Begin from Chinese

Images of Chinese Words

2011-12-06T15:47:00.001+08:00

There are many words we use them every day, if we think the words carefully a term will become a novel image. It's interesting. One day it popped out of my mind at class when I explained something.

氣 (qì) means "air, gas, breath, vital energy". Personally, I define 氣 is "energy".

There are several vocabulary with 氣 in the beginning level:

生氣 (shēngqì)
生 (shēng) means "give birth to, produce, grow".
生氣 could be "produce the energy"

天氣 (tiānqì)
天 (tiān) means "day, sky, God"

天氣 could be "sky's energy".

客氣 (kèqì)
客 (kè) means "customer, guest, visitor"
客氣 could be "a visitor's attitude".

And how about 冷氣機 (lěngqì jī) and 空氣(kōngqì)?

The well-known word "Qi" is this character 「氣」exactly.
Also, characters「氣功」(qìgōng) is "Qigong" in Chinese. 「功」(gōng)means "merit, achievement", 氣功 is "energy work".

Who Is The One Learning Chinese

2011-06-01T18:40:00.001+08:00

One of important things I learned from classes is: Only a learner self can decide that where, when and how to go. All others can do is support and help.

At class, Tom(Not real name) liked chatting, he could say jokes, talked about what he thought and how he felt in Chinese. Do you speak Chinese with family, colleagues or any Taiwanese?

"No."

What? Why? You are talking in Chinese whole class all the time. Why don't you speak it after class? You can do it easily!

"I don't want."

Mark, didn't talk much at class in the beginning, few words or just listened.
"You speak, I listen." he was satisfied with this Chinese sentence.

One time, he said I am talkative. No, no, I am reserved. How about I take a rest and it is your turn to talk? Or both of us just listen? Listen what? Chinese philosophy?

We discussed about it. I tried to get the bottom of it, tried encouragement, mind map, goal-setting, tasks or maybe more.

I wondered that they learnt fast, responded quickly, expressed well, why they don't want to speak Chinese outside class? Seeing students could achieve more but stuck in somewhere that made me felt bad. I could do nothing for my students. It was exhausted and I doubted myself. I didn't understand at the time that it was my point of view, not students'.

After long, I told my students how I thought and felt. Surprisingly, it was the first time I talked about my feeling about this. Normally I just did something trying to make it better.
More surprisingly, students' response released me. That was what they wanted, no problem, and kept speaking Chinese in Chinese class only.
As usual.

All I can to do is doing my part well and providing support and company them, give a little push sometimes, then the sprout will grow.

Online Chinese Translators

2011-05-17T15:21:00.003+08:00

There are several helpful tools for reading Chinese online, they are handy and easy to install.

＊Chrome extension: Google Dictionary — Chrome

1) Double-click any word to view its definition in a small pop-up bubble.
2) View the complete definition of any word or phrase using the address bar dictionary.

＊Perapera-kun: Chinese Popup Translator — Firefox

Mouse moves over on words and it will give you the pronunciation and meaning. Supports Chinese to English and German. Browse websites and add words to a wordlist in the sidebar and export them later for studying.

＊Pnyin Annotatoir — Internet

Former version can annotate a web page, download or print.

My First Chinese Story

2011-05-10T20:00:00.000+08:00

Reading is helpful for language learning. Mimicking comes first, creating follows. Enough input produces output.

Years ago, a thought flashed through my mind: It would help if there are little books story-oriented that could match learners' levels. Pure reading. It is not about memorizing vocabulary, learning grammars or sentence constructor. We need something more fun, natural and interesting. No words list, no questions needed to be answered, and It's fine if forget some words. Enjoy a story instead of studying.

Books(or comics) for basic and intermediate learners are few, students at the basic level only have text and Chinese tales to read. Children books are not easy, there are a lot of written words in it. How about write stories by myself? That is far beyond I could do.

The story「尼克的森林」was a surprise. At that period of time, I stopped teaching gradually, and only wanted to overcome my writing block.

One morning when I was doing my morning pages journaling, I thought, hey, I could give it a try, it's my own journal anyway. That is how the beginning came. I am happy about it, as a creator and the first reader.

