results of holiday challenge

book:  A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow

book: A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold
book: A Feast for Crows: Shadows of Death
book: A Feast for Crows: Web of Intrigues
book: A Dance with Dragons Part 1
book: A Dance with Dragons Part 2
book: Anna Karenina

book: Norvegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
book: The Art of War by Sun Tzu
book: Doughter of the River by Ying Hong

movie "Maleficent"
movie "Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier"
movie "X-Men: Days of Future Past"
movie "The Amazing Spider-Man 2"
movie ”Harakiri/Seppuku” (1962)
movie “House of Flying Daggers”

anime series “Katekyo Hitman Reborn” (203/203 episodes)

I also lost some weight, as much as it was possible and reasonable in that amount of time. Hovewer to be closer to perfection I need to loose some yet. Right now I'm not doing it as a challege - I'll see what kind of food do people eat in China. Hm.

anszowanie

师范 shīfàn - training for teachers

邮编 yóubiān - kod pocztowy
邮政编码 yóuzhèngbiānmǎ - kod pocztowy

cośtam 街 jiē- cośtam street

铁东区 Tiědōng Qū - Tiedong district, dystrykt Tiedong... dystrykt wschodniożelazny

鞍山市 Ānshān Shì - saddle mountain,Anshan city/town, siodło-góra

Tak, Siodłogóra. Nie jest to ani Pekin ani Szanghaj aby internety cierpiały na nadmiar informacji na ich temat. 9,252 km² i trochę powyżej trzech milionów mieszkańców. Narodu mniej więcej Warszawa razy 3?. Znalazłam całkiem sympatyczny trawelogue z Chinką mówiącą po angielsku. Szkoda że nie ma czegoś takiego po polsku, mogłabym pokazać rodzinie czy znajomym. Większość mojego toczenia albo nie zna angielskiego w ogóle albo potrafi tylko czytać, nie rozumie ze słuchu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s11NWwCktC4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMU8MFugO0k

Spodobał mi się bardzo pokaz teatru cieni. Zobaczyć takie coś na żywo to na pewno niezapomniane przeżycie. Magiczne. "Tym się jaram".

辽宁省 Liáoníng Shěng - prowincja Liaoning - "Odległy spokój" albo "Na zawsze spokojne Liaoning" albo w sposób najbardziej pełny "(rzeka) Liao & ustabilizowana sytuacja w Mandżurii z późnych lat dwudziestych" (lol)

it's going to be a long long journey

It seems that I'm going to China.

1. from my town to the airport in the capital city (by bus) - 

2. from Warsaw to Amsterdam (by airplane) 

3. from Amsterdam to Guangzhou (by airplane)

4. from Guangzhou to Shenyang (by airplane)

5. from Shenyang to Anshan (by bus)

red area: Liaoning
yellow area: Anshan

weather 

http://www.yr.no/place/China/Liaoning/Anshan/statistics.html
http://www.meteoprog.pl/pl/weather/Anshan-Liaoning/

oh my my

Everybody knows nothing.
I'm still waiting on the last result.

But that isn't the most importart matter. I mean China journey stuff. Since the flight should be about the end of August/the beginning of Semptember we should to know something about, right? But nope, nope.

If that journey even happens I will explain the issue in detail. 'coz it's complicated. And stressful.

exams and things to complete in July and August 2014

About my exams - I am waiting at 3 last results. The rest is all passed.
Waiting and wainting, kind of nervous waiiting. Unpleasant.

And I'm completing my plan.

to learn Chinese as always

book:  A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow

book: A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold
book: A Feast for Crows: Shadows of Death
book: A Feast for Crows: Web of Intrigues
book: A Dance with Dragons Part 1
book: A Dance with Dragons Part 2
book: Anna Karenina (once I started but dropped... this time properly from the beginning till the end)

book: Norvegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (finally)
book: The Art of War by Sun Tzu
book: Doughter of the River by Ying Hong (random chinese book)

movie "Maleficent"
movie "Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier"
movie "X-Men: Days of Future Past"
movie "The Amazing Spider-Man 2"
movie ”Harakiri/Seppuku” (1962)
movie “House of Flying Daggers” (catching up the wuxia classic)

also anime series “Katekyo Hitman Reborn” (currently 52/203 episodes)

筷子 chopsticks... and holiday plans...

