新的學年開始 明天新的學年開始。我開始十二年級。我神經質一下，不能知道怎麼樣。我上年發現我遭受心病。我學了一下，還是來年也許是鬥爭。

Is my Chinese Name Good? So, I've been trying to pick up what Chinese I can on my own. I want to study it at college, but right now I'm stuck with just the internet. And I've wanted to have a Chinese name I can refer to myself with in order to better connect with the language. I looked through common surnames and various characters to come up with a name I like. Now I want to check to make sure it's an acceptable name, because there are plenty of cultural and linguistic nuances I don't know about. The name I chose was 魏渠培. I chose the surname 魏 because it sounds somewhat like my last name, and I liked the way it sounded. The given name was my attempt at connecting meaning. 渠 means canal, which is used to provide for society and connect it (and I know a major canal in China historically was important, from my history class). Also I think the radicals for water and wood were good to have in my name. 培 means to cultivate, and is related to both the way a canal can help with irrigation and trade, and also the cultivation of a family. Is this a good name?

Pronunciation of Pinyin R So, I'm a Mandarin noob, and one of the things I'm working on is pronunciation. I'm learning, so far, online, and one of the main questions that has come up concerns the pronunciation of the R in pinyin. So far, I think I've settled on pronouncing it the way it was described here http://www.sinosplice.com/learn-chinese/pronunciation-of-mandarin-chinese/5 But the trouble is, listening to various resources on YouTube like songs, I've heard it pronounced differently. Sometimes "like the second half of leisure", sometimes more of an English approximant r-sound, but with the tongue higher, and sometimes even more of a /j/ (as in the pinyin y) sound, but again with the tongue raised more. Is there variation in the way native speakers say it, so that as long as it's still somewhat retroflex; can it be any of those? Which pronunciation should I try for? I'm trying to learn standard Mandarin right now, although if I were to travel to speak it sometime in my life it would be to Taiwan I think.