The Sophisti-Kate

20// cn · wi · tw · dc · next? | Doing my best while learning some languages (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean mainly) along the way | 知之為知之，不知為不知，是知也

[thesophistikate]

Korean Update

Life has been really crazy lately and I definitely haven’t been studying languages as much as I would have liked to over winter break. That said, in the last couple of days I’ve been trying to study Japanese and Korean more, and I’m really proud of where my Korean is. I was afraid that after a couple weeks without active practice, my Korean would be really awkward, but I feel much more assured after talking and texting with some friends. While I would like to work on reviewing and refining my grammar more (I often just stick to the basic sentence patterns that I already know), I am proud to say that I read an article in Korean without using Papago. I definitely didn’t get every word or sentence structure, but I feel good knowing that I got the gist of each paragraph. This is the most native Korean content that I’ve ever tried to read, and I’m really proud of myself. Even when I opened up the article, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to read it (even though the content is not very technical or challenging) and I’m so pleasantly surprised! Hopefully the rest of 2021 can be full of continued studying and improvement!

P.S. Doubtful that I’m going to send anything, but I thought writing a fan letter would be a good way to practice Korean. Who’s it for? NCT. . .

[thesophistikate]

Language Update

Just wanted to do a quick update on where I am with language learning. Finals were ridiculously busy, and I haven’t been studying as much as I would have liked. My goals over winter break are as follows:

Continue reading and conversing regularly in Chinese

Continue conversing with friends in Korean

Get back to studying Intermediate College Korean

Review the Japanese grammar and vocabulary covered in class

Really learn hiragana and katakana, as well as kanji for the words that I already learned

Find someone to practice Cantonese speaking with

Cantonese and Japanese have been really interesting. Both are challenging in their own ways, in ways that I hadn’t really expected. Korean has not been “easy” to learn, yet it’s always felt relatively straightforward to me. I feel like I had a good understanding of the grammar’s logic, and Mandarin cognates felt very 1:1 to me; I knew how to identify them and could easily understand their meaning.

I thought that learning Japanese would be okay given how much kanji is used and its similarity to Korean. HOWEVER, Japanese feels so different and unique to me. Cognates have honestly not been that helpful to me (the pronunciation and kanji is usually so different from Chinese), and the way that kanji is used in Japanese is really interesting. Unlike Korean, where hanja only have one Sino-Korean pronunciation, Japanese kanji can have multiple pronunciations in different contexts, and the meaning of the character can be wildly different from Chinese (such as 勉强 meaning “to study”). 

Counting is always difficult for me (I’m not good at math, okay) but counting in Japanese has been even more difficult with how counter words can merge into the numbers themselves to create even more specific counting words. And lastly, Japanese verbs remind me more of Spanish than Korean. I think it’s because Korean verbs always end in 다, whereas Japanese verbs can end in ~ru, ~tsu, or ~u. This is similar in my mind to Spanish, where verbs are classified as ~ar, ~er, or ~ir.

Nonetheless, I find Japanese really fascinating and hope to dedicate more time to studying it in the future.

Lastly, Cantonese is just really fascinating. My class recently had a teacher switch, and I like the new format and teaching style a lot more. It feels much more practical and productive, although I still need to find more ways to actually practice what we learn. Cantonese is the oldest Chinese language, yet I learned Mandarin first. Therefore, I feel like I approach Cantonese and Korean with a Mandarin lens, even though historically and cognates-wise, I should be looking at things the other way around. Tbh, I remember my numbers in Korean vis-a-vis Mandarin, and do the same for Cantonese; this means I am now getting my Korean and Cantonese mixed up. Yikes! Also, in my Cantonese class today, I said “hai” for yes, slipping in the Japanese. However, I later learned that “hai” is also used in Cantonese for “yes.” Wonder if they’re related? 

Anyway, this is where I’m at today. I hope to keep studying more in the near future, and hope to release a progress video soon.

