Learning Chinese

WARNING

One of the comments to this post contains a link to a marketing affiliate Web site promoting Rocket Chinese. Affiliate marketing floods search engines with links to reviews and testimonies about a product posted by people who are paid for promoting it, which come to the top of search results. To learn the truth about an affiliate marketing product, it is not enough to follow the first few links that come up in a search. If you don't already know of a reliable place to look for reviews, you may need to look through several pages of search results.

In this case I went through several pages of search results without finding any reviews of Rocket Chinese that were not posted by affiliates. I tried searching for language learning software, without any name, and I found this:

How to Choose Language Learning Software

I'm using Rosetta Stone language-learning software to help me learn Chinese. It's an immersion method, no English, only Chinese, with pictures.

Another way I'm trying to learn Chinese is by reading Tintin books in Chinese, using my electronic dictionary to look up the words. In the beginning, it sometimes took me days to find one word. Chinese characters are not phonetic. Most words are composed of one or two characters which may or may not have clues about how they are spoken. Here's a fictitious example:

#@

Those are not Chinese characters. I'm using them to represent a character that sounds like something between "dzai" and "tsai" and one that sounds something like "jien." The "jien" is pronounced with the tip of the tongue at the bottom of the lower teeth, and the middle of the tongue against the roof of the mouth. Both sounds are spoken with a falling pitch, like at the end of an English sentence. That means "goodbye." If the same sounds are spoken with a rising pitch, like at the end of an English question, or with a steady high pitch, or with a pitch that falls then rises, they might be written with entirely different characters, and mean something entirely different.

The easiest way I've learned to find Chinese words in my electronic dictionary is with the CKC system. The number keys represent various combinations of strokes. For example "1" represents a single stroke from left to right, horizontally or diagonally upwards, and "4" represents any combination which looks more or less like an x, a plus sign, or two plus signs in a row. I enter codes for the four corners of the character, then choose from a list of possible characters. In the beginning sometimes it took days for me to find the right combination for some characters.

Some time ago the government of the PRC (People's Republic of China) adopted a phonetic system for writing Chinese words, which in English we call "Pinyin." In Pinyin, the word above would be written "zai jian." To show clearly how it's pronounced, it would be written with accent marks over the vowels.

In Rosetta Stone, the words can be displayed in Chinese characters, in Pinyin, or both. First I went through the lessons using both, to help me with the pronunciation. Now I'm going through them again, using only Chinese characters, to help me learn the characters.

Rediscovering Baha'u'llah

I was thinking I should write more in this blog, in case someone reads it some day, but I didn't know what to write about. Now I have a long list of things to write about from my previous post.

I was feeling something missing in my life, that I associate with turning to Baha'u'llah. I don't know how to describe it, except with some phrases from His writings, like "'the shade of Thy protecting wings," "the sweet-scented streams of Thine eternity," "the crystal springs of Thy love," "the shadow of Thine everlasting providence," "the meadows of Thy nearness," "the fragrant breezes of Thy joy," "the heights of the paradise of Thy reality," "the melodies of the dove of Thy oneness," "the garden of Thine immortality," "the Day-Star of Thy guidance."

So, maybe it would help me to memorize that prayer?

I've felt this way before, and I always imagine that I need to get to know Baha'u'llah better. Once before I thought of it in terms of starting all over, as if I had just now discovered Baha'u'llah. This time, thinking about how I might rediscover Him, I thought of studying and practicing passages from His writings addressed to the "people of Baha." I started with The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, because I haven't read it yet. The passage I'm studying now, from a letter to Napoleon III, is:

"O people of Baha! Subdue the citadels of men's hearts with the swords of wisdom and of utterance."

(Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 76)

After reading the whole letter, and pondering that passage again, I thought it might help me to memorize some more of Baha'u'llah's writings, so I chose this from Ruhi Book 6:

"Say: To assist Me is to teach My Cause. This is a theme with which whole Tablets are laden. This is the changeless commandment of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future."

(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 196)

That's from Tablet to Siyyid Mihdiy-i-Dahaji. I read the whole tablet, and found this:

"From the texts of the wondrous, heavenly Scriptures they should memorize phrases and passages bearing on various instances, so that in the course of their speech they may recite divine verses whenever the occasion demandeth it, inasmuch as these holy verses are the most potent elixir, the greatest and mightiest talisman."