Yesterday I have bought a pair of wonderful wooden chopsticks. My very first, haha. With help of youtube videos and Internet I'm learning how to use them.

筷子 kuàizi

Today is saturday, the weather is good, I had a nice dinner.
Everything is cool... Yet I would like to see following movies, novelties I missed:
- "Maleficent"
- "Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier"
- "X-Men: Days of Future Past"
- "The Amazing Spider-Man 2"

And to read following books:
- A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow
- A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold
- A Feast for Crows: Shadows of Death
- A Feast for Crows: Web of Intrigues
- A Dance with Dragons Part 1
- A Dance with Dragons Part 2
- Anna Karenina

But I have to study to my exam from English literature. A lot of materials. I like literature but suddennly, when it's an abligatory thing... haha, i have to take a grip on myself!

And those pleasures above... I have to wait until holidays. Holiday plans! But that's all western things... Not good. I have to decide on something eastern.

so... after some thinking I decided to watch and read:

Films:
- Harakiri/Seppuku (1962)
- House of Flying Daggers

Books:
- Norvegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
- The Art of War by Sun Tzu
- Doughter of the River by Ying Hong (random chinese book)

final exam and future adventure

29 may I wrote a final chinese test. And day after I already know the result! I passed.
I thought I won't becouse I had a nasty flu (I still have, that day I came only to write this exam). Somehow I managed to pass.

Now a journey to China next semester became a little bit more real. Suddenly we are told to do a lot of formalities "for yesterday". Crazy time.

Right now I just want to stop coughing...

Polish, English, Chinese

It may drive you crazy. Polish, English, Chinese - all three have different counting unit system...

(i'll write about it later, i just don't want to forget the topic to write)

100 = bǎi 百 
1000 = qiān 千 
10,000 = wàn 万 
100,000,000 = yì 亿

HSK A1

• Well, today let's check the requirements of HSK A1.

According to Wiki-God... mostly quick oveview for me...

1. Part od Speech...

a) Adverbs 

✓ negation of yǒu 有 is méiyǒu 没有 

✓ the "all" dōu 都 adverb (subject+都+verb phrase OR subject+都+adjective, also dōu 都 as "both"  e.g. 我们 两 个 都 爱 你)

✓ the "also" yě 也 adverb (also/too meaning... subject +也+verb phrase... then, subject+也+adverb+adjective, 你也很高... remember 我也是)

b) Conjuctions

✓ expressing "and" with hé 和 (nouns only, noun1+和+noun2

✓ offering choices with háishi 还是 (subject+verb+optionA+还是+optionB)

c) Numbers

✓ measure word ge 个 (number+个+noun, can be omitted when only 1, e.g. 你是个好老师。)

✓ structure od dates
✓ structure of days of the week (sunday = 星期日/星期天
上个星期三 last wednesday
这个星期三 this wednesday
下个星期三 next wednesday
我每个星期三  every wednesay)
✓ structure of numbers
一百 = 100
qiān 千 = 1000
wàn 万 = 10,000
yì 亿 = 100,000,000
✓ structure of times
diǎn zhōng 点钟 = o'clock
上午 = a.m.
下午 = p.m
一刻 = 15 minutes
bàn 半 = half hour, e.g. wǔ 下午两点半 14:30

d) Particles

e) Verbs - auxiliary verbs

f) Verbs - verb phrases

• 1 Parts of Speech
  • 1.1 Adverbs
  • 1.2 Conjunctions
  • 1.3 Numbers
  • 1.4 Particles
  • 1.5 Verbs
    • 1.5.1 Auxiliary verbs
    • 1.5.2 Verb phrases
• 2 Grammatical Structures
  • 2.1 Basics
  • 2.2 Question Forms
• 3 Comparisons
  • 3.1 Numbers

Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan

I have always avoided wuxia movies... until now.
Brucee Lee's movies are serious, Jackie Chan's movies are funny.

my short recommended watchlist for those who want to catch up in martial arts movies
1973 龙争虎斗 Enter the Dragon (Bruce Lee)
1979 醉拳  Drunken Master (Jackie Chan)
1988 七小福 Qī xiǎo fú Painted Faces (hardcore Beijing opera training)

Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures from 24th Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony on 27 March 2005.

Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures (in fact includes 103 films)
24 films from Mainland China(11 from pre-1949 and 13 from post-1949)
61 from Hong Kong
16 from Taiwan
and 2 co-productions.


http://www.imdb.com/list/ls058422245/

project and two presentations

Well, somehow I finished my project despite all the obstacles.

