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| AJATT |
| Back in Perth | |
| 2011-06-28 03:25:34 | |
| Well I am back in Perth. I know that I need to keep studying every day. The last week hasn't been great for that but the last couple of days have seen a good improvement. I've been sending messages to 吳雨樵 and she has been kind enough to give me corrections to the many mistakes that I make. All the new words that I don't know I have been entering into my notebook(筆記本). I'm not sure how to go about memorizing the new words. My mind is terrible and as soon as I hear something I will forget it. I think that I will have to get another exercise book and try writing out the words a few times. |
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| Time to lose the training wheels | |
| 2011-06-13 02:59:33 | |
| I've decided that I need to increase the difficulty of my learning. So from this point on I'll only be talking to her in Mandarin. She's extremely busy with her studies at the moment so I figure this will be a good way to get messages to her without taking too much of her time. One thing that will be very difficult is talking. I find it a lot more intimidating to speak to people and I would much rather write. So it might be some time before I talk face to face with her again. 我加油。 |
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| Replies: 1 View | |
| Comprehension starts to dawn | |
| 2011-05-23 23:03:27 | |
| It's been almost two months of study and I feel like I can communicate basic information. I'm still having a lot of trouble with my tones though. I have discovered that I really enjoy writing, which apparently is weird. Most people prefer talking to writing, but I guess with my prior experience with Japanese I find that I get my writing correct. Another thing that I think is worth mentioning is that I find I learn a lot more when I attend classes than when I self study. Self study works for other people, but I need the motivation and the pat on the head when I get something right, to really make me study. That is part of the key. Trying to find the way that you learn best. |
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| Replies: 1 View | |
| The end of week one! | |
| 2011-05-05 19:10:31 | |
| It's the end of the first week of the new month. The teachers are different. Their style in teaching is different and the course material is also different. Now I have three conversation classes and two writing classes. The conversation classes are interesting. The teacher always seems to be in good humor and likes making jokes. Quite often she will go a tangent before returning to the topic, but that is okay as it is all in Mandarin and good practice. The writing class is very easy. My knowledge of kanji from my study of Japanese has given me a big advantage. I breeze through these lessons as does the other Japanese guy in my class. Words that I have learned to write so far are: 一 我 學 生 你 也 他 是 王 先 說 寫 話 都 教 <- Obviously these are just characters that we have learnt how to write in class. I actually know how to write a lot more. |
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| Replies: 2 View | |
| Month one | |
| 2011-04-27 23:38:31 | |
| The first month is almost over! I now know all the pinyin characters and can say a few basic things in Mandarin. The test today was very easy. The teacher nursed us through the answers. I'm not exactly sure as to the reason why. The first half of the test was pretty straight forward. First the teacher said a character and we would circle the corresponding character on the test sheet. Then we added the correct tones to the characters as they were called out. Next we circled whole words and last we wrote down words as she called them out. The second half of the page was divided up into fill in the blanks and then a speaking section. I didn't know the words for the different types of weather, but the teacher was there to help me out with that. I'm now very excited about the next month of classes. We will be moving onto writing practice and talking. |
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| Replies: 1 View | |
| Tests | |
| 2011-04-26 08:13:35 | |
| Today I found out that we will be having tests at the end of the month to determine if we will be moving up to the next level of class or staying in the same one. I don't like tests, but the teacher seems to think that I will be okay. I think that we have finally learned all the ㄅㄆㄇ characters. We had a listening exercise today. The teacher read out some words and we had to try and write them down. The tones are killing me at the moment. I can't really tell the difference between ˊ and ˇ. 啤酒不都是好喝的。 |
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| Replies: 2 View | |
| Slow but steady | |
| 2011-04-23 02:52:37 | |
| Lessons have been progressing well. Morning classes are still a battle of comprehension. I like to think that I have a reasonable level of intelligence, but sometimes I can't decipher what the teacher is saying. Some of the content that we are learning is a little strange, and while everything is useful, I think that somethings would be more useful than others. I think that it's a well known fact that repetition works. When I was living in Japan some of the first Japanese words that I learnt to say were "生中一つ” Which roughly translated is "one medium sized draft beer". I learned this quickly because I said it a lot. My favourite dishes at the local restaurants followed and I was soon comfortable with ordering food. I imagine that the same will happen here. My girlfriend (wonderful person that she is) delights in making me order food. At the moment I'm using the most basic of communication, but it's good practice. I am picking up on the cost of items when the sales people ask for money and it makes me happy to know that some of the information in the lessons is sinking in. |
