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Linguaholic

Ming

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  • Currently studying
    Chinese (Mandarin, both traditional and simplified characters)
  • Native tongue
    German, English (raised bilingually)
  • Fluent in
    German, English

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  1. Hello! I'm currently searching for some podcasts to improve my listening abilities. I am a beginner, although I already have reached the HSK 1 level. I already use the "Newbie" lessons at ChinesePod and they pretty much are exactly the difficulty I'm searching for, but I'd like to have some other resources too :-). The podcast should be available on iTunes, the accent of the speakers should be either Standard Mandarin or Taiwanese Mandarin. It would be great if they don't speak too fast. Does anybody have any recommendations? Thanks! Ming
  2. Hey! My name is Ming, I'm a 16-year old girl from Germany. I'm fluent in German and English and currently learn Mandarin Chinese (both simplified and traditional Characters). I also speak French to a B1-B2ish level, and have some chunks of Polish in my repertiore, but I never actively studied these languages and don't really pursue any goals in them. I come from a multilingual background, with my Mom being from Poland, and though I never actively learned Polish, I of course picked up some phrases over the years. It's not even conversational fluency, just some words and phrases that somehow were useful whenever travelling to Poland. English was basically drilled into me from a very young age, as it is the case with most kids in Germany. I had courses and a British AuPair-Babysitter since I was four years old and basically am bilingual. I visited both the UK and the US with exchange programs and consider myself fluent in the language. To further improve, I read a lot of books in English and pretty much all stuff I consume online is in English. French was also taught to me at school. I'm quite good at it, but I don't like thelanguage a lot and am pretty happy that I don't need to retake the course next year. I don't want to forget the language, though, so I'll need to figure out some sort of a review system to keep it fresh with minimum effort. Chinese... Well, English definitely is my great love in the world of languages. But the more Chinese I learn, the more I think I may enter a polyamorous love-triangle :love: . I currently still am a beginner and around a HSK1-level, but I'm making fast progress. For studying, I use the New Practical Chinese Reader (currently, I'm near the end of the first volume, with the second one already waiting on my desk) and Anki, and, occasionally, I also use the ChinesePod podcasts. I hope to take the HSK 2 in September of this year and my ultimate goal is to be fluent. I also want to learn some Classical/Literary Chinese later in order to have access to the original versions of many poems and other works of literature. Other languages I'm interested in, but haven't studied yet include Cantonese, Japanese, the family of the Scandinavic languages, Spanish and Portugese. Especially with Spanish/Portugese and Cantonese I really consider to start learning them in addition to Mandarin once I'm a little more advanced in Mandarin. I haven't definitely decided which of the three I want to learn, though, and don't know yet whether Cantonese would really be useful, considering that most Cantonese-speakers know Mandarin anyways. So, that was my brief (or not so brief) introduction, I'll now go and review my Anki. Bye, Ming
  3. Hey! Well, since I'm new here and German is my native language, I thought I'd make myself useful by posting a couple of my favourite German Idioms! Here they come: 1. Der frühe Vogel fängt den Wurm! Literal translation: The early bird catches the worm! Use: There a two main uses of this one. The first one is to get kids out of bed (Anna, steh auf! Der frühe Vogel fängt den Wurm!) and the second one to ridicule people who simply came to late to something or acted to slowly to secure a benefit/position for them. The early birds all handed in their applications for a great new position early, but Peter missed the deadline an therefor missed the chance: A classic case of "Tja, Peter, der frühe Vogel fängt halt den Wurm!". 2. Schnee von Gestern Literal translation: Snow from yesterday Use: When something is no longer actual or relevant, you can say that it's "Schnee von Gestern." 3. Wie Faust aufs Auge Literal translation: Like fist on eye Use: Now, that one is a little crude and I wouldn't use it in a job interview. There is an even cruder version of it out there that I'm not going to include here *lol*. It's used if something fits perfectly together, both literally or methaphorically. As in: "Peter and Anna are a cute couple. They fit together like Faust aufs Auge!" 4. Klar wie Kloßbrühe Literal translation: Clear like a special kind of (very clear) soup (I'm unsure whether Kloßbrühe exists outside of Germany) Use: When something is very logical and simple to understand, it's "klar wie Kloßbrühe". 5. Dumm wie Brot Literal translation: Dumb like bread Use: An insult to someone who is really, really dumb. Like, really idiotic. I hope you enjoyed the list!
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