March 3, 2008
Tags: chinese, language, school.
Categories: Daily Life.
Disclaimer: This entry is my first entry written in Chinese. The English translation is kinda awkward and contrived, akin to a second-language English speaker. It’s because I wrote the entry in Chinese first, then translated it back to English. I purposefully did so to show non-Chinese speakers the level of my Chinese. And yes, that means my Chinese is awkward and unnatural. But you know, effort must count for something! 
Chinese
大多数的人每天都在拼命地赚血汗钱，我这三天来在拼命地写一千两百的血汗字。我学汉语才学了三年， 认的汉字也不多 － 最多有3000吧。对我来说，写文章是一个非常痛苦的事。英语的文章就够痛苦了，现在还要写中文的文章。真是很麻烦。每个句子都要用到没学过的字。即使我现在在抱怨，但我很高兴在三年来能写出那么长那么复杂的文章。三年前，我只能认“陈爱薇”这三个字 。别的字一个也认不出，甚至于“名字”这两个字也不认识。现在，写了1200字的文章给我一个成就感。虽然认识的字比中国人还少，口音还想老外那样，这1200的血汗字表示我这三年来的痛苦，这三年来的承诺。由于这1200的血汗字，我会继续学汉语…直到能流利地讲，写，听，读汉语的那一天。
English Translation
While most people spend their lives toiling over blood-sweat (hard-earned) money, I spent these three days slogging over 1,200 blood-sweat Chinese words. I’ve only learned Chinese for three years; I still can’t read much Chinese - probably only about a maximum of 3000 words.
Writing essays have always been a pain to me. It’s already quite the pain to write essays in English, now I have to write an essay in Chinese. Jeez. I have to check the dictionary every sentence because there are so many words that I haven’t learned. Although I’m complaining right now, I’m actually quite happy that I managed to write such a long and complex paper.
Three years ago, I was only able to write three words: Chen Ai Wei (my Chinese name). I couldn’t read any other words; not even the word “name”! So writing a 1,200-word essay today has left me with a feeling of accomplishment. And although I still don’t read as many words as mainland Chinese and my accent still sounds like a white man speaking Chinese, this 1,200 blood-sweat words symbolizes my three years of pain and effort.
So with this 1,200 blood-sweat words, I will continue to learn Chinese…until the day I can speak, write, understand and read Chinese fluently.
Omg how do you do it? Chinese is the most complicated language ever.. I failed gr. 2 Chinese school!!
Anyway, I have a HUGE arse too!! I find Rock and Republics make your bum look reallyyy nice because it doesn’t let it sag. LOL. Beyonce’s line of jeans are also made for women with a bigger booty!
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hahaha cool!!
though i gave up reading halfway because just looking at chinese characters give me a headache! and i read chinese slower than i read korean, so…. >.<
good effort though! ^^
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Pretty impressive for 3 years! My parents forced me to go to Chinese School until I was in 6th grade, I was one year from graduating too. I can speak pretty fluently since my grandparents and a lot of my uncles and aunts only speak Chinese, I can’t read or write as well as I speak though.
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Hey Ivy, that’s some really amazing progress you’ve made in a mere three years! Chinese is indeed one of the harder languages to learn, to read and *gasp* to write (especially when it comes to the strokes of each letter, there are so many rules to follow!)… I applaud your effort to learn it! I know foreign friends who’ve taken Chinese language courses and given up halfway through because it was way too taxing and tiring.
And learning how to compose a paragraph in Chinese is no easy job either! Seriously, you have the talent Ivy
I just realised that your Chinese name is the exact translation of “Ivy” 
I have a friend called Maple Soo, and her chinese name is “mei bao”.
There are about 5000~6000 chinese characters, learning how to write 3000 of them is awesome! Anyway I bet more than half of the words are not regularly used.
Keep it up!!!
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I’m impressed. From what I hear Chinese is a very complicated language to learn and master. You’re on the right track, congrats for making it this far with your essay!
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Hey, do Korean next time… heh.
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Wow, that is awesome. I can’t read much of Vietnamese either, and I can’t even write in it! So you’re better than me! Lucky you! I’d love to learn how to read and write in Vietnamese, but I don’t know when that’d happen…
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I think the only one I got was the full stop. HAHAHA!
Apparently I didn’t learn shit when I had Chinese tutoring for two months.
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太厉害了！
学了三年就这么好了！！！
我学了两年法文还是小学水平。。～
好崇拜你～
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Hahaha this paragraph was nothing. Took me 20 mins or so. It was the essay I had to write for class that was a bitch. It was on morality and economics.
There are 56,000 Chinese characters actually. Most mainland Chinese who have gone to university can read around 6,000-11,000 characters. The rest can read around 5,000. So I still got a few thousand to go hahahahaha!
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很棒啊！
三年下来就能写得这么流利通畅，嗯!要加油！
学英语15年了还停留在只能看有时写，说话不灵光的地步，真是汗颜|||（但愿汗颜这个词你了解）
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Woah I never knew there are so many characters! I think the number 5000 refers to commonly used ones, hehe
anyway I’m losing touch with Chinese, I can’t believe it. I’ve stopped writing Chinese after getting into college (since Chinese Language is no longer a compulsory subject), and now I have to pause when I read Chinese articles, I find myself getting stuck somewhere between the lines, lol!
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Very nice, keep it up, =) It’s great to see another person who manage to learn and know how to speak/write chinese. =)
Jia You! =p
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Sounds like you’ve done great job learning Chinese. Isn’t it even one of the hardest languages to learn? Or so I have heard.
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Wow… definitely a great achievement… normally someone would have given up before a year’s end already. Good for you!!
I greatly want to learn chinese as well, but I’m glad I still know how to read and write in vietnamese.
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Wow, it’s truly amazing! 祝贺你！
No wrong character, no grammar mistakes, I really really wish I could be at same level as you write in Chinese. So many non-Chinese speakers/learners give it up finally on this loooong journey.
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not that level yet! all i will be able to write is: dak gal bee ju se yo! HAHAAHAHAHA!!
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BRAVO!!!!!
This makes me want to actually go an learn French so that I don’t look silly when my family is around me. They speak English most of the time, but I want to know the secrets they say in French! *wink wink* But you’re such an inspiration. And this really is an accomplishment, Congratulations!! If I was your Chinese Instructor I would give you full points for being equally awesome and hard working!
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that is bloody amazing >_<
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Dear Ivy,
to show you how much we appreciate all you’ve done for us so far, and how happy we are to host a site of the quality Nanyate has, I have prepared for you a little surprise - I hope you will enjoy it.
Mig
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good job! keep it up!
it’s easy to be disheartened when tackling new challenges. but keep practicing, and you’ll be a master before you know it!!
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哇, 我羨慕你… 加油!
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That’s really good of your parents. My mum did try to force me to learn Chinese as a child but I always gave her tons of excuses coz I just hated the language so much. HAHAHA.
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Unfortunately, I’m not as good as the rest of the class who have had a much longer history than I with the Chinese language. French is another challenging language to learn. I learned it for around 7 years. I’ve achieved some sort of a passive billingualism with French, where I can read and understand very well but can’t say a word. It’s a shame.
But the best thing about these hard languages is the reward you get from all the toil and trouble. After learning French for 3 years, I was almost gonna give up. But I hung on until I graduated from high school and in my 12th grade French class we got to read Madame Bovary in French. Finishing the book was like a reward for me.
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