Snowflake's Mandarin Log - Continued

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mouse
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Re: Snowflake's Mandarin Log - Continued

Postby mouse » Mon Mar 05, 2018 10:23 pm

snowflake wrote:Uh, those sentences were given to me by a native Mandarin speaker.


Ok, then I'm sure they're fine. However, all the Mainland speakers I asked thought it sounded weird. As you get your info from people of different backgrounds, it might be worth checking. But it's up to you, obviously.
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Re: Snowflake's Mandarin Log - Continued

Postby snowflake » Thu Mar 08, 2018 12:27 am

@mouse, in the scheme of things this is not that big of a deal…there’s a lot of regional variation plus individual differences in how people express themselves…. The Chinese community here is mixed which is great for exposure to different accents and 用法 though that can be a double-edged sword. When starting out, mainlanders used to correct me for usage of another mainlander. Now-a-days my mainland friends here don’t correct my Taiwanese usage since they know I visit Taiwan. And many of my Taiwanese friends try to not correct mainland usage unless they think it will cause a lot of problems when I’m in Taiwan. Anyhow, an incident that comes to mind illustrating the variation is that a while back I was reading a popular kids book series, 查理九世, which is from mainland China. The 说法 seemed really different so I took a snapshot of a page and send it to a friend in Taiwan. He said that it read like "Google translate", those were his words. I sent the same page to a friend who lives here. The friend, who is from Shanghai, said that the writing was typical, nothing unusual.

Update; grammar correction
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Re: Snowflake's Mandarin Log - Continued

Postby snowflake » Sat Apr 28, 2018 9:41 pm

Checking in…..

I haven’t done any “studying” due to demands of the job and the throes of selling a house, moving, etc. Probably half our things have been moved to the new house. I visited the Mandarin speaking group in the new location which is a smallish university town. The group appears to mostly be graduate students with a few local residents. The meeting had a decent chunk of time where people talked about various things on their mind… this may be my pseudo “Toastmasters in Mandarin” which I’ve been wistfully hoping for. Also the website for the Confucius Institute in the new location mentions intermediate classes for adults which I probably should look into.

At some point I need to start mentally getting into gear for my visit to Taiwan which is 3 months away.

Some dramas that I'm looking at on Youtube;
動物系戀人啊 Tree In The River (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5O8E31CCug)
萌妻食神 Cinderella Chef (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYi-K4KTsTA)
There's a 3rd but I can't think of what it is right now.
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snowflake
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Re: Snowflake's Mandarin Log - Continued

Postby snowflake » Tue May 29, 2018 10:39 pm

Checking in....extremely tired, expect to be unpacking and organizing the house for months. Some of the people in this local Mandarin speaking group seem to have different 用法, though I can't seem to put my finger on that. And some of them talk MUCH faster than what I'm used to, or else my tiredness is affecting me more than I realize.

The trip to Taiwan is 2 months away so need start getting mentally prepared, as well as find the box that my passport was tucked away in.

I'm currently watching 将军在上 (Oh My General); www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlmsVQcsOS4
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Re: Snowflake's Mandarin Log - Continued

Postby snowflake » Sat Jun 23, 2018 6:38 pm

Checking in again......with my house move and other things happening, I am hardly practicing speaking. Since that skill is pretty apparent, feel like banging my head.

Am not in the best mood lately and am finding that I'm more brusque than usual. In talking with someone yesterday about cultural differences and associated comfort level (American born Chinese compared to mainland Chinese, was talking with a mainlander), to lessen the jolt of what I was saying, brought up that there are native Mandarin speakers from Taiwan, Burma, the Philippines, etc who will be culturally different (than them).

I’m heading off to Taiwan at the end of next month for a few weeks. Last year I did a good amount of preparation for this trip, but with my Mandarin speaking skills currently being barely passable and it being doubtful those can be brought up to a decent level in the time between now and the trip....my trip may be somewhat frustrating.
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Re: Snowflake's Mandarin Log - Continued

Postby snowflake » Wed Jul 04, 2018 6:07 pm

One of the people I will be visiting in Taiwan at the end of this month contacted me about doing something that is usually done by someone else. The someone else is not going this time so I’m stressing about getting everything done.

Trying to restart chorusing and shadowing Glossika to get ready for the trip to Taiwan. I have more free time this trip (staying longer than the rest of my US friends) and haven’t figured out what to do or where to go in the extra time. My overseas Taiwanese chat partner has mostly been away from Taiwan due to his job so I’m unsure whether there’ll be an opportunity to visit with him and his family. The chats with my 2 resident US Taiwanese chat partners are on hold for a number of reasons.

