What are you reading?

[Luxi]

On 10/30/2024 at 5:17 AM, Wei-Ming 魏明 said:

a novelization of 宋慈's casebook?

 

Not a novelization, but this edition of the Casebook might interest you 

https://read.douban.com/ebook/127420903/

The original classical text by Song Ci is followed by a modern translation, at first glance it reads like a novel. A rather macabre one, good for November reading.

 

Quick search on eBook Douban brings a few more 

https://read.douban.com/search?sort=default&page=1&q=宋慈

 

[becky82]

I just finished reading 老舍's 《猫城记》, a sci-fi political satire.  I read the whole novel aloud (~118000 characters), and it took me about 16 or 17 hours total (over 10 videos).

[Wei-Ming 魏明]

Well dang, 宋慈洗冤筆記 was gripping. I no longer care that 'the story you are about to read is a fib but the names are true to protect the innocent.' Just really enjoyed it a lot.

 

At the textual/linguistic level, there was a lot of fluctuation. On some pages I could read everything without references. There were about three pages where I shamefacedly had to go to Google Translate to figure out what in the world was going on. Just too much of a historical info dump with unfamiliar proper names, no-longer-used place names, and abbreviated sentence structures. That didn't dampen my interest in seeing what would happen in the story, and I appreciated that 巫童 needed the set the scene for events to come. 

[markhavemann]

On 11/3/2024 at 12:32 PM, becky82 said:

I read the whole novel aloud (~118000 characters), and it took me about 16 or 17 hours total (over 10 videos).

If you posted this on YouTube you should definitely post a link too. It's so nice to see (not just read) what other people are doing with their Chinese studies, and I couldn't seem to find any videos on your channel, although I admittedly didn't look past the main page.

[becky82]

On 12/5/2024 at 1:49 PM, markhavemann said:

If you posted this on YouTube you should definitely post a link too

 

There's a bit of a balance between sharing what you do, and not being a spammer.  Anyway I added the videos of me reading aloud the entirety of 猫城记 to a playlist just now and they're here.

 

This says the total length of the videos is:

 

Quote

Total length : 17 hours, 44 minutes, 43 seconds

 

[lordsuso]

hey @becky82 I have tried to read aloud from time to time to practice my pronunciation but I am never able to follow what I am saying when I do so, did that happen to you in the beginning? does it go away?

[becky82]

I usually find the opposite is true.  If I don't read aloud, my brain (or part of it) wanders off and thinks about other things.  My eyes will have looked at the content, but I'd have no idea what it says.  Reading aloud helps me stay present (in English and Chinese).

 

Was I unable to follow what I read when reading aloud in the beginning?  I actually don't recall (I've been learning Chinese for quite a while now).  I recall making lots of notes in the past, e.g., adding pinyin to characters I couldn't pronounce (you can see my annotations for Matilda in e.g. this video; the annotations were from when I was at a late-HSK4 level, but the video was made after I had passed the HSK5).

[markhavemann]

On 12/6/2024 at 9:17 AM, becky82 said:

There's a bit of a balance between sharing what you do, and not being a spammer. 

True, although for me at least, seeing you and others regularly posting stuff that you're doing is inspiring rather than annoying (and I doubt there's a financial incentive to push this kind of niche Chinese language learning content on YouTube). Also, I'd rather see a few too many posts about what people are doing with their Chinese studies instead of "what city should I go to" and "do you think I can get a scholarship" posts (not that there is anything wrong with those posts, they just aren't what keep me coming back to the site). That said, I do appreciate you being hesitant to post links to your own stuff too much.

 

On 12/6/2024 at 9:17 AM, becky82 said:

This says the total length of the videos is:

 

Quote

Total length : 17 hours, 44 minutes, 43 seconds

 

This is such a nice way of recording your reading level at a point in time in such a tangible way. I wish I'd done this for the first book that I ever read so I could compare now. I might do it for the next one I read though.