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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| paisley Groupie United States Joined 5715 days ago 59 posts - 60 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 17 of 48 01 November 2009 at 11:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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I did my 6 words for the weekend.
wo3 men (we), which i won't count as 1. -mian4mo2 (face mask) -pu3tong1hua4 (mandarin, the language) -fen3di3 (foundation) -and zheng4chang2 (as in zheng4chang2 xing4 pi2fu1). ;): (normal skin, as opposed to dry or oily) and for today: Liu2 gè xīngqī. (6 weeks) and our mask last 6 weeks, xiao4guo3 (effects), and the new sentence is xiao4guo3 hen3 hao3 de. :D. (it gives very good effects). Kinda random, but i was at a loss for other words and this sentence is fun to say. The way I am generally going about it for now. I am only adding my daily chosen to learn words into my anki, the rest sit in my askbenny or nckiu lists until i am ready to add them to my daily learn words. For my daily words, I choose them based on sentences or words i need/want to say to clients. i just keep playing them on the computer and repeating each a dozen-ish times, and I use them in sentences that would be a sentence I would use with a client. Then once in morning and once in the evening I do my anki flash cards. During each time i try to figure out how to add sound to the flashcard. Then i fail and go do something else. lol. Oh, and i usually watch the cartoon pin yin song a few times a week. :D mian4mo2 (face mask) will be important, as we have 2 different kinds of face mask products (1 is $250 and the other is $320!) and rarely sell them to non English-speaking clients from China because when they come to us, they just want the cream because it is our most known product so it's the obvious thing to get. And actually, so far, most come and get our regular face cream, but often leave with nothing else. So we'll see if i can't sell a mask or 2. My boss will totally freak if i do. :D (in a good way). So far in anki I have 24 words. And I probably know a hanful more than are in there, so that will be a good judge of how many words i know. ;). Now that i have 30 or so words, i need to learn more about grammar for sentences that need prepositions. So far i only use sentences that don't require them, but my new words have been chosen to make sentences that need prepositions, so off i go to learn next week. Right now i have to write a paper for a random poli-sci class i'm taking. ugh. Which i am clearly putting off. I will make my first appt. with the girl who will help me, soon. Edited by paisley on 01 November 2009 at 11:49pm 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 18 of 48 01 November 2009 at 11:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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could you give some English examples of the types of sentences that you'd like to be able to say? I could translate some of them, and I'm sure some other people would happily help too. :)
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| paisley Groupie United States Joined 5715 days ago 59 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 19 of 48 02 November 2009 at 12:10am | IP Logged | ||
I am dying to know how to say: use once a week. i know liang and ci are involved in *twice* a week.. i'm sure yong4 would be involved. but no idea how to say it. Use once a week, then i'm sure i would add "for 6 weeks", do i still use the wei4 for the "for" there? and how do i say "for you?" wei4 ni3 ma? or is it something else. and if i want to use the whole sentence "is it for you?" wei4 ni3 de ma? or something? Also, how about "our foundation is wonderful (or excellent, or something like that). Also: We have a new mask for dry skin. A hydrating mask. "wo3men wei4 gan1xing4 pi2fu1 xin1 mian4mo2 de"? And: I speak a little mandarin" Edited by paisley on 02 November 2009 at 1:25am 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 20 of 48 02 November 2009 at 2:42am | IP Logged | ||
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hmm. try these first:
i speak a little mandarin: wo3 hui4 shuo1 yi4 dianr3 (sounds like "dyar". southerners might say "yi4 dian3 dian3" instead). Literally, that's "I able-to speak one little-bit". you might find it useful to say "wo3 jue2de ...", for "i think ..." Like if you point to a product and say "wo3 jue2de zhei4 ge hen3 hao3" (lit. "i think this one very good") once you learn more explicit words, you can substitute them in there..."wo3 jue2de zhei4 ge (foundation) hen3 hao3" -> "i think this one foundation very good", although i have no idea how to say foundation. But you can easily just use the general phrase with "this one" ("zhei4 ge") and point at it, which would work for anything. for twice a week, I think I'd say "yi2ge xing1qi1 liang3 ci4" -> "one week, two times", or maybe "mei2ge xing1qi1 