第二年第一百八十八天

[nnozomi]

语法
彼此, "each other, one another"
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_%22each_other%22_with_%22bici%22
当 + X + 的时候, "when X..."
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_%22when%22_using_%22dang%22
X + 其中, "among X"
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_%22within_(it/them)%22_with_%22qizhong%22
subject + 这个 + category, "this X," alternately "you goddamn X!"
X + 这种/这类 + category, "the thing called X"
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Name-calling_with_%22zhege%22
了 after object
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Advanced_%22le%22_after_an_object

词汇
克, gram; 千克, kilogram
刻, a quarter of an hour
客人, guest; 顾客, customer; 旅客, traveler; 请客, treat someone; 游客, tourist
课堂, classroom
空气, atmosphere (air)
哭, cry
克 kè, gram; 千克 qiānkè, kilogram
刻 kè, a quarter of an hour
客人 kèrén, guest; 顾客 gùkè, customer; 旅客 lǚkè, traveler; 请客 qǐngkè, treat someone; 游客 yóukè, tourist
课堂 kètáng, classroom
空气 kōngqì, atmosphere (air)
哭 kū, cry
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-2-word-list/

玩玩
Who else uses Anki, and what are your specific preferences? Currently I have three Anki decks going: the Chinese Grammar Wiki one (sample sentences from the Wiki), a very basic one I made for myself with HSK 3-6 vocabulary, and a listening one (sample audio sentences). (I also keep meaning to get started on tinny's Guardian ones in progress.) For all of them I’ve used grayswandir’s helpful tweak which means that I have to type in the answer on the front of the card, and the back of the card shows whether I was correct. Just looking at/listening to them is not enough. I’m always getting behind and building up a huge backlog, but they seem helpful. Next step is figuring out how to put them on my phone, oh dear.
Bonus, Zhou Shen singing Mao Buyi’s 无问, h/t elenothar.

太热了太热了，啊我死了。大家还行呢？好好生活好好保重身体～

Comments

[trobadora]

I use Anki in theory, but haven't opened it in ages. Just looking/listening seems to be working for me when I actually do it, but I need to keep at it every day for it to help.

[nnozomi]

I need to keep at it every day for it to help.
Yes! This is why I want to get it on my phone, just to make better use of the white spaces in the day and be sure I get something done.

[grayswandir]

We've already talked about Anki, but I'll answer anyway! Most of my decks are focused on Cantonese, but since the written languages are the same, I always include Mandarin definitions as well, and Mandarin examples for any words that aren't used in spoken Cantonese. My main two decks are:

1) Character recognition. The front side of the card shows a character/word/phrase in Chinese text, and the back side reveals the rest of the info (meaning, pronunciation, audio reading, sometimes a sentence example).

2) Audio recognition. The front side plays audio of a word or phrase, the back side reveals the meaning, etc.

Those decks both use the same set of notes. I also have some other, separate decks that I focus on a bit less:

3) English-to-Chinese. The front side shows a word or phrase in English, and the back shows a translation. I use this for anything I really want to know how to say rather than just understand passively.

4) Writing. The front side has audio reading aloud a character and a word/phrase for context, and there's a box for me to write the character in. I use Anki's "whiteboard" feature on mobile, which lets you handwrite on the screen. The back side reveals the character.

5) Sentence audio. The front side plays audio of a complete sentence, and the back side gives all the other info. I use these to get familiar with more complex grammar or how certain words are used in context.

6) Simplified characters. All my other decks use traditional characters, but this deck shows me simplified characters on the front, and traditional characters on the back.

7) Mandarin audio. This is my newest deck, and so far it's just audio of some simple phrases or pieces of song lyrics, since I'm trying to learn to recognize more words in spoken Mandarin. The back shows the pinyin, Chinese characters, and translation.

Pretty much all my cards now have text-to-speech audio on the back, whether or not it's on the front, because I find it helpful to keep hearing the pronunciation.

[nnozomi]

As always, very impressed by how intense your study is. (Also how much audio there is, I really need to do more of that...) I should set my HSK vocab deck to do text-to-speech, but I'd have to figure out how first. Or find one that already has it, I guess, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible...

[grayswandir]

Am I remembering right that you're on a Mac? I don't know if any of these will work, because I guess it depends on what TTS voices you already have installed (if any), but you could try going into the Anki card browser > "cards..." and adding these codes to the front or back side, and see if any of them work...

{{tts zh_CN voices=Apple_Ting-Ting:Hanzi}}
{{tts zh_TW voices=Apple_Mei-Jia:Hanzi}}
{{tts zh_CN voices=Apple_Li-mu:Hanzi}}
{{tts zh_CN voices=Apple_Yu-shu:Hanzi}}

There are some videos on YouTube about how to add audio to cards, like this one, but they always use English voices for their examples, so I don't know if there are extra steps to actually download voices for other languages. :P (Android mobile has it built in, so I didn't have to do anything.) But it's possible that one of these codes might work without extra hassle if you do have one of them installed.

[grayswandir]

Wait, actually, it might be

{{tts zh_CN voices=Apple_Ting-Ting:Front}} for the front of the card, and
{{tts zh_CN voices=Apple_Ting-Ting:Back}} for the back (etc., for each of the voice options)

I think?? The Anki examples I'm seeing mostly have "Front" or "Back" at the end of the code, but the only places where I can find the names of Chinese TTS voices have "Hanzi" at the end. >_> It might need to be "Front" or "Back" in Anki, though...

