For those interested in pounding on a single pattern until you get it down. I suspect what is needed is a list of sentences in Chinese, and their english translations to get these down.
Reviewing other texts, it appears that there are around 150 -200 basic patterns or so. I'd love to get those patterns listed here.
Where I've been successfull in using these sentence patterns is in being able to repeat a sentence in the pattern about 300 times or so in Chinese, and then repeat this in English around 100 times or so. Ideally, i'd like to get the sentence pattern down to saying it around 1000 times. Very mechanical and rehearsed, but I find that if I do this, then at least I can say and understand the pattern pretty easily, and can substitute new words into the pattern reasonably easily as well. It is the substitution that is key.
Where I've translated Cpod sentences, I've translated them as Connie wrote them, not as the dialogue would imply they should be translated. This is done to strengthen my translation skills on what is written, not what is said.
Everyone is free (in fact, encouraged) to add their own translations and sentences. In theory, going through the exercises of reading everyone else's sentences, then seeing the pattern over and over again should help you/me get better at the pattern itself.
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posted March 27, 2012 