2008春季学期练习中文计划

When it occurred to me that I might be interviewed in Mandarin for the summer job I applied for (rural chinese social enterprise development), I realized that I was in deep trouble. I didn’t even know that 小额信贷 means ‘microfinance’, there’s no way I could explain it properly to a farmer, nor could I read a CASS paper on the topic without having to stop every couple phrases to check the dictionary. Even writing a short e-mail in Mandarin about something technical would be difficult.

In order to prepare for summer 2008 in China, my Mandarin has to improve substantially in all areas: listening comprehension, advanced conversation, reading comprehension, and composition, in order of importance. Towards this objective, I have planned various activities to practice Mandarin every day, including watching the awesome New Shanghai Bund (新上海滩） and JJ Lin’s new TW-drama So I’m Not Handsome (原来我不帅).

Listening comprehension
I’ve watched years of k- and j-dramas to have simple hangukmal and nihongo vocabulary drilled into my brain, but I’ve only seen a grand total of one Chinese-language drama: It Started with a Kiss or 恶作剧之吻. Why? Because most of them just aren’t that interesting. Even ISWAK I only watched for three episodes before deciding to drop it. As a result, I haven’t been exposed to Mandarin as much as I should have been.

Xu Wenqiang watches his Shanghai princess from afar…

New Shanghai Bund has fixed that. Forty-two episodes of 1930s pre-war jazz-age Shanghai awesomeness. I just love the fashion of the era. The main character is always in this Humphrey Bogart trenchcoat and fedora with a cigarette in one hand and a pistol in the other. It’s a mainland production so its entirely in Mandarin, unlike the original TVB drama, but unlike most dramas it doesn’t have Mandarin subtitles so I’m finding it a little hard to follow the dialogue, since if I don’t catch what they say I try to figure it out from reading. It’s not as if the dialogue is too complex either.

I’ve already known this for a while.

So I’m Not Handsome is rather painful to watch for various reasons (With JJ Lin, it should really be titled 原来我很帅), but I think it’s much more interesting than ISWAK. I’ll watch this mainly for educational purposes. Unfortunately the subtitles are in traditional script rather than simplified, which confuses me at times.

Watching these without the aid of English subtitles will be a good way to retrain in listening comprehension skills, and since I find them interesting, I consider it more fun than work.

Conversation
I will make an effort to speak Mandarin every day. I do have friends and suitemates who speak, so that’s one possibility, and I am joining more mainland student clubs in order to immerse myself in that environment. Unfortunately the extent of our conversation tends to be limited.

Reading comprehension and composition
One of my mainland friends wanted me to borrow her 论语, but I declined. I will try to read something more contemporary, like a People’s Daily or Xinhua article, every couple of days. I will also make an effort to actually read the mainland chinese student club e-mails (entirely in mandarin) instead of asking my friends in the club about what is going on. Unfortunately I don’t really see much opportunity to make writing a regular thing.