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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| KayJane Newbie United States Joined 4517 days ago 21 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Persian | Message 9 of 20 23 July 2012 at 1:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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Observations
Going through the units of FSI is becoming a deeply depressing experience. Is this the feeling of perpetual boredom? Having to listen to the dialogues five or six times? Goodness...This is why I always stare at my language bookshelf with complete sadness! On a lighter note, though, I know a total of 65 characters and about 100 words. The only problem is that I don't know how to put them into sentences, so they're just floating around in my head, waiting to be given some sort of contextual identity. The new method for learning vocabulary is actually working, but I realized that this method only seems to work well with Chinese; other languages are totally incompatible with this method. My biggest difficulty at this moment is time management, especially with summer work and my big 'ole CollegeBoard SAT book just waiting for me to open them. Wanderlust's Wavering Hold After much debate over whether or not I should continue Persian (I began learning Persian in the beginning of the summer, but stopped around late June), I decided that I will focus only on Chinese. And frankly, I'm quite satisfied with my decision. I still sometimes wonder how it would be to study other languages, though. For example, I have always liked the sound of German and after taking a tour of Harvard and finding out about the Widener Library, I have been wavering between starting German and continuing with just Chinese. I always seem to go back to Chinese, so I will focus on just that! I also follow the State Department's updates about FSO positions, so I sometimes think "Persian gives extra points? Sweet!" Persian would be so much easier to learn than Chinese, but I'm not completely comfortable with staying in one country for 2-4 years, then getting shipped to another place. Mandarin gives a bonus, but it would take forever to confidently say "I speak Mandarin", especially with my ridiculously high definition of "speaking". I will not say that I speak Mandarin until I am able to be randomly approached by a Mandarin speaker and hold a fluent conversation with him or her. Something Interesting (forgot to add this) The most interesting thing happened the other day. So I had a dream, and in my dream, I saw my (future) husband! Well...I know that we were married, but the weirdest thing was his name. His last name was Liao. Before that dream, I had never heard of that name, nor have I ever recognized it. I couldn't even pronounce it until I looked it up! I would have never expected Chinese to invade my brain so quickly and this experience just shows how complex the brain can be. I remember that I had been thinking about that *feeling* one gets when one knows that a certain word is from X language, so maybe that had something to do with it... Final Remarks I've always wondered how well-received I would be in China if I tell someone that I'm American...I've always imagined that some people (not all!) would have a generic image of an American and I (nine times out of ten) would not fit that image at all. I figure if I feel like a foreigner in my own country at times, I will definitely feel like one in China! Edited by KayJane on 23 July 2012 at 1:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4867 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes  Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 10 of 20 23 July 2012 at 2:34am | IP Logged | |||||
I haven't had a look at the FSI course, but I think this site (Day Day Up Chinese) has a nice approach to teach simple and useful sentences with many useful examples. It might be good for a change of pace and study material.
I think this type of job sounds extremely tempting. Unfortunately it's incredibly hard to get into and I'm not sure I could deal with all the politics. But learning many different languages, basically changing your job every 3 years and actually being required to live in many different countries still make it very interesting. Edited by druckfehler on 23 July 2012 at 2:46am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| KayJane Newbie United States Joined 4517 days ago 21 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Persian | Message 11 of 20 23 July 2012 at 4:26am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you for that link! It's a great change from the horror that is FSI. FSI is a good resource, but it's so
boring. Being a FSO seems interesting (especially for those that love to travel), but I would not want to get attached to a location and then be pulled away. Especially if that location is China. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ZombieKing Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4526 days ago 247 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* | Message 12 of 20 23 July 2012 at 4:51am | IP Logged | |||||
If you learn German then we'll have the same target languages ^_^ Good luck in your studies btw! I hope you succeed in your goals :) Edited by ZombieKing on 23 July 2012 at 4:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| catullus_roar Quadrilingual Octoglot Groupie Australia Joined 4567 days ago 89 posts - 184 votes Speaks: Malay, Hokkien*, English*, Mandarin*, Cantonese*, French, German, Spanish Studies: Italian, Latin, Armenian, Afrikaans, Russian | Message 13 of 20 23 July 2012 at 5:46am | IP Logged | |||||