Story writing is never a goal in any part of my life, and it won't be tomorrow either. I hesitated for a while before posting it online. The story is on the fly, and I don't know where it will go. What if I lose interest in it? What if it becomes work? Is it good enough? I procrastinated until I rewrote "About", got courage and energy from it. I posted it.

This is it. Restart this blog for the story, for it was one of wishes in my teaching, for I actually could do it.

This is the first work and I don't wait until it is "perfect", commons are welcome.

Thanks Karl, my "second reader", helps me revise it. It seems have a added fun for him, a chance to laugh at his teacher.

So, enjoy it with me.

Updated 2011.12.06 : I took 「尼克的森林」stories off as it is a green work.

Taiwanese Style Signboard

2010-01-23T22:59:00.004+08:00

The words below was from a restaurant signboard, I stumbled across it some day. No camera in hand, just copied it.

It was closed when I went there again. The owner found that he got more talent in words than cooking, maybe.

Read it from left to right.

第一次不吃是你的錯
第二次不吃是我的錯
湖南人辣不怕
四川人不怕辣
貴州人怕不辣
台灣人都不怕

Use Pinyin Annotator for pinyin, zhuyin and translation.

Change Feeling And Thought by Doing It

2010-01-15T23:09:00.001+08:00

If you are studying Chinese now or you learned it before, how do you think and feel about your learning? Your answer determines it.

Peter took a Chinese class since the second month came to Taiwan, and kept it going continually for three years. During the time, he seldom spoke Chinese after class, as he thought that was not good enough to do it.

That year, things changed. At the same time, he started talking to a colleague in Chinese; his Taiwanese girlfriend encouraged him to speak Chinese; he asked for a new teacher with some specific quality, that was how we met.

We talked and discussed a lot in class. Although he's been thinking that finished the textbook then burned it, it stopped at the last page forever (I tried to go back to it but failed). Peter learned tons of vocabulary he wanted to know and used them all the time. He was like a wild horse got rid of rein, it is the only description that I can think of. He used slangs jokingly, spoke Chinese in meetings with clients, corrected girlfriend's Chinese...... His improvement rocketed and he enjoyed it a lot! He even started a Chinese blog in the end.

The door is opened, light shining. Peter talked freely about what he was interested, expressed his feelings and thoughts. And sometimes tried hard to reply my questions. In the beginning, I asked him seriously due to some of his behavior: "What does Chinese mean to you?" I still remember his face.

Speaking fluently was Peter's priority, and he achieved the goal. "How could it not improve if a talk is like this." Once he said, with "Aw, come on" on face.

A belief is that we feel certainly that something is true. Peter did something different than before, the experience changed how he thought about learning Chinese, how he felt about himself. When Peter realized that he was capable, change happened. He breaks the old belief - I am not good enough to it, through his choices and actions.

Do it, change thoughts and feelings. Everything is possible.

Good for Learning

2009-07-16T16:49:00.016+08:00

You learn Chinese well because you —
1. Love it!
2. Do it for yourself.
3. Are talkative.
4. Are open-minded.
5. Like to communicate with people.
6. Take "Mistakes" as normal.
7. Welcome being corrected.

You learn Chinese well when you —
1. Use your good to learn it.
2. Feel comfortable.
3. Are relaxing and have fun with it.
4. Are determined.
5. Enjoy it!
6. Are energetic.
7. Forget you are "learning".
8. Feel great about yourself.
9. Eager to say something.
10. Take it as a bridge for what you want to achieve.
11. Change your image about Chinese.
12. Find something about Chinese is meaningful to you.
13. Done something great by using it.

EnterZon.com: Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG)

2009-07-11T17:41:00.009+08:00

Zon is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (commonly abbreviated MMORPG) for Learning Chinese Language.

It is a great way to learn Chinese.
"Hey, I can't hang out with you guys right now, I'm studying Chinese."

The online game has been developing for years from a paper to the reality. It was created by Dr. Yong Zhao, a Michigan State University professor. Thank to Dr. Yong Zhao, MSU Zon and the Chinese Language Council International (Hanban).

