Curly Studies

Quick grammar post on present tense!

在 (zài) - Indicates an action in progress, for example:

我看电视 - I was watching TV / I watched TV 我在看电视 - I am watching TV

在 can often be used interchangeably with  正在 (Zhèngzài), which means “to be in the process of” , “to be doing (something) right now.

我们正在找你 - We are looking for you 我们在找你 - We are looking for you

The negative form of these verbs is 没在 (méi zài). 

I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS GET THE SAME FEEDBACK WHEN THEY GET BACK IN TOUCH WITH ME

Neither of my supervisors had never gotten it before either. They had to think for a while, and then it turned into them telling me how great I am and what they love about me.

This stuff is real. I would also say: none of it is lying. This is taking experience that you normally downplay and write off, and putting it in accurate words they’ll understand.

It’s hacking the capitalist system. Why ISN’T helping a kid with homework “tutoring”, when the only thing missing is a paycheck?

It’s especially important for anyone who isn’t a cis white man, because many of us are so thoroughly trained to feel like we are not good enough.

Privilege tells people they can fake it, and that they’re good enough just as people and can learn the skills on the job. Abuse and oppression tell people they aren’t good enough as people and that even their high skills are probably below average, and that unless they had the specific job title or were using certain skills officially, nobody will think it counts.

学生 (xuésheng) student

同学 (tóng​xué) classmate

老师 (lǎo​shī) teacher

学校 (xué​xiào) school

学院 (xué​yuàn) college

小学 (xiǎo​xué) elementary / primary school

中学 (zhōng​xué) middle school

大学 (dà​xué) university

学习 (xué​xí) to study

系 (xì) faculty

学科 (xué​kē) subject

课 (kè) class

功课 (gōng​kè) homework

学士 (xué​shì) bachelor’s degree

硕士 (shuò​shì) master’s degree

上学 (shàng ​xué) to go to school

上课 (shàng kè) start class

I hate you. Please die in a large explosion. I will not miss you.

……..

this is AN AMAZING QUESTION. i’ve thought about this myself when I was learning to write Chinese as a small child, and even to this day I still write certain words with the wrong stroke order ahahaha. but here are some reasons why it’s important to learn the correct stroke order: 

- oftentimes, stroke orders are set in place to help keep your characters well proportioned and it also makes your writing neater (even if you don’t think it makes a difference)

- there are chinese input systems that require proper stroke order, and if you’re used to just doing whatever stroke order you want, you won’t be able to type out the character you want (although there are tons of alternative input systems, so this wouldn’t be a HUGE problem)

- when you start getting to complex characters like 鬱, it’ll be important to know how to break down the character so that you can write it correctly without any extra/missing strokes. (note: this character is only found in traditional Chinese and Japanese, but my point still stands) 

- stroke order seems like a pain, but once you get the basic principle behind it (top left to bottom right), your brain will automatically get the feel for it. it’ll make your writing speed WAYYY faster (bc you won’t have to copy out the character like a picture) and you’ll also retain words better because you see the character as distinct units with specific strokes. 

it’s not the end of the world if you write something with the wrong stroke order, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind when handwriting in Chinese/Japanese.