Chinatown Center visit

This Saturday a few of my friends and I hopped on a bus and went down to “Chinatown”, which in reality is more like a shopping center.  We spent a lot of our time grocery shopping and in a way, it motivated me.  I saw some of the characters I was able to understand, but the rest were blank to me.  While I knew what the item was because English was provides, it provides me with the goal to be able to read it without depending upon Engrish.  Not to mention, I got lots of delicious snacks.  Best of all – instant milk tea!

3 weeks until finals begin, so it is a push to finish for me.

Chinese Tongue Twisters

I was excited because on this reading quiz I managed to get an A! Maybe my tones are slowly improving. One can hope at least!

My friend was trying to teach me a Chinese tongue twister, but I made him wait until the end of the week to teach me. Now that it’s the weekend, I have learned it and am now working on making it faster.

If you’re curious here it is:
吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮不吃葡萄到吐葡萄皮。
chi1 pu2 tao2 bu4 tu3 pu2 tao2 pi2 bu4 chi1 pu2 tao2 dao4 tu3 pu2 tao2 pi2

I think it’s fun, but it’s pretty hard to get up to speed and get pronunciation right.

救命啊！

The title of my post means like “Help me!” or “Save life!” (if you want to be literal).

My friend was helping me with Chinese pronunciation and told me to say that to my TA when I have difficulty.  I think that may be the most useful phrase I’ve learned then.  It is the phrase I would use if I was drowning.

I’ve been sucking up to my friends and begging them to listen to me read once a day to get ready for my reading quiz.  Maybe it’s helping.  It feels like they’re correcting me less – which is always a good thing, unless they are too lazy to correct me.

I’ve also realized I’ve totally stopped doing Anki with the advent of school.  I’ll try to regenerate it over Christmas break, but I should probably make it with English on the side I see, instead of the characters.  I think that will enable better retention.

加油!  I will learn, if it is one of the last things I do!

Midterms, etc.

As one might guess from the title, I’ve been busy with midterms.  For example, today I had one in computer architecture.  As a result, I haven’t had any time to blog because I’ve been doing programming projects or getting ready for a test.

I think I’m going to put off my CS honors class to take Chinese, I am almost sure.

To anyone who comes here who is learning Chinese: I have a reading quiz next week (and I just want to read better) – any advice on improving that second tone I just can’t seem to pull off?

I’m planning on maybe doing a longer post soon on the Sapir-Wharf hypothesis (and maybe tie it to computer science)

Classes Update

My university took down the preliminary schedule for next semester, since changes will be made to schedule.  I’m crossing my fingers that Chinese or my computer science class will be one of them.

I also have a Chinese test on Monday, computer science project for one class due Tuesday, Spanish midterm on Wednesday, another computer science class project/homework due on Thursday, and an internship application due Friday.  I may not be updating for the next week, but I’ll still be studying my Chinese and Spanish, if for no other reason than for my upcoming tests.

On the other hand, going to see my TA helped me realize the tone I have the most problem with is the 2nd tone.  I think “rising” but 1st tone comes out.  I also don’t go high enough for my 1st tone initially.

Class conflict

Being the internet creeper that I am, I managed to come across my university’s class schedule for next semester.  As a result, I am incredibly frustrated.  The times for one of my honors CS classes and third semester Chinese conflict!  The honors classes are only offered once a year.  However, I also want to go study abroad next year (for the whole academic year), and don’t know if I want to go to China yet.  But most places have a bare minimum requirement of 3 semesters of Chinese before you can go.  I’m also afraid I may be unable to take some other classes that will have a prerequisite of the honors CS class though.

Hence, my frustration.

PALS

My university offers something called the PALS program or “Partners Advancing Language Study”.  Of course, I am taking advantage of this program.  Last year, I requested a PAL who spoke Cantonese and was partnered with someone who was studying abroad for a semester from Hong Kong.  Although I didn’t really learn any Cantonese, it was still fascinating being able to talk to someone from abroad who was here for an extended duration of time (but planning to go back).  This year (or maybe semester) I have been assigned a PAL from China and a PAL from Korea.  It should be fun I hope!

Hopefully I’ll meet both of them in the coming week!

Tone Frustration

I’ve reached that point where I feel as if I am about to scream with frustration with tones.  The majority of the time, I know the correct tone that needs to be said and am thinking “this needs to be 1/2/3/4/neutral tone”, however when I open my mouth my TA is always telling me “your tones are all over the place”.  Multiple people have told me this and I’m not a native speaker, so I recognize that it must be true, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.  I simply want to scream at times since I am thinking about the tone, but the right one doesn’t want to come out.

I’m going to work with my TA next week on my tones, so I’ll see if that helps at all.  I’ve been practicing with my friends who speak Chinese, but I don’t know if it is has helped at all.  I want to get better too, because I want to speak Chinese.

Not Anti-Classes

A lot of language learners are “anti-classroom” when it comes to language learning. While I don’t think a language can be fully learned within the classroom, I do think there are a few benefits.

First, one (generally) has the benefit of a native speaker to correct your pronunciation. After all, an English speaker generally can not pronounce Chinese perfectly straight off the bat. At least, I can’t. Similarly, the native speaker is there to correct you. In an actual interaction, oftentimes a person may just interpret what you want/need and then respond without correcting you. This can make it difficult to correct yourself later.

Second, one gets an introduction to grammar. I don’t think grammar is something than can be totally absorbed, after all, I had to study English grammar some in school. I want to be able to do more than just speak/communicate in my target language. I want to be able to express myself thoughtfully and eloquently, and being familiar with the grammar helps.

Similarly, one generally gets exposure to all 4 aspects of a language in a classroom (listening, speaking, reading, writing) that might have been lopsided with self study.

These are my thoughts on learning in a classroom at the moment. But of course, there are benefits to self study too, such as the ability to go at one’s own pace, and not being bogged down by tedious tasks and slower classmates.

Sickness

I’ve been sick the past week, so learning has sort of been on the back burner compared to just surviving and completing my homework and going to homework.  I did watch a drama recently, if just to try to listen better.  I enjoyed it, 霹靂MIT, it was more of a mystery than romance, although there was a twinge of that.  So I enjoyed immensely.  All of my professors want me to talk in class, but each time I try to talk I burst into a fit of coughing.  Hopefully that will end soon.  I think I managing to figure out how my Chinese class operates, so that is good as well.

If anyone reading this has any Chinese media suggestions, please leave a comment for me with advice.  Thanks!