For a Chinese teacher, I am touched by the idea became a reality. Zon came out from a group of people put effort on it, the fund came in, more and more people participated it. How beautiful it is. More than that, Zon allows players the opportunity to contribute to it. Players can share their own games with. Sharing brings abundance. I really look forward the development.

From Zon

Zon is a multiplayer, online learning environment designed to teach Chinese language and culture through gameplay. As a web-based site, Zon provides real-time, on-demand connection to interactive learning activities and authentic cultural information. Zon players are motivated not only by their intrinsic desire to learn more about Chinese language and culture, but also the ability to interact with engaging story-driven plot lines, interesting characters, and fellow players. Zon is built on the premise that learning is interactive. The game provides the opportunity for players to learn from non-player characters (NPCs), responsive game agents, and other players. Throughout each scene, players can engage with various elements of the environment, but they can also speak with other players in that scene or elsewhere in Zon. This allows for players to learn from both the designed game elements and other players. In this way, Zon is designed to provide social and environmental scaffolds to support player learning.

Zon is in Beta currently, yet a lot of fun there, even I enjoy the game. It is busy to explore, like a real tourist. Trying everything and going everywhere with curiosity and excitement. Players can engage in various element of the environment: listen the audio, read pinyin (and simplified character only); learn how to buy snack food, or the knowledge about Chinese wine. There also are videos for different scenarios, unfortunately I can't watch them, yet there is no problem that watching TV in my hotel room. A player is free to browse, learn or review, depend on one's level, interest and mood.

It just takes two minutes to register, than you could land in Beijing Airport right away.

From Zon

Zon provides players with social and environmental interactions designed to support their learning of Chinese language and culture. The game is designed to scaffold individual progression while allowing for endless variations on gameplay through open-ended activities and situations. Players cannot only participate in learning games, but they can also create their own games to upload and share. As a multi-media online platform, Zon allows developers, as well as players, the opportunity to contribute to the environment, and the game itself, in interesting and transformative ways.

Love this part, it is an excellent concept. Sharing brings diversity and abundance. I expect more and more various and interesting Chinese learning tools coming out, make the learning more alive and fun.

There are some information and video clips in the MSU showed the detail of the game, check here.

See you in Zon!

"Chinese Word Search" -- iPhone Game

2009-07-01T18:55:00.319+08:00

All right, I'm back. It was quite a long time since last post. The funny thing is that the most posts in this blog is about "tool". That is not I was supposed to do. I just share some helpful tools I happen to know, and it is easier for me to write in English :)Anyway, try anything new for growth and fun, we need tools!

Chinese Word Search

This is for iPhone users!

Chinese Word Search is a game to test your ability of recognizing Chinese character. Looking for meaningful phrases or sentences among Chinese characters.

You can ---

* Recognize and retain the Chinese characters you learned, and learn new ones.

* Learning daily items, names, and spoken phrases.

* Have both traditional and simplified characters (In Pro version).

* Hear the pronunciation of each character, phrase and sentence (In Pro version).

* Be timed and scored.

* Choose hints of Chinese, English and pinyin.

* Have a fun time!

You may want to know ---

* There are two versions: Lite and Pro, share the same content database.

* Lite is free, for simplified character only, and there is no audio.

Pro is a paid edition, $2.99 (Current). Regular is $4.99. For both traditional and simplified characters, and has audio. Buy and support it!
* Keep updating.

Download Chinese Word Search.

Pinyin Annotator 拼音標注器

2009-02-25T17:27:00.003+08:00

It's a benefit for Firefox users again! Thanks Jiang's work!
Pinyin Annotator not only can add pinyin or zhuyin (bopomofo) above Chinese character and translate the word, also can do it in whole web page.

Put cursor on Chinese character, it will show the translation. And pinyin in green that means this word has more than one pronounciation. Also, this converter allows users print out or download the result in OpenDocument (.odt). Doing copy/paste would get funny character or changed format.

Pinyin Annotator is useful for Chinese learning when you read a paragraph of Chinese text, Chinese web sites or Chinese songs. Especially if you learn a Chinese song by yourself, you can check the meaning online, than get a neat, complete Chinese lyrics with pinyin or bopomofo in two minutes!

