Some Language Learning Exercises And Tips

my masterlist of 'how to life’ tips

Cleaning & Tidying

Make your bed in the morning. It takes seconds, and it’s worth it.

Reset to zero each morning. 

Use the UFYH 20/10 system for clearing your shit. 

Get a reed diffuser and stick it on your windowsill. 

Have a ‘drop-zone’ box where you dump anything and everything. At the beginning/end of the day, clear it out and put that shit away.

Roll your clothes, don’t fold them - or fold them vertically.

Automate your chores. Have a cleaning schedule and assign 15mins daily to do whatever cleaning tasks are set for that day. Set a timer and do it - once the timer is up, finish the task you’re on and leave it for the day. 

Fold your clothes straight out of the tumble dryer (if you use one), whilst they’re still warm. This minimises creases and eliminates the need for ironing. 

Clean your footwear regularly and you’ll feel like a champ. 

Organisation & Productivity

Learn from Eisenhower’s Importance/Urgency matrix. 

Try out the two-minute rule and the Pomodoro technique.

Use. A. Planner. (Or Google Calendar, if that’s more your thing.)

Try bullet journalling.

Keep a notebook/journal/commonplace book to dump your brain contents in on the regular. 

Set morning alarms at two-minute intervals rather than five, and stick your alarm on the other side of the room. It’s brutal, but it works. 

Set three main goals each day, with one of them being your #1 priority. Don’t overload your to-do list or you’ll hit overload paralysis and procrastinate. 

If you’re in a slump, however, don’t be afraid to put things like “shower” on your to do list - that may be a big enough goal in itself, and that’s okay. 

Have a physical inbox - a tray, a folder, whatever. If you get a piece of paper, stick it in there and sort through it at the end of the week.

Consider utilising the GTD System, or a variation of it.

Try timeboxing. 

Have a morning routine, and guard that quiet time ferociously. 

Save interesting-looking shit to instapaper. Have a set time where you read through the stuff you saved to instapaper and save the shit that you like from instapaper to evernote (or bookmark it properly). 

During your working hours, put on your footwear, even if you’re sat on your bed. (Why?)

Have a folder for all your important documents and letters, organised by topic (e.g. medical, bank, university, work, identification). At the front of this folder, have a sheet of paper with all the key information written on it, such as your GP’s details, your passport details, driving licence details, bank account number, insurance number(s), and so on. 

Try using StayFocusd and RescueTime (or similar apps/extensions). (I promise, you’ll find that you’re not as busy as you think you are.)

Schedule working time and down time alike, in the balance that works for you. 

Money

Have. A. God. Damn. Budget. 

Use a money tracker like toshl, mint, or splitwise. Enter all expenses asap! (You will forget, otherwise.)

Have a ‘money date’ each week, where you sort through your finances from the past seven days and then add it to a spreadsheet. This will help you identify your spending patterns and whether your budget is actually working or not. 

Pack your own frickin’ lunch like a grown-up and stop buying so many takeaway coffees. Keep snacks in your bag. 

Go to your bank and take out £100 in £1 coins (or w/e your currency is). That shit will come in useful for all kinds of things and you’ll never be short on change for the bus or the laundry. 

Food & Cooking

Know how to cook the basics: a starch, a protein, a vegetable, and a sauce.

Simple, one-pot meals (“a grain, a green, and a bean”) are a godsend. 

Dried porcini mushrooms make a fantastic stock to cook with. 

Batch cook and freeze. Make your own ‘microwave meals’. 

Buy dried goods to save money - rice and beans are a pittance. (Remember to soak dried beans first, though!) 

Consider Meatless Mondays; it’s healthier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.

Learn which fruits and vegetables are cheapest at your store, and build a standard weekly menu around those. (Also remember that frozen vegetables are cheap and healthy.) 

Learn seasoning combinations. Different seasoning, even with the exact same ingredients, can make a dish seem completely new. 

Don’t buy shit for a one-off recipe, especially if you won’t use it all. If you really want to try out a recipe, see if a friend would be interested in making it with you, then pool for the expenses. 

