 at 4:44am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 675 of 740 29 July 2013 at 3:17am | IP Logged |
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I seem to be hitting a wall memorizing characters...had to mark a lot of characters as leeches. It took me aback to see the number of card entries which were affected. It also doesn't help that my projects at work are starting to gain some momentum... there's less time during the day to get a few reps in.
In chapter 22 of 飛天巨桃歷險記 (James and the Giant Peach). Neutrino asked me to change the interface language of something else. I now have traditional characters for the default on my iPod, Facebook, Skype and my email account. I do a lot of fumbling around. As the prior posts mention, I've started making traditional Chinese munchies to bring to my Sat group meetings. This time it was 發糕/发糕 (fāgāo), steamed sponge cake. Here's a long commercial about a faucet head, at least that's what I think it's called. I'm not very familiar with plumbing fixtures. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zqBhJzKgvE 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 676 of 740 04 August 2013 at 10:27pm | IP Logged |
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Found out from my overseas chat partner that 發糕 is traditionally associated with 發財 and Chinese New Year. My mother makes the cake year round so I don't associate it with any particular holidays. Anyhow last weekend someone asked whether I or my mother made the 發糕. The question is considered slightly offensive in American culture, especially since I had already told people that I made it myself. Last weekend, the particular person went so far as to ask me what the ingredients were. Later my overseas chat partner said not to be offended as it's natural to ask since I'm American; they do not expect me to even be familiar with these foods. This weekend I made a layered version of 湯圓 which was an experiment, like the photo here
https://yujai.jux.com/641131# but with white and black layers. It's layered like lasagne but given that sweet rice flour treats are gloppy, the layers are only visual as the ingredients quickly sort of melt together. Multiple people asked whether my mother or I made it. Making these desserts is getting to be a pretty good talking point, whether I understand everything that's said or not. I had no idea what to call this layered thing... thought of a Cantonese item which is called something like layered pastry...think the characters are 層一層 with a 4th unknown character that basically would translate as small edibles or small pastries. Someone said that my layered 湯圓 thing is called 切糕 in Beijing. That got into another discussion since it wasn't made with dough that is cut but with batter. The upshot is that now I'm looking at online recipes in Chinese. A third name for almond jello, 杏仁霜. I asked why it is also called 杏仁豆腐 when there's no Tofu in it....because it looks like the version made with Tofu. A mainlander acknowledged it's also called 杏仁凍. Emailed a question related to the Sat Mandarin speaking group, written in simplified characters. The response was longer than I expected, also in simplified. What was more interesting was that the word usage was a bit different than what I've encountered so far. I am so behind in SRS reviews that it's sad....thought about starting a 2nd deck only for new characters, the idea being to work both decks until I'm caught up but given my schedule that will probably make things worse. Getting into a habit of saying 忙的要死 instead of 忙極了. Was told that another way to say the same thing is 忙的半死. Edited by Snowflake on 05 August 2013 at 8:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 677 of 740 29 August 2013 at 4:30am | IP Logged |
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Haven't posted in a while due to feeling out of it....a combination of seasonal allergies and what's happening at the job. The corollary is that it's also affecting my Chinese "studies". I'm still hitting the wall in terms of remembering and adding characters. And on weekends am so tired that I've been skipping the Sat group meetings. Again the most consistent thing I'm doing is reading/skimming. Was getting frustrated with how easily I forget characters and realized something.... been using Post-it notes for book markers as it felt like reading was taking a swim in characters...would easily lose where I was on a page and wouldn't be able to find it without a lot of frustration. Well that isn't too much of a problem anymore.
I've also been indulging in one of my hobbies. The forefront activity is in non-Chinese speaking areas so Chinese sites have been relatively uninteresting. I just found a Facebook group on a related hobby which may be promising (general group where my hobby would be a subset). The group owner, or at least the person who approved my membership, is in Taiwan. A prior hobby group was mostly frequented by people in Hong Kong so there was a good number of Cantonese characters and phrases. www.city-journal.org/2013/23_1_vocabulary.html has a section about slowly building vocabulary, "... vocabulary is a plant of slow growth" which makes me feel much better about what I'm doing and not doing. Edited by Snowflake on 29 August 2013 at 4:33am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 678 of 740 10 October 2013 at 2:48am | IP Logged |
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Haven’t had much to post about.... Am settled into a routine, very slowly creeping forward. I’m still been spending a lot of time working with one of my hobbies, in English. Post in Chinese once in a while, usually in a Chinese FaceBook group, sometimes in a English group specifically addressed to a native Chinese speaker there.
We periodically give Khatz feedback on what’s happening. Well mentioned that when I add MCD entries, which is rare, the sentences/phrases come from FaceBook groups. He commented that I may have found my Dos Equis meme (had to look up that term). My other main hobby is dormant at the moment, and given Chinese culture I can’t see finding native speakers who would be interested in that. Today at work met a person from Beijing who sits on the other side of the floor, so practiced a little speaking. She outright mentioned that she cannot read traditional characters. Finished the 2nd volume of a childrens edition of 西遊記, and am reading the 3rd. Made it maybe halfway through the 1st volume and found that part of the story uninteresting. Coverage of a men's gymnastics event... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu6FH4_Amww&feature=c4-overview&list =UUjppsFQtzKrPOEie-AvMmOA 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 679 of 740 27 October 2013 at 3:03am | IP Logged |
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Finished the 3rd volume of a childrens edition of 西遊記. Started another book. Haven't added characters to my SRS deck in a while. That's not bothering me at the moment, figure my mind needs to do other things for now.
Still spending a lot of time in my hobby, in English, though it's also leading me to read more in related Chinese groups on FaceBook. Thinking of getting the 2 recently released 西遊記 TV series....am at a point where finding media is uninteresting, would rather work in my hobby. On the upside, in an English Facebook hobby group someone from Taiwan posted a link to a whole bunch of Mandarin Youtube videos of someone working in that hobby. 47% thru the Neutrino program. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWIuq86Prtg 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 680 of 740 31 October 2013 at 1:33am | IP Logged |
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Talked today with a co-worker, maybe 60-80% in Mandarin. An interesting thing was that shortly afterward
I talked with someone else and it felt odd to be using English. Anyhow the Mandarin speaking co-worker came by because I previously asked for the wording of a Chinese proverb, which in English is something like... Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Because of the delay, I also asked my overseas Taiwanese chat partner. He gave me, 給他魚不如教他釣 魚. My co-worker, who is from Beijing, gave a 4-5 sentence explanation in Chinese... unsure what to make of that. Edited by Snowflake on 31 October 2013 at 5:13am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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