Lessons from a coffee shop

Tweet Chinese, just like any other language is constantly evolving, taking old words and giving them new meaning for the modern generation and the changing times. Today I had the opportunity to spend some time with a few baristas at Beijing's 西尚咖啡厅 discussing a few of these words. To my own surprise, a lot of these words and their usages have origins in Japanese manga and anime.

萌 (méng): Originally this word meant sprout or bud (萌发:méngfā). Like others on this list is has its roots in Japanese manga and anime. The word is now used to describe something (or someone) that is particularly cute (可爱：kě ài). For example: 那个大熊猫非常萌哦 (nà ge dàxióngmāo fēicháng kě'ài o!) Of course, if you want to sound hip and impress the ladies, that that works too!

控(kòng): Although this word originates from the English word "complex" (or rather the initial sound con), it wasn't until the Japanese adopted the word that it started to gain ground in today's Chinese pop-culture. Today the word has come to represent a new style of self-project, or critique of one's in interests and behaviors. In Chinese you will see 控 appear behind a series of characters (often two other characters. 按照日元语法形成“某某控”的语言景观重构。 

Now lets take a look at a few practical usages:

1. 微博控 (wēibókòng): someone who spends all day on their 微博 （wēibó：a micro-blog such as Twitter). 
2. iPhone控: I don't think this one needs any explanation, but do note that you can also say 手机控 (shǒujīkòng) for those of us who haven't bought an iPhone yet. 例子：昨天我跟我的朋友一起去吃了饭。当时，他一直在用他的手机，真是个手机控！

Now onto some less practical usages that also have their roots in Japanese pop-culture:

1. 御姐控 (yùjiěkòng): a great word for those among us who have an interest in slightly older (and perhaps more dominant) women. It is translated into English as a "Royal Sister Complex".  
2. 萝莉控 (luólìkòng): a lolita complex. Someone who likes the appearance of younger girls. Could be a great word to use for those older men who enjoy spending a little bit too much time hanging around Chinese high schools.
3. 镜子控 (jìngzikòng): See someone spending a little bit too much time "fixing" their hair in the mirror? They might just be a 镜子控, in which case you should call them out. I would translate this into English as narcissism if it didn't have the strict connotation of using a mirror to check yourself out.

宅男／宅女 （zháinán/ zháinǚ): Directly translated 宅（zhái）means "house" or "home". This word is used to describe someone who, apart from work or attending class, spends all of their time at home. While it is commonly translated as "Otaku" (someone who has a obsessive interest in manga and anime) I personally think that the Chinese definition of the term more loosely describes someone who spends most of their time at home in their room. You'll often find these people getting their food "to go" and buying things on 淘宝网 (táobǎowǎng). This phenomenon is rather common in modern Chinese cities with so many people who work long hours, at the end of the day they would rather spend time at home alone than go out with their friends. 这些人觉得出去玩不如留在家里。

That's all for now. If you have other fun modern slang that you would like to share, please feel free to post a comment below.

Thanks for reading!

“填鸭式” (tiányāshì): Stuff The Duck

Tweet After a two month hiatus I'm glad that I can get back to blogging. The past two months have been incredibly busy, with a lot of life changing things going on. In late May I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Just a week later I took a road trip across America, helping my girlfriend take all her belongs to Fremont, California, where she started her residency program. A week after that I was China bound. For the past 4 weeks I have been living in Beijing, China and studying at Central University for Nationalities（中央民族大学）.

I am currently attending Associated Colleges in China (ACC) K-12 Chinese Teachers Training Program, a six week long summer training program dedicated to increasing proficiency in Mandarin Chinese, while simultaneously attending lectures and discussion labs that are focused on how to effectively teach Mandarin Chinese. I am blessed to have a wonderful group of fellow students (who also happen to be Chinese teachers during the school year) with me on the program. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the ACC Summer Programs, they are know for their incredibly high expectations of students, and their blazing fast pace. The average student who attends ACC's six week program will cover roughly one year of college level Chinese.

Before I started the program, I was curious as to how the students and teachers are able to achieve so much in so little time. After the first hour of class I found out, they "stuff the duck," or as we say in Mandarin 填鸭式 (tiányāshì). For two hours of class we become Chinese learning robots, mimicking our teacher's every sentence pattern. While the original form of 填鸭式  has fallen under a lot of scrutiny due to its apparent inability to clearly teach "why" something is the way it is, that is not my take for learning a foreign language. After over three weeks in ACC's Summer Program I would say that it is an effective tool for learning Chinese. And here is why:

• In a class setting it allows for maximum repetition of target language goals.

• It forces language learners to use new grammar patterns to express their opinions (over and over and over again)

• After a single student is done saying the sentence every other student is forced to repeat (again) the sentence, thus maximizing the students ability to listen to new sentence patterns as well as speak them. 