Make your own goddamned pasta sauce. Jamie Oliver has a decent recipe here, but the beauty of tomato sauce is that you can totally wing it and adapt the fuck out of it. 

Misc

Have a stock email-writing format. 

Want to start running, but find it boring? Try Zombies, Run!. 

Keep a goddamn first aid kit and learn how to use it. 

Know your OTC pain relief. 

Update your CV regularly. 

Keep a selection of stamps and standard envelopes for unexpected posting needs. (It happens more regularly than you would think!) 

Some final words of advice:

Organisation is not a goal in itself, it is a tool. Don’t get caught up in the illusion of productivity and get distracted from the actual task at hand. 

Routines and habits will help you. Trust in them.

You have the potential to be an organised and productive person, just as much as anybody else. It just takes practice. 

看電視劇學中文：【開端】 第三集 【2/2】

這是第二部分，來自：【開端】 第三集 20:00-40:00 // 第一部分在這裡 你們可以在Youtube看：这里 看電視劇學中文Learn Chinese With a TV Series by Leila老師

單詞：(绿色=HSK4； 蓝色=HSK5； 紫色=HSK6)

反复 (-覆) / fǎnfù / repeatedly, over and over

药检 (藥檢) / yàojiǎn / drug test

惯 (慣) / guàn / to spoil

负担 (負擔) / fùdān / burden

从始至终 (從--終) / cóng shǐ zhì zhōng / from the start to the end

唯一/ wéiyī / only

相信 / xiāngxìn / to be convinced sth is true; to believe

交代 / jiāodài / to hand over; to explain; to brief (someone)

达成 (達-) / dáchéng / to accomplish

共识 (-識) / gòngshí / consensus

插曲 / chāqǔ / interlude (music); episode

必然 / bìrán / inevitable

炸药 (-藥) / zhàyào / explosive material or charge

痕迹 (-跡) / hénjì / mark, trace

倒计时 (-計時) / dàojìshí / countdown

装置 (裝置) / zhuāngzhì / device; to install

眼皮底下 / yǎnpídǐxia / right before one's eyes

资料 / zīliào / material, resources

人际关系 (-際關係) / rénjìguānxì / interpersonal relationships

不良 / bùliáng / bad, harmful, unhealthy

嗜好 / shìhào / habit

心理防线 (---線) / xīnlǐfángxiàn / psychological barrier

硬 / yìng / hard, stiff, firm, strong

性质 (-質) / xìngzhì / nature; characteristic

指使 / zhǐshǐ / to prompt, incite

套话术 (-話術) / tàohuàshù / testimony

依然 / yīrán / still; as before

指认 (-認) / zhǐrèn / to identify

采纳 (採納) / cǎinà / to accept

供词 (-詞) / gòngcí / confession; statement

残留物 (殘--) / cánliúwù / leftover, remains

检测 (檢測) / jiǎncè / to examine

薄 / báo / weak, thin, flimsy

没凭没据 (沒憑沒據) / méipíng méijù / no evidence (var. 无凭无据)

下面有句子：

我们会反反复复地过着一整天。We will repeatedly experience the same day.

准备药检。Prepare the drug test.

老张还是太惯着你了。 Mr. Zhang is spoiling you.

你有很重的心理负担。You have a heavy burden (in your heart/mind).

从始至终我没有向你做过自我介绍。This whole time (from start to finish) I never introduced myself to you.

对你来说，相信警察，诚实把交代问题是你的唯一的选择。For you, believing in the police and answering questions honestly is your only choice.

我们终于达成了共识。We finally reached a consensus.

公交车被引爆这才是必然。The bus exploding was inevitable.

你们是不是可以找到一些炸药的痕迹。 Could you find any trace of a bomb/explosive material?

倒计时装置是它的铃声。The countdown system is the ringtone.

在我们眼皮底下演这么一出，从目前掌握的资料来看两个人的人际关系简单。From what we see before us from the resources we've currently have, these two people have simple social histories.

