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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 729 of 740 05 December 2014 at 1:17am | IP Logged |
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Antsy due to a number of things....I have the chance to attend this month's after Christmas local conference which is about 95-99% in Mandarin, though think given some of the specialized vocabulary that maybe should stick to what I've been doing lately. Back to reading Harry Potter for the moment and watching 杉杉来了. Am happy to say that several scenes which were a mystery in terms of listening comprehension are much clearer now. Am running into the usual hiccup of using phrases from, in this case, mainland TV series and getting my 說法 corrected by Taiwanese....the opposite also happens.
Am 83.1% through Neutrino. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 730 of 740 03 February 2015 at 12:47am | IP Logged |
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....recently watched the 何以笙箫默 mainland drama and am reading an internet novel by 酒小
七. The book 說法 and vocabulary is very different from what I'm used to. Since am not fond of working with SRS but especially need the character reviews, am trying to premack them with my reading....am going to try 5 SRS character reps for 2 pages of reading. Time to buy more DVDs. Starting to look at going overseas this year. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 731 of 740 05 February 2015 at 11:12pm | IP Logged |
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I'm sort of banging my head about Taiwanese vs mainland usage. The internet book I'm
reading seems to be another example of text written by a native Chinese speaker which Taiwanese do cannot necessarily understand... was asking about the authors' use of 切. Also have some recent incidents in talking with people... I’m used to using 研究所 (yánjiūsuǒ) as a general term for graduate studies or graduate school. A group of mainlanders corrected me and said to use 研究學. The next day I used 研究學 and was told to use 研究所. Then this week I was asking a Shanghainese friend whether her family will be celebrating her sons’ birthday with a 派對 (pàiduì, party). There was silence so I started to ask whether my tones were wrong. Then she explained that 派對 is a Taiwanese term and talked about Chinese usually celebrating birthdays by eating noodles personally made from scratch. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 732 of 740 15 February 2015 at 10:13pm | IP Logged |
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Something happened at my Sat group meeting which has me thinking about the materials
mentioned here.... http://ieas.berkeley.edu/iup/curriculum_textbooks.html. This program is used to prepare students to study full time at Tsinghua University in their major.... the students' Chinese needs to be strong enough to take all their classes in Chinese. I'm thinking about this as well as forum advice about improving listening comprehension since for the immediate future, that is the most important aspect for me. Edited by Snowflake on 18 February 2015 at 8:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 733 of 740 14 March 2015 at 7:14pm | IP Logged |
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I'm watching another TV drama on YouTube, 潜伏. This one is set during the conflict between
the nationalists and the communists while the Japanese were in the country. The main character, according to my Beijingnese friend who recommended the series, is a communist though at the outset he is 国民党军统. Also expecting another order of DVDs soon...The Shanghainese friend, whose husband brings the movies back, is encouraging me to watch more to help my Mandarin. Still reading internet novels and am reading aloud as much as possible. I'm also going through "Across the Straits". A mainlander at my Sat group volunteered to let me practice speaking with her. When she learned that my regular Skype chat partner is Taiwanese, she said it would be fine to use 国 语 instead of 普通话. That was a suprize since the people in this particular group lately have been correcting me for Taiwanese usage (very rarely have Taiwanese participants there). Anyhow, I don't necessarily expect speaking practice with that person to work out as there are a number of changes which the group is going through. I'm getting better about writing emails in Chinese, albeit short. Usually I ask my overseas Taiwanese chat partner for corrections on those whether he is the recipient or not. Have Siri on my iPad mini set to mainland Mandarin though haven't used it yet. The default language on the iPad is set to Chinese with simplified characters whereas my iPod is set to traditional characters. 90.4% thru Neutrino and still at phase 5... am wondering what percentage is needed to hit stage 6. Making arrangements to visit Taiwan this summer. Like last year, it will not be an immersion. I'm planning on putting together some islands for the trip. Two different mainlanders have agreed to help me with those. After those are set, I will pass the text by a local Taiwanese friend to have a Taiwanese version. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 734 of 740 23 May 2015 at 8:16pm | IP Logged |
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Generally my Mandarin "studies" are more lax due to other commitments.
Recently watching Taiwanese dramas and am still reading internet romance novels. The last few books I read were something like Harry Potter meets Percy Jackson. Currently reading a book which has more than 3000 chapters. The underlying story premise is odd but it makes for pretty good reading, plus it's humorous. This one has no magical stuff (no immortals) but the main character is a current day university student who wakes up to find herself in ancient times in the body of someone who becomes a 王妃. My character and word recognition seem to be improving. Edited by Snowflake on 23 May 2015 at 8:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 735 of 740 09 June 2015 at 5:10pm | IP Logged |
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Cultural mullings...I’ve been reading Chinese romance novels and throughout have been
thinking about how people treat each other. I’ve started reading romance novels set in ancient times, including court life and what has been called the “politics of the harem”. That got me thinking about the 4 famous beauties. Off the top of my head, the closest thing I could think of which could be seen as somewhat similar in the west were what happened with Helen of Troy and Henry VIII. I tend to see those as different than the 4 beauties. Helen of Troy was already married so her husband was fighting to get her back. Henry VIII ultimately wanted a male heir; the “politics of the harem” came into play there. I generally see Chinese culture as narcissistic and especially see that in how literature and TV/movies portray the treatment of women by men. Not trying to start a flame war, want to understand the culture. Update; If 帝王燕 refers to a woman who will greatly influence the changes within a country’s state of affairs then Helen of Troy and Anne Boleyn would qualify. Edited by Snowflake on 09 June 2015 at 7:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5957 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 736 of 740 13 June 2015 at 7:25pm | IP Logged |
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Started reading a novel which is set in modern times that uses phrases from 孫子兵法
(Sūnzĭ bīngfǎ, The Art of War). The novel is another romance though set in a business struggle. The writer is a mainlander whose phraseology is quite different than the other authors I've read so far. Often I'm banging my head trying to understand what is being said. It also brings to mind what is sometimes a wide enough divide between mainland and Taiwanese Mandarin usage. I had planned to prepare some islands for my trip to Taiwan with both mainland and Taiwanese versions but due to time there is one island and it will only have a mainland version. I'm hoping that won't be a problem since the people who will hear the island will probably know that I'm not from a Mandarin speaking family. Was looking at news articles, in English, about Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai....seems to read like a real life political/court intrigue novel. I'm 94.5% through Neutrino and am still in level 5. Technically I have a maximum of 112 days left in the program. Since am lackadaisical about logging what I'm doing, expect to be in Neutrino through the last day. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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