In moving here, I was mulling about Mandarin personally not being an end but a means. From that perspective, being content with my less than wonderful language skills is OK but that’s not what I would like to happen….so need to tackle ways to get out of the intermediate malaise.

There’s several people in particular at my new local group who have been extremely encouraging and patient with my horrid Mandarin. The one I’ve had the most contact with is from Hebei and not surprisingly she is correcting my Taiwanese usage. The people in this group generally seem to have little if any reluctance switching to English to make sure communications are clear, probably reflects being in a more rural area. That’s not great for my Mandarin though helps in getting to know each other better.

My brain is too fried to think seriously through anything unrelated to the job and going to Taiwan in a few weeks.
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Re: Snowflake's Mandarin Log - Continued

Postby snowflake » Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:47 pm

Been reading about Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) who is a professional tennis player from Taiwan that is currently playing at Wimbledon....part of what caught my eye is that the 1st character of her given name is also the 1st character of my Chinese given name. Wikipedia gives the pronunciation using different tones so I asked a Taiwanese person what tones should be used, Shu2wei2. I had been using Shu1 for 淑 which appears to be mainland usage..... thinking I should use keep using my English name in my Mandarin speaking groups to make things simpler.
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Re: Snowflake's Mandarin Log - Continued

Postby snowflake » Mon Jul 23, 2018 12:33 am

I leave for Taiwan in a week and feel pretty stressed. Since the last post, I haven’t done much with Glossika though have been thinking about what to do after returning. Running through my mind is the idea of focusing more on mainland usage as part of trying to bridge the gap with my current group. Things I’ve noticed…they habitually use 周 for week, so 周日, 周一, 周二, etc., 微辣 instead of 辣一点 and 儿话 is commonly. I was going to check out the local Confucius Institute but a group member teaches there, so am considering memorizing material and maybe a TPRS instructor on iTalki.
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Re: Snowflake's Mandarin Log - Continued

Postby snowflake » Sat Aug 25, 2018 9:44 pm

Back from Taiwan and am suffering from jet lag.... purchased "An A to Z Grammar for Chinese Language Learners" which is a newer publication from The Mandarin Training Center at National Taiwan Normal University. So I’m thinking of slowly going through the book and memorizing material. The thing is memorization is rote so I innately resist, have been mulling through how to make it palatable. Due to some health issues, my voice isn’t strong so memorizing songs doesn't seem feasible for now.

Someone whom last year I did language exchanges with contacted me about doing a different type of language exchange….I chat in Mandarin with his wife who is from Fujian, and separately chat with his young daughter in English. The person is in Guangzhou and is not Cantonese though don’t remember what province he’s from.

This trip I met someone who wants to practice her English, which might be mostly texting…haven’t figured that out yet. A mutual friend is encouraging me to follow through on this.

I’ve started watching the 2018 version of Meteor Garden which was produced in the mainland (www.youtube.com/watch?v=c22T8TryBbU).
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Re: Snowflake's Mandarin Log - Continued

Postby snowflake » Thu Sep 27, 2018 12:51 am

My current circumstances no longer has build-in time for chorusing/shadowing out loud, that used to be done during the commute in walking to/from the train station and office. The commute now is longer which isn’t objectionable given the scenery, though it means much less free time to get things done. And I have motivation issues again which is not unusual, have been trying to figure out what is less demotivating? That may seem like an odd question but doing something like transcribing audio from “David and Helen in China” (something that was considered) is under the category of things I should do but given my history, know that I won’t do. Today I found myself singing aloud to some phrases of a Mandarin song that I was listening to. So now I’m thinking of memorizing song lyrics, though not singing given that my voice is too weak due to some health issues. One song I identified, is 我不是机器人 which is sung by 王大文. That was previously passed over to my overseas Taiwanese chat partner who said the lyrics are how people actually talk (vs how songs might have odd grammar, skip words, etc). I just passed the lyrics of 其实你已经知道 to the same person for the same type of evaluation. 其实你已经知道 is the song I was singing to today, also performed by 王大文.

Didn't finish Meteor Garden, discovered it was taken off of Youtube.....started watching
Candle in the Tomb: The Weasel Grave (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hDXw_L3 ... 8jfcoNRafq )
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