没有不良嗜好。Don't have bad habits.

实际心理防线硬着呢。Really (her) psychological barrier is strong.

那可是完全不同的性质。That could be a completely different characteristic.

她指使你骗出了这个套话术。She incited you to lie on this testimony.

如果你依然不肯如实地告诉我们的话，我们最后只能采纳他指认你是案一的供词。If you still won't agree to honestly tell us (the truth), (then) we have no choice but to accept his identification of you as the case's only confession.

事故现场检测出了爆炸残留物。At the accident site, examine the explosion's remains/residue.

心理防线薄。Weak psychological barrier.

没凭没据什么关我。There is no evidence that it was related to me.

A compilation of people from a few of the 56 official ethnic groups in China wishing everyone a happy Duanwu (Dragon Boat Festivial) from 2021.

song: 半生雪 - 是七叔呢

English added by me :)

沉鱼落雁，闭月羞花

Literal Translation: to make fish sink and wild geese drop, to outshine the moon and shame the flowers

Individual Characters:

沉 (chén) : to sink

鱼 (yú) : fish

落 (luò) : to fall/descend (降落）

雁 (yàn) : wild goose (大雁)

闭 (bì) : to shut/close; to obstruct (note: this word appears in lots of two-character words having to do with shutting/closing, but I can't find a word it's in that means "outshine" like it does in this phrase, unless one of you knows of one, it's most likely a purely metaphorical meaning)

月 (yuè) : moon

羞 (xiū) : to shame

花 (huā) : flower

Story:

This one has to do with the Four Beauties (四大美人) of China. If you don't know their stories, I'd recommend looking into them; I'm not going to rehash them here because I don't know them very well myself, but I'll give a brief summary (keep in mind these will be very surface level and there's much much more to the stories)

西施 (xī shī) lived during 春秋, the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BCE) and is the first of the 四大美人。 She went to the river one day to wash clothes, and, seeing her through the water, the fish were so stunned by her beauty that they forgot to swim and sank to the bottom of the river. Her story makes up the 沉鱼 portion of this 成语。

王昭君 (wáng zhāo jūn) lived during 西汉, the Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE-25 CE). During this time period, the Xiongnu and the Han kept having border skirmishes, so the emperor decided to send 王昭君 to marry the leader of the Xiongnu. On her way, she played her lute. The geese heard the music and looked down, forgetting to fly after seeing her beauty. Her story makes up the 落雁 portion.

貂蝉 (diāo chán) lived during 东汉, the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220 CE). It's said that when she went out at night, clouds would immediately cover the moon. Because of this, it was said that she outshone the moon. Her story makes up the 闭月 portion.

杨玉环(yáng yù 杨宇huanhuán) lived during 唐朝, the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 CE). She was selected to be a concubine because of her beauty, but she missed home. One day, while walking in the palace gardens, she touched a flower. It folded in on itself, and, a palace maid having seen, the legend that 杨玉环 shamed the flowers with her beauty was born. Her story makes up the 羞花 portion.

Figurative Meaning:

沉鱼落雁：to be incredibly beautiful/captivating

闭月羞花：to be unnaturally/exceedingly beautiful

沉鱼落雁 and 闭月羞花 can be used together or separately

Resources/Further Reading:

Road to Learning Chinese Podcast (A)

Road to Learning Chinese Podcast (B)

Chinese Tuition Singapore (all Chinese story)

Yang Chen Live Journal

Confucius Classroom (video for learners)

老梁 （video completely in chinese and designed for natives i think?)

Chinese Internet Slang

Numbers

1314: “For ever”, usually preceded by a phrase such as “I love you” or whatever. 1314 (pinyin: yīsānyīsì) represents 一生一世 “one life, one world” (pinyin: yīshēng yīshì).

233: “laughter" 233 (pinyin:èr sān sān） represents 哈哈哈 （pinyin: hā hā hā).

4242: “Yes” or “It is”, 4242 (pinyin: sìèr sì'èr) represents 是啊是啊 (pinyin: shì’a shì’a).

