Changing Scripts: Conversations about Mandarin Chinese with native speakers and learners

In this Mandarin Chinese language learning update episode I share the HSK review tasks that I am doing, admit to some HSK 2 grammar points that I missed the first two times I studied them, the struggle with time words that are the opposite of English and share my HSK 4 2019 language learning plan.   The YouTube video of this update is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKIv_mzmezw Show Notes: Listener Survey: https://goo.gl/XmY26X    Please take 2 minutes to complete this survey! Where to find the Changing Scripts Podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast website & Changing Scripts YouTube Channel, subscribe for free : iOS , Android devices, RSS Changing Scripts Podcast &YouTube Channel now has a new Facebook group. Come join us! or join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Would love to know what you think about this episode! Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube & Speakpipe (leave a voice message) Support the podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast Amazon Affiliate Link and Traveling Mailbox Affiliate Link Music courtesy of Damon Castillo, https://www.damoncastillo.com/, song "I Hope You Figured It Out" on the "Mess of Me" album Check out all of our projects here: https://stephfuccio.weebly.com/

This week we talk to Von, an American who grew up around Mandarin Chinese via martial arts and later intentionally slid into learning to read the language as well. Von thought the first 4 of the 5 years he studied Chinese were easy because he viewed it similar to the frequent practice of any new skill. But then the grammatical difficulty, script changes, and genre differences kicked in and the “brain burn” began. But that has not stopped his progress at all. He studies usually in intensive two week increments of about 6 hours a day and then pauses until the desire to learn returns (usually a few weeks later). His patience, persistence and contextualization of the language are ideal characteristics for what I wish were called the “Slow Language Learning Movement.” In a world where people strive to learn a language in 30 days, his views are refreshing and his approach is inspiring. Come along and listen to how he wants to use language to “speak the story of what he wants to say.” Show Notes: -TubeTo Pod YouTube channel -Cat video that Von said would change my mind about cat videos -Fluent in Mandarin, the website Von used to start learning Mandarin Chinese -DimSum learning Chinese method - Serge Melnyk Mandarin Chinese learning method -Writing Video -Chinese sign language -Sign language -Tricking video (like martial arts and acrobatics combined) -Steve Kauffman YouTube -Stylized Hanzi Chinese script for "grass/cao" that Von saw on this Chinese restaurant sign -Two popular podcast sites in China (for Mandarin Chinese podcasts): Lizhi AND 2. Ximalaya -SlowChinese.com -New York Times Mandarin Chinese-English bilingual edition -Changing Scripts “Goodbye Leitner Box” video -#studygram hashtag on Instagram Would love to know what you think about this episode! Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube & Speakpipe (leave a voice message) Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, Changing Scripts YouTube Channel,  RSS, or join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Support the podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast Amazon Affiliate Link and Traveling Mailbox Affiliate Link Music courtesy of Damon Castillo,"I Hope You Figured It Out" song on the "Mess of Me" album Check out all of our projects here: https://stephfuccio.weebly.com/

  This week we talk to  沃维薇 (Wò wéi wēi), also known as Liz, about her dual Mandarin Chinese-English language experiences. Liz grew up in Shanghai, China with a passion for books and languages, which explains why and how she was reading English Sci-Fi at 14 years old. She is now a Simultaneous Interpreter, which is someone that is translating one language to another during a conversation at regular conversational speed. Yes, wow is the correct response to that. Her love of reading and storytelling has continued through her adult life and in fact, in this interview, she spoils us rotten by sharing a few of her favorite stories. I am not sure if Liz has her insightful views of language and switching between them because she is an Interpreter OR if she is an Interpreter because of these traits but what I am sure about is that she digs into languages and their cultural, social and emotional layers in a way that we have not done before in this podcast. Also, Liz wants to hear from you. Using the hashtag #strongstories on Twitter and/or Instagram, she wants you to share stories of language learning challenges and triumphs. Would love to know what you think about this episode! Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube & Speakpipe (leave a voice message) Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, Changing Scripts YouTube Channel,  RSS, or join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Links to things mentioned in this episode: -Neil Gaiman’s American Gods book -Pudong Library, Shanghai -Shanghaiese dialect info from Omniglot.com -What is simultaneous interpreting (what Liz does for a living)? -Arrival (movie) -Dream of the Red Chamber -Liz Gilbert’s TEDTalk, “Your elusive creative genius”  and her book about creativity “Big Magic” (chapter 5 is amazing!) -Real World on MTV -The Remains of the Day (movie) Support the podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast Amazon Affiliate Link and Traveling Mailbox Affiliate Link Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, Changing Scripts YouTube Channel,  RSS, or join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Music courtesy of Damon Castillo,"I Hope You Figured It Out" song on the "Mess of Me" album Check out all of our projects here: https://stephfuccio.weebly.com/

