nah it's mostly just languages randomly having words which are expressed in a more roundabout fashion elsewhere? I mean:
Tailgating (1) manoeuvering one's vehicle unreasonably close to the one in front of oneself; (2) attending, or organizing, an informal feast outside the site of a sporting or cultural event.
― anatol_merklich, Friday, 19 August 2011 18:04 (twelve years ago) link
ok strikeout "randomly" there
― anatol_merklich, Friday, 19 August 2011 18:05 (twelve years ago) link
Year 1 complete. They reckon I got a load of HDs and now I am officially owed a certificate. Highly useful if ever I want to book a holiday or talk about students.
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 23:59 (twelve years ago) link
what kind of certificate? is it an hsk-focused type of deal or a university thing?
― dylannn, Thursday, 27 October 2011 01:53 (twelve years ago) link
http://rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=C1064
The course is definitely geared in the direction of 新HSK – the Cert I content bears a conspicuous resemblance to the 新HSK 1 & 2 word lists. RMIT is Melbourne's only HSK testing centre (last I checked) and the same teaching staff run both, so the correlation is deliberate.
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Thursday, 27 October 2011 02:18 (twelve years ago) link
Bloke at the gym had 'upright' tattooed on his arm, upside down.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 09:00 (twelve years ago) link
I'm teaching myself at the moment. Got a little BBC Active guide for Chrimbo. It's bloody tough, but so far I can say 'hello', 'how are you?, 'i'm well, thanks', 'i'm not so good', 'I am Charlie', 'I am not Kevin', 'Good Evening', 'Good Morning' and a few other phrases. Even though it's Pinyin, it's still really tricky to know exactly how to pronounce words.
― I want your nose, your shoes and your unicycle (dog latin), Tuesday, 17 January 2012 11:09 (twelve years ago) link
Pronunciation is a killer. Even when you get the hang of the tones, the syllables in particular get nasty for a native English speaker (e.g. 'zh', 'sh', 'c'). It's so far from anything with which we're familiar that it takes some time to retrain the mouth, and even then it's probably not right.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 11:20 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, like never sure how to pronounce "q" or "x" and often words can be spelled completely different and yet sound almost exactly the same to my ears. It's fun though and I'm enjoying it - even if I only learn a tiny bit, I'll be happy :-)
― I want your nose, your shoes and your unicycle (dog latin), Tuesday, 17 January 2012 11:46 (twelve years ago) link
wish chinese characters appeared on this work computer. one thing i think i'm missing out on is the fact the bbc guide is entirely in pinyin with only token chinese characters.
i don't even know why i decided i wanted to learn. i don't have any burning reason other than i think it might be interesting and challenging.
― I want your nose, your shoes and your unicycle (dog latin), Tuesday, 17 January 2012 11:56 (twelve years ago) link
It's brilliant that you're doing it, and the benefits of Chinese in the 21st century can't be understated. Let us know if you want/need help with stuff; there's a fair range of Mandarin proficiency on ilx.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:10 (twelve years ago) link
hey thanks AA. I intend to practice a little bit every day - I'm in no rush to learn quickly. Indeed, I don't think with a language like this it's worth rushing, and even though I've been at it about three weeks, I'm happy just going over the first couple of pages in the book and learning them by rote. Because I'm fluent French and not awful at Spanish and German, I figured it would be good to go right out my comfort zone.
― I want your nose, your shoes and your unicycle (dog latin), Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:17 (twelve years ago) link
xiexie
bu ke qi
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:20 (twelve years ago) link
and i've already learnt something! i like how "bu ke qi" translates literally as "don't be polite" but means "you're welcome". I'm sure there must be an analogue in some European languages. I can imagine an old Scottish granny saying something like that after you've thanked her for a boiled sweet or something.
― I want your nose, your shoes and your unicycle (dog latin), Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:25 (twelve years ago) link
There are loads of analogues! We take them for granted because we're used to them, but they're definitely there. I can't think of them right now (11.30 pm here) but I'll crack open the brain's language centre in the morning.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:27 (twelve years ago) link
Actually, no, wait, not analogues, just common English phrases that don't make any sense. I shouldn't sleep and post.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:29 (twelve years ago) link
I also like how the translation of "I'm doing so-so" in response to "How are you?" is "Mama-Huhu" which means "Horse Horse Tiger Tiger"
(I would add the accents/inflections but I'm still a bit rusty and I'm at work and don't have time to boot up character map)
― I want your nose, your shoes and your unicycle (dog latin), Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:29 (twelve years ago) link
Recently I read that horse-horse-tiger-tiger is a thing they teach language students, and isn't really used at all by native speakers. So disappointed.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:31 (twelve years ago) link
(along with 'how are you?'; 'have you eaten?' seems to be more common)
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:32 (twelve years ago) link
I use horse horse tiger tiger! 'have you eaten' is the one that I hear less of
― dayo, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:35 (twelve years ago) link
but I mean, you only use ma ma hu hu when you really aren't feeling that great
So do they not say "mamahuhu" or is it just the horse-horse tiger-tiger thing (which is a cuet mnemonic all the same)?
And do they say "have you eaten?" as a form of greeting?
― I want your nose, your shoes and your unicycle (dog latin), Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:36 (twelve years ago) link
Oh, and one of the most annoying things about Chinese is that everything you think you know is always debunked, and then the debunking is debunked.
