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Lorinth’s log - 劳伦的博客 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4310 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 145 of 408 13 September 2013 at 9:13am | IP Logged | ||
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As 中秋节 (mid-autumn festival) is approaching, it seems fitting to start reading 巴 金's《秋》. Again, it's the abridged version published by Sinolingua. I read an article about Russia's proposal to 实施国际监督 concerning 化学武器存放和后续销毁 (implement international supervision for the storage and the subsequent destruction of chemical weapons). While many people are trying to devise methods to learn to read Chinese faster, I've noticed that, in my case, silly as it may sound, it's always useful to read slower. That is, I have to be strict about: - reading whole sentences and the whole article (or a big part of it) carefully, paying attention to each character; - not looking up the vocabulary immediately; - and not trusting my brain when it screams: "Gosh, you've forgotten the meaning/pronunciation of that character/word *again*!" By simply taking the time and paying more attention, I've discovered that that (admittedly short) article could become very clear, with just a handful of doubtful words, and two unknown characters. I immediately tested that profound piece of wisdom by reading another article, about the Syrian government (mostly positive) reaction to this idea. Started a ChinesePod lesson about employees betting on the reasons why their boss is angry. Usual vocab drills with Anki (words and sentences), Pleco (words) and Skritter (characters). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cacue23 Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 4335 days ago 89 posts - 122 votes Speaks: Shanghainese, Mandarin*, English Studies: Cantonese | Message 146 of 408 13 September 2013 at 3:08pm | IP Logged | ||
LOL, kinship words are monsters. There are just too many of them, and they differ according to parts of China (in "Spring", you are looking at the Southwestern part of China in the 1920s). I'd rather avoid them myself. I certainly wouldn't call my father's female cousin of a different surname as 孃孃. Just try to get familiar with names and ranks, which I'm aware is quite difficult for you, but you could always just remember the important ones. For example, anything after the fourth grandson of the patriarch merely appear in the novel and are insignificant. The first grandson of course has a wife and a son, as well as a past love whom he couldn't marry because of some dispute among members of the previous generation. As for granddaughters, the first one died before the series begin, so the really important ones are the second, third, and fourth. And there is the cousin of the family who either in "春" or "秋" officially becomes the fiancee of the second grandson of the 高 clan. In "秋", the relationship is much more complicated with the addition of quite a lot of cousins. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4310 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 147 of 408 14 September 2013 at 10:17am | IP Logged | ||
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Read an article saying that Voyager 1 had definitively left the solar system (旅行者1号探 测器已废除太阳系), and another one saying the UK industry definitely didn't want to leave the EU (英国约八成企业反对英国退出欧盟). Article 1 Article 2 Kept on reading 巴金的《秋》。 Listened some more to the ChinesePod lesson about employees betting on their boss (this one is harder for me). Usual vocab drills with Anki, Pleco and Skritter. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4310 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 148 of 408 17 September 2013 at 9:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Read part of a rather difficult and longish article about 习近平主席's idea of creating a 丝绸路之经济带 (Silk Road economic zone). The article. Read 巴金的《秋》up to chapter 9/29. I'm finding this 3rd part a bit harder, because of the accumulated vocabulary that is not always explained again, and because of the number of chengyus or the old-fashioned (?) speech of certain characters. Usual vocab drills. The number of reviews with Anki is steadily decreasing because I'm slowly phasing-out the use of this programme, which I've been using for years, and replacing it with Pleco. Anki is very powerful and versatile, you can use it for any language, or in fact anything that has to be remembered, but I've never got the hang of version 2 and its idiosyncrasies. On the other hand Pleco wins on all fronts as a fully integrated platform specifically designed for learning Chinese. I will soon officially kill my Chinese package on Anki, put an end to the overlap, and simplify my life. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4310 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 149 of 408 18 September 2013 at 10:14am | IP Logged | ||
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Read an article about Belgium grumbling because the NSA has been spying on Belgium's main telco: 比利时政府谴责美国窃听比利时电信. And another about China also grumbling about the attitude of Japan in the military sector and in general: 中方敦促日方以实际行动取信于亚洲邻国和国 际社会. Article 1 Article 2 Read 巴金的《秋》up to chapter 14/29. Finished the ChinesePod lesson about employees betting on why their boss is angry. Transcribed (typed in an editor on my phone; handwriting is certainly better but I was in my bed and it was late) a short video about Chinese painting. Usual vocab drills. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4310 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 150 of 408 19 September 2013 at 9:14am | IP Logged | ||
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My most productive time yesterday was in a corridor, while I was waiting for the music class of my younger kid to finish. I read 巴金的《秋》(abridged version) up to chapter 17/29. I started studying a ChinesePod lesson about 中秋节的月饼 (mooncakes). By the way, I've never tried those famous mooncakes. Hey, it's today! Maybe I should head for the local Chinese supermarket, see if I can buy some. In addition, the weather is clear today so I could invite my wife and the kids to watch the rising full moon. (I have endless excuses to insert some Chinese in the daily routine). Usual vocab drills with Pleco, Skritter and Anki. 中秋节快乐! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4180 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 151 of 408 19 September 2013 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | ||
I wanted to like mooncakes. I really did. I think they have pretty much the best name of any dessert. But I can't stand them! So sad... We eat various types of Chinese food all the time (real Chinese, not "American Chinese"), and they're probably my favourite cuisines - but I simply cannot learn to enjoy Chinese desserts and sweets! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4310 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 152 of 408 19 September 2013 at 12:27pm | IP Logged | ||
They do have a bad reputation. In the ChinesePod lesson I'm studying, a character even says something like "我每年都要扔掉好多" (every year, I have to throw away quite a lot of them). But maybe it's just because he receives too many 月饼盒. Ah, but I want to try anyway :-) I'll tell you tomorrow (if I can find some of them here, that is). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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