Studying very hard
bibiibjorn
June 16, 2011, 07:05 PM posted in General DiscussionNi hao !
Wo jiao Bjorn :)
Wo zai xué Zhongwen. Zhè shi hen nan!
I have a question : I have now just started learning Chinese and i'm still a newbie. I have 2-3 free months vacation to learn Chinese. Do you guys think that if I study every day, I can be in elementary of intermediate after those 3 months?
cinnamonfern
June 16, 2011, 11:08 PMI think you could definitely be Elementary. You have to do more than just the Newbie lesson that comes out each week though. I'd recommend at least 3 or 4 a week (probably more). And make sure to review the dialogue a lot. Review is key. Listen to it over and over. It took me forever to get out of Newbie, but I realize now I wasn't studying nearly as hard as I could have. You can do it!
greatu200
June 17, 2011, 01:01 AMPlease reply back with my email (sarah_williams19@yahoo.com)
Hello dear,
How are you and your health which is
the most important in life,my regards to your family and friends over there.
My name is Miss Sarah Williams I was impressed to
invite you for a private discussion after
my random and intensiv
e search for a trusted and honest person. I will like to demand your trust and sincerity as a friend, and a partnership from you and also know more about you, your country and culture,
i will also
like to seek your advice too.
I think we can help each other. I do not care where my kind of friend comes from provided he/she is a decent person.Please I'm waiting eagerly to see your mail soon.i will send you my details with my pictures after you have replied
to my email.(sarah_williams19@yahoo.com)
bababardwan
When I reply to this most generous and sincere offer of friendship, do I address you as Sarah or Vera?
http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/10806
bababardwan
lol....Doris Day lens included [maybe that's what caused the confusion]
bodawei
I was being obscure, and this is what I get, I've been out-obscured. Maybe it is that soft lens. :)
I don't understand the Doris Day reference. (You know me, a little slow.)
bababardwan
If you'd left it at "Kay" I would have just taken that as a pun on the shortened form of "ok" and the name "Kay" and thought it was obscure though, but the kay sarah sarah [pun on sera sera...I just love this pun you've made...for many reasons but also because people do sometimes deliberately pronounce their names differently..sometimes to be posh I guess] made it perfectly clear.
Well wasn't it Doris Day sang that song? And they used to rub vaseline on the movie camera lens when filming..that's what gave it that slightly out of focus look.
kimiik
Spanish: "Que Sera, Sera." (kay sarah, sarah).
English: "What will be, will be."
The lyrics are supposed to be sung by a male.
bodawei
' wasn't it Doris Day sang that song? '
Oh I am showing my ignorance .. I just think of Normie Rowe and the Playboys. Here's what I discovered: Doris Day's version was #1 for 8 weeks in Australia when I was 4 years old. (I think I was playing in the back yard with my toys then.) Then Normie Rowe's version was #1 also for 8 weeks when I was 14 - by which time I had a Panasonic transistor glued to my ear. So the Normie Rowe version made an impression. This all takes me back to hot summer days, the beach and a hit parade that went from 1 to 8.
bodawei
'The lyrics are supposed to be sung by a male.'
I am a male. :) So is Normie Rowe. I guess with Doris Day they just said que sera sera.
bibiibjorn
Is greatu her response to me or to bababardwan?
bibiibjorn
And i don't get what she's saying loL ? :p
Does she want to learn English or want to become friends ?
bababardwan
I'm sure it was only for me mate. Exclusively me. Special friends.
bodawei
We'd all like you to give her your email address so that she will stop sending us IMs. :)
You can report back whether she wants to learn English or has other desires.
bibiibjorn
I'm not following anymore...
bodawei
Hi bibiibjorn
I'm guessing that your post was directed to me? (You need to press 'Reply' below the post in question.)
I'm sorry that my message was not as clear as it should have been. This user has been sending individual messages (IM) to users, using the IM facility on this site (you will find 'Send Message' below your avatar if you go to the user's page.) In my case the messages were just like the public post, so any thought of my being 'special' sort of went out the window.
Some people do come to this site to find foreigners to do a kind of language exchange via email or chat. It may not be obvious to this particular user whether you are a native English speaker - nor does that necessarily matter.
For most users who are trying to learn Chinese this is a bit of a distraction, but often these messages come from students who are encouraged to make these kind of approaches by their teachers.
My comment about 'other desires' was based on some of the wording in her post - eg. 'I will send you my details with my pictures' and 'invite you for a private discussion'. Neither of these proposals are necessary for language learning, but of course there could be a break-down in communication because she is not using her native language. Incidentally, I don't know what her native language is, but it is unlikely to be Chinese.
bibiibjorn
June 17, 2011, 08:32 AMOh another question for you guys: When you were a newbie, did you also study all the characters and did you learn to write them? Or did you just listen and tried to speak?
bodawei
I was encouraged to read and write them right from the very start. I think that this is the conventional approach if you take classes. Of course if you are native Chinese learning the language naturally you have two or three years of listening and speaking before you try writing (reading comes earlier.) You use the right side of your brain when reading and writing characters .. maybe this helps, to get as much of your brain as possible on the job of learning.
bibiibjorn
bodawei : are you a native chinese speaker
bababardwan
June 16, 2011, 08:20 PMyes. Go for it mate.