Hello! David Snopek here.
Today I'm going to record a short video in English to go along with an article on my blog.
I'm going to try to switch between English videos and Polish videos more often
so that you can practice listening in English as well.
Anyway, in this video I'm going to do 2 things.
1. I'm going to walk you through how to use Memrise.com,
which is a website that helps you learn words and phrases in a foreign language.
I've been using it for about 2 or 3 weeks, learning how to read a menu in Chinese.
If you're wondering why I'm learning Chinese, or want to read my full review of Memrise, please read the article on my blog.
There are links in the description below and on top of the video.
2. Carrie and I are going to go eat at a Chinese restaurant
and we're going to record the whole thing so you can come with us.
Alright, let's go!
Alright, here is Memrize.com.
You can log in with Facebook.
Here is my home screen after logging in.
Here are the courses I'm taking.
and you can see "Learn Basic Chinese: read a menu!".
Here are all the levels in this course.
Memrise has a very unusual metaphor.
that you "plant" a new level and then "water" old items to review them.
So each level is a plant.
First you plant it and then you water it.
You can see I have 14 items that are ready to be watered.
So when I first log in I come here and click "water 14 items".
That is beef.
It's asking me, "What is this Chinese character?" and I have to type the English for it.
That is meat. The other meat.
That is chicken.
Chicken egg noodles
That is this one.
That is egg.
Beef fried rice. Here is beef fried rice.
And here you see I have just completed my watering session.
I can continue watering or I can go back to my course.
You can see that I got all the answers correct.
I earned this many points.
I'm going to go back to the course.
When you learn a new level, you are "planting" it. So let's go to a level I haven't done: "5 more dishes!"
Here are all the items that will be in this level.
Those are all the things I'm going to learn.
To begin I click "Start planting."
Soy sauce fried rice. Ok, so this part means soy sauce.
That's "fried" and that's "rice."
Now I have to choose a "Mem" to help me remember it.
Yeah, actually I think this one's the best.
This is what each of those characters mean. That will help me remember this the best... sauce oil fried rice.
Alright, now I'm learning "preserved vegetables and pork noodles".
And then we simply start reviewing what we've learned, just like before when I was watering.
So green vegetable and pork noodles.
Hmm, that was green vegetable shredded pork noodles. I think this one.
Ooh, I got it wrong. It was this one.
Yeah, green vegetable, meat (shredded), noodles.
Red braised pork noodles... I think that's this one.
Yes!
And then you continue to learn the new items and review, learn new items and review until you are done with the level.
So that was Memrise! As you can see there are many new levels you can learn and many more courses you can do.
If you're interested in my full review of Memrise, please read the article on my blog.
There's a link below.
Alright! We're about to go to a Chinese restaurant so I can practice reading the menu
to see how much I can read after learning on Memrise for a couple weeks.
We're bringing our chopsticks, which we bought in Chinatown in San Francisco.
It's going to be awesome. I love Chinese food. Let's go!
What is your favorite Chinese food?
Cream Cheese Wontons.
So, what's your favorite Chinese food?
My favorite Chinese food is Vegetable Fried Rice.
Ok. So, the menu does have Chinese on it, however I don't know many of the characters.
I recognize this one is "cow" and this one is "meat" so that means "beef".
And I've got "Beef Tenderloin". There's another beef... beef... beef...
Oh, and that one means "fried" -- that third character right there.
So I can recognize a little bit, but I think I need to spend more time before I can really read the menu.
Mmm... The tea smells good!
Mmm... It's very good!
I think I might just get some soup...
Ok. I've got to find my Zodiac.
Actually, I've never really paid attention to the Chinese Zodiac, so I'm not sure which one is me.
I've got to find 80, which would mean... 81...
Oh jeez... 84...
Hey!
1983... Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Pig are extremely nice, good-mannered and tasteful!
That sounds really complimentary!
How was your food?
It was fantastic! How was yours?
It was delicious.
Now, our fortune cookies.
Let me see...
You will be fortunate in the opportunities presented to you. I like that!
Now is a lucky time for you. Take a chance!