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Snowflake’s Mandarin Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes  Studies: Mandarin | Message 369 of 740 02 March 2011 at 5:26am | IP Logged |
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Was challenged with echoing what may be my longest sentence to date, 30 characters. It's 31 if I say 一个 instead of just 个. I passed that sentence by a friend and she was more comfortable using 一个. There's one more dialog before starting the reviews...not that they won't be repeated multiple times more. I'm getting to the stage where these can be comfortably echoed while driving the car so am starting to look forward to the next level. As people may guess, I'm pretty motivated at the moment to push forward with this. Edited by Snowflake on 02 March 2011 at 5:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 370 of 740 13 March 2011 at 12:23am | IP Logged |
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I started echoing the review dialogs for the level and then got sick. Tried some echoing today and think waiting a bit longer is a good idea.
Before getting sick, a friend reconnected with me. This person is originally from Taiwan and knew me back when I was taking Mandarin in college. When asked if she still knew Mandarin, the answer was "some". Her comment after hearing me speak Mandarin was a polite comment that I can communicate. Wish I could be that optimistic. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 371 of 740 13 March 2011 at 6:47pm | IP Logged |
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I suspect the events, in Japan, are on the minds of many peoples. It was the primary topic in this mornings' chat .... my chat partner was in Japan when the earthquake and tsunami occured. This person is technical, so sometimes his sentences may be a bit different than what other native speakers would say. Having said that, I welcome any native speakers wishing to give alternate sentences.
大多数的人会工作抱怨. 但这次地震没有发生在自己身旁 所以会觉得感谢. dàduōshu4 de rén huì gōngzuò bàoyuàn. dàn zhècì dìzhèn méiyǒu fāshēng zài zìjǐ shēnpáng suǒyǐ huì juéde gǎnxiè. (punctuation is mine) The majority of people complain about work, but given the earthquake I should be thankful. (loose translation) 3级的地震强度 / 3級的地震強度 sān jí de dìzhèn qiángdù 3.0 magnitude (He stayed in an area that was pretty much unaffected by the events.) 没有受到地震影响 /沒有受到地震影響 meiyou3 shòudào dìzhèn yǐngxiǎng not affected by the earthquake 地震比较少发生/ 地震比較少發生 dìzhèn bǐjiào shǎo fāshēng. Earthquakes seldomn occur (here where I am) 这新闻影响到工作吗?/ 這新聞影響到工作嗎? zhè xīnwén yǐngxiǎng dào gōngzuò ma? 这消息影响到工作吗?/ 這消息影響到工作嗎? zhè xiāoxi yǐngxiǎng dào gōngzuò ma? Did this news affect your work (while you were there)? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 372 of 740 15 March 2011 at 3:30am | IP Logged |
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This is going to ramble.
I'm still recovering from being sick so the Malaysian fellow at work today asked how I was feeling. That led into talking about anecdotal treatments. At one point he described something that seemed totally unfamiliar. He was certain though that I knew whatever it was that he was talking about and that his English just wasn't good enough to properly communicate it. At one point, I filled in an English word for something he described. It turned out to be a word that he was totally unfamiliar with but that most Americans would use when talking to a nurse, doctor or pharmacist. I've even heard that word in commercials. Thinking about it later, I asked how long he's been in the US (8-9 years). Most people would probably consider his English fluent to proficient so I thought about the implications related to learning Mandarin. Later, I talked with my husband about the exchange above. My husband is like me in that he is American born and his parents are also native Toishanese speakers. His sense was that many L2 speakers have those language gaps but usually gloss over them. Afterward I was thinking that it probably came down to 1...giving the impression of understanding something, maybe in part to save face or perhaps not to interrupt the flow of conversation. 2...agreeing to something without necessarily understanding the implications and connotations of what was said. Obviously this happens between L1 speakers though here I'm talking about more basic communications with L2 speakers. 