Passion Project by Joelle Lin

My Passion Project Goal (1/31/17)

joelleskater — 2017-01-31 17:53:17 UTC

My goal for this passion project is to learn how to speak Mandarin. I truly know nothing about Mandarin except the basic "Nǐ hǎo" greeting. I choose this topic because I always wanted to learn how to speak another language besides English. Also, I have two Taiwanese parents who know how to speak fluently, but I do not know how to speak any Mandarin. I just want to be able to speak and understand, not read and write. My goal is to be able to have a full conversation with my dad (who speaks Mandarin.)

Project Log #1

joelleskater — 2017-01-31 18:03:32 UTC

Chinese is not a language. The language most commonly spoken in China is Mandarin. It is kind of like America. In America, we don't speak Americanese, we speak English. I have started learning Mandarin by "playing" with Google Translate and watching YouTube videos on the pronunciations and words. Pronunciation in Mandarin is extremely important. To pronounce a word correctly, you need to look at the markings above each letter. Also, you need to lean into each vowel. For example, in Wǒ the markings on the O are down then up. So you would make your voice follow the curve of the letter.

Nǐ hǎo, wǒ jiào Joelle.

Translation: Hello, my name is Joelle.

(this is just the pronunciation. Not the actual characters)

Learning Basic Mandarin Week 1 resource

joelleskater — 2017-01-31 18:29:21 UTC

Zhè ge= This
Nà ge= That
Wǒ= Me or I 
Wǒ yào= I want
Wǒ bù yào= I don't want
The most important first Mandarin words you need to know are this (Zhè ge) and that (Nà ge).  While learning any language, these are the two most basic words.

Colors Week 3 resource

joelleskater — 2017-01-31 22:38:50 UTC

All color words end in sè and the word for color is Yánsè. Yán means paint and sè means color. The most "popular" color in China is red. During Chinese New Year, the celebrations are very colorful, but the color you see the most is red. Red symbolizez a fresh start and it is said to ward off all evil.

Wǒ zuì xǐhuan de yánsè shì lǜsè

This means: My favorite color is green.

Fruit = shuǐguǒ week 4

joelleskater — 2017-02-06 00:19:57 UTC

píngguǒ = apple
Pútáo = grapes
Mángguǒ = mango
Xīguā = watermelon
Guā = melon
Yīngtáo = cherries
Cǎoméi =strawberries
I learned that all fruit words that are melons end with Guā which means melon.   Watermelon is the same way, but water in Mandarin is Shuǐ, not Xī.  Shuǐguǒ is mandarin for Fruit.  My favorite food is Bǐsà and  Shuǐjiǎo.  Pizza and dumplings.

Resources 2/2/17 (week 2)

joelleskater — 2017-02-06 00:33:22 UTC

This is a carrier set of about 20 books written in Mandarin with English subtitles. This set includes 3 CDs which I've been listening to to ensure I am pronouncing all the words correctly. This Mandarin book set has greatly helped me master the basic greetings and words. This covers everything from food to numbers. I am using this set as my resource for all 6 weeks of this passion project.

Resources Week 2 (cont.)

joelleskater — 2017-02-06 01:08:32 UTC

This is mostly like a puzzle (as seen on the front) but also similar to flash-cards. On the front of each card is the Mandarin pronunciation of each word. On the back is the actual meaning (in English) So, you first need to flip all of the cards over so that the Mandarin side is on top. Then, you need to put all of the pieces in order so that they form a believable sentence. Finally, you need to flip over the cards to make sure the sentence order is correct. There are about 20 sentences in this box, and each sentence is at least three words long. This was a very fun yet effective way to learn Mandarin (flashcard part was effective and the puzzle part was fun) It helped me learn different words and sentence order. I also learned many animals and plants in this set.

Week 3 Schedule/Timeline

joelleskater — 2017-02-07 17:35:19 UTC

Week 1: Basic Greeting; (Hello, how are you/what is your name?)
Week 2: Animals (Q1: What is your favorite animal?)
Week 3:Colors (Q2: What is your favorite color?)
Week 4: Food (Q3: What is your favorite food?)
Week 5: Numbers (Q4: How old are you?)
Week 6: Have a total conversation with my aunt.

