Oh Got It! I'm Still Sorting Through It, But So Far The Best Source I Found Was Inner Mongolia University's

Oh got it! I'm still sorting through it, but so far the best source I found was Inner Mongolia University's course on Open163. They have a good beginners course, but the only possible snag is that they use the traditional script rather than the cyrilic. Most of the chinese courses also actually use the traditional script, which they do teach but it does make things a bit more challenging imo.

Discovered that there are regular flights between Germany and Mongolia so decided to give Mongolian another try. I was pleasantly shocked to discover that there are now more and better learning resources available.

My main mistake was relying solely on english teaching material, I completely forgot that I know other languages e.g. Chinese and the resources found on Baidu look promising.

I might make a post with the resources and material at some point, but for now I need to sort out what's useful and what's not suitable yet.

Who knows, perhaps a summer exploring Mongolia isn't such a distant ethereal dream after all.

Discovered that there are regular flights between Germany and Mongolia so decided to give Mongolian another try. I was pleasantly shocked to discover that there are now more and better learning resources available.

My main mistake was relying solely on english teaching material, I completely forgot that I know other languages e.g. Chinese and the resources found on Baidu look promising.

I might make a post with the resources and material at some point, but for now I need to sort out what's useful and what's not suitable yet.

Who knows, perhaps a summer exploring Mongolia isn't such a distant ethereal dream after all.

Post-China advice #1

When leaving China make sure to withdraw money from your Chinese bank account, because many banks don't allow you to transfer money abroad unless you actually physically go to said bank and transfer it from there in person.

In theory you can withdraw it at an atm abroad, but not many support chinese cards.

I had some money left so now the only way to get it out is to either remove it when/if I go back to China or to purchase something from a Chinese site and have it sent all the way here.

Option number 2 isn't too bad actually, I have my eye on this really nice steamer so that I can make some baozi and jiaozi properly, but the point stands. Especially if it's a large amount, make sure to either withdraw it as cash or to send it back home if you're leaving.

T - Verbs in Chinese

Tackle (an issue) - 处理 (chǔlǐ)

Take - 拿 (ná)

Talk - 说 (shuō)

Target - 瞄准 (miáozhǔn)

Teach - 教 (jiāo)

Tell - 告诉 (gàosù)

Terminate - 终止 (zhōngzhǐ)

Testify - 作证 (zuòzhèng)

Thank - 感谢 (gǎnxiè)

Think - 想 (xiǎng)

Threaten - 威胁 (wēixié)

Throw - 扔 (rēng)

Tie - 系 (jì)

Tighten - 紧 (jǐn)

Tolerate - 容忍 (róngrěn)

Touch - 触摸 (chùmō)

Train - 训练 (xùnliàn)

Transfer - 转移 (zhuǎnyí)

Transform - 转变 (zhuǎnbiàn)

Translate - 翻译 (fānyì)

Transmit - 传送 (chuánsòng)

Travel - 旅行 (lǚxíng)

Tremble - 颤抖 (chàndǒu)

Trigger - 触发 (chùfā)

Trust - 信任 (xìnrèn)

Try - 尝试 (chángshì)

Type - 打字 (dǎzì)

您好！您好。我突然看看你的博客，又好意思又厉害的。我也学习中文，学七年了。我二十九岁，你觉得我太老学外语吗？什么办法你觉得帮助我学越来越快？有一个妻子还有两个动物和好难的工作。非常忙。最近 我觉得很老和不够。。。

您好！谢谢您的赞誉！7年真厉害，我钦佩您的学习毅力。我觉得学习一门新语言还是一项新技能永远不会太晚。学习没有时间限制，只要有兴趣，随时都可以学习中文还是别的东西。

在学中文更快的方面，可能要看您的水平和目标。比如，我目前的水平大约是HSK4，正在学习HSK5. 虽然我的词汇ok,但我的听力和口语还需要实习所以我注重这种的练习。如果您没有那么多时间，可以试一试passive学习。一边工作一边听中文podcasts/音乐/课本音频/有声书等等

我学中文才 3 年，所以在工作和学习的管理方面我没有那么多经验。不过，学习不一定要严格。您可以每个周末读 45 分钟中文报纸/书还是在公交车上听播客。

我们每个人学习的速度不一样。在中国，我的一位同学大约 37 岁，在参加课程之前，他已经自学中文好几年了。其实，我们中文课程的大部分学生年龄在 25-35 岁，所以年龄真不重要，只要您有兴趣和奉献精神，其他一切都会好起来。

我希望我的回答能帮您，祝您学业顺利！

And now, a few months later I finally saw the new Major Grom movie Майор Гром: Игра and I have ponderings.

Overall a pretty solid movie, I had no idea what it would be about as I blocked all tags to avoid spoilers. The plot was a tad chaotic and to some extent more violent (literally, first few minutes in and bam! chaos) and unlike the previous movie, it didn't really have that particular flavour of comedy to back it up. It was almost 3 hours long but the fast-pace was enough to keep the momentum going. There were also a few cameos that had me going??? Because there were definitely a few celebrities that I did not expect to feature in this movie.

Chaos aside, the storyline was interesting as there were a few directions going on at once, and as an action movie it's definitely good. Thing is, I don't know if it was intended to be an action movie as it looks like one but it feels like it's supposed to have a more nuanced plot? Maybe it's just me but anyone who watched this movie feel free to share your thoughts.

The soundtrack was epic, Sergey Shnurov's Dragon was just 10/10 and now my playlist has once again expanded. There were other songs but this song that they used during the credits really stuck in my head.

I won't spoil it, but overall it's heavier than the previous Major Grom movie, so whilst I can recommend watching it, be aware that it can get a tad gory in my opinion.

Apparently a new Major Grom/Майор Гром movie just came out (like a week ago) and now I have to wait until it's available to watch online in good quality because I refuse to besmirch this potential masterpiece by watching it in 360p with barely distinguishable audio.