November 25th, 2004My Chinese language learning difficulties
My mid-term exams are finally over and I already got my results.
听力: 98.5
综合: 98
阅读: 94
My results are okay but I’m not really satisfied with them. I was aiming for 95+ marks in all my papers, especially since it’s my first term here.
Note to myself: Spend less time online, less time on MSN messenger, less time watching Chinese drama series, etc…. Spend about an hour doing given homework and personal work everyday, i.e study more.
The阅读考试 was a bit difficult compared to the others. I don’t know what came over the teacher but the paper was full of words we haven’t learned yet. The other students and I had a lot of ‘guessing’ to do. I had to be extra careful when writing the answers but I still made two silly mistakes. 
Same for my 综合 exam. I lost the 2 marks in the easiest part of the paper; pinyin and made no mistakes in the essay or grammar parts. My 语法 teacher knows that I hate writing pinyin.
:no: I usually have no problems when it comes to reading pinyin but the writing part is another matter.
I write the pinyin right but sometimes I make mistakes when it comes to writing the tones. I have a problem with the 4th tone and neutral tone, the 2nd tone and 3rd tone. There are some Chinese characters which are 4th tone characters but when there’s another Chinese character in front of it (hence a compound word) , it becomes a neutral tone. Compound words with 3rd tone characters are read as 2nd tone in certain cases but the tone is still written as 3rd.
I didn’t expect having to write pinyin at university.
In Mauritius, the last time my Mandarin teacher made me write pinyin in an exam was back in primary school. In secondary school, the emphasis was more on the Chinese characters. I guess that’s why I neglected my pinyin. My other Mauritian friend who’s in my uni also has the same problem.
When it comes to writing Chinese characters, I forget how to write the characters sometimes. I never forget how to write the words I use quite often so I’m going to do more personal work and make sentences with the new words I learn. This way I’m more likely going to remember how to write them. I already talked to my 语法 teacher about it and she said that she’ll be glad to have a look at my sentences & essays and correct my mistakes.
Yes, it’s high time for me to do some personal work.
Unfortunately we don’t have Oral Chinese language exam for mid-term so I’m going to have to wait until the final term exam to know how an Oral Chinese language exam is like.
I remember my first class at Tongji University.
Our first class was Oral Chinese language and we all had to stand up in turn and say our names, where we are from, our hobbies, number of people in family,etc.
The teacher asked us what we found most difficult when it comes to learning Mandarin. I said writing and remembering how to write the Chinese characters.
My classmates said the speaking part (saying the tones right) or the grammar part. ah well.. It’s different for everyone.
spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam...
one day, I’ll learn Chinese and Mandarin, just to know what you’re talking about
bonne chance pour la suite =)
wooooo! to p gagne 94+ to p plaigner? moi ki mo bisin dir alor???? :S to p decourage moi net la…tsk. XD hahhaa! neways! yea i do hate winter…(well its only the first day) …maybe i gotta lalaluv it when ill do snowboard
I always seem to have problems using the proper tones with the ping yin too! I used to get them mixed up (just the same way as you are!)
hey, maybe to help your chinese writing along you could start a Chinese blog where you write in Chinese characters only? I’m sure that would help you increase your memory/usage of those characters Aline?
I think Cindy keeps a Chinese language blog, and an English one (as well as Japanese I believe).
That’s pretty good result
Congrats :cheers:
Hee. I still remember about the tone rule that they taught us last time at blcu. I prefer writing pinyin than chinese characters! But unfortunately now I have forgotten all my character words. Maybe I should do some chinese refreshing course here in Singapore
Pinyin’s always been the hardest for me!!
95+ on all of the exams… but if you average the scores of all the exams, it IS over 95! YAY!!
Great job.
Good results! I’ll bet you’re glad it’s over, huh?
Yup it was on 100. I was aiming for 95+ on all the exams.
Your blog is not down. It’s just that you can’t access it from China right now. A bit strange. I used to be able to access it. Try using secure-tunnel.com to view your blog. There’s an option about viewing websites anonymously. Enter your blog url there.
哇，你在我论坛上这么久我都不知道你人在上海。你的网页我也看过很多次也没发现。你是哪里人？在上海干什么？
anyway, i don’t like typing chinese. too time consuming. hope you had fun at the blogathon. ttyl
Is the 3rd tone the one with the inverted “hat”? If yes, I never managed to pronounce it. BTW, great results! I’ll be singing on the roofs if I had such good marks!
成绩以经很好阿。我的成绩都没有您高。 非常好!!! Ack I didn’t remember looking at simplified character with such diffculty.
Traditional character purist.
我在美国的中文学校学中文都有十三多年。 不过我学国语要八年。 在 San Francisco 的 中文学校， 我 们说广东话。学的方法都是用广东话。
Eeek can’t type chinese lol. XD. i’ll use pinyin anyway even if u dun like it =P. Jiu shi duo fen hen hao le ah! Zhen Shi de! *shakes head* I can’t remember how to write chinese sometime.s. but it all comes back. =)
dats like amazing result! .. duh
well mastering another language is tough, usually i’ll overcome it by associate funny quirks to the words
hapi holidays!
great job! you had very good marks!!! :party:
!!!!
See you on february
喂!
你考了九十多分都不开心?! 
我啊…, 八十分已经开始喝酒啊!! 
但是你考了第几名啊?
听了你这样子说, 我自己都要上小一点网… 你要努力啊! 加油! 加油!
wow………..tell me the full mark wasn’t 100..
you did very well. i feel like having a look at those exams you’ve taken. my Chinese is bad, i always got flunked in Chinese exams.. :worried:
BTW: my blog is down, uuu… what could i expect the free server..
100分才会很开心，满意。 :laugh:
考了第几名? 不清楚。老师们没说。
你也要努力啊! 加油!
我知道为什么你的老师没说你门考了第几名, 因为, 第一名的就是… 你!!!
哈哈哈!!
祝贺你
(muahaha!! p gain fun ler write Chinese, esper ki pena faute!!)
呵呵。 :laughing: 这么好的结果你还不高高兴兴！那么，我不想告诉你我的。真不好意思
。我每次只学习几天，没满个星期。学习汉语比较容易，只有经常跟中国人聊天可以水平提高得快高。
PS: James it’s ‘已经’不是’衣经’。
哈!
对, 是’已’经 
I don’t even know i typed 衣 – should get one of those handwriting gadgets.
我是毛里求斯人。Mauritius Island.
It’s my first time in China.
父母亲是华侨。他们来自广东省梅县。
I’m in Shanghai since September 2004. I’m studying Chinese.
yeah having a lot of fun at the blogathon. :laugh: Good thing I’m used to sleeping at odd hours. :flowers:
i tried that, i could view my blog after a few mins.. still very slow, i’m thinking about to buy some server space.
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