Reflections & Guest's Biography

Ma Kexin (Native Speaker)

• Age: 21
• City: Beijing
• Major: Asian Studies (Major), Japanese (Minor), FASS
• Hobbies: Watching Anime, traveling, and seeking for delicacies

   Binh

I truly enjoyed the experience because not only I was able to revise my Chinese by going through the script but I also had the opportunity to make friend and have fun in general. Nevertheless, the script was quite a challenge to come up with. Since we wrote it in English then translated it to Chinese, some parts sound unnatural when read out loud and thus we have to rewrite them again.  I was also able to learn how to type Chinese and Hanyu Pinyin. Kexin, our Chinese friend, was a godsend to us as she helped us out with the script as well as kept correcting our pronunciations. Thanks to her, I became more aware that people from different parts of China pronounces some words differently (the word 个 for example). If given a chance I definitely would do this project again. 

   Eddie

We had a meeting regularly. All of members participated in the project passionately and undertook each part of the project. So I think we have done a good job for this assignment. My job as a translator was quite challenging since the English scripit included quite a few difficult words that we have not learned. Nevertheless, I enjoyed every parts of the project whether it is meeting members, discussing our project, making the video…. I am here to study abroad as an exchange student and it was my first time doing an assignment with foreign students. So it was such a significant and valuable experience to me. I really appreciate this project and my team members. Thank you so much. 

   Jezelyn

This project has by far been one of the most enriching and purposeful ones that I have done so far in my NUS life. The project allowed us a way to put our Chinese into practice such as forming linking conversation topics. One of the biggest difficulties faced is that we had to film our video at night due to our haunted theme and so lighting issues became a huge problem but we tried to solve it with torchlights. I really did enjoy the project and our final video product came out smoothly.

Mariko

The pronunciation was the most difficult, especially 停车场 (tíngchēchǎng). Kexin who is from Beijing corrected my pronunciation of 停车场many times. I thought I was careful with pinyin, but it sounded strange for her. What you’ll listen to in the video is still better than before recording. I realized that it takes for long to speak Chinese like native speaker, but I hope I can speak Chinese like native speaker someday. Anyway, as a whole, recording the video was so fun because each member did their own task and Kexin kindly helped us. I became more interested in Chinese through this project. I’ll keep practicing to speak Chinese with native speakers.

  Joy

I had great fun while doing this project. From writing the script to filming the actual "horror" short movie. Everyone in the group was very cooperative and played their parts very well. We did face some difficulties with the pronunciation of the new words, so we were very grateful to have Kexin there with us to help us out. Another difficulty we faced was the constraint on the words we can use. Since we could only use 12 new words, we had to change our script a few times. But other that it was a fun new experience as whole to act in Chinese, and I am personally very happy about how the video turned out!

   Leandra

My role in the project included being one of the actors and also editing the video. Due to our storyline, we have decided to film at night. It was a challenge at first to get the proper lighting using a torchlight because the camera flash is not functioning. We had to do a few retakes to get our pronounciation right but overall, the progress was relatively smooth. I believe, as a team, we worked well together. Everyone was responsible for their parts, making this an enjoyable experience. 他们很好!

谢谢 Cathy 老师 for helping us learn all these words in this short semester! 我们很高兴。