bob,
I have to confess to having absolutely no clue about Jidong, why he is seeking a monkey, or anything related. But as I will be going in for surgery tomorrow morning, perhaps strong hallucinogenic anesthetic agents will bring me some sort of Jidong epiphany? Last time I had morphine, I evidently saw bats. Monkeys would probably be a pleasant variation.
Seriously. I’m not too quick with these things. I can only address what would probably make a reasonable NUUDL narrative and why or why not.
Skype is free Internet phone on your PC. Worth looking into. Then you can study with anyone, anywhere.
NUUDL narrative? Cool sounding phrase but what’s it mean?[/quote]Pay attention, bob! It’s the soon-to-be-a-trademark name of the new Chinese learning method being developed jointly by Ironlady, you, and me! Well, it will be the name unless you pull your finger out and think of something spiffier.
[quote=“sjcma”][quote=“joesax”][quote=“ironlady”]Hey – I’ve got it. We (joesax, bob and I) can officially start our own language teaching method specifically for Chinese.[/quote]Sounds great!
How about Chinese Understanding Using Narrative Teaching? Or perhaps Frustrated Foreigners Unveils Chinese Knowledge?[/quote]
[quote=“Buttercup”]Off topic, but take care, ironlady… Get well soon.[/quote]Ditto that.
NUUDL narrative? Cool sounding phrase but what’s it mean?[/quote]Pay attention, bob! It’s the soon-to-be-a-trademark name of the new Chinese learning method being developed jointly by Ironlady, you, and me! Well, it will be the name unless you pull your finger out and think of something spiffier.
[quote=“sjcma”][quote=“joesax”][quote=“ironlady”]Hey – I’ve got it. We (joesax, bob and I) can officially start our own language teaching method specifically for Chinese.[/quote]Sounds great!
[/quote] How about Chinese Understanding Using Narrative Teaching? Or perhaps Frustrated Foreigners Unveils Chinese Knowledge?[/quote]
[/quote]
Oops. Anywho Joe what do you think about “Jidong Finds a Monkey” so far? Not exactly TPRS but it could be a Nuudl I feel, hang on that didn’t sound right, this isn’t the bus, anyway you know what I mean.
If you have any suggestions or could help with the transformagirls lines that’d be great hmmm. So far I have myself cast in the role of Jidong, Fredsmith will be playing the role of Huh and Iornlady will be Audiolingual, resident language genius. Dragonbones has a nice girlfriend who could play Transformagirl quite nicely I suspect, buttercup is Oh and director dan will be played by none other than director dan himself. It’s a long road ahead, what with the script writing and all one falls easily into despair. With perseverance however I am sure we are to succeed in the end!
[quote=“bob”]Oops. Anywho Joe what do you think about “Jidong Finds a Monkey” so far? Not exactly TPRS but it could be a Nuudl I feel, hang on that didn’t sound right, this isn’t the bus, anyway you know what I mean.[/quote]Not quite sure what you mean about the bus. But from what I’ve read of “Jidong Finds a Monkey” so far, it sounds as if you’re “on the bus” if you know what I mean.
What we need is to channel that fount of creativity that is little b bob into a focused structure of NUUDLing.
Actually, this is something I’ve been meaning to get around to for awhile. We all complain about how insipid the usual “Studio Classroom” style teaching is and from experience we all know how effective sandwhiches (for our students that would be English first, a translation into Chinese then back into English and once again with fast relaxed pronunciation - sorry I’m sure you know that but others might not) can be so why not try to create a scenario in which different characters take on each task in a more, let’s say surreal, context. By having the repeated phrase in reported speech beginning with the “bobsaid” character that grammar pattern can be practiced over and over. I know it’s a huge undertaking and one that probably won’t materialize in the real world but the attempt is interesting I think and by doing the translations perhaps we can experience for ourselves how language learning works/feels when using the language to create a story. My impression is that the more “odd” the story is the better and that suits me as I tend to have rather an odd imagination anyway. Sorry if the “on the bus” thing weirded you out. It was a reference to the frottering that sometimes goes on on public transportation in the city. I seriously think though that if you are making a film for adult ESL students you should have some childish sexuality (like the banana in the pants scene) because sexuality is an important part of so many people’s second language learning experience and because people just like that sort of silliness generally.
