|
 |
Job related Mandarin 60 Day Project | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Strongman Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 5705 days ago 8 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, Swedish Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 9 of 48 30 October 2009 at 12:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I noticed your initial thread in which you were looking for advice - it was an really interesting read. You seem to have really taken to this project and I think its great. I don't wish to deride your efforts so far by calling them basic - but I just want to say that your success so far shows that how just getting your feet wet in a language can build a cultural bridge.
Great work and keep it up! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| paisley Groupie United States Joined 5715 days ago 59 posts - 60 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 10 of 48 31 October 2009 at 2:05am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Very cool today, we had 2 female clients struggling with English, both were chinese. I was actually working on the computer today and not on the sales floor but i was passing by the counter and my co-worker stopped me and said "maybe you can help, i need to tell her this one is for oily skin". holy moly, that is exactly what i had been working on (well, not by accident of course, i'me learning the most needed things first). So i told the women in chinese "for who?", they pointed to the one it was for. i motioned to her would it be okay for me to touch her skin, then i said "I recommend this one for oily skin" (wo3 tui4jian4 zhege wei you2xing4 pi2fu1). :D. and picked up the correct item and showed it to her. they asked in Chinese "how much" :D. I told them in chinese $230 (er bai3 san1 shi4). :D. They totally understood very easily, it was so cool. They didn't buy it, i was worried maybe i said the wrong thing, but it was my friend who wanted me to say oily skin, because the woman wanted the regular heavy cream. either way, woot! Now i need to learn a nicer way to say it, like "this one is good for your skin type" :). cuz who wants to hear they have oily skin. :D
and THEN! (later) i was walking down the hall and my boss was with me, and there was one of the few people in our building on my floor that speaks chinese, so of course i told my boss "i'm going to go over there and throw down some chinese" lol. I did, and her mouth dropped open. I told her "only 2 weeks", she said "wow, it was beautiful" (or something like that). and we talked a bit about it (in English of course). Dope. I also had a client late last night, also chinese, i asked her if i could tell her my chinese words, she was impressed. So far i am having a very different experience than when i was trying to learn Spanish. I guess since so few americans attempt chinese, they are quite impressed. Whereas Spanish, about 20% of the 1,000 or so people that work in my building speak Spanish, so it's no big deal, and gets really annoying to them when i try to speak to them in Spanish. lol. i'm glad i feel comfortable using the little mandarin i have with our chinese clients. So now i'm off to pick my words for the weekend. My goal of course @ 3 words/day is 6 words, I cannot inundate myself. that and i have reading and a paper to write for my poli-sci class. Edited by paisley on 31 October 2009 at 2:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5570 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 11 of 48 31 October 2009 at 2:25am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, you will find in general that Chinese people will usually be very surprised and delighted that you are learning their language, even if you aren't very good at it. They really appreciate people's efforts to learn about their culture and language. Just remember that when Chinese people tell you your Chinese is very good, often they don't really mean that literally and are just trying to encourage you.
That should be èr (fourth tone) and shí (second tone). Edited by Levi on 31 October 2009 at 2:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| paisley Groupie United States Joined 5715 days ago 59 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 12 of 48 31 October 2009 at 2:37am | IP Logged | |||||
Damn, i'm been saying shi4 the whole time! lol. But i do think they mean it when they say it's good, my tones are usually pretty good, not perfect, but good. it's because i'm good at imitation, not so great at other stuff, like memory, lol. i hope it doesn't get harder to remember words when i get to know more words. Does it? that is my fear. the fear that trying to learn Spanish has instilled in me. i'm surprised i'm not totally traumatized from my terrible failure at espanol. lol. Edited by paisley on 31 October 2009 at 4:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5570 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 13 of 48 31 October 2009 at 4:30am | IP Logged | |||||
|
No, the more words you know the easier it will be to acquire new words. This is for a number of reasons. First of all, the more words you understand, the more you can understand the basic meaning of sentences and the more you can infer the meaning of the words you don't know by heart yet. Secondly, you will get a clearer picture of how the words relate to each other and how they fit with other words into sentences. And thirdly, particularly with Chinese, you will notice that words are made up of the same building blocks. Since every syllable has a meaning, when you learn a two-syllable word you are really learning three words (the two-syllable word plus both its building blocks), and you are bound to see those building blocks crop up with related meanings elsewhere in the language. Edited by Levi on 31 October 2009 at 4:32am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| paisley Groupie United States Joined 5715 days ago 59 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 14 of 48 31 October 2009 at 5:00am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Okay, i've decided on my 3 words:
Saturday: we (wo3 men) which; as in "ni3 yao4 nage3" or (the alternative 'or'): háishi Sunday: face mask (miànmó) foundation (fen3di3) face scrub (móshāgāo) i'll have to see how to make that face scrub if that isn't ok on it own, i'm pretty sure it is. These great product words came from the http://www.nciku.com site that you guys rec'd me. so thanks again. These are products we sell. Gosh, i'll need so many words. *scared* It'll be okay. I also want week (xīngqī) and a few more, but i'll wait on those. I must make sure I only do 3 a day so that i don't get confused. Edited by paisley on 31 October 2009 at 5:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| paisley Groupie United States Joined 5715 days ago 59 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 15 of 48 31 October 2009 at 5:05am | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks. Phew! still scared, but i guess i'll know at the end of the week if i'll be able to handle 21 news words. :D. oh wait, make that 3 x3 days, plus 2 x 3 days and 1 day to recap, so that makes 13. lol. Sounds good to me. [edit, again] Oh wait, bimbo moment, clearly I cannot count. lol. 13 words a week x 8 weeks only equals about 100. And i can't do mondays, that puts me at 80 words. hmm. i'll have to work something out. Edited by paisley on 31 October 2009 at 7:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5989 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 16 of 48 31 October 2009 at 5:32am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I love reading this log, it's awesome. Keep it up! also, imitation is good. If you do lots of listening, your accent will improve automatically just from imitation :)
2 persons have 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. |
