mandarin lesson

hua..yesterday I have 4 hours of mandarin lesson which is equal 4 hours of tongue-twisting session..just learning the initials and finals and not forgetting the different tones (4 tones + the neutral tones)..
hahaha..ending up twisting my tongue till I couldn't straighten the tongue. because to say the pronunciation most of the characters, we have to roll up the tongue inside the mouth..and curl the lips for certain word such as "zhe, zhe..or yuan, nian"..also the "e" requires the tongue is to be curled inward...
hua..somehow i feel that english is much easier to pronounce (malay/indo nonetheless is still the easiest..perhaps because it is my mother tongue)..for non-malay/indo speaking the language is found to be difficult because the same words can have multiply meanings depennd on the word's usage in the sentences.
the same thing applied in chinese, I recalls how my mom often mentions that the same characted when is followed with various characters..the phrase may give very different meaning also. I think she must feel happy because I finally take up the mandarin course seriously and determine to learn it properly all over again.
Hopefully by the end of the semester I can speak in simple conversation using chinese =)

do I look different...different??

taken at the beginning of august..just before the new semester started =) still no signs of stress..

here is my latest photo...i still look the same though i have passed 5 years since entering NUS...yeah..it means i look young =)

revival!!

dearest all,
i haven't not updated my blog for ages already...almost a year since the last time i posted in this blog. i think most of friends knew that i was "missing in action"
being unreachable, uncontactable, suddenly missing from singapore and no news when will return to singapore.
sorry to make you all worried about me.
i am getting better and hopefully will be better than previously
now i am still in nus (no need to furnish further details i think) and praying that this will be my last semester.
i am taking 2 modules this semester so i can concentrate fully on both of them.
usually in the past when i used to take at least 5 modules, there was 1 or 2 modules would be so called a bit neglected because some modules "required" more attention and had more workload.
this time i am taking a language module..so it has quite a lot of hours - 6 hours per week of lesson in school. and on top of that i need to practise more at home.
for the lang. module, i still need to adapt to it. it has been long since i study a new language and has to memorise and practise the new vocabulary.
the last time i had it when i came to singapore 10 years ago. so it has been really a long time.
nonetheless, mandarin is a second language spoken in singapore and also in asia. so i need to master the language if i want to remain in asia.

oh ya, my mom is happy to know that i finally realise the importance of the language..hehehe. she has been persuading me to take up the language seriously ever since i enter uni. but i have been using the excuse "being super busy" to avoid taking language course. because i know how much hours i need to put in when learning a new language.

i like my chinese lecturer though, tomorrow i will have my 1st tutorial. though i can understand chinese lang. abit. but don't expect me to speak a full sentence because i am too shy to speak out. as you all know, chinese lang has more than 4 tones and i has always been mixing them up.
my first chinese tutor still remember how many time i kept pronounce the wrong tones and the sentences would have totally opposite meanings...and that happens like almost 20 years ago.
but she said, i was the only time who couldn't manage to remember the right tones.
hahaha..please..at the time, even i couldn't keep spell indo lang correctly...and i already started to learn mandarin. and sometimes i kept mixing up the grammars of both languages. plus the chinese characters are not easy to memorise.

so must work hard for the mandarin lesson!!
by the end of this semester i must be able to carry simple basic conversation..hehehe