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bebeballerina
Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Posts: 92
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Posted: Mon, 29-Oct-2007 7:24 Post subject: |
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English is my first language, and I also studied 5 years of Spanish in school. I really want to learn French! All I know is "Bonjour", "Oui", and all the ballet words.
I speak decent Chinese, but I can't read/write it very well. Here in the US, almost all American-born Chinese are sent to Chinese school once a week until 8th grade or so. I think Chinese school (and my friends would probably agree with me) is one of the most despicable memories from my childhood. I remember spending many hours crying in frustration over the reading and writing homeworks...What's worse is that all that work was in vain, because we've all forgotten everything we learned there. So unfortunately I can only read and write the most basic Chinese (Taiwanese/Traditional, not Simplified). |
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bebeballerina
Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Posts: 92
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Posted: Mon, 29-Oct-2007 9:37 Post subject: |
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FaerieDevilish wrote: | Guillermo wrote: |
I was also interested in learning Chinese, but I must be realistic and try to use my scarce free time in a reasonable way. |
I thought the same as well, but I don't think that Chinese is precisely the way we picture it. The part I find the hardest is learning the symbols, which is important, but I have learned a lot in the months I've been in Chinese course. I am sure that, if you study it for two years, you can have a fair conversation with someone in it. |
In my humble opinion, the most difficult part of Chinese is the pronunciation. The Chinese characters are difficult to learn only because there's so many, so it's essentially straight memorization (which of course is a pain, don't get me wrong). However, I really think that it's the 4 tones that sets Chinese apart. They are very difficult to get if you didn't grow up speaking them. For example "Hi/How are you" is "Ni hao", which seems simple enough to say in English. After all it's only two syllables, and there's no tongue rolling or guttural throat sounds. But my friends always say it with a thick accent no matter how many times they try to get it right, because they're not used to the tones. "Ni" is the second tone (on its own it's the third tone) and "hao" is the third tone.
I'm not sure how Chinese teachers approach this with people learning Chinese for the first time, but in my opinion, you could use the sounds from your native language to help you learn the tones. For ex), say the word "Rhythmic." The first syllable "Rhyth" is sort of in the neutral first tone, and the second syllable "mic" is kind of similar to the fourth tone. They're not quite the same, but they're sort of the gist of it. I think the third tone is probably the most difficult, I can't think of any English sound that is in the third tone...Maybe the "low" from "Yellow", but not "low" on its own. |
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Kaja =)
Joined: 06 May 2004 Posts: 5421 Location: Norway
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Posted: Mon, 29-Oct-2007 15:59 Post subject: |
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I can already feel my brain going fussy _________________ And those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music |
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Hooby
Joined: 07 Nov 2007 Posts: 870
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Posted: Tue, 13-Nov-2007 21:32 Post subject: Some... |
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(post deleted by me)
Last edited by Hooby on Fri, 1-Aug-2008 9:50; edited 2 times in total |
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Shintaisou
Joined: 16 Sep 2007 Posts: 10 Location: Sweden
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Posted: Thu, 15-Nov-2007 21:18 Post subject: |
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My native language is Swedish (so I understand Norwegian). I speak English and French pretty much fluently. And taking Russian lessons at school. |
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PauliinaL93
Joined: 16 Oct 2007 Posts: 42 Location: Finland
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Posted: Fri, 16-Nov-2007 20:56 Post subject: |
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I speak finnish, and I think it's very difficult language, becuase all verbs and substantives specially are hard to learn. and words may be any place in a phrase but there have to be different ends of the words. it's very compliated to understand and it's world's third hardest language after chinese and japanese.
then I speak english of course which is taught from kids in finland since the age of 9.
then swedish, taught from the age of 13.
