阿波's Endeavour (中文，台語)

[Ezy Ryder]

中文: Passed the 4,000 passive words mark earlier today.

台語: Still listening to 1 new audio lesson a day (not sure yet if I want to add just 5, or 10 words/phrases a day). On the days I don't need to commute, I just take a walk. I'm just afraid the weather might get in the way of that, soon...

I've been trying to find some music in Taiwanese, and when listening to 田莊兄歌 , I understood some of what the woman in the background said (I learnt “...siann1 ke2 jinn5” (啥價錢, how much for...?) yesterday).

Another thing I noticed, is that sometimes the nasalised diphthongs appear to be nasalised right from the first vowel. Interesting. Also, in some cases it seems to me, like some assimilation might occur, like “ka3 gua1...” (共我, kinda like 給我 in Mandarin (methinks)) sounding to me like /ka˧˩ua̯˥/ as opposed to /ka˧˩ɡ̃ua̯˥/ (elision?). Or “li1 ka2-i2...” (你佮意, you like...) sounds (to me) more like “lik8 ka2-i2” in this context.
NOTE: I'm trying to use POJ (with tone numbers as opposed to accents, and numbers of tones according to the tone sandhi, not their tones in isolation), but I'm not very good yet, so there probably will be mistakes. Same goes for the IPA.

[Ezy Ryder]

"Get Rhythm"
中文: Just a minor tweak to the card layout. Now the 了解 (passive/receptive) cards have only the English definition on the back (and still only Pinyin on the front). I used to find myself somehow more focused on the characters, than the Pinyin, when getting into the rhythm and reviewing a bit more automatically.
PS: I know this will sound absolutely stupid, but when writing 了解 in my notes, I'll often write 了 as 瞭, and 解 in 草書...

台語: When listening to 三國誌, at about 6:33 I noticed a line suggesting "ka7" (共) might really be used like 給 in Mandarin. Might be a different word altogether, but I still enjoy such measly, 業餘 attempts at comparative linguistics.

[Ezy Ryder]

中文: First, a brief sample of what my current level in Mandarin sounds like:


I noticed the new year's resolution thread today. For the last three months, my main goal has been to improve my listening comprehension in Mandarin. But “I want to understand spoken Chinese” isn't really much of a S.M.A.R.T. goal. I've been thinking about “reach 20,000 lemmas studied receptively in Mandarin”, but after doing 4k+ Pinyin->EN_Definition cards, I'm not quite sure how much progress have I made... And I actually (at least temporarily) switched to another deck (8142 graded sentences with audio). If I saw “you2 ju2” in my previous deck, I'd possibly remember what it meant; but last week during the Chinese Listening Comprehension class, when doing a dictation exercise... I just couldn't remember it. So... one possibility is that I'd be much more likely to recall it in the context I studied and reviewed it in (i.e., Anki); or simply because I'd gotten used to seeing the PinYin, rather than actually hearing it.

My conjecture is that: listening (in a language one is proficient in) isn't only analysing auditory input; but to a fair extent, relies on expectations (context- and knowledge-based). We don't need to hear each sound, syllable, or even word; to understand what's being said. We rely on contextual clues (“don't you hate when a sentence ends in a different way than you octopus?”), sentence structures (“he was either mad, or both”), syntax, inflection, prosody, and probably other things as well (and combinations thereof). Sometimes they may not be sufficient to extrapolate the complete, exact word; but rather to narrow down the possibilities. For all that to be possible, one needs not only sufficient vocabulary and grammar knowledge, not only sufficient proficiency/fluency/familiarity with them; but also with the language and the way it is used itself (including all the phonetic processes). Of course, I do not intend to claim that all of this needs to be conscious (far from it).
That's why I insist that reading can actually improve (or at least help with) one's listening. Even if subvocalisation were not capable of developing familiarity with the words themselves, it could possibly make one more fluent with the other aspects (E.g., sentence structures).


But getting back to setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, how to approach listening comprehension? When setting vocabulary goals, I can aim for a number of words. When setting character goals, I can aim for a number of characters. When setting reading comprehension goals, I can aim for a text-coverage percentage. When setting writing goals, I can aim for the ratio of mistakes to the text's length. When setting speaking goals, I can aim for a speed (expressed in WPM, for example).

