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Lorinth’s log - 劳伦的博客 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4055 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 129 of 408 26 August 2013 at 9:32am | IP Logged |
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I've been linguistically lazy this weekend. So instead of trying to comply with my grand plans and ending up not doing anything, I've decided to content myself with doing some easy stuff: I started listening to a new ChinesePod podcast about a 落在出租车上的手机 and I've continued reading a bit of 《围城》. By the way, it's just too bad there are only four novels in the same collection (Sinolingua's Abridged Chinese Classic Series), because they are a perfect match for my level (or my laziness) when I want extensive reading and no or very little dictionary lookup. I own two of those novels and I intend to order the other two (巴金的《春》、《秋》). I've had two "linguistic opportunities" this weekend: I spent two days hiking and camping in the Ardennes with my youngest son. As is often the case in this Walloon area, the camping place in which we stopped for the night was owned by Flemish/Dutch people who, for once, spoke little to no French, so I had to brush up on my Dutch quickly, which was great. And then, as I stopped in a pharmacy to buy a tick remover (it seems you can't go out hiking for two minutes without hosting one or two of those nasty bugs this year), there were two ladies trying to explain something to the village pharmacist, who didn't understand their broken English. Not that he would have understood perfect English anyway. It turned out the ladies were Chinese, so I had the opportunity to impress everybody by helping them out. It was quite a surprise for them, to come across someone who spoke (broken) Chinese in such a remote place. Fortunately I had my phone and Pleco, so they could use it to write the all important word I did not understand: 发炎. Maybe that's one of the things they will tell about their travel in Europe when they get back :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4055 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 130 of 408 27 August 2013 at 8:53am | IP Logged |
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Watched travel in Chinese, episode 6. I hate to say something negative about a useful free resource but the acting is so bad it hurts. Finished the ChinesePod podcast about the 落在出租车上的手机 including parroting and (re)translation. Continued reading the transcript of the 锵锵三人行 show. While reading a novel or an article, if I come across a sentence I don't understand, it usually boils down to looking up the unknown words, and 8 times out of 10, I can make sense of that passage. In this case, it's not enough: run-on, broken, free flowing sentences, slang, digressions, etc. all tend to make things very hard to follow. Continued reading 《围城》. Usual vocab drills. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4055 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 131 of 408 28 August 2013 at 9:45am | IP Logged |
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Routine work mostly. But routine is, I believe, the most efficient language learning tool. And the second most useful language learning tool is: breaking the routine. So, I started work on a new ChinesePod podcast about a 会员卡. I kept on reading the abridged version of 《围城》. On NDTV, I watched a news item about a knife attack in a bus in 成都. I used ASC for Android to loop through some sentences and use them as a dictation (in pinyin). BTW, strange as it may seems, I'd never used that method to try and improve my listening comprehension but it looks like it could be extremely useful and I intend to do more pinyin dictations. I watched a show on CCTV 4 about a very old 妹妹 and her even older 哥哥 who had been separated by the civil war and who were reunited in Taiwan, and then another one about an old man teaching 书法 to the kids of his community. Usual vocab drills with Anki (general purpose deck), Pleco (words collected while reading) and Skritter (characters). LA Read a bit of Winnie Ille Pu. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4055 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 132 of 408 29 August 2013 at 9:36am | IP Logged |
