atlantisliv Triglot Newbie Nepal realityequation Joined 5743 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English, Nepali*, French Studies: Mandarin
| Message 1 of 7 31 May 2009 at 7:09pm | IP Logged |
Hi all,
I've been reading these forums for quite a while now, just hadn't posted anything yet. A quick introduction: I'm a Nepali student, studying in the US, learning French with a recent interest in Mandarin.
I acted on this interest and applied to a study abroad program to learn Mandarin in China. And now here I am, in Anhui Agricultural University in Hefei, Anhui, reflecting on how much I've learnt in these two weeks. (I'm on an intensive four-week course that's equivalent to first-year Chinese at the undergrad level).
Being here, where people hardly speak English really helps. Although there are many students studying to become English-speaking Chinese language tutors, the minute you step outside of campus or classes, you have to speak the language for survival (and so you don't end up eating chicken noodle soup all the time).
In any case, this has been such an amazing experience for me. I've been blogging on my website Reality Equation), where I recently wrote an overview of Mandarin from the POV of a beginner, comparing it to English, French and Nepali (other languages I speak). There are also lots of posts about food (a LOT of food) and culture.
Although I'm being taught Pǔtōnghuà, I'm also learning from local students about the Hefeihuà, and it's really interesting looking at how locals here consider/comprehend/speak standard Mandarin.
If you have any questions the answers to which you think I might have (or can hunt and figure out), do let me know. I'm thinking of doing a Q&A of interesting features of Hefei and Chinese in my blog at some point, so that'll help.
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cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5844 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian
| Message 2 of 7 01 June 2009 at 12:31am | IP Logged |
What a great blog with unsual and very stylish layout! I will be following it.
Although I am not studying Chinese myself I really admire that language -- maybe one day... Welcome to the forum.
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Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6040 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds
| Message 3 of 7 01 June 2009 at 1:03am | IP Logged |
cordelia0507 wrote:
What a great blog with unsual and very stylish layout! I will be following it.
Although I am not studying Chinese myself I really admire that language -- maybe one day... Welcome to the forum. |
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I second that, the blog is very stylish and the content seems to be consistently interesting.
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atlantisliv Triglot Newbie Nepal realityequation Joined 5743 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English, Nepali*, French Studies: Mandarin
| Message 4 of 7 01 June 2009 at 8:08am | IP Logged |
Thank you :)
I put up the design right before leaving for China, partly because I wanted to have a way to post from here without having to worry about the design too much.
Update: The comments section has some interesting discussion about double-syllable synonym compounds and an alternate form of yes/no compounds.
It's strange; about a month ago, I didn't see myself getting into Chinese anytime soon (I'd been flirting with Thai for a bit). It happened quite quickly, and now I find myself in an environment that is pretty much full-on immersion.
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Cisa Super Polyglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6425 days ago 312 posts - 309 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Hungarian*, Slovak, FrenchC1, EnglishC2, Mandarin, SpanishB2, RussianB2, GermanB2, Korean, Czech, Latin Studies: Italian, Cantonese, Japanese, Portuguese, Polish, Hindi, Mongolian, Tibetan, Kazakh, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew
| Message 5 of 7 03 June 2009 at 9:08am | IP Logged |
Wow, your blog is really nice, as well as the picks. :) I usually don´t read full blog articles, but your writing is really observative, interesting, fresh and good to read.
Enjoy your time in China! :)
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zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6558 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew
| Message 6 of 7 03 June 2009 at 9:57am | IP Logged |
Excellent blog, which school are you attending in China?
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atlantisliv Triglot Newbie Nepal realityequation Joined 5743 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English, Nepali*, French Studies: Mandarin
| Message 7 of 7 04 June 2009 at 6:56am | IP Logged |
Thanks. I've got a new article up, about seeing dog on the menu (and then some).
I'm currently on-campus in Anhui Agricultural University, which I hear has an excellent Tea Science department.
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