In this connections episode we expand on what our last guest, Matthew Boyle of Language Card Games suggested: community in language learning. Matthew shared an in person community idea that worked really well for him AND I want to share a few key online places that has helped me build language learning community. NOTE: Both of these segments were recording while walking around Shanghai, so there will be the sounds of life around me.  Video versions: HSK 3 test impression Community Matters .   Show Notes: PART 1: Post HSK test feedback (recorded from a mall 30 minutes after completing the test) -Standard Course HSK 3 Textbook & HSK 3 Workbook PART 2: Connections with guest Matthew Boyle’s tip on Community (recorded outside while it was snowing in Shanghai) -Instagram, studygram and Chinesestudygram -YouTube: search for Chinese language learners NOT language learning (there is a difference). An example is yours truly via the Changing Scripts YouTube channel. Steve Kauffman and Olly Richards has also learned many languages, including Mandarin Chinese.   -Twitter : studyChinese , #learnChinese, and #MandarinChinese are a few I follow -Reddit Mandarin Chinese thread -Medium Mandarin Chinese language thread Where to find the Changing Scripts Podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast website & Changing Scripts YouTube Channel, subscribe for free : iOS , Android devices, RSS or join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Would love to know what you think about this episode! Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube & Speakpipe (leave a voice message) Support the podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast Amazon Affiliate Link and Traveling Mailbox Affiliate Link Music courtesy of Damon Castillo, https://www.damoncastillo.com/, song "I Hope You Figured It Out" on the "Mess of Me" album Check out all of our projects here: https://stephfuccio.weebly.com/  

  This week we talk to Matthew Boyle, who started learning Mandarin Chinese thanks to an administrative error in his Arabic class registration at university. In 2011, he moved from the East Coast of the United States to Southern China and started to “play with the language” immediately. Matthew has progressed from learning Mandarin Chinese to making games via his company,  Language Card Games, to help others learn to use the language in a social and interesting way. In this conversation, Matthew shares his experience with tones, language teachers, phrases to use as a vegetarian in China and so much more. And it’s an exciting time for Language Card Games  and for you as Mandarin Chinese language learners because Matthew plans to release Chinese Champions 3, Othertongue 3, and Language Guardians 2 in 2019. Would love to know what you think about this episode! Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube & Speakpipe (leave a voice message) Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, Changing Scripts YouTube Channel,  RSS, or join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates A special audio thanks to Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting. Without him the audio of this episode would have made you (and me and everyone else) want to cry. Links to things mentioned in this episode: -The Changing Scripts YouTube review of Language Card Games    -Matt’s Language Card Games website, YouTube channel , Facebook page, Twitter account and subreddit community page -Vegetarian Mandarin Chinese phrases -Japanese F and H sounds - Chinese character TV reality show, 中国汉字听写大会; (pinyin: Zhōngguó hànzì tīngxiě dàhuì) -Chinese language reading YouTube videos, here’s an example -YouTube videos on opening toy eggs: this one has 15 million views! Support the podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast Amazon Affiliate Link and Traveling Mailbox Affiliate Link Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, Changing Scripts YouTube Channel,  RSS, or join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Music courtesy of Damon Castillo,"I Hope You Figured It Out" song on the "Mess of Me" album Check out all of our projects here: https://stephfuccio.weebly.com/

  Where to find the Changing Scripts Podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast website & Changing Scripts YouTube Channel This week we talk about two things: my Mandarin Chinese language learning update and the fight in the U.S. on how reading is taught to children. These two topics intertwine more than you would think, so have a listen and let me know where you fall on these matters. Show Links: (https://changingscripts.podbean.com/e/ep-18-how-to-foster-the-love-of-reading-in-1st-and-additional-languages/) -Ziwei’s episode of Changing Scripts, where I learned the term “phoneme-grapheme mapping” -Us and Them Podcast (NPR). I am talking about the Reading Wars episode from November 7, 2018. -Emily Hanford, the Journalist highlighted in the Us and Them episode AND Hard Words, the project they discuss in the episode Would love to know what you think about this episode! Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube & Speakpipe (leave a voice message) Support the podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast Amazon Affiliate Link and Traveling Mailbox Affiliate Link Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, RSS or join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Music courtesy of Damon Castillo, https://www.damoncastillo.com/, song "I Hope You Figured It Out" on the "Mess of Me" album Check out all of our projects here: https://stephfuccio.weebly.com/

