Who is going to study Chinese?

I'm gonna apply to study Chinese. Will start in 2006. Want to go to Edinburgh.....I think!

Why do you guys want to study it?

Reply 4

colombi_ana

Oh, and does anyone know anything about Zhuhai? What it's like etc. I'm going there for two months to teach English! In 3 weeks!!!!!!! Argh!! I have nothing sorted out yet! NOTHING!!!!!!!

Reply 5

ThunderCat8

Hey all

I just wondered who here has applied to study Chinese at university this year? I am going to Newcastle to do Chinese and Cultural studies. Anybody else going to do Chinese somewhere? I am so looking forward to studying it as I love China and can't wait to be able to communicate effectively with locals.

Wo ai zhongguo! Wo xiang hui shuo hanyu! Zhongguoren hen hao!

Tell me what that line of Mandarin says? :biggrin:

You love China - dunno what second sentence means - then "Chinese very good"? :confused:

LOL sorry I don't speak Mandarin! It's Cantonese for me :biggrin:

Why would anyone choose to write such complicated language though? :confused:

Although it's cool seeing people interested in it :biggrin:

Not many do!

Reply 6

You guys seeing as you love Chinese so much, did you know there's a Chinese Society on TSR? :wink:

http://thestudentroom.co.uk/t92189.html
It's rather vibrant - full of Chinese peeps :smile:

I don't really go on but you might like it.

Reply 7

Tonheuru

Zhongguoren hen hao!

I think he's basically saying that Chinese people are cool :P

As for language... well, basically characters are fun!!! I'm sure I won't be thinking that when I have to memorise tons of them next year though :P. Actually though, it does get a bit easier than you think, there are 187 'radicals' that characters are composed of, so in theory as soon as you learn all the radicals, characters are just combinations like words are of letters... I suppose that there's a big difference between 26 letters and 187 radicals... on the other hand you aren't likely to get 23 radicals in a character... or even 7 :P

Reply 8

Tonheuru

I think he's basically saying that Chinese people are cool :P

As for language... well, basically characters are fun!!! I'm sure I won't be thinking that when I have to memorise tons of them next year though :P. Actually though, it does get a bit easier than you think, there are 187 'radicals' that characters are composed of, so in theory as soon as you learn all the radicals, characters are just combinations like words are of letters... I suppose that there's a big difference between 26 letters and 187 radicals... on the other hand you aren't likely to get 23 radicals in a character... or even 7 :P

187 radicals? Yeh I never really knew what you called those "bits" that make up a word - I just know the term in Cantonese it's "bow sou" :p:

Yeh I've never learnt those so I don't know how to type Chinese lol! I know the main ones cus you just do, lol! You should try texting in Chinese :eek:

some Chinese guy had a phone from HK and good grief writing "Hello" took me half an hour and I didn't even finish it! :eek:

Well if you're pictorial, Chinese characters isn't tooooo bad :redface:

I remember I couldn't write the third character in my Chinese name when I was in nursery :redface:

and was very proud when one day I suddenly knew how to do it! :biggrin:

So do you already write/read Chinese? - in fact, are you Chinese? I get annoyed when I can't remember how to write a Chinese word - English is just easier. Although I have wondered if I should pick up Chinese again? :p:

Reply 9

Tonheuru

Nah, I can't already read/write chinese :P. It's all good saying what you're meant to do, it's another actually doing it :P Ah, well that's what going to uni to do Chinese is all about :P

Reply 10

sheerframboise

I love China! I want to be able to speak Mandarin! Chinese people are great!