520: “I love you”. 520 (pinyin: wǔ'èrlíng) represents 我爱你 (pinyin: wǒ ài nǐ).

555: “(crying)”. 555 (pinyin: wǔwǔwǔ) represents 呜呜呜 (pinyin: wūwūwū) the sound of tearful crying.

666: “doing something really well” 666 (pinyin: liùliùliù) represents 溜溜溜 (pinyin:liùliùliù ).

7451 or 7456: “I’m angry”. 7451 (pinyin: qīsìwǔyī) or 7456 (pinyin: qīsìwǔliù) represents 气死我了 (pinyin: qìsǐ wǒle)

748: “Go and die!”, 748 (pinyin: qīsìbā)：represents 去死吧 (pinyin: qùsǐba), the equivalent of “Get lost!”, or “Go to hell!”

88: “Bye bye” (goodbye). 88 (pinyin: bābā) represents “bye bye" 

995: “Help”, “Save me!” 995 (pinyin: jiǔjiǔwǔ) represents 救救我 (pinyin: jiùjiù wǒ).

Typing Pinyin Tones (macbook & iphone)

((I have apple products so I can't speak for windows computers or other brands. PLEASE add to this if you know how to do this for other products!))

Have you, like me, been typing everything into google translate to copy and paste the pinyin of words?

Have you, like me, been using the english keyboard holding button trick to get accents to pop up for à á ā and been using â for a 3rd/low tone because that was your only option??

NEVER AGAIN FRIENDS!

Typing Tones on an iPhone

First, you must have a pinyin-based Chinese keyboard on your phone. I'm assuming if you're learning Chinese you probably already have this?? So I'm skipping that part.

Go to the place where you want to type the pinyin and switch to your pinyin chinese keyboard

Hold the vowel you want and above it, the 4 tones will pop up

Slide your finger over to the on you want and let go (see image below)

That's it?? You now have pinyin and the suggestions for characters will go away!!

Typing Pinyin on a Macbook Computer

This is a bit trickier, bear with me.

Go to Settings/System Preferences

Go to Keyboard > Input Sources

Hit the little plus sign

4. Hit ABC - Extended and then hit "add"

Okay, you now have access to all four tone marks you need! You just need the codes for how to type it! These are the codes, you type these before any vowel to get the tone you want.

Option⌥ + a = 1st/high tone (ā)

Option⌥ + e = 2nd/rising tone (á)

Option⌥ + v = 3rd/low tone (ǎ)

Option⌥ + ` (just below escape key) = 4th/falling tone (à)

Note: for ü with an accent, you can use the above codes + v  (e.g. ⌥ + a + v = ǖ)

If you ever forget, you can go up to your language input at the top header by the bluetooth/battery buttons and click "Show Keyboard Viewer." This will show you all the keys and when you press and hold Option⌥, it will show you all the possible key combinations (plus all the other features on this extended keyboard, it has quite a bit compared to the regular one!!)

Hope this was helpful!!! I'm so excited that I never have to go back and forth from google translate ever again :D

Whisper of the Heart 耳をすませば 1995 | dir. Yoshifumi Kondō

I always wondered why the Western Zodiac and the Chinese Zodiac were both called zodiacs if one was associated w astronomy and the other w time in general. Like what defines a zodiac that the word is only used to describe these two things? Looking up the word "zodiac" in the dictionary didnt help bc it only talked about the western one.

Well, I decided to look up the etymology for zodiac and it turns out it comes from the Greek for "circle of little animals." I love humans

Pronunciation Advice for Language Learners: How to Figure Out What You're Doing Wrong

The other day, my friend @calystarose was struggling with the phrase 出去吃 chūqùchī (go out to eat). This is a tongue twister for a lot of native English speakers. Even if we manage to get the individual vowels and consonant sounds correct, we often have a hard time stringing the words together.

I thought about the problem for a bit and then I told her to try saying it with her teeth clenched:

Why would that help?

