Comments on: MCDs: But What If I Don’t Understand the Meaning of the Whole? /mcds-but-what-if-i-dont-understand-the-meaning-of-the-whole/ You don't know a language, you live it. You don't learn a language, you get used to it. Sat, 04 Jul 2020 16:09:19 +0900 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.13 By: tokyostyle /mcds-but-what-if-i-dont-understand-the-meaning-of-the-whole/#comment-1000057822 Wed, 04 Sep 2013 16:02:54 +0000 /?p=26081#comment-1000057822 If you’ve read all seven articles[1], tried them out in your studies, and still don’t understand then you are the exact person that the MCD pack was made for.

[1] /10000-sentences-is-dead-long-live-mcds

]]> By: Livonor /mcds-but-what-if-i-dont-understand-the-meaning-of-the-whole/#comment-1000056837 Sat, 24 Aug 2013 16:13:00 +0000 /?p=26081#comment-1000056837 I still don’t get that MCD stuff at all, I would like if somebody explain it in a more practical way

]]> By: Tyson /mcds-but-what-if-i-dont-understand-the-meaning-of-the-whole/#comment-1000055316 Mon, 12 Aug 2013 05:00:46 +0000 /?p=26081#comment-1000055316 Am doing that at the moment with some political terms in a Wikipedia article.

Every second word I don’t know — the English article is not really very close — but I know that I must be learning the Chinese phrases for a democratic president who has won his seat a second time and is currently sitting. I know there must be some neat phrases in English that express this (like representative, incumbent, re-elected, sitting president) – but my dictionaries aren’t listing them.

However, I don’t find the full-on termite approach much fun, so I went and downloaded dual subtitle (English + Chinese) for House of Cards episodes from shooter.cn. If the wikipedia article is like termites burrowing into hard wood, these subtitles are like chipboard. Sentence level translations, dramatic context and suddenly, learning the words for secretary of state, president-elect, legislation, inauguration… are just one word in an otherwise everyday sentence (delivered with style by Kevin Spacey – at least I get some benefit from English TV watching).

I find having a second, easier, sparsely clozed SRS card which contains the same words with much more context and makes the original, dense text much easier to digest. Praise be to the pre-chewed dialog of television.

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