confessions-of-a-language-freak

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

Day 6 Vocabulary

I’m way behind on my vocabulary challenge (life is crazy) but some progress is better than no progress!

包 - bag (bāo)

书 - book (shū)

笔记本/本子 - notebook (bǐjìběn/běnzi)

上学 - go to school (shàngxué)

课 - lesson/class (kè)

笔 - pen (bǐ)

课本 - textbook (kèběn)

学生 - student (xuésheng)

老师 - teacher (lǎoshī)

放学 - to finish school (fàngxué)

作业/��课- homework (zuòyè/gōngkè)

考试 - test/exam (kǎoshì)

学校 - school (xuéxiào)

书桌 - desk (shūzhuō)

白板 - whiteboard (báibǎn)

数学 - math (shùxué)

体育 - PE (tǐyù)

科学 - science (kēxué)

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

I’m very close to finishing the next part of my tree! After renting a grammar textbook from Amazon, I think my brain has started to recognize the patterns in sentence structure more, and I’m not making as many mistakes.

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

The Prince of Tennis

Before the blackouts started, I had taken the time to download some Chinese drama’s from Netflix so that I could have some entertainment. I picked up a few sentences from the show The Prince of Tennis that I heard spoken and then decided to try typing what I heard into google translate to see if the characters actually matched the subtitles. Here are a few sentences that I found that could be useful for everyday life from the drama.

没错了 -Right/ That’s right (méi cuòle)

别哭了。- Don’t cry. (bié kūle.)

我带了吃的。- I brought something to eat. (wǒ dàile chī de.)

我带了喝的。 - I brought something to drink. (wǒ dàile hē de.)

你在做什么？- What are you doing? (nǐ zài zuò shénme？)

你怎么了？- What happened to you?/ What’s up with you? (nǐ zěnmele?)

好久不见- Long time no see! (hǎojiǔ bùjiàn！)

我没听明白。- I do not understand. (wǒ méi tīng míngbái。)

你说的可对。 - You’re right. (nǐ shuō de kě duì。)

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

Day 4 & 5

The power is back! I haven’t had a blackout in 24 hours, but gosh do I have a lot of studying to catch-up on.  🥲

  Day 4- 水果- Fruit

苹果- Apple (píng guǒ)

·        梨- Pear (lí)

·        柠檬- Lemon (níng méng)

·        草莓- Strawberry (cǎoméi)

·        菠萝- Pineapple (bō luó)

·        西瓜- Watermelon (xī guā)

·        香蕉- Banana (xiāng jiāo)

·        橙子- Orange (chéng zi)

·        芒果- Mango (máng guǒ)

·        葡萄- Grape (pú tao)

·        蓝莓- Blueberry (lán méi)

·        樱桃/ 车厘子- Cherry (yīng táo/ chē lí zi)

·        椰子- Coconut (yē zi )

·        榴莲- Durian (liú lián）

·        山竹- Mangosteen (shān zhú)

  Day 5- Family

·        寄宿家庭- Host family (jì sù jiā tíng)

·        家人/ 家庭- Family (jiā rén/ jiā tíng）

·        妈妈/母亲- Mom/Mother (mā ma/ mǔ qin)

·        爸爸/父亲- Dad/Father (bà ba/ fù qīn）

·        父母- Parents (fù mǔ)

·        兄弟姐妹- Sibling (xiōng dì jiě mèi)

·        亲戚- Relative (qīn qī)

·        哥哥- Older brother (gē ge)

·        姐姐- Older sister (jiě jie)

·        弟弟- Younger brother (dì di)

·        妹妹- Younger sister (mèi mei)

·        丈夫- Husband (zhàng fū)

·        妻子- Wife (qī zi)

·        孩子- Child (hái zi)

·        女儿- Daughter (nv‘ér)

·        儿子- Son (ér zi)

·        配偶- Partner or Spouse (pèi ǒu)

·        祖父母- Grandparents (zǔ fù mǔ)

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

Day 2 & 3

I’ve been dealing with rolling blackouts for the past two days, so I have to seize the opportunity to use wifi when I can. The hardest part about these blackouts is that all my resources are online. If you are being affected by the ice storm, be safe out there!

Day 2- Clothing

Dress shirt / Blouse － 衬衫 (chèn shān)

T-shirt － T恤 (T xù)

Pants － 裤子 (kù zi)

Jeans －  牛仔裤 (niú zǎi kù)

Shorts － 短裤 (duǎn kù)

Dress － 连衣裙 (lián yī qún)

Skirt － 裙子(qún zi) / 短裙 (duǎn qún)

Tuxedo － 燕尾服 (yàn wěi fú)

Suit － 西装 (xī zhuāng)

Tie － 领带 (lǐng dài) / 领结 (lǐng jié)

Bathing Suit － 泳衣 (yǒng yī)

Bikini － 比基尼 (bǐ jī ní)

Swim Trunks － 泳裤 (yǒng kù)

Pajamas － 睡衣 (shuì yī)

Underwear － 内衣 (nèi yī)

Socks － 短袜 (duǎn  wà)

Stockings － 长袜 (cháng wà)

Day 3 - Winter

Winter – 冬天 （dōng tiān）

Coat － 外套 (wài tào)

Blazer / Jacket － 夹克 (jiá kè)

Vest － 背心 (bèi xīn)

Hoodies － 卫衣 (wèi yī)

Sweater － 毛衣 (máo yī)

Sweatshirt －运动衫 (yùn dòng shān)

Windbreaker －风衣 (fēng yī)

Scarf － 围巾 (wéi jīn)

Gloves － 手套 (shǒu tào)

Mittens － 连指手套 (lián zhǐ shǒu tào)

Earmuffs － 耳罩 (ěr zhào)/耳套 (ěr tào)

Hat / Cap－帽子 (mào zi)

Snow – 雪 （xuě）

Snowing – 下雪 （xià xuě）

Snowman – 雪人 (xuě rén)

Ice – 冰 （bīng）

Hot chocolate – 热可可 （rè kě kě）

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

Day 1 Vocabulary Challenge!

Accessories

·        首饰- Jewelry (shǒu shì)

·        项链- Necklace (xiàng liàn)

·        戒指- Ring (jiè zhǐ)

·        手镯- Bracelet (shǒu zhuó)

·        耳环- Earring (ěr huán)

·        胸针-Brooch (xiōng zhēn)

·        手表- Watch  (shǒu biǎo)

·        皮带- Belt  (pí dài)

·        袖口- Cufflinks  (xiù kòu)

·        手帕- Handkerchief (shǒu pà)

·        太阳镜- Sunglasses (tài yáng jìng)

·        雨伞- Umbrella  (yǔ sǎn)

·        雨衣- Raincoat  (yǔ yī)

·        拉链- Zipper  (lā liàn)

·        扣子- Button  (kòu zi)

·        口袋- Pocket (kòu dài)

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

The motivation is back!

I’m feeling more motivated than I was last week. So I think I’m going to do a vocabulary expansion challenge and learn some new words. I can only do things in short time periods, so I think it will be a 30 day challenge where I have a random topic each day and learn new words related that topic.

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

𝕔𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕖 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕔𝕖𝕤

here is a list of some really helpful mandarin resources that i found recently! all of the underlined ones are live links :) 

chinese-grammar: i’m gonna be honest here, this grammar website is IMPRESSIVE. it provides 22 lessons and an extensive and detailed explanation of chinese script and characters (with a really long list of characters). i only just recently came across this website but i totally see myself using this, like, all the time. i highly highly highly recommend it! 

chineseboost : this website is definitely an awesome long-term resource! it provides lessons for pretty much all levels of chinese (a1-c1, hsk1-hsk5) so everything is in one place! it also has some super helpful tools such as as a hanzi to pinyin translator and a blog where they have tips and study strategies! 

LTL mandarin school : although the posts on this blog are a little limited, i feel like the posts that they do have are pretty helpful, especially their “complete guides” to basic chinese grammar! this is definitely not a primary resource, but since it has some helpful stuff i decided to include it :) 

HSK 1: i find myself coming back again and again to this app! it’s a super super accessible resources and really interesting as a beginner chinese learner since it kind of throws you in the deep-end with its built-in games, and it’s honestly quite refreshing. it also provides a huuuuge bank of vocabulary as well as sentences! 

