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Reply With QuoteHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers
667medic,
well, i can assure you col yu's suggested method will probably be the most entertaining wayAstralis, can you direct me to a source where I might be able to learn Mandarin. Must be free ofcourse
but hey, if you want free, here's a few good suggestions:
-local library for beginning mandarin course readers. get the very basics of chinese down, like the four tones/pinyin system. find out if you want to learn traditional or simplified chinese. heck, you can google this and you'll find something.
after that,
-ChinesePod. http://www.chinesepod.com/
good for listening comprehension.
-www.zhongwen.com
excellent reference site, easy to use dictionary. also links to other chinese-learning pages.
and a bit more advanced, but very useful:
-http://www.oneaday.org
pick up the idioms and references that native chinese speakers sprinkle into their speech and writing. these are probably the hardest to learn, because they are so varied and many, and are based in the chinese historical/cultural tradition. but if you can use these competently in speech, it'll not only show you that you got chinese down...but that you're probably going native
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...
Excuse me, yes Guangdong, and Hong Kong, guess I should have been more specific with "here" I live in Guangzhou. Although I wouldn’t say that "most" people in Hong Kong speak English well enough to hold any sort of complex conversation, at least the vast majority of those that I encountered.irishman,
that sounds pretty suspect for a guy who's both worked and lived in china. the article did not question the fact that the chinese have been teaching their population english- as a second language. hell, to use pinyin, you have to know the basics of the alphabet, anyway. even on taiwan, where they use the zhuyin system, english is still taught extensively (although very poorly).
the real suspicious part is your last paragraph. "most people here speak Cantonese", this would be true where? Hong Kong? Guangdong? but in either case, most hongkongnese can speak mandarin and english just fine, while in guangdong most people also known cantonese. there's some 65 million cantonese speakers...and some 865 mandarin speakers. you do the math.
as for influencing anyone else, there's a dam' good reason why all those US high schools are suddenly offering programs in chinese.
Also, I learned a great deal of Mandarin before my travels here, and contrary to what you say I've encountered many people here in "Guangzhou" that do not understand Mandarin, only Cantonese, and at times my Mandarin knowledge is useless.
Well honestly some of our people should be learning Chinese, but I would hardly say that the Chinese have illusions of the Mandarin language taking over the word, that’s just plain, dumb.
I couple photo's here. One from Baiyun Mountain, and one from Guangzhou zoo, I toke during the May holiday here last week.
I'm not a lier sir.
Trust me, the reason they bought Baidu is not to loose out Chinese search and admarket revenues. Did you see Baidu as a brand outside China? Or for that matter, since China is the 2nd largest user base for internet can you tell me a Chinese web brand thats popular here in the US??jay, gautam,
there's a reason why google bought out baidu in china.
A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!
irishman,
well, sir, forgive the note of suspicion; simply just that at WAB there have been quite the number of liars whom the mods promptly ban. just checkingExcuse me, yes Guangdong, and Hong Kong, guess I should have been more specific with "here" I live in Guangzhou. Although I wouldn’t say that "most" people in Hong Kong speak English well enough to hold any sort of complex conversation, at least the vast majority of those that I encountered.
Also, I learned a great deal of Mandarin before my travels here, and contrary to what you say I've encountered many people here in "Guangzhou" that do not understand Mandarin, only Cantonese, and at times my Mandarin knowledge is useless.
Well honestly some of our people should be learning Chinese, but I would hardly say that the Chinese have illusions of the Mandarin language taking over the word, that’s just plain, dumb.
I couple photo's here. One from Baiyun Mountain, and one from Guangzhou zoo, I toke during the May holiday here last week.
I'm not a lier sir.
in any case, to address your pt,
no, the chinese do not have illusions of mandarin taking over the world. i don't think that was either mine, nor the article's, meaning. as for guangzhou and hk, i reckon that we are interacting primarily with different sets of people. obviously just about everyone in guangzhou will speak cantonese (i think i poorly worded it above), but i would still say most people understand mandarin. but given china's population, even the minority that do not is still a tremendous number.
Haha, yes lao wai in the house...hehe.. no problem. I was actualy kinda disheartened when I arrived in Guangzhou and incountered my first problem with a street vendor who looked at me as if I had spoken greek to him when I asked him a question in Mandarin.irishman,
well, sir, forgive the note of suspicion; simply just that at WAB there have been quite the number of liars whom the mods promptly ban. just checking
in any case, to address your pt,
no, the chinese do not have illusions of mandarin taking over the world. i don't think that was either mine, nor the article's, meaning. as for guangzhou and hk, i reckon that we are interacting primarily with different sets of people. obviously just about everyone in guangzhou will speak cantonese (i think i poorly worded it above), but i would still say most people understand mandarin. but given china's population, even the minority that do not is still a tremendous number.
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