tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6275372772077650637.post339832799369247895..comments2024-03-18T09:47:18.076-07:00Comments on Forever a student: Mandarin studies review after having changed my approach - 1 yearVladimirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05898612218295828520noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6275372772077650637.post-67582755847854198082011-07-09T09:21:45.964-07:002011-07-09T09:21:45.964-07:00Peter,
interesting stuff. Can you let me know ho...Peter, <br /><br />interesting stuff. Can you let me know how it is working out for you later? <br /><br />My main concern with any kind of transcription is that it makes you focus on something that is associated to a sound rather than the sound directly. Now while in Italian or Russian for instance, it is no problem,in Mandarin there is just too much information contained in the letters and the tonal marks - may it be a diacritical mark, a number or an additional letter and in my opinion the concentration on pure sound much more effective. This romanization you mentioned might still remind you of the tonal charts and not the sound itself. If you manage to get the tones down as they are supposed to sound, this romanization could be probably the best way to write down the pronunciation of new vocabulary. <br /><br />Another problem might be, that there are still only about 400 syllables in Mandarin and new vocabulary will look very similar. If not written, then it will definitely sound similar when spoken out loud.<br /><br />Another problem is sound recognition. Will you be able to automatically tell apart the following: 老師說, 老實說, 老是說? With the way I used to study Chinese, I was unable to do that, now I can most of the time. But then again I wonder, whether it isn't because I am quite used to the language and my brain sort of expects/guesses what will/should be said. <br /><br />This is actually something I wanted to write an entire article about.. I wanted to theoretize a bit about how a person understands what he hears partly because of the sound and partly because of the fact that his brain expects a set of possible sentences. For instance if you hear someone yelling something at you from across the street, you probably clearly hear less than 50% of what is being said, the rest is being guessed by the brain. This is just an example, but it is happening in real time speech all the time. I getting off the point here... <br /><br />In either way, it would be great if you could let me know how it worked out for you. Good luck with your studies.Vladimirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05898612218295828520noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6275372772077650637.post-53274445803144992732011-07-05T17:36:43.520-07:002011-07-05T17:36:43.520-07:00Thank you for the support guys. I'm doing what...Thank you for the support guys. I'm doing what I can, but it really was and is hard! :) <br /><br />I read about 120 pages of that detective story and except for the technical forensic vocabulary I think it's going surprisingly well. <br /><br />I'm also starting to memorize how to hand-write characters. My handwriting is terrible in any language so this is going to be really tough. I think I'll be happy with being able to hand-write by heart the words what I can read.Vladimirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05898612218295828520noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6275372772077650637.post-29176331930833127222011-07-05T13:54:15.970-07:002011-07-05T13:54:15.970-07:00Классно! Your intrepid climb up the Mandarin mount...Классно! Your intrepid climb up the Mandarin mountain is inspiring. You've clearly remained focused through tough times and worked very hard to reach this high level. <br /><br />Just keep your faith in reaching that summit soon, and no doubt your two feet will carry you on unawares all the way to the very top. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6275372772077650637.post-71487615617389373192011-06-28T12:04:07.274-07:002011-06-28T12:04:07.274-07:00Bravo! That's great to hear.Bravo! That's great to hear.Ryanhttp://thelinguistblogger.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com