爬中文山

练习口语的问题挑战，第18天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 18. 

https://youtu.be/HT3NQW_CaKA

练习口语的问题挑战，第17天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 17. 

https://youtu.be/mWWUTVN93ZU

练习口语的问题挑战，第16天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 16. 

https://youtu.be/bWMfLw5UQRs

练习口语的问题挑战，第15天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 15. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/MvhwDqq6fx0?feature=share

https://youtu.be/RgP7rkhIW_w

练习口语的问题挑战，第14天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 14. 

怎么称呼您？ How should I address you?

https://youtu.be/BcuolO6A-Ag

练习口语的问题挑战，第13天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 13. 

什么让你紧张？What makes you nervous?

https://youtube.com/shorts/sup6hTC0qXY?feature=share

练习口语的问题挑战，第12天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 12. 

Out for beers, no time to make a long video

练习口语的问题挑战，第11天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 11.

https://youtu.be/EpWgVrFHDXk

I went a little longer with this one, and tried to go a little more "free speaking", this was the third take. A little easy because of the topic.

你觉得好朋友的定义是什么？What do you think is the definition of a good friend?

练习口语的问题挑战，第10天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 10. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/TR3A7gklLoY?feature=share

你有什么怪僻吗？Do you have any strange habits?

练习口语的问题挑战，第九天。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 9.

https://youtube.com/shorts/VtgY9k4Xdng?feature=share

练习中文口语挑战：第八天
30 days speaking practice：Day 8

https://youtube.com/shorts/NuuYPXs6-mQ?feature=share

So far this has been an excellent practice activity. Honestly, it's hard to film myself speaking and every evening I'd rather not do it. However, every time after it's done, I'm glad I 坚持. I practice it several times, I try to put in some grammar that I don't use enough,  try to push myself to go faster, it's good exercise. I've had some corrections and feedback from native speakers on WeChat. Will definitely carry this out for 30 days.

练习中文口语挑战：第七天 30 days speaking practice：Day 7

https://youtu.be/GTaKZWSpaTA

你老家的气候怎么样？What's your hometown's climate like?

练习中文口语挑战：第六天 30 days speaking practice：Day 6

https://youtube.com/shorts/jvVQFuq033o?feature=share

怎样给岳父岳母留下好印象？How would make a good impression on your in laws?

第五天练习口语的问题挑战。 30 day speaking challenge, Day 5.

https://youtu.be/K04YvTEVi1k

https://youtube.com/shorts/JI5jioE-4e4?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/44DG2WHVK5c?feature=share

I made a video practicing for the speaking test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJR0dg2xiWk

I really enjoyed practicing part 2 and 3 and think I will do more of it in the future, whether specifically for the test or even just as something to practice talking about. I did two hours of it with a tutor on Italki last night and the time flew by. Seems that although I "know" all the vocab and grammar of Hsk 4, I don't readily produce it?.

OK, this is barely cooking, but so delicious. Had this home 烧烤 a few days ago. The beef was sent frozen and vacuum sealed as a gift from my wife's friend in Guangzhou. She sent it to us to have during the impending BJ lockdown...which never happened - hooray! 

I was reminded by the "2022 goals" thread that I had listed a goal of completing all the Chinese Breeze level 2 and 3 readers. Up to now, I had only completed 3 of 7 of 二级 and hadn't cracked one open in 6 months. So last week I banged out the remaining 4 books of 二级. The nice thing was that I was able to read them extremely easily. I remember a year ago I found them very slow going. Now I was able to read them in one sitting of about 1.5 hours each and not looking up anything , just glancing at a few footnoted items. I also rarely had to re-read a sentence to get the meaning. I put that down to reading DuChinese intermediate every day and just general improvement.

I also ordered (and received next day - 京东谢谢！）four of the five level 3 books and will start in on them next week.