[thesophistikate]

Genshin Masterlist: Chinese

Wow, this took a hot second to make! Admittedly, this is not have every single word in Genshin Impact (that would be a whole website in and of itself), but I have tried to be relatively comprehensive. I’ve included gaming basics, elements, characters, and gameplay vocab, as well as anecdotes I find interesting. I hope for this to be an expanding list, and to eventually have locations and other details. If there's anything you're interested in knowing, let me know and I'll do my best! Besides my own gameplay experience (AR 39 baby!), I also used various online gaming articles and gaming streams to make sure that all the words included are authentic (examples of sources: link, link, link, link). Linked here is also a really nice Chinese pronunciation guide for the Liyue characters. Genshin Impact is such a great game, and a really cool opportunity to introduce more people to the awesomeness that is the Chinese language. Hope you all enjoy!

*Note: I did not include tone sandhi in my pinyin. For those new to pinyin, here’s a pinyin chart with audio.

Genshin Impact = 原神 Yuánshén

原神 means "original gods"; "Genshin" is the Japanese pronunciation

mihoyo (developer of Genshin) = 米哈游 mîhāyōu

RPG = 角色扮演游戏 juésèbànyânyóuxì

Monstadt (City) = 蒙德(城) Méngdé(chéng)

璃月(港) = Liyue (Harbor) Líyuè(gâng); Liyue is also a near-homophone for 立约 lìyuē (to draw up a contract) and 里约 lîyuē (a contract made between residents of a certain area)

Let's start with the element(al)s 元素 yuánsù

The Seven Elements = 七大元素 qīdàyuánsù

pyro = 火 huô

hydro = 水 shuî

anemo = 风 fēng

electro = 雷 lèi

dendro = 草 câo

cryo = 冰 bīng

geo = 岩 yán

Fun fact: Qixing 七星 (seven stars) plus 岩 is 七星岩, which is the name of a very famous rock formation in Southern China which may have inspired some of the geography for Liyue (especially around Sal Terrace)

elemental resonance = 元素共鸣 yuánsùgòngmíng

elemental reactions = 元素反应 yuánsùfânyìng

fire/burning = 点燃 ("to ignite") diânrán

wet = 潮湿 cháoshī

crystalize = 晶化 jīnghuà/结晶 jiéjīng（晶化 literally refers to the act of crystalizing something while 结晶 emphasizes the result; 结晶 probably makes more sense for Genshin, but I've seen it both ways)

LN: 化 generally refers to the process of changing things (变化) while 结 refers to the result 结果]

petrification = 石化 shíhuà (thanks 钟离!)

swirl = 扩散 kuòsàn

electro-charged = 感电 gândiàn

overload = 超载 chāozài

superconduct = 超导 chāodâo

burning = 燃烧 ránshāo

frozen = 冻结 dòngjié

shattered = 碎冰 suìbīng

vaporize = 蒸发 zhēngfā

melt = 融化 rónghuà

Characters 角色 juésè

"The Traveler" = 旅行者 lü3xíngzhê

Aether = 空 Kõng; 空 refers to the (emptiness of) space, while Aether refers to "luminiferous aether", aka the matter that was said to exist in space which allows light to travel across space (thanks Wikipedia!)

Lumine = 荧 Yíng

Paimon = 派蒙 Pàiméng，aka 应急食品 yìngjíshípîn "emergency food"

Amber = 安柏 Ānbó

Jean = 琴 Qín

Lisa = 丽莎 Lìshā

Kaeya = 凯亚 Kâiyà

Barbara = 芭芭拉 Bābālā

Diluc = 迪卢克 Dílúkè

Razor = 雷泽 Lèizé (clever; Razor's name is both a transliteration as well as a pun on his electro abilities)

Venti = 温迪 Wēndí

Klee = 可莉 Kêlì

Bennett = 班尼特 Bānnítè (Bennett's Chinese name avoids the use of "ben" which is a homophone for 笨 bên, meaning "stupid")

Noelle = 诺艾尔 Nuòāi’êr

Fischl = 菲谢尔 Fēixiè’êr

Sucrose = 砂糖 Shātáng (Sucrose's name is just completely translated to "granulated sugar")

Mona = 莫娜 Mònà

Diona = 迪欧娜 Dìōunà

Xiāo 魈 ("elf" or "demon")

Bêidôu 北斗 (lit: "Northern battle"; this phrase also means the Big Dipper constellation)

Níngguāng 凝光 (lit: "concentrated light")

Xiānglíng 香菱 （lit: “fragrant waternut"; very fitting for a chef!)

