600

My Heisig progress hasn't been as great as I'd hoped, but I did hit another milestone today - 600 characters. Only 900 to go in the book.

Aladdin Vocabulary

Here are some words I picked up while watching Aladdin:

骆驼 (luò tuo): Camel

阿拉伯 (Ā lā bó): Arabian

砍头 (kǎn tóu): decapitate

公主 (gōng zhǔ): princess

主人 (zhǔ rén): master

自由 (zì yóu): freedom

Hakuna Matata

I mentioned the video for Hakuna Matata in one of my previous posts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weR8hK2u3Q4). I've been watching this on repeat for a couple of weeks now, and it's pretty catchy! Here is the introduction as best I can tell:

Hakuna Matata, 就是很有意思
Hakuna Matata, 简单又好记.
从现在开始，你不必再担心,
不必像从前，听天由命

This translates to something like:

Hakuna Matata, it's really interesting
Hakuna Matata, easy and good to remember
From now on, you don't have to worry
Certainly not from in front?, Hear & cause fate?

The last line isn't too clear to me. I'm also not sure if the first bit is 就是 or 这是。What do you think?

This Andy Lau song is also catching (and funny): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcFaZgcVj2I

Earlier in the week I watched Aladdin. I'll post more about it soon, including some vocabulary I picked up.

Disney Clips

Here are a couple of clips I've found that are pretty good:

Jungle Book - Bare Necessities - Chinese Rock Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mchOYfN0rM

The Lion King - Hakuna Matata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weR8hK2u3Q4

The Little Mermaid - Under the Sea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LPACSLc7s4

And here are some full movies that I plan to watch this week (since the Lion King turned out so well):

美女与野兽 - Beauty and the Beast
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/VtEH06s6XZc/

阿拉丁 - Aladdin
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/qgFJw_WAjtg/

Tudou is great! Anything else good to watch?

The initial planning stages

One of the most exciting parts of a vacation is coming up with your first rough plan. No real details are finalized, but your mind starts to think about all of the interesting places to see. Despite knowing that I would be doing a China trip in the fall this year, I had not really done any planning towards it.

Last night, that changed. Here's the rough draft (and I emphasize rough) of my itinerary:


The basic idea is to fly into Beijing, but leave right away. This would give me about a week to see North/North Eastern China before meeting up with Amy, back in Beijing. I'd like to see Dalian, Qingdao, Harbin and maybe Shenyang (but not sure yet). I have Tianjin listed of the map but after talking about it at work today, I may want to skip it.

Other highlights - Pandas & Food in Chengdu (but not Pandas as food), Terracotta warriors in Xi'an, a Yangtze river cruise near Chongqing, and possibly seeing some of the Shanghai expo near the end. Last but not least, is a stop in Taipei for several days. I had a layover there on my flight home from Australia in 2008, but missed out on the opportunity to see the city (and country). Taiwan will require some extra research on my part!

What am I missing? Am I cramming too much into 4 weeks? Any tips for maximizing my exposure to Mandarin on the trip?

PS. A Heisig update - after studying today, I'm at 556 characters complete, 944 to go. 37% of the way through book one.