I have no idea how many Mandarin words I know. But it seems like I know more than I thought I did ( Read more... )

I've decided to listen to some basic Cantonese lessons. Something in me is troubled by the fact that my mind can't seem to catch hold of any sounds. When I listen to Mandarin, or even Korean (which I've never really studied), some basic things get in my head. Cantonese is somehow like water flowing past me and there's nothing I can grab onto. ( Read more... )

There are so many lines in Black & White that are really interesting to me. I keep a number of them in a file that's just Black & White quotes because I've noticed so many structures in the dialog that are fun to study.

I just found one in my notes that isn't in that file, and it's kind of interesting.

我现在就需要一个这样的地方，把自己丢掉，让自己都不要想起自己。
Wǒ xiànzài ( Read more... )

My studying has slowed down quite a bit in the last six months. Not speaking Mandarin with someone every week has somehow dulled my motivation. But the surprising thing is that I haven't given up. I'm good at trying to learn something fiercely for a time, then slowing down or stopping altogether as motivation ebbs. But I'm still working on this ( Read more... )

Recently I was reading a discussion about learning to read Mandarin and someone suggested a book. I was interested because the story was supposed to be at a level for people who've learned about 300 characters. I think I know more than that, but this seemed like a good way to see how I do reading an actual story.

Dream of the Red Chamber doesn't ( Read more... )

I've been watching several movies from Hong Kong. Usually I switch to the Mandarin track, but this week I've stayed with the Canotonese. I wanted to feel how the language sounds, the rhythms and textures ( Read more... )

I've started listening to the Slow Chinese podcasts again. A man in Zhejiang was doing podcasts about culture and current events, speaking relatively slowly for people learning -- or trying to remember -- Mandarin. Each podcast has a PDF so you can read along ( Read more... )

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 ( Read more... )

It's one thing to see a number of characters and get an idea what the sentence means. It's another thing to try and translate the sentence into nice, flowing English. I've been thinking about this piece of conversation, which Cuiping said to Zecheng:

在外边可乖着呢
你最会装了
回家来冰凉

乖 seems to be the word you use to talk about a child who is good. A good boy. ( Read more... )

When I first started learning Mandarin, I felt I had a choice to make. I didn't know how many characters I would manage to learn (and remember), but I was pretty sure I didn't want to do it twice. What if I only learn 2000 characters (which might be optimistic since I've been lazy about practicing)? Should I start learning traditional characters, ( Read more... )