Any language learners on here? In my free time I (try to) learn languages. I am stuck a little with the Chinese tonal system: http://www.shufawest.us/language/tonedrill.html Single tones are no problem, I get them 100%. But in combination they are a bitch. http://www.shufawest.us/language/dual-tonedrill.html I can only get 25% or so on there. Maybe there are some Chinese learners on here, or maybe you want to talk about language learning in general... or maybe you just want to ask me why I post something like this on a gaming forum, like last time... :thumbsup: I know we have some native speakers on here, too!
That may be true, Japanese is sooo much easier in that respect. Still, I think it is a beautiful language
Well if you hate Chinese, you'll probably hate Kanji. Since it's basically just Chinese appropriated for Japanese use, it's just as complicated (from a writing/reading standpoint).
I need to stop being lazy and get my ass into a class. Pretty pathedic i've been with my wife for 6 years and I still don't speak any (been married for almost 2 years). Hell I even went to china for a whole month (and plan to go again in a year or two). =(
I don't doubt it. Hell I think even just some PC software might be able to help me get started. My wife is always watching TV shows in Chinese so it's not like I don't listen to enough of it already. =) As well my wife is from a north eastern province (about an hour's flight from bejing), so it's not like I need to learn a special or odd dialect of mandarin. I'm curious to see how well Rosetta stone would be but the sample disc they sent me doesn't list mandarin (even tho I specified it when filling out the online form on their site, I'd request again but it took over a month to even get the disc they sent me).
IMHO Rosetta Stone is kind of crappy. Mainly because you learn better when you actually apply it to something you like. If your playing some Chinese MMORPG (or any interactive game) and talking to party members in Chinese, you get much more retention than just looking at flash cards.
Just listen to a Language with zero (0) connection to ones own native Language won't bring you far. It just goes in and flows out on the other side, with zero learning effect. What you need is some basics of the Language, something you can build on and get you further. If you never did, you can listen to it for 200 years and nothing big will happen.
I just want something to get me going on the basics. I do plan to pick up a few PSP games that are translated to Simp chinese (actually already have one). Koei is pretty good about releasing their PSP games in Chinese actually. But truthfully i'm more interested in learning to listen and speak Chinese then I am about writing/reading it. Yes I know but my problem with learning a language is usually vocabulary and hearing it used often enough. Hell I actually understand a few things in Japanese purely from seeing them written so often because I play quite a few imported games. Again like I said before. I want to find something to get me going on the basics of speaking and listening to mandarin. Once I get the basics down there I will be able to learn a lot more through my wife (as it's her mother tongue). Also this wouldn't be my first time learning a new language. I do know a reasonable amount of french (both from taking courses and living in quebec for 7 years). So I understand the hurdles that come with learning another language.
I can't bring myself to learn it spoken all that well, since I pretty much only have TV for that, and Chinese TV is just.... :x Reading it is a much simpler task. Understanding a newspaper or the news though, forget it. I'd definitely try out games. There's a lot of old DOS games out there that are pretty easy to understand.
I gave it about 10 tries before noticing that they accept they don't accept the 2nd tone as the answer to a 3rd tone that comes before another tone. At least, if I'm remembering correctly a 3rd tone always changes to a 2nd tone before any other tone. Or was it only if there's another 3rd tone that follows it. I've been so out of listening practice for so long I might have forgotten.
And only a fraction of them are used, and only about 75% of those are necessary to full function on a normal level.
Spent all four years in high school learning Mandarin Chinese, and haven't used any of it since. Dual third tone and second-third tone combinations are easy to mix up since they sound the same.
Where is "here"? Singapore? I've been watching programs more and have been picking up the tones a bit better. There's some times where people, specifically the younger crowd, speak way too fast and sloppy. And ugh, women that keep saying "luo" at the end of their sentences. I HATE that :X
I noticed that too Ok, truth be told, in my native tongue I also talk way too fast sometimes :redface:
