爬中文山

练习口语的问题挑战，第18天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 18. 

https://youtu.be/HT3NQW_CaKA

练习口语的问题挑战，第28天。
30 day speaking challenge, Day 28. 

https://youtu.be/sFEmLgVeymk

https://youtu.be/WHLoe2tT_CY

练习口语的问题挑战，第25天。
30 day speaking challenge, Day 25. 

练习中文口语挑战：第八天
30 days speaking practice：Day 8

https://youtube.com/shorts/NuuYPXs6-mQ?feature=share

So far this has been an excellent practice activity. Honestly, it's hard to film myself speaking and every evening I'd rather not do it. However, every time after it's done, I'm glad I 坚持. I practice it several times, I try to put in some grammar that I don't use enough,  try to push myself to go faster, it's good exercise. I've had some corrections and feedback from native speakers on WeChat. Will definitely carry this out for 30 days.

练习口语的问题挑战，第26天。
30 day speaking challenge, Day 26. 

https://youtu.be/ElNuGwmSJHM

https://youtube.com/shorts/JI5jioE-4e4?feature=share

怎样给岳父岳母留下好印象？How would make a good impression on your in laws?

第五天练习口语的问题挑战。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 5.

https://youtu.be/K04YvTEVi1k

https://youtube.com/shorts/44DG2WHVK5c?feature=share

练习口语的问题挑战，第15天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 15. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/MvhwDqq6fx0?feature=share

Saw this book(2009, 235pg) on Taobao, and picked it up. It was a definitely a bit below my level(moving on from Hsk4). According to my SRS, I added less than 50 new words, a few nice ones though. I don't think there was any grammar that was new to me, maybe some slight variations. I did every listening and exercise and still blew through it in two weeks, a unit a day(1 hr a day). I thought it was pretty useful as a review though and could be considered "very" comprehensible input.

I particularly liked the Speaking exercises in every unit, which included prompts to speak about a particular topic as well as role plays. I did all of them on my own, speaking aloud. Another good exercise in each unit requires you to summarize each dialog into a short paragraph, which I did orally(the correct summary is included in the answer key).

There is a volume 2 and I will go ahead and burn through that one as well.

I hand an off hand compliment last night. I was at a 湖南饭馆 last night. I was sitting around a corner kind of out of the way. at one point, I called out 服务员， the waitress instantly stopped and looked around for who was calling her. She turned to the guy sitting at the table behind her and asked him what he needed, he said he hadn't called her. She did the same with another customer. I then called her again and she made eye contact with me. This was a small victory, because when I first started, I could never seem to get a response from saying 服务员, last night the waitress thought it could have come from a native speaker?

https://youtu.be/RgP7rkhIW_w

练习口语的问题挑战，第14天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 14. 

This summer I've been enjoying an extra bit of 扎啤 / draft beer. Something about draft always tastes better than bottles and I like buying local stuff. It's pretty popular in Beijing to sell these bags（or sometimes canisters) of draft beer by waimai 外卖 or walking in the shop directly. They add  pressure to the bag before sealing, so it arrives fresh, bubbly and cold within about a half hour. The price is right too. 1.5 - 2 liters for around 17rmb for Beijing/qingdao draft, 35-50 for white or wheat beer, 70-100 for Ipa. 

This one is wheat from a place called URbrew and made in 河北:

Standard Beijing draft and Qingdao( I was drinking the Qingdao during a zoom call with some friends back home and they thought it was hilarious:

My favorite hands down, a beautiful beer, ipa, from 叁金叁 whatever that is(?)  85kuai for about 5 pints:

Another wheat beer that's very popular, 泰山 Taishan from Shandong, pretty nice fresh wheat beer, 60kuai for 2 liters:

I just received this yesterday cold-chain shipped from the city of 青岛 , no idea yet how it tastes, but 40,000 people have ordered it on taboo and positive reviews, on sale for 28kuai for 2 liters, I had to get one:

Next one I'll prob try is this one:

Had to give up on 人世间 for now. Too difficult for my level. Dongbei hua and the length don't make it any easier. Decided instead to watch 我的青春谁做主 -My Youthfulness (2009). This is the second series of the "Youth" trilogy 奋斗，and 北京青年 being the first and third. Have watched the first two episodes, there are 32 in total. I'm watching it on my 小米 wall projector, so it's not very convenient to stop and look up words. That's my goal for this one, just to watch it and get what I get. 