(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 198)

Exactly what I was thinking!

I also noticed this:

"In such manner hath the Kitáb-i-Aqdas been revealed that it attracteth and embraceth all the divinely appointed Dispensations. Blessed those who peruse it. Blessed those who apprehend it. Blessed those who meditate upon it. Blessed those who ponder its meaning. So vast is its range that it hath encompassed all men ere their recognition of it. Ere long will its sovereign power, its pervasive influence and the greatness of its might be manifested on earth. Verily, thy God is the All-Knowing, the All-Informed."

(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 199)

Now I'm going through the Aqdas, memorizing each paragraph so I can ponder it all day long for a few days.

List of things to do now & later

* Things to do now
This list is actually a few weeks old. Some of this has been crossed off, but I'm posting it all here.

1. Rediscovering Baha'u'llah.
2. Rosetta Stone Chinese lessons.
3. Call someone in the US.
4. Call Charlotte.
5. Blog & email.
- Bard
- Fred
- Baha'i Studies project
- Erin
6. Dishes, laundry, sweep, mop.
7. Hold Aeryn
8. Online with Patty.
- VACU
- BofA <-> VACU
9. Help with meals.
10. Unpacking and organizing.
11. Insurance form.
12. Ubuntu.
13. Put stuff away from the supermarket.
14. Tintin.
15. Read heater remote.
16. Budget and expenses.
17. Fix sink stopper.
18. Make books.
19. English.
20. Report stolen phone.
21. Read staples receipt.
22. TV picture too dark.
23. See what's in the suitcases.

* Things to do later
1. Reschedule flights <= 7/29/2008. 2. Hotsync Palm. 3. CCB -> BofA.
4. Sometime list.
5. Financial file for Patty.
6. Verizon Wireless.

Comments

I just discovered that there were some restrictions on comments in this blog. Sorry! I've fixed that now.

Things to do

I also defrosted the refrigerator.

List of things to do today

At home
1. Call Charlotte.
2. Dishes
3. Sweep and mop.

In Qibao
1. Look for shoelaces, a transformer for the DS, and a street map of Qingpu.
2. Buy some more cereal.

At the Olympic Garden entrance
1. Get a Bank of China remittance form to apply for a demand draft for the $18 for the FBI background check.
2. Buy some more milk.

Looking for a hospital and finding Staples

We're frantically trying to learn Chinese, but for now we need a doctor who is familiar with American medical terms, who speaks fluent English, and most of all, whose receptionist speaks fluent English. Wednesday I asked Patty what I should look for next in my scouting outings, and she said Staples or Parkway Medical Services. Then she said it should be Parkway first.

I found approximately where the address should be on the map, and took the metro to the station nearest that location. There was a very appealing shopping area nearby, so I decided to explore it a little. One of the first places I saw was Staples. Actually, it's Staples/UPS. I went in to look around a little, and I asked about an adapter plug. We bought a dual-voltage hair dryer before coming here, but we can't plug it in because the plug has one prong wider than the other, and none of the receptacles here, and none of the adapters I've been able to find here, are made for that. Staples does have them, but the cheaper one was out of stock.

I saw the name of the hospital I was looking for on my Shanghai map, so I went there, forgetting that I had an address and not noticing that the hospital on the map was on a different street. It was a long walk from the metro station, so I decided to practice using buses. I spent ten or twenty minutes deciphering the signs at the bus stop to decide which bus to take, and still got on one that didn't go where I thought it was going. I had to get off and walk about as far as I would have without the bus, about twenty minutes. Good thing I was riding the bus for practice and not to save time.

I went into the hospital and looked around. No English anywhere. Most places have signs in Chinese and English. Not here. Strange, for a place where I thought I would find English speaking health practitioners.

I finally found an information desk and used my phrasebook and the guide book from the school where Patty works to try to explain what I was looking for. They told me to go to building 38. At building 38 I found out I was at the wrong hospital. The nurses explained where the other hospital was, and while I was walking there, I remembered I had the address! It turned out to be just a few blocks from Staples.