Xíngqiū 行秋 (lit: "passing autumn")

Chóngyún 重云 (lit: "clouds come again")

Qīqi 七七 （”seven seven"; this day on the Chinese lunar calendar is a festival called Qixi [七夕] aka Chinese Valentine's Day)

Kèqíng 刻晴 (lit: "moment of brightness like on a sunny day")

Zhōnglí 钟离 (lit: "clock/time of departure"; also the name of Zhongli Quan [钟离权], one of the Eight Immortals of Taoism. Zhongli Quan was supposedly a general who could make stone turn into gold and silver coins, and used this to save the people of his town from starvation. Inspiration for Zhongli's story arc mayhaps?)

Xīnyàn 辛焱 ("hot flames"; what more could you say about a pyro character? I love that they didn't stop at 炎 [yan2, double flames/powerful] and instead went all triple flames with the character)

Tartaglia/Childe 达达利亚 Dádálìyà/公子Gōngzî (Tartaglia is clearly a transliteration, but "Childe" is interesting. 公子 is a phrase which means "young master", and refers to the son of a duke or official. Beyond just being young and rich, 公子 usually denotes a carefree/careless attitude, as seen in the phrase "playboy" [花花公子])

Gameplay 玩法 wânfâ

character attributes = 属性 shûxìng

talents = 天赋 tiānfù

weapon = 武器 wûqì

sword = 单手剑 dānshôujiàn ("single-handed sword")

bow = 弓 gōng

claymore = 双手剑 shuāngshôujiàn ("two-handed sword")

polearm = chángbîngwûqì 长柄武器 ("long-handle weapons")

catalyst = 法器 fâqì (lit: "ritual instrument" like those used in Buddhist/Taoism ceremonies)

artifact = 圣遗物 shèngyíwù (lit: "holy relics")

flower = 生之花 shēngzhīhuā (lit: "flower of life")

feather = 死之羽 sîzhīyû (lit: "feather of death")

timepiece = 时之沙 shízhīshā (lit: "sands of time")

cup = 空之杯 kōngzhībēi (lit: "cup of emptiness")

crown = 理之冠 lîzhīguān (lit: crown of reason")

constellation = 命之座 mìngzhizuò

health = 生命值上限 shēngmìngzhíshàngxiàn

attack = 攻击力 gōngjīlì

defense = 防御力 fángyùlì

elemental mastery = 元素精通 yuánsùjīngtōng

stamina = 体力上限 tîlìshàngxiàn

damage = 伤害 shānghài4

弱 ruò (weak) vs 强 qiáng (strong)

physical damage = 物理伤害 wù4lîshānghài

elemental damage = 元素伤害 yuánsùshānghài

crit damage = 暴击伤害 bàojīshānghài

AoE = AOE or 攻击场景 gōngjīchângjîng

X percent = X 百分比 bâifēnbî/率 lü4

attack percent = 攻击百分比/攻击率

shield = 护盾具 hùdùnjù

ascend = 突破 tūpò

level-up = 升级 shēngjí

adventure rank= 冒险等阶 màoxiândêngjià (lit: "risk-taking level")

world level = 世界等级 shìjièdêngjí

Spiral Abyss = 深境螺旋 Shēnjìng Luóxuán

quest = 任务 rénwù

wish = 祈愿 qíyuàn (祈愿 could also be translated as "to pray" and ngl, that's how I felt rolling for Zhongli as someone who's not a whale)

Battle Pass = 记行 Jìxíng

primogems = 原石 yuánshí

mora = 摩拉 mólā

resin = 树脂 shùzhī

Anemoculus =散失的风神瞳 Sànshīdefēngshéntóng (lit: "Scattered Pupil of the Anemo God")

Geoculus = 散失的岩神瞳 Sànshīdeyánshéntóng (lit: "Scattered Pupil of the Geo God")

[teacupful-of-languages]

“Language x is difficult”, says a person who has never even tried to learn that language.

