四月之子

[nnozomi]

Xi-laoshi, my Chinese conversation partner, recommended in passing that I get my reading practice from books designed for learners, like one she showed me called something like Beijing in Spring or The Four Seasons of Beijing, you can tell how seriously I was taking this genuinely thoughtful suggestion, I’m afraid. No! This kind of thing is why a lot of people don’t ever master languages! (Also an overgeneralization, I know—it works for some people—but still.) My f-list is full of people whose perfect English comes from TV shows and fic; I’ve just been reading Li Kotomi on learning her Japanese through anime and music. I got good at reading Japanese from a) middle-grade books aimed at Japanese preteens (I still fondly remember the first one I got all the way through, in which an eighth-grade girl daydreams about kissing her best friend, also a girl) and b) Japanese translations of novels I knew very well from having read them in English. I can’t imagine I’d have gotten even as far as I have in Chinese if I’d been dutifully reading graded readers, instead of watching dramas and the farming show and reading fics and the occasional article about Zhu Yilong. It only makes sense. Or am I biased? What do you think?

I finished my readthrough of the Joan Aiken Dido books, in general highly recommended. I think osprey_archer was talking about hesitating to read the later books because they get so dark, which is an interesting point. The two Is books--Is [Underground] and Cold Shoulder Road--are definitely dark in places, although not tonally so different from the rest of the series, and worth it for the characters and the wild plots and the language. The second-from-last book, Midwinter Nightingale, though, is the most bleak and depressing thing I’ve read in ages—most of the book is spent with various horrible people, and when we do see Dido and Simon they’re usually miserable and in trouble. It ends with a defeat for the villains, but I wouldn’t call it a happy ending in any sense. Not going back to reread that one. The very last one, The Witch of Clatteringshaws, which Aiken knew would be her last, also has its dark moments but is very funny here and there and ends genuinely happily. (I couldn’t resist the following selection, which is really not typically Aikeny at all but delightful.)

‘...perhaps, in a hundred years’ time, this day will be remembered by our grandchildren as the day when a not very large force of English beat off an attacking army of Wends who wanted to turn this island into a place where everybody spoke Wendish. Don’t you agree?’
’What’s Wendish like, then?’ one of the men enquired.
Rodney Firebrace spoke up. ‘Wendish is an awful language. It’s highly inflected — there are nine
declensions of nouns—
‘What’s inflected?’ somebody shouted.
‘When words have different endings to express different grammatical relations. And Wendish has thirty different kinds of verbs. You have to decline them as well as conjugate them.’
‘What’s verbs?’
‘I hit. You run.’
‘Who says we run? We ain’t a-going to run!’
‘No way!’
‘Hooray for English verbs!’
‘We don’t want no foreign verbs!’
‘Are you all with me, then?’ called Simon.
‘Sure we are!’
‘Let’s go!’
‘We'll show those Wends the way back to Wendland!’
‘Let ‘em wend their way!’

Also, anyone reading the Dido books should not miss lionpyh’s post-series fic Now, in the meanwhile, with hearts raised on high, which is one of the best fics I’ve ever read in any fandom ever as well as being an immensely satisfying conclusion.

Y brought home this hilarious winter song called 布団の中から出たくない, ie “don’t want to get out of bed.” Highly recommended to anyone studying Japanese, and accessible even without Japanese thanks to the funny animation (for the southern hemisphere, they also have a summer song along similar lines). Although COMPLETELY different in style, I feel like clearly the Chinese equivalent is Liu Chang’s 再睡五分钟.

Since it’s timely, have Cesar Camargo Mariano (best known to me as Elis Regina’s husband, but also a great musician in his own right) doing April Child.

There’s a fancy coffee shop chain in Japan which uses city airport codes for its shop names, like NGS Coffee in Nagasaki and so on; the problem is that they’re based in Fukuoka, and so the company overall is known as FUK Coffee.

Photos: Spring is doing its thing and I have too many photographs, here are some and the rest will have to wait until the next post.

Be safe and well.

Comments

[china_shop]

It only makes sense. Or am I biased? What do you think?

