Would You Be Interested In Learning Chinese?

[skiyalater]

Hey everyone. Since I am taking Chinese in school, I was wondering if you would be interested in having a thread of learning chinese, just like trickster has english and i have spanish that i am trying to keep up to date again. So vote in the poll to tell me if you would like to or not.

[magikindom]

Mabey a few basic words but not too much.

[skiyalater]

Yeah, I'm not saying you're going to be fluent, because I'm not so, that won't work, but just basic phrases.

[Conceited Ape]

Respectfully, you might want to give this one some more consideration. Chinese, regardless of dialect, is right next to impossible to teach or to learn in this medium. A native instructor with dead-on pronounciation, and frankly enough of a cruel edge to insist on honest feedback, is pretty much a necessity with this lingo; especially in light of how tone-dependant Chinese is. Case in point, the simple sound ma can mean at least six different things (probably more), all depending on how it's spoken. I remember a few buddies in a Chinese course repeating a drill to themselves, which translated into a long sentence involving "my mother rides a horse while they smoke marijuana" (and more words to that effect), and every word was some slightly different pronounciation of ma (and from a personal experience, I was trying to tell my favorite waitress at Nine Dragons that she was beautiful, but I botched one sound, and wound up telling her that she "hates beauty." Thankfully, after my third try, she figured out what I was trying to say, and told me that I was very sweet--in English).

Tones aside, you can pick up three different basic intro to Chinese books, and have three authors who can't agree on how to express Chinese characters/words into our romanized alphabet. Official "Pinyin" still hasn't quite caught on like it should have.......

I'm pretty sure you've probably already thought of all this before, but don't forget, Trickster's "English" topic was never really for the sake of teaching us anything especially "foreign;" just the occasional cross-Atlantic word that sometimes doesn't quite match up on our side of the pond, and just in good fun.

At any rate, if it's all in good fun, that's the name of the game. Bring it on! (And best of luck in class--my sympathies in advance. My head already hurts a little for you........).

[trickster]

I struggle with English.

[disneydreamer98]

I struggle with English.

lol....ain't that the truth!?!?

[trickster]

lol....ain't that the truth!?!?

Exactly - So no need for me to learn another one!!

[disney fanatic]

Its enough that i have to learn spanish. I enjoy learning new languages, and about its culture and traditions, but i probably would not have enough patience to actually learn chinese. Lets just say, knowing phrases or words from dining out is good enough! Oh and Jake you know how the lady said oh you are very sweet with an accent, yeah well she messed up like you she was trying to say ***** you..hehe