by Jonny | Oct 16, 2011 | Updates
… so I'm going to go to sleep now.
I need to get adequate sleep otherwise it will effect my memory from what I've read. According to some internet nerd if you don't get enough sleep, your short-term memory will not be good as your brain processes the information you obtained and stores it in the right compartment of your brain. (So perhaps that is my issue? I am not getting enough sleep! :D) – So here is to a new method to solving my mental issues.
I've completed all my homework and in-fact the teacher didn't give us a 50 questions to answer on our sheet, she in-fact gave us 70 questions to answer. Although I had the help of my cousin, it still took a while to complete the sheet and to be honest I still don't fully understand it.
So tomorrow, I'll wake up early. (Probably around 6 a.m. and just study the sheet a bit more and figure out why the answers I put down were/are correct) 😀
Hopefully tomorrow's lesson goes well. I just hate having bad lessons where I think I've done badly, although I have studied hard for those lessons not to look like a dummy. It just sucks when I have spent most of today studying, yet it seems others spend a couple hours and they are better than me at the lesson. (Though I'm not judging others, I'm in fact judging myself)
Damn am I finding this Chinese hard. Tomorrow I will find a language partner as apparently you can sign up for one at the language centre for free, as they are aspiring teachers who want to gain experience in teaching Chinese to others. So I think that would be quite helpful if I did in-fact sign up for a language partner. Then I could ask the questions I need to ask to actually have this stuff figured out in my brain! I may have to re-take the same level class that I am in again, but I guess that isn't too bad. I met an acquaintance (through a friend) and she had been studying Chinese for 5 years and she is only a level above me and I have only been studying for around 4.5 months. That gave me relief as that made me feel as if I'm not the only one struggling! (Although from my perspective, I am the only one really struggling in my own class, although most of my class mates are Asian!) – So my Korean friend has been continuously saying to me that I shouldn't be comparing myself to them, since their languages are more similar to Chinese than in comparison to English. (My first language)
Another person who is my friend (Who is from America) also re-took the same level as mine. In fact he said he thought he needed to re-take level 0 Chinese. – That gave me hope as I had the same feeling as well! He said he used to come into Chinese class every morning sad, which kind of reminds me of me and when the teacher asked him why he was sad, he would state "I suck at Chinese…". – Kind of the same situation as me. 😀 It kind of made me feel that I'm not alone in this. I mean I have read stories online of people not being able to learn the language within 10 years or they stayed at the same level for over 10 years and never really progressed. I just hope that isn't me. I mean I know that isn't me, because with a little more time I can progress onto the next level. I'm just learning really slowly or slower than others, which is really pissing me off.
/end rant 😀
by Jonny | Oct 15, 2011 | Updates
Okay so we have this small homework book which accompanies the main text book. I find the homework quite easy because if I ever get stuck, I can refer to the text-book and work out from there what to do. Where with these sheets that the teacher gives us, there is hardly any support for that type of content. Or any support which I can understand. 😀
It kind of made me happy that I could do that work and I didn't even have to refer back to the main text-book because we learned all that in class! I mean it is great our teacher is giving us extra homework and work to do; to work out for ourselves, but it is very stressful. – Especially when you aren't sure what you are doing is correct. I will have to spend tomorrow with my cousin to help me with my worksheets or to least tell me if I'm doing any of it correctly.
As for my social life…
I have kind of let that slip for now. I'm just focusing on studying Chinese, remembering the Chinese characters and trying to get hopefully get better at this very difficult language. But because of this I haven't been going out with any friends and I have essentially isolated myself to … myself only. It is kind of sad. But at the moment, I have this attitude of "I don't care about anything anymore…", I just need to learn this language and catch up with everyone else.
by Jonny | Oct 13, 2011 | Updates
This question bothers me considering the death toll sustained by both forces of Iraq, the coalition and importantly not forgetting the many tens of thousands of innocent civilians who were killed Iraq; as a consequence of war and the insurgency which ensued.
We have seen all over the middle-east uprisings which have taken down dictatorships who have been in power for many years. Would the same have occurred had the west not invaded Iraq eventually.
Although this is all in hindsight and people can't predict the future and what will happen, I'm just wondering, in a different world, would the situation be different to the extent that Saddam was overthrown without the death's of so many people.
