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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes  Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 113 of 169 11 April 2012 at 4:37am | IP Logged |
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Tibetan
I practiced writing the alphabet today. The best calligraphers remind me of the Chinese 书法 masters. As a hobby, in the future, I would enjoy taking brush or pen to paper and write Tibetan sentences. Today, I wrote a few Tibetan sentences with the limited vocabulary of Chapter 1. As I learn more about this fascinating language, even the "English" translation of a term leaves me in the dark. Today's term: sangha. According to Wikipedia: "is a word in Pali and Sanskrit meaning "association", "assembly," "company" or "community" and most commonly refers in Buddhism to the monastic community of ordained Buddhist monks or nuns." I need to wean myself off of the Wylie transcriptions and dive directly into the Tibetan, so that I can look things up in a dictionary. Things that I took for granted with Mandarin and had learned to deal with in Cantonese, are now even more difficult with Tibetan. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 114 of 169 24 April 2012 at 5:31am | IP Logged |
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Mandarin
I am using Mandarin more and more when talking to others in daily conversation. It's not even the main focus in my studies, but it is the easiest (relatively speaking) of the languages I am studying. As I see students struggling to put their thoughts into English, I can certainly empathize so I've changed my focus for this month from HSK vocabulary and most commonly used characters to more of an applied approach. I want to be able to do the simplest things that I need to do-- how can I claim "C1" one day if I still can't name all the items in my room, all the parts of someone's body, or order a Subway sandwich completely in Chinese? Simple things like "I want to recharge my phone", and other phrasebook or Survival Chinese should be on my list of things to do before I go into HSK exam stuff. I need to focus on language that I can USE. Cantonese My daily listening of Cantonese continues. The iphone/ipad platform offers many opportunities to listen to radio stations and tv shows in Cantonese. It's a lot of fun when I can make out the meaning of what someone has said. It's also fun when Mandarin friends and I try to understand what Cantonese people are talking about; we play a game where I will play a Chinese language audio file, such as Cantonese, Taishanese, or even Shanghainese, and we all race to figure out what the message is. I found a really interesting book called Cantonese for Everyone, which was published in Hong Kong in 2009. The language is 40 years more contemporary than FSI Cantonese, and the transcription system is in JyutPing, so of course, I had to buy it. It looks very nice. Many of the things I had put together on my own just happened to be in this book already, so I can confirm my suppositions. Also, the author is a native-born Chinese with 20 years teaching experience, so it looks like a valuable resource. Tibetan This language continues to draw me in, but I'm really avoiding doing too much in it at the expense of my other languages. As I continue to play around with the alphabet, learning how to write consonants and nouns, I see that there is no equivalent "f", "v", "q", "x", "z" sounds in Tibetan. q, x, and z can be approximated by other syllables in the language, I guess, but the lack of an [f] or [v] sound just unsettles me somehow. My primary purpose is to read Tibetan, but it's important to know what you are reading is supposed to sound like. Edited by zhanglong on 24 April 2012 at 5:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 115 of 169 24 April 2012 at 7:42am | IP Logged |
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Cantonese
I found this evaluation test online. I realized how much I dislike Yale orthography. The inclusion of the "h" as a marker for all of the low tones is such a distraction, but I guess with time, people become used to it. Jyutping just looks so clean, in comparison. Of course, the spoken language is independent of any orthography or romanization. For those of you studying Cantonese, what are your thoughts about this exam? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 116 of 169 24 April 2012 at 9:24pm | IP Logged |
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Cantonese
Guangzhou's heat reminds me of how important environment is when you're trying to learn something new. If I am in the slightest bit tired, my concentration wanders and I've wasted my time. Rather than grind another listening session for the sake of a schedule, I pull back and return to studying when my mind and body are a little better rested. Edited by zhanglong on 27 April 2012 at 12:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 117 of 169 24 April 2012 at 9:53pm | IP Logged |
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Mandarin
At a restaurant I taught my friend how to chat up the waitress because he speaks almost no Chinese. Sure enough, at evening's end after whispering in his ear for half an hour, I notice that he gets the hug while she shakes my hand like it's a dead fish. Lol! I wish him luck on the date! Tibetan At the end of a stressful day, it's fun to unwind and unlock the secrets of a language that I am slowly learning how to read. Tibetan is chocolate ice cream on a summer afternoon. Edited by zhanglong on 27 April 2012 at 12:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 118 of 169 25 April 2012 at 8:42pm | IP Logged |
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Cantonese
Today was an interesting day. My new office just happens to have a bunch of native speaking Cantonese speakers. Once they found out that I was interested in the language they all wanted to see what I could do. They even had a native Mandarin speaker, who was the resident polyglot, speak to me in several languages to see what my accent was like. First came French which was easily done with since the right accent takes some time to acquire. Then came Italian where my listening comprehension was at 90 or more percent. They foolishly tried Spanish figuring that there was no way that someone from the US could possible know yet another Romance language. Then they got serious. I saw a Chaozhou resident waiting in the wings so I playfully asked them in Mandarin to give me a hard language. They thankfully skipped the Chaoshan family (and the German!) and decided to test my Cantonese. The verdict? My accent was deemed more authentic than the native Mandarin speaker's. It was a silly game but it makes me wonder how much interference the Mandarin played in his accent. Since I didn't have a close reference, I am able to hear and imitate Cantonese a little better than someone who has to suppress a "natural" inclination to say a word with a Mandarin pronunciation. At the end, I thanked them all for being so supportive and mentioned that I had just gotten lucky. My baby Chinese was enough to dupe them into thinking that I know what I'm doing, but tomorrow they'll unleash a torrent of language that I won't be able to decipher. Edited by zhanglong on 27 April 2012 at 12:09am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 119 of 169 25 April 2012 at 8:49pm | IP Logged |
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Reflection on my progress.
It seems like yesterday that I discovered this forum and pledged to "learn Chinese in 300 days." It's been over 300 days now and I learned a lot about myself and my limitations. I want to thank everyone on this forum as I approach the end of my first year. You guys have helped me, taught me, inspired me and entertained me on this life-long journey. Edited by zhanglong on 26 April 2012 at 7:25am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 120 of 169 27 April 2012 at 12:07am | IP Logged |
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Cantonese
I listened to another two hours of Cantonese today, and while I want to do more, I need to avoid burnout so I'll pace myself. I'm not really in a race to "master" the language, so I will savor my time with it. Mandarin I didn't get much practice time today speaking to others; I need to step it up this week and get as much as I can get done before I go to Beijing; they won't care much about any Cantonese I've learned and will laugh at my Mandarin if I am not up to speed. Tibetan It's hard to find Tibetan spoken audio here, but since I am focusing on reading, this isn't so much of a concern for me right now. I noticed the looks I get from people as I ride the metro. When they see the Tibetan text, they look at me as if I were crazy, or they assume I must be a Chinese master since I have time to read a "minority" language. Most times they have no idea what Tibetan writing is. (I notice that when I send posts from an itouch or ipad, the formatting of the characters is very convenient, but the spacing is all wrong. Need to reedit earlier posts.) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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