Where to find the Changing Scripts Podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast website & Changing Scripts YouTube Channel This week we talk to Ziwei, who is originally from China’s Hunan Province. He is hands down one of the most intelligent, motivated, and hard working people I have ever known. We met in a Natural Language Processing class (taught by Sowmya, guest on the Virtual Expat Podcast, episode 63 ) in Iowa State University’s PhD in Applied Linguistics and Technology Program. I always admired Ziwei's kind, determined and focused demeanor. Since I left the program in December 2016, he has gotten married, had a child and taken on a Statistics Degree along with this already challenging PhD research. I am in awe with him and I think you will be too when you hear his views on the differences in learning Mandarin Chinese versus English, French and German.  Would love to know what you think about this episode! Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube & Speakpipe (leave a voice message) Links to things mentioned in this episode: -Ziwei’s Iowa State University Profile (last one on the page) -Mandarin Chinese stroke order (here is a video showing you what we were talking about) -An interesting Quora thread on the stroke order strictness with regards to the English alphabet -Short video of Bart Simpson writing English sentences on the board as punishment (If anyone has an example of this with writing Mandarin Chinese on a blackboard in school, please send it to me and I will add it here). -Phoneme, Grapheme connection: Here is a short video explaining these two concepts and here is a written explanation -Elena Cotos, who Ziwei is working with right now. She is at the forefront of move-step analysis AND AWE’s, Automated Writing Evaluations with respect to academic writing genres.   -R programming language Support the podcast:  Changing Scripts Podcast Amazon Affiliate Link and Traveling Mailbox Affiliate Link Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, RSS or join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Music courtesy of Damon Castillo, https://www.damoncastillo.com/, song "I Hope You Figured It Out" on the "Mess of Me" album Check out all of our projects here: https://stephfuccio.weebly.com/

This week we talk about language learning struggles with non-inflected verbs in Mandarin Chinese (and where the hell time meaning is in this hide and seek semantic process), keeping learning motivation levels up and how important it is to have long term goals NOT just learning methods. A special reading of a poem in Mandarin Chinese is included in this episode; both to motivate me to keep on keeping on and to motivate you to start or keep going with your own Mandarin Chinese language studies/practice.   Support the podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast Amazon Affiliate Link and Traveling Mailbox Affiliate Link IN THIS EPISODE: Podcast updates: -Changing Scripts was featured in Podbean Podcast Blog’s “Recommended Language Learning Podcasts” article -The new TubeToPod YouTube channel is gaining momentum. If you love podcasts and want to help bridge YouTube viewers over to the podside, please submit a short, phone video to the project. All videos are unedited, less than 2 minutes and answer 3 quick questions about podcasts. Email me at stephfuccio(at)gmail.com to get involved My Mandarin Chinese language learning update: -My HSK 3 test is December 2, 2018 -I use and highly recommend this HSK series: Standard Course (both the coursebook and workbook really prepare you for the test) -HSK 3, chapter 16 (NOT 15), #16 ; What part of this sentence (* below) tells us the WILL/future part of the meaning of “I will sleep in the car for a while” Full listening transcript conversation (* is the line I am talking about in this episode): 女：你今天回来有点儿晚啊。 男：今天不知道怎么了，特别累，回家的时候累得我在公共汽车上就睡着了。 *女：我有时候也在车上睡一会儿。 男：但是我坐过站了，只好下了车再往回坐。 问：男的为什么回来晚了？ -Motivation level: 5 out of 10 (1 is lowest, 10 is highest) Why? Wanting speaking skills to develop while only having time for reading and listening skills practice. Mandarin Chinese language learning community: -“Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard” David Moser, University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies -Steve Kaufman’s “Forgetting Words Means I’m Learning Them” YouTube video -Spittoon Literary Magazine, Sang Ke’s poem “I Can Separate My Soul From My Body” Would love to know what you think about this episode! Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube & Speakpipe (leave a voice message) Where to find the Changing Scripts Podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast website & Changing Scripts YouTube Channel Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, RSS Join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Music courtesy of Damon Castillo, https://www.damoncastillo.com/ Song "I Hope You Figured It Out" on the "Mess of Me" album