[lagom-languages-deactivated2022]

“Language x is easy”, says a person who has never even tried to learn that language.

[langblrblunder]

[thesophistikate]

I also really hate when people talk about “useful” languages. Any languages is “useful” if you use it, and “knowing” a language like Spanish doesn’t mean anything if you don’t actually speak it with anybody.

[thesophistikate]

Genshin Impact: Character Names

In honor of me actually rolling Zhongli, I've decided to make a masterlist of Chinese terms in Genshin Impact. The list is made, but I need to go back and add pinyin, which I'm too tired to do rn. So, here's a shortlist of all the Liyue characters' names, meanings, and occasional anecdotes. Most of the definitions are the literal translations, however there's a lot of different ways each of the names could be interpreted. Let me know which name is your favorite (Keqing's is so pretty imo, and I think Childe's is very fitting), as well as your favorite character/team. I main Beidou, and also like Zhongli, Qiqi, Xiangling, and Xingqiu (I swear I didn't mean for them to be all Liyue, but alas).

Xiāo 魈 ("elf" or "demon")

Bêidôu 北斗 (lit: "Northern battle"; this phrase also means the Big Dipper constellation)

Níngguāng 凝光 (lit: "concentrated light")

Xiānglíng 香菱 （lit: “fragrant waternut"; very fitting for a chef!)

Xíngqiū 行秋 (lit: "passing autumn")

Chóngyún 重云 (lit: "clouds come again")

Qīqi 七七 （”seven seven"; this day on the Chinese lunar calendar is a festival called Qixi [七夕] aka Chinese Valentine's Day)

Kèqíng 刻晴 (lit: "moment of brightness like on a sunny day")

Zhōnglí 钟离 (lit: "clock/time of departure"; also the name of Zhongli Quan [钟离权], one of the Eight Immortals of Taoism. Zhongli Quan was supposedly a general who could make stone turn into gold and silver coins, and used this to save the people of his town from starvation. Inspiration for Zhongli's story arc mayhaps?)

Xīnyàn 辛焱 ("hot flames"; what more could you say about a pyro character? I love that they didn't stop at 炎 [yan2, double flames/powerful] and instead went all triple flames with the character)

Tartaglia/Childe 达达利亚 Dádálìyà/公子Gōngzî (Tartaglia is clearly a transliteration, but "Childe" is interesting. 公子 is a phrase which means "young master", and refers to the son of a duke or official. Beyond just being young and rich, 公子 usually denotes a carefree/careless attitude, as seen in the phrase "playboy" [花花公子])

That's it for now; please look forward to my full list with Monstadt characters, elements, and other gameplay vocab!

[thesophistikate]

Straight-Man Cancer, Electric Brain, and Other Chinese You Should Know! A ppt that I made for a ppt party (as the trendy tiktok teens like to do I guess). These are just some of the clever neologisms and other phrases in Chinese that I like. Who says Chinese is boring?

Electric Brain is a neologism that means computers. Besides just being a fantastically colorful phrase for such a common object, I I used both traditional (TC) and simplified Chinese (SC) to further demonstrate how Chinese language has adapted over. The TC has the radical for rain, demonstrating a belief that electricity came from rain clouds (ie lightning). The change to SC in this case was seen as part of a movement towards modernization.

On the topic of brains, “brainwash” is a direct translations of Chinese 洗脑 (xînâo), which was used to describe Mao Zedong's influence over China in the 50s to 70s. 洗脑 follows the pattern of 洗心 (xîxīn), which is used in Taoism to refer to cleaning or purifying one's heart.

