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what are you guys doing to improve your chinese?

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  1. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by elle:
    Now I am curious: what is today's word of the day?
    猛
    [maang5]
    河水猛漲。
    The river suddenly rose.

    I have heard maang in spoken Canto to denote a fierce or aggressive person : didn't realise it can also be used along with jeung to denote a suddenly swollen river : where I live in Hunan the local river does suddenly swell with rain
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  2. #12

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    猛
    měng
    猛虎
    a fierce tiger

    Interesting choice, I am doing Putonghua though. Btw, there will be a Pleco update with enhanced features for Catonese before summer.


  3. #13

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    that's what I was thinking too. Does Pleco have cantonese?


  4. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by semidevil:
    that's what I was thinking too. Does Pleco have cantonese?
    Best to check with those guys http://www.plecoforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3507

  5. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by semidevil:
    that's what I was thinking too. Does Pleco have cantonese?
    Yes the version I downloaded yesterday has got the jyut ping romanization .the cut and paste I did above shows it :maang5 :that's the low rising tone
    You need to go to settings and select the Canto romanization and turn off the mando

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    Last edited by hongkong7; 20-02-2013 at 05:20 PM.
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  6. #16

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    Jul 2011
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    Quote Originally Posted by Morrison:
    All this tech support might be detrimental as it makes learning too smooth and nothing much will stick.
    Take a good old dictionary and memorize all radicals there are in Chinese.
    Then read newspaper articles, at the beginning about topics that you are already familiar with from foreign news.
    Watch TV with subtitles, 7pm news, 8pm news to repeat.
    Plenty will stick if you do this regularly. You just need to be willing to put the hours in (even a very optimistic 5 minutes to learn each character for 3000 characters is more than 6x40 hour weeks, 5 to 10 times that is probably more realistic). Also don't expect it to be too smooth even with all the tech. It's still easier and quicker than carting around the equivalent sized paper dictionary. Unless your reading is pretty good already, subtitles on news will probably be too fast. Try say apple daily on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/user/appleactionews) so you can pause and read the subtitles and match them up with what they're saying. Unfortunately lots of shows with audio in Cantonese have mandarin subtitles so it's not 100% match. Anyway just keep at it whether with paper dictionary or electronic, eventually you'll get there.
    Last edited by dengxi; 20-02-2013 at 08:29 PM.

  7. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by dengxi:
    Plenty will stick if you do this regularly. You just need to be willing to put the hours in (even a very optimistic 5 minutes to learn each character for 3000 characters is more than 6x40 hour weeks, 5 to 10 times that is probably more realistic). Also don't expect it to be too smooth even with all the tech. It's still easier and quicker than carting around the equivalent sized paper dictionary. Unless your reading is pretty good already, subtitles on news will probably be too fast. Try say apple daily on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/user/appleactionews) so you can pause and read the subtitles and match them up with what they're saying. Unfortunately lots of shows with audio in Cantonese have mandarin subtitles so it's not 100% match. Anyway just keep at it whether with paper dictionary or electronic, eventually you'll get there.
    I liked the bolded 2 sentences. Morrison's way is also good. Flipping the pages to find the word makes finding it that much more difficult and due to the effort, you'll get a deeper impression of the word. Not to mention you've given yourself enough time to digest the word. A fairly similar process happens when it comes to writing things down that somehow makes what's written down more memorable. Very interesting how it works.

    At the same time, I think learning a language is more the person than the resource. It's exactly like you said, it's about sitting down and put in the hours. Unless the resource is fundamentally flawed, looking for ways to make things easier can simply be a creative way to avoid the necessary learning process. Not talking about the OP - but it's a definite pitfall. I tend to see the capacity to sit down and get through the hard stuff as an inborn ability. If you're not born with that capacity, learning a language by yourself will be endlessly prolonged.
    Last edited by Creative83; 21-02-2013 at 12:27 AM.
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  8. #18

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    I like the suggestions here- will pursue Pleco, thanks.

    I agree, it's mostly about how you approach it. It's like working out, one has to find a learning method that is sustainable- no use working in a way that you hate and then it drops off.

    For ex, I often ask my Canto speaking friends to teach me words/phrases. Then I know the phrase what other speakers are using, and I also get extra motivation. They get a kick out of watching me try (usually laughing at me more than with) and I get a kick out of hearing them explain it.