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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 409 of 740 14 June 2011 at 3:33am | IP Logged |
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Ramblings...Playing catch-up after several days of being out of town. "How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately" arrived. At this stage I can work on only one communicative tool at a time and so continue to work on islands, or at least try. Sometimes it's hard to come up with something that may be generally interesting to native speakers. The seasonal allergies have been kicking in as well...not helping.
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 410 of 740 16 June 2011 at 2:14am | IP Logged |
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Today was a good day, language-wise, at work. This week has been quite busy so I haven't had time to ask for help editing my islands. Well, a native speaker whom I have not met before started talking to me in Mandarin! Turns out she is from Beijing. And yes the conversation continued in Mandarin though there were certain terms I repeated in English for clarity (need to work on that). Edited by Snowflake on 16 June 2011 at 2:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 411 of 740 19 June 2011 at 5:36am | IP Logged |
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I originally learned 大腕 (dàwàn) for big shot...got the term from a friend who is originally from Beijing. My overseas Taiwanese chat partner did not know the meaning of 大腕 even after seeing the characters. After checking the English, he volunteered 大人物 (dàrénwù).
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 412 of 740 21 June 2011 at 4:47am | IP Logged |
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Talk about having difficulties talking about yourself....found a joke that will translate well. Given the subject matter, it actually should be a very useable island. Edited by Snowflake on 21 June 2011 at 4:48am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 413 of 740 22 June 2011 at 4:26pm | IP Logged |
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Realized that I can have pretty regular conversations in Mandarin, at work and about work, minus the technical terms if I get things together. Finding the appropriate technical terms would take a lot of effort though theoretically is doable. At the moment, I'm slated to be here well into next year. Edited by Snowflake on 22 June 2011 at 5:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 414 of 740 24 June 2011 at 3:09am | IP Logged |
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Was talking today, at work, with the woman from Beijing whom I met last week. This conversation was social, not about work. I think her compliments about my Mandarin were in earnest! It's rather astonishing.... makes me think about what most people commonly think is needed in terms of everyday conversation.
Lately, working on islands is pushing out echo work. I accept that presently the islands are more important to get me talking more though long term that is not a good thing. Edited by Snowflake on 24 June 2011 at 3:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 415 of 740 26 June 2011 at 12:23am | IP Logged |
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I'm tired and have dropped back on attending the small groups. In the past I found writing and preparing speeches (in Toastmasters) pretty time consuming. So preparing islands is not different in that sense, though here a native speaker additionally needs to proof the material. Sometimes that means writing the entire speech in characters. Seasonal allergies is still a factor, as is the job, in being tired.
I've started listening to the CLO lessons again, though this may be brief. People may remember that I've been using the separate dialog/summary audios for echoing, ignoring the audio lessons. So surprize, surprize, there are a different set of voices used for the dialogs in the lessons, different than what is in the separate audios. I think these are mainland voices given things like the R sound in 是. Edited by Snowflake on 26 June 2011 at 12:24am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5952 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 416 of 740 29 June 2011 at 7:31am | IP Logged |
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A little thing which may not mean much to most people.... I'm used to hearing 忙死了 (mang2 si3 le) in my movies, much of which is American animation dubbed for the Taiwanese market. The woman at work, from Beijing, says mang2 de yao4 si3 (忙得要死...hope I have the correct de character).
And a small victory...I don't necessarily remember to say yao4 or hui4 but did today, automatically, when talking with the Malaysian fellow. The sentence, in reference to a vacation he is planning, was ni3 shen3me shi2hou4 hui4 qu4? Edited by Snowflake on 29 June 2011 at 7:45am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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