No study either. I've been so busy working on the house lately.
However, I did watch "The Promise", Chen Kaige's latest film. I had heard so many terrible things about the movie the only reason I watched it was for the language. It didn't turn out too bad though.
A quick note on the movie itself: The CGI is substandard compared to what we're used to from Hollywood blockbusters. The story is not as difficult to follow as the reviews I'd read. It was actually straightforward. It was a good sick movie, or one you watch on a Saturday afternoon when you have nothing else to do. Not a classic though, not a "Farewell, My Concubine", "Emperor and the Assassin", or "Temptress Moon".
It was great to pick up the Mandarin though. I've never heard 是 "shi" so many times. Also 我知道 "wo zhi dao" and 我不知道 "wo bu zhi dao" were said frequently. A few words here and there were obvious, but still mostly a blur. I don't expect to understand a lot of a feature length movie in Mandarin for some time, but it is very encouraging to pick out a word here and there.
Tonight or tomorrow night I have "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress". Thank God for IMDB, I can get the Chinese titles also. Apparently the English title is much longer. The Chinese is 小裁缝 "Xiao Caifeng", or Small Seamstress.
再见
2 comments:
Hi Jeremy,
I've come to your blog from ChinesePod.com. Stories about adopting Chinese orphans always move me.
I also started learning Mandarin about 2 years ago. Being a native Cantonese speaker, I have a lot of advantages. But this also makes no room for me to fail.
I have a tip for you. Master your Pinyin! This is your foundation. Get all those ‘zh’, ‘sh’, ‘ch’ correct, and you will be way ahead.
I want to wish you all the best in your journey. Don't give up!
Edwin,
Thanks for the tip and I have taken it to heart. I plan on sharing about that a bit later. I have noticed that many books seem to gloss over the importance of pinyin but i have found it incredibly important.
Thanks,
jeremy
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