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Message 8 of 12 21 July 2012 at 3:46am | IP Logged Observations Developing my reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills seems to be easier in Mandarin than in Spanish. Overall, Spanish was easier, but with Mandarin, I am able to practice reading/writing and listening/speaking at the same timeframe (with the resources that I am using). I'm trying out a new way of learning vocabulary. I write down the character, its pinyin, and a sample sentence (in Chinese). This usually takes up no more than three lines in my notebook. On a sheet of loose leaf paper, I keep a masterlist of the English equivalents, but I only use it if the sentence doesn't help me figure out the meaning. I realize that I'm not a big fan of SRS and I've wanted to compile a masterlist, so I'm beginning to actually like this method. As I'm listening to FSI, I'm wondering if some words need to be updated. FSI Mandarin has dated back to the '60s (some materials the '70s), so I just need to use my own discretion; I won't be using words like 同志，I think. The construction of the word is very interesting, though. 同 roughly means "be same" and 志 is like "will/aspiration", so it makes sense that a comrade would be someone of the same will. Chinese is very expressive and it's almost like a puzzle. Another interesting observation pertains to music. I mentioned earlier that I prefer the sound of Japanese better, and after listening to Mandopop, I've realized why. It's not that I dislike Chinese sounds, I prefer deeper voices (all of the songs in my library were sung by singers with high voices). I also found out that Korean is an agglutinative language and after looking through some verb-form charts, my mind was blown. Dialogue 1: 您好，王先生！ 2: 。。。你是谁？ 1: 我姓李！ 2: 你叫什么名字？ 1: 我姓伟。 2:你好马？ 1: 我好，谢谢！ 2: 不客气。。。我的名字丹。*Should it be mingzi jiao or just mingzi? 1: 谢谢，丹先生！ 2：我只叫丹。 1：对不起。 1: 。。。再见！ 2: 再见 Here are my comments (native speaker): 我的名字丹 should be 我姓丹, grammatically speaking. 名字 is usually used to refer to the first name itself; eg if his name was John Dan, 'John' (or whatever chinese name) would be his 名字, but 丹 would be his 姓. In Chinese, we'd usually use '我名叫 ____ (insert either surname, first name or complete name here).' I can see an understanding of different Chinese words for the same meaning here though, which is good :) Keep it up, and I think your log is a really good example for all the other Chinese learners out there. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| KayJane Newbie United States Joined 4517 days ago 21 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Persian | Message 14 of 20 24 July 2012 at 4:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you for the corrections!
@ZombieKing I have always loves the sound of German and it's very tempting, but I have to stick with Chinese. I have no idea how almost everyone manages so many languages! So, I have to make a confession... I have only been using that tedious vocabulary-acquisition method because Ankidroid was going crazy. I have fixed the problem, so I will be using Anki for now on! As of now, my method to learning Chinese is this: 1) Go through one unit of FSI a day; do the drill the day I learn the material and again the next day. 2) Watch one episode of "Growing up with Chinese" 3) Two lessons on Day Day Up Chinese 4) Anki vocab and sentences 5) DLI Reading & Writing 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4699 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English* | Message 15 of 20 07 August 2012 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the log.
I started to attempt to learn Mandarin earlier this year, but had to take a break due to all different things but now I am starting again and glad to see your log. I have bookmarked those "Growing up with Chinese" and "Day Day up Chinese" and once I have figured out a routine for my learning, I will put them Into my study plan. I also like "Chinese with Mike" and maybe you can see what you think aswell. Thanks again. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| KayJane Newbie United States Joined 4517 days ago 21 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Persian | Message 16 of 20 14 August 2012 at 1:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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It's been a while, but I haven't given up! I dabbled a little bit with Persian and watched the Kite Runner (I
actually understood a good bit of the dialogue, which is surprising because they were speaking Eastern Persian I believe). I really love Persian and I've always wanted to teach English to immigrants (from wherever, really, but Afghan immigrants would be cool). Alas, Chinese is my obnoxious yet reliable "husband" so I must honor this long-term commitment! With Chinese, I finished Mod 1 and I can write most of the characters. Progress is still slow, but I have to get moving! By the end of the year, I want to know about 2k characters (passive or active) and be finished with FSI for good. I watched a documentary about the Chinese family structure and children going to a military camp. I would recommend "Culture Unplugged" (it should be one of the first options when googled ) for documentaries in other languages and about different regions. Many are in English, but I find that Asian and Middle Eastern documentaries are usually in the respective languages of that region. Dialogue time! 1-你好！ 2-你好吗？ 1-我很好。你呢？ 2-我也很好。你叫李先生吗？ 1-对。你是中国人吗？ 2-对。。。我老家在青岛。你呢？ 1-老家在纽约州。请岛在哪儿？ 2-青岛在山东。。。我们现在在日本，但是你 ��欢纽约州还是德州？ 1-我很喜欢纽约州。你爱人是美国人吗？ 2-我爱人是美国人。她是纽约州人。 1-她喜欢日本吗？ 2-她不喜欢日本，但是喜欢中国。 Long Chinese dialogues are really hard to keep track of and my Samsung Galaxy is really crazy, so if I have any errors, please let me know. I am also going to practice a Persian sentence or two, but I just can't keep on with it. Chinese only! رامين ميز را امروز تميز کرد. برادرم در را باز کرد. Edited by KayJane on 14 August 2012 at 1:45am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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