Hi Gang,
A few things:
-
Just checking in -- making sure that you have been reviewing the
material from the handout we covered 2 weeks ago. Also hoping that each
of you has been and will continue to be proactive, exploring various free and low cost independent studies resources
online, on YT, checking out Pimsleur Cantonese, etc.
- Reminder: RECORD YOUR CLASSES FROM YOUR DESK! Every year I ask my students plainly and simply: HOW CAN YOU EXPECT TO LEARN TO SPEAK A BRAND NEW LANGUAGE PROPERLY IF YOU CANNOT LISTEN BACK TO YOURSELF, HEAR WHAT YOU ARE DOING RIGHT AND KEEP THAT, HEAR WHAT YOU ARE DOING WRONG AND FIX THAT, AND IN GENERAL BE ABLE TO CHART YOUR PROGRESS WITH THE WAY THAT THE LANGUAGE SOUNDS? Every year, I ask people this and my students mostly mumble in response -- something to the effect of, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whateverzzzzz." Then,
9 months later, these same students have really, really SHITTY
pronunciation -- the kind of pronunciation that a native speaker would
need charades or an English translation to understand. Please, for the
love of everything that is holy, take me seriously and record your
lessons. RECORD YOUR OWN VOICE MAKING MISTAKES EVERY SINGLE WEEK,
and then listen back to each lesson, preferably several times, so that
you can fix those mistakes. I am really going to drill pronunciation and
tones this year, and I am going to seem like an asshole to some of you.
Those of you who feel this way will wind up quitting if you don't do
whatever you need to do to sound "Chinesey" when you speak Chinese. For
the next few weeks, I am going to ask you all over and over AND OVER
again to please record your classes. If any of you is not recording and
listening back to your lessons and yet is struggling with pronunciation
and tones as the weeks go by, you might as well quit my class, because
you will be wasting your time and mine. If you are recording and listening back to all of your lessons and STILL struggling with your pronunciation and tones, you will ALWAYS be welcome in my classes, no matter how long it takes you to learn to pronounce Cantonese accurately. Cool? Cool.
- In
tonight's lesson, we are going to review some basic phrases, do some
self introductions around the room, and begin looking at pronunciation
and tones from a general overview perspective, I am also going to take a
few minutes to discuss some additional resources that you can all use
to supplement your Chinese learning. This is related to # 1 above:
Pimsleur Cantonese, Popup Cantonese and similar audio and podcast resources
Disney and other children's DVDs dubbed into Cantonese
with English language subtitles.
Researching
and finding one or more fun Youtube videos
specifically on proper pronunciation and tones of Cantonese. If you want
to go to my blog that I kept last year for my ALESN classes and if you
click on Cantonese 1 and go wayyyyy back to October of 2017, you will
find an entry where I give many Youtube links with feedback regarding
the helpfulness of each link, for beginner Cantonese pronunciation and
tones videos. I suggest that you all check that out: www.sayitrightchinese.com
ALSO:
Please print out and bring with you the attached document from last class.
We will be working from this document again tonight, mainly from page
1. I will have copies with me, but I need everyone who attended the
first class to please bring the handout that you go last time, so we can
save paper. Thanks in advance. Please also download your free textbook
per my previous long email with textbook info. We will start looking at
the textbook next week or the week after.
See everyone tonight.
*PLEASE
NOTE THAT THE DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THIS POST ARE THE SAME THAT WERE
UPLOADED TO THIS BLOG IN OCTOBER 2017, AS MENTIONED IN AN EARLY BLOG
ENTRY FROM THAT TIME.
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