@5-cz - Tumblr Blog

Posts

Masterlist

Chinese Vocab:

Types of Transportation

Some Helpful Structural Words

Colors

圣诞节快乐！

Word of Honor Ep. 1 Vocab

Word of Honor Ep. 2 Vocab

The Untamed Vocab

The Untamed Vocab pt.2

The Untamed Vocab pt.3

数学

Chinese Traditional Instruments

Chinese Tongue Twisters

Physics (Mechanics) Vocab

French Vocab:

Colors

Joyeux Noël

成语 Series:

刻舟求剑

沉鱼落雁，闭月羞花

cynosurus

Mandarin learning resource recommendation:

Some wonderful person is collecting all natural Mandarin conversations (comprehensible input and similar) for learners on YouTube from different channels in one playlist.

At the time of writing there are 178 dialogues at different levels.

Truly an outstanding learning resource and great if you like me don't have energy to keep up with many different accounts and look out for new channels and you can find something that suits your tastes.

And instead of doing grammar drills that you still might struggle to apply to natural language you're practising language through listening to people actually speaking it in a pretty relaxed and natural way, the way you will hopefully be actually using the language :)

#mandarin

nnschneider

The difference between décidé (decided) and décédé (deceased) is small and very grave.

meichenxi

hello hello asking for a friend (myself):

how is everyone doing in langblr?

who is still active? I'd like to try and get involved a bit more again now that my time studying in taiwan is coming to an end and I need motivation and community outside the classroom once more!!

sound off, who is still here?

also especially if you post content about indonesian and celtic languages, particularly scottish gaelic, as these are what I am interested in right now!!

please reblog for reach :D

of course, mandarin blogs always beloved and always welcome :)

#vaguely active #in that i will reblog and am still studying on my own #but have not made a post in so long lol

linghxr

New obsession: words that look like they're just the same character repeated if you don't look closely.

趔趄 lièqie - to stagger; to stumble

匍匐 púfú - to crawl; to creep

氤氲（氤氳）yīnyūn - (of smoke, mist) dense; thick

旖旎 yǐnǐ - charming; enchanting; picturesque

饕餮 tāotiè - ferocious mythological animal, the fifth son of the dragon king

I learned that some of these are examples of 联绵词 lianmianci, but I’ll be honest—I’m not fully understanding the definition of lianmianci.

Also, I gotta give a shoutout to this term because it’s truly something:

魑魅魍魉（魑魅魍魎）chīmèi-wǎngliǎng - all kinds of malevolent or mischievous spirits

#mandarin #m vocab

romanceyourdemons

one of my favorite tropes in chinese literature is when a guy’s wife is clearly a ghost/demon/fox fairy and he just can’t see it. i’m reading a story where this guy keeps getting arrested because his wife will just magically steal steal shit out of sealed boxes and give it to him as a present, and whenever someone is like dude i think something’s up with his wife he asks her and she’s like i’m literally normal. so he turns around and says yeah guys she’s literally normal

5-cz

actual sentence i just said: j'aime 我的 coworkers

5-cz

那 c'est tout

actual sentence i just said: j'aime 我的 coworkers

#i'm trying #text post

然后 is such a good word. petition to make 然后 a word that crosses linguistic barriers. "and then i did" no. "然后 i did," no more ending sentences, no more run on sentences, just connecting thoughts with 然后 until i'm done with that train of thought

#it's just so useful #i love it so much #chinese #text post

"if there's no e, you don't pronounce the last letter, if there's no e you don't pronounce the n" THE WAY YOU'RE PRONOUNCING AUCUN STILL HAS AN N aucun vs aucune is a different vowel not lack of an N i don't understand

#my teacher has been very strict with our pronounciation #but where are the rules?????#text post #french

5-cz

i've gotten to the point where if i'm speaking a language besides english my brain automatically assumes it's mandarin - which is great when i'm speaking mandarin because it means my brain processes meaning faster - but not great when i was in french class today and answered my teacher with 对 instead of oui

