181. Acquisition “习得 xídé”

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10:13 Comments & Emails

Annette Bicknell on How Do You Satisfy Curiosity About Details in Your Target Language? (Feat. John Fotheringham)

This video resonated and my memories went back to when I learned English. I lucked out with good teachers both in school and in high school, the latter being extremely ambitious on student’s behalf stating right on day one that we would be doing second year material in the first year, third year material in the second year and first year university level in the third year. This meant reading Shakespeare in the second year and that was really, really hard with the old English, but then in the third year to again read a play was easier. My language goal throughout high school was to be able to read National Geographic Magazine when I finished. I so enjoyed looking at the photos that I spent hours reading through all the captions which was all I could manage because the articles were just too much at the time. After high school I got an annual subscription and similar to John Fotheringham’s rule of five, I had a guideline of three to four after which I would look up the word. Remember, this is all in the 1980’s, long before easy online dictionaries and language input. My reasoning at the time was that if the word showed up more than a couple of times and seemed to be essential to the topic, I needed to know what it was. Over the years my English greatly expanded just by diligently monthly reading cover to cover. This meant exposure to a wide range of topics most of which interested me and facilitated learning new words.

Seeing a word over and over and not understanding it actually gets under your skin and you WANT to know what it means if it is not clear through context. Having a “this many times and then I look it up guideline” can help steadily expanding your vocabulary. I feel some of that going on when I watch Chinese TV dramas and a word is repeated often enough that it sticks out and I look it up. I can usually hear the pronunciation well enough to use pinyin and of course can stop the video and see the character on the screen for comparison and make sure it is the right word. I recently started using the Language Reactor extension where I have the benefit of its pinyin for each word in addition to the Zhongwen dictionary extension making the process even easier.

18:14

Hannah van der Bijl on 正式 in Context

Popping in to say I love how, as we keep building our vocabulary and using previously learned characters (like 正), my sense of the characters’ various meanings just gets further enriched by how they’re used in these new words and sentences. Hurray for effective scaffolding!

20:37

Jimmy Rogers on Make a Movie #3000 – 熏

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 Who thought they’d ever get here!!!!!

23:07

Andy Williams on 了解 in Context

How is 了解 different from 明白 ？Sorry if you have answered this somewhere else. Thanks.

1 understand; comprehend

了解真相
liǎojiě zhēnxiàng
understand the facts

彼此了解
bǐcǐ liǎojiě
know each other full well

2. find out; acquaint oneself with
了解国内外科技发展状况
liǎojiě guónèiwài kējì fāzhǎn zhuàngkuàng
keep abreast of current developments in science and technology at home and abroad

25:45

Jaimee K on Step 2 – Consuming the Content

I found a game streamer on twitch that streams for a good portion of when I’m awake (surprising because I’m a full 12 hours shifted from their time zone). There’s a lot that I don’t pick up on because there are no subtitles, which probably isn’t ideal (don’t worry, I am also consuming comprehensive content as well), but I figure it’s no different than putting anything on while doing other things. Paying attention to chat has been fun though because I notice characters I know, maybe look up one or two to understand a whole message

I’m probably many hours from getting out of level 1 immersion still, but I’m having a great time building my mandarin skills

27:29

Matt Shubert on Vocab Boost 网球 足球 足够 不够 能够 能干 干活儿 干吗 只能 只要

Whew, I think I’m starting to get the hang of these vocab booster lessons.

At first it felt like the intermediate course was quickly going to become overwhelming in terms of study material, but I’m getting the feeling that you genuinely want us to skip any sentence we don’t think we need. For instance, here, I didn’t save any of the cards for 只能 or 只要 because I’ve seen those words a bunch already in my immersion practice, and they’re kinda self-explanatory from the characters. Same with words like 能干 and 不够. 足够, on the other hand, I would never have guessed that meant “enough” with the character 足.

30:13

Micaela Ellison on 女士 in Context

Can 女士 be used to address any woman, regardless of age, marital status, etc? And is 先生 the male equivalent?

31:46

Gavin Meakin on Level 23 Complete

Stoked to see the “all sentences combined” audio file has been uploaded. Time to take passive listening to another level. Cheers!

33:05

Yolanda Croes on 1. This Could Be You In Less Time Than You Think…

i’m impressed. I did 1 Mandarin course many years ago and I thought it was rather difficult. i am very curious whether you’ll be able to teach me this beautiful language. i do hope so.