[quote=“bob”]By having the repeated phrase in reported speech beginning with the “bobsaid” character that grammar pattern can be practiced over and over. I know it’s a huge undertaking and one that probably won’t materialize in the real world but the attempt is interesting I think and by doing the translations perhaps we can experience for ourselves how language learning works/feels when using the language to create a story. My impression is that the more “odd” the story is the better and that suits me as I tend to have rather an odd imagination anyway.[/quote]Interesting ideas, bob. I agree that a bit of bizarreness in a story works really well – that’s partly why I enjoy literature from the “magical realism” movement. Life is quite bizarre itself and stories just reflect that. I do feel that a lot of books with teaching ideas are a little po-faced and would benefit from opening up to the world of the imagination.
If you can make the banana stuff work then fair enough though that’s not my style. To be honest I’ve never felt comfortable with the idea that adult English classes are a natural venue for discussing such things. But maybe that’s just me.
Regarding the reported speech thing I’m afraid that I don’t see it as much of an improvement on the methods of the awful English teaching programmes they have on the TV. The whole point of input is to push people to process it to derive meaning. But if they are spoonfed the translation directly afterwards then there is no reason for them to process the initial input. Learners do of course need clarification of meaning (interactive comprehension checking and negotiation of meaning is great for this), but I think they should work a bit for it.
I can take it out too. That’s the fun of writing actually, you can do whatever you want! (Cue maniacal laughter…)
Joe I really have to apologize here as I don’t think I’ve expressed myself very clearly. What I’m tring to do, or going to try to do if I can find time, energy, inspiration and above all encouragement and help is actually write a script and actually film it. I probably won’t write it with the “bobsaid” “Huh” and “Oh” characters all the way through but I want them there for when that function is required simply because the material is too difficult otherwise. Right now I am just introducing the characters. Anyway this isn’t intended to be an absolutely perfect langauge learning tool or absolutely perfect anything for that matter. Just an experiment to see how much can be learned by trying to imagine, write and “perhaps” by some miracle, film something. If it is filmed we will see how much could be learned by English language learners provided that kind of input. It is something I have done a little of before, and believe me, it is nothing like Studio Classroom. There can be language circle practice worked in and it will follow the basic idea of “trying to find something” negotiating maps and all that good “TPRS” stuff that Ironlady mentioned. The people who act in the film will have an easy time of the lines because they will have already helped write and translate them. I think it would be a fun learning experience if anybody was interested.
Or not I suppose, it wouldn’t be the first time nobody could understand one of my film making project ideas…
if you want to learn Mandarin well, then you’ve got to get obsessed about it. It has to be your mission in life (there are a few exceptions out there, but not many). That doesn’t mean language study in the classroom all day long. Spend part of the day on formal learning, then find stuff to do for the rest of the day that forces you to speak and read Mandarin (e.g. volunteer work, a job that requires Mandarin, club activities, socializing, hobbies).
橘子紅了 (júzi hóngle - Oranges Ripen) The story of a poor girl who marries into a rich family in the early 20th century.
金粉世家 (jīn fěn shì jiā - Story of a Noble Family) The story of a poor girl who marries into a rich and powerful family in China in the early 20th century. I have also been reading the book at the rate of a page a day for about a year.
畫魂 (huā hún Painter’s Soul) The story of a poor girl… ok, you know the rest. But she also goes to Paris and becomes a painter.
Happy watching.[/quote]
經典，太經典了。笑倒掉。
小聲說一句，這片子都是我媽媽輩在看哦。：）[/quote]
Welcome to the forum, 羅可可
I know, I know… But I love that stuff. I love the clothes and the houses and all of it. I never watch ‘modern’ tv shows. Any recommendations for things I might like?[/quote]
Sorry to drag up an old post, but I might have something to contribute on this…I have to admit being scared off by the local TV when I first arrived here a year ago, but more recently I have been brave enough to start watching weekly series. The one I’m watching at the moment, 花樣少年少女 - “Little Girl Flower”?? - is about a girl who disguises herself as a boy so she can attend a boys’ boarding school to find out if this guy really likes her. The plot is absolutely ridiculous, but I was pissing myself laughing watching it. It’s a 90 minute show on at 9:30pm Sundays on CTS (Channel 12 on my TV). The first 30 minutes of the first show I watched, I was struggling to follow it…but I understood at least 80% of tonight’s episode- the subtitles do help, though. When I’m watching Chinese TV, I actually find the ads to be a bit of welcome respite - as you have to concentrate harder etc.