HSKOnline: this app is most useful to people who plan to take the hsk exams. i believe it provides all 5 hsk levels with practice exams, exercises, and important vocabulary! i personally have not completely dived into this app since i am very much not exam ready haha, but i can see how it would be very very helpful for people who want to formalize language learning. (honestly it’s great for casual language learners as well since you can just pretend that they are practice tests or fake tests) 

Infinite Chinese: this app is great if you are a beginner and you want a fun and interactive way to dive into the language! it’s also a great warmup activity. infinite chinese is basically an app that has a game very similar to quizlet’s meteor game thing (i hope you know what i mean) and it also covers quite a lot of vocabulary. it’s great for review as well! :) i’ve used this app multiple times for entertainment too, so it really helps you pick the language up a little faster! 

pleco chinese dictionary : needless to say, it’s super important to have a mandarin dictionary since the vocabulary and script is so expansive. i feel like this dictionary is particularly awesome since there is handwriting input (you can write out a character using your own hand) that will give you the definition and pinyin of whatever you wrote! this is great since it’s sometimes easy to mix up definitions and pronunciations since the language is so nuanced. ans, because it’s an app, it’s nice and accessible and not to mention portable lol 

scripts: this app has been something i find myself coming back to over and over again for not only mandarin, but other languages as well! for mandarin specifically, it gives you a really strong foundation on chinese radicals (if you are new to the language: radicals are the fundamental and most basic strokes that makes up the mandarin script- it’s super important to learn them because it will help you write and also sometimes help you with the definition of words you may not know quite yet) which is super helpful, especially in the long run. 

lingodeer:  honestly speaking, lingodeer is a great app to learn mandarin! even though it somewhat forces you to go through all the basics before jumping into the meat (but that’s pretty much every language learning app so i’m not surprised about it), it provides a good review of things you already learned and does it pretty thoroughly. a lot better than duolingo 

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

Resources for Learning Korean Through Chinese

I’m not currently learning Korean, but in the future I want to learn it through Mandarin Chinese. This is called laddering (learning a new language through another language you speak at an advanced level). Even thought Korean and Chinese are not related languages, I think the amount of Sino-Korean vocabulary would make laddering these two languages really interesting! This is a (non-exhaustive) list of some resources I’ve found:

Lingodeer  I’m sure many of you have heard of this app before. Obviously you can learn Korean through English, but there is also an option to learn in through Chinese (traditional).

Eggbun Korean This is another app. I’m not sure if all the course content is available in Chinese, but at least some is!

How to Study Korean I think everyone knows this site. Unfortunately, it looks like only Unit 1 is available in Chinese. It’s still a good start–hopefully more lessons will be translated soon.

Darakwon Practical Korean This series consists of 6 books total. However, I believe the last book has not been published yet. As the title suggests, these textbooks focus on practical conversational Korean.

Darakwon Master Korean This series has 6 levels, but levels 1-4 are split into 2 books each. Currently, book 6 is not out yet. From what I can tell, the difference between Master Korean and Practical Korean is that Master Korean more closely follows the TOPIK exam and has less emphasis on conversational language.

Darakwon Korean Grammar in Use This is a very well-known textbook series. There are 3 books total focusing entirely on grammar. Each level should roughly correspond to 2 levels of a standard textbook (ie. the beginner book should cover grammar from levels 1-2 of a textbook like Master Korean). Thus, you will need other resources to learn vocabulary.

Darakown 2000 Essential Korean Words So far this series has 2 levels, beginner and intermediate. Unlike the books above, there is not a dedicated Chinese translation of these books. Instead, the book has side-by-side translations in English, Japanese, and Chinese.

Ewha Korean The Ewha books are also split into 6 levels. Levels 1-3 are split up into 2 books each. There are separate workbooks available. I’ve seen this series recommended for self-study because of the separate study guide booklets you can buy.

