Firefly Chinese
11/4/07 21:28![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Last week in Mandarin class, one of the things we learned was that ma stuck on the end of certain sentences turns them into questions (it's an interrogative particle! woo hoo!).
Tonight, Tián, our teacher, introduced the word dǒng, "understand." It sounded familiar. It took a second, but suddenly I could hear Jayne saying dǒng ma? and I felt that wonderful little light bulb come on. Dǒng ma?. "Understand?" or "Get it?"
Then we had some consonant-verb sound combination drills, among them, "shuai," and I was all "Ooh! Ooh-ooh! I know that! That means 'handsome'!" Totally picturing Simon.
Call me geeky (you wouldn't be alone), but that right there? Kind of a thrill.
Also, can I just say that the last time I began learning a brand new language was before the Internet was a gleam in Al Gore's eye, and that it's amazing the free resources that are out there to help me along. What a wonderful world.
Tonight, Tián, our teacher, introduced the word dǒng, "understand." It sounded familiar. It took a second, but suddenly I could hear Jayne saying dǒng ma? and I felt that wonderful little light bulb come on. Dǒng ma?. "Understand?" or "Get it?"
Then we had some consonant-verb sound combination drills, among them, "shuai," and I was all "Ooh! Ooh-ooh! I know that! That means 'handsome'!" Totally picturing Simon.
Call me geeky (you wouldn't be alone), but that right there? Kind of a thrill.
Also, can I just say that the last time I began learning a brand new language was before the Internet was a gleam in Al Gore's eye, and that it's amazing the free resources that are out there to help me along. What a wonderful world.
(no subject)
12/4/07 05:28 (UTC)(no subject)
12/4/07 12:41 (UTC)(no subject)
12/4/07 20:58 (UTC)(no subject)
12/4/07 14:47 (UTC)(no subject)
12/4/07 20:57 (UTC)