Hold on to your space seats, because the story time U.F.O. is back at it again, zapping fresh stories straight from the mothership into your inbox! 🛸 If you’ve been following my blog or my ShachemLieuw YouTube channel for a while, you probably already know I’ve been deep-diving into learning Mandarin and exploring more about my Chinese heritage. Well, my latest mission involved signing up for a wood seal carving class, and I liked it so much that I’ve officially decided to purchase a wood seal carving kit and turn this into a permanent hobby! 🧰✍️ Fun plot twist: we didn't actually work with real wood. We got to practice on erasers! But it was still super fun learning all the traditional carving techniques. (For those wondering, the Chinese carving knife used for this is called an intou or bidao —often referred to as an iron pen or a graver!) The class went pretty in-depth about the history of seal carving in China. Historically, seals (or chops) served as powerful credential...
Mandarin Milestones, Closing Ceremonies, and Left-Handed Hanzi Struggles
The Story Time U.F.O. Has Landed: Mandarin Milestones, Closing Ceremonies, and Left-Handed Hanzi Struggles 🛸
BEEP-BOOP! ZZZZAP! 👽🛸
Hold onto your keyboards, Story Time family, because the Story Time U.F.O. just hovered right over our headquarters and zapped another fresh episode straight into your digital inbox! No delays, no cosmic detours—just pure, unfiltered updates delivered straight from the mothership to you. If you haven’t beamed aboard yet, make sure you join the U.F.O. community so you never miss a single transmission!
HSK 1 Conquered: 98s, 196s, and a Whole Lot of Love for Mandarin 📚🇨🇳
This time around, we are talking about a massive milestone: the closing ceremony hosted by the Confucius Institute Suriname!
If you’ve been following along, you probably know that my love for learning languages has completely got me hooked on Mandarin. Recently, I wrapped up my HSK 1 lessons 8- 15 course with a sweet 98 out of 100 score, followed by acing the official HSK 1 test with a 196 out of 200! Safe to say... the Mandarin vocabulary is finally sticking, and the progress is real. 🧠💪
Learning a language like Mandarin is an incredible journey, but let's be honest—it is definitely not a walk in the park!
The Tone Trap: One tiny shift in pitch can turn "mother" into "horse" real quick. 🐎
Memorization Mountaintop: Remembering vocabulary requires relentless repetition and flashcard marathons.
The Hanzi Hurdle: Writing Chinese characters (Hanzi) is an entirely different beast.
The Left-Handed Hanzi Struggle ✍️🖐️
Being a left-handed writer adds a whole extra layer of spicy challenge to learning Hanzi!
Most writing systems—and traditional stroke orders designed for Chinese characters—are inherently optimized for right-handed writers. When you're left-handed, your hand naturally tends to smudge the ink as you move across the page, and sweeping strokes in the "wrong" direction can feel completely unnatural at first.
That’s exactly why I had to start practicing my writing early! Getting ahead of the curve meant extra hours at the desk, training muscle memory, and figuring out the best angles to keep my hand from turning the page into a smudged abstract painting. 🎨😅
Luckily, I’ve had the most wonderful, patient teachers at the Confucius Institute who never once looked annoyed when I bombarded them with requests to double-check my Chinese work. (A huge shoutout to them, especially since a lot of those stories are meant straight for the Story Time community!) I’ve even tried my hand at writing poetry in Hanzi—because why keep things simple when you can try to rhyme in a brand-new script? 📜
Festivities, Speeches, and Stage Debuts 🎤🎶
The closing ceremony itself was packed with energy. We had performances where everyone chipped in to sing songs in Mandarin! Unfortunately, I couldn't record all of the performances because I rolled in just a bit late (classic timing), and let's be real—it's pretty much impossible to record yourself while you're busy performing on stage. 🎶🙈
We also had fantastic guest speakers from Jinshan Suriname Construction, who delivered a fascinating presentation. It was super interesting to learn more about Zijin's massive global footprint and the specific work they are doing right here in Suriname. 🌍🏗️
Missed the live vibes? Don't worry! As usual, I put together a full vlog capturing the highlights of the closing ceremony.
Hope you guys thoroughly enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed living it. Until our next transmission... keep exploring, keep learning, and beam up! 🛸💛🎬
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