5-cz

i'm losing my mind guys, it's not even the words themselves it's all the pronouns and conjunctions and i couldn't think of how to negate an adjective today because all my brain could conjure was 不 - and don't even get me started on how both languages have 'de' but use them in completely different but sometimes overlapping ways - i ran into this issue when i first started learning french a few years ago but now that i'm starting again i'm remembering all the issues i had

5-cz

more complaining, apologies - i keep forming sentences like l'universite du parc instead of le parc de l'universite because i would say 大学的公园 and not 公园的大学 and it's a minor thing but it's such a hard habit to break

5-cz

#text post #as if 的得地 wasn't enough now i have another de

#text post

meichenxi

in the spirit of interaction: what are your thoughts on chinese calligraphy? have you ever taken classes? (i ask because it's something of a closet hobby of mine and your header is calligraphy as well ^.^) also, what would you say the most challenging part of studying is for you?

in the spirit of interaction: thank you, and apologies it inevitably took me this long to answer!!

my actual experience with calligraphy goes hand-in-hand with my ability to handwrite: as in, not much! whenever I do end up restarting my handwriting journey (and I'm going to have another crack at it soon), however, I find the calligraphic component of it the most satisfying by far. I'm going to focus on the practical element of calligraphy as beautiful handwriting that you can actively study, rather than as an art form or studying its history.

one of the things I focused on right from the get-go with learning to handwrite chinese was to copy chinese handwriting and not typed fonts. the balance was always important: chinese is such an elegantly written language and my ugly beginner's handwriting physically hurt me. I also love handwriting in english and deliberately crafted my own cursive style when I was around 14, so I knew I wanted to pay similar attention to it in chinese. that meant I spent a lot of time 'handwriting' without knowing the characters I was writing in the beginning, purely to get a feel for the balance and shape of characters.

I think calligraphy is especially interesting to deliberately study from a practical perspective when learning to write because it provides an answer to the 'how to fit X character in a box' conundrum that always plagues me: fat characters, complex character, lopsided characters, thin and narrow characters. looking at calligraphic representations of whatever character you're trying to learn to write can show you that often this desire to fit into the box is a little misplaced: most natural chinese handwriting does have characters that are taller, broader, longer etc, and you can learn in what circumstances such a re-balance is considered beautiful and acceptable, and in what circumstances the size difference or relationship between different characters on the same line is too extreme and veers towards awkward or ugly.

I find making an effort to separate your handwriting practice (for learning the strokes) and handwriting practice (for practicing balance and style) can lead to really excellent results!! I would add a separate half an hour of practice at the end of my general handwriting daily ritual to specifically focus on one aspect of handwriting: a type of stroke, the way I held the pen or pencil (I don't regularly use brush and ink), the composition and balance of similarly composed characters.

for this, I would go to a chinese calligraphy app on my phone and search for, say, a common character like 也 that I already knew how to write. this would show me examples from different styles of calligraphy, and where the line might be between 'readable and beautiful' and 'artistic but illegible for daily life'. from there I would go on a little bit of a youtube rabbit hole watching other tutorials for that particular character - I found searching for the kanji in japanese if it's the same as the chinese character to be very helpful, as there are lots of videos for a japanese audience! - and pay attention to the key things that go wrong, its balance, where its 'centre' is and so on.

