活着
I went through a time of not really wanting to watch dramas. I'm still not in the mood for kdramas right now. There just don't seem to be any calling to me. I've been watching cdramas again, though. Rewatching 步步惊心 (just watched the ending for the first time), sampling others here and there, and watching The Book and the Sword a.k.a "We really will rescue Wen Tailai one of these days I swear". I'm thinking I might try Female Prime Minister and Da Mo Yao. Maybe also 倾城雪 and Lan Ling General and 美人心计. I've been watching a lot of Qing dynasty and I'm in the mood for something earlier.
Not speaking Mandarin with someone regularly has really wrecked my study habits, but I'm still learning. Just more slowly. It's always strange noticing how wrong the English subtitles are. In one scene of Book and the Sword, Qianjia -- who usually wears horse-riding-bodyguard-with-crossbow clothes, was dressed more traditionally to meet with the Emperor. He told her she looked nice and should wear that more often. In the subtitle, she said "Yes I'm glad too," but she was actually saying something more like "I didn't really want to but I was left with no choice" (不得已)… which really changes the mood of the scene.
There also seem to be more free Mandarin podcasts on itunes lately. I listen to them in the morning while drinking coffee, and see how much I understand as it flows over me.
Not speaking Mandarin with someone regularly has really wrecked my study habits, but I'm still learning. Just more slowly. It's always strange noticing how wrong the English subtitles are. In one scene of Book and the Sword, Qianjia -- who usually wears horse-riding-bodyguard-with-crossbow clothes, was dressed more traditionally to meet with the Emperor. He told her she looked nice and should wear that more often. In the subtitle, she said "Yes I'm glad too," but she was actually saying something more like "I didn't really want to but I was left with no choice" (不得已)… which really changes the mood of the scene.
There also seem to be more free Mandarin podcasts on itunes lately. I listen to them in the morning while drinking coffee, and see how much I understand as it flows over me.