Military historian's corner - EN, HE, ZH, AR, sometimes RU, FR and DE

[cjareck]

I used the old French-based Assimil for Mandarin, and I was a bit disappointed as many words were outdated. I wonder if the Polish version is any better/different?

There is undoubtedly an updated French edition. The audio doesn't correspond to the text. In the soundtrack, the say "airen" while the text says "xiangsheng". I'm sure that I saw 2-3 such places. I don't know if the new version was base for audio or transcripts
Later on, "airen" is also in the text. Obsolete vocabulary isn't a problem for me since my goals include reading sources, and verbal communication is always in second place. I surely will be understood; perhaps I will sound a little funny. But, taking into consideration what I learned about the phonology of Mandarin, there are many worse problems ahead

Also, if your goal is to read published work in Mandarin with any actual real academic value, I would suggest you make sure to learn traditional characters as soon as possible.

Shall I learn them simultaneously? For example, when I learn new words/phrases/sentence I should learn it for both and traditional characters?

Good luck!

[Ezra]

Shall I learn them simultaneously? For example, when I learn new words/phrases/sentence I should learn it for both and traditional characters?

If I were to learn Mandarin, I would start with traditional characters, and then I would learn simplified ones. Traditional → simplified, in my opinion, is easier then backwards. The former is trivial while the latter might feature characters which have several traditional counterparts (because several traditional characters were collapsed into one). In the long run it does not matter much as it is daunting to climb this hieroglyphical mountain either way. The serious point of consideration might be whether historical sources you are interested in are primarily Taiwanese or pre-Simplified era. Keep in mind that going too far in past will take to Classical Chinese area!

[cjareck]

You are right, that it is easier in the direction TRADITIONAL -> SIMPLIFIED since they are, as the name suggests, simpler
So now I have the motivation to update Anki decks so it will create cards for translations, for pinyin and for both sets of characters. I had to figure out how to do it and find time for it

. The serious point of consideration might be whether historical sources you are interested in are primarily Taiwanese or pre-Simplified era. Keep in mind that going too far in the past will take to Classical Chinese area!

Reading your log is enough for me, as far as Classical Chinese is concerned

The most important is the 20th Century for me and the Chinese civil war and other conflicts of the People's Republic of China. In the first topic, because of the golden rule Audiatur et altera pars, both sets of the characters will have to be in use.

[MorkTheFiddle]

I'm sure that I so 2-3 such places.

Pardon the interruption. Here you meant to write 'saw' and not 'so,' I think.

[cjareck]

Pardon the interruption. Here you meant to write 'saw' and not 'so,' I think.

You're right. I have already corrected it.

I thought a lot about the recent posts and came to the conclusion that Mandarin must go on hold.
- I agree, that I have to learn traditional characters
- I want to learn them from the beginning
- I don't have time for working with the Anki decks now
- I received many Hebrew sources that need to be analyzed
- Hebrew must go forward fast since it still isn't good enough

So Mandarin will go more slowly till Christmas than I hope to prepare an Anki note for both sets of characters and start Assimil again

[cjareck]

I found some time between the classes and during consultations, and I prepared a note for creating seven different flashcards

1. Simplified Characters -> Sound, Pinyin, Meaning
2. Traditional Characters -> Sound, Pinyin, Meaning (optional if there are different characters)
3. Sound -> Pinyin, Simplified characters (optional if I mark the field on the note)
4. Sound -> Pinyin, Traditional characters (optional if there are different characters and if I mark the field on the note)
5. Meaning -> Simplified Characters, Sound, Pinyin
6. Meaning -> Traditional Characters, Sound, Pinyin (optional if there are different characters)
7. Sound -> Meaning, Pinyin

This should help in (over)learning the exercises of the Assimil course. What do you think about that?

[Ezra]

I would probably go for something like this:

Traditional -> Pinyin + Sound
Traditional -> Meaning
Traditional -> Simplified

But I am lazy and like to do less work if I can .

[jeff_lindqvist]

Unless you have some script which can produce all this in a flash (and the stamina to actually go through seven versions of the same card ), I'd go for something simpler, e.g. words and/or sentences in writing, and the meaning on the back (I actually have pinyin there as well).

[cjareck]

Unless you have some script which can produce all this in a flash (and the stamina to actually go through seven version of the same card ),

With Anki, you do not need any script. You just fill in the fields (Simplified, Traditional, Pinyin, Sound, Meaning, put any character into special fields if you wish to have dictations and give the unique name for the note. Everything else is generated automatically by the Anki.
The stamina however, is however, a different problem

[rdearman]

Unless you have some script which can produce all this in a flash (and the stamina to actually go through seven version of the same card ),

With Anki, you do not need any script. You just fill in the fields (Simplified, Traditional, Pinyin, Sound, Meaning, put any character into special fields if you wish to have dictations and give the unique name for the note. Everything else is generated automatically by the Anki.
The stamina however, is however, a different problem

I think he meant a programming script which would generate hundreds or thousands of cards at a time.