This of course is speculation as to whether Saddam would have eventually been overthrown. However consider the 1991 First Gulf War and how Saddam's army was in disarray being totally destroyed of any fighting power. You could say the people of Iraq could have used that as an opportunity to up-rise against Saddam. However I guess the people didn't have the will-power to want to do that at the time. Though I again wonder if the people of Iraq would have been influenced by other middle-eastern countries and their uprisings against their own dictators, effectively running and controlling the country like a monarchy. I just wonder if the large death-toll which ensued because of western forces and Al-Qaeda forces who came in later on, could it have been averted if an uprising similar to what we are seeing and saw in the middle, could have happened in Iraq?
Just something I was thinking about.
by Jonny | Oct 12, 2011 | Updates
Scratch what I said in this post I actually might be in the Taiwanese military this year.
In that post I mentioned (link) above, my mother wrote a letter to the Mayor of Taichung. She told me that I wouldn't have to join by October of… NEXT YEAR; in accordance to her letter she sent to the mayor. Well apparently that isn't the case or more or so, my mother isn't sure about that anymore. I'm going to be going tomorrow to the register office (I have my Taiwanese ID now, so I am now officially Taiwanese) to obtain my National Health Insurance (NHI) card and my Taiwanese passport.
I guess I will find out tomorrow, when I'll have to actually join. It comes as a surprise really, as I kind of thought and wished I could have enough time to learn Chinese without any worries of any draft requirement coming in anytime soon. It just doesn't look to be the case anymore.
I talked to my dad and I simply said to him: "Whatever happens… happens."
There is nothing I can do to change anything which involves this, other than the excuse of my ADD issue, but I actually do want to join the Taiwanese military purely for the experience and considering I blog about the military on my other website.
by Jonny | Oct 11, 2011 | Updates
OK so I did the test today, I'm anticipating the results of that test tomorrow.
But I'm scared I'll get a lower mark than I expected and I'll lose all will-power for Chinese. I mean I studied for 14 hours straight in one day on two separate days. Additionally the days previous to that, I studied long hours as well. I have been working my butt off with this Chinese. I kind of can see the improvements in myself and my knowledge of Chinese, but if I don't see that through this freaking test, then there is obviously something wrong with me mentally. XD!
I'm just very nervous. At the moment, I need to study two freaking dialogues, one of which is not so bad however the other is extensive as I explained in the post below this. It is essentially an entire 3 minute conversation. I mean I can read all of it, no problem, the problem comes with memorizing the entire transcript without looking at the book. I don't think I can do that with English let alone Chinese haha.
Kidding aside, I have a bad memory, trying to remember an entire conversation in another language I'm not that astute with is like asking me to remember which order I put my clothes into my bag when I left England for Taiwan. (Yeah it is that bad!) 😛
Shite.
by Jonny | Oct 11, 2011 | Updates
I had the long awaited test today and I hope I have at least got a pass grade. AT LEAST.
I felt during the test I did OK. Not as good as I should be considering I just spent the past 2 days learning Chinese and I was focused.
The first part of the test was answering a question which the teacher would say. I found this extremely difficult, BUT the teacher came around and said I answered the question correctly. Whether I got the rest of the questions which ensued, correctly, I don't know. Another part of the test entailed making up sentences with a verb given. We just had to make a sentence with those verbs. – I guess this was my favourite part of the test, since I think I did that well. The middle part of the test was simply adding the correct verbs to the questions. (A fill-in the blanks type test)
All in all the test went OK. But I thought that last time and that really hurt me when I got a really low grade. I guess it pushed my motivation for Chinese right out the window. (As I thought I had done well in a previous test)
So this time I am not going to second guess. Whatever mark I get, I get. If I do badly, I will cry to myself while reading my Chinese book. I'll push through. I guess learning Chinese for me has proven that dedication is required in order to learn this language. (Just for me) – Since many of my other friends don't have to be so dedicated to get high marks in tests etc. Yet they do so well.
OK. It is time to study now. I have to practise these two dialogues, one isn't that long, but the other is quite extensive. 🙁 The smaller one I'm not worried about, but the bigger one, I'll find hard to remember. I'll just have to keep repeating it until it is finally in my head!!!