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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| proudft Senior Member United States Joined 5151 days ago 124 posts - 156 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 649 of 740 21 February 2013 at 11:11pm | IP Logged |
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Lawl, what is with that commercial? At first I was... did he say 'underwear'? But I suppose it made sense in the end, in its own way.
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 650 of 740 22 February 2013 at 7:27pm | IP Logged |
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Native Chinese speakers generally are more direct (than Americans) in speaking about biological functions and associated things. As an example, I remember my overseas Taiwanese chat partner talking about getting sick from eating some bad food. He said that it wasn't to the point that he had diarrhea, and then started to go into a lot of detail. I stopped him and explained that here we consider the subject to be impolite. He said that Chinese talking about getting diarrhea is a common enough thing. I remember hearing mainlanders, in a large group setting, talk about getting/having diarrhea. I've also heard the subject directly mentioned in some of my Mandarin dubbed movies. I started to say that it's a sensibility thing but then recalled my visit there. I suspect that if you or I were to stay and become familiar with their sanitation systems then we might come to consider directness to be a practical necessity. Edited by Snowflake on 22 February 2013 at 7:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 651 of 740 03 March 2013 at 1:45am | IP Logged |
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Still plodding along. I went up a level in Neutrino....have no idea what that means other being some sort of benchmark. Also I've been noticing a listening comprehension jump lately.
Watched several videos for this singer.....www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK8yLSKlZmI Most of those remind me of the style of Teresa Teng. I remember her only because of a comment from a Hong Kong born and raised friend who also speaks Mandarin. Her school teachers repeatedly said to listen to Teresa Teng to learn Mandarin. Anyhow, listening to the prior singer has me looking at Teresa Teng songs again. 他是不講義氣的人 He is not a stand up guy. 講義氣/讲义气 jiǎngyìqì code of brotherhood; to be loyal; personal loyalty; trustworthy Update: Guess I should mention that a friend said that my Mandarin level is the same as his kids (maybe ages 4-8). I initially thought he was being generous but given that traditionally face-wise adults are not compared to children, he was probably being honest as well as rather Americanized. For most language learners that comparison is probably depressing but given the implications foundation-wise for my comprehension, that's pretty good. I should mention that my speaking has mostly been on the shelf since the autumn due to my job. When I was actively talking, my overseas Taiwanese chat partner and my Chinese school instructor thought that I would be able to survive if plopped in the mainland or Taiwan. Edited by Snowflake on 04 March 2013 at 5:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 652 of 740 04 March 2013 at 5:05pm | IP Logged |
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In a good mood, my Hong Kong book order arrived today. It took 9 1/2 weeks to get here by surface mail. I also practiced speaking yesterday at lunchtime....reaaally rusty there.
Here's a recent version of Teresa Teng's song, "The Moon Represents My Heart".... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6gbRka8BTo These are the 月亮代表我的心 lyrics in simplified which was pulled off a mainland site. The YouTube link above has pinyin lyrics minus the tones. 你问我爱你有多深, 我爱你有几分 我的情也真 我的爱也真 月亮代表我的心 你问我爱你有多深 我的情不衣 你的爱不变 轻轻的一个吻 已经打动...我的心 深深的一段情 教我思念到如今 你问我爱你有多深 你去想一想 你去看一看 月亮代表...我的心 Edited by Snowflake on 04 March 2013 at 5:14pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 653 of 740 10 March 2013 at 9:46pm | IP Logged |
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My job situation is wrecking havoc on being able to focus on Mandarin. It helps that Khatz designed Neutrino to use small discrete behaviors. I had been lamenting that Neutrino didn't allow me to spend more time on reading.... well a recent software update provides the option of picking the slant of the behaviors so I chose books. Am feeling blah due to the weather and some other things so every little bit helps.