  This week I want to take a moment to reflect on the beginning of these Mandarin Chinese language conversations. Moments from this conversation with Phil have crept into my language learning time and time again since we chatted in May 2018. This first interview was done in a coffee shop and recorded in video format for the Changing Scripts YouTube channel. Phil’s tips on learning Mandarin Chinese are extremely useful and his own story of how he learned the language so rapidly is a testament to his language learning aptitude. He is still trying to learn different aspects of the language as he reads fiction and finishes up his graduate degree in Chinese while living in Nanjing, China.    Would love to know what you think about this episode! Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube & Speakpipe (leave a voice message) Changing Scripts Podcast website, YouTube Channel, Changing Scripts Amazon Affiliate Link Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, RSS Join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Check out all of our projects here: https://stephfuccio.weebly.com/ Music courtesy of Damon Castillo, https://www.damoncastillo.com/ Song "I Hope You Figured It Out" on the "Mess of Me" album

My next Mandarin Chinese language test, HSK 3, is December 2, 2018. Join me while I share the things I am doing to get ready for this test, deal with the self pressure of being a very slow and frustrated language learner and some interesting tidbits about the Mandarin Chinese language and China too.  Where to find the Changing Scripts Podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast website & Changing Scripts YouTube Channel Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, RSS Join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Support the podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast Amazon Affiliate Link and Traveling Mailbox Affiliate Link In this episode: -Language learning news Polyglot Conference : October 26-28, 2018 in Ljubjana, Slovenia. Follow the conference on Twitter or YouTube. Many sessions are posted on YouTube after so check the event out. - Quantifiable study tasks & motivation ranking  - Mandarin Chinese audio example: HSK 3, chapter 12, number 2 & La Bamba song - Interviews & Interview Questions: I interviewed Tanya Crossman , author of Misunderstood, a book on TCKs (third culture kids) on her experience with Mandarin Chinese. Her episode will come out in season 3, in Spring 2019. Tanya added this question to the interview question list: ***How did you learn emotional language (communicate your feelings)?*** IF you have a question you’d like me to ask our guests, let me know.   - Language learning/language community: Vocab post on Instagram : 关 and 关于 : Tanya kindly helped out with this advice: On the Virtual Expat Podcast, at about 1 hour and 5 minutes into the episode, Mai from the Intellect Grime YouTube channel and I were complaining about certain language websites (her: sites in Arabic and me: sites in Mandarin Chinese.) Kai-Fu Lee explains why Mandarin Chinese websites are formatted the way they are in AI Superpower , a book about technology in China that I can not recommend highly enough.   Jeremy Tiang’s “A Star is Born” poster language analysis language tweet) Translator Rebecka Eriksson’s tweet about an interview with Sheng Keyi, the author of Northern Girls Would love to know what you think about this episode! Socials:Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube & Speakpipe (leave a voice message) Music courtesy of Damon Castillo, https://www.damoncastillo.com/ Song "I Hope You Figured It Out" on the "Mess of Me" album.

  Changing Scripts Podcast website & Changing Scripts YouTube Channel Changing Scripts Amazon Affiliate Link (shop normally with this link and support this podcast at the same time! My next HSK test, HSK 3, is December 2, 2018. Join me while I share the things I am doing to get ready for this test, deal with the self pressure of being a very slow and frustrated language learner and some interesting tidbits about the Mandarin Chinese language and China too. Mentioned in the episode: -My Mandarin Chinese study methods & statistics -Language example:the Chinese language equivalent of “how do you spell that?”  HSK 3 Standard Course Workbook, chapter 9, #17 -Literary Shanghai, http://www.literaryshanghai.com/, translation event with Shelly Bryant, https://shellybryant.com/ and Jeremy Tiang (episode 10) -Joy Reid, “Eye” learners and “ear” learners, https://wkubiopedia.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/reid-eyes-and-ears-learners.pdf --------------------------------------------------- Music courtesy of Damon Castillo, https://www.damoncastillo.com/ Song "I Hope You Figured It Out" on the "Mess of Me" album.  

