It’s a great place to practice han zi (汉字）as you can chat, email and even surf websites in Chinese.
For me, I’m just proud of the fact that I can now have purely Chinese exchanges online… It’s not perfect yet (my grammar and structure remain challenged as usual), but it’s a start. A very, very good and cool start. 🙂
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of being in an intermediate level class is the number of new words (words, not characters) that we learn everyday. While not all of them are useful, most are. Some even come as phrases or expressions that would be good to know in real life, such as 要不然 (yao bu ran = “or else”) and 各种各样 (ge zhong, ge yang – “all kinds of things”). My classmates and I have estimated that we are given anywhere from 25 to 50 new words to learn EVERYDAY.
Memorizing them alone is overwhelming enough. But to be expected to use them correctly too? It’s tough, but as everyone knows, the most important thing about learning a language is practice and repetition. Continue reading “Finding Focus”
An incredible amount of self-knowledge is required to achieve any significant endeavor in life. Knowing your strengths, weaknesses, how far you can push yourself and when to stop are very important factors when deciding on how to go about conquering a particular goal.
The same rings true for studying Mandarin. Continue reading “Know Thyself”
“When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.” – The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo
Having committed myself to another semester of studying Mandarin up at Tsinghua comes with a lot of caveats. Foremost of which is, being willing to work and study at the same time.
I was lucky enough to be able to avoid such an arrangement when I first arrived in Beijing. My savings allowed me a somewhat carefree lifestyle as a full-time student. No need to work and earn. Now, however, I realize that not having an income can be unsettling.
This week gave me a preview of what life was going to be like as a “working student.” Continue reading “A Sneak Preview of Struggles”
Ting Claravall Works 