|
 |
Snowflake’s Mandarin Log | ||
Tags: Mandarin | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes  Studies: Mandarin | Message 537 of 740 06 January 2012 at 7:10am | IP Logged |
|
Not getting much done this week due to the job and some family commitments. Started talking to my native speaker friends about going overseas....basically looking for ideas. Between my age and character study being on the back burner, it doesn't necessarily make sense to participate in a school language program. I'm also hesitant about traveling by myself. It would be a bit different if my Mandarin skills were already extremely good.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 538 of 740 08 January 2012 at 7:03am | IP Logged |
|
What Benny is doing in Taipei has inspired me. I'm much more relaxed this weekend and have been speaking more. More later.
Update: I'm having some problems sleeping as my mind is racing. I started asking my native speaker friends for suggestions regarding traveling overseas by myself. I'm in shock at the moment. Someone volunteered accommodations with her family in Beijing and Shanghai. And something that has been on my mind is that my primary chat partner for the past two years is planning to go to school in Australia this year. This is the Taiwanese fellow who is mentioned from time to time. While I've been studying more mainland Mandarin lately, it's looking like that will become my primary focus. Edited by Snowflake on 08 January 2012 at 9:06am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 539 of 740 09 January 2012 at 5:17am | IP Logged |
|
I still cannot get audio Anki entries to play on my iPod. Being tied to the laptop for reviewing audio flashcards means that they are barely getting worked....so it's not worth my time to make audio Anki entries. I'm mulling over making playlists of vocabulary items...perhaps 50 items per playlist and playing them on the iPod with shuffle turned on. Probably will have an English prompt, short silence so I can say the item in Mandarin, then the Mandarin. Basically each playlist becomes a small audio flashcard deck. The non-audio Anki deck is still being maintained and built as that serves as my personal dictionary. I am looser about reviewing those entries though.
I got up several times last night...found myself automatically saying short phrases in Mandarin. My interactions today were more subdued. Someone talked to me about that and said not to be concerned, just 喊. If I make a mistake, she'll correct me. She talked about knowing how hard it is as she had great difficulties with English. She still feels that her English is weak. While these offers have been presented before, I wouldn't necessarily see those people on a regular basis. This is the second or third time this person has talked to me about this. She's also in the same group as the woman who offered the accommodations overseas with her family. I expect this week at work to be as crazy as the last. When things get a little hectic, I tend to fall back to working movies. So I've been thinking about picking up transcribing "The Fellowship of the Ring" again. Edited by Snowflake on 09 January 2012 at 5:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 540 of 740 16 January 2012 at 6:14pm | IP Logged |
|
Rambling thoughts.....getting myself into the habit of doing self-talk out loud ala Tanya B's thread, "I Became Fluent Without a Teacher" in the general discussion room. Also trying to push having face to face conversations. I had been concerned about "perfect practice makes perfect", eg. making mistakes without someone there to correct me. The thread plus what Bennie is doing in Taipei is helping me to get over that. Anyhow, this all seems to have a cascading effect. One day I started to tell a non-Mandarin speaking coworker to wait, in Mandarin, and had to stop myself. In addition to the job, the emphasis on self-talk and conversations is pushing out things like making playlists for flashcards, transcribing "The Fellowship of the Ring" and for that matter working my SRS entries (audio or otherwise).
Update; This will seem odd... I’ve been questioning the value of a trip to China, at the end of this year, for immersion purposes. Between the tutor and help from friends, I can have substantial conversations on 4-5 different days a week. The other days, short conversations with co-workers are possible. The discussions in my small groups are beyond advanced, language level-wise. This past weekend I talked with my prior Mandarin instructor about the trip and my thoughts. She suggested doing a tour to get a better feel for the country, acknowledging that a travel agency arranged tour would be somewhat superficial. She has a travel agency in mind and offered to inquire about a tour group composed of native speakers. Edited by Snowflake on 16 January 2012 at 8:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 541 of 740 18 January 2012 at 8:02am | IP Logged |
|
I spoke too soon....suppose to roll off this project, probably within a month or two. That will change
everything. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 542 of 740 21 January 2012 at 4:27pm | IP Logged |
|
Not in the best mood this week due to a number of things...so I've been less active in trying to talk with people. Bennie posted a video on his site, of him speaking Mandarin. I read through the comments and now am reading through his page "How to prepare, record & upload a video entirely in a foreign language just after starting to learn it". It's prompting me to think through some cultural things.
My small group meeting tonight includes a potluck to celebrate Chinese New Year, including a hot-pot. Learned this last week when talking with a friend... 随时随地/隨時隨地 suíshísuídì [成语] at any time and any place which I mentioned to my tutor. I then sighed about it probably being the only 成语 that I know. She said that I've used quite a few 成语's in our conversations.... surprized me. I must have picked some up without knowing that they're proverbs. Edited by Snowflake on 21 January 2012 at 4:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 543 of 740 22 January 2012 at 11:20pm | IP Logged |
|
Rambling thoughts....
Decided that my primary push needs to be actual conversations....That means though SRS entries are barely getting reviewed. As a result Anki is more my personal dictionary than anything else right now. I also think that it's time to actively start back with character work.... haven't decided how to tackle that yet. I've been trying to follow Tanya B's suggestion on changing the self-talk subject each day but am running into one of the issues which resulted in me favoring CLO...I need the continuity of reusing the same words while learning new ones. So this week most of my self-talk subjects have been different news items so terms can be recycled somewhat. The discontinuity of the PopUp Chinese material is a bit less bothersome since the dialogs tend toward the outrageous. That in itself makes them more memorable. I met with my former Mandarin instructor again today. She's volunteered to weekly chat with me. On the hip hip hooray side, last week she said that I'm able to communicate now. That won't seem like much though for someone who is generally shy about speaking and therefore did not open my mouth much, that's a huge step. This week she mentioned that I've improved a lot (compared to when she was actually my instructor). So that's another atta girl. A word given today by my former instructor... 解放 jiěfàng [v] liberate It's often used in the context of the Chinese civil war. However she used it to refer to me since my children are all grown up. 大家新年快乐! Edited by Snowflake on 23 January 2012 at 2:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 544 of 740 24 January 2012 at 3:49am | IP Logged |
|
Not to stir a controversy....I'm looking at the video which prompted 孔庆东 to say what he did about Hong Kongers and the news interview where he talks about it. The interview becomes a listening comprehension lesson for me. Also am looking at the 香港大学 survey which the English news articles are referring to. Edited by Snowflake on 25 January 2012 at 5:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