Reply 11

Tonheuru

Nah, I can't already read/write chinese :P. It's all good saying what you're meant to do, it's another actually doing it :P Ah, well that's what going to uni to do Chinese is all about :P

Lol why did you tell me to provide the Chinese characters with the different ways of saying "Chinese" in Chinese then? :p:

Anyway I've written those in that other thread if you don't already know - although I had to check out the dictionary for the word "Simple" for Putonghua (or however you spell the thing) :redface:

Hehe I'm sure you'll have fun learning how to write/read it! :biggrin:

I'm really crap at reading Chinese nowadays - I picked up my mum's Chinese Bible some weeks ago and basically it was my first time reading Chinese in God knows when and I ended up reading it backwards :redface:

Sorta flicked from Psalms, hoping to get to the Gospels like Matthew, which is nearer the back. And landed on Joshua instead, which is way near the front :frown:

Sat there thinking: What?? What? What? :eek:

Then realised - oh... I flicked it the wrong way round :redface:

Annoys me too when I understand every word in a sentence, but have no idea what the whole sentence put together means :mad:

LOL!

Reply 12

gringalet

12

I would have liked to have applied to study Mandarin, but in the end I think I'd have probably ended up being illiterate :biggrin:

. I work in a Chinese restaurant at the weekend, I love listening to the languages. But in the end I went for German and Modern Greek...lol

Best Chinese sentence: Bu xing, dao san shi wo sei zai zhao dei xiang ba. Or something like that. Means 'No, you may not date until you are 35!' :biggrin:

35date.mp363.2KB

Reply 13

vivado

I'm a Singaporean Chinese, and I know nothing about Cantonese. If you're learning Mandarin, you'll definitely come across "Hanyu Pinyin" which is the Mandarin phonetic transcription system using a modified Latin alphabet. It will allow you to write it in alphabets in a universal system which all Mandarin speakers can understand but it's not perfect because it cannot capture the right tone (there are 4 tones generally for each "han", "yu", or whatever character) and will take ages to decipher for a long passage by contextualising the words.

In any case, if anyone's interested, there're different accents among Mandarin speakers throughout the world because Mandarin is spoken not just in the PRC. Singaporeans' spoken Mandarin tend to be less shrill to the ear compared to those from China for example.

Reply 14

gringalet

I would have liked to have applied to study Mandarin, but in the end I think I'd have probably ended up being illiterate :biggrin:

. I work in a Chinese restaurant at the weekend, I love listening to the languages. But in the end I went for German and Modern Greek...lol

Best Chinese sentence: Bu xing, dao san shi wo sei zai zhao dei xiang ba. Or something like that. Means 'No, you may not date until you are 35!' :biggrin:

35!?

Well my parents just said don't date til you're at uni :p:

cus it affects your exams etc. Good advice too cus I had a boyfriend (now my ex) behind their back last year and my goodness it was distracting! - didn't do my A-Levels any favours :redface:

And any younger, I think they'd be too young to understand it, generally speaking.

Reply 15

Piupiu

great to see that many of you are interested in Chinese language.but be aware, you really need some patience &effects to memerize the language..it's cool and fun to learn though..good luck

Reply 16

ThunderCat8

OP

sheerframboise

I love China! I want to be able to speak Mandarin! Chinese people are great!

Dui!

I am travelling around China now. I am currently in Tenchong, just went to see Dakong shan (big empty mountain) volcano. It was rubbish. It is pouring down here, am very cold and wet. So much for Yunnan having the best weather in China! Tomorrow i go to Ruili on the Burmese border, which is meant to be a very cool and happening place. Then it's off to Dali to catch a train to Guilin (I will be travelling for about 40 consecutive hours...ouch!). Guilin for a few days, then to Changsha. From there, it's the East coast I am bound for, ending up in Hong Kong, and then I fly home! Whew, what a journey! I love China, and I love speaking Chinese to the locals. I only know yidian (a little) but they appreciate the effort. I even learnt to write a few characters, which I use to show off!

祝你好运气！ (Wishing you good luck!)

再见！(Goodbye!)

洪宇。(Hong Yu [my chinese name])

Chinese is great!! :biggrin:

Reply 17

hops

ThunderCat8

Wo ai zhongguo! Wo xiang hui shuo hanyu! Zhongguoren hen hao!

我爱中国！我想会说汉语！中国人很好！

Reply 18

sheerframboise