I could of course, make work-based goals. Like: “listen to x-hundred hours of audio” or something. But personally, it sounds (to me) more like an objective, than a goal (although this distinction might be in my mind only). That is, I'd prefer choosing what I want to achieve, what to strive for; as opposed to how much time/effort/work am I going to put into achieving it. Shifting the focus from the means, to the end, if it makes any sense. So, let's go through each letter of the acronym:

S – Specific Listening Comprehension in Mandarin sounds specific enough for me.
M – Measurable How exactly do I quantify that? Technically, I could occasionally look for some audio with an accurate transcript, and compare my own attempt at transcribing it against it. To evaluate the progress. However, stopping every sentence, to write it down, could interfere with the comprehension...
A – Attainable On a conscious level, I know one day I'll either achieve that goal, or die trying. But... Some of the YouTube polyglots have said, that the hardest second language, will be the first one you tackle. Because you're not 100% convinced that you can actually pull it off. I'm writing in a second language right now, but I don't really remember how I went from almost nothing, to my current level. So, learning Mandarin really feels like learning my first second language...
R – Realistic Well, we're living in the XXI century after all, don't we?
T – Time-Related “A dream+a deadline=a goal”, eh? Well, being able to converse freely ((almost) only in Mandarin) with my friends when I come back to Taiwan would be nice and all; but I should be graduating from the university around Summer 2018, so hopefully by then I will have achieved a level comparable to my English?

I really need to work on the quantifiability aspect... Expect next update once I get to the 1000th sentence in the aforementioned deck I'm trying out (680 done as of writing this post).

[Ezy Ryder]

中文: Finished the first 1000 sentences with audio, about 20 hours ago (from the deck I mentioned before). 502 learnt, 498 suspended (because I didn't have a problem understanding them). I tried listening to a TEDx talk from Taipei, and... let's just say, I'm hopeful.
Of course it might be just auto-suggestion or something, but I was under the impression that it was easier to hear where one syllable ends, and the next one begins. Even pick up some words and bits of sentences I'm kinda familiar with, as a consequence...

Hopefully I'll be able to say something more once I get past the first 2k sentences (in about a week from now, if things go right).

[Dani]

Since you are learning Taiwanese you probably already know this, but there is a podcast you can get via itunes called 今天科學了沒 and all of their podcasts are available in a Mandarin and in a Taiwanese version. They are radio recordings.
Unfortunately they haven't been updated in a long time, but that still means that they are a few Taiwanese podcasts left. I have only listened to the Chinese version, but I really enjoyed those.

[Ezy Ryder]

"Today, I hear the robin sing..."

@Dani, thanks. I haven't really used iTunes, like ever before. But it's good to know there are such podcasts available. Actually, I think I found one myself recently (though my level is still so low, it might as well be Hakka, and I wouldn't know better).

中文: 2,000th sentence studied. I haven't studied the 100 new incomprehensible sentences every day, but finally got to the next milestone today. (You know you're an Anki Addict, when you wake up with a (slight) hangover, after just three and a half hours of sleep, and decide "since I can't sleep, might as well do some reviews").
I was afraid. Afraid, that I wouldn't have made much progress, that my listening comprehension wouldn't have improved. Then, I finally studied the 2,000th sentence, and tried to listen to a TEDx Taipei talk. I think, I might have actually understood a thing or two. First of all, I actually understood the topic, before having read the whole title of the video. I think I'm not only picking up more words and expressions I possibly wouldn't have before, but there was a number of complete clauses, maybe even sentences, I think I actually understood. I then tried listening to a podcast I have tried listening to a while back (哲思臺灣), and again I think I might have gotten a bit... farther from not understanding anything at all? Lastly, I decided to try to watch a bit of 喜歡，一個人, and I feel I'm closer to being able to follow what's being said (with the help of the captions), without having to pause quite as much.
So, overall... I think it's looking promising. I'll keep going through more of those sentences. "Today, who knows what life will bring?"

Days left till coming back to Taiwan: at least 188.