Changing Scripts Podcast website, YouTube Channel, Changing Scripts Amazon Affiliate Link Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, RSS Join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates The first time I met Ian we were walking around Shanghai for a work event, talking about the challenges of learning Mandarin Chinese. When he casually described the Mandarin Chinese script (cursive) book he had to special order, my mouth dropped and I made a mental note to ask him to be on the podcast later. Thankfully he agreed to do this. Because of our similar learning method of focusing on reading first and speaking later, this conversation was a turning point for me. Hearing how far Ian has been able to get with this strategy, I finally could envision my own future success in the language, which to that point felt very illusive. (Thanks Ian!) Fair warning, you will want to dig into the show notes for this episode to save some of his learning recommendations. Would love to know what you think about this episode! Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube & Speakpipe (leave a voice message) 16:00 Card catalogue 19:41 “Fun with Chinese Characters” 35:00   “How Chinese characters can change English language education: Jonathan Stalling at TEDxOU” 39:40 “Chinese in a Flash” 40:00 Bookstores on Fuzhou Lu, book and cultural street in Shanghai 50:00 Four Chinese character idioms 51:28 New York Times Mandarin Chinese bilingual website, The Chairman’s Bao, BBC News Chinese language edition 56:40 Skritter, Chinese Pod, Anki, ChinesePod , Du Chinese , Word Swing 1:03:16  ADVChina YouTube channel --------------------------------------------------- Music courtesty of Damon Castillo, https://www.damoncastillo.com/ Song "I Hope You Figured It Out" on the "Mess of Me" album. Check out all of our projects here: https://stephfuccio.weebly.com/

My next HSK test, HSK 3, is December 2, 2018. Join me while I share the things I am doing to get ready for this test, deal with the self pressure of being a very slow and frustrated language learner and some interesting tidbits about Chinese and China too. Where to find the Changing Scripts Podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast website & Changing Scripts YouTube Channel Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, RSS Join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Support the podcast: Virtual Expats Amazon Affiliate Link and Traveling Mailbox Affiliate Link In this episode: Instagram study photos: new flashcard to review flashcard number tracker (the circled numbers are the ones moving out of the new flashcard pile meaning notes on HSK listening transcripts Barry Manilow song "One Voice": https://genius.com/Barry-manilow-one-voice-lyrics Young China Watchers http://www.youngchinawatchers.com/ China in Africa Podcast https://chinaafrica-podcast.com/ --------------------------------------------------- Music courtesy of Damon Castillo, https://www.damoncastillo.com/ Song "I Hope You Figured It Out" on the "Mess of Me" album. ----------------------------------------------- Check out all of our projects here: https://stephfuccio.weebly.com/

As a Writer, Translator and Playright; words are what Jeremy Tiang uses to share his ideas about the world and all of its ambiguity. In his prose he addresses issues of identity, culture, and the boundaries of what we think these things mean. His upbringing in Singapore was multicultural and yet it was not. So much so that when asked what his first language is he replies, “It is complicated” and it is easy to see why. Singapore, very much like Jeremy and very much like most curious, discerning people such as yourself (yes, listeners, I am talking about you), is in a state of constant change. This change includes how it shares itself with the world and Jeremy plays a part in how we see both Singapore and its people, especially, if I understand it right, those who are not often portrayed in the national narrative. In this podcast episode, we primarily dig into Jeremy’s language experiences from early childhood to the present day. But those cultural tones are impossible to remove from language, so we did not even try.   Where to find the Changing Scripts Podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast website & Changing Scripts YouTube Channel Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, RSS Join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Support the podcast: Virtual Expats Amazon Affiliate Link and Traveling Mailbox Affiliate Link In this episode: Jeremy’s Twitter Account Cedilla & Co, his Translation Collective 56:33 New Yorker article on Hyperpolyglots 59:00 Omniglot website (learn about any language) 1:00:02 Pomodoro Method 1:00:06 Ode to Joy Shanghai TV show 2:00:00  Crazy Rich Asians --------------------------------------------------- Music courtesy of Damon Castillo, https://www.damoncastillo.com/ Song "I Hope You Figured It Out" on the "Mess of Me" album. ------------------------------------------------ Check out all of our projects here: https://stephfuccio.weebly.com/

Where to find the Changing Scripts Podcast: Changing Scripts Podcast website & Changing Scripts YouTube Channel Subscribe to Changing Scripts Podcast on : iOS , Android devices, RSS Join our email list: for weekly podcasting updates Support the podcast: Virtual Expats Amazon Affiliate Link and Traveling Mailbox Affiliate Link In this episode: Apologies, my new mic stand is being exchanged SO I was naively holding my beautiful microphone in my hand for this episode. The weird sounds that ensued will not happen again. Terribly sorry. My new review flashcard holder with pockets --------------------------------------------------- Music courtesty of Damon Castillo, https://www.damoncastillo.com/ Song "I Hope You Figured It Out" on the "Mess of Me" album. All projects:https://stephfuccio.weebly.com/