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Is mandarin getting popular?

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funmandarin
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Is mandarin getting popular?

Post by funmandarin » Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:15 am

I have just started my mandarin lesson recently, focus on the speaking, but it is really difficult with the tones and to remember. How about you guys? Anybody has the same experience?

irvine
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Post by irvine » Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:32 pm

funmandarin... how about gaining some 'excitement' via Chinese songs? It's a fun way to learn a new language.

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Vaucluse
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Post by Vaucluse » Thu, 21 Jan 2010 2:34 pm

Is mandarin getting popular?
Nah, it will never catch on, like Latin or Espiranto . . . it will just fade away
......................................................

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nakatago
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Post by nakatago » Thu, 21 Jan 2010 2:47 pm

Vaucluse wrote:
Is mandarin getting popular?
Nah, it will never catch on, like Latin or Espiranto . . . it will just fade away
Kion vi diras? Esperanton vivas kaj bone kaj estas neforigebla! *
:P :P :P
*yes, that is in esperanto. the hell, who uses it anyway? is it the same guys who speak klingon and sindarin?
"A quokka is what would happen if there was an anime about kangaroos."

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Post by Vaucluse » Thu, 21 Jan 2010 3:03 pm

nakatago wrote:
Vaucluse wrote:
Is mandarin getting popular?
Nah, it will never catch on, like Latin or Espiranto . . . it will just fade away
Kion vi diras? Esperanton vivas kaj bone kaj estas neforigebla! *
:P :P :P
*yes, that is in esperanto. the hell, who uses it anyway? is it the same guys who speak klingon and sindarin?
. . . and Mandarin. It will never catch on, I tell you.
......................................................

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funmandarin
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Is mandarin getting popular?

Post by funmandarin » Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:18 pm

Vaucluse wrote:
Is mandarin getting popular?
Nah, it will never catch on, like Latin or Espiranto . . . it will just fade away
how do you know it? are you from the past or the future?

come on guys! just need an advise how to learn the language.

Thnx Irvine anyway. I'll try your method! but it seems singing doesn't need the tones.

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sundaymorningstaple
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Re: Is mandarin getting popular?

Post by sundaymorningstaple » Fri, 22 Jan 2010 1:31 pm

funmandarin wrote:
Vaucluse wrote:
Is mandarin getting popular?
Nah, it will never catch on, like Latin or Espiranto . . . it will just fade away
how do you know it? are you from the past or the future?

come on guys! just need an advise how to learn the language.

Thnx Irvine anyway. I'll try your method! but it seems singing doesn't need the tones.

funmandarin, you should have stopped while you were ahead. You other post soliciting students was deleted and your account has been locked. - moderator
Last edited by sundaymorningstaple on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Post by Eden86 » Mon, 25 Jan 2010 8:34 am

are u from singapore???????????

mrHomeLook
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Post by mrHomeLook » Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:51 am

i think mandarin is a good language to learn especially if u live in asia. one way to pick up the language pretty fast, is to watch drama serials/movies with subtitles. that will kick up your conversational skills in a jiffy
MR HomeLook

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Post by Vaucluse » Mon, 25 Jan 2010 3:01 pm

Eden86 wrote:are u from singapore???????????
Which one? SMS? Nah, he's English! :)
......................................................

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Mon, 25 Jan 2010 4:34 pm

Damn! That hurt! :cry:
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

hanyu
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Is mandarin getting popular?

Post by hanyu » Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:06 am

Not matter what you said guys, the Chinese culture is the only one in the world from past to present still lasting, and still continuing...and language is part of the culture,.

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sundaymorningstaple
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Re: Is mandarin getting popular?

Post by sundaymorningstaple » Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:35 am

hanyu wrote:Not matter what you said guys, the Chinese culture is the only one in the world from past to present still lasting, and still continuing...and language is part of the culture,.
Which one? The only reason Potongua is China's main dialect today is because of the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911.
The Beijing Guanhua (Mandarin) dialect is the official language in China.
At the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, there was no single, national language in China nor an education system that could teach the proper sounds of any of the languages. There were archaic dictionaries and a literary Chinese over a thousand years old that little resembled the spoken vernacular. The new government decided a national language (Guoyu) must be established and so it was decided by a group of scholars in 1913 that Mandarin be made the standard. A set of phonetic symbols were created (zhuyin fuhao) and a dictionary created called Guoyin zidian (Dictionary of National Phonics). However, this dictionary did not resemble Mandarin as it was spoken because it retained pronunciations of the Ru-sheng characters, so it was a mix of northern pronunciation with the rhymes of the southern languages. Not a single person could speak the language set down in this dictionary except Yuen Ren Chao (Zhao Yuanren), a native Wu speaker but skilled linguist and phonetician who is famous for developing the tone contour system used by linguists and doing much of the early dialect fieldwork. He is the one who made a set of recordings of this dictionary for use in schools. Nobody really could learn from this dictionary, and it wasn't until 1932 that a dictionary based on the pronunciation and speech of Beijing came about. Now, in addition to the term "Guoyu" (which is the term now used in Taiwan), Putonghua or "universal language" has become the national term for the official language. This is usually called Huayu "Chinese language" by most overseas Chinese. Another term, zhongwen is used to refer to Chinese in a more literary sense.
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Vaucluse
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Re: Is mandarin getting popular?

Post by Vaucluse » Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:01 am

funmandarin wrote:
Vaucluse wrote:
Is mandarin getting popular?
Nah, it will never catch on, like Latin or Espiranto . . . it will just fade away
how do you know it? are you from the past or the future?
Yes, I am from the past and the future . . . that is 'how I know it'.

sms wrote:
Damn! That hurt!
Sorry, I admit that was below the belt . . .

hanyu wrote:
Not matter what you said guys, the Chinese culture is the only one in the world from past to present still lasting, and still continuing...and language is part of the culture,.

Ok, let's dissect this bit of jingoistic vomit:
"... the Chinese culture..." Which one would that be? Is there only one? Are 1.3 billion people homogeneous?

"...the Chinese culture is the only one in the world from past to present still lasting, and still continuing...

When does the 'past' start for you? Is it a defining point that you decide on? Please explain to me what 'culture' consists of . . .

I've been in China many times and always hear the locals talking about their 5000 years of culture . . . this is while they are picking their noses, hawking up some god-awful slime from the back of their throats and spitting the rewards onto the ground for others to step on.

Culture

After 5000 years they still use to sticks to pick up their food with? :roll:

Culture . . . , slightly t-i-c.

They rule their population through fear and despotism, tens of millions have been murdered by their own in the last few decades . . .

Culture


Ah, culture is a wonderful thing . . . but my favourite hanyu line:
Not matter what you said guys
. . . Culture means being closed minded

Culture
......................................................

'nuff said Image

MinSG
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Post by MinSG » Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:49 am

funmadarin, to quickly pick up Mandarin speaking and the tones, you must speak a lot especially with Chinese and try to learn their pronunciations. Don't be shy of speaking wrong.

For most of the foreigners especially from western countries, the hardest pronunciations are the words starting with J, Q, X and Y, like Ju, Qu, Xu and Yu. Practice more on these pronunciations and I believe people will soon better understand what you say.

Agree to others that Mandarin is very useful especially in Asia. Happy learning....

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