Hey everyone!
~HAPPY LOVE DAY!!~
Where is the time going? It feels like just the other day I was learning last week's Mandarin material and posting another blog!
What can I say, it's been quite a journey so far. I have learned so much, not only in regards to the Mandarin language, but also within the culture.
I learned that in Chinese culture, they celebrate all holidays, especially Chinese New Year and for every celebration/holiday, they cook homemade dumplings. Also, on Chinese New Year, it is considered "lucky" to give money to your loved ones, as you are providing them with wealth and giving them a year full of health and happiness.
This really helped me in regards to learning the language, as this week's focus was learning 3-4 word phrases, and some of the phrases they say when they celebrate, or are together at family get togethers, etc., were phrases I could practice saying and be prepared to say at the next family get together.
For this week, I really used the: Chinese Skill App to help me form my phrases together using the different words I've learned along this journey so far. Here is a screenshot I took of the App from my laptop- including the description. I use this app on my phone and it is awesome. I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to learn Mandarin!! It is very user friendly and effective! 😀
My boyfriend David (left) is such a great teacher when it comes to his language. He is very patient and motivating. He really pushes me to never give up, even when it gets tough, whether it be when I forget some words, mix them up or mispronounce them. He was really excited when I told him I was learning Mandarin for a school genius hour project, and he wants to push me to learn as much as I can, as he knows I can do it- and who better to learn it from than from someone I see all the time and can speak it fluently?
I really thought I would struggle this week when piecing words together into a phrase, but since Mandarin is so specific, you couldn't just throw all single words together to make a phrase, for some phrases, you had to say the specific phrase word for word, which somehow made it easier, as you just had to memorize most phrases.
It also helped that I knew most of the words that made up the phrase before learning how to speak in phrases of Mandarin. It helped me to better understand what I was saying and how to word things properly.
One thing I did struggle with, which is a continuous thing, is the pronunciation. David told me that that would probably be the hardest thing every week, no matter how many words I know or how I know how to put sentences together. Pronunciation is something that always has to be practiced, and although I struggled this week again with pronunciation, it was on different parts of the phrases, and David said I showed a massive improvement in my speech from last week!
I am going to continue speaking to my boyfriend and getting his advice and feedback on my Mandarin, but I will also look up videos and phrases within my Chinese Skill app on my phone. This will help clarify everything, retain what I have learned and help prepare me for next week!
I don't really have any specific questions for this weeks learning, but, I know if I did, I could go to my boyfriend or his mum for clarification! They are such a great resource in helping me learn their language, and I know it means a lot to them that I am pushing myself to learn and speak it!
Until next time!
My Genius Hour project- learning to speak Mandarin, started off slow, learning the basics, then gradually learning more common and everyday words, then eventually leading into putting all the words into phrases and then complete sentences.
Within this journey, I definitely faced a few challenges, mainly with pronunciation/tones of words and combining words into sentences- making sure I used the correct tenses, verbs, etc. Other than that, I found this to be really intriguing and fun!)