UPDATE (2011/5/2): This is new version Pinyin annotator. I prefer character, pinyin(zhuyin) or translation in different lines personally, looks clearer.

Fast Thinking for silly fun time!

2008-11-03T15:51:00.000+08:00

It seems that every body has at least a silly jok in mind. When you tell one, the ones in everyone's box suddenly pops up.

腦筋急轉彎 Nǎojīn jí zhuǎnwān (Fast thinking)
1. 什麼動物可以貼在牆上？

2. 什麼動物的胸部最大？

3. 有一種東西，買的人知道，賣的人也知道，只有用的人不知道，是什麼東西？

4. 什麼東西經常會來，卻從來沒真正來過？

Try Pinyin Annotator if there is any character new for you. Thanks longjiang for this converter! The answer1. 海豹 hăibào (海報 hăibào "poster")
2. 斑馬 bānmă ("Zebra" Read in English)
3. 棺材 guāncái ("coffin")
4. 明天

The Intention

2008-09-20T20:23:00.010+08:00

All right, I took it a little bit out of focus, you could see as I tried to "protect" something ;)

One of my colleagues drew the little man when one students in a group class kept saying something that drove her crazy. I took the picture as it is a cute work.

The group class members are preparing for TOP test. It is more stressful than others. Lately once my colleague had a little chat in class, the one, we call Alan, would ask for going back to the text, yet when she went the text, Alan would also complain that it's not interesting.

The situation really annoyed my colleague. Finally, she decided: Five more times. If Alan do it five more times, she will give some "feedback". We asked her that she could do it right away, why five times?
Five times.

A couple of days later, my colleague told me, after she made the decision, Alan never ever did the same thing again. She didn't even do or say anything!

We are amazed how consciousness works powerfully. My colleague makes the decision clearly and strongly that she would respect herself instead of tolerating the situation that makes her uncomfortable. The reflect is she creates the reality on the moment, no need five more times.

There is nothing to do with Alan, it could be anyone. It is about how my colleague react to it.

The outside physical reality reflects truly the condition inside us. What Chinese learning environment you are in?

New Tong Wen Tang: Switcher for traditonal and simplified Chinese

2008-02-27T19:47:00.012+08:00

新同文堂 New Tong Wen Tang is a Firefox toolbar button extension which let you switch the display face of a Chinese page between traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese.

It's very helpful for me that can switch from simplified character to traditional characters in whole web page in a second. After all, when we are surfing on the internet, reading the content is more important than learn the characters.

Update Dec/01/2008: tongwen_0.3.9.1 support Firefox 3, but without automatic update function.

For Firefox, safari, chrome.

For Firefox users: 新同文堂 New Tong Wen Tang

氣 qì

2007-12-27T23:35:00.001+08:00

Sam's life in Taiwan is active and full schedule, even too much. (So now he knows how to say「蠟燭兩頭燒 làzhú liǎng tóu shāo」(Burning the candle at both ends). ) However, he's completely relaxed when he's in hometown. Sam's friends feel the same way.

Why?

The environment or people around us could influence us, and sometimes we are not aware of it. When we're close to a person who is happy, nervous, or negative, we'd get the vibration from him/her. Leaving that person afterward, those feel is being reduced or has gone.

The feeling or emotion we have, sometimes it is actually from others.

It is 「氣」qì or "energy". It's not only exit in tai chi 太極 tàijí or ancient China, it is everywhere.
「氣」qì in every object, every body, and environment is different. It interacts and changes all the time.

Think about how we feel when we're in a hospital, a park and a crowded bus. Mixed 「氣」qì may makes us lost ourselves or clutter up, like, a large mass of shopping or mad people get together. But concordant 「氣」qì, like bless or support, is powerful. And the similar 「氣」qì of people and object get together.

Be aware of our「氣」qì, to tell it's from us or others.

Sam's story

2007-12-20T17:54:00.002+08:00

All right, textbooks might be a little dry, we can make it interesting in every lesson!
Here is the original text, lesson six of PAVC Ι (Practical Audiovisual Chinese).