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| Replies: 17 View | |
| Week Three | |
| 2011-04-19 11:00:00 | |
| The morning and afternoon classes seem to have swapped over in difficulty. The teacher is now throwing a lot more vocabulary at us now. I think that this would be okay, if it was accompanied by handouts or writing on the board. I spend a lot of time in the morning class making notes about what the teacher has said with general notes as to what I think she may be saying at the time. I think that I'll take a photo of my notes and post those up later. My girlfriend has been recording everything that I have been eating since I have arrived and she has been entering that into the database. I've just noticed that she has added a lot more today and the list is quite long. Many thanks to her for taking the time to help me with this site and learning Mandarin in general. I'll add a link for searching through what I have been eating later! Well I better go back to pronunciation practice. |
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| Replies: 2 View | |
| Lessons continue | |
| 2011-04-10 10:00:00 | |
| Currently I have two different types of lessons. I have very basic lessons in the morning and more talking intensive lessons in the afternoon. I have found that a combination of both lessons has made understanding my teacher in the morning easier. She speaks mostly Mandarin, but will sometimes, but only rarely, say some English words. I like this and so do the other students in the class that I have talked to. The afternoon class is a lot more difficult. The teacher speaks a lot more English which is handy for getting a quick clarification for some misunderstanding. Sometimes you don't want to waste a whole bunch of time trying to figure out the meaning through gestures and context. Over all I would say that the combination works. But that is for me. I'm not sure how some of the other students are coping. A good proportion of the students in my classes are Japanese. Their English level is at varying levels and an English explanation may not be as useful. I know that the teacher in the morning doesn't speak Japanese, and I have a suspicion that the teacher in the afternoon doesn't either. Regardless I like to think that the Japanese students have an advantage when it comes to writing the language. While I am on the topic of Japanese people. I have to say that I was very surprised at the good pronunciation they had of different words. When I was teaching in Japan, I found that Japanese people would struggle with English pronunciation. I know what the limitations of their language is, and the students in my class have really made an effort to create noises that are not natural to them. It's something that I have also had to do. I think that it might be a little easier for me. The English language has a lot more different sounds, but there are still new sounds that I need to practice and master. I've been looking around for other useful applications to put onto my iPhone to study Mandarin. I've found a couple. I'll put the links here, but in the future I think that I will create a separate page for useful links and applications. This application for the iPhone has both pinyin and juin. You can press the appropriate symbol and it will pronounce the character for you bopomo help free I also heartily recommend this app for the iPhone. DianHua Dictionary for iPhone. It's an English / Mandarin dictionary. |
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| First day of lessons | |
| 2011-04-02 10:00:00 | |
| My first class was good. The teacher walked in and said good morning and then proceeded to give the whole lesson in Mandarin. I wasn't too shocked by this as it was the same when I was taking Japanese classes in Japan. I had no idea what she was saying, but once she graced us with gestures, understanding began to sink in. My classmates are a mixture of French, American, Japanese and Chinese. One of the first things that was clear is that the romanization of the Chinese characters does not allow for a phonetic pronunciation of the words. When reading the English version I always had to keep in mind that I needed to make the right sound and not try to pronounce it as if it was English. The next step is definitely to learn the pinyin script and read that instead. I have been listening to the following youtube video to become more familiar with the proper sounds. I don't know why, but I've found myself stammering in Japanese much to the great amusement of my Japanese class mates. Having lived in the country and trying to imitate mannerisms and the like, I find that it's now my go to time waster when talking. Obviously I need to learn the Mandarin equivalent and say that instead. |
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| Replies: 1 View | |