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Snowflake’s Mandarin Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes  Studies: Mandarin | Message 201 of 740 22 January 2010 at 4:36am | IP Logged |
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Went through some lessons at http://popupchinese.com/ which seems to be a competitor of Chinesepod. The Popup Chinese material though is free of charge. I also have to sort through a sea of r's as Popup Chinese is out of Beijing. Anyhow, it makes for an interesting break from transcribing.
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| annette Senior Member United States Joined 5504 days ago 164 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* | Message 202 of 740 22 January 2010 at 5:47am | IP Logged |
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Maybe I'll check out that site. Although I understand them when people speak to me, I
don't use the r's at all because I'm used to Taiwanese teachers. I like the way I sound and people understand me, but I might work in the mainland in the future, so it would be nice to "fit in" a little bit more. So I want to start using r's and Beijing intonation (don't know what to call it, but you know how people from Beijing seem to use more fifth tones and lighter stress?). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 203 of 740 23 January 2010 at 4:49am | IP Logged |
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Fitting in...I can interpret that in different ways. What are you hoping for?
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 204 of 740 24 January 2010 at 2:38am | IP Logged |
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Should probably explain why the question to Annette. Ethnics other than east Asians usually stick out in a sea of Chinese. Ethnic Chinese, born and raised outside of the mainland/Taiwan/Hong Kong would generally stick out in the mainland in a different manner as the personal dress and carriage is different. Anyhow, if you are ethnic east Asian then I can understand going for the Beijing accent to better fit in. If going that route, entering into the mindset and functioning well in it would go a very long way. And assuming the Mandarin is pretty good, regardless of ethnicity, I suspect there would be more mileage with the mindset than the Beijing accent. Edited by Snowflake on 24 January 2010 at 4:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 205 of 740 24 January 2010 at 6:28am | IP Logged |
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的话 is used for conditionals. Example;
出外海的话船就不怕风浪 chu1wai4 hai3 dehua4 chuan2 jiu4 bu2pa4 feng1lang4 Ships out at sea are not scared/concerned/deterred by rough waters Per my instructor, 的话 does not alter the meaning/connotation of the conditional and does not have to be used. I'm having great difficulty speaking in Mandarin about food...reaaaally want to revert to Toishanese. My Toishanese is probably the strongest regarding food. The AP class last week started with a discussion about current events, in particular the earthquake in Haiti. The class then moved to doing presentations. A number of students weren't prepared so they got up in front of the class and talked on a subject given by the instructor. All the topics were related to Chinese holidays. Some students resisted getting up in front of the class so they had to do reading out loud. The reading skills generally were pretty good. Afterward there was a discussion with question/answers on a reading passage about the elderly in China. During the entire class, I noticed only one correction for grammar. One student had some vocabulary difficulties though mostly for scientific terms. My class will not be going thru the second text book this session. The plans were changed after the instructor talked to the class as a whole. Basically everyone, who was in class at that time, after we finish our current text would like to work on conversing. Attended the 太極拳/tàijíquán class. My body was complaining a bit. I'm sure the instructor heard some of the sounds my knees and back were making; she looked my way, probably wondering about the noise. Anyhow there was barely any English during the entire class and most of those were repetitions of "push" and "block". Am doing my periodic bang head here. Edited by Snowflake on 24 January 2010 at 6:32am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 206 of 740 30 January 2010 at 5:26am | IP Logged |
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Several weeks ago I came to the conclusion that shadowing the second class text book material wasn't going anywhere since the dialogues are a bit dry. And then this past weekend I was asked in Sunday school to give my testimony, in Mandarin on the spot. I was taken aback and eased myself out of it. Sooo am hitting the FSI material to get out of the sit back and listen mode. Quite a while back I did, or think I did, all but the last unit of the directions module and maybe half of transportation. Rather than spend the time determining what exactly was done, I've started the meetings module and plan to go back later.
Still need to finish transcribing the Ponyo movie. Think I have the winter doldrums, don't want to move. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 207 of 740 02 February 2010 at 1:08am | IP Logged |
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Using FSI, even for a few days now, is definitely getting me to speak more. I'm skipping the comprehension tapes and am doing the production and drill tapes. Now am wondering whether to just bite the bullet and go back several modules as it's been such a long time since using the material. The other thing is that with more speaking, I can feel the “pain” of friends putting up with my output. So am mulling through ways to lessen that burden. One thing being considered is practicing telling very short stories, probably using an online service like http://www.chineseteachers.com/.
Am running into interesting differences in how corrections are given. People who don't really know me, generally will use easier vocabulary. Those who know me, usually will mention what they themselves would say. My class instructor pretty much falls into the latter category. Being aware of 的话 for conditions now, am hearing it in various movies and dramas. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 208 of 740 03 February 2010 at 3:40am | IP Logged |
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Playing around with Chinesepod and Popup Chinese. The amount of English is beginning to get annoying.
After all this time, I just discovered that my movies have separate Cantonese and Mandarin subtitles. It seems the reason the subtitles were so very different from the Mandarin dialog is that the Cantonese subtitles were on. So am back to transcribing a movie that I have more fun with. Edited by Snowflake on 03 February 2010 at 3:42am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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