我想買一個新照相機

A：請問，先生，您要買照相機嗎？
B：是啊，我的照相機太舊了，我想買一個新的。
A：您喜歡哪國貨？
B：我都看看，好嗎？
A：這個是德國貨，您覺得怎麼樣？
B：這個太大了，我喜歡那個小的。
A：這個小的很好，是日本貨。
B：多少錢？
A：五百塊。
B：太貴了，你們有便宜的沒有？
A：這個美國相機也很好，只賣一百一十五塊。
B：好，我買這個。

Sam learned Chinese ten years ago. He heard Chinese all the time but spoke not much. Before the textbook, we finished a little book for beginners for warming up.

We just read the dialog first, checked new vocabulary and new characters.
After a drill about the dialog, we extended the story. I asked questions about the A and B, Sam answered the questions, made his own story and learned the new vocabulary he wanted to use.

I wrote the story because Sam is a busy person (All my students' names are Sam, and they always busy:)), or it'll be a homework.
I did it but it was Sam's story, it's Sam's level.
Here we are, Sam's story. Enjoy it!

小喜買照相機

小喜是一個二十五歲的加拿大人。
他的舊相機用了五年了，他想買一台新相機。

他喜歡拍照，拍他和朋友一起的照片。可是他拍的照片不清楚，所以他想買一台數位相機，可以拍得又快又清楚。

他看了兩家相機店，在第二家買了相機。

小喜覺得德國貨太大，日本貨太貴。店員給他看美國相機，又好又便宜。所以他花了一百五十美元，買了美國相機。
牌子不重要，他只要又小又便宜的。小喜很高興有一台新相機了。

他從來沒買過數位相機，可是朋友借他用過。
這是他的第一台數位相機。他想把舊相機給小孩子玩。

那家店的店員也很高興。他的工作做得很好，他一天賣十台相機。
他在這家店工作三十七年了。老闆是他爸爸。
現在他五十四歲了，是這家店的老闆，可是他還是要聽爸爸的話。

The frequently asked questions in Taiwan

2007-11-18T10:41:00.004+08:00

Every foreigner must be asked in tons of questions by Taiwanese people or, to say correctly, taxi drivers.

Taxi drivers like to chat. It's a good chance to practice your Chinese and, also test your wit from your answers in the conversation.

Most questions might be about individual privacy, even for Taiwanese. But for practicing conversation, lots of foreigners could do it flexible and entertaining.

Here are the frequently asked questions, please let me know if there is any other else:

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1. 你是哪國人？nǐ shì nǎ guó rén？(Where are you from?)

2. 你來台灣多久了？nǐ lái táiwān duōjiǔ le？(How long have you been here?)

3. 你住在哪裡？nǐ zhùzài nǎli？(Where do you live?)

4. 你會說中文嗎？nǐ huì shuō zhōngwén ma？(Can you speak Chinese?)

5. 你是英文老師嗎？nǐ shì yīngwén lǎoshī ma？(Are you an English teacher?)

6. 你在哪裡上班？nǐ zài nǎli shàngbān？(What do you do?)

Yes, I type it correctly. It's asking "What is your job", not "Where is your company".

你做什麼工作？nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò？

7. 你叫什麼名字？nǐ jiào shénme míngzi？(What's your name?)

8. 你幾歲？nǐ jǐ suì？(How old are you?)

9. 你有男/女朋友嗎？nǐ yǒu nán/nǚ péngyǒu ma ？(Do you have boy/girlfriend?)

10. 你結婚了嗎？nǐ jiéhūn le ma？(Are you married?)

你太太是台灣人嗎？nǐ tàitai shì táiwān rén ma？(Is your wife Taiwanese?)

11. 你結婚多久了？nǐ jiéhūn duōjiǔ le？(How long have you married?)

12. 你有小孩嗎？nǐ yǒu xiǎohái ma？(Do you have children?)

13. 你喜歡台灣嗎？nǐ xǐhuān táiwān ma？(Do you like Taiwan?)

14. 你喜歡台灣菜嗎？nǐ xǐhuān táiwān cài ma？(Do you like Taiwanese dishes?)

15. 你的中文很好！nǐ de zhōngwén hěn hǎo！(Your Chinese is good!)

你中文說得很好！nǐ zhōngwén shuō de hěn hǎo！ (You speak Chinese well!)

