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Snowflake’s Mandarin Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5903 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes  Studies: Mandarin | Message 281 of 740 10 September 2010 at 12:03am | IP Logged | |||||
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Playing around with the free lesson material at www.chineselearnonline.com. This site is based in Taiwan.
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5903 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 282 of 740 13 September 2010 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Dictionary definition from www.yellowbridge.com;
生气 shēngqì angry; mad; offended; animated; to get angry; to be enraged; to take offense; animation Discovered that 生气 covers some things of which anger is a part, like indignation. I came across this due to a translation which seemed odd. In addition to talking with a native speaker, I checked indignant on the nciku site. I get the sense that the emotion is emphasized rather than the underlying reason which evokes the emotion. Update; Doing some strong head banging. I encountered something when talking to my overseas chat partners that I asked a native speaker here about. Basically I was looking for some perspective. During the conversation, the native speaker here basically said that I needed to work (A LOT MORE) on my Mandarin....talk about a demotivating comment. Edited by Snowflake on 14 September 2010 at 11:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jasoninchina Senior Member China Joined 5175 days ago 221 posts - 306 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 283 of 740 14 September 2010 at 6:08am | IP Logged | |||||
I know exactly what you mean. I have heard Chinese people say some of the oddest things to me in both English and Mandarin. But, let me assure you, this seems to be more a cultural thing than anything else. To an American, such a comment is quite demotivating and perhaps a little rude, but in the Chinese culture is 1)common place and 2)not necessarily meant to be demotivating or rude. One of my teachers frequently will compare students, describing one as 努力 and the other as not 努力, based simply on whether or not the student answered questions right or wrong. At first, I got all kinds of bent out of shape over this. But eventually I came to the conclusion that this matter lies in the realm of cultural difference. We, of course, can still say this is rude or demotivating, but it's not necessarily meant as such. Now, whenever faced with such a comment, I usually just grit my teeth and move on with life. Either way, keep at it and you'll be "mocking" their English before you know it! :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lanni Senior Member China Joined 6207 days ago 102 posts - 156 votes Speaks: Mandarin* Studies: English | Message 284 of 740 14 September 2010 at 9:22am | IP Logged | |||||
Rise above it. The native speaker's words might be an unintentional slip-up.
About teachers' hurtful remarks to students, I have loads of experiences through my whole so-called formal schooling. I wonder perhaps the job of teaching others, kids or adults, offers the person a sense of being smart. some would subconciously feel and act patronizingly. During my first couple of days in senior high, I did not perform very well in answering questions in mathematics class. the teacher lost her good opinion of me, and lost it forever, no matter how hard I worked afterwards, even though I made progress and got good marks sometimes. I remember Chinese traditional culture stresses teachers be treated with much higher respect. But I don't remember reading anywhere that students are supposed to endure teachers' harsh remarks. Can commonplace wrong behaviors be defined as part of a country's culture? I suggest you complain to the teacher. You paid the tuition for professional instructions not harsh remarks. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jasoninchina Senior Member China Joined 5175 days ago 221 posts - 306 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 285 of 740 14 September 2010 at 11:43am | IP Logged | |||||
At the risk of turning snowflakes journal into a discussion on Chinese culture, let me say that I really do agree with everything you said. However, the practices and behaviors which are commonplace to a people or society is kinda the definition of the word culture. With that said, I love China; and if we want to keep discussing this we should probably start a new thread :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lanni Senior Member China Joined 6207 days ago 102 posts - 156 votes Speaks: Mandarin* Studies: English | Message 286 of 740 14 September 2010 at 1:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
No need. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5903 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 287 of 740 14 September 2010 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the encouragement!
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5903 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 288 of 740 14 September 2010 at 7:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks to a post from Lanni in the "Links & Internet Resources" section, I've been downloading and listening to some Harry Potter books. Ages ago, I bought a copy of the first book from Amazon. I was a bit surprized to find that the text download seems to match my book. This week I started playing around with echo'ing sentences from the audio. I originally was echo'ing sentences fromy my animated movies, then sentences from the www.chineselearnonline.com lessons. I tend to find language learning materials rather dry so using the lessons lasted only so long. Now I'm working with the Harry Potter material, trying to follow along in the book... trying as I recognize relatively few characters since reading and writing currently are my lowest priorities. The other thing is that the audio differs a bit from the text. In addition to the audio, I've been copying/pasting sentences into the nciku site and working with the audio pronounciation and rhythm there. Edited by Snowflake on 14 September 2010 at 11:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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