I would then go and practice writing the character, but not only that: I would try and deliberately make certain parts of it exaggerated, as much as I could, to see which parts of the writing process are 'loadbearing'. for example with 也 - the middle line often in calligraphic styles begins way above the left-most line and the hook. so from that it would become clear how the character might look sped up - I would also try and find cursive examples of each on youtube to understand which strokes are commonly joined.

all of the characters that I can write - still, after a long time away - in a way that I find pleasing or well-balanced for a non-native and unpracticed writer, are ones that I spent the time and effort into studying in this amount of detail, or ones that are analogous to other characters whose compositions I studied. the best thing about this sort of method is that, even though you might only be 'learning' one character a day, the rules and general guidelines for form, weight of the pencil, balance of composition etc are very similar across many different characters. and you learn to spend time before you write a new character examining it and figuring out where the weight of it is, what it would look like in a square, what it would look like calligraphically on its own, where it would sit on a line with other characters etc. so it all carries over to other characters you later learn, and your handwriting in general begins to improve.

in terms of calligraphy as an art form: I think part of what draws me to chinese and specifically traditional chinese culture is the emphasis on morality within craft - excellence in learning is a moral virtue. the harmony of technical excellence and virtue is something which makes me kind of go insane. and it makes sense: there is not the same separation of duty and social life and other confucian values to family, state etc with art as there is in western culture: who wrote the poems? even the poets with the most overtly daoist and/or rebellious themes had often been officials at court, even if they were hermit-ing out in the mountains or had fled their official positions. a gentleman of good standing was expected to master calligraphy, but also painting, poetry composition and so on.

with the same brush and the same paper, the three arts are inseperable: a painting is a poem and a poem is a painting, and both are enriched by the fervour or restraint or elegance or curtness or wildness of the writer or painter's brushstrokes. of course there are individual artists who are remembered more as calligraphers or painters or poets, but most 'gentlemen' and respected educated rich women (though about this I know less, being honest) would have been expected to excel at all three.

and the 'literati' was a social class, tied up of course with land and money and huge privilege, but in theory a class which anybody with the luck to receive a good education, pass the imperial exams and join the ranks of government, could enter. (of course you had to have money to be tutored in the first place since there were not schools and private tuition was the norm, but anyway...). even if you failed the exam, or failed at one of the increasingly challenging levels, your life could be transformed: you could find a job as a tutor or teacher and escape the crushing weight of a peasant's life, with room to pursue leisure.

so my appreciation for calligraphy I think ties in to my appreciation of this way of thinking and the emphasis on a well-rounded gentleman of letters, and the idea that learning and painting and writing are all forms of self-betterment and cultivation. that too ties in with the martial arts aspect of it - like you can see in films like zhang yimou's hero, where calligraphy is held up as proof of a swordsman's mastery of the sword - in a way which is kind of mocked in the west, or seen in anime with the old master at the top of the mountain, but something that does have its basis in reality. the idea that creativity itself must be based first on a solid mastery and understanding of the classics, of the works of antiquity; the idea that learning and exercising that - like you exercise your body - is a morally good thing to do. the idea that because it is moral, your own moral virtues or lack thereof, your own character, can be revealed in your calligraphy or your swordsmanship or your poetry or your art.

I don't have any especial knowledge of calligraphy itself, but the underpinning idea is very compelling to me. I suppose it's similar in some ways to the greek strenuous education of body and mind in antiquity, though I really don't know much about that. I know that the heavy and weighted respect for the classics can be stifling in a lot of education, and has worked to repress and suppress the rights of women and the lower classes. so of course there's nuance, and having taught in east asia three times I'm well aware of the frustrations and cruelties, sometimes, of a confucian-based classroom. but I still think it's something we can learn from in the west, with discernment and respect.

(I COMPLETELY FORGOT THE SECOND PART OF YOUR QUESTION!! will do another post on that, sorryyy)

nightmare-from-heaven

Hey. Your brain needs to de-frag. Literally it needs you to sit there and space out.

If you want your memory or executive function to improve, stare out a window at the skyline or sidewalk or trees or birds on the electrical wires for like 20+ minutes per day. (With no other stimulation like a podcast or TV if you can manage but hey baby steps innit). If you're fortunate enough to have safe outside with any bits of nature, go stare closely at a 1 meter square of grass and trip out on the bugs and shapes of grasses and stuff.

Literally this will make you smarter. Our brains HAVE TO HAVE this zone out time to do important stuff behind the scenes. This does not happen during sleep, it's something else.

