mandarin

Basic Mandarin Final Exam Semester 1: Over.

Time: 2 hours.

Pages: 4.

Time it took me: 15 minutes.

If I compare Mandarin to Arabic, I'd say... Mandarin is harder. Or maybe I'm being biased because I've only learned Mandarin for 4 months. Still, perhaps thats why it's so hard. Because we've got to learn the intonation and spelling and memorize new words all within those 4 months. Only at the last minute did I memorize the intonation or the strokes used for numbers (1378 uses stroke 1, 10 uses stroke 2, 59 uses stroke 3 and 246 uses stroke 4). Didn't really help when Najah kept repeating Wo xihuan yi dali mian (I like spaghetti). There was no question asking what we liked to eat. There were questions about mama and papa but I didn't understand that so I just bantai.

I think I take learning Arabic for granted just because I'm so used to the letters since I was young. If I were to learn Arabic now, it WOULD be very frustrating having to keep in mind the Arabic letters and how they're formed. But I guess that's nothing compared to Mandarin; with the strokes and lines and this and that. Honestly, I get very confused:(

For the finals, there were questions on translating into mandarin. Of course, even if you know it doesn't mean that you'd get it right unless you get the strokes right too. The last word to translate was "Your welcome". I couldn't remember the translation so I just left it. When I came out of the exam hall and asked Min, she said: You know what? I couldn't remember it either. So I was actually planning to put a smiley; because yknow when someone says thank you, you smile back at them." :)

I laughed at that. A universal "Your welcome" I guess.

I thought Mandarin would be over. But then I realized: Here comes Semester 2. Pray I get through better this time.

Ni xi huan hanyu pinyin?