[nnozomi]

Oh, thank you! Haven't had the chance to check this yet (busy work week) but am looking forward to figuring out if I can make it work. (And yes I am on Mac, good memory.)

[sakana17]

Under the Microscope, ep. 14: 官员忙于明哲保身彼此勾联

ep.8: 任兄啊,你要是做了主簿那你可得请客 [任 is the name of a character]

ep. 1: 反而要哭穷去找鹿飞龙借钱呢 [鹿飞龙 is the name of a character]

ep. 14: 老帅 你怎么哭了 老帅

I finished transcribing The Rebel episode 2 in longhand, and am in the process of typing it up. As slow-going as transcription by hand is, I find it very helpful and I'm pleased to recognize more words as I go along (司令, 查, etc.). I'm not sure I have the stamina to transcribe 43 episodes. I think I'll finish episode 38 next because I have a fair bit of it transcribed already.

[grayswandir]

As slow-going as transcription by hand is, I find it very helpful

Oh man, I can only imagine, on both counts! I continue to be so amazed by you doing this. I want to try it sometime, because it sounds like it would be fantastic writing practice, but it also sounds like it would take ages. (Any idea how long it takes you to transcribe an episode? Or a scene of some approximate length?)

[sakana17]

It's great writing practice, though I'm bad at following the correct stroke order and my hanzi end up lopsided and out of proportion. I think for people who know what they're writing, seeing each stroke clearly isn't so much an issue, but I need to see every stroke to figure out what the character is, so something like 拿 or 警 ends up twice as big as simple ones like 对 or 我.

Today I was pleased that I spotted my own transcription error: 共觉 instead of 共党. I could read enough of the words to tell that only 共党 made sense in context. I checked it against the source, and sure enough.

It takes a long time! It's hard to estimate, but maybe ~30 minutes to do a 3-minute scene with a lot of dialogue. If there aren't as many unfamiliar characters it doesn't take as long. This episode had a bunch of characters I hadn't encountered before (e.g. 隐藏).

[grayswandir]

I need to see every stroke to figure out what the character is, so something like 拿 or 警 ends up twice as big as simple ones like 对 or 我.

Oh, yeah, same -- if I know how to write them at all! But honestly for most characters, I can recognize them on sight as long as they're in a standard font, but I have no idea how they're written. Like, I know 隐藏 and can read it easily (it happened to be in the lyrics to a song on one of the first albums I bought), but if you asked me how to write it from memory, I think the only thing I could tell you is that 隐 has 心 somewhere in it, and maybe I'd guess that 藏 has a 厂. I really need to practice writing more...)

Today I was pleased that I spotted my own transcription error: 共觉 instead of 共党.

Ah, it's always fun when something like that happens. :D

If there aren't as many unfamiliar characters it doesn't take as long.

That makes sense! And subtitles often don't show all the strokes clearly. I feel like I'd even be looking up a lot of characters that I can read just fine, because for the more complicated ones, seeing them in subtitles still might not make it clear how to write them...

[nnozomi]

I can recognize them on sight as long as they're in a standard font, but I have no idea how they're written. Like, I know 隐藏 and can read it easily (it happened to be in the lyrics to a song on one of the first albums I bought), but if you asked me how to write it from memory, I think the only thing I could tell you is that 隐 has 心 somewhere in it, and maybe I'd guess that 藏 has a 厂.
Yes, oh dear--in Japanese I can read at a normal adult level, but if I have to write by hand I come off like an eight-year-old at best. Thank God for computers and phones.

[sakana17]

And subtitles often don't show all the strokes clearly. I feel like I'd even be looking up a lot of characters that I can read just fine, because for the more complicated ones, seeing them in subtitles still might not make it clear how to write them...

Yes, this. For some of the complicated ones (like 藏) I end up sort of drawing them to fit all the bits in.

[nnozomi]

Today I was pleased that I spotted my own transcription error: 共觉 instead of 共党. I could read enough of the words to tell that only 共党 made sense in context.
So satisfying to catch something like that!

[nnozomi]

反而要哭穷去找鹿飞龙借钱呢
lolol, some things never change...

I finished transcribing The Rebel episode 2 in longhand, and am in the process of typing it up.
This is so impressive! I'm awed that you have the patience to write in longhand, and goodness knows it's good practice. (I would be glad to jump in and try transcribing some of the 43 episodes if you want a hand somewhere, albeit typing from the start, but you may not want anyone else working on it.)

[sakana17]

I would be glad to jump in and try transcribing some of the 43 episodes if you want a hand somewhere, albeit typing from the start, but you may not want anyone else working on it.

The more the merrier! Pick your favorite episode!:D So far, I've done episodes 1, 2 (in process of typing it up), and 20. Next I'll do 38, but the rest is up for grabs. I have some practice dialogues from various episodes if you want a head start, but don't feel limited to start there. (Btw, I've given you editor access to that doc.)

When I finish up episode 2, I am going to replace the names with hanzi in the episodes I've done, although I am not sure what to do about unnamed characters like "agent" and "street sellers." :-/

[nnozomi]

Editor access received, and thank you very much! Probably not getting anywhere this week, but delighted to have a chance to work on it.