Clenching your teeth forces you to hold your jaw still, and limits the amount of space your tongue has to move around. You can still make roughly the same sounds you were making before, but the new limitation forces you to make those sounds with smaller muscle movements.

Smaller movements reduce the amount of time and effort it takes to get from one syllable to the next.

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Talking fast is more about efficiency than speed.

.

ɪᴘᴀ ᴋᴇʏʙᴏᴀʀᴅ ʀᴇꜰᴇʀᴇɴᴄᴇ ᴄʜᴀʀᴛ ᴍsᴋʟᴄ_ɪᴘᴀɢʀᴀᴘʜɪᴄ.ᴘᴅꜰ [sᴏᴜʀᴄᴇ]

When I first started taking French lessons, I had an easy time pronouncing words like "grand" and "robe." But then I ran into the word "livre," and suddenly I was getting tongue tied.

I realized my r was too far back in my throat. Too guttural.

This worked for a word like "grand" where the r is next to a g, a gutteral consonant. A consonant like v, on the other hand, is right at the front of the mouth, on the teeth.

If I wanted to say "livre" smoothly, I'd have to push my r further forward in my mouth, closer to that letter.

.

There's almost always more than one way to make your mouth form a particular vowel or consonant sound.

.

I noticed a while back that I say these letters t & d differently depending on whether I'm trying to speak English or Mandarin.

My t's and d's are little firmer in Mandarin than they are in English — my tongue is held stiffer, and the tip is more pointed when it comes into contact with my hard palate.

The funny thing is, I can't really hear a difference.

But I can feel the difference in my mouth when I shape the letters.

I never made a conscious decision to change how I say these consonants when speaking Mandarin — this is just something I naturally started doing when mimicking the recorded dialogue in my Duolingo audio lessons.

I realized it wasn't about getting the consonants to sound correct.

It was about what came after those consonants. The vowel sounds:

Chinese vowels are really different from English vowels. By changing how I shaped these consonants, I was setting up my mouth for a smoother transition into the next vowel sound.

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Proper enunciation isn't just about making the right sounds come out of your mouth. It's also about transitioning from one sound to the next as fluidly as possible.

Hi! I'm really fond of researching about hanfu and its history, and I found a lot of interesting information on this blog. But I can't help it and keep wondering about the reason for qipao/cheongsang not be considered a hanfu? When I researched about it the most common argument is the Manchu influence on it. However, there are a plenty of hanfu styles that were influenced by other cultures. Is there a more especific reason for not consider the qipao?

Hi, thanks for the question, and glad you like my blog! (x)

I want to start off with an important disclaimer:

The term “hanfu” as we use it today (defined as “traditional Han Chinese clothing”) does not have the exact same meaning as when it was used historically. As @audreydoeskaren explains in this post, “while it is true that the term “hanfu” was used in some historical texts, they were often used in opposition to clothing worn by foreign peoples...and not as a standalone term”. Today, there is no central organizing body or law that states exactly what is & what is not considered hanfu. Rather, such categorization is done by the members of the hanfu community - and the hanfu community is not a monolith. Ever since its inception in 2003, the hanfu revival movement has been a grassroots, bottom-up movement with members of various backgrounds, ideologies, and opinions. It is a movement that is built upon, and driven forward by, constant dialogue and debate among its members. Thus the question of what garments are considered hanfu is under continuous discussion, and is subject to the hanfu community’s views and ideas on culture, clothing, and history.

With that being said, it’s true that there is almost unanimous agreement within the hanfu community that qipao/cheongsam (I will refer to it here mainly as qipao because that is what I’m used to) is not considered hanfu. In my (non-expert & non-academic) opinion, there are two main reasons for this: 1) Unclear origins and 2) Western influence. Let’s examine each (Note: I will be referring a lot to posts by resident qipao expert @audreydoeskaren, who is much more knowledgeable about the subject than I am. Please check out her series on early 20th century Chinese womenswear if you haven’t already):