Straight-Man Cancer is a popular phrase used by young people to describe "toxic masculinity" and ideologies which support traditional (hierarchal) gender roles, such as those outlined by 三从四德 (Three Obediences and Four Virtues for women under Confucianism). Straight-Man Cancer can thus be seen as one type of 老思想 (old and outdated ideas/norms).

In China, censorship is a key part of maintaining a "harmonious society" (和谐社会 [héxié shèhuì]). Automated systems will tag key words based on their characters, giving rise to clever work arounds, as seen in the "10 Mythical Animals of Baidu." The Grass-Mud Horse (câonímâ) is synonymous for another not-so-nice phrase about someone's mother (if you know, you know), while River Crab (héxiè) is synonymous for the aforementioned "harmonious society" and is used to discuss censorship in general.

And, to make this ppt truly useful, I've included some phrases relevant to this terrible, terrible year called 2020. 天下大乱 (tiānxià dàluàn) is a chengyu which basically means "shit's a mess." It was apparently used by Mao Zedong to describe the Cultural Revolution. Another chengyu that comes to mind is 满目疮痍 (mânmù chuāngyí) which means "everywhere one looks, a scene of devastation meets the eye."

"No zuo no die" is Chinglish for “if you act illogically, you will pay the consequences.” In other words, wear a mask folks! Lastly, 来福萨克斯 (láifú sàkèsī) is a wonderful transliteration of "life sucks." Please see the goddess Jolin Tsai's song "消极班" for real-life usage.

And to conclude, 加油 (jiāyóu) means "add oil" (keep going!) while 慢走 (mànzôu) means "take it easy." Lastly, 白面书生 (báimiànshūshēng) )refers to people who read a lot but have no practical understanding of the world (insert gif of "You know nothing, Jon Snow").

And that's the wrap! Hope this was maybe a little helpful or interesting, or that at the very least you got to enjoy my *aesthetic* af slides. 拜～～～～

[thesophistikate]

*Real* Survival Korean: Among Us

So lately I’ve been really into the game Among Us (아몽 어스) through playing with the Korean Student Association (KSA), and this week I finally decided to start playing the game in Korean servers with a Korean chat and all-Korean settings. Ngl, it hasn’t been easy, but it’s also one of the most rewarding things i’ve done in Korean. In the game, people are literally murdering each other, so it’s very much a matter of survival Korean. I can’t use English as a fallback, need to understand Korean to know my tasks and what’s going on in the chat, and need to be able to defend myself and make a case. The first time I played is when I realized that I didn’t actually know colors all that well, especially ones like “cyan” and “lime.” I also realized there was a lot of gaming lingo that I really had no experience with. So, here I’ll just go through some of the essential words/phrases that I’ve picked up. Hopefully it’s a helpful summary; for a more complete resource, check out this sub-Reddit and this Google Doc.

**Also, I was really surprised that in gaming, people tended to use 반말; very few  요s to be found. . .I think it’s because informal language is literally shorter, so it saves time in speed-dependent environments like gaming. Took a while for me to get used to though; I felt so rude!

Among Us 아몽 어스

imposter 임포(스터) vs crew 크루/시민 vs body 시체 vs ghost 귀신

mission 임무/미션

sabotage 사보타주

vent 벤트

double-kill 더블킬

emergency meeting 김급 희의

vote 투표(하다)

누구한테 투표해야 해?

report 신고하다

skip (스)킵

lying 뻥/구라 (slang)

mute 음소거

watched a task to confirm innocent 확미 (확정 + 미션?)

someone is confirmed innocent 확시 (확정 + 시민)

color + 확시

suspicious 수상(하다)

confirmed imposter after you witnessed them kill 경크

color + 경크

빨간 red

주황 orange

노랑 yellow

연두 lime

초록 green

하늘/민트 cyan

파랑 blue

보라 purple

핑(크) pink

갈 brown

점정 black

하양 white

where ㅇㄷ (어디)

good game (gg) 

ㄲok ㅇㅋ

thanks ㄱㅅ (감사하다)

really/honestly/seriously ㅈㅁ (정말)

f*ck ㅅㅂ ...

