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Muddling through in TAC ’10 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| annette Senior Member United States Joined 5510 days ago 164 posts - 192 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 17 of 95 11 January 2010 at 1:02am | IP Logged |
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The last two weeks or so have been an absolute NIGHTMARE but I should be back and ready
to go tomorrow. I really should be doing some language study today in preparation for classes but I just had the most terrible flight experience and need to get myself back together before any further mental activity. On the plane I did make my way through half my textbook's readings and studied about 30 characters but I'm afraid that I've since forgotten all the characters, although I did do all right on the reading... one step at a time! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| annette Senior Member United States Joined 5510 days ago 164 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* | Message 18 of 95 13 January 2010 at 2:12am | IP Logged |
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So.........
I'm taking two language courses right now. Neither is German as I've postponed that indefinitely until I get my stuff together or decide to procrastinate other studies by starting this wonderful language. Anyway, out of those two courses, one is really kicking my butt and we don't need to go into detail there except to say that I am busy cramming and whining. I've learned my lesson - never take a break from studying!!! The other course I am taking is Classical Chinese. I had my first class for Guwen today and all the teacher did was hand out the syllabus and talk about the structure of the class, but it sounds like it'll be fun. The class is conducted wholly in Mandarin and is discussion-heavy, so I'm really looking forward to it. I can muddle my way through Classical writing with a little effort, but I really don't have any sort of solid foundation in terms of grammar, which would obviously really help me. I think that taking this class will have several benefits for me: - I will be able to understand Classical Chinese writing - I will have a better grasp on Chinese culture/philosophy - I will have lots of practice for speaking and understanding Chinese due to the immersion environment - I will be able to speak more intellectually and formally in modern Mandarin, due to influence of Classical structures and the vocabulary we will be using in discussion Also, I think reading so many characters - largely traditional - and writing my tests/essays all in Mandarin will definitely help with my characters as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6474 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 19 of 95 13 January 2010 at 11:01am | IP Logged |
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Classical Chinese, wow!
What is the other language you're learning? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| annette Senior Member United States Joined 5510 days ago 164 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* | Message 20 of 95 14 January 2010 at 12:59am | IP Logged |
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Yes, isn't it funny that I'm taking Classical Chinese? I mean, I'm very interested in the
writing and all that, but I never thought I'd end up actually trying to learn it. Modern Mandarin is hard enough for me already. We'll see how successful I am with Guwen! :) The other language I am learning is MSA. Unfortunately I am a little behind in my class right now, but I'm hoping that I'll catch up early next week. I'm mostly just out of practice from not studying during the break - there are a lot of conjugations that take me 3 minutes rather than 3 seconds to remember. Oh well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| annette Senior Member United States Joined 5510 days ago 164 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* | Message 21 of 95 15 January 2010 at 12:26am | IP Logged |
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Today I had my second Chinese class. Unfortunately because for some reason I did NOT
receive the email informing us of our new location, I was 20 minutes late because I didn't know what classroom or even what building we were in. Luckily the second building I checked proved to be the right one, but I'm still a little embarrassed that I came in so late, haha. Foreign language courses at my university have a very strict attendance policy so students are not usually tardy. The class itself was great. I'm still playing catch-up with classical grammar because this is the second term of a year-long course, and I didn't attend the first term. But so far, things have actually been working out well. It turns out that I already know some classical grammar from my exposure to literature and can pick up more just from context. The bigger problem is that all materials are in traditional characters and I cannot always read those. Also, some characters are pronounced differently in Classical Chinese. Finally, I always understand much more than I can read out loud - there are lots of characters that I know the meaning and usage of but don't remember the pronunciation - which makes discussion... interesting... when I have lots to say about meaning but have to ask for pronunciation help so often! I'm sure this will come with time, though. In class today we reviewed some material my classmates used on their final exam last term. One of the short pieces we read was an excerpt from Zhuangzi!! Dude's my favorite ancient guy, so you can imagine my excitement. This was the story where the woodcutter doesn't chop down the big tree because it's "useless" but then later slaughters a goose for dinner because it's the "useful" one (I'm simplifying/summarizing a lot, by the way, so don't take this interpretation as gospel). Edited by annette on 15 January 2010 at 12:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| annette Senior Member United States Joined 5510 days ago 164 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* | Message 22 of 95 20 January 2010 at 2:01am | IP Logged |
