Signese

"When starting out learning the language in a practical way, beyond the textbook, these things can throw you for a loop because they often are not in the dictionary."

 

so true, paying attention to the environment around can be a real wake up call as one's true level of Chinese. My best advice to people  who have just got up and running is to "keep paying attention as soon as you close the text books" , even its its just a simple sign as a subway platform like 开往 instead of 方向    (as i thought it was about a year ).

 

 

Thing is you don;t need a good level to start paying attention. First month and there are plenty of super useful learning opportunities. I still remember my introduction to 将  was on a sign in Ikea restaurant, telling everyone to put their dirty dishes back on the . I was like "wow this is the same as 把?" Stuck ever since， 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 11/7/2019 at 9:16 AM, DavyJonesLocker said:

Thing is you don;t need a good level to start paying attention.

 

So true. This is essentially what got me into Chinese in the first place.

 

On my first trip to China in 2000, I couldn't understand any Chinese. But just from walking around Beijing and paying attention to road signs, I learned characters such as 东，南，西，北，中 and 路. I was curious as to how characters could be put together to make a sentence, so I purchased a Chinese grammar book when I returned to the UK, not having any particular intention of learning Chinese, but just to satisfy my intellectual curiosity. One thing leads to another, and...