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鹊 (què) - TEAM THREAD - TAC’14

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Sunja
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Germany
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: French, Mandarin

 
 Message 209 of 266
02 March 2014 at 11:14am | IP Logged 
For anyone interested in seeing the format for the New HSK. I found this website -- whether or not it actually matches the actual test -- I'll let you know in two weeks!


This has also given me an idea for the March challenge. I'm going to learn 100 vocabulary from this HSK3 list. I'd like to start learning to write them, so this will definitely be a challenge for me!
2 persons have voted this message useful



LangWanderer
Diglot
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Australia
digintoenglish.com
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 Message 210 of 266
02 March 2014 at 3:14pm | IP Logged 
I've set myself a rather ambitious challenge for March, but I believe it's doable.

I'm going to complete 100 tapes of FSI Mandarin.

I'll include reviews of tapes in my count. I'm not delusional enough to think I would be able to finish 20 units (there are five tapes per unit) in a month! I'll count review listens of a tape as long as I review more than half of it. For instance, if review a single drill from a drill tape, that will not count, but if I review 15 minutes of a 25-minute tape, that will count. I find that it's not often necessary to review all the drills each time, so going over all the drills just to "complete the tape" is probably not the best use of my time.

I'll need to push myself, of course, but that's what we're here for!

Edited by LangWanderer on 02 March 2014 at 3:15pm

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DavidStyles
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United Kingdom
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 Message 211 of 266
02 March 2014 at 10:43pm | IP Logged 
Just catching up here, my February challenge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kjCrr4ESFA

There are Chinese and English subtitles in the video; the English translation there is probably prettier but also somewhat more liberal in its interpretation; mine is more literal, unless I erred, which is entirely possible.

Where my translation has differed particularly wildly from popular translation online, I've made some notes on translation, indicated by superscript numerals.

王菲: 棋子
Faye Wong: Chess piece

想走出你控制的領域
I want out of the field that you control
卻走進你安排的戰局
But in the battleground that you arranged
我沒有堅強的防備
I don't have a strong defence
也沒有後路可以退
And neither can I go back


想逃離你佈下的陷阱
I want to escape from under the trap you spread
卻陷入了另一個困境
But falling into yet another predicament
我沒有決定輸贏的勇氣
I don't have the courage to win or lose decisively¹
也沒有逃脫的幸運
And there's no chance of escape²


我像是一顆棋
I'm like a chess piece
進退任由你決定
You decide if you let me retreat³
我不是你眼中唯一將領
In your eyes I'm not a unique general
卻是不起眼的小兵
But an inconspicuous pawn


我像是一顆棋子
I'm like a chess piece
來去全不由自己
Come and take; I can't help myself⁴
起手無回你從不曾猶豫
From your hand there's no return; you've never wavered⁵
我卻受控在你手裡
I'm but in the control of your hand



¹ Otherwise offered has been "I don't have the courage to decide win or lose", but this seems strange in its meaning.
² Otherwise offered has been "I'm not lucky enough to escape" but I prefer my rendering, which I think is also a permissible idiomatic translation of 逃脫-的-幸運
³ Otherwise offered has been "You decide my advance and retreat", but I find no Chinese for "advance" in the song lyrics
⁴ Otherwise offered has been "I don't decide my own movements" but this seems to me to be a remarkable stretch indeed, practically to the point of re-writing. I don't know how they got that translation.
⁵ Otherwise offered has been "To the point of no return you've never hesitated", but my rendering seems to be both literally and idiomatically a more natural translation.

Edited by DavidStyles on 03 March 2014 at 11:37am

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DavidStyles
Octoglot
Pro Member
United Kingdom
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 Message 212 of 266
03 March 2014 at 12:14am | IP Logged 
Hopefully I did this correctly (had a lot of fun playing with the obligatory tags), but here is my log:

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=38229

(and here is an extra line of text to get past the very enthusiastic anti-spam software, because I posted the above exact same message in the Team Asgard TAC thread, and the forum software thinks I am spamming and won't permit posting the same thing twice)
1 person has voted this message useful



lorinth
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Senior Member
Belgium
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443 posts - 581 votes 
Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin
Studies: Mandarin, Finnish

 
 Message 213 of 266
03 March 2014 at 6:29pm | IP Logged 
For the "100 of something" challenge, I'll try to read 100 lines of the 三字经。

The 三字经 is a 13th century text, basically it is a schoolbook that was used to teach
Confucean values in imperial China.

Wikipedia

As each line has just six characters, it may not sound very impressive. Yet, my Chinese
level is intermediatish, you're not *supposed* to venture into classical Chinese
territory at that point. In addition, in the edition I own, each line (or group of two
lines rather) comes with a comment/explanation in modern Chinese. Each commentis about
1/2, 1/3 page, so that's a bit more significant than just 600 characters. In fact, I've
long been fascinated by ancient Chinese, so this is an opportunity for me to dip a toe
in that vast ocean. You have to start somewhere and the 三字经 is supposed to be a
fairly easy text, as far as classical Chinese goes. Follow my progress on my log!   
1 person has voted this message useful



yuhakko
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Senior Member
FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4631 days ago

414 posts - 582 votes 
Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin

 
 Message 214 of 266
03 March 2014 at 7:00pm | IP Logged 
@Lorinth: Now that seems like something REALLY interesting! I've been interested in
classical mandarin so I'm looking forward to how it'll go for your first time to dive in
it! Good luck ;)
1 person has voted this message useful



proudft
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5152 days ago

124 posts - 156 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 215 of 266
05 March 2014 at 9:49pm | IP Logged 
I'll be reading 100 pages of my various print books that I've accumulated, starting with some Chinese Breezes.

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Expugnator
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Senior Member
Brazil
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3335 posts - 4349 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian

 
 Message 216 of 266
06 March 2014 at 5:22pm | IP Logged 
I am not sure if I am already at an intermediate level. I could read the texts in those
textbooks without pinyin (tested with NPCR 1 and 2), but the problem is when I come
across an unknown word: the pinyin makes it much easier for me to look it up. If it
weren't for the pinyin I'd have to draw the character myself.

When I study I don't usually rely on crutches for translations and pinyin, unless it's
unknown words. The problems are that 1) textbooks assume words you've seen once are
already known and 2) looking them up without a pinyin would take too much time. If I have
resources that are more technically accessible, then I think I should focus on them.

I'm either tempted to going for El Chino de hoy or Speak Chinese. I don't think I'm
taking NPCR 3 in the middle run, I haven't fully mastered the first two.


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