That weird pressurized feeling you get sometimes might be your brain on no defrag.

Give your brain a Daily Dose Of De-Frag.

minimalist-language-learning

How I read and enjoy books in my target language

Please note that I write about what works for me and share advice based on my own experiences. If you have a different opinion or if you use other methods, that's absolutely fine. Do whatever works for you.

Since some people asked me how I read books in my target languages, I would like to describe my way of reading in this post. I focus on reading for some time now and I'm very happy with my progress so far. This doesn't mean that I won't change a few things in the future (I'm constantly gaining experience and changing my learning style accordingly).

1. Choosing a book

Before I start reading, I have to choose an appropriate book, obviously. After trial and error I realized how important this step is. My ideal book is:

not too easy (I won't learn much)

not too difficult (if I can't follow at least the rough story I won't enjoy it)

interesting (motivation to read it)

I try to choose a book that is slightly above my level so that I can follow the story without looking up too many words but also learn new words. I don't need to understand everything, but I don't want to feel lost either. Balance is important.

2. Trying the first chapter

After choosing a book that seems to be appropriate, I try to read the first chapter (and sometimes the first two chapters, if they are short). I pay attention to things like:

Can I follow the story?

Is the story interesting?

Do I like the writing style?

If I can answer (most) questions like these with "yes", I continue reading the book.

Do I only understand single words or sentences here and there? Do I have no clue what happens? Then I put the book aside for now and choose an easier one. There's no shame in admitting that this book is too difficult at the moment. Deciding what I don't read is just as important as deciding what I read.

3. Reading

If the level of difficulty is okay, I start reading the book. In my experience, the first few chapters are always the hardest. I need time to get used to the writing style, the used vocabulary and the story.

In the case of the japanese version of Harry Potter, the beginning was difficult because of the writing style. But after two chapters, I began to enjoy the story and so I continued. That's why I always try to read at least the first chapter. A book that seems difficult in the beginning can be very enjoyable once I've read enough pages.

When I come across an interesting word or a sentence I like, I highlight it. I try to not highlight too much stuff, though. Two, maybe three words per page is usually my maximum. Enjoying the story is my number one priority. I can read several pages without highlighting anything, even though there are words I don't know. As long as I don't feel the strong urge to look up a word, I just continue reading.

In many cases I can understand words from context and learn them over time just by seeing them again and again. That's why I don't look up words immediately. I wait to see if they come up more often.

After I finished one chapter, I look up all highlighted words and read the passages that contain these words a second time. This way, I can connect the meaning with the full context. I don't try to memorize the word; I just try to understand it in this particular context before I continue.

Most of the time, I learn words unconsciously. If the book is easy enough, it's not so difficult to guess the meaning of certain words. While reading, I don't focus so much on words I don't know. I just focus on following the story. I may not always understand every detail, but as long as I can follow and enjoy the story, everything is fine. I learn so much by engaging with the language in a meaningful way and enjoying the content. Sometimes, I even forget that I am reading a book in a foreign language!

I have to add, that I'm already familiar with basic sentence patterns and that I have experience with reading books in my target languages. I finished the book "Remembering the Kanji" which makes it easier to guess the meaning of words. Knowing lots of kanji is a great advantage.

I have still a long way to go, of course, but this natural way of learning vocabulary may not work well at very early stages because you need a foundation first. After you are familiar with the dialogues and example sentences in your textbook, graded readers are a good choice in my opinion. Graded readers can make the transition from textbooks to easy books aimed at (young) native speakers easier.

Tip: One thing that helped me is to take a card, write down words I looked up and put this card into the book. When I read it a second time, I don't need to look them up again. Reading texts more than once can help to get more familiar with new words. Plus, writing helps me to remember words better. Reviewing them in their original context is much more enjoyable to me than reviewing them with flashcards. In the picture below you can see how my cards look like:

4. Enjoy!

I made enjoying books my number one priority. This is what helped me to make much more progress than before. All I need is enough reading material at the right level and a dictionary. As soon as I get absorbed in a book, I don't think about learning a language. I just want to enjoy the story. The more experience I gain, the better I become at understanding the language as a result. There's no need to force it or to hurry.

