Sara’s Mandarin Monday: 新的学期来了！

Date: 2012.02.21 | Category: Chinese Language, Mandarin Monday (中文博文), Me | Response: 4

There is something strange happening in the video after 01:15. My voice suddenly starts getting slower and slower like I turn into a man! I try to fix it, but until that I hope you atleast have fun！

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Shortly in English: In this short video I’m explaining why this Mondarin Monday is on Tuesday and what are my plans for the week. New term at the university is beginning and I’m looking forward to it!

Let me know your thought about my current level at spoken Chinese. Thank you!

Sara’s Mandarin Monday: 我的家乡黑诺拉

Date: 2012.02.06 | Category: Chinese Language, Mandarin Monday (中文博文) | Response: 10

今天我给你们看一下我以前写的作文。老师给了我89分，你觉得应该给多少分呢？

(这篇作文是在课堂上写的，时间不够，所以很短。)

在中国人眼中，我的家乡是一个小小的乡镇，但是在芬兰黑诺拉算是个城市。黑诺拉的人口比中山大学本科生的数量小，只有两万居民。

在广州每天都有交通堵塞，在我的家乡一个路口有三辆车那就已经算是堵车。星期六商店下午两点关门，人烟消云散。因为人口很低(少)，所以每个人(都)知道你的私人事情，流言蜚语流转(不已)。

对孩子的成大(成长)来说，这样的小城市是个非常好的地方，但是高中毕业后年经人(年轻人)无法留在家乡，反而必须去大城市读书或打工。怪不得有一个女孩从黑诺拉来到广州生活(My reader suggested to write 这也是为什么我从黑诺拉来到广州生活的原因 instead)。

现在对我来说，黑诺拉意味着童年，那段生活很容易的时间。小时候什么压力都没有，日子过得很舒服。每年回国时我兴高采烈，那时候我可以回去(重温)我的童年，忘记愁肠。

黑诺拉只是个小城市而已，但是在我心理它有巨大的意义。

January Goal Check-In

Date: 2012.02.01 | Category: Chinese Language, Me | Response: 12

I am almost too embarrassed to do this check-in for my goals, but perhaps after this humiliation I’m going to do better job in February. So let’s see how I did with my goals in January!

Listening

15 episodes of American TV and 8 episodes of Chinese TV (challenge started in the middle of the month). This looks like a big failure, but I promise you that I will get it even before Saturday.(I would blame this TV series.)

Writing

I published two Sara’s Mandarin Monday blog posts in Chinese which is according to the plan. Thank you everyone for giving me such a great feedback!

Reading

I did start my first book of the year (one of five), but have only read two pages. First I used a method where I checked almost every new word with the dictionary, but realized it’s not going to work. I need reading to be enjoyable in order to finish those five books this year. So I let my self to use any method I want (meaning sometimes checking the dictionary, sometimes not) if I just read the books and enjoy it.

Skritter

The goal is to use Skritter everyday for 15 minutes. I have noticed that it’s really hard to keep up when I’m on a holiday. And will be even harden when my friend soon comes to visit me for two weeks. Here at the stats:

• Days Studied: 14/31 (<- failure can be seen here)
• Hours Studied: 7,5
• Minutes Per Day: 14

To-do list for February

• Keep the Chinese/American TV balance every week
• Continue the good work with Sara’s Mandarin Monday
• Read at least 100 pages of my current book
• Do my best to make Skitter a daily habit when the new semester begins on 20th
• Figure out a goal for spoken Chinese

Did you make goals for 2012? If yes, how are they coming along?

My Chinese listening goal for 2012

Date: 2012.01.25 | Category: Chinese Language, Me | Response: 13

I already have goal for managing my vocabulary (Skritter goal) and for reading Chinese books, but of course that is not enough. So here comes the Chinese listening goal for 2012:

Watch as much Chinese TV as I watch American TV

You might think this isn’t a very good goal, how much TV watching does that mean? Let me first tell you how many American TV shows I’m following at the moment: Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl, Pan Am, Revenge, Pretty Little Liars, Grey’s Anatomy, Switched at Birth, Private Practice, Good Wife and The Lying Game. Oh my, that is a lot! That means 10 episodes every week (at the moment).

Here comes the catch! If I want to watch 10 episodes of American drama every week, I also have to watch 10 episodes of Chinese drama (or any other kind of TV show) a week. Now just forget all those series I listed and imagine I just told you I watch 10 episodes of Chinese TV series per week, sounds good right?

Keeping studying fun keeps me studying

I know that not everyone likes to watch TV and some of you might think I’m wasting a lot of time by watching my favourite American dramas. But watching TV gives me too things, language practice and relaxation. Remember that English isn’t my native language and I do have to practice it or I forget it (just like what happened with German and Swedish, and what is happening to my spoken English).

