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A newbie sets out: Braving Mandarin. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| eggcluck Senior Member China Joined 4699 days ago 168 posts - 278 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Japanese | Message 49 of 94 16 February 2012 at 4:07pm | IP Logged |
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Unusually this is a day where I am feeling quite comfortable. I have actually managed to have 2 meals, and get a decent amount of rest. The washing machine has mysteriously kicked back into life meaning my blistered and calloused hands may get a chance to heal. I even manage to get out of bed before one and complete study before 23:00. Though of course the air conditioner is now playing up on me, as if I am not cold enough already!
Other than study and the usual stuttering attempts to buy things at shops not much interesting has happened. Though I noted that with shadowing at least I am approaching the end of the Assimil course. This leaves me wondering as to where to go next to continue my studies. Given the lack of schools and tutors here that is not an option, nor is the local book store. Anything aimed specifically at study has to come of the internet and even then it has to be free as I have no means of paying for it. Quite a difficult position I find myself in. I have heard tale of something free called FSI, yet I have been unable to locate this free FSI, any time I come across it, it has always been someone asking for money. I could of course just delve into native materials, but I have a black hole there in terms of resources. Yes I am in China and suffering from a lack of native materials...go figure. Or I should say rather anything that interests is simply no where to be found, I care little for reading gossip magazines and about the latest lipstick. Pod costs seems like a possible answer however I have not the slightest clue where to begin my search. I have never used this pod cast things and to be quite honest I am not even sure what a pod cast it. The gold list trial continues on, sure it is low intensity but I find myself wondering if I get any benefit. The words I am using are being pulled from the vocabulary index at the back of my Assimil books so given all I am doing with those books I have been across it umpteen times. However I remind myself that as this is my first serious attempt at a language it is a much about playing around with things looking for what I like as it is about getting a good grip on the language. Playing around with different things of course has the potential to be terribly inefficient, but of course finding those things that work for me in the long run will pay a good dividend for all the sputtering around I am doing now. Getting through RTH now appears to require a larger time investment than I had anticipated, being in part due to the way this book has played with the keywords from others in the series. Having mutated them just enough to create a lot of extra work for me trying to separate the Japanese and Chinese keywords in my head. I can not see why this was done despite being a different key word its broad mining is the same, perhaps the reason will become clear as I push ever more forward into the book. However this run through is providing benefits, cards that I often failed in my SRS once the Hanzi had been covered in the RTH are failed much less. So much so that now the run throw of my audio cards from Assimil are that much quicker to do. Given that I find the Pimsleur audio to be more native like, I pondered about adding that audio to the dirty SRS beast. Memories of being chained to ugly review piles soon dispelled that notion. I would much rather spend the time listening to some native audio, assuming I will be able to get my hands on some that I can bear. Current Status - Assimil - Shadowing lessons 67-82 - Scriptorium lessons 63-65 - Assimil method lesson 44 RTH Frame 546 (1/3 milestone yay) Pimsleur lesson 16 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| eggcluck Senior Member China Joined 4699 days ago 168 posts - 278 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Japanese | Message 50 of 94 17 February 2012 at 3:48pm | IP Logged |
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A quiet study day again. Less time due to more work stuff and with the impending trip of which I still have yet to get any info regarding it seems again there will be another upset to the routine. Looking at the times it seems I will be spending two evening in the cold season sleeping in train stations, not looking forward to it, that's for sure.
The search for the language partner still has yet to bear fruit. Once I mention I work weekends they lose interest and stop mailing me. I am still in contact with one person however it has been dragging out. If nothing comes of it any time soon I will be resorting to the couch surfing website just to try and make contact with someone. Quite strange indeed to be in a place where the language is spoken by millions yet being unable just to find one to talk with. Downloaded some thing called I tunes that I stumbled upon, as it said it streams radio. I spent two hours going through looking for a Chinese radio station and sadly it proved to be a barren wasteland on that front. Round here as much as I wish it was, getting access to radio station is not a simple matter of going to a shop and buying a radio. Oh! How grate full I would be if just one mundane everyday task was to be simple and mundane to pull off! I did have a stroke of look when a child discarded one of their books into a bin, in Chinese fashion I fished it out the bin, to my delight it was a full book with each having pinyin used in the Japanese furigana style. Sadly it was not to stay mine for long as someone else snatched from my hands and made a quick exit. I have made the decision to dedicate any spare moments to ploughing through RTH, the sooner I can set up a good library of internal memory pegs the better. I will break up the monotony now and then with my assimil gold list project. I am now half way through the assimil vocabulary index now with this. Started my search for this FSI I have heard so much about. So far the only thing I have come across is very cumbersome and I consider it unusable there is nothing to download and it is all on the web including audio. This I find to be very impractical and thus the search continues. Finding things on the internet is certainly much harder when you do not have access to familiar search engines like google. No doubt there is a Chinese equivalent somewhere though I have yet to come across it. Current Status -Assimil - Shadowing lessons 68-83 - Scriptorium lessons 64-66 - Assimil method lesson 45 RTH frame 645 Pimsleur 17 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6618 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 51 of 94 17 February 2012 at 10:33pm | IP Logged |
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This might be the FSI site you are looking for.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 52 of 94 18 February 2012 at 10:05pm | IP Logged |
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http://listen.rbc.cn/ has multiple radio stations broadcasting from Beijing.
