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Lorinth’s log - 劳伦的博客 | ||
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| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4267 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 89 of 408 19 June 2013 at 9:19am | IP Logged |
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Started reading a novella called 《挖下去就是美国》, by 曹寇. What a wonderful title! -- Finished the ChinesePod lesson about 路边摊 and started another one about 地震. The ChinesePod site says it takes about 120 lessons to graduate from "intermediate" to "upper intermediate". At my current rate, that would mean over 2 years. Never mind. I'm not in a hurry. I'm slowly trying to put in place a routine as far as ChinesePod lessons are concerned. Routines are the language learner's best friends! Or, let's say, second best friend, after pleasure. Currently, I consider that a lesson is "finished" when: - I have listened at least once (most often two or three times) to the full podcast, i.e. the dialogue + comments in Chinese and English - I have listened to the dialogue split by sentences: this is always necessary for me to understand the full dialogue - I have listened to the dialogue until I understand it in full - I have listened several times to the "Review" part, including the vocab and the other sentences - I have done some parroting/shadowing - I have taken the final test I don't read the grammar and I don't try to actively study the vocabulary: in general, there are not many new words for me at that level. Plus, I intend to use those podcasts mainly to improve my listening comprehension. -- Daily vocabulary review: Anki decks (HSK4 and 5 deck; character deck), Skritter queue (characters), Pleco (random vocabulary). FI Cleared my vocabulary queue in LWT, then imported and read a short article about keskusteluista Suomen ulkopolitiikasta, jotka järjestettiin presidentin kesäasunnolla (discussions about Finland's foreign policy, organised in the president's summer residence). Edited by lorinth on 19 June 2013 at 9:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4267 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 90 of 408 20 June 2013 at 9:13am | IP Logged |
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Continued the activities I had started yesterday, i.e. reading 曹寇's 《挖下去就是美国》 and listening to the ChinesePod lesson about 地震. I finally found an online spoken version of 余华's novel 《活着》. As I've read it in Chinese a few months ago, I decided to try a L-R exercise: listen to the Chinese version while reading the translation in French. I did that for about 45'. According to the "canonical L-R method", the conditions were not ideal: I have the impression that the exercise would be more productive if my translation was less literary and more word-for-word. And above all, I also have the impression that the exercise would be more useful if I could do that for long stretches of time. Unfortunately, I very seldom have long stretches of time to devote to language learning, just several short 5-15' bursts spread over a day. Anyway, it was an interesting ride and I'd like to continue doing L-R, if only because I'm curious about the effect it might have. Usual vocab routine: Anki decks (HSK4 and 5 deck; character deck), Skritter queue (characters), Pleco (random vocabulary). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4267 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 91 of 408 21 June 2013 at 8:53am | IP Logged |
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While browsing, I came across the 新唐人电视台 (New Tang Dynasty Television). It is a Chinese language, online TV broadcaster. According to Wikipedia, it was founded by some Falun Gong practitioners, but who cares, the important thing for us students is that there are transcripts for their news, which makes that site a wonderful place to (try and) get acquainted with full speed TV Chinese. If it matters to you, their reports about general current events do not seem more biased than those of any other broadcaster, as far as I can tell. Their site [quavering]I say: today's language learners are spoiled.[/quavering] 我看了一个关于法国南部的洪水广播。 然后他们还谈了在巴西发生的群众抗争。 (I watched the news about floods in Southern France and demonstrations in Brazil). -- Continued the activities I had started yesterday, i.e. reading 曹寇's 《挖下去就是美国》 and listening to the ChinesePod lesson about 地震. Usual vocab routine: Anki decks (HSK4 and 5 deck; character deck), Skritter queue (characters), Pleco (random vocabulary). ES Fui a la librería española y me compré una novela de Javier Marías titulada "Corazón tan blanco". Nunca he leído cualquier libro de dicho autor. Lo compré porque un amigo que lo había leído en francés me aconsejó leerlo. Sin embargo, antes de empezar a leer el libro de Marías, quisiera acabar de leer "Regulus" en latín. FI In LWT, cleared my vocabulary queue, then imported and read a short article about huonosta taloustilanteesta Suomessa. I also listened to the rest of today's news while reading the transcript. LA In LWT, cleared my vocabulary queue, then imported and read a short text from the "Gesta Romanorum", called "De modo temptationis et peritia". After reading it in Latin, I found a translation in Google books, so I could check whether I had understood correctly. The translation. I listened to the nuntios latinos while reading the transcript. Continued reading Regulus. And, although, by then, I was tired, I also read a bit of Oerberg's Roma Aeterna, cap. XLV (that's Livy I.56-57). Much to my amazement, I came to the conclusion that Regulus is almost as hard as Ab Urbe Condita, as far as I'm concerned. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4267 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 92 of 408 24 June 2013 at 9:10am | IP Logged |
