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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 20, 2019 16:19:41 GMT -5
I walked into Costco and whenever I saw some Chinese people, I went closer to eavesdrop and I swear to god, I could make out words and phrases! It’s a very empowering feeling.
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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 21, 2019 14:28:41 GMT -5
Here's an issue that comes up once in a while:
What do you do when your learning materials (e.g., textbook, apps) conflict with what real life people say?
I had lunch with a former coworker yesterday. She's part Chinese. I told her enthusiastically about my progress in Chinese. My recent lessons on the days of the week, e.g., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, are super easy because they're numerical, it's almost like Day1 for Monday, Day2 for Tuesday, and so on. So, as I said "Monday," "Tuesday," etc. out loud in Chinese, she said I was saying them wrong.
I was pronouncing "Monday" as
xīng qī yī
per the textbook and one of my apps.
She said the second word "qĭ" should be a different tone. I showed her my app. She said, "That's wrong." When I went back home, I reviewed my textbook and checked some other sources online and they all said that "qī" should be tone#1, while my former coworker insisted that it should be tone#3.
I would often rely on real life people's word for this sort of thing but it seems to be at odds with various online sources plus a textbook.
Oh, what to do? What to do?
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Post by hammer on Mar 21, 2019 15:58:38 GMT -5
Costco is the greatest melting pot in America.
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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 24, 2019 18:25:04 GMT -5
I bought a Traditional Mandarin learning app for $2.99.
So, now I'm using 4 different apps, a textbook, and one reference book. Plus a children's book for the BoPoMoFo.
No time for video games.
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Post by XAsstCoach on Mar 25, 2019 3:38:08 GMT -5
Here's an issue that comes up once in a while: What do you do when your learning materials (e.g., textbook, apps) conflict with what real life people say? I had lunch with a former coworker yesterday. She's part Chinese. I told her enthusiastically about my progress in Chinese. My recent lessons on the days of the week, e.g., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, are super easy because they're numerical, it's almost like Day1 for Monday, Day2 for Tuesday, and so on. So, as I said "Monday," "Tuesday," etc. out loud in Chinese, she said I was saying them wrong. I was pronouncing "Monday" as xīng qī yīper the textbook and one of my apps. She said the second word "qĭ" should be a different tone. I showed her my app. She said, "That's wrong." When I went back home, I reviewed my textbook and checked some other sources online and they all said that "qī" should be tone#1, while my former coworker insisted that it should be tone#3. I would often rely on real life people's word for this sort of thing but it seems to be at odds with various online sources plus a textbook. Oh, what to do? What to do? IIRC, there are exceptions to the pronunciation rules, and unfortunately I don’t remember what it was. |
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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 25, 2019 13:06:30 GMT -5
Here's an issue that comes up once in a while: What do you do when your learning materials (e.g., textbook, apps) conflict with what real life people say? I had lunch with a former coworker yesterday. She's part Chinese. I told her enthusiastically about my progress in Chinese. My recent lessons on the days of the week, e.g., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, are super easy because they're numerical, it's almost like Day1 for Monday, Day2 for Tuesday, and so on. So, as I said "Monday," "Tuesday," etc. out loud in Chinese, she said I was saying them wrong. I was pronouncing "Monday" as xīng qī yīper the textbook and one of my apps. She said the second word "qĭ" should be a different tone. I showed her my app. She said, "That's wrong." When I went back home, I reviewed my textbook and checked some other sources online and they all said that "qī" should be tone#1, while my former coworker insisted that it should be tone#3. I would often rely on real life people's word for this sort of thing but it seems to be at odds with various online sources plus a textbook. Oh, what to do? What to do? IIRC, there are exceptions to the pronunciation rules, and unfortunately I don’t remember what it was. I found out that they're both right. In Mainland China where Simplified Chinese is used, the "xīng qī" part of the days of the week is all tone1. However, in Taiwan where Traditional Chinese is used, the "qi" part of "xīng qí" is tone2. My former coworker friend who is part Chinese is actually from Taiwan. I told her about this and she said she didn't know. She said that though the characters may be different (Simplified vs. Traditional), the tones shouldn't be. She's mystified. She said that when she hears people say "xīng qī" (all tone1), they all sound like bumbling foreigners. |
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 1, 2019 12:39:14 GMT -5
BIG news!
Instead of 3x5 cards, I've elected to cut each card down the middle so that I'd have twice as many cards!
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 8, 2019 23:03:31 GMT -5
I can relate to this video because I'm studying Chinese now and sometimes, the most important word is placed at the end of the sentence. Drives me nuts!