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| eggcluck Senior Member China Joined 4699 days ago 168 posts - 278 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Japanese | Message 53 of 94 21 February 2012 at 4:24pm | IP Logged |
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Due to work and Hong Kong preparations less study than normal was done.
So far it has been a disaster, the company has not given me enough infoand I am going in blind. I arrive at the airport 1 hour before departure. No information was given where I need to go in Hong Kong either. Which in of itself is a problem as one I arrive I have a tight dealing of just a couple of hours to get done. I took a confidence knock today too. It started good I managed to use the bus and get to the local train station fine enough. The way back did not go so so smoothly. First the taxi dropped me off at a train station in the middle of nowhere at a huge cost. Seriously a train station and farm land nothing else in sight. Regardless I ventured into the station to get a ticket, trying to inquire was suffering made worse by the onlooking pointing and laughing at my stuttering efforts. Eventually after my confidence took a battering from the ridicule it was obvious there were no tickets. The problem with this random train station in the middle of no where means no public transport and no taxi rank. After a few hours a lone taxi appeared, of course I wasted no time in accosting the poor man and finally got to the right train station ( turns out there was 3 but of course I had no info on where to go). At this point I have spent about half my monthly pay packet just on taxis, and I still need a wad for Hong Kong. With confidence now battered and a much lighter wallet the day was completed by having my coat stolen. I now have no water proofs. Seeing as I will most defiantly be spending a night on the streets in either Shanghai or Hong Kong I certainly hope it will not be raining, I will be cold enough already! Just a note...soon as left my door just to complete the night I was accosted by a higher than normal amount of scammers and I was spat on a few more times than normal. It has certainly been a roller coaster ride here in the mainland, I am hoping the people in Hong Kong will be more ameanable at least, I need a break! Current Status Assimil - Shadowing 72-87 - Scriptorium 67-69 - Assimil method lesson 45 RTH Frame 754 Pimsleur 21 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4698 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English* | Message 54 of 94 21 February 2012 at 5:13pm | IP Logged |
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Really sorry to hear about your bad news and I hope things turn around for you.
You definatly need a break. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| SueK Groupie United States Joined 4749 days ago 77 posts - 133 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 55 of 94 21 February 2012 at 6:02pm | IP Logged |
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eggcluck, to get around Hong Kong, the hotel I stayed at wrote my destination in Cantonese on a card (along with telling the driver for me) and gave me a card with the return information in Cantonese as well.
I know you're about to leave, but if you can find addresses in advance and make yourself cards, it may help you find your way. Sounds like it may be a good back up tactic to your Mandarin on the mainland as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| eggcluck Senior Member China Joined 4699 days ago 168 posts - 278 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Japanese | Message 56 of 94 24 February 2012 at 5:47pm | IP Logged |
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….Well where to start the last number of days has dealt a heavy blow to my progress and while I thought I could find some time to fit in some study it has not been possible for several bad reasons. Which also means that blasted anki beast will once again be alive and kicking.
First I missed the first bus to Pudong airport, I still made a mad dash to try and get there on time despite being on time already being tight. I was highly elated to find out that the flight was delayed for an hour.. One hour became three, which became 18. Preparing to spend the night at the hotel I found out that the locals on that flight were given a meal and a hotel room 5 hours into the delay. 14 hours later I was informed. And taken to the hotel at 21:00 to get 2 hours sleep for a 2 am flight, no meal. The hotel itself was in the middle of no where and no help getting back. Luckily a couple noticed I was somewhat distressed and helped me out, turns out they were from Hong Kong. The mainlanders just shouted, argued and ...pointed and stared/laughed, of course! I thought it was over but no. In Hong Kong it was raining after all and my trainers finally failed and have had constant pain and blisters in my feet since Tuesday. My fears about disaster also proved not to be paranoid worrying. As I now find myself stranded in Hong Kong with no money and no Accommodation for at least 3 more days, needless to say I am now feeling quite hungry. Fortunately, unlike the mainland here I am not pointed and stared at nor spat at, so that is a small blessing! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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