liang3 ci4" -> "every week, two times". perhaps someone else can confirm or deny those, because I'm feeling a bit uncertain, but they'll be understood. generally speaking, for adjectival phrases it looks like <adjPhrase> de <Noun>. I think I'd say "yi2ge wei4 gan1xing4 pi2fu1 de xin1 mian4mo2" --> "a for-dry-skin new mask". As for prepositions generally, you really have to be careful when translating them from English. I recommend you stick to specific phrases that someone else has constructed, at least for now. You have to remember that usually each English preposition has multiple meanings. Like the "for" in "for dry skin" is sorta like "for the purpose of". But this sense does not apply to "for six weeks", which is more like a time duration sense of "for". In general, English grammar is only superficially similar to Mandarin grammar. For anything nontrivial, they can get quite different. In my experience, this is especially the case with usage of prepositions, so be careful. There's actually several set phrases in mandarin for this kind of "use twice a day for 6 weeks" sort of phrase, but I'm not familiar with them. they don't contain that "wei4" word, though. 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 21 of 48 03 November 2009 at 1:47am | IP Logged | ||
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I got to use my new sentence todayl. Today a woman came in with 3 men and only one of group spoke English, and only
okay. So she up to me and asked for mien shuang. Face cream. I showed her the main one and said in chinese that is was for dry skin. Then I took the one for oily skin (which she had) and showed it to her. Then I told her. Xiao4guo3 hen3 hao3 de. (it gives good results). She asked in chinese how much and I told her.She nodded. I asked how many (ji3). She said wu3. (that's 5) :D Her guest was blushing and dying with laughter that I was actually speaking chinese. But laughing in a good way. I swear, lol. Then she asked for yuan shuang (eye cream)(can't spell it), and I showed it to her. She boughht one. :). Now, keep in mind, people who come to my brand are there to buy it, its not like I convinced her to buy it, but stll. It could have been a struggle and frustrating for the client. But the three guy were talking to each other with smiles and hanging on my every word. Fun. Edited by paisley on 03 November 2009 at 3:30am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| delta910 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5878 days ago 267 posts - 313 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, German | Message 22 of 48 03 November 2009 at 3:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Wow, this is actually a very interesting log! It's great on how you have been learning different words to help in your work. Keep doing what you are doing!
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| paisley Groupie United States Joined 5715 days ago 59 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 23 of 48 08 November 2009 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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My friend has done the sweetest thing. I sent her a msg on facebook asking which word for "same" "ingredients" "different" "texture" I should use in such a sentence because there were several words for each, and gave her all the words I got from nciku, and explained for what sentence i need them. So she emails me back different sentences using the different words...She says:
"They can be used in different ways: Same composition: tong2 yang4 (de) cheng2 fen4 (composition) cheng2 fen4 xiang tong yi1 yang4 (same) de cheng2 fen4 Different texture: bu tong zhi di zhi di bu tong zhi di bu yi yang They have (completely) the same composition, only different texture: ta1 men2 de cheng2 fen4 (wan2quan2) xiang4 tong2 (same), zhi3 shi4 zhi4 di4 bu4 tong2. We ship internationally: Wo3men2 you3(have) guo2ji4(international) you2ji4(mailing) fu2wu4 (service)." And THEN she sent me a voice recording from her iphone saying all of them! She says each sentence 3 times. 2 times slowly, then once at normal speed. you cannot imagine a nicer person. I met her last year while campaigning. If it weren't for this stupid poli-sci paper I have to write I could practice/learn them right now. It'll have to wait til tonight and tmrw after work. Maybe i'll try finish my paper quickly so i can get to the chinese lesson. That will be my incentive. lol. I have to say, hearing her say them (while reading them) is so helpful. This will be great. (although I think i see some discrepancies btwn her and my dipthongs or whatever, i'll have to look into those) Yesterday I had 3 seperate chinese clients that didn't speak English. One bought, no joke, $1,600 of face cream, for his daughter. Literally a pound of face cream. (not because of me mind you, but still make it very easy for the client when they can tell me what they want). Another bought 1 item, and the third guy was