alaart's log (Chinese, Korean)

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alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (mainly Japanese/Chinese)

Postby alaart » Fri Sep 20, 2019 3:07 pm

Did language exchange yesterday and studied the vocabulary.

Joined a Chinese class today. Conversation lecture, very difficult. Japanese-Chinese exchanges seem to talk mostly about cultural differences. So they will pick some rare topics, things from Japan which I have heard of remotely at best, and pronounce them in Chinese, like famous people, locations, cultural customs and history: "You know %(&$"&)/ right, everybody knows. He was from $(/)(% and is famous for $%)(/(), and I read a book about him, you know the famous book called %")(%)"=."
Often there is no chance for me to get that, till I understand what it might be from the context, especially since I'm on the weaker side in culture. Soo difficult.

Also they just love to talk about rare Kanji from Japan and China, and some absurd words that use them, which I also never get.

The Japanese butcher up the consonant pronunciation and everybody (but me) understands, but their tones are really good. Then, when I talk, with arguable much better pronunciation but with wrong tones, everybody is puzzled including the Chinese native speakers, till I get the tone somewhat right, and suddenly AH - they understand me.
I think they pay much much more emphasize on tones in Asia, and I sort of knew that, but I didn't quite get to what extend. I think now that pronunciation is like 90% tone. Now that I know that, I'm a bit mad at my lectures in Germany, where focus on tones was like really zero.

I actually studied much much more tones then my fellow students I think, to the extend that I neglected the other fields and got very bad grades in Chinese class. I used yabla-Chinese for that, but maybe it was not sufficient. I think I'll try audio-recording my Chinese now, and get feedback from native speakers or pay a teacher just for pronunciation.

Also gave another German lecture in Japanese, this time I could explain the grammar better, but I picked easier material today. Used slow german.com, great Website.

P.S. Ah, I forgot the best part: If I understood it correctly the teacher asked us to compose a Haiku style poem in Chinese, and then some people might have responded with a poem. Yes, definitely too hard for me that lecture!
6 x

alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (mainly Japanese/Chinese)

Postby alaart » Sun Sep 22, 2019 2:32 pm

Joined the Chinese learning group from previous Sunday, and it is definitely the coolest of all events I have been to now. I will go there regularly. I learned a lot again talking Chinese and Japanese, there was a Chinese guy from Gansu, first time meeting someone from there. Had trouble again, maybe understood only around 40-50% of what he was saying. Same goes for my Chinese room mate from Kanton :D

Also went out with a Japanese friend back from Germany, all in all I learned so much, and took so much notes - that it was barely manageable to even repeat the material and add it to Anki, maybe around 200-300 words. I bought some 100円 books, but didn't have the time yet to read anything.

Spanish exposure:
Ah, and most of my room mates arrived in the shared house now, its 3 Mexicans after all and only one from France, so Spanish is constantly around me now. I'm definitely curious and eavesdropping here and there. I understand enough that it disturbs me (through Portuguese), but not enough to really understand anything meaningful - sometimes I can get the topic of the conversation, sometimes not. I'm not sure what to do with this now, maybe I just ignore it, but maybe I will learn it unintentionally, or maybe I will learn it actively. I kind of don't want to dedicate time to it, but it is clear that my Portuguese will get diluted, there is no way around that :(. We will live together for one year, so it definitely would be worth it - also they don't speak much Japanese or English.
3 x

alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (mainly Japanese/Chinese)

Postby alaart » Mon Sep 23, 2019 2:15 pm

Today I was a bit lazy, did my usual Anki, then played a bit of CrossCode in Japanese with my Chinese roommate. He is a big help everyday, because he knows almost everything, his Japanese is really good.

Didn't read much, but at least the first 10 pages of「女は男のどこを誤解するのか」(Where do women misunderstand men?) by 伊東明 (Itō Akira) - yes an advise book. Might be useful, and it is definitely much much easier then reading a novel, stupid literary style Japanese - not touching that again for some time :D
2 x

alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (mainly Japanese/Chinese)

Postby alaart » Wed Sep 25, 2019 3:36 pm

Yesterday I was very tired, only managed to read a couple book sites, I had language exchange (Chinese), added all vocabularies and studied them. The rest of the time I spent with my roommates.


Today was the first day of university, and it was very exhausting. Of the three presenters only one spoke some English - and only briefly. Most of the information was provided in Japanese. I had a Japanese assistant to do get everything, but we spoke Japanese too. At the beginning it was fine, but at the end of the day I was just exhausted.