Now I have to do two powerpoint presentations. One about some cultural festival, second about a certain Chinese movie. I'm quite reluctant to do it because the movie genres are comedy and western. I don't like those genres. Anyway, I have to motivate myself more.

update - deadline before Eastern

C'mon...

deadline April 24th

I have to write some paper about Chinese adjectives, 7-10  pages, Times New Roman 12. I have hardly any materials. This is my biggest problem.

deadline before 24th April

Of course all in English. Here I don't have to bother too much, but there I have to be very careful about all that gramatical frames.

This is kinda awkard. Lately every night before I finally fall asleep my mind goes wild about grammar structures. seriously.

five cardinal directions...

five cardinal directions...

东 dōng (east)
西 xī (west)
南 nán (south)
北 běi (north)
中 zhōng (center)

东北 dōngběi (northeast)
西北 xīběi (northwest)
东南 dōngnán (southeast)
西南 xīnán (southwest)

positions...

左 zuǒ (left)
右yòu (right)
上 (up)
下 (down)

里 lǐ (inside)
外 (outside)

!!!

The Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì (HSK) 汉语水平考试

Chinese gave me a headache.

So motivation time...

my actual aims:

- mastering the language of course

- chinese university voyage 

- language certificate! 

There's only one kind of Chinese certyficate (unlike English). I mean:

The Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì (HSK), (Chinese: 汉语水平考试),

6 levels of written exams

3 levels of oral exams

HSK - required characters

HSK1 grammar

HSK2 grammar

HSK3 grammar

HSK4 grammar

HSK5 grammar

HKS6 grammar 

CHINESE TEST ONLINE

I registered on this side. I don't get in 100% what it is about, but you can practice doing the test. Right now i tried to copy with level 1 - and my results are quite depressing.

how it is to be a caveman?

Today I was told that Chinese people do live in caves. Not everybody of corse, but 30-40 millions of them. I was super suprised and then did some research.

They say that cave homes are cold in summer and warm in winter.
Also cave homes have stuff like running water and electricity - even Internet connection.
Aren't they ecological too?
But they are dangerous during earthquakes.

Now I'm super curious, I would like to them badly. And make photos and so on...


窰洞 - yáodòng - cave hause

2 months

I told my dear cousin how many asian movies I have seen. She told me that's a lot of... but I got suprised by her answer. I thought i had seen not that much. Maybe in comparison to her, she has no interest in Asia area :)

Anyway, I asked my chinese teacher for some recommendation.
Im curious of what do chinese people watch, not  in what do europeans think that chinese look at.

Anyway... next 2 month shall be crucial, a lot of work for me, and a big decision will be made - who's going to China in October? There's 23 people in my group, and only the lucky choosen ones can go. I can smell some competition in the air :>

north korea documentaries

all the movies about north korea i have seen.  
(list will be updated)

if you know some titles there aren't here - let me know, i will be very much grateful.

in parenthesis polish titles. translators as always show 'creativity' :|
so, the oryginal title is always the best.

Defilada, Poland, 1989
by Andrzej Fidyk

Children of the Secret State (Dzieci złego państwa), UK, 2000
by Carla Garapedian

Noord-Korea: Een dag uit het leven (Korea Północna - jeden dzień z życia), Netherlands, 2004
by Pieter Fleury

Access to evil (Na osi zła - kraj cichej śmierci/Przepustka do piekła), UK, 2004
by Ewa Ewart

Unterm Roten Stern - Alltag in Nordkorea (Kraj pod czerwoną gwiazdą), Germany, 2005
by Bernd Girrbach (?)

Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story, USA, 2006
by Patty Kim & Chris Sheridan

Crossing the Line (Za Linią Demarkacyjną / Przekroczyć granicę), UK & North Korea, 2006
by Daniel Gordon

Yodok Stories (Historie z Yodok), Poland & Norway, 2008
by Andrzej Fidyk & Torstein Grude

season 1, episode 5 'La Corée du Nord' from TV show 'Ne dites pas a ma mére...' (Nie mówcie mojej mamie, że jestem w Korei Północnej) - France (?), 2009 or 2010 (?)
by Diego Buñuel (host of programme)

Kimjongilia, France & USA & South Korea, 2009
by N.C. Heikin

Det røde kapel (Komedianci w Korei Północnej), Denmark, 2009
by Mads Brügger

Vítejte v KLDR! (Witajcie w Korei Północnej), Czech Republic, 2009
by Linda Jablonská

Mes vacances en Corée du Nord (Wakacje w Korei Północnej), France, 2010
by Jean-Christophe Brisard & Alexandre Spalaikovitch

--------
korea out of the north (korea północna - ucieczka z piekła)
seen in TV. sadly, i can't find any info in net...

