Ross in Shanghai

It is feb 3 and final get a chance to review January challenges. I planned to do 4 things and in the end completed 2 and did 2 half-well. Overall maybe 66% score. I finishe a book I kept on dragging out over months. Then, I focused hard on a project at work to make sure it was executed well. These were easy challenges. The Korean challenge was tough in that i didn’t set a goal per se. I was flitting between apps and content and Wasent getting anywhere. Then, I decided to just target 50 words to learn and memorizing them with flashcards on my phone. It was easy - and I felt I made progress - rather than doing a word here and there. I created structure. For the google analytics, my fourth challenge, I dived into it, but didn’t really go as far as I wanted. In December I will complete this.

What I learnt was that in order to do these challenges there are 2 key things. At start of month, prepare all the learning content for month. 2-make sure to set clear goals, even if the learning topic I quite general. Don’t set “I will learn to play guitar”. Instead set “I will learn 1 song well”.

One other consideration is that 4 challenges is too much, but that wasent the issue for me in this month. If I find a big enough challenge for 1 month, I will set it as the only challenge. For the moment, I will continue with 4.

For February-I will write a separate post.

Here’s how I learnt these today;
Mon-woryoil (worry on Mondays)
Tue-hwayoil (Why do they have Tuesdays, such a crap day)
Wed-suyoil (people call it hump day, which is kinda “silly”)
Thurs-mogyoil (date night: bring “my girl” out)
Fri-gimyoil (night of partying and kimchi)
Sat-toyoil (easiest one. Play with toys on sat)
Sun-iriyoil (the day before Monday is eerie)

I wrote these down off by heart after learning for 6 minutes in taxi. With the stories I think I will remember most of them permanently. Maybe need to review again tomorrow - as some of the associations are not strong like Wednesday

The list of vocab I just learnt in bout 20 mins are related to actions:
Can, go, see etc..

Once again, my method to remember is association. To see in Korean is “boda”, so I just associated it with to see a “body”. Because boda has no association with the word “see”, I god that this is the easiest way to remember. When learning Italian it was generally easier to remember words, as they often had connections with English from their Latin base.
It is so easy to associate words with a story - and a lot of the stories are personal ones. For example, hada, is to go in Korean. I associate it with the Spanish word “hacer” - to do. Other people may not like that association, but for me it works.

The issue with studying alone is not that there isent content for you to learn, it is how you structure your learning and how to motivate/discipline yourself. For this month, I’ve been learning Korean but all over the shop. No consistency - due to an unclear goal. Before the month ends now, I have chosen to set a simple 100 word goal. With the use of both flashcards and a teacher to make sure I get the words right, I am going to learn 1 topic a day with 10 words. The other day was calendar related vocab (and the only way I can remember is through association or mnemonics - so I create my own stories). Today is time related. So will get back to it And see how it goes

10000 is 一万 (Yi wan) in Chinese. In Korean it is similar 만 원 (man) - the second word is won for cash

At a complete guess, i think about 15% of Korean originates from Chinese…I’ll look into to see if I am write

The issue with getting ripped off, is often not the money - but more the feeling of someone pulling one over on you.

This is more for myself, than anything so I can recall how to do it

• Get bank details from rent owner
• Bring passport
• Go to their bank, or your own bank (can also do other banks, but think is smoother to do one or the other)
• Ask counter help to fill out form in Chinese (account #, name of person, amount to deposit)
• Once your # comes up, tell them it is 存款 (deposit) into another account
• They ask if you sure you know the person (e.g not fraud, scam)
• Sign a few pieces of paper
• Done

tips:

• if paying in cash, it can be a tonne load of RMB notes, so put in a safe bag.
• Don’t forget your passport. 
• Ask those around to help.

my cash teller was a bitch this morning, but still managed to give her a smiley face (satisfaction thing) under pressure..;)