Ganada Korean for Foreigners Ganada is a Korean language school that also publishes its own textbooks. I am not very familiar with this series, but I have heard good things from people who use it.

Yonsei Korean Yonsei has sooo many textbook series. The classic Yonsei series is available in Chinese. I believe the newer edition textbooks are, too. Not all of the Chinese versions are listed on Yonsei Press’ website, but I believe you can get them on TwoChois. Or you could try searching 延世韩国语, which is the name of the series in Chinese.

Sogang Korean This well-known series is also translated into Chinese. I’ve linked the twoChois listings above because I couldn’t find an official university press page.

**Note that for many of the textbooks listed above, the advanced books actually written in Korean without Chinese translations.

There are also some Korean textbooks available only in Chinese. I would imagine these books are much harder to find outside of China, but I’ll list them below:

标准韩国语 (Biaozhun Hanguoyu) - Peking University

新标准韩国语 (Xin Biaozhun Hanguoyu) - Kyung Hee University

首尔大学韩国语 (Shou’er Daxue Hanguoyu) - Seoul National University I know SNU has a popular Korean textbook series in English, but to my knowledge, this series is separate, not a translation of the English series.

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

Been having a hard time studying this week. I’ve only been consistent using Duolingo.

But at least I learned what the equivalent of “OMG” is in mandarin and sometimes, that’s enough. I can do better next week.

我的天哪！(wǒ de tiān nǎ!)

我的妈呀！(wǒ de mā ya!)

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

新年快乐！！！

Happy Spring festival everyone! 🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

✨丰富词汇✨

纯粹的 (chúncuìde)- pure

公共 (gōnggòng)- public bus

公司 (gōngsī)- company

驼鹿 (tuólù)- moose

母亲 (mǔqīn)- mother

参与者 (cānyùzhě)- participant/player

粪便 (fènbiàn)- excrement/urine

历史 (lìshǐ)- history

小心 (xiǎoxin)- be careful

推迟 (tuīchí)- to put off/to postpone

输入 (shūrù)- bring in/ introduce/ input

的选择 (dexuǎnzé)- selection/ to choose

已婚 (yǐhūn)- married

文章 (wénzhāng)- essay/ article/ literary works

测试 (cèshì)- test (proficiency)

来了 (láile)- coming

衰减 (shuāijiǎn)- to weaken/ fail/ diminish

袜子 (wàzi)- socks

因此 (yīncǐ)- therefore/ so

顶级 (dǐngjí)- first class/ first rate

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

god knows duolingo taught me a lot but if they are going to say my answer is incorrect because I made one tiny mistake or even a typo one more time I swear to god I will hunt down that owl and murder it in a way that will make Satan envy me

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

I think it’s important to test your boundaries and see how far you have progressed. Before COVID, I had taken a few lessons and gotten about half way through HSK 2 prep with my teacher when I was abroad in China. When I came back to the US, there wasn’t much of a way for me to keep studying at the time because I had to worry about my job and getting things shipped back to America during the pandemic. It has been almost 2 months now of me intensely studying Chinese and I decided to take a practice HSK 2 test to see where I was at and if what I was doing was paying off since I don’t have a teacher to correct me and I may be missing a few grammar points. I just scored full marks on the level 2 practice test and I have never been so proud of my progress!!

Don’t forget to take a second and be proud of how far you’ve come.

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

I’m listening to a Chinese reality show right now and they started talking about 饺子 and the ingredients needed to make them. Now I’ve stopped paying attention because I’m hungry✨ It also had me thinking about the time the Auntie taught my family how to make some from scratch in Shanghai.

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

我今天开始这本书。有点难可是真的好。

[confessions-of-a-language-freak]

I find that YouTube is one of the best ways to practise listening skills, so I decided to share a few Mandarin YouTubers who I enjoy watching. Feel free to add on!

Vlogs/Cooking/Beauty/Misc.

Amanda Tastes

Xinshidandan 信誓蛋蛋

Stopkiddinstudio

Rainie Tian

Oh Emma

Hithere街访

I’m Charlie

Learning Chinese:

Twins Chinese

Chinese Zero to Hero

Yoyo Chinese