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Snowflake’s Mandarin Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| jasoninchina Senior Member China Joined 5224 days ago 221 posts - 306 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 401 of 740 26 May 2011 at 9:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I want to second that 加油! Most of the expats that I talk to around here agree with me that it can be quite a struggle to learn the language, and we're surrounded by it all day long. I have real respect for anyone learning the language in the US. Keep at it! And celebrate your victories no matter how small :-)
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 402 of 740 27 May 2011 at 7:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Irrationale and Jasoninchina, thanks for the encouragement!
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 403 of 740 29 May 2011 at 2:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm keeping up with the SRS reviews but am having a hard time focusing on echo work. A little voice in my head tells me that right now it's more important to work on islands since they're "mine". Well, I haven't finished memorizing my first island and it's being modified. It's about my daughter who just graduated and is moving out. Since she has to be at her out-of-state job in July, things are moving at a pretty good clip right now. Edited by Snowflake on 29 May 2011 at 9:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 404 of 740 29 May 2011 at 9:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Decided that I should keep up with the CLO echo work regardless of how much time is spent on the islands. I got the chance to use part of the island and have a much better idea of how to expand it. Something else that dawned is that I probably have enough vocabulary for most typical conversations if I circumlocute.... just have to prepare more islands. I'm also finding these days that regardless of the amount of time spent being blah about my Mandarin skills, those feelings tend to quickly go away when interacting with a native speaker. It probably helps that the majority of people that I talk with are themselves fumbling with how to teach their own kids the language and culture.
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 405 of 740 03 June 2011 at 3:14am | IP Logged | ||
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It's been a month, maybe a bit more, since starting to seriously work on my shyness in speaking Mandarin when face to face with a native speaker. It is going extremely well! Of course I am making mistakes though that's to be expected. Working with native speakers in this particular job environment is a great boon. On prior assignments it would have been considered rude to speak a foreign language in the presence of people who would be unable to understand. Here that is not a factor. Now to work more on islands.... Edited by Snowflake on 25 June 2011 at 11:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 406 of 740 05 June 2011 at 7:12am | IP Logged | ||
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Ramblings...
I've ordered the other Shekhtman book, "How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately". I expect the book will have some nuances not mentioned in the "Achieving Success in Second Language Acquisition" which will make it worthwhile. Am drawing back a bit from attending my Mandarin small group meetings while working on the islands. Started the next CLO level. I'm still focusing on echoing and shadowing the stand alone dialogs/summaries (mostly echoing). I plan to later go back and work the lessons themselves. While that may seem nonsensical, keep in mind that the primary goal is to catch up my speaking skills with my listening comprehension. Also when starting the CLO material, my vocabulary was already all over the place. So working the higher levels has been adding more dimension to words I already know. I'm not forcing myself to be extremely good at echoing every single dialog/story in a given level before moving on. I periodically work lower levels as review. When doing that I find that the rough spots are smoother, probably because of working with the higher level material. An overseas chat partner asked for help editing his English in a short PowerPoint presentation. Each line of Chinese had the English translation underneath. He understandably tried to use correct grammar and punctuation for a genre where those rules are less strictly adhered to, at least in American English. I was struck by this and wondered whether those types of things taught in business language classes. A up note....watched a movie that I have not seen/heard in a while. It was a pleasant surprize how much more I understood this time around. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 407 of 740 05 June 2011 at 10:41pm | IP Logged | ||
Given my issue, with speaking Mandarin face-to-face with a native speaker, drawing back may not be a good thing. On the face of things, I should be doing the opposite. The thing is that the primary reason for being shy in speaking Chinese has to do with the expectations encountered in prior experiences. From that perspective, waiting for my islands to be more solidified is a good thing. Eg. make sure that those experiences are positive... that's one of the aspects of shaping which help to make it successful as an approach. Attended one group today. I need a small island explaining my relationship to that group. Updated; mullings on drawing back, have done a 180. Eg. work more on those islands first. Edited by Snowflake on 06 June 2011 at 12:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 408 of 740 08 June 2011 at 6:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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On speaking face-to-face with a native speaker...progress! At work yesterday walked back from the cafeteria to my floor with a Taiwanese woman. We spoke entirely in Mandarin with the exception of the word pizza and neighborhood/town names. Afterward, discovered that that I used some rather formal terms so can change that next time. Edited by Snowflake on 09 February 2012 at 5:53am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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