16. 你一個月賺多少錢？nǐ yíge yuè zhuàn duōshao qián?(How much do you earn monthly?)

The last question is absolutely not polite, prepare several answers to see what response you'd get.
Enjoy your street talk!

Test for fun

2007-10-21T15:36:00.001+08:00

You've been studying Chinese for a while.
You might wonder that where your level is in a formal test. Take an examination? 誰有那個美國時間？(Have no leisure time for doing something)*1

Try On-line Mock Test!

華語文能力測驗 CPT -The Test Of Proficiency-Huayu, the test held paper-based. Test takers also can take Pilot Test (paper-based and free). You can also take the test (paper-based) overseas.

There are four levels, for Beginners, Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. For the beginners, the test has two parts: listening and reading.
For the Basic, Intermediate and Advanced levels, each level has three sections, including listening, vocabulary and grammar, and reading.

Except for little cramp sometimes (I'm sure it'll be better and better), the online mock test works well. You can do it for fun, or prepare for the future test.

*1. Taiwanese say「沒有美國時間」(méiyǒu Měiguó shíjiān) for having no spare time to do something. It could be from decades ago. Taiwanese people had to work hard for a better life in that age, while Taiwanese saw the Americans living in American lifestyle that enjoying their leisure time.

Outside of the textbooks

2007-10-11T16:54:00.001+08:00

For beginners, we need some extracurricular books to read. The books you can skip some parts, have fun with it, review what you learn in school, read alone or with your Chinese family or friends.

Here I have some to recommend:

「中國神話與民間故事」"Chinese Myths and Folktales"
「中國的節日與民俗」 "Chinese Traditions and Festivals"
「生活在北京」"Living in Beijing"

Written by Jian Zhu. BIGI International USA Inc.

They are a series books edited for students of Chinese. Readers of this series are presumed to have learned 500 basic characters from which to work. Each chapter is presented in traditional Chinese characters, simplified Chinese characters and English. By reading it you'll know more about Chinese ancient stories, cultural traditions and festivals. My students love it!

The books can be found in Shida bookstore (師大書苑)(It moved in August 2007).
The address: 台北市和平東路一段182-3號2樓 (2F, No. 182-3, Sec. 1, Heping E. Rd.)
Telephone: (02)83695556~8

Of course, we can't miss children's books and comic books. You can read it with Chinese family and friends. Go to the library, bookstores, night markets, and used bookstores to find them.

Speaking of used bookstores, there is a fine one in Taipei,「茉莉二手書店」"Mollie used books" . The environment is neat and comfortable for reading and picking books. Children's and comic books are at 台大一店 (There are more here) and 師大店.

One more word, especially recommend 「小淘氣尼古拉」" Le Petit Nicolas". In addition to the lovely iconograph and story, in the Chinese version you probably can read some paragraphs without any question.

Go take a look and enjoy it!

Chinese Popup Dictionary

2007-09-17T10:39:00.004+08:00

Google Toolbar has a lots of great features, one of them is WordTranslator. Moving the cursor over an English word and it will translate the word for you in your language (currently support seven languages). It's easy and convenient for me when I read an article on an English web pages.

Now, here is a good news for Chinese learners. It's a plug-in from Firefox.
You can read Chinese on websites by "Chinesepera-kun: Chinese Popup Translator"!

It works with both Simplified and Traditional characters, and also allows you to export words to a file to study later.
In the options dialog you can also click "Show More Entries", which will search the dictionary file for more entries that are relevant. (This is disabled by default).
If you want to see information about a particular character, press "shift" while over that character and you will see additional information.

Thanks to Justin Kovalchuk. It's a wonderful tool!
If you are a Firefox user, try now ! "Chinesepera-kun.

If you are an IE user, no problem, I'm proud to introduce another wonderful plug-in.
IE Tab, an extension of Firefox from Taiwan, embeds Internet Explorer in a Mozilla/Firefox tab. IE Tab can view IE-only pages in a Mozilla/Firefox tab.

Click to see clearly.

Anyway, go to Firefox now!

