A little over a month ago, I made a life-changing decision. After 7 years in South America it was time to move on. And even though it's something I felt deeply, it was hard to leave and face all the uncertainty that comes with starting over again. I arrived in New York on a chilly... Continue Reading →
Two months ago I saw an job ad for a Spanish-English interpreter in the Greater New York area. I applied and two exams later I was hired. I've been interpreting in different settings for the past month and I just want to share a bit of my experience. Fluency If you're thinking about becoming a... Continue Reading →
I finished up the 100 days of Chinese Challenge at the end of April just as I was moving back to New York. The whole thing was one of the best experiences for my Chinese studies. The final stats say quite a lot. Total: 107.4 hours Daily average: 64 minutes Speaking: 44.3 h Reading: 28.8... Continue Reading →
First of all, I can't believe how close I am to finishing this challenge. It has been a little over three months already. More than the stats about how much time I've put into Chinese this year (61 hours), what has surprised me the most is how much visible progress I've made. In terms of... Continue Reading →
So, on Sunday I reached the halfway point in my Challenge. If you read the last post, you probably saw that I was also part of italki's February Language Challenge. First of all, I think it's pretty awesome that I hit that 16 hour mark. Yay! However, keeping up conversation classes everyday wasn't economically feasible... Continue Reading →
If you've read my posts from the beginning of the year, you probably saw that I started a 100 Days of Chinese Challenge back in January. I did a check-in at the 10 day mark and saw that the challenge had been working at least in getting me started. Now, a month in things are starting... Continue Reading →
It's time for the first update of my 100 Days of Chinese Challenge. In this post I will tell you what I have been doing and how I have survived these first 10 days. In general, the conclusion is that I have been practicing a lot of Chinese! Let's see some numbers... Totals According to... Continue Reading →
After a mini vacation from Chinese during the holidays, there's no better way to jumpstart your language learning than joining a language challenge. It's a surprisingly motivating manner of keeping you on track while leading a busy life. For me, it's about making sure I put in the time necessary to feel comfortable about working... Continue Reading →
It's the New Year and with a new year comes new language goals. If your goal this year is to learn Chinese, but have no idea how to go about it, here is a simple way to start. Mostly because it's a more condensed form of my journey and things that have worked for me... Continue Reading →
Since my new method of studying is doing transcriptions and using them to improve my listening I figured I might as well share them with you and also use this opportunity to review the podcast. A bit about 狗熊有话说I have listened to a couple of the episodes of this podcast, also known as Bear Talk (or... Continue Reading →
Mandarin with Manu 