[thesophistikate]

Cantonese Resources?

CONCERNED-ACE SAID:  I’M CURIOUS AS TO WHAT RESOURCES YOU’RE USING OUTSIDE OF YOUR CLASS. I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO LEARN CANTONESE, AS I HAVE MULTIPLE FRIENDS FROM HONG KONG AND WOULD LOVE TO BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEM IN THEIR NATIVE TONGUE, BUT FINDING APPROPRIATE RESOURCES FOR IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN DIFFICULT.

Our class uses slides made just by our teacher. I use the app Mango and watch CantoMando on Youtube (more for fun than actual learning). Tandem and Hellotalk are good for conversation practice. That said, I honestly haven’t studied Cantonese very seriously and am also looking for more Cantonese resources (basic grammar + vocab mainly). Let me know if anyone else has any suggestions! 多謝！

[thesophistikate]

We're all just tiny parts on a tiny rock hurling through an expanding universe. . .我們可能不會改變世界，但是我們還會改變他人的生活，而對那個人來說，這樣無異改變世界。如果我們對別人好，讓他們開心一點，那已經很好。因此，我們可以知道襲擊的範圍是到哪裡的，也可以放鬆一點。我們不是全能，還有很多不能控制的因素，比如說天命，時運，等等。我們都會去世，什麼都不是永遠的。結果，死而不朽，萬古流芳什麼的都是不可實現的，而是不重要的。你們怎麼看呢？

我朋友的問題， 請大家思考一下和寫評論：

你希望你的人生能夠帶給別人改變？你怎麼定義自己呢？又沒有什麼是你希望能夠帶給他人的？又沒有什麼是你一輩子的原則堅持？在你離開這世上後你希望別人記得你是什麼樣呢？

[linguistness]

TED

Here's the difference between speaking a language and being fluent in it:

[thesophistikate]

A really good read! I think it’s so important (but maybe also meaningless?) to be able to define where we are in our language learning process. “Speaking,” “fluent,” “proficient”. . .these all mean different things and have different relevancies to different people depending on context

[thesophistikate]

Throwback to Taiwan and my Mandarin from three (3!) years ago. The me from five years ago would have been psyched to have the Mandarin displayed here, and the me from here would have loved to have the Mandarin skills I have now. Even as I feel like I’ve plateaued a bit in my language skills, reviewing things like this remind me that improvement never stops. One of these days I’ll make a more recent Mandarin video. Also. . .I really miss Taiwan! 

[thesophistikate]

First Day of Cantonese (expectations --> reality)

Just finished my first Cantonese class and wow! That was a real exercise in patience. Before I get into it, I want to say that anyone who goes out of their way to learn/teach a language really does have my respect. The language program I'm in relies on volunteer teachers, and as a volunteer teacher myself with several years of experience (children and adult ESL and Mandarin), I understand the difficulties of teaching a language. I'm far from a perfect teacher, wing things more often than not, and am constantly learning from my students. This is not so much a criticism as it a reflection of my experience and personal notes for the future.

Lack of class control/organization. It's an online class and also our teacher's first time teaching, so I understand her nervousness. However, throughout the class people had their mics on when not speaking and it was very distracting/disruptive. It was also unclear who the teacher was talking to (ie asking "you" questions without specifying if it was "you all" or a specific person) and there was no way for students to raise their hands, adding to the confusion. Even when the teacher specified that X student should read a phrase, other students would still talk as well, and the teacher did not remind people to be quiet (although students self-regulated more as the class went on). In general there seemed to be some confusion on how to use Skype for language classes.

No class introductions. Especially in an online environment, it would have been nice to have everyone in the class introduce themselves before we started learning. The teacher wanted us to pick partners for activities, but we didn't even know each other's names.

