Study Chinese Online From China

Goals for Fun and Misery

November 29, 2006 on 5:40 am | In Studying | No Comments

GOALS - and taking breaks. About half a year ago I started muttering to myself about an exit strategy, of course I did this here on Cpod somewhere in the blog or comments. Nobody really picked up on it.

These days I’m goal-less, but it’s not what you think. I actually accomplished my earlier goals! I didn’t give up and I’m sure I’ll still keep growing in my Chinese. I’m not a fan of HSK, nor most tests, so that route won’t work for me.

I’m looking for ideas, so here’s the goals I’ve passed, and those I know I haven’t. Any others out here for me to try?

ACCOMPLISHED
-I recognize most of what’s on the menu (of a standard menu, not high-end fancy-smanz restaurants with weird names for everythign)

-I recognize the signs around me, I can say them outloud. You know important signs like the ‘pi e ka da’ Pierre Cardin furniture store. j/k (I’m in China. I was Lost in Translation when I first arrived.)

-When I feel like it, I can go 3-4 rounds in a bargaining session (those sellers that get to round 5+ still out-gun me)

-I can read 90% of Doraemon comics. I’m working on more ‘grown up comics now. You know, those for junior-high kids.

-I will cry watching a good Chinese drama, or Korean/Japanese drama dubbed and with sub-titles (cry only when they kill off the beautiful female lead or make her life miserable).

-I can understand and engage in conversations with Chinese friends (these are friends who can read ‘in-between’ the lines and figure out what I’m saying, not some random stranger). Some converstations I’m glad I can’t understand.

-I can text pretty much most messages in my mobile phone, in Chinese. Enough to meet up with people, etc. I can’t read the spam yet. Blessing?

-I can handwrite in Chinese, it’s not super fluid, but at least it doesn’t look like kid block printing, and I know where to swerve and re-jig the order of the strokes to make it ‘handwriteable.

-When people aren’t paying attention, they take about 4-6 minutes before they start wondering about my ‘weird Chinese. This is versus the first 1-3 seconds when I first started.

CAN’T DO
- I can’t yell loud enough, ‘xia che’, in the bus to get the busdriver to stop. I don’t really enunciate loud enough (yell) in Chinese. People say I speak like a sweet girl…ugg. GRR.

- I can’t confidently YELL fuwuyuan, or maidan, in the restaurant without feeling that my pronunciation goes to shot. When are we having the Learn to Yell in Chinese podcast that we can safely ‘practice’ in the car?

- I can’t read a newspaper (I can read some articles and the paparazzi photo captions)

- I don’t really enjoy trying to phone in a take-out order.

- I can’t really say the abstract or sarcastic things that I want to, in Chinese. Plus/minus?

- When I handwrite characters, yah I resort to pinyin and getting a picklist off of my mobile.

What other ‘markers’ or milestones do others have? I’d really like to hear from some long-time learners. Those that are 3-5 years plus in China.

I really thought what John said was important, motivation is key and that it’s a long-term process. I also want to say that we should distinguish between long-term and “hard”.

I don’t think Chinese is particularly hard to learn, but like any language, there’s just a lot to learn. In a grown-up busy life, this means it competes with lots of other stuff for my attention.

Having fun, attainable, concrete goals invents segments of time that make the years slip away. I’m in year 2 and it just feels like I started!

http://blogs.chinesepod.com/2006/11/28/study-as-a-journey/

It’s the Holidays

November 28, 2006 on 4:21 am | In Chinesepod Transcripts | No Comments

The Full Transcript schedule is a bit topsy-turvey. My transcriptionist had some tests to prep for, etc, etc. We’ll still be getting transcripts out, but this week looks iffy. If there’s a flood of anger, comments, or purchases it could spur my motivation!

Full-Transcript Initiative: Inter 40 Pissed Off!

November 9, 2006 on 3:28 am | In Chinesepod Transcripts | No Comments

Full-Transcript Initiative: Inter 40 Pissed Off!

Click here to go to the Chinesepod lesson

In this Chinesepod podcast Ken and Jenny talk about a couple in a restaurant. They are complaining about a guy next to them who is smoking and talking loudly on his cell phone.

They want him to stop, they want to complain. Can you complain in Chinese?! Learn how!

Click here to purchase this full-transcript. US$3.25 Word .rtf file

• 也会啊
• 如果有这个
• 还可以，因为我很尴尬
• 我们今天还有一个keyword.

Jenny： 但是他不理我，他不理我。
Ken：他不理我（不理，嗯），He didn’t pay any attention to me, he ignored me.（对）

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Chinesepod transcripts, the full-transcripts of the banter between the hosts is available here at www.aurbo.com/chinese. To really kickstart your Chinese language studies review some real conversation. Learn all the umms, yup, ah-huh, and transitions that make conversation easier and make for more natural sounding Chinese.
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