Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Learning Chinese

I spent over 5 months in China and really tried to learn Chinese language on my own but it was really hard. Of course I learned basics, few sentences in mandarin but still I was using my husband in order to communicate with people there. Now, after many months back I decided to learn it hard so by my next visit I will be able to talk to people and which is more important to understand them:) Please cross your fingers for that...
T-Shirt Mens Green " save the planet learn Chinese " Languages LargeFirst of all I have started use my cd with dialogs to learn sentences and repeat them millions of time. Believe me it is the best way to learn accent and pronunciation. Although I know I will never get rid of my natural accent. Lets be honest:)
Second I use nciku.com website (thanks be to Internet) to learn 5 characters a day, well maybe less:) In China it is crucial to recognize some of the characters (i.e. toilet sign) otherwise you will not be able to find anything.
Also I have few sentence cards with me so I can memorize Chinese sentences more efficient.
Last but not least I always try to force my husband to speak to me in Chinese:) I think it is good to have native speaker around you when you try to learn foreign language.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Karaoke (KTV) in China

Karaoke Television in short KTV is the most popular form of entertainment in China and I must say that this is fun. Almost every young person there wants to become a singer and the rest of them just love to sing.
I have been in several KTV's with my husband's friends and even though I didn't know any of the Chinese songs it was still fun watching people having great time.
In Shenyang during the night on almost every street there are colorful lights flashing and inviting to KTV's. Usually those buildings look like hotels with many private rooms and some of them have even little professional studios so anybody can record an album! I know crazy:)
When you want to go Karaoke prepare to be shocked! First of all at the desk you get the number of a room. Later you go to snack shop in order to buy crazy stuff such as mustard peanuts, dry squid, maybe some 'normal' sunflower seeds and of course beer,and after that you are ready to rock!!!

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