Before Learning Mandarin (Audio)

joelleskater — 2017-02-07 18:25:57 UTC

Me Attempting a conversation with my aunt(who speaks Mandarin) Audio.

Week 4 Foods

joelleskater — 2017-02-11 21:17:51 UTC

Numbers week 5

joelleskater — 2017-02-15 00:39:36 UTC

I learned that the Mandarin number system is
一 , 二, 三 or one= Yī, two= Èr, three= Sān. But, the for is not four horizontal lines, it is 四 or Sì (pronunciation) I discovered that in 100, or Yībǎi: Yī means one and bǎi means hundred. All of the "hundreds" (meaning 100, 200, 300, 400.....)end with bǎi. Also, si shi is 40. But, all of the numbers that are; 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 end with Shi. (Except for numbers like 11, 32, 75, etc.

Counting to twenty in Mandarin (Proud Moment)

joelleskater — 2017-02-15 01:20:26 UTC

I am finally able to count to twenty in Mandarin. It was hard to get all of the pronunciations correct.
11-20 numbers explanation

shíyī is ten one and 10 and 1 make 11.  It is the same for numbers 12-20.

Obstacles week 4

joelleskater — 2017-02-21 03:12:34 UTC

One obstacle for me while I was learning Mandarin was learning the sentence ordering. Subject + Time + Verb + Object. For example, "Tā chī wǔfàn shí chī pīsà." Which means, "She ate pizza at lunch." As you can see, pizza (pīsà) is at the end of the sentence, not the middle. Another challenge while learning Mandarin was the lack of the language outside of videos and tutorials. I solved this problem by having my parents only talk to me in Mandarin all the time. Gradually, I became aware of the grammar and pronunciations of words. Also, Mandarin is a tonal language. The difference between Mā and Mǎ is the tone. Mǎ is horse and Mā is mom. It is very important (while talking) to make you are pronouncing all the tones correctly or you may confuse some people. Another obstacle I've ran across was the different pronunciations. "S" may look like "Sh" but it can be "Zhe." Also "Wǒ" may seem like "Whoa" but it is more of a sharp sound not constant. (You look at the ǒ. It goes down then up. You have to make your voice "follow" the curve of the letter)

Tones

joelleskater — 2017-02-21 18:43:55 UTC

Week 4 proud moment

joelleskater — 2017-02-22 02:27:39 UTC

This week I visited my Grandparent's house. Both of my Grandparents speak fluent Mandarin. We first turned on the TV and watched some Chinese news. Then, I practiced conversations and learned different words in Mandarin. My grandma and grandpa don't speak fluent English, but in Mandarin they talked about the many times they went to China and Taiwan. My grandma thinks that even though I've improved in speaking Mandarin, the best way to learn is to go to Taiwan or China for a month.

Resource Week 4 (2/23/17)

joelleskater — 2017-02-22 02:35:11 UTC

https://www.fluentin3months.com/mandarin-chinese-is-easy/. I found this website while looking for easy and effective ways to learn Mandarin. Although this resource has nothing to do with food, it has improved my Mandarin by far. The author explains Mandarin in a way that I would understand it. For example, "Scorpion in Mandarin is xie1 zi. But she said xie2 zi, which means shoe. After she was done with her little conversation, she noticed her teacher had a funny look on her face. She asked, 'So you went to Wangfujing and ate fried shoe?'" Of course the girl ment to say, "I went to Wangfujing and ate a fried Scorpion. Scorpions are popular food in China. Xiē is Scorpion and

Xié is shoe.

joelleskater — 2017-03-01 01:29:19 UTC

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Week 2 Animals

joelleskater — 2017-03-01 01:32:47 UTC

As I said in week 1, the difference between Horse and is the tones.

