Chinese Reflections - May

A little late, but I've been busy and didn't learn all that much so I found it hard to make time to write a post. My learning has still been mostly Duolingo, with a few episodes of random Chinese shows/movies that my partner watched and I listened in on.

I think in terms of vocabulary I made some progress, and when it's simply listening or reading (with pinyin) I can extract the global meaning of what is being communicated. But when my partner asks me to say something everything breaks down really fast and I can't say anything.

The different tones are also still quite hard to distinguish. With Duolingo I can endlessly replay a soundbyte until I get it right. Take that away and I'm simply guessing which tone was being used.

New Phrases

A phrase with some useful new words:

, even though I would never ask not to add chili.

is a useful phrase to know, since we tend to hike a lot on our trips to China.

Even though their hospitality probably won't allow it

might allow me to repay some of the kindness we receive in China.

Last time we waited a while for a bus, so this phrase should be useful in a similar situation.

.

Given my partner's tendency to lose things, this phrase is also useful.

.

While not directly useful, sentences like

will hopefully help me to compose more complex sentences.

So far we've had to get medicine on both trips to China. Something like

might be useful.

And here's a bunch more phrases that contain useful words or grammar:

• 王明不推荐那个咖啡馆

  Wáng míng bù tuījiàn nàgè kāfēi guǎn

  Wang Ming doesn't recommend that coffee shop
• 北京有差不多三千条老街

  Běijīng yǒu chàbù duō sānqiān tiáo lǎo jiē

  Beijing has about three thousand old streets
• 附近有便利店吗

  Fùjìn yǒu biàn lì diàn mǎ

  Is there a convenience store nearby?
• 我喜欢和我的兄弟一起出去

  Wǒ xǐhuān hé wǒ de xiōngdì yīqǐ chūqù

  I like to go out with my brother

Closing Thoughts

Given how busy life has been I don't think I'll magically find time to look for a podcast or show to help my learning. I'll keep on using Duolingo and taking notes as I find it useful to keep myself accountable. It also helps motivate me to get actual lessons once the school year starts.