Two Chinese classes down and it feels really good to be back involved with language study. I was a little worried after the first class that I was of a much higher level than the other students, though this second lesson had us covering things that I did not actually know. We went over various occupations and the like, looking at the words for things such as Architecture, Hair-dressing and the like, and I found it quite interesting the way the words broke down.
For example Architect is jianzhushi – where if you take the jianzhu by itself, it means Architecture, the shi on the end referring to a professional skill, or the like. Same deal with kuaijishi – accountant, the first component of the pinyin kuaiji is simple accountancy (or similar), the shi on the end again referring to a certain skill. This kind of thing, while sounding somewhat mundane, is nonetheless very interesting. (Please excuse the lack of tones :))
I have a bit of an advantage over my fellow students in that I have been studying the language since 2007 and have a firm understanding on the pronunciation of pinyin. For anyone learning Chinese, I cannot recommend how useful it can be to learn and practice the pinyin pronunciation early.
For myself however, I have another 10 weeks of study ahead of me. I really hope this time I can continue with it – might have to even fire up good ol Skritter again!
Tags: chinese classes, language study, Mandarin Chinese, pinyin, skritter, tones
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