I loved the first graded reader I found, despite its clumsiness. I felt like it rewired my brain, and I found that really exciting (versus my laborious attempts with drama scripts and books for native speakers, both of which involved looking up endless unfamiliar vocab and repeatedly having to stop to puzzle out syntax). If I could have found more (affordable) readers after that, I would definitely have kept going; sadly, I couldn't find many for Korean. But then, I'm at a much lower level than you, and I'm not actively studying anymore. (My motivation fell down a hole when my teacher cancelled our class some years ago.) So I'm a terrible example and probably only prove your point.

(Iirc, the "You Can Learn Chinese" podcast guys are pro-graded readers because research shows increased reading speed is good for your speaking. I guess your brain learns to process the language faster? But I can't find the episode where they said that, and I may be misremembering.)

*stares at your photos for a long time* So lovely! I think the mural is my favourite -- it's like camouflage.

<3 <3 <3

[nnozomi]

I don't think you're a terrible example at all, you are just reminding me accurately that different people's brains work different ways :) Also I think I'm probably prejudiced because I've spent so much time being forced to teach from execrable Japanese-made ESL textbooks. Graded readers etc. which are actually well done are most likely very helpful.

and I'm glad you liked the photos <3

[china_shop]

Also I think I'm probably prejudiced because I've spent so much time being forced to teach from execrable Japanese-made ESL textbooks.

Ha, I can absolutely see how that would prejudice you against them. Maybe try the Mandarin Companion ones and see what you think?

(In the end, I think it comes down to whatever keeps you motivated. That's what I meant when I said I was a bad example: I've drifted off completely. /o\)

[starandrea]

In the end, I think it comes down to whatever keeps you motivated.

Ooh, I just want to add an enthusiastic: I agree! It doesn't matter how effective a strategy is if you never use it, and even an inefficient strategy will work fine if you like it enough to keep doing it. (Or as my sister says of learning Spanish, "It doesn't matter if it takes me five years; the years are gonna pass anyway. I might as well learn Spanish while it's happening.")

[china_shop]

This is really making me wish I had a hundred beginner/low intermediate/intermediate graded readers (and that they were printed in a very plain blocky font -- the standard Korean font makes me squint ;-p). *wistful face*

the years are gonna pass anyway. I might as well learn Spanish while it's happening.

Haha, so true. <3

[starandrea]

This is really making me wish I had a hundred beginner/low intermediate/intermediate graded readers

Yeah, Chinese learners really benefited from the massive government push to export both language and culture starting around the time of the Beijing Olympics. There's a huge amount of learner material that just isn't available for most languages. A quick (not well researched) google search indicates that Mandarin Chinese may be one of the top languages when it comes to volume of learner content, after English, Spanish, and French.

That said, I have five tomes of Chinese-Korean graded reading, so I wonder if you'd have any luck looking for (bilingual) English graded readers for Korean speakers?

[china_shop]

Yeah, Chinese learners really benefited from the massive government push to export both language and culture starting around the time of the Beijing Olympics. There's a huge amount of learner material that just isn't available for most languages.

Ohh, that's why. That's so cool!

And that's a great idea about looking for reverse-for-me graded readers, ha! I'll have a look around. Thanks! <3

[nnozomi]

I'll look into the Mandarin Companion ones, thanks :)

(and I still don't think you're a bad example; you did it at one point, you're not doing it now, if the need arises you can always do it again).

[china_shop]

<3

(I will just add that the reader that kicked off my flurry of language-learning activity in early 2023 contained a bunch of random, bonkers short stories including time-travelling pirates. IOW, I agree that the content has to be engaging to make me want to keep at it. Alas, I'm not very motivated by folk tales.)

[nnozomi]

There should be more random, bonkers (well-written) short stories in language learning!

[yaaurens]

There are some really bonkers short stories on Du Chinese that are (I think) based on folk stories, but I'm just like... HOW? Who came up with this idea? The one that stood out to me was about magic apples that made people turn into fish? It was so bizarre, and the ending just kind of stopped with no explanation and boy do I know the word for apple now haha. (I did before, but if I hadn't, I sure would have after reading that story.)

