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Assimil Chinese with Ease

  Tags: Listening | Assimil | Mandarin
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Keith
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 Message 17 of 79
08 December 2006 at 11:17pm | IP Logged 
onebir wrote:
Keith wrote:
This bao4 means newspaper.


That's a little worrying. The word people i've heard people use for newspaper is bao4zhi3 (bao4 = report/tell, zhi3 = paper). Another commonly used word is wan3bao4 - evening paper. But i've never heard anyone use bao4 independently to mean newspaper.

Having said that, i've only spent time in beijing, so this might be common usage elsewhere...


Here is one 'definition' from a C-E dictionary.
http://www.mandarintools.com/cgi-bin/wordlook.pl?word=bao4&s earchtype=pinyin&where=whole&audio=on

报      bào      to announce; to inform; report; newspaper; recompense; revenge;



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Keith
Diglot
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JapanRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6720 days ago

526 posts - 536 votes 
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Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: Mandarin
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 Message 18 of 79
08 December 2006 at 11:38pm | IP Logged 
I worked on lesson 4 last night and I'ved decided to put another hour into lesson 4 today. This lesson is a bit harder to pronounce. As I've mentioned before, I've got all the spaces removed and in this lesson the individual words have not been stretched out. So each word is rather quick.

There is a shi or a renshi in 7 of the 9 sentences and a ta in every sentence. Those shi's are real killers for the back of the throat. The ta is also a bit stressful. I think I'm neglecting my bu sound since I'm speaking so quickly I don't have much time to evaluate my performance. I know what the bu should sound like but I don't have a chance to hear me say it. But never fear! It will all come in good time.
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onebir
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 Message 19 of 79
09 December 2006 at 9:46am | IP Logged 
Keith wrote:
onebir wrote:
Keith wrote:
This bao4 means newspaper.


That's a little worrying. The word people i've heard people use for newspaper is bao4zhi3 (bao4 = report/tell, zhi3 = paper). Another commonly used word is wan3bao4 - evening paper. But i've never heard anyone use bao4 independently to mean newspaper.

Having said that, i've only spent time in beijing, so this might be common usage elsewhere...


Here is one 'definition' from a C-E dictionary.
http://www.mandarintools.com/cgi-bin/wordlook.pl?word=bao4&s earchtype=pinyin&where=whole&audio=on

报      bào    ;   to announce; to inform; report; newspaper; recompense; revenge;

The character can obviously mean newspaper in some circumstances, but when it's spoken, it's almost always accompanied by another character to clarify the meaning. When you actually get to china and try communicating, go ahead and use the assimil sentence and see how far it gets you...
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maxb
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 Message 20 of 79
11 December 2006 at 7:16am | IP Logged 
onebir wrote:
Keith wrote:
This bao4 means newspaper.


That's a little worrying. The word people i've heard people use for newspaper is bao4zhi3 (bao4 = report/tell, zhi3 = paper). Another commonly used word is wan3bao4 - evening paper. But i've never heard anyone use bao4 independently to mean newspaper.

Having said that, i've only spent time in beijing, so this might be common usage elsewhere...


You can definetely say bao4 for newspaper as well for instance in expressions like 我不爱看报 (I don't like reading the newspaper).

Edited by maxb on 11 December 2006 at 7:20am

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onebir
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 Message 21 of 79
11 December 2006 at 4:33pm | IP Logged 
maxb wrote:
onebir wrote:
Keith wrote:
This bao4 means newspaper.


That's a little worrying.


You can definetely say bao4 for newspaper as well for instance in expressions like 我不爱看报 (I don't like reading the newspaper).


I'm not saying it's not correct. I'm saying your chances of being understood are lower than if you use a two character combination like baozhi, particularly if you haven't been talking about something similiar (ie reading books, in your example) just beforehand.

Spoken mandarin often uses additional characters/syllables (which are unnecessary in the written language) to reduce ambiguity. Particularly when the context hasn't been established. (When it has been established, things go monosyllabic way too fast for my taste)

Add to this the fact that the assimil course is designed for foreigners who are likely to make mistakes which reduce their chances of being understood (pronounciation/tone/grammar), and it seems to me an error of judgement on the part of the authors of that course not to use bao4zhi3 or wan3bao4.
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Ari
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 Message 22 of 79
11 December 2006 at 4:39pm | IP Logged 
So, Keith, what's the course like? What do you actually do? And, most of all, is it any good? I've been thinking about getting it, but is it worth the money? What does a lesson actually look like? And now for a sentence that doesn't end with a question mark.
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Keith
Diglot
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JapanRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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526 posts - 536 votes 
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 Message 23 of 79
11 December 2006 at 5:47pm | IP Logged 
Ari wrote:
So, Keith, what's the course like? What do you actually do? And, most of all, is it any good? I've been thinking about getting it, but is it worth the money? What does a lesson actually look like? And now for a sentence that doesn't end with a question mark.


Ari, the course has mini-dialogues and they are not spoken by the same two people all the time. I believe I am doing the "chorus" method by myself. I listen for 10-20 times and then I chime in and speak the sentences at the exact time they are spoken. Although, I do only one of the two parts at a time. At first I stumble and can't get half a sentence out. But after 3-5 minutes, I can get the sentences out on time and I start paying attention to my tone and pronunciation. I do each lesson for one hour, 15-minute sessions at a time.

The audio quality is top-notch. It's definitely worth the money. I posted the English text of the first lesson in this thread. The lessons get longer.
1 person has voted this message useful





Keith
Diglot
Moderator
JapanRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6720 days ago

526 posts - 536 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: Mandarin
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 24 of 79
12 December 2006 at 4:38am | IP Logged 
It seems the chorus method is done on only one sentence at a time. I am not doing one sentence, but several sentences which constitute half of a mini-dialogue. The second 15-minute session I will do the other half. I might say I'm using the Jerry Dai method! But we don't know exactly how he studied his dialogues. Maybe if I'm lucky, he will come to this thread and post something.

At this stage, my goal is to program my internal system to speak correctly and without hesitation. And also without effort. I am going to overlearn all the material in this course. I don't want to "know" something but not be able to say it or to have to think for a second before speaking.

I will be able to speak on my own when I am really comfortable with the words. When the words are super familiar to me, I will be able to use them with no problem. For me, if something is new and I don't feel comfortable with it, I will really hesitate to use it. It will feel funny and I will be second-guessing and monitoring my language output. So I just want to bypass the thinking stage. I don't want to have to think about it. I just want to use it and I know I can only use what I am comfortable with. And the best way for me to get comfortable with the language is to hear it and repeat it a thousand times.


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