UPDATE (Nov.16.2007): Currently IE Tab, the one of the most convenient extensions, has a memory leak. See CyberNet "Reducing Your Memory Usage In Firefox".
You can do something improving it, minimize the Firefox and clear Firefox caches. It works great after I minimized my Firefox. Like anything in life, computer also need to clean up all the time. Thanks CyberNet!

Believe yourself

2007-08-23T15:27:00.002+08:00

Some of my students are shy. They don't speak Chinese outside of the class in the beginning. The length of "the beginning" depends on when they feel confident enough for it.

In fact, before telling me that now they can chat with Chinese people who they know or don't, they've done a good job in class for a while. We already can discuss and share lots of things in class.

The magic moment happens suddenly, Sam (Sam is all my students' name) is confident of Chinese and the chance comes up. After that, Sam steps into a new stage in life. His daily life connects with Chinese that not only a school stuff anymore. He start to talk to the people in the street, say something make his Taiwanese girlfriend smile, go to see a doctor alone, talk about the culture shock in class, argue with Taiwanese guy in a fender-bender, ask a restaurant owner：「你們什麼時候關門？ *①」and the owner give him a dirty look：「不是關門，是休息！」

Neither Sam knew lots of new vocabulary, he describes a word he doesn't know in a sentence; nor he never made any mistakes. What have I done to Sam? Well, I do have some magic bullet, but the key is Sam believes himself, and he proves it.

When you are ready, the moment will come. Take a venture, the door will open for you.

*①: For a business, 「關門」means it closes for good.

Make a little change in your own way

2007-08-13T16:50:00.002+08:00

Sam's class just started. I found Sam learn Chinese characters fast. When I told him, he shook his head with frustration: "Chinese is difficult." he said.
Sam told me that he writes characters everyday but forgets the characters and meanings soon. He feels frustrated that spent a lot of time in practicing but doesn't work. Sam showed me his notebook, fulling the vocabulary from the new lesson with his neat handwriting.

Do you talk to yourself sometimes like that?
Is learning Chinese a right decision? I've been learning Chinese for so long, should I stop or continue it? Do I not work hard enough? Spend not enough time on it? What do I learn Chinese for?

The block is not Chinese itself, or if the one studies hard enough or not. It is how you think about the learning and how you learn. Stop torturing yourself. Ask yourself: What is my way to accept new thing easily? How could I do it with fun? Who could help me making things go well? Turn the way into joy. Change it!

There are lots of students make sentences with new vocabulary as a homework. Make it fun! Combine several new words to make a sentence or a little story, make it as funny or odd as you can, and it'd be yours. It is more interesting and easier to remember since you create it, something related to you.

Make a little change and do the suitable way for yourself, it'll be a big difference.

First debate in class

2007-04-14T23:52:00.002+08:00

First debate in class is always the same topic, and starts by me:

I:「你覺不覺得你最近進步很多？」
("Hey, do you think you improve a lot recently?")

Sam (Sam is my students' name):「嗯 (ēn)......有一點，可是不是很好」
("Um...... yeah, a little bit..., but it's still not good ")

I:「可是你現在可以說一個故事了。」
(You can tell a story now)
or
「可是你剛剛說了三十分鐘的話，都用中文喔。」
(You just kept talking for thirty minutes , all in Chinese.)

Sam:「......」(Pondering)

Sam's face appeared confused, he seemed never thought about it. The confused face lasted until the debate ended.
I won, of course :).

Soon, Sam updates the self image after that. He has more confidence and enter the stage he is just right in. After several classes, he might be pleased to tell me that he can have a little chat with Taiwanese people now, or his family or friends say his Chinese improved.
It's not a class trick but a fact. I just point it out that Sam ignores. He doesn't find he is far better than that beginner in the first Chinese class.

How wonderful it is, when you believe you do it good and satisfy with it, you really do. Sometimes you need something concrete to show it: Check out the homework one month ago, record your speaking per month, or talk to anyone you don't know. Pay attention on yourself, you may find you learn new things fast and smooth than ever before, and can deal with the daily life independently without Chinese friends' help.

Do some real actions instead keeping a vague notion remain.
Go find it, try an adventure way to find it. You'll discovery your talent, problems, where you are, and more.