--------
Sadly, filmweb and imdb database are lacking. So I cannot create convenient & handy imdb list about North Korea.

terracotta army in Krosno

Short time ago I went to Podkarpackie Museum in Krosno and I spent 2 złoty on the ticket. There's a a copy of chinese teracotta army. Original is very far away, in Lintong district of Xi'an prefecture, Shaanxi province of China - as Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum.

秦始皇(帝) Qin Shi Huang(di) (260-210 BC) - First Emperor of China, but not the first ruler.

"Terracotta Warriors and Horses" or "Teracorra Army"
兵马俑 bīngmǎ yǒng
兵 - soldier
马 - horse
俑 - figurine buried with the dead (i guess...)

Teracotta is a ceramic made of clay. Well... More piece of work than piece of art, but quite impressive anyway.

DCD - ultimate mission

DCD - defy cultural differences
books, comics, music, movies, opera and so on...

Every polish child is familiar with movie "Pierścień i róża" (the rose and the ring).
American kids are amased by a film "Princess Bride".
How about chinese children...?
This is what I call cultural differences, cultural gap. Very important inpact of popculture, local myths, literature and history taught in schools. Other food, other way of thinking. Next level is... a particular rhythm of everyday life.


It's quite terryfying, but until now:
- I have seen only 19 chinese movies (and 222 polish movies(native language...), 181 french movies, and 204 british movies, and 955 american movies...)
- I have read only 2 chinese books: (Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung & The Diary of Ma Yan: The Struggles and Hopes of a Chinese Schoolgirl)
- few songs
- some manhua (1/2 Prince as one of the longest)

Shame on me...

examination session

Ecamination session is mostly over, another semester before me. Sleep deprivation and coffee overuse and hopeless youth wasted over the books... Well, I have a full-spectrum of grades, but fortunately I managed to get 5 from Chinese. My classmates also got a good marks.

Few new chinese students came here from China but I don't know them. You see? You don't have to go to China becouse China comes to you.

foreigner

Well...
I'm doing a research how do Chinese people call foreigners.
I'm white, i'm Caucasian but not an Englishman, just a Pole. 

addition and modification 21.03.2013
My chinese teacher said in broken english: 
Foreigner never be called as 外人。The one who studied in China can also be defined as 华漂。

so we have:
外国人  wàiguórén (this word is 100% correct. neutral, normal word)
老外 lǎowài (I think it's more common than 外国人. It can have both neutral and pejorative meaning, it depends... But it's shorter so probably more comfy, I guess.)
华漂 huápiāo (quite special meaning, foreigner who is living and working in China; literally "China vagabond". Living and working... also studying)

高加索人 gāojiāsuǒrén - Caucasian
白种人 báizhǒngrén - Caucasian
西方人 xīfāngrén - Westerner 
欧洲人 ōuzhōurén - European 


and sommething big at the end... INSULTS. well, i would rather not, but if somebody's gonna insult me, i want to be aware.

洋鬼子 yáng guǐzi - "foreign devil"
鬼佬 guǐlǎo - "ghost" or "ghost guy"
红毛鬼子 hóng máo guǐzi - "red fur devil"
蛮子 mán zi - "foreign barbarians"

你好。

你好。

Hello. By doing this blog I want to express my love towards polish, english, chinese, and maybe other languages and cultures. Well, for sure I will start learning japanese someday. So many beautiful words, so many beautiful things...

I'm a Pole living in Poland, a student, in my college I study English and Chinese. 
If I will be super lucky, maybe someday I will fly to China to study Chinese there. I'd love it.
Even if I don't, all that knowlegne is a worth itself, isn't it? 

I like travelling very much but I didn't see yet a lot of places. Some places in Poland, and about a foreign countries... I have been in Slovakia (Slovak Republic), Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria. It was mostly short school trips, but always a breath of new air. Vienna is so beautiful it took my breath away :)