Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5960 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin
| Message 1 of 9 14 August 2012 at 9:40pm | IP Logged |
I'm wondering if people would be interested in forming a group that would meet periodically, say on Skype, to practice Mandarin "islands" (speeches)?!
1 person has voted this message useful
|
ZombieKing Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4528 days ago 247 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*
| Message 2 of 9 14 August 2012 at 11:16pm | IP Logged |
What's Mandarin "Islands"? If you want to form a conversation group I'd love to join though.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5533 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map
| Message 3 of 9 14 August 2012 at 11:35pm | IP Logged |
ZombieKing wrote:
What's Mandarin "Islands"? |
|
|
Short, memorized chunks of text on familiar topics: where you come from, what you do for
a living, the country you're visiting, stuff like that. The idea comes from Boris
Shekhtman, an FSI instructor, and it's intended to help you survive polite conversations
by giving you a nice, well-rehearsed "island" you can retreat to. Here's the book:
How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately
3 persons have voted this message useful
|
ZombieKing Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4528 days ago 247 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*
| Message 4 of 9 15 August 2012 at 3:10am | IP Logged |
Oh, okay. I won't benefit from that then. However if you like I wouldn't mind listening in and offering feedback sometime.
Edited by ZombieKing on 15 August 2012 at 3:10am
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5960 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin
| Message 5 of 9 15 August 2012 at 4:03am | IP Logged |
Interesting, I've never thought of islands as only being about safe, polite subjects. I understand islands to be things that you'd talk about over and over again with native speakers, so then any subject is fair game depending on the people encountered.
Edited by Snowflake on 15 August 2012 at 4:06am
1 person has voted this message useful
|
emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5533 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map
| Message 6 of 9 15 August 2012 at 4:08am | IP Logged |
Well, sure. The author was mostly training people to handle
polite diplomatic chitchat, from the sound of the book. But
obviously you practice any topics you like.
I've never actually tried the technique, because I speak a
lot of French in my day-to-day life, and my "islands" are
more natural accretions around my favorite subjects. But it
was certainly an interesting book.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Vegemighty Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4489 days ago 45 posts - 67 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin
| Message 7 of 9 17 August 2012 at 2:38pm | IP Logged |
I'm not very good yet. But I would love to join this group
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5960 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin
| Message 8 of 9 18 August 2012 at 9:05am | IP Logged |
Hi Vegemighty, thanks for the interest! At this point I'm waiting to see how many people are interested.
1 person has voted this message useful
|