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Snowflake’s Mandarin Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5765 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes  Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 740 06 August 2008 at 11:42pm | IP Logged |
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Some background....I spoke Toishanese as a child and “lost” most of my knowledge of that dialect growing up. For my college language requirement, I took Mandarin. I struggled through and promptly forgot most of it after graduating. About 10-12 years ago I started learning spoken Cantonese using the then brand new Pimsleur material. The effort moved around my brain furniture and affected my ability to do my job. So I had to give that up. About a year ago I started learning spoken Cantonese again using Pimsleur, though the updated version. I didn’t get very far before leaving to visit Hong Kong and mainland China, last fall. My cousin, with whom we stayed in Hong Kong, said it was better to learn Mandarin instead of Cantonese. Since I hadn’t made enough of a dent in learning Cantonese, in Dec I switched to working on spoken Mandarin. I am using the FSI material and tend to depend on the audios, infrequently using the written material. In part that is because I learned Yale romanisation in college. I tend to write using Yale instead of Pinyin. I wish to avoid learning reading and writing until my speaking and listening comprehension skills are well established. I work with two people from China (Beijing and Jiangsu). Since my vocabulary is quite limited, when speaking Mandarin with them, I’ve mostly said short phrases. Recently I started having short Mandarin conversations with one of them. I’m still quite early in the FSI materials (biographic module). I have started watching Mandarin movies, with English subtitles on, for a break from my regular material. I probably will visit China next year, in the fall, and am hoping to be conversant by then.
Todays’ work was doing audio drills while washing up and driving. I'm currently on the double le construction and using -guo. Ang Lee’s “Eat Drink Man Woman” movie arrived today so I also watched that. I'm considering buying elementary school flashcards to help with numbers. BTW, when posting another journal entry, is the convention to add to say this thread or create a new thread? Thanks. Edited by Snowflake on 14 September 2012 at 9:42pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Rekunoto Senior Member United States Joined 5981 days ago 104 posts - 105 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 740 07 August 2008 at 12:18am | IP Logged |
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To answer your question, you use this same thread for your journal entries.
Good luck with your studies! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5765 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 740 08 August 2008 at 2:56pm | IP Logged |
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In a pretty good mood. The person from Beijing said that I've improved alot. She is very sympathetic and helpful. She had great difficulties with English, especially listening comprehension.
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5765 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 740 10 August 2008 at 2:55pm | IP Logged |
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This weekend I made some flash cards with dates and numbers, which I started going through. I also finished the audios in this unit, though will go back and redo some of them....verbal drilling is important to me.
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5765 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 740 14 August 2008 at 11:12pm | IP Logged |
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I’m spending a decent amount of time distinguishing the audio difference between the mandarin terms for political science and economics. I listened to those terms on the online Loquella site since it's easier to replay a single sentence there than with my mp3. Surprizingly the sound quality of my mp3 was better than the Loquella recording. Also ran across some Loquella pinyin which had different tones than the FSI material....the English-Chinese Pinyin Dictionary agrees with the tones in FSI. I've gotten 3 Mandarin movies now and a 4th on loan from a coworker. It's a really nice break to watch/listen to Mandarin movies. I've been speaking more Mandarin to the coworker from Beijing....really need to practice more.
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| Lawrence Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5988 days ago 149 posts - 149 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English* Studies: German, French, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 6 of 740 15 August 2008 at 11:53am | IP Logged |
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May I ask why you've chosen to learn Mandarin? And why you chose to learn Cantonese before? And do you retain any of your ability in Toishanese?
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| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5765 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 7 of 740 15 August 2008 at 4:09pm | IP Logged |
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Back in college I would have preferred learning Toishanese, but in terms of available materials and instruction, that wasn’t an option. My next choice was Cantonese but the school I attended taught Mandarin. So that’s what I took. While my parents didn’t speak it, they understood spoken Mandarin, read and wrote traditional Chinese. Learning Mandarin in school was so frustrating that after graduating I did not care about retaining it. Picking up Cantonese, about 10-12 years ago, was an attempt to better communicate with my mother. Wo4de fu4qin bu2zai4le. I retain some Toishanese but it’s limited, as is my mother’s English. I bought the Pimsleur Cantonese tapes and used them. As mentioned in my first post, it affected my ability to do my job. I would be conversing in English. My mind would start searching for the next words to use and then my mind would blank out. The blank out was embarrassing in social situations but a killer at work. I know now that blanking out is a common phenomena when learning a language. Last summer I happened to be in between jobs and preparing for a visit to Hong Kong and mainland China. I used that opportunity to pick up Cantonese, again to better communicate with my mother. The trip was the impetus. As far as the blanking out problem, I hoped to be past that stage before starting the new job. I returned from the trip with a desire to learn Chinese to communicate with the family members I met overseas. That side of the family knows Cantonese. Most of them understand Toishanese. Many of them, maybe all, know Mandarin. Anyhow, my own kids have it in their minds to learn Mandarin. So the idea of me knowing Cantonese but my kids Mandarin is a bit annoying. In a phone call to my cousin, in Hong Kong, I asked about learning Cantonese or Mandarin. She said to learn Mandarin. Sooo, here I am learning Mandarin.
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| Lawrence Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5988 days ago 149 posts - 149 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English* Studies: German, French, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 8 of 740 15 August 2008 at 5:08pm | IP Logged |
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Are the majority of your family based in Hong Kong, or the mainland? And do you have any plans to live there or anything?
Because to give you my honest opinion, if your objective is to communicate with family, I'd choose the dialect they're most comfortable in. I'm not sure about the situation in the mainland, but in HK at least, Cantonese is almost always the home language - Mandarin is only used at work, or when communicating with people who don't understand Cantonese. However, if you're also hoping to capitalise on your languages skills and use them in your career, then perhaps Mandarin is a better choice; plus there are a lot more resources available for it. But I also hear that Cantonese is closer to Toisanese. Anyway, good luck whichever route you take! I think that both languages are great choices to learn; I speak Cantonese at home, and I'm part time learning Mandarin :) Edited by Lawrence on 15 August 2008 at 5:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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