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Post by Mr Nobody on Nov 2, 2005 21:22:26 GMT 7
Don't tell me that learning a foriegn language needs effort?
Well, there goes my thesis.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Nov 6, 2005 23:47:49 GMT 7
Tomorrow I am registering to take the HSK exam. Anyone else done this? Any words of wisdom (apart from study study study)
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Post by ilunga on Nov 7, 2005 12:59:49 GMT 7
Lotus, is that the first HSK exam? All I really know about it are that there are different levels (four?) but am not sure what credence they have. I think it will be another year or so before I try for that myself. Your chinese must be pretty good now, especially han zi. I'm presuming the paper would be solely in han zi, with no pin yin? How many characters can you read/write?
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Post by Lotus Eater on Nov 7, 2005 16:54:04 GMT 7
I'm looking at baby beginners! I can read more than I can write - my written characters are like chicken scratchings!! There is an oral (listening) component too as far as I can see.
But it will provide some impetus for my studies - without a deadline of some sort I get really slack!
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Post by Nate M on Nov 7, 2005 22:58:06 GMT 7
Yeah, I've used baby books too, which help a bit. Also, just found another resource: PDA translators: www.lingvosoft.com/Partner-Dictionary-English-Chinese-for-Pocket-PC/About a year ago I picked up a Chinese-English translator and was frustrated by it because it didn't have pinyin spellings for words I translated. This one, on the other hand does. This version translates to either traditional or simplified, or you can pay less and only do one or the other. I'm seriously considering getting a PDA now and putting off my PC purchase, (or getting an el-cheapo PC for the time being).
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teleplayer
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Post by teleplayer on Nov 12, 2005 6:31:17 GMT 7
You guys have me thinking HSK. The closest exam point to me is Kennesaw State College, Kennesaw, GA. One of their "practice resources" is www.hello-han.com/. They have a free area, of course the goal of this Bejing-based (?) group is to sell either CD or internet download of courses that include sound and writing of pinyin and characters mixed with culture of Zhong Guo. The site's a little "cranky." Response from a Li Xiaojie seems promising. If I get brave and buy into it I'll post a review. Too, my alter ego of guitaryinyuelaoshi on MSN found this site: www.52zhongwen.com/ for practicing one's Zhongwen. I trust all of you using Windows know you can get the Chinese converter as a free add-on so you can type pinyin and generate characters. Hope this helps. Now to get brave and walk on into that big Middle Kingdom asylum and buy a round or two.
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Post by con's fly is open on Nov 13, 2005 15:25:07 GMT 7
Great link, Tele (telleP? TP? Player? I'll settle on one soon)! When I'm online at home I'll download it and put in some effort.
Hanging around class has started to improve my Chinese: kids use simpler sentences, so I'm starting to understand sentences (once in a while) as opposed to just words. I think I'll start dropping in on the Chinese lessons, now that I have a notion of what I'm doing. Angela has all the basic strokes on cards on the wall, and there's a big writing element to the laowai English class, so written Chinese is getting gradually demystified for me. I'll have to go into overdrive soon and make my own flashcards; for now I'll just try to catch up to my tykes.
I'm also gonna start watching some kid's shows on TV. You know, young pretty lady smiling like a lunatic, a couple of sock puppets and some cheap animation. They don't speak too quickly.
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Ruth
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God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
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Post by Ruth on Nov 13, 2005 20:13:47 GMT 7
I'm working through a kindergarten book with a coworker in exchange for listening to her read English and work on pronunciation. She's very patient with me. This is a good arrangement except for the flock of observers we get whenever we try to have a lesson in the office. Friday I had three people hanging over my shoulder - all with advice.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Nov 13, 2005 21:54:07 GMT 7
I take my Chinese to the hairdressers. They love it - kill themselves laughing, but spend a fair bit of time helping me, and giving me other words that probably won't be found in the dictionary. (I have a few Chinese friends who do that - I now have quite a good collection of rude/crude/obscene words/phrases).
Today we again had a ball, and as they are vain young men - always playing with their hairstyles and trying on my glasses - they frequently ask me if I think they look good. My stock standard answer, delivered with great gusto is "Hen shuai ge!" - really handsome. Today one of them grinned, looked at me and practiced his English. "Fooker yo!" The rest of us collapsed laughing.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Nov 15, 2005 11:37:56 GMT 7
I have started a new process in learning my Chinese - I am going through my lesson vocab and analysing the characters for which radicals they use. This seems to be making the translation of them a little simpler.
So far I have gone through the last 5 chapters of my text, and am learning the radicals and their meanings by constantly looking them up. Some seem to have no relationship to the meaning of the character but others are really helpful in remembering what the character means.
Anyone else learning radicals?
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Non-Dave
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Post by Non-Dave on Nov 16, 2005 8:01:51 GMT 7
Well I've been here for about 3 months now and I really want to improve my Chinese fast. I'm working at it everyday, and have got some goody's from links here - thanks! I have seen an ad for a 2 week intensive boot camp in late Jan 06. It sounds good to me, and if it can deliver a big improvement in my speaking and listening it will be worthwhile. bootcamps.teachinchina.cn/index.htmlDoes anyone know about these guys, will this be a worthwhile program? For 4600RMB it's doable, but a big slice for me. I'd appreciate any feedback or opinions.