I picked all my courses now. I will participate in 4 classes designed for B1 level, and one for A2 students.

I also will participate in 3 classes that are designed for Japanese students, one is about Japanese Culture (but it is recommended to foreigners too), and I will participate in 2 classes of Spanish, beginner level :D , unexpected but it is probably one of the few courses I can manage in Japanese. I didn't feel comfortable picking something complicated where you have to read or discuss a lot in Japanese, might do that next semester.

Among the exchange students I met two girls speaking Portuguese, one from Portugal, one from Villa Real, spoke a little with them.
4 x

alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (mainly Japanese/Chinese)

Postby alaart » Sun Sep 29, 2019 2:02 pm

Not much studying, but more organizing the last couple days. Mostly just did Anki.

I continued reading the book from last time, but after ~10 more pages I threw it into the trash. It basically encourages superficial slimy dialogs to connect to people. And in general the point of view was just against anything I believe. Still have the hope I misunderstood the book, otherwise it really was quite bad. Now I'll have to read one of the Novels I bought after all, that will be much more difficult °_°

Joined a new Chinese language exchange event I haven't joined before, which had a lot of Chinese people, maybe around 15. I however had a hard time with some of the pronunciations: They could understand me, but I just couldn't get the answers sometimes. One man claimed to come from near Beijing, but in the end we had to use Japanese to understand each other :(

Ah, met some Brazilian and Portuguese exchange students! Still have to introduce myself to the Chinese exchange students :)
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alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (mainly Japanese/Chinese)

Postby alaart » Mon Sep 30, 2019 4:04 pm

Ok, I started reading a novel. It's called メリーゴーランド (Merry-Go-Round) by 荻原浩 (Hiroshi Ogiwara).

It's much much more difficult than the advice book. Just 4 pages took me 2 hours (with looking up characters, words, readings, unknown grammar), it's about the same speed I had around 6 month ago, when I last tried to read a novel, will continue tomorrow. Added all new words to Anki and studied them.

Also went to another language exchange event (English - Japanese).

Ah, met another Brazilian today, a Nikkei-jin (日系人), I'm lucky!
1 x

alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (mainly Japanese/Chinese)

Postby alaart » Wed Oct 02, 2019 11:48 am

Studied some Kanji yesterday, around 15 or so, all from the book. The books vocabulary was hard to memorize, and I had a hard time with Anki. I tried continuing the book, but only managed like half a page :lol: , ah - also did language exchange.

Today had my first classes, and they were quite alright., I was tired and didn't do much, but I did at least some organizing.

I mainly post today to let you know I'm attending the Polyglot Conference in Fukuoka later this month, my first bigger language event /o/
3 x

alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
x 1026

Re: alaart's log (mainly Japanese/Chinese)

Postby alaart » Thu Oct 03, 2019 3:04 pm

Participated Spanish classes (Level A2) for the first time today, the Japanese teacher is very fun, and I'm glad I can follow the lesson, but I should learn some linguistic vocabulary like "verb ending" or "reflexive verb" in Japanese, to follow it better. My roommates also taught me some Spanish today.

Found a Taiwanese Baseball Manga in the library and read it in Chinese, I read 10 Manga pages in 1 hour. Not exactly fast, but oh well. Also had Japanese class.

I'm kind of sleep deprived, I'm not used waking up early and commuting. I'll have to wake up again in 6 hours, not good. Tomorrow will be harsh, also a lot of homework and preparation for teaching.
3 x

alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
x 1026

Re: alaart's log (mainly Japanese/Chinese)

Postby alaart » Tue Oct 08, 2019 2:31 am

So I'm fully engaged in University classes now. And this disrupts my own study plans, but this is ok I'll follow and study the class content mostly. The classes are just about right, not too easy and slightly challenging. Outside of classes I'm mainly trying to socialize and manage my life better. I do a lot of Anki on the subway, and I add a lot of new vocabulary that pop up in class, conversation or elsewhere in daily life.

I must admit, my Portuguese is so rusty, that I have a hard time speaking it with the exchange students. Especially, in groups.

I'm not really engaged in Spanish, I just study the class material and eavesdrop on my Mexican roommates :D

For Chinese, I'm just not on a comfortable level yet :D - I'd love to make more Chinese speaking friends, and engage myself. I'll take the Taiwanese proficiency test TOCFL next month (level B1), will probably not pass. I won't really have time to prepare.
3 x

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2109
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: alaart's log (mainly Japanese/Chinese)

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Tue Oct 08, 2019 11:10 pm

I like reading your log because it is so upbeat.
0 x
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