What I like about just enjoying a book and learning words naturally is that it's so simple. I don't necessarily need my computer, a certain software, add-ons, ... All I need is something I can read. After reading a chapter, I only look up a few words as I described above and that's it. Then, I often feel so motivated that I want to read more. I read much more than before because I enjoy it so much.

polyglottraveler

20 funniest expressions in French

1) On est pas sortis de l’auberge We’re in a mess (litt. We’re not out of the hostel) Ex: On a encore trois dossiers à remplir, on est pas sortis de l’auberge

2) Faire quelque chose les doigts dans le nez To do something easily (litt. To do something with the fingers in the nose) Ex: Ils ont gagné les doigts dans le nez

3) C’est culcul la praline It’s childish/ridiculous (litt. It’s ass-ass the praline) Ex: Léa est super fan de HelloKitty, c’est culcul la praline

4) En faire un fromage To make a big deal of something (litt. To make a cheese of something) Ex: Victor a perdu et il en a fait tout un fromage

5) Etre copain comme cochon To be best friends (litt. To be as friends as pigs) Ex: Depuis l’année dernière, Matthieu et Valentin sont copains comme cochons

6) Ne pas pousser Mémé dans les orties Don’t push it (litt. Don’t push Grandma in the nettle) Ex: Tu m’en demande trop, faut pas pousser mémé dans les orties

7) Etre con comme un manche à balai To be an idiot (litt. To be as dumb as a broom) Ex: C’est pas possible, Thomas est con comme un manche à balai!

8) Devenir chèvre Becoming silly (litt. Becoming a goat) Ex: Elle me fait devenir chèvre

9) Etre sur son 31 To wear elegant/fancy clothes (litt. To be on one’s 31) Ex: Je me suis mise sur mon 31 pour le mariage de mon frère

10) Tomber dans les pommes Fainting (litt. To fall in the apples) Ex: Michel est tombé dans les pommes quand sa fille est née

11) Il y a quelque chose qui cloche There’s something wrong (litt. There’s something ringing) Ex: C’est trop silencieux, il y a quelque chose qui cloche

12) Avoir le cafard To be sad (litt. To have the cockroach) Ex: Depuis que Marine l’a quitté, Mattéo a le cafard

13) C’est la fin des haricots It’s the end of everything (litt. It’s the end of the beans) (almost always used ironically) Ex: L’Equipe de France a perdu, c’est la fin des haricots!

14) Coûter les yeux de la tête To cost an arm and a leg (litt. To cost the eyes of the head) Ex: Le nouvel iphone coûte les yeux de la tête

15) Arriver comme un cheveu sur la soupe Entering a situation at a bad time (litt. To arrive like a hair in the soup) Ex: Raphaël est arrivé dans la conversation comme un cheveu sur la soupe

16) Metrre son grain de sel To give an unsolicitated opinion (litt. To put one’s seed of salt) Ex: Sophie m’énerve à toujours mettre son grain de sel de partout!

17) Faire la grasse matinée To sleep late in the morning (litt. To do the fat morning) Ex: Après la soirée d’hier, j’ai fait la grasse matinée

18) Avoir un coup de foudre To fall in love instantly with someone Ex: Louis a eu un coup de foudre pour Jade

19) Sauter du coq à l’âne To jump to a new topic in a conversation without any transition (litt. To jump from the rooster to the donkey) Ex: Il passe du coq à l’âne pour éviter d’avoir une conversation sérieuse

20) Etre à l’ouest Don’t understanding the situation (litt. To be at the West) Ex: Le nouveau stagiaire est complètement à l’ouest

#french

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs