THIS IS ONLY AN IDEA - ONLY IF THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO TRY THIS.  THIS GAME IS ABOUT LEARNING NOUNS


Okay - this thread is in response to the other "Learn To Speak Mandarin" thread.  I believe that you can not learn anything without context.  I checked out the very fine thread over in the Jet Li forum and I'm afriad that for me, that would not work and I am gathering that a few other people have the same problem.

While the story thread advanced very quickly (and is still going... 'cause you DO want to know what happens in that story!)... this thread - if itt collects enough teachers/students - will advance a little bit slower....

It will require at least one person to monitor to make sure that the mandarin is correct and a few student to provide some competition.

It's a SIMPLE GAME....   this is how it is played:


Person A finds a photograph somewhere on alivenotdead (yes, this site, not google).   Then they would present that word in a post:

Example:


0) Person A posts:  a word like:  Actress

1) TEACHER will translate actress for them and provide one sentence like

"actress - nǚ yǎnyuán "   (By the way the pronunciations are courtesy of this site:
http://www.mandarintools.com/cgi-bin/wordlook.pl?word=actress&searchtype=english&where=whole&audio=on

this will make it easier on the teachers no having to do phonetics - the students can use this link to just listen for themselves.

"I want to be an actress -   _____________________"  (no idea how to say that in mandarin but you get the idea..

In this game we are not worried about grammar or anything technical keep all sentence as simple as possible "this is a _____"  "I want my ______"    (the story game is good for grammaar, this is simple.)


2) Now - all competitors (students) must try to find a picture of a flower on the site.  We know there's one because Person A has already found at least one.  (People in the beginning try to keep it relatively simple, not too much of an easter egg hunt).

Then the competior who finds it first, posts it in a message.  (First right click the image and open it in a new window, copy the location, then use the image button on the posting tool bar to post the imagelink like this).



C)  After the image is found... everyone must type the word 10 times (no copy paste or you won't learn!) And then the entire sentence 5 times..... in the thread - group support is helpful.   (Double that number if you want to really learn it..... I just didn't want people to be scared away.

nu yan yuan - nu yan yuan - nu yan yuan - nu yan yuan - nu yan yuan - nu yan yuan - nu yan yuan - nu yan yuan - nu yan yuan - nu yan yuan -


________.    __________.   ________.    __________.  __________.

D) The winning student then picks a word -  "Flower"  And we're back to step 0.



If you're interested in playing this game - let it be known in this thread... when there is someone to teach/moderate and a few competitors/students - then we can begin.

hmmm sure...sounds pretty cool...i m up for it...

If we can get 2 more "competitors" and 1 person to supervise a little bit making sure we're not making words up... then we'll start it up.  If we don't get anyone for a week or so, then we'll give it up.

aww dat sucks...COME ON PEOPLE!!!! A LITTLE HELP HERE!!!! no pressure or anything

I'll play occasionally but not regularly because I am currently learning Japanese and learning two languages at once will confus me. But it would be fun to brush up on the very basic Mandarin I know.

cool Aussie...probably wont have much time either but it would be good to have something to help...

Count me in!   Sounds really good to practice

I have dyslexia so i hope somethimes writing the word wrong is not a problem?

[ Last edited by  taijiquangirl at 2007-6-17 01:45 AM ]

I'll try it,too!

Okay!  So that's our minimum Three competitors... i.e. students.  

Now lets see if we can lure some mandarin speaking friend into this.  Basically this person will just need to provide the translation of the one word and provide a SIMPLE sentence for it.  Not too hard.  

Surely there are enough mandarin speakers around to spread out the job a little bit.  

a friend - since it was really your mention in the other thread which started this - why don't you start off as our first word selector.

So - look through photos found on alivenotdead.com and find an object in one fo them that interests you personally.  Then come back to the forums and say the name of that object in English.

Next, our "teacher" (who has not yet been established but I'm sure will come soon) will give the mandarin word for that in pin yin and provide a simple sentence which contains that word... simple sentence... simple.

Then the competition begins to see who can find that object on alivenotdead.  It does not have to be the same one the first student found - it can be any picture.  The first person to find it, pastes it into their response.   The rest of the rules of the game were listed in the first post - this was just a reminder of how it starts.

So - "a friend" - go ahead and find an object.

balloon

Afther a long search i found the place to look,    note to myself start at the beginning

Now i'm waiting for the chinese translation

I want to try that out to...can i apply as student too?

I want to be an actress -   _____________________"  (no idea how to say that in mandarin but you get the idea..


i want to be an actress --- wo3 xiang3 zuo4 yi1 ge4 nv3 yan3 yuan2

qi4 qiu2=balloon
wu3 yan2 liu4 se4 de1 qi4 qiu2 zai4 kong1 zhong1 fei1 wu3.=colorful balloons flying in the sky.=五颜六色的气球在空中飞舞.
wu yan liu se=colorful
kong zhong=sky
fei wu=dance in the breeze/flying in the sky
balloon-balloon-balloon-balloon-balloon

[ 本帖最后由 xinxinwang 于 2007-6-18 04:48 AM 编辑 ]

thank you xinwang so

Here is the picure of the balloon i found



balloon is qi qui, qi qui, qi qui, qi qui, qi qui, qi qui, qi qui, qi qui, qi qiu, qi qui, qi qui


colourfull balloon flying in the sky

wu yan liu se de qi qiu zai kong zhong fei wu (wow a hard one )
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu,
wu yan liu se deqi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu  
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu tan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu fan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu fan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu fan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu fan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu fan lui se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu fan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu fan lui se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu fan lui se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu fan lui se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu fan lui se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu fan lui se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu

hahaha my faulth i tought that it meant that but i think there is a colourfull balloon in the sky, you use more then i want to fly in a balloon. Youre example it better

But again think you xinxin, you are a very kind person

qi qui qi qui qi qui qi qui qi qui qi qui qi qui qi qui qi qui qi qui qi qui qi qui

wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu
wu yan liu se de qi qui zai kong zhong fei wu

wu yan - ?
liu - beautiful
se - color (look/appearance)  se\
kong - sky
zhong - within/in
fei - fly
fei wu - "dance in the breaze"


* * * * *

Okay - so we kind of have a start here.  Not bad..... so taijiquanagirl is our winner and therefore picks the next word.   Note that you don't have to past the picture here - you just are confirming that there is at least one image of this on alivenotdead.  The students then have to find the word.

All other students should be doing the repetiive typing work.   (Hint... by the fifth time you type the word or sentence - try closing your eyes as you type so that you are doing it by memory... see if by the tenth time you type it you can do it completely by memory.

For teachers - if possible define the words and and keep the sentences simple  

question, for the new word, should i wait till everyone has repeated it?

That's a great question.  I think because we are just starting here and student really need to be responsible for their own learning that it is fine to come back with a word.  Who knows how long it might take for that word to get translated and a sentence assigned.

I say for now, let's just keep the momentum going and see where it takes this  crazy thing.