Pomodoro-ing Everyday

Recently, a friend of mine who has been learning Chinese for quite some time came with a complaint (and several crying emoji).

“Why do you Chinese use 打 for every damn action??!”

Tbh, I think 打 just indicates what I am about to to do?? If a verb follows, the meaning is obvious. If a noun follows, then I want to get that or do the most obvious action with that.

EDIT 1: Totally forgot to mention that 打 means “to hit”! So the Chinese sure love to hit a lot of things hahaha^^

He also asked for all examples I could remember:

打车 to call a cab/taxi

打水／打饭 to get water/get food and bring it back, not to be confused with buying takeaway food

打电话／打手机 to call with phone / mobile

打牌 to play with cards

打伞 to hold an umbrella

打赌 to make a bet

打扫 to clean

打扰 to disturb

打官司 to engage in a lawsuit (to to sue)

打工 to do a job (usually temporary or just to earn money)

打字 to type

打球 to play with a ball

打印 to print

打包 to wrap sth up (for unfinished meals)

feel free to add things, or other funny/frustrating experiences!

edit 1: Don’t ever, I mean EVER use 打+airplane in public or private, because it’s rather NSFW. A friend learning Chinese was joking if calling a private jet is like calling a cab and used this combination.

All of the Chinese speakers: *awkward silence*

Greetings, Polyglots! I’m back with another post about how to use movies to learn languages!

I’ve noticed a trend among language learners. Especially among those learning English. Those who spoke English the most natural and fluently have all said that they frequently use movies to learn English. I’m telling you, it’s uncanny! I’ve taught English in three countries and in every country the most standout students have always said that they watched videos and movies for idioms and phrases. The result was almost always natural and fluent sounding English. So I began to wonder do movies work to help you learn a language and how do you watch a movie to learn a language anyway!? Movies are like an hour to two hours long! I don’t have the patience for that.

Movies can, however, help you learn languages in a more natural and casual way. Depending on the genre of the movie, you can learn some interesting vocabulary as well. Movies and television shows are very important for language learning, because they not only teach proper use of grammar and vocabulary, they also introduce you to the humor and culture of the people who’s language you’re studying. After only one or two weeks using movies learning Chinese, my casual Chinese has certainly improved and I have learned a few funny phrases to keep things light too. So how do you use movies to learn languages? Here’s how:

I’m about to start studying for the CPA exam, so I need all of the inspiration/motivation I can get 😭😂

So yesterday, I was asked why I was being a 電燈泡 (a lightbulb), planning a hang out with friends who are now dating each other. I didn’t know what it meant besides literally a light bulb so I had to look it up….and then busted a gut laughing at the slang definition. 😂

TC:湯圓    SC:汤圆  tāng yuán

Tangyuan, a homophone of and frequent metaphor for reunion (团圆  tuán yuán) is a Chinese food made from glutinous rice flour. It’s cooked and served in boiling water (Some will put brown sugar and ginger). Tangyuan can be either small or large, filled or unfilled, sweet or salty. They are traditionally eaten during the Lantern Festival (the 15th also the last day of Chinese New Year celebration) and the Chinese Winter Solstice Day (冬至).

Historically, a number of different names were used to refer to tangyuan. During the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty, the name was officially settled as 元宵 yuán xiāo (derived from the 元宵节 Yuán xiāo jié , the Chinese name for Lantern Festival). Now the name “Yuanxiao” for this food is commonly used in northern China.

Traditional sweet fillings for tangyuan can be :

Black sesame paste - the most common filling

Red bean paste

Chopped and sugared peanuts, taros or yams.

Tips from a language major:

•When learning new vocabulary write the meaning in your language once and the new word at least three times

•If you are learning a new writing style (I.e. Hanzi, kanji, Sanskrit, etc.) write the character at least three times, the meaning and the pronunciation once. -do not write the pronunciation above the character, write it to the side, otherwise you won’t even try to read it. -Learn! Stroke! Order!

•when reviewing vocab try to use the word in a sentence.

•do not pay attention to the technicalities of the grammar. Do not attempt to compare it to your own language. This will seriously mess you up for 80 years. Just pay attention to the sentence structure and make similar sentences.

•if you are learning a tonal language (I.e Chinese) or language that has sounds that don’t exist in your language watch videos of people pronouncing things and try to match their mouth movements.

•if all else fails on your tones just speak quickly.

•watch TV shows in that language and yes watch them with subtitles. But please be aware that may not be how people speak in real life (I’m looking at you, Japanese/Chinese/Korean learners)

•DO NOT BE AFRIAD TO MAKE MISTAKES of you mess up during a sentence just correct yourself and keep going.

•flash cards, flash cards, flash cards. Real and digital.

•spend at least an hour a day on it (OUTSIDE of class), if you’re trying to learn on your own you’re gonna need more time.

•talk to yourself in that language, take notes in it, set your phone to it. You probably look crazy but that is a-ok.

•listen to music in that language, while it probably won’t do much for your ability in the beginning it will help you distinguish sounds once you get pretty good.

•and lastly, don’t give up. It took you like ten years to grasp your own language it’s gonna take awhile to grasp another.