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As after every weekend, not much to mention, as far as language learning is concerned. But for the sake of completeness of personal stats: - I faithfully studied my different vocabulary queues (characters, HSK words, random words) - I went on reading 曹寇's 《挖下去就是美国》 - I started a new ChinesePod lesson comparing 李小龙和成龙，两名功夫之王。(the two kings of Kung Fu). -- Although it may be too soon to tell with certainty, it seems that Skritter is so much better than Anki to learn characters that it's almost embarrassing. I may soon regret that I didn't start Skritter drills sooner. Of course, the reason is not Anki itself: Anki is so versatile that you can configure it to reproduce the process used by Skritter to study characters (and many other things). It's just that Skritter does that out of the box, as it's designed for Chinese. Second, I come to Skritter after having learnt a lot with Anki, so the comparison is not fair. However, my first impression after a few weeks is that I do learn more characters faster, and they tend to stick much better. On the downside, Skritter is rather expensive, and making it work on an Android phone is not obvious. I feed Skritter with: - characters in my Anki deck that I tend to forget over and over again - unknown or doubtful characters while reading 曹寇's 《挖下去就是美国》 - a batch of characters taken from Patrick Zein's frequency list. I've started from the bottom (char # 3000). I go on studying *words* with Anki and Pleco, though. Edited by lorinth on 24 June 2013 at 3:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4267 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 93 of 408 25 June 2013 at 9:07am | IP Logged |
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Reviewed my different vocabulary queues (characters, HSK words, random words) Went on reading 曹寇's 《挖下去就是美国》. Continued working on the ChinesePod lesson concerning 李小龙和成龙 (Bruce Lee vs Jackie Chan). Then, as it was fairly easy, I finished this one. Read part of an article on the strained relationship between Turkey and the EU. On NTDTV, I watched a video about "超级月亮" and read the transcript. 因为月亮很接近地球，所 以它看起来比平时大多了，亮多了。(As the moon comes closer to the earth, it looks bigger and brighter than usual). On an online Chinese bookstore, I've ordered spoken versions of two of Yu Hua's novels: 活着 and 许三观卖血记. I've read both of them in Chinese already, so the spoken versions are intended for L-R. LA Read the news in Ephemeris. Cleared the vocabulary queue in LWT. In "Regulus", read the chapter about the wise king who only orders his subjects to do what they want to do anyway. FI Cleared the vocabulary queue in LWT. Listened to/read the news in selkouutiset. Surprising news: varoitus helteestä - while we're freezing further South in Europe, it's unusually hot in Finland, even in Lapland. I should be in a kesämökki, bathing, having sauna, drinking Lapin Kulta, eating muikkuja and being eaten alive by hyttyset while slowly recovering from Juhannus. Unfortunate but hardly surprising news: ainakin 13 ihmistä on kuollut juhannuksen aikana, this year's Juhannus festival has claimed at least 13 victims. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4267 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 94 of 408 26 June 2013 at 7:40am | IP Logged |
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Did the usual vocabulary work (characters, HSK words, random words). Went on reading 曹寇's 《挖下去就是美国》. On NTDTV, I watched a video saying that 纽约市卫生署对餐馆进行食品卫生检查 and wondering 为什么 有些餐馆把等级标牌藏起来？ (why do certain NY restaurants hide the sign bearing their hygiene rating?). Watched a series of short Flash animation movies with bilingual subtitles about aspects of the traditional Chinese culture. The part about 尊师重教 (repect for the teacher and the teaching) made for an interesting contrast with the poor wretch that is the narrator of 《挖下去就是美国》, a teacher who starts his confessions with "对不起，我是一名教 师。为此，我感到羞愧。" (Excuse me, I'm a teacher. And I'm ashamed about it.) FI In LWT, imported and read a short article about phosphor pollution in the Baltic waters caused by Polish fertiliser plants. LA In Regulus, read the parts about the vainglorious man, the drunkard and the businessman. Dug out the French version of the story to check my undestanding. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4267 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 95 of 408 27 June 2013 at 9:02am | IP Logged |
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Apart from the usual vocabulary reviews (HSK, random vocabulary, characters), I finished reading 曹寇's 《挖下去就是美国》. A great novella. It starts like an inward looking, subtle description of the dull life of a weak teacher and his failed wedding. And then, little by little, it becomes a dark, pathetic drama. I don't know whether Cao Kou has been translated in other languages. There's no Wikipedia page about him in French or English - or in Chinese, for that matter. According to chineseshortstories.com, he's supposed to belong to a so-called “中间代”, i.e. intermediary generation of writers, who have only recently come to fame, because they were "squeezed" between the more well-known “70后” writers, who emerged in the late 70s, and the more provocative authors (like Han Han) that were published after 2000. While driving, I listened extensively to Radio Taiwan International and didn't understand much. In fact, because a lot of cognates were used, I understood that the subject was 卡塔尔 (Qatar) and surrounding countries. But don't ask a report from me. I also listened to a few audio tracks of those Flash animation movies about interesting aspects of the traditional Chinese culture I mentioned yesterday. Of course, as I was driving, I couldn't even glance at the subtitles. Edited by lorinth on 27 June 2013 at 12:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4267 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 96 of 408 28 June 2013 at 7:44am | IP Logged |
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Did the usual vocabulary work (characters, HSK words, random words). On ndtv.com, listened to a sad news story about 被交警追赶的一名工人。可能因为他怕警察实 施暴 力， 他跳入河中而淹死了。 Started a ChinesePod lesson about 装修房子的时候会很吵。 Started reading a short story called《总之还要住下去》, written by 北岛. LA In Regulus, read the parts about the lamplighter and the geographer. Edited by lorinth on 28 June 2013 at 7:45am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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