"Blind listening" followed by guided practice? Kinda sentence mining

[Andrew 45]

Hiya! I had somewhat abandoned my study of Chinese to pursue a Master's degree (though I was still studying characters through Heisig) and now have a job and no longer need to study. What's interesting is that I have a (seriously) 1.5 hour commute to the city I work by bus (I choose bus over driving for gas, the ability to sleep and my bus pass is compensated by my work) so I actually get a lot of time to watch Chinese TV (listen, actually) and I've taken to listening to the same 5 episodes I have managed to get onto my phone each way on my way to and from work (just 5 for now since I only have time to get them on weekends, really). 

 

What I've noticed is that just "blind listening", listening to episodes where I get a few sentences out of the whole episode, and can pick words out of others has greatly increased my enthusiasm for learning Chinese and so I'm wondering about sentence mining (I think that's the right term) these same episodes on weekends by following the subtitles, looking up the pronunciation (even pronouncing it myself) and meaning and in general just... digesting each sentence. I actually already did this with the first 2 minutes of one of the episodes before my spare time got eaten by studdi-or the time eater and still have the "transcript" I managed to make of that. 

 

So, I guess my question is what do I do when I come across words or phrases that just don't translate well? I mean an common exclamation I hear is 天公伯啊, which I guess means God's brother? The Universe? I honestly just don't know and Pleco (realllly good ap, btw) has mostly 1-2 character combinations and longer idioms. Any idea how I should go about finding these translations, or just play it by context clues?

 

I just got home from work and am a bit tired, but I really wanted to make this topic this week before Friday, so please forgive me if what I'm asking is vague or doesn't make sense.

 

Thanks for your time and consideration!

[Radical Mandarin]

Look up the word in question in the Chinese search engine - www.baidu.com 

 

• your phrase 什么意思 （what's the meaning of your phrase)

 

I did just that with your phrase (omitting 啊 as it doesn't mean anything here), and the answer was right there, the very first result on top.

 

It's perfectly OK to just copy-paste it into www.google.translate.com if you don't understand what it says.

 

In your case, google translated the question and answer as this:
 

Peter Tsai asked God Minnan region _ Baidu know what it meant

 

Answer

Is the "God" means. Two means are similar, but some places are just not the same to say.

 

So, it means "God!"

 

If the answer doesn't make much sense, you could click on visit the pages and google translate a page or two.

 

I hope it helps.

[Andrew 45]

Thanks, Radical Mandarin!

[victorhart]

I would submit you should consider not bothering to look up translations and focusing on enjoying the shows and simply training your ear. Of course doing some research from time to time, such as with a term that you are particularly curious about, can be good, but overall in language acquisition I prefer to enjoy content--and I think this is more effective overall. When it comes to languages, our brains are really good at sorting things out naturally, as long as our interest and attention are present.

[Andrew 45]

Thanks Victorhart.

 

I'm actually still rather a beginner and can only understand very simple sentences... it really came as a shock to me to hear "你们不知到负责人什么意思对吧“ the first time at regular talking speed (like really fast to me) and know exactly what it meant... fun stuff. You seem to know about this kind of "study" (is it study if you enjoy it? ) so I ask is it better to get a mixture of material or to put a bit more emphasis on repeating material? I've been somewhat repeating since I started and I discover words and sentences in the episodes that I know, but forgot I knew or it went too fast for me to hear but I'm starting to get a hold for the speed. Your thoughts?

[victorhart]

Hi Andrew, I'm sure I'm much more of a beginner than you, so take my opinions regarding Mandarin acquisition with a grain of salt. 

 

I think you touched on a couple of issues that are more important than techniques like sentence mining or getting translations just right: motivation and having fun. One of they keys to successful language acquisition is finding sources for endless hours of enjoyable listening. That is what I'm doing that in my Mandarin acquisition experiment.

 

Since you say you are a beginner as well, you might want to consider incorporating kids' content. I use the show Qiao Hu, which is for toddlers but is tolerable for short periods of time and extremely helpful. I also enjoy watching episodes of Boonie Bears. Both are available on YouTube. I also like Disney movies dubbed in Mandarin--I chose to use them because of my 7-year-old daughter, but I've found that they're really fun to watch and the dubbing is high quality. Also, I just found a album of children's music that is really good and that I might incorporate into my listening while driving: Little Dragon Tales by the Shanghai Restoration Project.