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Post by Phaedrus on Apr 9, 2019 10:17:55 GMT -5
I was in Chcago for a meeting with a bunch of engineers and I managed to get together with a couple of undergrad friends. We went to www.chengduimpression.com/. Really good Hunan cuisine, very authentic and very spicey. Anyways. I walked in with my friends and I took one look at the menu and got instantly excited about the feast to come. The waiter comes up and he didn't look Chinese so I asked him if he spoke Mandarin, him being a smart ass replied: "No, do you speak Spanish?" As a matter of fact I do. So I ordered in a Hunan restaurant situated in Chicago in Spanish from a Mexican waiter.  . It was good though. We all got a laugh out of it, especially the waiter. |
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 10, 2019 11:14:16 GMT -5
So, I now watch Chinese youtube videos (talk shows, news) where they have Chinese subtitles on the bottom. I'm able to recognize about 30% but I still need things to slow down because my brain is processing...processing...processing... But generally, I'm progressing well with Reading.
I've discovered that I can't do the reverse quite as well; that is, go from a definition in my head to generating the character from scratch. In other words, I can't write that well because I don't have any reference other than a murky definition in my head.
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Post by Phaedrus on Apr 10, 2019 14:20:01 GMT -5
So, I now watch Chinese youtube videos (talk shows, news) where they have Chinese subtitles on the bottom. I'm able to recognize about 30% but I still need things to slow down because my brain is processing...processing...processing... But generally, I'm progressing well with Reading. I've discovered that I can't do the reverse quite as well; that is, go from a definition in my head to generating the character from scratch. In other words, I can't write that well because I don't have any reference other than a murky definition in my head. That's how I learned English and Spanish. I watched Hogan's Heroes, McHale's Navy, The Andy Griffiths show etc. to get used to the conversations. As my comprehension evolved i read the captions on Spanish to verify what I heard. It works. |
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 10, 2019 14:22:48 GMT -5
So, I now watch Chinese youtube videos (talk shows, news) where they have Chinese subtitles on the bottom. I'm able to recognize about 30% but I still need things to slow down because my brain is processing...processing...processing... But generally, I'm progressing well with Reading. I've discovered that I can't do the reverse quite as well; that is, go from a definition in my head to generating the character from scratch. In other words, I can't write that well because I don't have any reference other than a murky definition in my head. That's how I learned English and Spanish. I watched Hogan's Heroes, McHale's Navy, The Andy Griffiths show etc. to get used to the conversations. As my comprehension evolved i read the captions on Spanish to verify what I heard. It works. I lose patience after some time. Also, when you're a kid (I'm assuming you meant to say you were a kid when you watched those shows, not 5 years ago, LOL!), your brain is like a sponge. It's just easier for kids to learn from exposure. It's harder for me as an older doof. |
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 14, 2019 20:51:06 GMT -5
One aspect of Mandarin Chinese that I find interesting is that it uses radicals and basic root characters to build other more elaborate and complex characters. For example, the radical for "tree" is:  With this radical, you can create other words like table, chair, forest, and root, all of which are more complex-looking characters but still contain the basic "tree" radical because, as you can guess, they're all made of wood (long time ago, that is). For "forest," you would simply have two "tree" radicals side by side:  So, I like this intuitiveness. This aspect of Mandarin Chinese is not unique among languages, of course, Other languages use basic root characters or words to build other related characters and words, like "bicycle" in English which uses the combination of "bi" (two) and "cycle." Sometimes, it gets strange though. If you combine the character for "big" with the character for "be able," you generate a character meaning "weird." It's not clear why but I'm sure some Chinese linguist can enlighten how that happened. Similarly, if you combine the character "west" with the character "woman," you generate a character meaning "to want" or "important, essential." Truly baffling. |
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Post by XAsstCoach on Apr 14, 2019 22:40:29 GMT -5
So, I now watch Chinese youtube videos (talk shows, news) where they have Chinese subtitles on the bottom. I'm able to recognize about 30% but I still need things to slow down because my brain is processing...processing...processing... But generally, I'm progressing well with Reading. I've discovered that I can't do the reverse quite as well; that is, go from a definition in my head to generating the character from scratch. In other words, I can't write that well because I don't have any reference other than a murky definition in my head. Which is why in China many drivers slow down on the highway so they can read the road signs. Some even come to a complete stop and WHAM! traffic accident. |
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 16, 2019 19:11:03 GMT -5
So, I now watch Chinese youtube videos (talk shows, news) where they have Chinese subtitles on the bottom. I'm able to recognize about 30% but I still need things to slow down because my brain is processing...processing...processing... But generally, I'm progressing well with Reading. I've discovered that I can't do the reverse quite as well; that is, go from a definition in my head to generating the character from scratch. In other words, I can't write that well because I don't have any reference other than a murky definition in my head. Which is why in China many drivers slow down on the highway so they can read the road signs. Some even come to a complete stop and WHAM! traffic accident. Are you talking about Western drivers in China, surely not the Chinese drivers in China? |
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