Adventures in Another Language

Orkhon Valley

thebrash — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 03:33:45 +0000

a world heritage site in Mongolia

Bhaktapur

thebrash — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 09:20:53 +0000

Bhaktapur – a World Heritage Site in Nepal near Kathmandu. It seems to have been a former royal capital.

wen

thebrash — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 04:13:31 +0000

wen = kiss

wen = smell

wenzi = mosquito

not Chinese

thebrash — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 03:47:13 +0000

bete noir = the black beast

mirabile dictu = it’s wonderful to say

thebrash — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:06:38 +0000

qiang = wall

qiang = strong

qiong = poor

chou

thebrash — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 11:04:33 +0000

chou = ugly

chouqi = ugly smell

chouyan = to smoke

xiangyan = cigarette

chouti = a drawer

my word for the day

thebrash — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:49:44 +0000

zhaoxiangji = camera

zhaoxiang = take a picture

zhaopian = photograph

zhaopai = sign

huzhao = passport

zhao = to look for, to seek

A Rant

thebrash — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 14:15:54 +0000

I once was holding copies of Scott Pilgrim and I Wish I Worked There in Kinokuniya Singapore. Too bad I didn’t buy them. But what irks me more is the lack of distribution of good books in the Philippines. Fully Booked, Power Books, and A Different Bookstore fill that niche but they all seem to get their books from the same source and it takes them centuries to replenish their stocks. One has to wait for them to open a new branch to get new stuff and sometimes they just get those from an old one.

Same thing with movies or DVD’s in this country. We just don’t get the art films. And we’re stuck with Region 3 DVD’s.

This situation is untenable. How can we expand our global knowledge if our sources of information is so local or more correctly miniscule. A revolution is imminent. We will have to breakthrough the walls of this useless set-up and start getting our hands on more stuff.

Adventures in Another Language

thebrash — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 07:50:38 +0000

There is something about another language that completely activates your mind. Especially Chinese. Your ears, eyes, and maybe even touch, are fully engaged, because not only are you hearing new sounds, but you are also interpreting new characters.

This journal will be about my adventures in learning Chinese.

For example, my favorite character is shan meaning mountain. Hmmm, there doesn’t seem to be a Chinese character section yet on this site but that’s okay.

The reason why we are learning Chinese is because we, (Chris and I) are going to Tibet next year. It is well-known fact that the Chinese don’t speak English yet, and so speaking their language will be an asset.

We are taking our classes at The Center for East Asian Languages in Karrivin plaza, on Chino Roces Ext. in Makati City. Our teacher is Jourdan Gan. We have problems like finding parking but we are determined.

So anyway, this blog will be about updating new things we are learning in Chinese. Our objective is to become fluent.

After this we will learn Spanish, and then hopefully Russian. German and Indian will also be on the horizon. And probably French, to round it off (And why not Portuguese, too.). Locally I want to learn Kapangpangan and Ilonggo.

Zaijian!

Hello world!

thebrash — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 07:39:52 +0000

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