The last month I have been meeting with a language tutor on Tuesdays and Thursday. She is a college student who is in town only until the end of June.
She has been super helpful during the sessions. At first I thought I had to work on my pronunciation and vocab. And my tutor agrees. But my tutor helped me see that I also have to work on my grammar, my spacing when I talk or read, and understanding the culture to have my language reflect respect. And there is the whole side of writing words my tutor hasn't even touched. Man, I have so much to learn.
For right now, I need to practice the difference between c --> ch, z --> zh, s --> sh, words ending with ng vs. words ending in n, and then pronouncing r's more properly. One thing that is encouraging is that the tutor does tell me my pronunciation is improving, but then she will bring up a whole new thing that I need to do, ie grammar.
I enjoy each session, but after the 2-3 hour session, I am exhausted. By the next day, I am back to being excited to learn the language. I am now looking for a new tutor for the school year and look forward to more tutoring sessions.
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2 comments:
I admire you for learning a new language. The only AP I failed in HS was for Spanish because I'm terrible at foreign languages! Somehow my brothers got all the liberal arts genes.
next time seeing you 2 I am not sure I will be brave enough to speak with you, my Cantonese accent-Mandarin..,ha ha.
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