[Ezy Ryder]

即使我的中文能力還不足，但是 //即使->雖然
明年就不會放棄，所以還希望有
一天，終於成工啊。移民臺灣並值 //工->功
得努力嘛。大家的支持，謝謝你們！

新年快樂

[Ezy Ryder]

Some good, and some bad news (at least no ugly?). To end on a good note, I'll begin with the bad:
The classes began again. I went to the railway station with a positive attitude - “A lecture on the history of Great Britain, Chinese listening comprehension class and the introduction to linguistics class? 厲害啊！”. After the lecture, I asked a classamte about the registration process for the term-final exams. Which is awfully confusing. I've heard we were to have four written exams, but not only were there more available for our class, but at least one of them has already reached the limit? I was told to just register for everything that applies to our class, which then will allow me to register for the actual exam? That thing don't make no sense... Also, not only do all the students insist on using Polish, but there are so many bloody kinds of tests... “kartkówka, sprawdzian, zaliczenie, egzamin” Sorted from what I gathered to be the most puny, to the most important. We are to have at least two “zaliczenie” tomorrow, from Practical Phonetics and the other class that so far has only covered English phonetics (although perhaps a bit less RP-centric). There probably will also be a Latin “kartkówka” and English Reading Comprehension “sprawdzian”. The dates of the exams are still unknown.

Then, the Chinese listening class... I think I made a mistake in almost every “write down the Pinyin for the single word in complete isolation” kinda task //反正，這種練習沒用啊。實踐瞭解是最重要的。還有，既然老師本人是個中國人，為甚麼要利用那麼不完美的錄音？哎喲……


The good news:
A least I uderstood the recordings of actual dialogues almost perfectly this time around (a noticeable improvement since the last class). I also heard that we won't have to write the History of Great Britain exam. I found a seemingly reliable way of transcribing /æ/ and /ʌ/ from memory – in the Cockney dialect, the former is pronounced more like /ɛ/ or /ɛɪ/, whilst the latter more like /ɐ̟/. I find that difference a bit more distinctive. Lastly, the Introduction to Linguistics class was quite fun and amusing, as usual. The subject was Chomskian grammar, and the teacher gave us practical examples... using Klingon. Somehow, some students still managed to make grammar mistakes, even when the handful of rules required of them to follow, were written in large font on the blackboard... 他們真的不在意似乎……
I passed the 3k mark in the audio sentence deck. I tried listening to a speech for about 38 minutes, and... I'm not sure. I think I might be making progress, but it's just getting more difficult to notice, due to the Pareto principle.
Last, but most certainly not least; been chatting in Mandarin quite a lot recently, through Line. Certainly gives me some motivation to improve my listening comprehension, shame the university hinders my progress...

[Ezy Ryder]

I have to prepare for a Latin test, so I'll try to make this short.

Still have to study a lot for the university. I took a “kolokwium” yesterday, managed to get an ~A (only because it was the Chinese Writing class), as far as I understand. After taking the... let's just call it a test, I waited outside the class. I wanted to ask the teacher if she could suggest me any ways of improving listening comprehension. Which was quite fun, because we talked about it in Chinese (only a minute or two, but still). I think I mostly understood what she was saying, and seeing how what she was saying back to me seemed to be answering my questions, I guess I must've been expressing myself in a moderately intelligible way...

From what I understood, she only mentioned going through our listening comprehension textbook, listening to HSK recordings, and watching movies/videos on YouTube. I think, thanks to going through the first 3k sentences in the Spoonfed Chinese deck, my listening comprehension has gotten a bit better, so I might give the Subs2SRS-like approach another go...

[Ezy Ryder]

The good news: had a ~52 minute long conversation over Line, mostly in Mandarin, with a friend from Taiwan.
Beginning to attempt to put together sentences in Taiwanese by myself. Prolix they are not ;)

The bad news: Due to failing the Practical Phonetics and Practical English Grammar tests, I can't take the Practical term-final exam.
Due to the Latin test re-take taking longer than expected (or possibly even, than I was told), I couldn't take the Introduction to Linguistics test, and thus possibly will need to take that term-final exam in the re-take session as well.
I was to prepare a ~quarter of an hour long speech on British literature, for the British Literature class. I read 70 pages of "Three Men in a Boat" on Sunday, another twenty yesterday, and tried reading some more "My Man Jeeves" till four in the morning today (I was planning to compare the styles of the two authors). I got up at two in the afternoon, and when looking for the lecturer's office hours, the institute's website not only seemed to provide just the ones which may have been out of date for a few months, but only for Mondays as well... Long story short, probably will need to take this one in the re-take session as well. I hope that at least he won't take my absence today as a slight; he really seems a nice guy.
The only exam I was allowed to take (British History), I failed. Am I even allowed to "re-take" all of the term-final exams?
Preparing, and trying to to get myself to prepare for all that, meant I couldn't possibly spend much time on learning Chinese, 草書, or Taiwanese; other than writing with friends.