1. Unclear Origins

It is widely acknowledged that the qipao as we know it today was first popularized during the 1920s, but what led up to that - the origins of qipao - are actually unclear. It is most commonly touted as being derived from Manchu one-piece robes, but “origins of cheongsam are truly unclear and it’s very likely that the many theories attributing it to Manchu fashion were invented after its popularization” (x). The Wikipedia article on cheongsam states that the garment is “of Manchu origin”, but does not give any details on exactly when, why, and how it was adopted by Han women (as during the Qing dynasty Han women wore two-piece garments and did not wear Manchu one-piece robes). The article’s “Controversies on origin” section states that “the cheongsam is generally considered to be adapted from the one-piece dress of Manchu women during the Qing dynasty. However, there has been considerable debate on the origin of the cheongsam in academic circles”, and proceeds to give three alternative theories on the origin of the qipao. 

Below, from left to right - 1. Manchu women’s one-piece robe during the Qing dynasty, 2. qipao from 1932, 3. 1930s-style qipao (x)

While there are various theories, the Manchu one-piece robe origin theory is still the most widely accepted, and thus is a major reason for why the qipao is not considered to be hanfu. @audreydoeskaren explains in detail the arguments for the Manchu origin theory here. 

2. Western Influence

The qipao’s silhouette and style changed rapidly during its heydays in the 1920s-1950s. During these years there was significant Western influence on Chinese fashion, and that influence was reflected in the evolution of the qipao. Below is an (very simplified) illustration of the evolution of qipao style from the 1920s-1940s (x). Note how the silhouettes correspond to what was trendy in Western fashion at the time:

1920s - loose, flat, and boxy

1930s - long, slender, and streamlined

1940s - shorter, squared shoulders, and cinched waist

Arguably the greatest lasting impact of Western fashion on qipao was that of Christian Dior’s extreme hourglass New Look silhouette on 1950s & 1960s qipao. To achieve this new fashionable silhouette, qipao makers in the 1950s starting using Western tailoring techniques such as darts, shoulder seams, and zippers. Below - Dior’s New Look (left) & 1950s qipao (right):

The use of darts, shoulder seams, and zippers continues today to create the curvy, form-fitting silhouette of contemporary qipao. The westernization of the silhouette, along with the usage of these relatively modern tailoring techniques, are further reasons for qipao to be categorized separately from hanfu by the hanfu community. Even hanfu that use nontraditional techniques such as shoulder seams and zippers are not recognized as “authentic” hanfu by many in the hanfu community. Rather, they are categorized as modified hanfu/改良汉服 and/or hanyuansu/汉元素 (clothing with elements of hanfu).

Now as you mentioned, it is true that several hanfu styles were influenced by other cultures (one notable example is the Yuan dynasty’s Mongolian influence on Ming dynasty hanfu: 1, 2). Furthermore, while the qipao might possibly be derived from Manchu robes, it was ultimately mainly created, worn, and innovated by Han people. So why not consider qipao a type of hanfu? My view is that it is the combination of the abovementioned factors (unclear origins, westernization, tailoring techniques) that places qipao outside the classification of hanfu, from the perspective of the hanfu community. For more details on the differences between hanfu and qipao, please check out this article.

I want to be clear, however, that this separate classification is not a value judgment. Qipao may not be classified as hanfu under the current definition of hanfu, but that does not in any way take away from the qipao’s importance, significance, and value to Chinese fashion history & culture in general. The most iconic Chinese garment of the 20th century, the qipao reflects the tastes and values of its time, and to this day is an ubiquitous part of a Chinese woman’s wardrobe. There are many people (such as myself) who like and wear both hanfu and qipao.

In fact, it makes me happy to see that there appears to be a growing interest in reviving & taking inspiration from vintage qipao styles. I see this as a part of the general trend of interest in historical Chinese clothing that the hanfu revival movement belongs to. Below are a few vintage-inspired qipao that I find appealing (1/2/3/4/5/6):

For more information, please see my “qipao” tag.

Hope this helps!

(Note: if anyone wants to add information, share thoughts, or correct a mistake, please do! I welcome it ^^)