Mǎ is horse and mā is mother.  I discovered that zebra or Bānmǎ directly translates to something like striped horse.  Bān is striped and mǎ means horse.  It is interesting that only some animals follow this "rule."  One animal that doesn't follow this discovery is a dog, or Gǒu.  It doesn't really mean anything (I was expecting it to translate to something like "big furry chinchilla")

joelleskater — 2017-03-01 01:33:14 UTC

joelleskater — 2017-03-01 01:36:20 UTC

joelleskater — 2017-03-01 01:37:55 UTC

Favorite link week 3

joelleskater — 2017-03-01 01:43:45 UTC

https://www.rocketlanguages.com/chinese/learn/colors-in-chinese/
This is my favorite link for week 3. Rocket Languages helped me learn to pronounce all of the colors correctly. Just as Rocket Languages says, colors are an important part of our everyday lives. For example, when I went to Zion Market, I asked the employee (in Mandarin) for 5 apples. "Nǐ xiǎng yào shénme yánsè de píngguǒ?" This means, "What color apple do you want? Thanks to my knowledge of colors, I was able to answer this question.

joelleskater — 2017-03-01 01:59:09 UTC

Animals

joelleskater — 2017-03-01 02:31:11 UTC

I also learned that (some) animals are named after the sound they make. For example, cat is mao and the sound a cat makes is meow which the Chinese interpret at mao. Also, monkeys make the sound Ooh Ooh Aah Aah and the Chinese think it is hou.

Colors Pronunciations

joelleskater — 2017-03-01 23:23:49 UTC

Week 3 reflection

joelleskater — 2017-03-01 23:25:35 UTC

I felt that it was very hard to learn all of the mandarin colors. Well, learning them wasn't hard, but memorizing them was very difficult. The two colors I got mixed up with a lot were red and yellow. Huang sounds a lot like Hong. I now remember them like this. Hong has less letters than Huang just as red has less letters than yellow. So, Hong is red and Huang is yellow. I also have been having difficulty remembering the Mandarin word for Blue, which is lan se. In order to memorize all of the colors, I have been using flashcards; on the front of the card is the English word for the color. Then, on the back of the card is the Mandarin pronunciation of the word. I learned that I am most effective with flashcards. Memorization doesn't come very easily to me.

joelleskater — 2017-03-02 23:53:46 UTC

Parent Reflection 3/3/17

joelleskater — 2017-03-04 01:27:12 UTC

I have been monitoring Joelle Lin’s passion project journey over the past weeks. I was surprised and very pleased to hear that she has chosen learning to speak Chinese as her passion project. Up until this point, Joelle could not speak a stick of Mandarin, which is the main dialect or language of the Chinese (there are over 200 languages). Mandarin is a very musical language. There are tones involved. So the same exact syllable will mean something completely different with a change in inflection. Listening to Joelle speak a few words or phrases in the beginning was quite painful. She had the correct syllables for the words or phrases, but it was all monotone. I have an especially sensitive ear as I’m a musician. So it was especially painful for me to listen to her speak Mandarin.

I could see a steady improvement in the way she pronounced the words. With many students who are learning Mandarin (in particular those that are non-Asian), it is very difficult for them to grasp the concept of tones. I have often tried to correct a student with a word, and to them, it sounds the exact same. With Joelle, however, I was pleased to find that she did have a “musical” enough ear to immediately distinguish the inflections for a given syllable. For instance, saying thank you (謝謝), the syllables sound like “shay shay.” But the first syllable has what is called the 4^th tone, and the second syllable (though it is exactly the same) must have the 1^st tone. The first time I taught her this, she said both with the same monotone lack of inflection. A “proud” moment for me came when we were at a Chinese restaurant called China Garden, and she asked the waiter for ice water and said “thank you” upon being served. She pronounced it correctly. But what made me very pleased was that she initiated this request all on her own and thank him without the standard parental, “what do you say?” It was definitely a proud moment for me.

I appreciate Joelle having this opportunity to being speaking Mandarin. There is a possibility that she may one day represent Taiwan for International Figure Skating, so it would be in her best interest to be able to speak Chinese.

joelleskater — 2017-03-04 04:41:57 UTC

I made this Chinese calligraphy of numbers 1-20. (it is the same as the one on the left.

