Chinese 100 by

cgelinas1 — 2021-09-10 02:09:15 UTC

My goal for this term is to take the opportunities given in class to learn enough Mandarin to improve my listening and speaking skills to the point that I can interact with Mandarin only speaking customers at work. By learning basic sentence structures and vocab I want this class to be a launching point for me to start learning the Mandarin language through media I consume as well. There is no point if I take this class and then promptly forget it all, I want to use this as an opportunity to make a habit of seeking the language out.

TO CAT

cgelinas1 — 2021-10-01 17:26:42 UTC

After sharing my joy that the Chinese word for 猫 is pronounced like the meow of a cat (which is adorable) I learned something fun. Apparently Mao is also a northern Chinese slang that means "to hide in your house and do nothing". if you say 我猫 (literally I catted) it means I lazed around in my house like a cat doing nothing. And honestly? Same.

Beans and water

cgelinas1 — 2021-11-13 23:09:53 UTC

I might attach a photo later- but I went to TNT a few weeks ago and found that all the packages of beans had the character for 有 written on them. I asked my Chinese Canadian friend and she said she had no idea why. I also saw two signs I understood! One was recruiting teenagers for work ( 工作) The other one was what looked like the Chinese equivalent of "smart water" or something. It was just labeled 零。

Work

cgelinas1 — 2021-11-13 23:13:48 UTC

I met a Mandarin speaking family at work last weekend. I couldn't understand much of what they were saying but I could pick up the rhythm of the language and know it was Mandarin. I didn't practice my language skills very much or anything but they were impressed that I could tell and liked it when I used 谢谢 and 再见 instead of the typical retail greetings.
One step at a time.

Dialogue link One

cgelinas1 — 2021-11-26 19:17:53 UTC

Dialogue Link Two

cgelinas1 — 2021-11-26 19:21:58 UTC

hangover

cgelinas1 — 2021-11-26 19:33:33 UTC

I'm honestly not sure what to write - but my best friend (and the only person I regularly talk to that can speak a bit of Mandarin) is seriously hung over right now.
So I looked up the translation for hungover and google tells me it is 宿醉 which apparently means "stay over drunk".

Presentation B recording

cgelinas1 — 2021-12-01 18:36:59 UTC

(I am the one presenting the leader of the NDP party)

cgelinas1 — 2021-12-01 18:38:23 UTC

A comment-only link to the google slides used for presentation B

Presentation B script

cgelinas1 — 2021-12-01 18:47:25 UTC

Final exams

cgelinas1 — 2021-12-10 22:16:02 UTC

It's that time of year again, I have stayed mostly inside my house these past two week preparing for finals. I don't have many exams, instead I have to hand in a few research essays at the end of the week. I haven't encountered any new Mandarin words recently so I looked up how to say "final exams" in Mandarin.
Apparently it is:

期末 考试 Qímò kǎoshì