[nnozomi]

The one that stood out to me was about magic apples that made people turn into fish? It was so bizarre, and the ending just kind of stopped with no explanation and boy do I know the word for apple now haha.
oh my, yeah, that definitely sounds like a way to learn the word apple (and also the word fish).

[starandrea]

I second china_shop's love of graded readers ♥ Great stuff. I've read hundreds of them, online and in print, many of them multiple times. I also read huge amounts of fic, along with a small number of novels, young adult books, kids books, and books for adults to read to kids, but nothing boosts my character learning and reading speed like graded readers. They are, as many language learners like to say, the ultimate in spaced repetition :)

I'm happy you found something that works better for you, nnozomi - as you say, everyone's experience is different! Also I love your great pictures. It's hard to top cats and flowers, and these are categorically lovely ♥

[china_shop]

They are, as many language learners like to say, the ultimate in spaced repetition :)

Oh, that's a nifty framing. Yes!

(Hi, you! <3)

[starandrea]

I notice the spaced repetition thing a lot more now that I have that way of framing or identifying it, haha :) I just read a series of 15 that were sooo obvious about it that characters literally repeated their dialogue word for word a few pages later, but I think Mandarin Companion is way better at it, and Chinese Breeze and the Beijing Language & Culture University Press books are positively subtle.

(Hellooo! ♥)

[nnozomi]

Good to know that graded readers can be useful! I might see if I can look up some of the publishers you suggest elsewhere. I'm so used to poor-quality English study materials that I tend to write them off.
("Spaced repetition" is a good point--I'm finding that, while not deliberately, longfic is also good for this! I'm thinking of a couple of those fics which are half again as long as they need to be because there's SO MUCH angst and miscommunication lol, meaning that, well, spaced repetition is what you get. ;) )

and glad you liked the photos <3

[starandrea]

For what it's worth, language learning enthusiasts may point to the difference between textbooks and graded readers as the difference between "intensive reading" (reading a small amount of difficult text for the purpose of learning specific content and improving vocabulary) and "extensive reading" (reading a large amount of easy text for the purpose of learning general content and improving fluency, where fluency is the ability to use the vocabulary rather than just "know" it).

I'm not in any way trying to convince you, of course. Just trying to spread positivity and joy around the topic of language learning, which I find generally delightful and uplifting :)

To that point, I would add that the content of graded readers is highly variable, and some publishers have a clear focus they don't necessarily advertise for whatever reason.

For instance, Mandarin Companion is very western, mostly retelling English classics with the barest nod to Chinese culture. (This makes it uniquely easy for native English speakers who may already know the stories and will definitely recognize the sentence structure.)

Beijing Language & Culture University Press (BLCUP) is probably the gold standard in terms of traditional Chinese language and stories, though most of its readers are solidly intermediate (which is great, since there's not a huge market for non-beginner graded readers, but it does mean that being interested in the topic helps.)

Sinolingua produces an all-ages blend of traditional and easy in their "Rainbow Bridge" series, and these were far and away my favorite beginning readers. (They're usually too short to really reinforce the language, and they definitely introduce whatever random vocabulary they need for the story itself regardless of its utility elsewhere, but the stories are often funny and/or unpredictable.)

Chinese Breeze is more adult-oriented and modern, telling present-day fiction involving murder mysteries and computer hacking and all sorts of exciting things (including a China-typical and very sympathetic view of law enforcement) with vocabulary that's useful in day-to-day life.

...just in case you do find yourself looking into it later, I wanted to make sure I accurately if briefly represented "the publishers I suggest" :)

Totally agree about longfic; it has been better for my wuxia and xianxia vocabulary than any TV show, just because the volume of words is so much greater! ♥

[nnozomi]

I appreciate you taking the time to provide the rundown on publishers, many thanks! Bookmarked (as it were).
I've found longfic (and presumably graded readers would be likewise) useful for learning/internalizing grammar as well as vocabulary; it's a lot easier to master, say, the 点了点头 construction once you've seen it a zillion times in various forms...