Hey I’m back again, slightly sooner than expected, but still I thought I might as well let you know about today’s events.
The only activity I’m attending today is the Chinese Language Masterclass. Unfortunately, the Rugby 7’s and the Preston Cycling trip clashed with a lecture and I won’t be at the Wine Tasting as I’m off the SU Media Meeting, and I hope to see a few of you there too!
Right then, back to Chinese. Well, I’m glad to say that unlike Arabic, I managed to catch all of the class and unlike Arabic, Chinese looked slightly easier to pick up.
Firstly, we learnt that there are five different tones, which can alter the meanings of certain words. A – above the word means it’s flat, / is up, V is up then down, \ is up and nothing at all means it’s neutral. This is a pretty important point to learn because it really makes a difference with how you pronounce things, but apart from that the language is pretty straight forward.
Of course there are some letters that are pronounced differently and the word order of phrases is different, but to actual pronounce words is much easier than other languages.
This not to say that it was easy, trust me, it takes a while to work out which tones goes where and that’s before you look at the writing, which I’m glad to say we didn’t go anywhere near, but we learnt the basics and it certainly gave me a taste for more.
Along with basic polite introductions, learning how to count and order food, we also went on to learn some words from the Beijing Olympics, which was really interesting.
Sadly, the tutor left too soon for me to get an interview and I didn’t catch her name, but if I do I’ll post it up.
Right well that’s it for now. I’m popping all the photos up tonight and will work on the interviews tomorrow so keep an eye out and tomorrow I’m covering Futsal, Random Acts of Kindness, Getting Yourself Published and the Abseil so see you there.
Take care, night! x
Giving It All A Go 2008 