(NPPLC) 2013 文言文 Beginner Study Group Proposal

[eshton]

I would love to join but I'm not exactly a complete beginner or self-studying student. However, I would love to get into a self-contained study mode to improve, I could also help out with grammar if need be.

[roddy]

New moderators duly appointed, use the force wisely.

A piece of advice on scheduling - by all means try and move through stuff at a rate of one lesson per week, or whatever. But don't prominently feature the date in titles or anything - new members will come along is six months and assume they're too late. Title them as "Lesson 1, start here' or something, rather than Lesson 1, January 7 2012"

Good luck!

[sleepy eyes of death]

Count me in big time!

[Brandon263]

I'm in! Looks interesting.

[DrWatson]

@roddy:

Good advice! We shall try to keep everything open ended.

@eshton:

Your experience and knowledge will be much appreciated!

@all:

Tomorrow I will create a post for the first chapter. Looking forward to learning with you!

[DrWatson]

FYI:

Lesson topics will be posted with the following title:

(NPPLC) Chapter #n - Chapter Title

[xuexiansheng]

I was discussing this book with my teacher and he was familiar with it and mentioned a few (I forget his exact words) "cheeky, saucy, or irreverent" example and exercise sentences. He liked them, he just found them surprising. I'll be keeping a lookout for these as we read along.

Anyone found anything that my teacher might be alluding to?

Maybe:

民無行慈惠之謀 (p. 21)

The people do not have any plans to practice kindness (p. 367)

[DrWatson]

Interesting, I shall try to be more observant. I really look forward to finding a gem. Brings me back to my days with the Cambridge Latin Series, and how amusing some of the lessons were. I'll never forget the lesson where there is an illustration of Servus and Kerberos (a family dog), and I could not tell whether the dog was biting Servus's hand or if Servus was delivering a shot to the snout. All of the exercises for English->Latin had something to do with hitting something. You can imagine how a classroom of secondary school students would react to this.

[DrWatson]

To anyone just discovering our study group here, please feel free to join in at anytime. If the group is on lesson #5 and you're starting with lesson #1, just ask questions or make comments in the topic for lesson #1. It will bubble to the top and those of us active in the study group will surely notice it and take a look.

[Meng Lelan]

Rouzer text came in mail today, looks awesome. The Faurot Gateway was driving me insane and I didn't know why until I saw how Rouzer is structured. Looks like I need to really run through the first several chapters to make the Chapter 6 being discussed starting....today? My only complaint about the text is I wish I could see more selections from Three Kingdoms and the Analects.

[navaburo]

Meng Lelan: So glad you will be joining us!

Do you have past Classical experience?

Feel free to post in the earlier chapter threads: think of each thread as an ongoing discussion, not limited to the week it was started.

That said, the schedule is there for us. If we have unanimous agreement, we can always make adjustments.

-Chris

[Meng Lelan]

Thanks....as for classical Chinese experience yes, with Faurot's Gateway to Classics but that was not the ideal text for me. Also I have more or less slogged through the Chinese edition of Three Kingdoms (but kind of followed along with the original television series filmed in the 1980s that I have on DVD here). On a daily basis I review or learn one or two verses from the Analects, again, in Chinese.

[Zhao Hanqing]

My translation is : Those who know his fate don't blame heaven, those who know himself don't blame others.

[DrWatson]

@Meng Lelan:

Unfortunately when I was looking for a text I wasn't so much looking at the content, rather I was looking at something that could be used as self study. It definitely would have been great to get some exposure to the writing style of Three Kingdoms.

Perhaps at the completion of this text, we can form a second group for Three Kingdoms? Personally, I was planning on reading 寒山 after I finish Rouzer's text, but I'd be up for Three Kingdoms study group once I have more confidence in my ability to parse classical Chinese. I must admit I would have a crutch though, I bought a children's (對中學生) version of Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West while in Taiwan, and that version would be much easier to read.

[Meng Lelan]

Perhaps at the completion of this text, we can form a second group for Three Kingdoms? Personally, I was planning on reading 寒山 after I finish Rouzer's text, but I'd be up for Three Kingdoms study group once I have more confidence in my ability to parse classical Chinese.

We can do that....if we get through Rouzer! Or maybe a mixture of Analects, Three Kingdoms, and whatever else we think of.

[xuexiansheng]

I vote for Three Kingdoms next....but we have a long way to go on Rouzer!

[xuexiansheng]

My personal copy of Rouzer came in the mail today! I'll be reading along with the group and looking back on the Ch. 6 & 7.

[navaburo]

All,

Sorry for falling off the face of the earth here, but something else has come up in my life that now occupies that ~10hrs per week that I had for Chinese study. I guess these things just happen.

I will continue to check the forum though, and I will at least try to keep up with the readings and make some contribution to the group.

So, if anyone DOES have the time, go ahead and create a thread for the next chapter and we can have at it!

Cheers,

Chris

[Zeppa]

I don't know if this project is still active. I wanted to introduce myself. I want to learn some classical Chinese for general education purposes. I started the Rouzer book about 7 weeks later than the rest and have only got up to chapter 4. What's more, I don't know if I can manage a lesson a week because it's not the only Chinese I want to do. I may find I just do the first section and then leave it for a while.

However, although the book is great, I now know what I don't like about it: I seem to spend the whole time turning pages over, and it's a huge paperback. The problem is probably my impatience: if I learnt each character very slowly, I would not have to keep cross-referencing. And there are good character lists at the end of each chapter.

What I want to do is go over the first four chapters again and as I do so, write out the Chinese, the pinyin with tones and Rouzer's translation all under each other in a new file, so I can print it out, cover one up and only look at the rest if I need to. I know that the elements have to be presented separately in the book, but I am over 18 and I can trust myself not to cheat too much. I would also like to record the correct answers to the exercises. When I do an exercise, I do one sentence and then check the solution, to make sure I have not gone totally wrong.

At the moment I've done the first text this way in Wenlin. It takes a bit of time but it's worth it for me.

[navaburo]

Zeppa: Glad you're finding a good study method. For me, I've been relying on a Heisig-like method for learning individual characters. I find that this has been good preparation for Rouzer.

I do plan to continue, but I got held up. Feel free to post in the earlier lessons and to create a new thread for the next chapter when you get there.

I look forward to discussions with you.