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Eric’s Mandarin Log (see post 1 for course list) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 113 of 141 23 February 2013 at 11:08am | IP Logged | |||||
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All done with Volume II. Not sure what I am going to do next, maybe continue on with Volume III.
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| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 114 of 141 26 March 2013 at 2:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've taken it easy in the last month, feeling lazy. I was able to work through Chinese for Beginners, though. The book contains little to no grammar, instead focusing on dialogs and vocabulary. There are 16 chapters built around touristy dialogs on trasportation, eating out, etc. (The edited dialogs came to about 20 minutes of audio.) I have two criticisms. One, there are only two voice actors and often they play different characters without changing their voices. I found it distracting. Two, they include too much useless vocabulary. For example, one chapter dedicated to tourist attactions in Beijing. I skip over this kind of specialized vocabulary. Overall, I think it is a worthwhile resource, particurlay for the cost.
I started Volume III of Pimsleur. It will feel realy good to finish it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 115 of 141 02 April 2013 at 6:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've finished lesson 5.
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| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 116 of 141 08 April 2013 at 6:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've finished lesson 10.
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| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 117 of 141 13 April 2013 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Done with lesson 15.
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| cacue23 Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 4299 days ago 89 posts - 122 votes Speaks: Shanghainese, Mandarin*, English Studies: Cantonese | Message 118 of 141 13 April 2013 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Whoa, this is a long stretching post. I read the beginning of the post and noticed that you had problems with the 2nd and 3rd tones. That's 5,6 years ago and I'm not sure if you are still having problems with that, but I'll try to explain it anyway.
When English speakers pronounce a word, say "go", there is at first a flatten-out period, and then the tone gradually glides down, so it sounds something like "沟怄" (gou1 ou4 - no it's not a meaningful word). In Chinese though, the tone goes straight down, as in the similar sounding Chinese character 够 (gou4). It's not so distracting in the 4th tone, but if you attempt to pronounce the 2nd tone, the flatten-out period will sound "different" from the general trend and be mistaken for going downward, which, combined with the general trend of going upward, will be mistaken for the 3rd tone, since the latter goes down and then up. If you listen to Chinese speakers speaking English, you'll probably notice the difference, which sometimes has quite a funny effect. Edited by cacue23 on 13 April 2013 at 6:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cacue23 Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 4299 days ago 89 posts - 122 votes Speaks: Shanghainese, Mandarin*, English Studies: Cantonese | Message 119 of 141 13 April 2013 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
I believe that this happens in dialects, specifically, those of the 3 north eastern provinces of China. But since this course is supposed to be on Mandarin, I don't think you should speak according to this rule. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 120 of 141 14 April 2013 at 10:10am | IP Logged | |||||
In fact, since then, I don't recall seeing this rule in any other books and so I don't use it. Thanks for the explanations! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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