<3
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:36 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, 'have you eaten/chi le ma/吃了吗' is a greeting of some description, at least in some regions.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:37 (twelve years ago) link
China's a big country with many dialects. I guess if you compare it witht he many variations of English, no wonder there's some disagreement. I mean, there's no actual consensus to how many characters are in the language, so...
― I want your nose, your shoes and your unicycle (dog latin), Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:41 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, and many of the regions have their own local dialects anyway. Mandarin seems to be universally understood, though (based on hearsay; dayo/dylannnnnn plz jump in), and the written form is just about everywhere because the govt forces it.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:44 (twelve years ago) link
Bed.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:45 (twelve years ago) link
not so much dialects (which would mean variations on putonghua) but completely, mutually unintelligible versions of chinese!
written chinese is pretty much universally understood (if you're literate)
― dayo, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:51 (twelve years ago) link
Out-of-work tutor available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgN1Bk_mzkw&feature=related
― clemenza, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 12:52 (twelve years ago) link
http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/
~useful~
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 02:54 (twelve years ago) link
skritter for ios is basically incredible
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 19 June 2012 09:26 (eleven years ago) link
oh yeah? what isi it?
― un® (dayo), Tuesday, 19 June 2012 10:20 (eleven years ago) link
srs-based flashcardy system with full stroke recognition etc
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 19 June 2012 10:21 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.skritter.com/ios <– video explains everything
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 19 June 2012 10:22 (eleven years ago) link
thanks for pointing me to this thread, dog latin!
class starts on Monday. It's just a USDA class (this one, actually), and we'll only cover 150 words during this first 10-week session but i'm still really excited! and pumped to hopefully be moving into the intermediate courses, this time next year. prepare for lots of stupid questions from me, ILX!
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 19:09 (eleven years ago) link
skritter is awesome. i've going through the 101 list, but i've also got it synced up to the textbook i'll be using for my class. i just spent the last hour memorizing the characters for chapter 1, got it down pat! :) and it's awesome that it ties in the pronunciation too.
by the way, rì (time, date, sun, etc) is so fucking hard to pronounce for me.
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 21:57 (eleven years ago) link
it's not a phoneme that's used at all in english, I don't think
― Faith in Humanity: Restored (dayo), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:06 (eleven years ago) link
best advice I can give is to do your best scooby doo impression
― Faith in Humanity: Restored (dayo), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:07 (eleven years ago) link
yeah, the best i can do sounds like a constipated dog, so i think i'm getting there!
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:55 (eleven years ago) link
loool @ scooby doo impression. rì/日 is definitely on the tricker end of pronunciations for native English speakers, so don't fret Z S. You'll have an ace time. Also I might be dumb but I can't find the name of the textbook in your link. Which one are you using?
Skritter is indeed awesome. I've been chucking a load of known and new vocab lists into it, currently at 769 written characters learned and 869 written words learned aaaaand it's just started crashing. But still incredible. When it finishes adding all my known vocab lists I should be nudging 1,000 characters (so if the crashing gets worse I will be bloody annoyed).
― undermikey: bidness (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 23:16 (eleven years ago) link
oh, the link didn't include the name of the text, it was just a link to the class. the book is the new practical chinese reader, which i've read is kind of outdated and not the best, but...that's the assigned text! i'm going to combine it with skrillexskritter and rosetta stone, so hopefully i'll be set. plus my roommate speaks mandarin, so she'll be good to practice with (as long as i don't get too pissed to talk to her due to her occasional passive aggressive roommate notes)
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 23:24 (eleven years ago) link
NPCR is probably the most used with native English speakers, so you're well set there. Excellent that your roommate speaks Mandarin btw – I don't have any convenient Mandarin speakers ANYWHERE and it's retarding my growth.
― undermikey: bidness (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 23:28 (eleven years ago) link
http://sinoglot.com/blog/2012/06/back-up/
found this interesting re mandarin pronunciation made me rethink some tongue positioning issues pronunciation issues even after 6?? years of speaking the lang
― dylannn, Thursday, 28 June 2012 09:38 (eleven years ago) link
never had a 日 issues as far as i can tell
狗日的 great curseword
― dylannn, Thursday, 28 June 2012 09:42 (eleven years ago) link
http://boxun.com/news/images/2011/08/201108191146yuanqing1.jpg
― dylannn, Thursday, 28 June 2012 09:43 (eleven years ago) link
Wooo! I'm learnding via Skritter. Only problem is it seems to be adding words and vocab a little bit fast for me. I'd only just got used to the first 5-6 characters and now it's added something like 10 more without really revisiting the old ones. Also, some characters look literally identical to me, and yet mean different things. Also, I'm sure 'rén' (meaning man) was written differently to how it was written yesterday... what gives?
― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Thursday, 5 July 2012 09:19 (eleven years ago) link
人入?
― dylannn, Thursday, 5 July 2012 09:28 (eleven years ago) link
i never tried the flashcard/electroflashcard thing because i found the best way to put chinese characters in my head was the boring way my chinese teachers told me to put chinese characters in my head: writing them over and over again, copying out chinese texts etc
― dylannn, Thursday, 5 July 2012 09:34 (eleven years ago) link
i don't like the idea of learning the spoken language then trying to figure out characters either. just grind thru learning tohose fucking characters while learning the spoken language at at some point things will joint up together. i found out i could learn a lot by watching subtitled chinese tv just tpfilling in my knowledge of characters by being able to match up sound to shape.
― dylannn, Thursday, 5 July 2012 09:36 (eleven years ago) link