My first little conversation in Chinese

My husband and I were at the food court today looking for something to eat. The mall was completely dead.

I went up to a Chinese restaurant. There was a little Chinese man working there, he could hardly speak English. He gave me a sample of orange chicken.

Then...it happened.

I spoke to him in Chinese and HE UNDERSTOOD ME.  I am very proud of myself. You would think that it would not be that big of a deal for me especially since I have already learned other languages. But there was something about this moment that made me happy. The other Chinese woman working there told me that my intonation was very good. I am giving myself a pat on the back right now.

Dawdling along in Mandarin Part II

It has been a few weeks learning Mandarin Chinese. My approach with this language is different from other languages. When I learned French, Italian, and Spanish I took classes at a community college or University. While living in Mexico I studied Swedish and Spanish with Rosetta Stone. In class I was always given a syllabus to follow and assignments to complete. I had exams that I needed to pass.

When I started Pimsleur, and Introduction to Mandarin Chinese, I took a different approach and started to learn the language phonetically. This simply means that I am listening to the spoken language and learning it by ear. Some say that we should start off with both reading and listening.  Usually that is what I do.  But Chinese is so different from anything that I have known, I decided that I needed to listen to the language, the phonemes and most important – the tones. Chinese words rise, fall, plateau, fall and rise again. The words remind me of rough ocean waves with their rising and falling. The words and phrases are a series of peaks and valleys, as if nature formed this language rather than the pragmatic need to communicate.

Foreign Service Institute Website

Much thanks to Youtube Polyglot FantasticIdiomas for showing me this website.

http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php

The real secret to language learning

The Real Secret To Language Learning

Okay, so I am going to ask you a question about your study habits. Answer the Questions honestly.

It is better to study...

A. Forty Minutes Monday, Wednesday, Friday

B. Thirty Minutes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday

C. Twenty Minutes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

D. Three hours every Saturday

The Correct Answer is at the bottom of this blog....

Pancakes are a universal food

Pancakes  Crêpes, Pannkakor, Clătită, Okonomiyaki

This fine Monday morning I decided to write about the adorable rainbow pancakes that I made for my son. (For the recipe, go to the blog).

As I started writing about the rainbow pancakes, I realized that the pancake concept exists in nearly every culture that I can think of. It is a basic, carbohydrate rich food made of grains, water, egg and milk. Thick, thin, fluffy, bubbly, fried, wrapped, or topped – the concept is the same. It is a thin dough fried on both sides in a skillet. Some are served with breakfast, some are served at lunch, and in some parts of the world, they are served at dinner.

Today I am writing about every way we can say pancake ( or pancake version), in another language. Each foreign word will be linked to a website showing you how to make these treats.  FYI – writing this blog made me hungry.

Dawdling along in Mandarin

Mandarin Orange

Today I made it through Unit Three, Mandarin Chinese.

That language is so different from anything I have known or studied. I decided to start out just listening. I am hoping that I will learn the basic words and phrases phonetically. I have been going over the material repeatedly. I do not feel like I am getting it. 


Just to be clear on one thing...I had to go over each lesson MANY, MANY, MANY times. 


I feel like such a retard. I am just not getting it. 

The Fine Art of Note Taking

Regardless if you are teaching yourself a language with Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, Living Language or you are taking a class, note taking is a fundamental part of the process. Everyone must take notes. There is no way around it.The fine art of note taking is different when you are trying to learn a foreign language. 

One Binder for Each Language

Each language that I studied had its own three ring binders. I have a French binder, Italian binder, Spanish binder, and Swedish binder. Within the three ring binders, I organized my notes by topic, date or lesson. Many of my binders are over ten years old. I still have them packed up in the top of my closet. Every once in a while I will go back and take a look at my earliest language binders. It is good to go back and look at the process I went through to become fluent in French.

I usually follow the same format when I decide to learn a new language.