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I finally broke the 1000 mark on my Hanzi Flashcards on Friday. Feels good, yet I’ve got a long way to go. I officially started studying Hanzi on Feb. 9 of this year, armed only with Anki, pen and paper, and a book. I learned approximately 300 Hanzi by simple rote memorization (I also learned to Continue reading Hanzi Milestone: 1000 One of the greatest and most underrated joys of learning a new language is have small victories. All too often, big victories are emphasized – especially here in Taiwan and especially when learning English is the topic. However, I find so much more satisfaction in small victories. Learning new 漢字 and recognizing them Continue reading Small victories Today is my older sister’s birthday. She’s come a long way… To honor this occasion, I thought I would give my Big Sister a uniquely Taiwanese Birthday Present. In my meager Taiwan existence, it has become extremely clear that there is one birthday custom which MUST be honored: a trip to the KTV for Continue reading Happy Bird’s Day One of the most interesting things about learning Chinese is learning the various names for members of the family. In Germanic languages (such as English), this is relatively easy. A brother of either of your parents is an Uncle. Simple. Your parents’ mothers are Grandmothers. Simple. In Chinese, it just isn’t so. Chinese people place Continue reading Mandarin and Taiwanese family names I check in on the Forumosa Forums every now and then. If you can manage to get past all the threads where people just bitch about everything that’s wrong with Taiwan and how it should be fixed, there are some interesting threads there. One of the threads I’ve been reading lately is the “Ways to force Continue reading I think I’m speaking Chinese I learned something new from one of my students the other day. She was wearing Crocs shoes, and I asked her what they called those shoes in Chinese. She replied that they were called 布希鞋 (bùxīxié) or Bu Shi Shoes. You see, ever since W. was caught wearing crocs, the Taiwanese decided to venerate him by Continue reading President shoes So Miss Expatriate and I went out to dinner the other night. We chose one of our favorite budget restaurants, which happens to specialize in Turkey Rice, sat down and were engrossed in our food when we had a visitor. A mother had come in with her son, approximately 7 years old. He immediately came up Continue reading An interesting encounter | |||||
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