-Ray

First off I should probably thank you for all the limitless inspiration you have given me over the last 3 months or so. I have been learning mandarin for about 10 months now and the times in which I follow your advice is when I make the most progress. I just discovered your post about using monolingual dictionaries today and I am definitely going to make the switch. I think that is what I am missing… having to translate in my head slows me down way to much and it is a bad habit.

I am posting on this blog post because I was wondering if you know where to find an entire transcript to this Mandarin version of Star Trek? I’ve been watching it repeatedly and understanding more and more every time. However, I am currently in a mandarin class.. using the “Integrated Chinese” textbooks… and while I enjoy the class most of the time… the other students just don’t have the motivation that I do. Or at least they are perhaps too busy to put the work in that is necessary to truly move forward. Recently I have been going chapters ahead and am able to learn the new vocabulary very fast.. without doing the workbook work. Would you recommend that I stay in this class but focus more on using SRS and watching films? I have been getting ahead in class on purpose so that I can start focusing more on ajatt method.

Also, some other questions. Using the Ajatt method is sometimes difficult for me because I am a music producer and an audio engineer. I can’t spend as much time listening to mandarin audio as I would like to… due to my chosen profession. It was hard at first not to listen to the music and english audiobooks that I normally listen to while driving.. but I am making the transition and have already seen a HUGE improvement just from exposing myself to mandarin a few hours a day. (I find that I gain more from listening to mandarin for an hour and doing an hour of homework.. then doing 2 hours of homework) I am also looking into finding mandarin audiobooks. I started using amazon.cn to buy mandarin movies and it has been a great experience. Just making it to checkout reading only characters was quite a challenge! I am currently saving up for Windows 7 Ultimate, simply because you can have the mandarin version of the operating system installed simultaneously and you can switch between them. After this I play on installing 天下2 (an online mmorpg) so that I will be forced to converse with people using only characters. (If i’m going to play video games anyway, I might as well gain something.

I apologize for this long… unorganized message. It is a culmination of several months of wanting to respond to posts on here. I thank you very much for this amazing blog and all of the useful information you provide. You are redefining what it means to learn a language. Never doubt yourself. You are a true guru of language acquisition.

Cheers,
Ray Mack

Q:
宇宙、それは人類に残された最後の開拓地である
A:
宇宙[うちゅう]、それは 人類[じんるい]に 残[のこ]された 最後[さいご]の 開拓[かいたく] 地[ち]である

かいたく 【開拓】
・ (2)新しい分野や領域、あるいは人の進路や人生・能力などを切り開くこと。

I remember looking this one up a while back because m-flo makes reference to it in on of their songs. 😉 <3 m-flo

which reminds me, the Japanese title of the original star trek was 宇宙大作戦/uchu dai sakusen, just like another classic from the same era, スパイ大作戦/supai dai sakusen, or Mission Impossible, of which was just recently released on DVD in Japanese.

Have a look here,

here,

or head to your nearest tsutaya.

fwiw,
Tommy