I’ve been listening to heaps of Chinese music lately, too. I just finished studying at Shi-Da for a year, and as I’m here for a couple of months before going home, I’m trying to get as much practice in now so I can keep up the motivation. Two words: Song lyrics!! Download 'em, dissect 'em, sing along to 'em! If you can type Chinese - by searchinhg for Mandarin artists on youtube you’ll find the KTV versions of heaps of music videos.
[quote=“dreamlife76”]I asked a friend of mine who’s been here for 27 years what the best way to learn Chinese was and she said: Quit teaching English.
How do people feel? Is this really the best course of action? Here’s what I think:
I go to school for two hours a day to learn Chinese, but then I teach English for four hours a night-- 6 days a week. I def think it’s taking away from extra Chinese time. However, one DOES have to eat and pay rent, so are there any suggestions for alternative and lucrative paying jobs where English is not central?
Also, who has learned to speak better Chinese by watching TV? i know if def helps with listening.
peace
MV[/quote]
i learned most of my mandarin while watching TV. Eventually i could go thru a whole newscast and understand every word !! And that had been my goal and i got there. Tv can be a great tool
dont quit teaching english (it doesnt affect your ability to learn chinese at all) if its needed to pay the bills.
I’ve taught English for the past three years and my Chinese has precipitously declined. When I came here, I could write (not like a fluent speaker, of course, but good enough) papers about how China should resist American pressure to liberalize their capital account. After three years of wasting my life playing stickyball games, I’m back to “How’s it going?” level. Now I’m considering how the hell I can get my Chinese back up to the level where I can talk about current events fluently again. I guess it’s possible, but it doesn’t rule out the fact that the past three years of my life have been a big black hole where I’ve been not treading water, but rapidly sinking. If I had ever been able to get a Taiwanese girlfriend (or any Taiwanese friends for that matter), the decline would have been slower, I guess, but working in a Chinese-speaking environment would have been best.
If you have the means, quit.[/quote]
heres what worked for me. I asked my taiwanese girlfriend (essential for learning chinese or taiwanese) to speak to me in english so she can learn and i spoke to her in chinese and she would correct me constantly and tell me what the proper way to say that would be. And i watched the news on TV. After bout five years, i can say that i got pretty fluent to where i could speak all day to her in mandarin without need to resort to english or too much explaining what i meant. You can do it !! You reallly can.
I’ve found that listening to my students has given me some insight into Mandarin (especially when the older class literally translates into English). Sometimes they want to say something in English and we get to work it through out loud. It’s helped a bit with idioms. And hearing that Chinglish really opens one’s eyes to Mandarin grammar. “Bathroom don’t have he.”
[quote=“ironlady”]But (and this is my theory, not supported by much) I think Mandarin as a spoken language is more difficult to comprehend than English, given approximately the same level of competence in the language and the same kind of conversation…Chinese, being largely mono- or bi-syllabic, goes by pretty damn fast. If you count the number of “ideas” per minute in a speech, (assuming the speakers both have the same point and are trying to get to it in a reasonably expedient manner) I think probably Chinese will notch up more “meaning units” per unit of time, just because it’s often faster to say things in Chinese (fewer syllables and less phonetic complexity) than in English.
At least that’s how I comfort myself when I realize my listening comprehension still sucks. :s[/quote]
As I good Chinese student, I have just memorized this and will use it as an excuse in the future…thanks ironlady!
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Sure, if you quit your job and focus only on studying Chinese (and excercise – that’s essential too), you’ll pick up the language faster. But as the second post mentions, it depends on whether you have the luxury to quit working.
BUT, you (and many others) are only teaching 4 hours a day. That’s nothing. It should be easy to balance the two if you’re not spending too much time out at the clubs, etc. Try studying Chinese when you’ve got a wife, child, and are working 11 hour days, as I am. Then you’ll laugh at how much free time you had studying Chinese and teaching English. I quit my Chinese lessons for 6 years because I was full-time employed and thought I couldn’t possibly find the time. But I’ve met so many Taiwanese who work full-time and attend university at night after work that I started feeling guilty and finally started taking a class once a week. It’s a pain in the ass, but theoretically possible.
So, 4 hours work per day + studying Chinese sounds totally reasonable to me.[/quote]
Hehehe…I soooo know what you mean. But I sure would like to be able to take just six months off and just study Chinese.
Perhaps at some future stage my wife can go back to work and I can study full time for a few months…
But I love that stuff. I love the clothes and the houses and all of it. I never watch ‘modern’ tv shows. Any recommendations for things I might like?[/quote]
