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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 569 of 740 29 April 2012 at 11:34pm | IP Logged |
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I joined the Super Challenge at the 50 movies, 50 books level. Getting through the books will be extremely hard. Add to that, my local chat partner is urging me to learn to hand write and not just read. I have materials in simplified, but not graded readers. All my graded readers are in traditional. I'm considering ordering some of the Chinese Breeze readers and the simplified version of "The Lady in the Painting". I already have the traditional character version of the latter book. Hmm, maybe this is where I should ask my friends about borrowing their kids' books. Anyhow, I'm also looking at the "Graded Chinese Reader" by Shi Ji which currently has volumes 1-3.
Update; 1...Downloaded "Peter Rabbit" from www.creationsbycrouch.com/audiobookc.htm which includes audio. 2...Ordered "Anna Mei Banfa!: A Short Novel In Simple Chinese: Characters And Pinyin" by Terry Waltz. 3...Ordered "Graded Chinese Reader 1" by Shi Ji. It comes with a MP3 CD. If I like it enough, then will probably order volumes 2-3 from overseas as it's much less expensive, even with shipping. The series is abridged Chinese contemporary short stories which will hopefully will hold my interest. 4...Mentioned someplace else that I ordered "The Magic Ark: The Adventures of "Tiny Wang"" (Far Eastern Publications Series) 5...Ordered movies include, "The Devil Wears Prada", "Jumanji" and "Get Smart". I also recently received "Stormy Night" which is Japanese anime. At some point I should look at "The Little Prince". Update 2; www.nciku.com/books/peter_rabbit/ has a different freebie version of Peter Rabbit with audio. Edited by Snowflake on 30 April 2012 at 6:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 570 of 740 02 May 2012 at 7:34am | IP Logged |
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First day of the challenge and I started reading the Nciku version of Peter Rabbit. Ouch! If that is the indicator then it's going to be a very miserable 20 months. So I read the sample story on the Cheng & Tsui site from volume one of "Tales and Traditions: Readings in Chinese Literature Series". That went much better. I ordered that and "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" (Far Eastern Publications Series). I used to have a copy of the latter but not any more...that's at the 600 character level. All this book buying is probably raising eyebrows. I've been down this road before, twice. Regardless of what people have said, characters still intimidate me. To start what truly will be a lifetime of reading Chinese, the foundation has to be sound. I can make sure it is sound by making it reinforcing.
I also bought Mind Snacks for my iPod. I'm not really into playing games so will have to see how that goes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 571 of 740 03 May 2012 at 4:56am | IP Logged |
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Reading the Peter Rabbit version found at www.creationsbycrouch.com/audiobookc.htm which is easier than the Nciku one. I was looking around and found
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dporter/sampler/sampler.html which seems to have a good amount of reading material, including some beginner level items. Edited by Snowflake on 03 May 2012 at 5:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 572 of 740 05 May 2012 at 12:56am | IP Logged |
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It's been ages since tackling characters so after discovering the Clavis Sinica site, I've started going through their "Stepping Stones" which is supposed to teach the most commonly used 300 characters. Of course that list seems different than the initial 300 which the Yale Mirror series materials teach. Anyhow the "Stepping Stones" site mentions 15 lessons though only 9 are present. Oh well. I need to get some graph paper to practice writing ....probably should also look at my Heisig volume 1 book again.
"The Magic Ark: The Adventures of "Tiny Wang"", aka 宝船, arrived today. According to the Yale Mirror Series website, this is approximately at the 700 character level. The introduction mentions being a supplemental reader for people who have already learned 400 characters. It looks like the book will be fun. Started playing Mind Snacks...at the moment it's a little annoying though I definitely see value in it. I'm dreading tackling characters a lot less this time. Edited by Snowflake on 05 May 2012 at 1:12am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 573 of 740 06 May 2012 at 10:07pm | IP Logged |
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工作的项目 gong1zuo4 de xiang4mu4
This is the term that my former Mandarin instructor said to use when referring to one of my work projects. Her face lit up when I mentioned picking up character work. She basically said that the grammar, jokes and many other things would come together. 移 on the Clavis Sinica site is mentioned as being one of the 300 most commonly used characters; I could not find it in the Tuttle nor Heisig volume 1 book. Ah, the joys of the most frequent characters lists. I finally put up my 1500 most commonly used character poster. Ala AJATT, the characters I know are being marked in red. For anyone who is interested, mandarinposter.com now has free down loadable simplified and traditional radical lists which can be put up on your wall. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 574 of 740 10 May 2012 at 10:40pm | IP Logged |
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It feels like Christmas! Today these arrived....
The Devil Wears Prada (DVD) Jumanji (DVD) Get Smart (DVD) Tales and Traditions: Readings in Chinese Literature Series (book) Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (book) Graded Chinese Reader 1 (book with mp3 disk) Plus it looks like I have my next work project. I'm finding that things are sticking rather well in slowly going through Stepping Stones on the Clavis Sinica site. Basically I spend a lot of time looking at new characters, their etymology on YellowBridge, other words using that character and sometimes look it up in Tuttle and/or Heisig. I may not read 50 books in 20 months though it feels like this routine is working well for now. I thought about memorizing some of the Stepping Stones stories which is what the site recommends. They seem to help me better "wrap my mind around" the grammar. My overseas Taiwanese chat partner felt the stories are too literary for memorization work and mentioned that he studied these in grammar school. Edited by Snowflake on 10 May 2012 at 10:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 575 of 740 16 May 2012 at 4:04am | IP Logged |
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Watched "The Devil Wears Prada", "Jumanji" and "Get Smart". For some reason I like "Get Smart" better in Mandarin. I'm still focusing on material with mainland accents. The reading is suffering as I'm prepping for my next project which starts next week. Eg. ripping movie audio and planning the books to tote along. I hope there are Mandarin speakers on this project.
Am at level 3 in Mind Snacks. I erratically play so this may take forever. I've been waffling on the trip to the mainland. Given this project, the earliest I can take 3-4 weeks will probably be 1st quarter next year. Given Bennie's comment that he could have learned Mandarin while not in Taiwan, basically as he spent so much time studying in his room, my husband suggests not going to China and instead attending as many Mandarin speaking conferences as possible here in the US. Frankly that requires that my reading drastically improve to easily catch those announcements. Update: Realized that all the conference announcements which I've seen have been in traditional. I'm studying simplified. :>( Edited by Snowflake on 17 May 2012 at 12:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 576 of 740 26 May 2012 at 1:21am | IP Logged |
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I'm having motivation issues. At first I thought it was a hold over from the intensity of the last project (eg. fatigue). Now it's clear that's not the issue. Need to think through what's going on, or maybe I should say what is not going on.
Planning to check out www.lenaia.com for their approach to characters. My Shanghainese chat partner is a little surprized at the vocabulary that I'm using these days. This is despite sometimes getting the tones wrong or transposing syllables. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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