Saturday, July 31, 2010

does the intonation of a word change the meaning?

It's Friday night, past midnight (so technically it's Saturday) and I can't fall asleep even though I got up at 5:10 this morning. Usually after an hour, I give up and get back up.  I don't time it either.  It's just that when I check the time it's always one hour. Maybe I give up too soon. Anyway, so I decided to write this little post, since I was thinking about this anyway.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

goldmine of Chinese TV dramas online!

I have finally stumbled onto a goldmine for Chinese language learners.  Of course, authentic content made for natives, not learners. If you want to learn real Chinese without buying DVDs, without membership fees, and without having to watch the same thing over and over, now you can! All you need is your modern computer and an internet connection.

Friday, July 16, 2010

short Japanese drama only online

There is a 5 episode drama in Japanese available only online called Oh!myPROPOSE.  Is there someone willing to watch this and leave a comment about it here?

I'm still watching my Chinese dramas and have been working 40 hours a week since April. I now have over 1556 hours of the TV method for Chinese logged. Looks like I'll make it to 2000 before the end of the year for sure! Although, my current job will only continue until the middle of September. Since I am working, I'm putting all of my free time into watching the Chinese dramas. In fact, it seems I am able to watch more than when I wasn't working. Last month I logged 150 hours which is the most hours in a month since I started. Maybe this month will be more since there is an extra day this month plus this coming Monday is a holiday. June didn't have any holidays.

How do I do it? I watch one episode in the morning before I go to work. Since I walk to work (about 1.8 km) I can't use my Portable Language Acquisition Device during my commute.  After work, I watch 5 episodes. This gives me 4 hours a day during weekdays.  Although, I go to the Sign Language Circle meeting on Friday nights when I can. So to make up for lost time, I try to watch 8 hours on Saturday and 8 on Sunday. Or I might watch 10 hours on Saturday and 6 on Sunday. So now I'm averaging 5 hours a day because of the extra hours put in on the weekends. Also, not writing blog posts and not making YouTube videos gives me extra time to spend on the TV method. And of course, web browsing is down to a bare minimum. Zero hours most days.  I wouldn't even be writing this post if it wasn't for that Japanese drama. I thought I'd better share it with the Japanese language learners.