The above is only possible because the teacher has complete control over the lesson plan, and what  students are allowed to say. For the past three weeks I have not be able to truly express my own opinion in the classroom unless it strictly pertained to the topic we were covering. Because of the structure of the class students are able to hear sentence patterns and new vocabulary at least 80 times during the course of the two hours. Of course, I also have another two hours of class a day where I can freely speak about the topics we are discussion, but of course the use of newly learned grammar patterns and vocabulary is ideal.

Assuming that students do their part outside of class to review materials studied during the day, it is a rather successful way of teaching a language. Of course, my program is geared toward this style of teaching. And, although I'm living in Beijing, I haven't had much time to get away from campus to do any exploring, I'm simply too busy studying all the time (grumble, grumble).

While it has been hard work the results are staggering. I can feel my Chinese constantly growing stronger and my grasp of the grammar points and vocabulary words is quite strong. Although, that might also be related to the 10+ hours that I have put in on Anki since my arrival in China, and the language pledge that we signed at the beginning of the program. Regardless, I feel a strong command over roughly 500 new vocabulary words related to effectively teaching Chinese.

If anything, this has been the prefect way to prepare for graduate school in Taiwan.

Finding inspiration.

Tweet As I prepare to take the Test Of Proficiency, Taiwan's national stadardized test for Chinese language proficiency, I am trying to fit a bit more Chinese studying into my day. At times this can seem like such a daughting task. Work, school, family, and everything else seems to get in the way. However it is important to find time (even if it is a little bit of time every day) to keep up with language study. Sometimes we have rely on those around us for inspiration.

My own recent burst of inspiration has come from Kat over at One Year Chinese. If the blog name doesn't give you enough info, perhaps the About section will:

"Let’s see if I can be fluent in Chinese in a year! Define fluent? Speak with a native Chinese speaker for 10 minutes and convince him I’m a native speaker, too! (Or at least cover that whole 10 minutes without speaking English, without consulting any dictionary, and with no awkward silence lasting for more than 30 seconds!)."


It has been fun to track her progress through her blog and twitterfeed.  After reading about her project I have started to hit the books a bit more as well. While I do get a good dose of Chinese in my film class (中國電影課) and my job with the Chinese Language Tearchers Association (中文教師學會) it still feels good to work on something of my own choosing. My study method of choice has been Anki, a SRS flashcard program. I downloaded the TOP Practice Set with around 8,000 Characters. I have put in 21.25 hours so far . Here are my current results:

A big thanks to Kat and other bloggers who have allowed me to find some inspiration to keep going every day and spend a bit of time hitting the books. I am already seeing improvement. I hope it will get me ready for the TOP on Monday. I also finished using the application Shi Zi: A Primer of Chinese Characters last week but I'm holding off on a review until I can speak to the developer. Look for a proper review within the next few days.

App Review: Chinese Word Search Lite

Tweet First up for iLearn Mandarin is an app that I downloaded for my iPhone when it first came out in 2009: Chinese Word Search Lite by iWalkingfish.com.

This app takes Chinese character recognition and really tries to make it fun in the form of a good old fashion word search. The word searches are organized by themes with a lot of good selections. You can choose: random; basic 200; basic 500; conversation; food and drinks; brand names; the Three Kingdoms; Countries etc. I have tried most of the themes and recommend that you stick to basic 200, basic 500 and conversation if you are just starting out. The other themes introduce some rather specific vocabulary that you can always look up in a dictionary at a later date (especially if you are still trying to get down the basics).

What I like most about Chinese Word Search Lite is the ability to control the challenges based on your Chinese ability. This can be done in a variety of ways. First you can select how big the word search is. The larger the world search the more Chinese characters will appear. However, the best way to control the difficulty will come from the prompt settings. Users have the ability to turn Pinyin, Chinese, and English on and off. If you are looking for a real challenge, make the Word Search as large as it will go and then only turn on the English prompt.

 For those language learners who are just starting out, I would recommend keeping all the prompts on. It will allow you to visual the Chinese, Pinyin and English meanings at the same time, without having the other characters distort your comprehension. Once you think you have the image of the character down let the searching begin!

The strength of this app is ultimately how easy it is to use. A single word search only takes a few minutes each time, and with the variety of themes you can spend hours encountering new material. The downside to the Lite version is both the lack of Traditional Chinese characters and the inability to hear a native speaker pronounce the words as you find them. But, based on my research those two things are available in the standard version.

I know that this app will be a standard for me when I am looking to kill some time while studying Chinese. I would recommend it to all levels of Chinese learner. The app is very stable as well, so you don't have to worry about it crashing right as you find those characters. Happy word searching!

Using Chinese Word Search Lite

Tweet First real post and I don't even have it done. I guess that is what I get for starting things off the week of midterms. I have been using the app Chinese Word Search over the weekend and having a lot of fun. I have some screen shots and other info that I will be putting up soon. Until then I will just say this. If you are looking for a fun game that is free, be sure to check out Chinese Word Search Lite.


-- 發送自我的 iPhone