October 01, 2007

• This looks awesome! I am on "holiday" this week so I will put some time aside to have a decent look. Yay!
• I know! Hanyu Pinyin was the one who flew wingman when Luke blew up the Deathstar, right?
• *bookmarks everything* Thanks neddy!
• "Have you thought that you could actually improve your Chinese by learn to sing Chinese pop song?" Here's sample! Herbalist Manual by Jay Chou "If Dr. Tuo Hua is born again and all the desire of worship everything foreign has been cured/ The foreign country come to us to learn Chinese, these will arouse our own consciousness on our kind/ Ma Quian Zi, Jue Ming Zi, Cang Er Zi, Lian Zi [all Chinese medicines that ends with Zi for rhyming]/ Huang Yao Zi, Ku Dou Zi, Chuan Lian Zi [all Chinese medicines that ends with Zi], I want my face."
• Yah, I have to admit, the chap who does the pop song translations, English is probably not his first language. But I found it a very cute idea, and probably quite good. However, he is a little ambitious, using Jay Chou, whose lyrics contain a fair bit of classical Chinese references, and moreover deliberately mixes certain idioms to create different ideas.
• Shyeah. Just when I start learning Japanese.
• Thanks for these nice linkies. I have a CD set on learning Chinese that I really, really will start soon...
• Personally, I prefer the fortune cookie method. I took Mandarin at NYU for a year free thanks to a friend from China who signed up for easy credit, apparently. I went in her place, and in return got to sit in with a professor from Harvard who claimed a "revolutionary" new method for teaching Chinese characters. It basically consisted of being exposed to a new character for a matter of seconds - - then trying to "re-create" as much of it as possible by writing it down from memory - - then being exposed to the character AGAIN, but for a shorter time, repeat three times...
• Did it work?
• Which one? The fortune cookie route, or the Harvard Professor? Actually, I was surprised how much I actually *did* remember from the class. I had somewhat of an advantage in that I had studied Japanese for four years, so I had a fairly decent base knowledge of the basic kanji.
• Do it while you're young folk! At about the age of 40, the language-learner in your brain seems to turn off. (I lived in Mexico for a while at about that age with some minor knowledge of Spanish, and learning the formal grammar kicked my ass, even though I'd had no problem with French, Italian and German while in college. A former teacher from the US who had finally gotten a job in a consulate in Monterrey cried to me about having the same problem.) I'd love to learn Chinese, but know that the tonal differnces plus learning non-western writing would make me fail miserably, and I hate to fail.
• I passed the 40-yr mark a few years ago and I tell you my language skill are fine.
• Tones! Feh! I've spoken Chinese for a decade with a very cavalier approach to tones, as any annoyed cab driver will tell you as I repeat the name of my street for the fourth time. Ideally, don't do it like me (cloth-eared and lazy, plus first real conversation with farmers speaking dialect up a remote mountain several thousand miles from the capital). Tones are an integral part of meaning but don't let fear of 'em put you off. I've even spoken at conferences and apparently been understood.
• I've even spoken at conferences and apparently been understood. Conferences, eh? *nudge, nudge, wink, wink* Say no more, say no more! *leers*
• See, you who speaks as a non-native says that, but every actual native Chinese person I've asked tells me that the tones are very important. I admit it has put me off, but I always figured if you listen hard and practice, you could get by. I just need the time to learn. Maybe this summer...
• I honestly think native speakers aren't necessarily the best people to take advice on learning a language off, trace - I certainly avoid telling Chinese friends how to learn English. Tones are of course very important, but you'll be surprised how much further a good vocabulary and well-constructed sentences get you. People pick up on context as much as anything. My own tones aren't quite as bad as I'm joking about above, but still I only really ever have problems if I'm saying something unusual with no context - like a little-known place name.
• Fnarr, fnarr.
• What server is that image hosted on, a ZX81?
• flickr? Jesus, must be just me.
• Yeh its me.
• Looks nothing like you, Hank!
• you no know what Hank looks like!!! /spittle
• That's Andy Lau! I've had a crush on him since I was four! And if you look like him, Hank, I'd either marry you, or cut off your head to make a bust. Actually, I quite agree with Abiezer. As long as you construct your sentences well, the context of the words can probably be inferred accurately by the listener. Tones are more important for very short utterances, because there's not enough context. Silly example: Hello, why are you here? 你好，你在这干什么？ I'm here to buy vegetables. 我来这买菜。 Now, the fourth word in the answer means "buy", and is in the third tone. If you changed it to third tone, it will mean "sell". So if you get the tone wrong, then the questioner won't be sure if you're buying or selling. Unless you provide enough context, eg. "I'm making dinner tonight, so I'm here to buy vegetables."