3...agreeing to something because the person didn't necessarily understand the underpinnings. An example, my husband mentioned a friend who came to the US from Taiwan in his highschool years. This Taiwanese person works in a technical field and mentioned that he'd "die" for his company. He has been working for a good number of years and has lived through a number of "down sizings". My husband talked with the friend more about being willing to "die" for his company and realized that the friend didn't understand American life. #3 got me thinking about the conversation I had with my Taiwanese chat partner who just came back from Japan. He bought some small items there, for his family, which he was going to send using 快递 (they live 4-5 hours away from him in a heavily populated area). He mentioned DHL and UPS. I wondered why those services instead of the regular mail? My next thought was perhaps Taiwan didn't have a "regular mail" service like ours. So I described the US postal service as being a 国家公司 and frequently used for snail mail. He said that Taiwan has an equivalent but that it's generally used for larger items such as appliances. I have difficulty with the idea of using our postal service for those types of things. Anyhow I then wondered why not letters or small packages and remembered that the origins of the US postal service includes the Pony Express. BTW, he did end up mentioning 有些帐单必须靠信件寄送/ 有些帳單必須靠信件寄送 you3xie1 zhang4dan1 bi4xu1 kao4 xin4jian4 ji4song4 I'm thinking that there are so many things about daily life that we take for granted because we're very firmly rooted in the culture of our L1. However these things don't necessarily make sense to someone with roots in an entirely different culture. It may come under the category of paradigm shift. But then, isn't that what "culture shock" is for many people?! Update; changes made for clarity Update; corrected some spelling errors Edited by Snowflake on 18 March 2011 at 7:58pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 373 of 740 18 March 2011 at 2:22am | IP Logged |
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Was thinking about mainland and Taiwanese tones and wondered if it was confusing to other people when I say some things using Taiwanese tones but other words with mainland tones (that have a Taiwanese variation). Since I was at work at the time, I asked the Malaysian fellow. He needed some examples so I mentioned
轻微 qīngwēi, qīngwéi 窗户 chuānghu, chuānghù (he suggested I say just chuāng) He felt the tone disparity wouldn't be a problem as native speakers will still understand. He was surprized though that I was aware of these differences. I feel that is unavoidable. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 374 of 740 22 March 2011 at 10:56pm | IP Logged |
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I’m trying to get back into the daily habit of echoing after having been sick. Even now, there are some vestiges from the cold.
I’ve been looking for a very general term to describe something at work, some research that was done. Basically I’m looking to describe about 2-3 hours of research by 1-2 people. I asked the Malaysian fellow. He came up with a few phrases that he didn’t really like (remember, he works in English and not Mandarin). So I passed those by my overseas Taiwanese chat partner. He’s in a technical field but doesn’t really deal with the types of things I do. He didn’t like those phrases. We came up with another phrase that he thought might work but wasn’t totally happy with. Well the Malaysian fellow really didn’t like that term. So the latest one that I’m bouncing off people is 仔细检查的事 (zi3xi4jian3cha2 de shi4). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 375 of 740 25 March 2011 at 4:26am | IP Logged |
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Per a friend, from Zhejiang, who works in the same industry as me...
仔细检查的事 (zi3xi4jian3cha2 de shi4)is fine. However, you can say in a more formal way like 深入研究的事 (shen1ru4 yan2jiu1 de shi4). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 376 of 740 28 March 2011 at 2:20am | IP Logged |
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I'm looking for more things since my verbal output is so weak. So in addition to echoing the CLO material, I'm going back to work FSI. It's been ages since working with that so I'm starting with the BIO module. Doing every single audio is a sure way to kill my motivation so for now I'm doing the drills.
My Taiwanese chat partner mentioned having 4 days off for 清明節 qīngmíngjié. Per Nciku that is "Tomb Sweeping Day, also known as Qingming Festival or Clear Brightness Festival, a special day to remember and honor one's ancestors; this holiday usually falls between April 4th and April 6th." My mother observes this. According to Wikipedia, the mainland observes 清明節 as a public holiday. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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