Shopping list

1. markers
2. shoe inserts
3. cleaning products
4. neutral shoe polish
5. fan
6. shampoo and conditioner
7. balm for mosquito bites
8. mosquito coils
9. ice cube tray
10. cloth napkins
11. sugar bowl
12. vaseline
13. wire brush
14. Goo Gone
15. passport protector
16. magnifier
17. caulk
18. nutcracker
19. pocket notepads
20. agenda
21. map of Qingpu
22. battery for electronic dictionary
23. tables for computers
24. coasters
25. light bulbs
26. small file box
27. seam ripper
28. funnel
29. toilet bowl cleaner
30. plug adapter for hair dryer
31. printer paper
32. glass cleaner
33. CD-Rs

List of things to do later

1. Find out about supplemental insurance.

2. Update our address with all our accounts.

3. Give our mailing address to people who want it.

4. Get our medical records in the US released.

5. Send photos to people who want them.

6. Mail license plates to the Department of Motor Vehicles for partial refund.

7. Study documents related to my projects.

8. Organize our photos.

List of things to do now

1. Convert Patty's RealPlayer files from old CDs to MP3 for her iPod.

2. Fedex signed letter to the Credit Union asking for my replacement cards to be sent to my China address.

3. Wire some money to our Bank account in the US.

4. Buy a stepladder to use to replace our light bulbs.

5. Call Charlotte.

6. Read phone manual, which is all in Chinese.

7. Add minutes to our cell phones.

8. Rosetta Stone Chinese lessons.

9. Set up printer.

10. Help Patty with her needlepoint.

11. Put together the booklets that Patty printed out for her Kindergarten class.

12. Find a way to get a cashier's check to send with her fingerprints to the FBI for a background check, required by her employer.

13. Go through all the stuff I threw in the top drawer when I unpacked, that needs to be taken care of.

List of some current activities and interests

1. Sweeping, mopping, dishes, laundry

2. Private English lessons with videos and skits
- listening, speaking, reading, writing
- moral and spiritual issues
- harmonious society

3. Scouting for outings with Patty
- line 9 bus to other metro station
- supermarkets and other stores at Xujiahui and Zhongshan Park
- buses to Qibao and back
- Doctors

4. Learning Chinese.
- preschool writing book
- children's stories
- Tintin

5. Cards.
- Bank of America: check 9/30
- VACU: fax request for cards with signature
- Bank of China: check 9/24

6. Moving.
- call Lee Tanner
- fingerprints
- to-do lists
- clean up and organize floor and drawers

7. Internet projects

8. Working with Chinese people and government.
- read about harmonious society and religion
- learn about desertification control and related initiatives (agriculture and forests)
- Sheshan Mountain

Aeryn was born last night!

Aeryn was born last night!

Lost Wallet and Cards

A few minutes after the taxi brought us home Tuesday night, I discovered that I didn't have my wallet. I might have had it on my lap in the taxi. I looked all over where we got out of the taxi, and along the way where we walked to the apartment.

A Chinese debit card, two American debit cards, an American credit card, two phone cards and about 700 rmb ($100).

I didn't know which taxi company it was, and I didn't have the license plate number. I went to the guard house at the entrance where we came into the Olympic Garden apartments, and using another wallet and lots of arm waving, I got my point across that I had lost my wallet and cards, but I didn't know what they could do about it, and apparently neither did they. I tried to suggest that the driver might bring the wallet to them if he found it, but I don't think the message got through.

I called Daniel in Korla, and he and Lillian made some phone calls and found out that there are pictures of every car that goes in and out of the apartment grounds. They found out the license plate number and called the taxi company. Two days later we're still waiting for some news from them.

I called my banks to report my lost cards. Unfortunately, some of the lost card hot lines are 800 numbers that I can't call from China. Fortunately I have local numbers that I can call and be transferred to the hot lines. Unfortunately, that's expensive. Fortunately, I can call for 2 cents a minute with Skype. Unfortunately I needed to make more calls after I reported the lost cards, to get new ones, and my Skype credit is running out, and I won't be able to add any until I get the new cards! Fortunately, I might still have enough to make the calls I need to make.

Yesterday I went to my branch office of the Bank of China to ask for a new card. Fortunately some people work there who speak enough English to help me fill out the forms, which are in Chinese with no English translations. Unfortunately, I had to sign forms I couldn't read.

Next challenge: How to find the nearest police station so I can report my loss to the police, and how to explain why it took me two days (or will it be three or four?) to report it.