Chinese Reflections - March

By Me on 2025-03-23

chinese

learning

March Reflections

This second post is a little earlier than I planned, but given that I will be travelling for the next 3 weeks I thought it would be a good idea to write a post now.

I'll be in China for my vacation, it'll be a good reality check to see how little I actually know outside of a Duolingo setting. I don't think I'll be able to communicate anything useful, but maybe I can at least hear/read a little more and rely less on my partner for translating everything. That should give her a break at least.

Frequent Mistakes

I find

过

guò

to pass/live/spend

challenging, for example:

今年生日你会怎么过

Jīnnián shēngrì nǐ huì zěnmeguò

How will you celebrate your birthday this year

你吃过鱼吗

Nǐ chīguò yú ma

Have you ever eaten fish

. I suppose it's about having 'lived through' something, but in a more literal way than English.

Being able to link sentences together is super useful and exciting as it should allow me to express more complex ideas, but so far it's mainly complex to me. An example that I messed up recently:

他吃完饭会马上刷牙

After he finishes eating, he will brush his teeth at once

. This is probably something that would be easier with a course or a tutor that helps explain the grammar better.

This last one is a little embarrassing as they're mostly words I should know, but for some reason I keep messing up this particular phrase:

一天一个苹果，医生不找我

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

New Phrases

A fun phrase with some new words:

我害怕变化

Wǒ hàipà biànhuà

I am afraid of change

. I don't know what I like about it, but it's fun. A variant of this is

我不喜欢变化

I don't like change

This one might as well have been a common mistake, but since it's new I'm giving myself a break:

当然她是认真的

Dāngrán tā shì rènzhēn de

Of course she is serious

. I find that with the whole phrase I usually get it, but the individual characters are tricky and I don't rember the correct sound.

I hope this one is not something I'll have to use:

他不给我钱

Tā bù gěi wǒ qián

He doesn't give me money

你们星期五以前必须要完成罪业

Nǐmen xīngqíwǔ yǐqián bìxū yào wánchéng zuì yè

You must finish your assignment before Friday

. This is a good example of a phrase that's at the moment just beyond the range of what I can understand. With the pinyin and a lot of effort I can grasp the overall meaning, but the details are lost.

Closing Thoughts

I re-read my last post and I'm not sure that there's actually a lot of progress between then and now. I practiced the very small set of vocabulary I'm somewhat comfortable with, but I've not really learned a lot of new words or grammar concepts.

Lets see how the next 3 weeks go, how it compares to last time, and what I want to change in my approach.