and I also speak german. in finland you can choose 11 yrs old are you going to start to read french, german or something. it depends from the school. now im 14. |
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Cirilio
Joined: 11 Aug 2006 Posts: 307 Location: Holland
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Posted: Mon, 19-Nov-2007 10:46 Post subject: |
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I speak Casamança, spanish and english as my native languages. It's quite weird because Casamança is a portuguese dialect that originated in africa, but with the slave trade it ended up in the america's. My grandmother speaks Casamança and so do a few older people in the dominican republic. I lived w/ my grandmother when i was younger and she mostly speaks casamanca. So with her i would speak casamanca and spanish. In new york (where i'm from) there is a huge spanish population so there is a mixing of a lot of mexican/puerto rican/ and dominican and english words. A lot of my friends from spain say it's difficult tof ollow new york spanish do to the mixed words and pronounciation.
In New york i did my first 10 years of school in standard spanish (castilian). It's normal for a lot of spanish speakers to do their first couple of years in spanish so they atleast know to read and write spanish. You can learn english because it's everywhere as well. But mostly you learn english and spanish at the same time. I just had more spanish than english at first and then my last years were all in english.
I studied french for 3 years but my writing is awful. I studied japanese for 4 year so i can read and write and have conversation. I also speak dutch because i live in the netherlands now, and well, Everyone here speaks dutch i think it's quite funny for so many nationalities to speak such an unknown language. I aso understand papiamentu about 90%, but i just respond in spanish. |
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Alicena
Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Posts: 168 Location: Chile :)
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Posted: Tue, 20-Nov-2007 1:14 Post subject: |
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My native language is Spanish.
I have studied english for 12 at school, and it`s very basic; just for survive. (the first word that i learned were BAD words xD you know. f*** you, bitc**) But I have improved it on my own; listening english songs, reading and posting in international forums.
and that`s all. |
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Youandi
Joined: 26 Oct 2008 Posts: 14025 Location: The Netherlands
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Posted: Tue, 3-Mar-2009 10:56 Post subject: |
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Native: Dutch and Achterhooks (some sort of dialect, i'm not speaking it but i can understand it)
Other languages: german, english and some spanish |
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dsafilipe
Joined: 29 Jun 2007 Posts: 392 Location: Foz do Iguaçu - Brazil
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Posted: Tue, 3-Mar-2009 22:00 Post subject: |
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Native: Portuguese...
2nd: English and Spanish... _________________ (...) e nos teus olhos eu vejo o susto e o grão de uma lágrima sobre a qual me concentro (...)
Image from "Sarah"... Thx. |
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coolmadgick
Joined: 12 Aug 2008 Posts: 2040 Location: france !
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Posted: Wed, 4-Mar-2009 13:54 Post subject: |
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native : french...
Other languages : english, spanish, german.... _________________ instagram.com/coolmadgick1 |
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Darkangel_Bessonova
Joined: 04 Mar 2009 Posts: 625 Location: Moon Path! Mexico
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Posted: Mon, 16-Mar-2009 21:49 Post subject: |
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Mi native language is Spanish, though I know English...not very well but at least I understand it I have French classes...and I haven't learned anything at all _________________ Bessonova! Forever the best ^_^ |
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black_magic
Joined: 26 Mar 2009 Posts: 150 Location: Osijek, Croatia
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Posted: Fri, 27-Mar-2009 23:44 Post subject: |
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i speak croatian, that's my mother language, as rotkwica said, slavenian languages all quite similar so we understand each other well, but that doesn't mean i could speak russian, for example, fluently.
my english is extremely good (some people say i speak better english than croatian). and i know a bit of german. |
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Darkangel_Bessonova
Joined: 04 Mar 2009 Posts: 625 Location: Moon Path! Mexico
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Posted: Sat, 28-Mar-2009 4:40 Post subject: |
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Wow! That's great! I would love to speak more languages...not only spanish and a strange english _________________ Bessonova! Forever the best ^_^ |
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GymGrace
Joined: 29 Mar 2009 Posts: 48 Location: Ltu
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Posted: Sun, 29-Mar-2009 19:47 Post subject: |
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Native - Lithuanian. Other - English, German, a bit of spanish and russian. |
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