Good resource

joelleskater — 2017-03-04 04:45:48 UTC

https://community.travelchinaguide.com/learn-chinese/lesson.asp?id=8
This resource was very helpful to me because it included all the pronunciations of the numbers. Before I came to this website, I was pronouncing all the numbers wrong and I didn't really know.

Another Resource

joelleskater — 2017-03-04 04:47:36 UTC

http://www.learnchineseez.com/characters/learn-to-write-chinese/ Well, this isn't really a bad resource, but it just didn't fit my needs. Although, it helped me a little with my Calligraphy.

Dead End

joelleskater — 2017-03-04 04:50:08 UTC

DuoLingo is a popular website for learning all languages. A lot of people recommended me to take the course for 2 months or 6 weeks. But sadly, DuoLingo was a disappointment. I was hoping that they had a tutorial on Mandarin but they didn't. When I asked the managers, they said that they would release the Duolingo mandarin course in a while. Instead, I tried Rocket languages and some other websites and they worked better than I could have wished for.

3 Questions (What would you like to learn?)

joelleskater — 2017-03-07 17:20:57 UTC

Q1: How is this benefiting your knowledge?
This project greatly expanded my knowledge of Mandarin. I learned the basic greetings, animals, colors, food, and numbers in Mandarin. I think that it was beneficial to learn Mandarin because now I can talk to my Grandparents (who only speak Mandarin)
Q2: Did you have fun doing this?
I had fun doing this project. The tricky part of this project was finding resources that fit my needs. Q3: What have you learned?
I learned that I don't need to spend $800 on a Chinese class (they don't call it "Mandarin Class" only Chinese class) when I can just work more efficiently at home. I also learned and memorized many Mandarin phrases and words.

3 Questions (What would you like to share?)

joelleskater — 2017-03-07 17:23:23 UTC

Q1: What was the possible cost of the project?
There was no cost for this project. I think that this project was actually very beneficial because my resources included; my family, google translate, and YouTube. I was self-taught Mandarin with help of my grandparents and parents
Q2: Did you get the outcome you wanted?
I did get the outcome I wanted which was to have a total conversation with my friend. I have learned so much from this project.
Q3: What was the hardest week?
The first week was the hardest for me. First learning Mandarin was extremely difficult for me because I needed to learn the tones and pronunciations. During the first week, I was really frustrated because all the words weren't sounding correct.

Calligraphy numbers 1-20 (3/9/17

joelleskater — 2017-03-10 23:47:20 UTC

It was actually easier to memorize the order of the Mandarin numbers than to memorize the pronunciations. To learn it, I first learned the characters, then matched the sounds with each character. (purchased the supplies last week and I didn't get a chance to make this until today) I discovered, while doing calligraphy, that the ink doesn't bleed through paper that much! Below, I used standard printer paper (and the paper in my calligraphy book felt the same) and there was no ink spots on the back side.

Conversation with my aunt

joelleskater — 2017-03-11 01:10:36 UTC

The audio isn't very good :( We had to pause the video after every question because my aunt couldn't remember what to say. At first, we were going to do a video, but she decided against the idea. She has perfect Mandarin (that I wish I had, even though my mandarin has improved).

Accomplishments

joelleskater — 2017-03-11 01:35:44 UTC

For week 6, my goal was to have a total conversation with my friend, which I did. In each week, I learned a different "subject" like food, animals, etc. These all tie into my goal to have a conversation because with each topic, there is an attached question. Like for numbers, "How old are you? I think that I have accomplished a lot during the 6 weeks of this passion project.

joelleskater — 2017-03-12 21:02:40 UTC

Calligraphy Book, paintbrush, and ink

joelleskater — 2017-03-12 21:03:01 UTC

For week 5, I purchased this calligraphy book. I got it at Daiso in their stationary isle for $1.50. I also purchased a horse hair calligraphy brush from amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/Easyou-Brush-Chinese-Calligraphy-Drawing/dp/B01IQVJ8PM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489352951&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=horse+hair+calligraphy+brush&psc=1 I bought calligraphy ink at Daiso also. Next week, I will do the chinese calligraphy for numbers 1-20.