#(meishi is like 'its nothing' and ni meishi ba is like its nothing right? but its like english okay/you okay?)

[rigelmejo]

nobody asked lol, but i’ve got a suggestion for total beginners/people who are thinking about studying chinese but haven’t started or aren’t sure:

if you’re watching cdramas, or donghua already (which you probably are), then try to watch the dual subbed ones sometimes. A lot of shows have dual subtitles, had chinese subs in the video and soft english captions.

Get a translator site or app on your phone (Google Translate is fine, Pleco is nice, DeepL site is fine, Baidu Fanyi works, whatever you want)

When you’re watching stuff like usual, just look up some word or phrase every now and then as you get curious. I used Google Translate because it’d let me write in the character so I could just look at the chinese subs and write it in (if I didn’t heard the pronunciation well). If you’re even vaguely familiar with pinyin (without the tones needed) then you can type in the pinyin if you think you heard the word okay. So if you think you heard “xiaoxin” or “xiaoshin” you can type those in, see if they match the chinese subs 小心 (or write in  小心 into the translator), to get a translation. 

Just keep doing this as desired, when you’re curious. Maybe a handful of times an episode, or more if you feel like it.

You’ll notice over time that you’re getting a better ear for the pronunciation since typing it in is quicker than writing it in, making pinyin and listening easier for you later. You’ll notice you learned some common phrases, some main words in the stuff you like, and you might even recognize the hanzi for those words now. Which will help a little when learning hanzi later, when learning about radicals and getting used to the components that make hanzi.

Do this for a month, several months, as long as you’re curious and want to look up words. If you’re considering learning, and you’re watching chinese stuff, then you probably are a bit curious of the words. Eventually you might get curious enough it will motivate you to start digging into study materials. Until then, its fun to get some more familiarity. ToT

#rant #i am bringing this up because its SO little when you think about it #but its one of the easiest ways to break into studying ToT #i did this with guardian! i started guardian and realized it was chinese. and i'd once took a class so i was curious enough to wonder what #some words are (since i literally only remembered ni hao xie xie and 1-10 in chinese) #so i just looked up some stuff as i watched in google translate (and im sure yall can relate with one of #the first phrases learned being ta si le!~ cause thats ToT just the shows we be watching #but i also remember meishi for okay and ni zenmele instead of the ni hao ma class taught me. and ni meishi ba? for you okay? #(meishi is like 'its nothing' and ni meishi ba is like its nothing right? but its like english okay/you okay?) #i remember xiao xin be careful and ni fangxin and zaixian! #as a lot of the very first stuff i learned watching guardian and the untamed and detective l #before i got motivated to learn MORE cause i wanted to read zhenhun novel and the translation wasn't done yet ToT