This summer I've been enjoying an extra bit of 扎啤 / draft beer. Something about draft always tastes better than bottles and I like buying local stuff. It's pretty popular in Beijing to sell these bags（or sometimes canisters) of draft beer by waimai 外卖 or walking in the shop directly. They add  pressure to the bag before sealing, so it arrives fresh, bubbly and cold within about a half hour. The price is right too. 1.5 - 2 liters for around 17rmb for Beijing/qingdao draft, 35-50 for white or wheat beer, 70-100 for Ipa. 

This one is wheat from a place called URbrew and made in 河北:

Standard Beijing draft and Qingdao( I was drinking the Qingdao during a zoom call with some friends back home and they thought it was hilarious:

My favorite hands down, a beautiful beer, ipa, from 叁金叁 whatever that is(?)  85kuai for about 5 pints:

Another wheat beer that's very popular, 泰山 Taishan from Shandong, pretty nice fresh wheat beer, 60kuai for 2 liters:

I just received this yesterday cold-chain shipped from the city of 青岛 , no idea yet how it tastes, but 40,000 people have ordered it on taboo and positive reviews, on sale for 28kuai for 2 liters, I had to get one:

Next one I'll prob try is this one:

My wife was busy doing something and asked me to cook. I said ok you instruct me something (in Chinese, of course) and I'll do the footwork. So I made these 2 dishes, nothing complicated, but they turned out damned tasty! 

1)String beans 豆角儿 

cubed Beef 牛肉块儿

potatoe 土豆儿条 ?

green onion 葱

garlic 大蒜 ?

oil 油

oyster sauce 蚝油

soy sauce 酱油

cooking wine 料酒 ?

sugar 白糖 

salt 盐?

Thirteen aroma 十三香

2)Water spinach 空心菜,

garlic 大蒜 ?

green onion 葱

soy sauce 酱油

red pepper that I have been drying for months 辣椒 ?️

oil 油

salt 盐?

Finally finished Hsk-4上. Took me six months. That's a bit slow but I'm simultaneously studying the Chinese Made Easier 4 book and almost halfway through that as well. The CME and Hsk series have a different focus, but also overlap in many places. Tomorrow I will break the seal on the 4下 book. I definitely feel it's getting harder, but not overly difficult, so I think Im at my sweet spot.

I happened to be near Beijing Foreign Studies university today and saw there was a bookstore， so I popped in for a look. They had loads of Chinese study books, graded readers and so on. I need more resources like I need a hole in the head but I couldn't help myself. I can NEVER have enough listening, so I picked up 汉语听力系列教材( hanyu tingli xilie jiaocai). I assumed intermediate level but was surprised to see:

Elementary 上 = hsk3

Elementary 下 = hsk4.

Intermediate 上and下 comprises hsk 5

So I took the hsk 4 one for now and the hsk 5 for later. These have downloadable mp3s by scanning the QR code.

I also bought Short-Term Listening and Short-Term Reading, again Elementary corresponds to Hsk 4(Elementary sounds so low ?). This came with a CD of mp3s, so I will have to go to a copy shop and get them to put it on a usb for me.

Finally, I took a sort of Hsk4 dictionary 词汇学习手册 and a book of cloze practice for Hsk4 words. Altogether ran me 165 块. Not for dust collection, I will finish them all ?

Had to give up on 人世间 for now. Too difficult for my level. Dongbei hua and the length don't make it any easier. Decided instead to watch 我的青春谁做主 -My Youthfulness (2009). This is the second series of the "Youth" trilogy 奋斗，and 北京青年 being the first and third. Have watched the first two episodes, there are 32 in total. I'm watching it on my 小米 wall projector, so it's not very convenient to stop and look up words. That's my goal for this one, just to watch it and get what I get. 

I've switched up my language learning schedule several times over the years, I'm really enjoying my current routine(somewhat influenced by Matt vs. Japan/AJATT). It's also simple to  follow:

1/3 time spent on textbook - currently Hsk Standard Course 4 and CME 4

1/3 time spent on reading (including videos where I read all hanzi subtitles line by line) - currently 奋斗 tv drama and Du chinese

1/3 time spent just listening - currently "Free to Learn videos", Native YouTube videos(on topics that I'm familiar with)

Other: 3-4 italki classes per week, Srs Flashcards, real life