Unclear/incongruent class goals and methodology. The class is marketed as a communication-oriented class for absolute beginners. However, most of the class was focused on pronouncing a couple phrases. Pronunciation is important, however the teacher just repeated the phrase without making clear corrections on why a sound was wrong. This was perhaps worsened by unstable audio. Several times the teacher said that she didn't know how to explain the difference in sounds, and asked us if we knew how to explain the difference. Given that I've taken a Mandarin phonology class, I offered my opinion, however Mandarin and Cantonese are quite different and I'm clearly not a Cantonese speaker! Therefore I'm not sure if my explanations were accurate or helpful. Moreover, while pronunciation is important, repeating phrases simple tells students to communicate, without giving them the tools to know how to communicate. In terms of "learning a language," the class felt about as helpful as a phrasebook with audio. I wish we had discussed more about sentence structure/how students can modify basic introductory phrases.

To tone or not to tone? Regarding pronunciation, tones are clearly important in Cantonese. However, my understanding is that Cantonese is mostly a spoken language (most Cantonese speakers can also write standard Chinese, which is the same no matter the dialect). Instead of thinking of tones as separate from the word, we should think of tones as simply part of the pronunciation. Similarly, most Cantonese speakers can hear the difference in tones, but couldn't tell you if a specific word is a 5th or 6th tone. In this way, I agreed with the teacher that we should just focus on the holistic pronunciation of words. However, one student really dominated the conversation by trying to ask for tone numbers for each word, even though nobody (including that student) actually knew what the different tone markers meant or how they were different! 

Cantonese is not Mandarin! This one student throughout the class kept trying to ask questions in Mandarin even though it's a Cantonese class, the equivalent of going to a French class and asking questions in Spanish. This was rude not only to classmates who couldn't understand Mandarin, but also to Cantonese speakers for assuming that Cantonese and Mandarin are interchangeable. Moreover, this student was not even an A1 level in Mandarin; I couldn't understand a single thing this student said. It was just an incoherent jumble of Mandarin words with none of the correct sentence structure and constant 跑调ing of tones.

To conclude, although the class was frustrating, I think I'll stay in it. I need the exposure to Cantonese, as well as the motivation to keep learning. That said, I envision that most of my learning will take place outside of class. To improve on things, I think the class needs more clear organization and expectations, and a greater focus on student's language creation. Hopefully the next class will be better.

[thesophistikate]

??? (giving myself stess re: languge learning)

일단시, 추선 잘 보냈어요? 가족과 친구들과 모두 사람들이 행복하고 건강하고 싶습니당! 中秋節快樂！希望大家昨天過得開開心心。說實話我有點失望，我去了亞洲超市好幾次，但是整個禮拜月餅都賣光了！連一個都沒有，我不得不要把湯圓代替一下。湯圓也還不錯（花生是我最喜歡的口味，也是我第一次吃草莓味的）但是他們並不是月餅。。。

Also, now that that’s out of the way, ㅅㅂㅅㅂㅅㅂ! I just spent a cool 45 minutes writing a nice summary of my language feelings this week, only to have my internet/Tumblr give up on me and delete my post. Why does Tumblr not have an autosave feature. . .This isn’t even the first time this has happened, and yes I probably should have learned my lesson the first time, but still. Ugh.

But I digress. This week I’ve felt both completely overwhelmed and also completely rejuvenated about language learning (averaging out to: major confusion). First, I feel like I had a ton of language things going on (as well as just life things going on). Monday I had my first Japanese class and then a Chinese-English language exchange session. Tuesday I had ESL tutor training. I don’t really remember Wednesday, but I feel like there had to have been something. Yesterday I had my first Japanese tutoring session, a Chuseok event, and talked with a Korean friend for two hours. Today I had Chinese Table and a Mid-Autumn Moon Festival event. And then, on top of all that, tonight I decided to buy a Spanish book (McGraw Hill’s The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice 4th Ed.).

So why did I buy a Spanish book? I studied Spanish for ~four~ years (took AP Spanish Lang and a semester of AP Spanish Lit) but then haven’t seriously touched Spanish in another four years. While my reading comprehension is still decent and I can hold a very broken conversation, my ability to produce grammar patterns/vocabulary has evaporated into a small puddle of mush. Studying Japanese and Korean (both conjugation-heavy languages) this week, I can’t help but feel like my Spanish abilities are tantalizingly close. With some time and effort, I really think I could revitalize them.