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Post by Stil on Nov 16, 2005 8:54:51 GMT 7
I know them and attended a camp of theirs last summer. It was very good. 6 classes a day and homework. The organizer, Badr, is a good guy who is also learning in these classes so it is really geared for learning. The speaking classes are immersion and I was very impressed with the progress of the complete newbies. One teacher spoke very good English and spent quite a lot of time with the beginners. The other spoke almost no English. We were broken up into groups according to ability and worked with different teacher all the time both male and female to get used to different voices. The setting is great. It's remote and in a very scenic mountain resort. The local staff were a great bunch and we spent many evenings having a couple (or 10) beers and trading songs. They were crying when we left. Not me though. Really! You are pretty cut off, no email, only emergency phone (other than your own cell) but I liked that. The food was great too. Wide variety of Chinese food sort of tailered to foreigners (lots of meat ) This was in the summer so we also went swimming everyday. In the winter it will be cold but you're used to that eh? The accomodations were good. Shared hotel rooms. There were times when the power cut off in a storm but no problems really. I've never taken other classes so I can't really compare it. That said, I do recommend this one. I will return. I can be quite lazy on my own and the structure of a classroom setting is great for me. I felt the cost was worth it.
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Post by Stil on Nov 16, 2005 8:59:21 GMT 7
I forgot to mention The New Times staff in SHijiazhuang were wonderful. After I finished the course they put me up in one of their rooms for free for a week to check out the city and even travel to Beijing (3 hours away) the Boss took us out for dinner regularily and was very friendly and helpful. They arranged for my train tickets back to Hunan. Really quite unexpected. Shijiazhuang is a bit of a hole though.
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Non-Dave
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Post by Non-Dave on Nov 16, 2005 10:47:25 GMT 7
Thanks Stil, it's great to hear from someone who has actually done the course. I just got an e-mail from Badr asking if I want to book a place, and feel a lot happier now about going ahead with it. Anyone else interested?
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Ruth
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God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
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Post by Ruth on Nov 17, 2005 8:39:07 GMT 7
Lei Shan and I are interested. I'm going to email the guy right now. Thanks for the link and the idea.
Stil, thanks for the feedback. Always good to have a personal reference. These guys should give you a commission. Or maybe we could all get a 'saloon discount' for the advertising.
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Post by con's fly is open on Nov 17, 2005 20:55:02 GMT 7
Or maybe we could all get a 'saloon discount' for the advertising. Wait a sec! Den mother, you is a genius! If I could find a free week, I'd be all over this. Cheers non-D and Stil. 3 beers, barkeep! Oh, and me:
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Ruth
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God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
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Post by Ruth on Nov 17, 2005 20:56:35 GMT 7
I'm going to bootcamp!! Heck of a way to spend a vacation, but I'm not learning Chinese very well using my current methods. So, Non-Dave, will Lei Shan and I be seeing you there?
We've already been talking about this at school. Hope they don't think I'm going to come back fluent in Chinese. Anything will be an improvement, though. I have high hopes for this place. Am I being naive, Stil?
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Post by George61 on Nov 17, 2005 21:02:11 GMT 7
Where is this camp??
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Ruth
SuperDuperMegaBarfly
God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
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Post by Ruth on Nov 17, 2005 21:08:10 GMT 7
In Hebei at a hotel in the mountains. You meet the group in Shijiazhuang on January 22nd and go together from there. Click on the link. It sounds, um, intensive. I'm scared. Hope I don't have to do pushups.
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Post by Stil on Nov 17, 2005 22:22:32 GMT 7
I'm going to bootcamp!! I have high hopes for this place. Am I being naive, Stil? It's only a couple of weeks but the best thing about it is that it gives you the skills to teach yourself later. Especially for the writing. Once you have practiced these skills with instruction you can really make progress on your own. There is a lot of time spent on radicals in the reading/writing classes and it helps tremendously. It was also important for me to break some bad habits I aquired while learning to speak on my own and working on pronunciation and tones. They did a very good job going through the pinyin sounds and distinguishing between for example the 'ch' sound and the 'q' sound and the 'zh' and 'j' sound. Chu qu always used to sound the same to me, but i came back better able to hear the difference. There is a lot of grammar too but it was very important for me because i had never studied the grammar before aside from picking up through Chinglish.
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Post by Stil on Nov 17, 2005 22:25:04 GMT 7
No push-ups Ruth, but there is a daily 20 mile hike with full gear.
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Ruth
SuperDuperMegaBarfly
God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
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Post by Ruth on Nov 18, 2005 6:16:39 GMT 7
Sounds like everything I need to learn - pronunciation, how to read/write, grammar, and how to continue on my own successfully after the two weeks are over. The hike won't hurt either. I could stand to drop a couple of kilos
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Non-Dave
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Post by Non-Dave on Nov 18, 2005 6:18:13 GMT 7
Well I'm going. It'll be great to see some of you there too, a real unexpected bonus!
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Ruth
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God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
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Post by Ruth on Nov 18, 2005 6:40:15 GMT 7
I'm really glad to hear that, Non-Dave. Our email late last night said we filled the last two slots in Level 1. I was hoping we didn't bump you out, since it was your idea... Gotta grab a friend and hit the bank today to send the deposit. See you in shijiazhuang on Jan 22nd.
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Post by George61 on Nov 18, 2005 7:02:43 GMT 7
No room for me, then.....
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