Figuring out how to say you’re figuring out things

I swear, I could probably write a post every time I discover a word through conversation!

Today I’ve been told 研究, which is a really useful word I feel as though I should have come across earlier. It’s yánjiū, which seems to be coming across to me with the gist of ‘look up how to do something’. However I’ve also seen 研究生, a masters student, so maybe it’s not always reading over instructions (well…).

It’s more casual, so you probably won’t see me putting it in any formal situations any time soon.

研究 seems to carry the notion of learning something for the first time so you can master how to do it – to learn a method. I want to be able to pass HSK 3 but I’ve never taken an HSK exam before, so 我要研究怎么考好。 另外我应该研究汉语语法！

研究 does need to be followed by a subject matter however. You can’t say “I should look it up” as 我应该研究吧。Using 怎么 after 研究 followed by what method you want to look up is sufficient, or perhaps 一下（儿）。

Are there other ways to use 研究？

让我研究一下吧！

——晗娜

Learning Mandarin is alone hard; let’s fail in public instead!

您好！

我叫晗娜，学过普通话8个月——在中国大陆学了一个月。我会说英语，法语和日语（一点点）。因为我要说得汉语说得好，得练习才提高。普通话太难啦啊啊啊

I’ve been learning Mandarin for about 8 months, one of which has been spent in Mainland doing a heck of a lot of studying.
I know how to speak French (but never practice!!) and I’ve studied Japanese in the past; English is my native language.

The ultimate goal is to get relatively fluent in Chinese, alongside Japanese and to blow the piles of dust that have accumulated on my poor, poor unloved French skills. My current goal is to take the HSK 3 exam perhaps within a year, maybe during the period of 2017 (or 20XX, haha). I also need to get better at my use of pinyin and tones, because wow! I sure am good at mixing up words and messing up sentences when speaking with natives. :O

I want to get better and also collate my notes my notes into one place – I have so many note books all over the world (literally) – I’ve decided to start a blog.
The title comes from a phrase my roommate taught me, 好好学习天天上 (good good study day day up).
Basically, if you study hard, you’ll get better.
Considering that not only am I studying languages, I’m also doing joint majors in science, this is something I need to write on my forehead… so let’s ignore the fact that I’ve got a textbook open next to me and I’m writing a blog instead. :¬D

Onward and upwards!!

Wish me luck, eh?

——晗娜