The other day, my teacher gave me homework to write about the new tea tray I bought. Here's my writing followed by her corrections:

让我介绍一下我新买的茶盘。因为我南方家里的茶盘比较大，所以我买了一个小的更适合我北京房间。我选择这种茶盘的过程是这样。我两年以前去广东北边的潮州古城旅游。那时候我很多次看过老人坐在走道上喝茶，聊天。他们用的茶盘很简单。它的样子是圆形的，不太大。有的人用陶瓷的，有的人用不锈钢的。几天前我在淘宝上看了看。我找到一些从潮州来自功夫茶盘。最后我选择了一个12英寸（30厘米），白色的。它要花差不多一百块钱包括快递费。今天早上茶盘到了。我很开心。我觉得这个茶盘挺好看的。我现在能在家里喝茶像潮州老人一样。

With corrections(my wrong sentence in parenthesis):

让我介绍一下我新买的茶盘。因为我南方家里的茶盘比较大，所以我买了一个小的更适合我北京房间。我选择这种茶盘的过程是这样。我两年以前去广东北边的潮州古城旅游。那时候我很多次看过老人坐在走道上喝茶，聊天。他们用的茶盘很简单。它的样子是圆形的，不太大。（他们用的茶盘很简单，圆的，不太大。)有的人用陶瓷的，有的人用不锈钢的。几天前我在淘宝上看了看。我找到一些从潮州来自功夫茶盘。（我找到一些从潮州来的功夫茶盘/我找到一些来自潮州的功夫茶盘。）最后我选择了一个12英寸（30厘米），白色的。它要花差不多一百块钱包括快递费（加上邮费差不多一百块钱）。今天早上茶盘到了。我很开心。我觉得这个茶盘挺好看的。我现在能在家里喝茶像潮州老人一样。（我现在在家里就能像潮州老人一样喝茶了。）

茶盘=tea tray 

过程 = process

潮州 = Chaozhou

古城 = ancient city

走道 = sidewalk

圆 = circle, round

陶瓷 = porcelain, ceramic

不锈钢 = stainless steel

功夫 = gong fu

英寸 = inches

厘米 = cm

厘米 = include

快递费 = delivery fee

怎么称呼您？ How should I address you?

https://youtu.be/BcuolO6A-Ag

练习口语的问题挑战，第13天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 13. 

练习口语的问题挑战，第29天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 29. 

https://youtu.be/eGdUnvW-VoQ

I'm really enjoying the 奋斗 series, which I found on a forum thread here listing various tv programs with descriptions and levels. This is my first time following a Chinese drama. While it is definitely above my level, it's still comprehensible. The way I've been attacking it is to first watch each scene without stopping and get what I get. I then go back and pause each sentence and read the 汉字. I look up a minimal amount of words. The ones that seem very useful / hsk 4-ish level / easy to remember / or keep coming up - I add to my srs. Next, I re-watch the whole scene again without pausing. Finally, I watch the whole episode(45 mins). I'm on episode 5 of 32 so far.

For me 奋斗 almost perfect: Tons of Northern accented Mandarin, all kinds of everyday situations(restaurants, arguments, home, work, bowling and barbecuing,...) engaging story, cool characters, scenery of Beijing 15 years ago. The one con is that they sometimes speak very, very quickly, but I expect that can only help my listening skills. 

A while back I watched a unit in YoYo Chinese upper intermediate video course where they went to a restaurant in Beijing and ordered duck. Just for the hell of it and to go somewhere I haven't been, I emailed them and asked for the name of the restaurant. They wrote back telling me it was 青年餐厅( qīngnián) Fēngtái branch and the other day I finally got around to taking the subway down there. Turned out to be EXCELLENT roast duck! My wife is not a fan of duck, so I got a half all to myself. 半只 was 118块, not the cheapest, but not terribly expensive either. Service was great. I also had a little win moment in that I did all the ordering for myself and my wife, including some adjustments and requests - all the while the waitress did not once ask my wife for any clarification, confirmation, or even look her way?. It also reminded me that I don't go for duck often enough. So now I'm going to make it a point to try as many duck restaurants in Beijing as I can and see which one I like best. I already passed by a random one in a Hutong near 东四 and tagged the location in my phone, so that will be next.

.

https://clyp.it/kufimo2g

Decided to record this little diary entry about tonight's dinner in 长沙. I'm sure I made plenty of grammar mistakes.

出差的日记.wav

你觉得好朋友的定义是什么？What do you think is the definition of a good friend?

练习口语的问题挑战，第10天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 10. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/TR3A7gklLoY?feature=share

你老家的气候怎么样？What's your hometown's climate like?

练习中文口语挑战：第六天 30 days speaking practice：Day 6

https://youtube.com/shorts/jvVQFuq033o?feature=share

练习口语的问题挑战，第19天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 19.

https://youtu.be/EZPYakw98lc

练习口语的问题挑战，第20天。
30 day speaking challenge, Day 20. 

https://youtu.be/FvVUuIVkIIs

练习口语的问题挑战，第23天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 23. 

https://youtu.be/wntHHFplXWw