really struggling to tell/ask me something, but I could not understand, and I couldn't find anyone around that spoke chinese. He was very nice, but couldn't purchase. Although we did have a nice conversation about different skintypes and the prices of the products. Lol. And during my conversation with him both the managers were nearby and saw and heard me speaking chinese with him. I smiled and threw them a wink. Lol. Its so much fun. :D. My next goals are the texture sentences and shipping. And I have my first tutoring session this wednesday night with the girl from my job. Must go get a mic for my laptop so I can record some sentences from her. I can't have many tutoring sessions b/c money is an issue for me. I can prolly do three 1 hours session total. And lastly, I have a very bad habit of getting over things rather quickly, (I want a dog, ...maybe a cat..I want a dog...maybe a fish...no, a dog..eh, I'm over it...) so hopefully I keep on going. Drastic changes are said to be slated for january 15th at my workplace, so the incentive to keep going is certainly high. Did my 24 Anki cards today and got them all right easily. seems i haven't added any more, i'll do that tmrw. Or maybe i'll add the "seperate" "different", etc words and memorize them before i learn the sentences. Edited by paisley on 09 November 2009 at 2:16am 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 24 of 48 14 November 2009 at 3:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Week 3.
So yesterday was my first tutoring lesson, that i set up with a woman who also works in cosmetics, but not in my line. I had written down a bunch of things that i wanted to know, and we went to a coffee house and took out a notebook and started writing them down. It was pretty funny that it took us an entire hour to do just a bit, seems like it went by so fast, and we were pretty much rushing too. but i got the chinese words and pronunciations for : welcome, lip balm, body cream, gel, lotion, cream, firming, fade marks, skin that has been traumatized, burns, translucent, powder, powder foundation, small amount, to know, please speak slowly, and a few more things. It's astounding that we only made it through that much, but we repeated them a few times and that's about it. And we weren't making small talk or anything, we had actually had dinner together right before hand, as we both had just gotten out of work. then after the lesson i ran to see a midnight showing of '2012' and was late to work this morning. :D. The movie was pretty good. Def. worth it for anyone who's into the end of the world, like myself. And again i have to write a stupid paper for the poli-sci class i'm taking on mondays, but when i have time, my plan is to incorporate these words into sentences, then practice them, and try to use them with clients (well, which i'll have to, because that's what they speak). Wish i could study this saturday, but probably can't spare more than an hour. Today a chinese woman who works nearby, who i see on occasion and who speaks English but is from china, stopped by and asked about our products, the girl i work with told her i was learning chinese so i told her some of my chinese. She was very surprised and was loving speaking with me. I gave her my new chinese regarding our 2 serums (one is for burns, rough and traumatized skin. and one is for firming). I also told her in chinese that we had the limited edition large size serum and it cost $440. she was laughing so hard and smiling out of surprise with every sentence i would give her, and kept speaking in chinese in response, something something hen hao. lol. She kept telling me "i can understand everything you say". :D. Then we decided what she wants and she will pick it up on tuesday. So that is another customer for me. :). And she specifically said "i will come back to *you* because you are learning chinese and that is good." Cool. Then she tried to teach me some new words and i was all *blink*. lol. Oh, and also someone from corporate came by, and i know her, so i was giving her some chinese, and we were talking about our serum, and she said, oh yeah, how do say "fades marks" lol!! and i had JUST learned it and said "no problem, qu4 ban1". qu with the weird u. She was laughing. Chinese is fun. The only sad part is, and i realized this a little while after learning about 30 words in chinese, that i am close to knowing almost everything i need to know in chinese, and that means for my job, even in English, i only need a vocabulary of maybe 100 words. And that is just sad. *sigh*. At least it makes me realize, i should work on improving my vocational goals. :) The day before last i did have one failed conversation with 3 chinese women. They were very sweet, but we couldn't get past my inability to say or understand lipbalm. :D. But now i know. Edited by paisley on 14 November 2009 at 4:30am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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