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First, I read an article about the US having intercepted a phone call proving that the Syrian army had used chemical weapons (美国截获电话记录证明叙政府军使用了化武) and then I started reading a very long, detailed article about how the US also spied on the EU (and the UN): 美国如何监听欧盟. "两个星期前，美国总统奥巴马还在记者会上 称，监听计划只是为了阻止恐怖袭 击" (two weeks ago, during a press conference, US president Obama had declared that the only objective of the monitoring plan was to prevent terrorist attacks). Finished the ChinesePod lesson about 会员卡 and started another one about 脚臭、 汗臭、 狐 臭、 口臭 and other forms of bromidroses (check that!). Yummy! By the way, the voice actors are always excellent. I continued reading 《围城》 and reached the part where the meaning of the title is finally explained: "结婚好像被围困的城堡，城外的人想冲进去 城里的人想冲出来" (Marriage is like a besieged fortress; those who are outside want to get in; and those who are inside wish they could get out). Usual round of vocabulary revision with Anki, Pleco and Skritter. NB: I have no idea why some of the Chinese characters I write appear as a black square with a question mark inside. Sorry. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4055 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 133 of 408 01 September 2013 at 5:28pm | IP Logged |
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I finished reading that long article about how the US has been spying on the EU. A fascinating read with some interesting vocabulary about computing and, well, spying. Maybe I can watch James Bond in Chinese now. How do they say "Shaken, not stirred"? The article. I continued reading many pages of 《围城》. Maybe I should count how many pages I read daily, to motivate myself. I finished the ChinesePod lesson about 狐臭、脚臭等. Then I started another one about 学游 泳 and I also finished it. I went to the one local Chinese bookstore. They had the abridged versions of 巴 金's《春》 and 《秋》 (Sinolingua) and I bought both, as I will soon have finished 《围 城》。 I tried to watch the first episode of a series called 空镜子, but it looks like it's still too difficult for me. Maybe I'll give it another try anyway. I continued studying my vocabulary as usual with Pleco, Anki and Skritter. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4055 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 134 of 408 02 September 2013 at 10:50am | IP Logged |
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I don't have to tell HTLAL people that one of the big problem with older or traditional language courses is that there is often too much L1 and too little L2. You are supposed to learn Mandarin but, apart from a short dialogue, everything is explained in English. I can't remember where I got that idea, but I thought that maybe that flaw of many traditional courses could be turned to our advantage like this: use a course designed for Chinese people learning your L1. So, on a whim, I typed "学习外语词汇" in Youtube and, sure enough, I came across a long video which is supposed to teach English but where the teacher actually speaks very clear Chinese (though slightly above my comfort zone - and hence, perfect for extensive listening) most of the time, to explain the use of some English words. And the proportions are now perfect: 90% Chinese, 10% English. Enjoy this as an example. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4055 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 135 of 408 03 September 2013 at 10:07am | IP Logged |
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Language learners are often advised to enjoy their hobby in their target language. As I probably spend too much time reading *about* language learning, I thought I might as well do it in Chinese so I found a long booklet called 《如何学习言语（外语）？》 and I started reading it. As it happens, the very first piece of advice given to language learners is to spend less time worrying about the techniques and the methods and more time studying. "太讲究方法和技巧会被其用战多的时间和精 ，而对学习的内容本身投入较少的时间和精 ，因此反而会影响学习的效果。" The article. I haven't found a Chinese equivalent of HTLAL yet. Any tip? Started the ChinesePod lesson about 婚纱照。 Almost finished reading the abridged version of《围城》。 Usual vocab drills with Anki, Pleco and Skritter. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4055 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 136 of 408 04 September 2013 at 9:08am | IP Logged |
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Finished reading 《围城》. Though it's only the abridged version I enjoyed it very much. It's a sarcastic and bitter story set in a crepuscular China about rather pathetic characters who don't seem to notice that the world is crumbling around them. The last scene with the clock is poignant and I couldn't help but feel sorry for the foolish 方 鸿渐. I finished the podcast about 婚纱照。 I'm now used to parroting and shadowing while walking to and from the metro station. Passers-by are amused. So am I. I also listened to the old show I mentioned the day before yesterday: 英语词汇立体记忆. The English they teach is often funny (Chinglish?) but fortunately the main point of the show is to explain a series of English word in Chinese, so they speak Chinese much more than English and it's the first time I can listen to a real Chinese show and make something out of it. Time to celebrate. I continued reading a bit of 《如何学习言语（外语）？》 I did the usual vocabulary drills. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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