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| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes  Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 41 of 169 14 June 2011 at 7:11pm | IP Logged |
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Well, that was humbling.
I only spent two days in Hong Kong. I could not find any of the Lau books, but I'll try online to see if they are available. Also, the area I was in (TST) was full of foreigners so almost all the staffs at restaurants spoke to me in English. Ari, we have so many commonalities, it's not funny. My friend from the New Territories accompanied me to a gym on Nathan Road; I was fully ready to use my very limited Cantonese to ask about the hours that classes begin, when the first person who greeted us, spoke in Mandarin. Okay. Then someone else assailed us with rapid-fire Cantonese. My NT friend to the rescue! Except, when she started to speak to them in Cantonese, they spied me and switched to English! Grrrr... If nothing else, when I was back in Guangzhou, the taxi driver and I chatted in Mandarin and Cantonese for almost 20 minutes. Ha! Even such a small milestone makes me more committed to my studies. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6378 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 42 of 169 15 June 2011 at 2:58am | IP Logged |
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You can buy the Sidney Lau books cheaply online here: Sidney Lau books.
There is also audio for the dialogs in the first forty lessons recorded by someone's tutor or friend: audio. I tried buying books from Greenwood Press last week, but they never got back to me about how to complete my order. Edited by newyorkeric on 15 June 2011 at 2:58am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 43 of 169 16 June 2011 at 3:54am | IP Logged |
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Thank you, that's a treasure trove.
I would normally buy the entire set, but I don't want to have an entire library of books I never use. However, I really should have one of the few existing, complete documents about Cantonese as it existed then. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 44 of 169 17 June 2011 at 1:39am | IP Logged |
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Mandarin:
I joined a Mandarin class; it seems rather elementary, but if I can't complete common A1 tasks, there is no way I can claim "fluency". So rather than just memorize words in the HSK corpus, I will incorporate the grammar rules and memorize the dialogues from this textbook. Today's topic is ordering in a restaurant. By the end of the weekend, I want to be able to ask for and give directions. Cantonese I spent yesterday listening to half an hour of unrestricted, free-form audio. I managed to only understand 1 percent of what was being said through audio alone. I was able to identify major words like who, where, and what --the skeletons of the conversation, but the meat of the matter is still a mystery. As for my Cantonese training; my goal is much lower than for Mandarin; my default setting when meeting a Cantonese person is to speak to them in Cantonese. When I quickly run up against the limits of my ability, I switch to Mandarin. When that isn't enough, I resort to English and/or body language. Fieldwork: I bought a pair of shoes from two ladies, only one of whom could speak Mandarin; the other spoke Cantonese. The Cantonese speaking saleswoman again, offered me a price cut just for speaking the language without me even asking for a discount; but more importantly she kept speaking to me for fifteen minutes or so, and I could understand what she was talking about. By June 27th, I need to finish Pimsleur Cantonese. I will attempt to memorize each dialogue so that I can have a corpus of ready-made language at my fingertips and get a better feel for the proper pronunciation and accent I'll need so that native speakers can understand me. Edited by zhanglong on 17 June 2011 at 1:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 45 of 169 18 June 2011 at 2:50am | IP Logged |
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Mandarin
Memorized over 50 words relating to restaurants and ordering food. This is particularly useful since we...umm...eat every day at different restaurants. This was also a good lesson because it's easy to practice the material daily. An interesting thing happened recently one night where "city managers" came to a restaurant in the neighborhood and forcefully took every table and chair that was outside. The manager of the restaurant attempted to pull his furniture off of the truck, but the "city managers", who are not police, managed to take all but one of his tables. The only table spared was the one where foreigners were seated and for that the owner and restaurant manager were grateful we were there. Cantonese Today's the review of Pimsleur 1-3. I am memorizing the dialogues and transcribing them in traditional characters. More on this project later. Also, I am more carefully reviewing the Common European Framework, to see exactly where I am in my journey and to better target my goal. http://www.coe.int/T/DG4/Portfolio/?M=/main_pages/levels.htm l Goals: Mandarin Listening B2 Reading B2 Speaking B2 Writing B2 Cantonese Listening B2 Speaking B1 These are six very distinct skills; I need to create drills and schedule time to develop each of them if I want to markedly improve. Edited by zhanglong on 18 June 2011 at 2:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 46 of 169 21 June 2011 at 9:28pm | IP Logged |
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I spent most of the day studying today; with each day I am becoming more and more focused on my goal.
B2 in both languages seems achievable within a year. Mandarin listening: Pimsleur Mandarin reading: textbook Chapter 1 vocabulary and other messages writing: HSK Level 1 characters speaking: I need to find a way to do more of this; just parroted the pimsleur Cantonese listening: review of Pimsleur 1 - 9 speaking: no speaking practice other than repeating the Pimsleur Tibetan See the Ten Year Tibetan Language Log for more details. Edited by zhanglong on 21 June 2011 at 9:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4928 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 47 of 169 23 June 2011 at 4:12am | IP Logged |
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Mandarin
Went to Mandarin class today. All of the drilling in vocabulary paid off. I was able to do the surprise quiz without any trouble whatsoever. We did a role-playing exercise where one student is the waiter and the other is a customer. It was fun to be creative with language and make each other laugh as we learn. Cantonese Spoke to native speakers for approximately five minutes before I ran out of vocabulary. I could still understand what they were saying but had to resort to Mandarin to reply. I arranged to have my Mandarin and Cantonese be formally assessed by a professional language teacher who is also a native speaker. I have one week to prepare. More on this, later. Edited by zhanglong on 23 June 2011 at 4:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mekalika Diglot Senior Member United States sarahnguyen.com/ Joined 7068 days ago 30 posts - 33 votes Studies: Vietnamese, English*, German | Message 48 of 169 24 June 2011 at 12:22am | IP Logged |
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Ari, what is the link to the Stephen Chow scripts website?
1 person has voted this message useful |
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