I have used ChinesePod before, especially when I was still at elementary level and couldn’t follow native material. I also started listening their upper-intermediate shows last Autumn, but gave it up a while ago. I have to keep my studies as fun as possible in order to keep enjoying Chinese, and to be frank watching TV is more fun than listening podcasts. But if you’re a beginner or at elementary level in Chinese I do recommend trying ChinesePod.

Chinese shows I like

Majority of Chinese dramas are too fake, too dramatic or too cute for me, but I have manages to find one show I like. 裸婚时代 is about young Chinese adults who face lots of pressure from the society and from their parents to live a life that is expected from them. A young couple find out they are going to have a baby, get married and try to figure out how to manage this new life situation. I can understand most of the dialog and I can enjoy the show even there are vocabulary I don’t know yet.

A bit more challenging one is a daily show 纪实 which introduces interesting and heart braking real life stories around China. It’s excellent listening material for intermediate and advanced learners. I have to concentrate quite a lot when listening to this show, but I think it’s needed in order to get my listening skills to the next level.

Managing my goal

This is simple! I have a post-it where on the left says Chinese TV and on the right American TV. Every time I watch an episode I mark it to the post-it and keep the tally marks even.

Do you think watching TV is a waste of time or a good way to learn languages?

Sara’s Mandarin Monday：为什么我的汉语口语还这么差？

Date: 2012.01.23 | Category: Chinese Language, Mandarin Monday (中文博文) | Response: 28

Note: Incorrect sentences are in red and corrected ones (based on my readers’ comments) are in green. Thank you everyone for helping!

大家好！这是我的第一个Sara’s Mandarin Monday。每个星期一我的博客有新的中文博文。很多人建议我写中文博文，是因为写中文博客是个很好的方法提高自己的写作水平(写博客是个很好的提高自己写作水平的方法)。我希望你们可以帮助我改错，这样我的中文博文会越来越好。

今天的题目是：

为什么我的汉语口语还这么差？

我的同学对我说过：“你的中文不是那么流利，但是我们都可以听得懂你。” 对，中国人一般也会(能)听得懂我的普通话，但是我的口语还不够好。我的语法有太多错误，我不知道怎么用我刚才学到的词语。那些词我会(能)看得懂，但是说话的时候，我想不起对(合适)的词。我的汉语有很多 “那个，这个”，比如说，“给我那个开电视的东西”，“那个东西是在那个红色东西的后面”。我的 男朋友当然听得懂，但是这还不算流利的汉语。

我应该多一点跟中国人聊天(我应该多跟中国人聊天)，但是我的性格比较内向，所以对我来说，跟陌生人说话不是个很容易的事。Fluent in 3 months 的 Benny 可能会说“那不要那么内向！”，说的容易，做的难。已经24年过的这样的内向的生活，怎么样今天会改变我的性格呢？(已经过了24年这样内向的生活，怎么可能今天就可以改变我的性格呢？) 除了我以外，世界上一定也有别的跟我一样害羞学习中文的人(一定也有跟我一样害羞的(在)学习中文的人)，对不对？我们怎么样可以提高我们的口语水平？

正确语法和巨大词汇(正确的语法和巨大的词汇)也不够。如果你要跟中国人一样说普通话，那你也必须认识很多成语。还不够！你也要知道中国人现在喜欢说什么话题，比如说新电影，新书，新闻等等。看电影，电视剧，书以后，我还有时间出去找中国人聊天吗？

以前学习中文只是个爱好而已，现在中文就是我的专业。有时候我觉得我的生活除了学汉语以外，没有别的内容。在教室说汉语，在超市说汉语，再家说汉语。连对我的猫说普通话！我每天说汉语，但是我的口语还很差。

那为什么我的口语是那么差呢？很简单，我太懒！是很容易说“那个蓝色东西”，但是我应该努力一点，查词典，才会知道那个东西的名字是瑞士军刀。到这个水平（我现在的水平）不是那么难，找中国男朋友/女朋友就可以了，但是从这个水平到流利的水平，对我来说，是很难。我必须学习新的词语，必须学习成语，必须学习语法，必须认识中国文化，必须跟不同的人聊天。只跟我男朋友说话一定不够！

我的普通话现在很差，但是我承诺一年后我的汉语会流利一点！以后我会告诉你我打算用怎么样的方法提高我的口语水平。

Briefly in English:

This is my first Sara’s Mandarin Monday where I will post blog posts, videos or something else entirely in Mandarin Chinese. I hope that all of you who can will help me to correct my mistakes so I can improve my Chinese. And if you’re learning Chinese, why not to leave a comment in Chinese?

In this first post in Chinese I wrote my my spoken Chinese still isn’t good enough. At least for now I’m not going to translate my Chinese posts, but I might reconsider that later on.