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Tarvos - TAC 2015 Pushkin/Scan | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4492 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 1353 of 1511 10 February 2015 at 11:24am | IP Logged |
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Well there are a couple things to keep in mind. I'm living abroad and immersed now,
but immersion is a choice and depends on how well you socialise in the target culture. I know a few Chinese people, but since most of my time is spent at school there is a large part of my life where I speak in languages besides Chinese (and since the amount of languages I know or have studied is very large that means I have a lot of languages to maintain). Concerning Mandarin, I have the following activities: - I have 4 hours of class each day. This constitutes the bulk of my work but a lot of it is also learning characters (something I have to put more time into because it's not something I did much before I got to China). Characters and reading are my weakest area in Chinese. My spoken Chinese is understandable and serves basic purposes, so I can get by in shops and at markets and in bars or when riding cabs. Navigating is okay. - There is homework assigned each day. I do my homework like a good boy and I have extra material here. I have Assimil, but I haven't used it since I got here (I used this a lot in the Netherlands to get started). Currently my favourite resource outside the coursebooks we use (Short-Term Spoken Chinese), is a Swedish book by Jonas Björkstén called Språket i mittens rike, and this dispenses with the pinyin very quickly so you are forced to rely on the characters. Now that my characters are a little better I read a bunch of chapters each day. There is a Swedish translation in case I don't get everything, but most of the characters are basic and known to me. (Not all of them though). - I use Interpals, WeChat and other things to communicate with my friends. WeChat is a must on your phone in China. I have set my phone to Chinese. In a few weeks, I will be moving out of Beijing to a city called Chengde where there are practically no foreigners. This will help (because you can only make friends with the Chinese.) Edited by tarvos on 10 February 2015 at 11:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| solocricket Tetraglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3461 days ago 68 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Icelandic, Korean, Polish | Message 1354 of 1511 10 February 2015 at 1:17pm | IP Logged |
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Wow, it sounds like you´re having a great experience in China. You´re right, immersion is
definitely a choice, but you seem to be spending a lot of time in Mandarin. Are your classes just intensive language courses, or are you studying something else? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4492 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 1355 of 1511 10 February 2015 at 1:35pm | IP Logged |
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8 hours a day in Mandarin means 8 hours a day not speaking Mandarin...
I'm only studying the language, but a classmate lent me a novel today set in historical China (I also bought the Art of War in the French translation). This is all in French. My problem is that I have 10 other languages vying for attention. Edited by tarvos on 10 February 2015 at 1:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4492 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 1356 of 1511 11 February 2015 at 1:07pm | IP Logged |
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Das neue Leben in Beijing
My first German blog entry. It's quite short. I hope to get back to writing more again soon, but I've had to get settled a bit and Monday had some awful news so it's slipped my mind. Please pay the terrible grammar no mind - out of the languages I speak, German is by far the one in which I am the least capable of writing correctly. Edited by tarvos on 11 February 2015 at 1:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4492 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 1357 of 1511 13 February 2015 at 2:22pm | IP Logged |
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啤酒和中国菜
A short first entry in Mandarin about why China's food is so cheap and good... and why I wish they had better beer to go with it :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4492 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 1358 of 1511 14 February 2015 at 3:50pm | IP Logged |
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Мы - духовные люди
This phrase is a pet hate of mine. Keep the discussion on my blog and civil if you want to go there, thanks 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4492 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 1359 of 1511 16 February 2015 at 12:45pm | IP Logged |
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Today I had my first proper conversation in Mandarin without too much word-searching
where the other party responded in Mandarin. My flatmate is actually from Guangdong but he speaks Mandarin (and is preparing to study photography here in Beijing). There's a first for everything! I'm getting better at doing shopping because I understand prices (that's really helpful). And I'm getting better at reading characters. I still know way too little, but I can read a couple hundred now and that's making my life a little easier. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4492 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 1360 of 1511 17 February 2015 at 9:21am | IP Logged |
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Den himmelske freds plass
About me wandering around Beijing yesterday... and some pictures of Tiananmen. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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