I don’t have any goals for Spanish other than “fun,” I have no clear plans to use the language, and unlike Cantonese, there is no personal connection. It’s weird to have language learning as a “hobby” given how closely it intertwines with my academic and professional life. I find language learning fun, joyful, challenging, exciting, and interesting, and also tedious, difficult, occasionally stressful, and a large effort/time commitment. Is language learning “work” or “play” for me? I’m not sure. Language learning is definitely more stimulating than relaxing and there are times, like now as I stare at my new Spanish book, that I feel pressure to keep learning, improving, and “putting in the effort.” Of course, at the end of the day I love language learning and find it incredibly rewarding, but this kind of ambiguity makes it that much more difficult for me to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

I’m frustrated because I don’t think I’m articulating this as well as in my first deleted draft. . . I suppose at the end of the day I will probably make some haphazard effort to re-learn Spanish, and for that, I’d like to ask your advice for re-learning a language. Please let me know! I’d also like to say thank you to everyone who reads my blog; I originally made this just for myself, and I was so surprised to see my Japanese video getting likes and reposts. Thank you as well for all of the sweet comments. I loved seeing everyone’s own wonderful langblrs. Let’s study well in the future!

[linguistness]

Hey guys!

I’m so excited to share this language learning challenge that I created with you!

It’s called Brick-By-Brick Language Learning Challenge and it’s made for anyone who already knows the basics of their target language and wants to improve their knowledge :)

If you participate in this challenge, make sure to use the hashtag #brickbybricklearning and to tag me here on tumblr (@mylinguisticadventures) and on instagram (@mylinguisticadventures). 

That’s it for now. Happy language learning!

[thesophistikate]

Maybe I’ll do this for Korean. . .Lately I’ve been feeling like i’m in a mini Korean rut

[thesophistikate]

First day of learning Japanese, and I think it went pretty well. Almost a full minute of speaking here!

こんばんは。はじめまして。私はケイトです。お名前は何ですか。ウィスコンシンに住んでいます。どちらに住んですか。私は大学生です。大学４年生です。中国からです。どちらからですか。あ〜そうでうか。よろしくお願いします！

[thesophistikate]

Learning One Language Through Another

Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately (and especially after watching this video) is learning one language through another, ie learning Korean by watching a Korean movie with Chinese subtitles. In the moment, is it helpful or confusing? And in the long term, is it an effective way of learning languages?

I think for the aforementioned video, of course it’s fun to watch NCT (probably one of my favorite groups) learning Chinese. I think my Chinese brain was definitely more engaged than my Korean brain while watching this video. But I also think that the video made me confused about tones, and I had to constantly remind myself that I was listening for the content, and not the language skills per se. This is a very different mindset from watching native-produced content, such as Chinese movies or Chinese vloggers. Whenever there’s translation involved, there’s always the possibility of things getting lost in translation or having awkward/incorrect grammar.

In the long-term, sometimes I do feel bad about learning other languages vis-á-vis Chinese. I think sometimes I look at things through a heavily-tinted Chinese lens, because my background is Chinese. Of course, Korean, Japanese, and Cantonese are all heavily influenced by Chinese, and being able to recognize cognates can be very helpful for understanding (or even completely guessing at words), however I worry that this perspective could blind me to the unique personality of these other languages. I have these same worries studying international relations, in that I often contextualize topics in East Asia around the Chinese perspective or the issue’s relationship/proximity to China. Clearly this is not good for international relations, but I’m curious to know how this will bode for language learning. Is this a habit I should work to break down, or embrace? Or should I just continue to think critically about it? I suppose this is a question we will continue to explore. . .

[thesophistikate]

My biggest challenge with Korean is speaking. I feel so awkward speaking with my friends, (a) because we want to talk about more complex topics which exceed my language abilities, and (b) because I know I can fall back on English. This is not a perfect method (lack of feedback), but I think it’ll help me practice Korean and understand places where I need to practice more.