Catherineli Posted August 9, 2014 Report Share Posted August 9, 2014 Catherine, You are such a good role model for all Chinese ladies. You know what you are passionate about, and you took action! - finishing 2 online courses and got qualified is not easy! Like Larry said, I believe you will succeed once you set your direction!The whole universe will work it's magic to help you achieve your goal!Well, Joecy, thank you for your encouraging words!! I learn English everywhere, even from someone's shirt on the street. I built friends with native English speakers who live in China. They need me to be their "mouth". That is a good team being set up and a a good chance for English learners to be immersed in English. But very few Americans like to stay in the north of China. Thank you, Larry, you're encouraging me to use more slang or idioms. I will, but I know I'll never finish learning the marvelous language.Hello Ruby, I sent you a message in Chinese many days ago. Now the best wishes to you and your family!Hello Zhenghong!! I also sent you a message in Chinese many days ago. Now the best wishes to you and your family! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Posted August 9, 2014 Report Share Posted August 9, 2014 My eyes get wet reading your introductions, ladies. You ladies bring a whole new spirit to CFL. I think of how we have progressed now to this point, and hope some of the others will return. Slang and idioms: My former stepdaughter came to America at age 6. She only knew a little English. She returned to China for one more year and had a good English teacher, than came to the USA permanently. This time she was a success. She read children's novels aggressively, and even ran for a position in student counsel in the 3rd grade at school, without even telling us until it was too late to help. She did not get elected, but wrote and gave a speech in front of the whole school. Later in Texas she ran for office in the 5th grade and won. Well, she continued reading to the point that her mother regulated it, but she seemed to love flashlights, I kept buying them for her, all kinds, and later discovered she was using them up reading under the covers at night. I believe she got only 3-5 hours sleep most night. She knows more idioms than I do. She knew better formal English than me also, in the 5th & 6th grade. She read hundreds of books. I read through a few and saw it was using idioms fluently and teaching her the true English we speak daily in the USA, as well as some daily life and culture. So, don't discount story books and what they can do for you. Read children's books, then young teen books. Just a suggestion. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherineli Posted August 9, 2014 Report Share Posted August 9, 2014 (edited) Wow, Doug, this little girl is a big inspiration for me!!!!!! thank you for sharing. yes, reading some novels or books will lure us reaing more. It's easier for young children to step into a new world. How old is this young girl now? She is a stellar for everyone! What makes me headache is the accent. NO matter how hard I tried to improve my pronunciation, I'm still Chinese whose tone reveals easily. I guess it's too late for me to mimic native speakers. thanks again Doug. Edited August 9, 2014 by Catherineli (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amberjack1234 Posted August 9, 2014 Report Share Posted August 9, 2014 Wow, Doug, this little girl is a big inspiration for me!!!!!! thank you for sharing. yes, reading some novels or books will lure us reaing more. It's easier for young children to step into a new world. How old is this young girl now? She is a stellar for everyone! What makes me headache is the accent. NO matter how hard I tried to improve my pronunciation, I'm still Chinese whose tone reveals easily. I guess it's too late for me to mimic native speakers. thanks again Doug.I find that the asian accent when talking is very alluring to me. With a lot of practice it can be overcome but like you said young kids will do the best in this ares. We Americans have a lot of accents too. People form the north speak with a norther accent and people from the south speak with a southern accent and they can be quite different. My wife use to love to hear Peter Jennings give the news. He was a news anchor but found that he had cancer and died pretty quickly. She misses him giving the news instead of Dian Sawyer, which is now leaving. She never liked Dian. Larry Larry 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubyA Posted August 9, 2014 Report Share Posted August 9, 2014 Catherine, Hello Ruby, I sent you a message in Chinese many days ago. Now the best wishes to you and your family! Hey Catherine, I got your message, but it was not readable.. Not sure what happened.. Would you send it again? Thanks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joecy Posted August 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2014 (edited) Doug, great suggestion on learning from the children's book! I'm doing this with my daughter, very fun to read together with her. These are the ones I found very interesting: Amelia BedilaJunie B JonesRainbow fairies...and all the other fairies books... Now she moves to Captain Underpants, funny comic, even I couldn't stop reading. For most of our Chinese, we missed the entire English class on humor. This part of my English level is lower than kindergartens. I often have straight face when American is telling a joke. One big difference on reading I noticed: The ability to read is very emphasized in US education. There are also so many fun series books for children, which makes reading easier and more enjoyable. The ability to read a lot, read different types of book is not emphasized in Chinese education. The other sad part is, not many fun Children book available in Chinese, which makes it harder for kids to fall in love with reading in Chinese. I saw my daughter making great process in reading English, but not much on Chinese..... Edited August 10, 2014 by Joecy (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy W Posted August 11, 2014 Report Share Posted August 11, 2014 Doug, great suggestion on learning from the children's book! I'm doing this with my daughter, very fun to read together with her. These are the ones I found very interesting: Amelia BedilaJunie B JonesRainbow fairies...and all the other fairies books... Now she moves to Captain Underpants, funny comic, even I couldn't stop reading. For most of our Chinese, we missed the entire English class on humor. This part of my English level is lower than kindergartens. I often have straight face when American is telling a joke. One big difference on reading I noticed: The ability to read is very emphasized in US education. There are also so many fun series books for children, which makes reading easier and more enjoyable. The ability to read a lot, read different types of book is not emphasized in Chinese education. The other sad part is, not many fun Children book available in Chinese, which makes it harder for kids to fall in love with reading in Chinese. I saw my daughter making great process in reading English, but not much on Chinese..... A Chinese friend of mine says that learning to read in the first place is more difficult because of the Chinese characters, but that there are far fewer characters to learn than there are words in English (learning around 2000 characters is considered proficient in Chinese, whereas you might need to learn 20,000 or more English words in order to read at a newspaper level). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amberjack1234 Posted August 11, 2014 Report Share Posted August 11, 2014 (edited) Doug, great suggestion on learning from the children's book! I'm doing this with my daughter, very fun to read together with her. These are the ones I found very interesting: Amelia BedilaJunie B JonesRainbow fairies...and all the other fairies books... Now she moves to Captain Underpants, funny comic, even I couldn't stop reading. For most of our Chinese, we missed the entire English class on humor. This part of my English level is lower than kindergartens. I often have straight face when American is telling a joke. One big difference on reading I noticed: The ability to read is very emphasized in US education. There are also so many fun series books for children, which makes reading easier and more enjoyable. The ability to read a lot, read different types of book is not emphasized in Chinese education. The other sad part is, not many fun Children book available in Chinese, which makes it harder for kids to fall in love with reading in Chinese. I saw my daughter making great process in reading English, but not much on Chinese.....That is great for you and your daughter, Joecy. I understand what you are saying about not getting American humor. It comes form not knowing enough english and english history of everyday life. It use to the difficult part for Liren when she first came here. The english language was not the problem as she understood every word but did not know what the story/joke was about. All that will just take time and learning. After 14 years here she knows and understand a joke or funny sorry just like I do as a matter of fact she keeps me laughing, making and telling jokes on me now. She gets the advantage on me quite often. It took a LOT of explaining to get her to this point but it was worth it. I have always tried to be understanding and patient as I knew that it was all new to her. If I had not been she would never have learned and would never have been a part of the crowd and understood what they thought was so funny. Larry Edited August 11, 2014 by amberjack1234 (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Posted August 15, 2014 Report Share Posted August 15, 2014 (edited) Catherineli, she is 13 now. Joecy, please understand her mother was against those story books, because after all they were not math and science. But those books helped her way more. Over in China, The Little-One endured being made fun of in school by the other kids, because her mom started her off in the 2nd grade, skipping the first grade, so she was younger and smaller. Then there was homework until midnight over there. Though they came to America, her Mom was 'Chinese old school thinking' and resisted her daughter playing with friends, or having fun on vacations. So, the little girl was determined to be an American and make friends anyway. She was a fanatic about reading. It taught her how to get along and to understand every joke and the daily life and talking. She charmed her way into the student council, & we helped with the posters a little, as her speech was just so-so in front of all the kids. But she won, and was popular, and the principle wanted to adopt her. But all of these things were her idea. I saw how she worked the principle and office people and teachers. She was the best politician I ever saw. I almost felt sorry for the adults working in that school. Now she lives in another school system up in Plano, TX, one of the best. (Which is not good for the top Universities her Mom wants her to go to. Class ranking, in a lesser school, is more important than what Highschool you go to , IN THE USA!!! Some Chinese figured that out, and moved back OUT OF Plano and into a lesser school, so their child will be ranked #1 or in the upper crust.) It also has a HUGE Asian population, so she is back in the middle of the pack again, a year younger than her peers. Now her Mom understands America better, and worries that she does not have enough friends or get along with others so well. But, life isn't so bad now. They have a peace between them. Mom and Daughter had to learn, so they can get along. She achieved getting into the highest orchestra in the school, yet she has zero pitch ability and sings like a horse, haha, and she knows it, but she got good on the viola. Playing a music instrument was required in Plano. This next year she will be one of the girls swinging the flags around during half time at the football games. So, not the big time leader anymore, but I suspect she is waiting to go to college and then be herself again. I hope all this enduring the huge study crap at school has not killed her energetic personality. School can certainly take creativity out of a kid. Some of our best leaders don't have a college degree, you know. Edited August 15, 2014 by Doug (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis143 Posted August 16, 2014 Report Share Posted August 16, 2014 Poof... where did all the ladies go? I was really enjoying their input... nice change. Hope they're still around. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amberjack1234 Posted August 16, 2014 Report Share Posted August 16, 2014 Catherineli has gone to her family reunion but will be back soon. Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpedbored Posted August 18, 2014 Report Share Posted August 18, 2014 Poof... where did all the ladies go? I was really enjoying their input... nice change. Hope they're still around. I'm with you Dennis. I was really enjoying this forum. I hope they come back soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Posted August 20, 2014 Report Share Posted August 20, 2014 Yeah, we need educating. .......I'll shut up and listen..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilton747 Posted August 22, 2014 Report Share Posted August 22, 2014 Yeah, we need educating. .......I'll shut up and listen.....So you do remember the lesson you ,learned over and over,, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joecy Posted August 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2014 Yeah, we need educating. .......I'll shut up and listen.....So you do remember the lesson you ,learned over and over,, What was the lesson ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now