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Well, it's been about a week since my last post, which means that this would be a great
time for an update! I have lots to say about my course material, but for now I want to note one thing that I've been working hard on lately. To get straight to the point: when I speak Chinese, I am able to say many things in Mandarin, but I still automatically insert a lot of English "filler:" like, you know, totally, you know?, pretty much, whatever. This makes me look like I don't know much Chinese, because it's usually only students at lower levels who use a lot of English in Chinese class! This became obvious in class when, during a particularly impassioned argument linking Taoist philosophy to a particular piece of guwen about a folk story, I heard some snuffling and turned to see that my classmates weren't overcome by emotion by my moving speech, but that they were instead giggling at all the English words I was using! My classmates are awesome people and they weren't trying to mock me or make me feel bad, but apparently it was just too funny to hear someone say in fluent conversational Chinese (here translated) that "The inclusion of the jingwei bird in this folk tale like totally makes me think back to the bird at the beginning of one of Zhuangzi's writings that carries stones in its beak daily for thousands of years in order to, like, build a mountain or whatever, and I wonder if we can apply Zhuangzi's thoughts on his bird to this jingwei, you know?" It's a tricky situation for me because I started using filler like this in English many years ago on purpose, so now I'm so used to it that it's very hard for me to stop, even when I'm trying. :( Edited by annette on 26 January 2010 at 9:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| annette Senior Member United States Joined 5510 days ago 164 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* | Message 23 of 95 21 January 2010 at 9:18am | IP Logged |
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god I'm insanely exhausted.
Short update this time. Chinese class tomorrow, haven't finished hw but can handle it in the AM. - Need to learn formal vocab/phrasing for Mandarin. I can now say almost anything I want through a combination of daily use vocab and lots of routing (playwright --> the man who writes what actors act from in plays...), and I can usually pronounce it quite well and come up with it quite quickly too, but if I want to be taken seriously when I study in China (this summer if all goes well), I need to be able to use the abstract, intellectual terms that smart Beijing students use. Also, so I won't seem as silly in class when I answer a complex philosophy question and get it right but sound like a toddler. HA. - still need to work on character reproduction. Just got my first quiz back w/mixed results. Some easy characters are wrong, like cuo4 (wrong) for which I used the ren radical by accident, and some hard characters are wrong too. One sentence was just flat out weird; I meant to say that the Jingwei bird can only go "jingwei," but instead of something normal like "the bird's cry sounds like its name," I tried to say something like "Jingwei鸟只会叫它自己的名字." As for wenfa, I understand all the grammar we have come across thus far, which I think is pretty good! god SO tired. 1 last thing, I think I'm nearing a breakthrough point w/reading, it's coming much faster now and doesn't take me like a gazillion hours per page like it did a few years ago. I can't wait until the "epiphany moment." YAY! :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| annette Senior Member United States Joined 5510 days ago 164 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* | Message 24 of 95 26 January 2010 at 9:48pm | IP Logged |
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Well, I quit the Classical Chinese class (VERY long and boring story involving
scheduling). I also haven't studied much in the last week because of the intrusion of, well, life. So, new plans! Under the best of circumstances, I would do this (choice of 2 per day): CLASSICAL CHINESE Read one chapter in green book; work through at least one guwen excerpt from red book. CHARACTERS Review old characters, add about 20 new words from word-lists in modern ch. book. READING (MODERN CHINESE) Read at least a page of... something. I haven't decided what yet. I'm open to suggestions!!! Any two together shouldn't take more than an hour, which I can fit into my daily schedule. Or at least I hope I can! I'm seriously feeling the burn-out right now; I've been SO busy lately... Edited by annette on 26 January 2010 at 9:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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