I'm still looking at redone Teresa Teng songs. Her style is not exactly to my taste so don't know how far this will go. It's also interesting having to sort thru her Cantonese and Japanese songs. My overseas Taiwanese chat partner was astonished that I, being a foreigner, even know about Teresa Teng. Another 家家 song....www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh0dG9TsaiI Update: Downloaded a lot of Teresa Teng songs. Also looked at various websites to see what her hits were. Listening to remakes is not necessarily fun...the one I like the best so far is the Paperdoll remake in the prior post. Edited by Snowflake on 11 March 2013 at 4:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 654 of 740 22 March 2013 at 12:14am | IP Logged |
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Had a mini-vacation, long weekend, where all my Mandarin work was focused on SRS reviews and reading...came back and was unindated with job related concerns, feel exhausted. I've lightly touched Mandarin since coming back and am trying to get back into a routine.
I'm currently at just over 1700 characters. Bookwise I've started skimming through Pride and Prejudice, and the 2nd Harry Potter book. Once in a while I'll skim The Little Prince. A subject with a lot of nuances or subtleties....my overseas Taiwanese chat partner said to use 嚴肅的話題 which I tend to translate as serious subject. A Taiwanese kids show on YouTube, "水果冰淇淋"... At first I was wondering why is a male actor playing the role of grandma?! Then I remembered the traditional view that it's improper for women to be in positions where a lot of strangers can see or interact with them. A Taiwanese born friend agreed that's probably what's going on in this case. Edited by Snowflake on 22 March 2013 at 12:33am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 655 of 740 25 March 2013 at 11:23pm | IP Logged |
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It seems that I'm starting to use mainland tones vs Taiwanese Mandarin ones. These days most of my shadowing or chorusing type work use mainland dubbed movies. My mainland tones seem to put off my overseas Taiwanese chat partner a bit. On the other hand, some of my mainlander friends were shaking their heads about me studying traditional characters. It will be interesting how this all shakes out.
There's a tradition here about the groundhog predicting whether spring will come early or not. Since we still have some snow, there's a recent tongue-in-cheek news item about criminally indicting the groundhog for his bad weather forecast. Here is a link for an article about that in traditional Chinese; http://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E9%A0%90%E6%B8%AC%E6%98%A5%E5%A4%A 9%E5%A4%B1%E6%BA%96-%E5%9C%9F%E6%92%A5%E9%BC%A0%E9%81%AD%E6% B1%82%E8%99%95%E6%AD%BB%E5%88%91-040622645.html Remember to take out the extra spaces in the middle of the URL. Update: Changed legally indicting to criminally indicting...BTW, they dropped the tongue-in-cheek charges after the groundhog handler took the blame by saying he misinterpreted Punxsutawney Phil's groundhogese. Edited by Snowflake on 27 March 2013 at 5:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 656 of 740 03 April 2013 at 7:34pm | IP Logged |
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I am very off routine now between a combination of seasonal allergies and my job situation. At the moment, the allergies overshadow most things.
I started looking at Pride and Prejudice with some seriousness. I have a paperback version which is translated very differently from the one at http://lost-theory.org/ocrat/prideprej/ . Also I have 2 dubbed movies (Knightley/Macfadyen, Olivier/Garson) where the subtitles match the dialog. The latter version has traditional characters. Anyhow given how tired I am from the allergies, it's doubtful that I'll get very far comparing these at the moment. Khatz has been upgrading servers so I have been unable to add SRS entries though can still do reviews. I've just started MCDs which is proving to have more subtleties than one might expect as there are over 30 days of instructions for these. Day-wise, I'm almost 1/3 of the way thru SinoSpoon/Neutrino. I'm quite pleased with my progress. When I started reading/skimming, my husband told some of our American born Chinese friends. Some of them heartedly congradulated me on doing something that they too have been intimidated about from childhood. I'm finally putting together another Hong Kong book order. Given how long surface mail takes, this will be a good size order. Made it Sat to my Mandarin speaking group. There's an older woman there whom I'd rather avoid given that she thinks nothing of criticising my Mandarin in front of me and the entire group, which she did again. I periodically come into contact with several people like her. Generally all the other native speakers are much more polite and sympathetic. I was blah going to the meeting and was even more blah afterward. Discovered a little series about learning to play guitar by 蔡健雅. This link is for the first lesson. www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9HbxPCYCt0 I don't play guitar and so have no idea how helpful this series may or may not be. Edited by Snowflake on 03 April 2013 at 7:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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