請你說一點兒中文！(Chinese Practice)

[gmalivuk]

I have updated the forum rules to reflect this, but will mention it here as well:

It is not required to translate your posts in foreign language practice threads, apart from the original post (so mods who don't read that language know the purpose of the thread). However, it can sometimes be helpful to learners and to people aiming to help learners if you include some translations.

[Kizyr]

我能说一点儿中文。但是一年间学习了。

Spoiler:

I speak a little Chinese. But I studied for one year.

Ok, so, I put Chinese-study on hold for a while until I'm done studying for the JLPT (Japanese). I plan on picking it up again next year. I've gotten really rusty since I put it on hold, though, but I should be able to pick it back up again in short order.

...maybe I'll have more to say in this thread then.

And seven years? That's somethin'... But, I don't think the pronunciation is easy. It still takes a while to be able to differentiate between certain tones in Mandarin--I dunno how it is in Cantonese or Shanghai dialect (Wu or Hui?). KF

[Razzle Storm]

简体字：

我也会说中文。我希望你看得懂简体字，因为繁体字我什么都忘了。我正在中国（北京）学汉语了，我已经住了两个月多，打算在这里待一年。我在美国学了一年，可是我的老师和同学跟你的完全不一样。我们都很努力学习了，结果我们的中文比别的大学生的好。但是，现在我对你有同感。这里的学生不努力学习，常常在上课随便聊天，不尊敬我们的老师，有的甚至把一个橄榄球扔来扔去！我来中国学了一个月以后才意识到只是我和两个别的同学很努力学习。但是呢，来中国学习真是一个好办法学好中文。我天天有机会和中国人聊天，知道中国人的用语。此外，因为我是一个CET的学生，他们让我们不说英文，只说中文。如果你要来中国留学，我推荐你跟CET申请。

你一定要每天练习说中文，否则一定会忘记很多！

繁體字：

我也會說中文。我希望你看得懂簡體字，因為繁體字我甚麼都忘了。我正在中國（北京）學漢語了，我已經住了兩個月多，打算在這裡待一年。我在美國學了一年，可是我的老師和同學跟你的完全不一樣。我們都很努力學習了，結果我們的中文比別的大學生的好。但是，現在我對你有同感。這裡的學生不努力學習，常常在上課隨便聊天，不尊敬我們的老師，有的甚至把一個橄欖球扔來扔去！我來中國學了一個月以後才意識到只是我和兩個別的同學很努力學習。但是呢，來中國學習真是一個好辦法學好中文。我天天有機會和中國人聊天，知道中國人的用語。此外，因為我是一個CET的學生，他們讓我們不說英文，只說中文。如果你要來中國留學，我推薦你跟CET申請。

你一定要每天練習說中文，否則一定會忘記很多！

Spoiler:

I can speak Chinese too. I hope you can read Simplified characters, because I've forgotten all of my Traditional characters. Right now I'm in Beijing studying Chinese. I've been here for a little over two months, and I plan on staying here for a year. I studied Chinese for a year in America, but my teacher and classmates were nothing like yours. We all studied really hard，and as a result our Chinese was better than students of other colleges. But right now I can really sympathize with you. The students here don't study hard. During class, the often chat, disrespect our teacher, and some even toss a football around! After I had studied for a month, I realized that it was only two other students and I who actually study hard. But studying in China really is a good way to study Chinese. Everyday I have the opportunity to speak with Chinese people, and learn words that are actually used (不是书面的). Also, I'm a CET student, so I'm not allowed to speak English because they want us to only speak Chinese. If you plan on coming to China to study abroad, I suggest you apply to CET.

You definitely should practice your Chinese everyday, otherwise you'll forget it all!

For convenience, I translated the Simplified characters to Traditional to make it easier on people who only know Traditional. The year I studied in America I only used Traditional, and had to change to Simplified when I came over here.

[Razzle Storm]

我學了中文七年了，可是我的老師很慢慢地教。我很喜歡學中文，所以我今年學AP中文，可是我不打算考AP考。很多人說中文很難學，可是我覺得並不難。中文的發音比英文的發音差不多，而且中文的語法不難。學好中國字一點兒難，可是越學越容易。有人寫得會中文嗎？請你們說一說！

(我知道我的中文語法很差，請幫忙我修。)

我帮你改你的中文吧。

第一：“可是我的老師很慢慢地教”。 － 你应该只用“很”或者“慢慢”。你也可以说“很慢”，可是不能用“很慢慢”

Spoiler:

Here you should only use "很“ or "慢慢” (because otherwise you would have two "intensifiers")

第二：“可是我不打算考AP考”。我想，这里的意思是你不打算考AP的考试。

Spoiler:

You probably just forgot the "考试" here

第三：“很多人說中文很難學”。 这里没有错，可是用“据说”比你的适合一点。

Spoiler:

You can use a site called dict.cn to look up 据说

第四：“中文的發音比英文的發音差不多”。这句话的后面应该有一个形容词（因为你有“差不多”）

Spoiler:

Because you used 比, you should have an adjective. 差不多 doesn't function as an adjective by itself. You could have 中文的发音比英文的发音差不多一样(which isn't really true, but it's an example). Actually on second thought, you could just replace the 比 with 和 or 跟.

第五：“有人寫得會中文嗎”。这里的意思不太清楚，你要说什么？

Spoiler:

I'm not sure what exactly you mean here, what did you want to say?

[Razzle Storm]

现在可以帮你改一下。我会在你的错下面划线。

非常感謝你幫忙我！因為我永遠美（没）學很多語法，所以我簡直不知道甚麼句子最好。這個句子我要說"Can anybody write chinese?"我覺得我寫得很不好。 （有人會寫中文嗎？）

我現在學高學，所以我不能去中國學習，可是我已經去了中國兩次觀光。我和我的同學們跟路行社去看北京，西安和上海。我們學了很多中國文化，可是因為大家都要和我們練習說英文〈而且，我覺得他們以為我們是本（笨）美國人〉，所以我們很少練習說中文。我很想要去大學的時候可以住在一個中文宿舍。要是我去我的第一大學〈Cornell〉我很想住在那方的語言宿舍。他們既有可以說英文的宿舍，也有不可以說英文的宿舍，可是因為我很怕到大學把我弄得亂七八糟，所以我只想要去可以說英文的宿舍。到達大學以後，我也許去中國學習。去中國學習貴不貴？你還會收到一張文憑嗎？

没有很大的问题，你的中文真的很不错！

简体字：
在中国住非常便宜。比如说，吃晚饭的时候，只得付大概六，七快（一美元）。可是，如果你用一个公司帮你来的话，非常贵。我给CET的学费是九钱美元一个学期（三个月）。我听说要是一个外国人想来中国留学，自己申请中国的大学比较便宜。我还不知道什么时候会收到一张文凭，可是我的情况不是平常的。明年我回美国的时候，会刚学完了五百班的课。我对我的大学的中文系不太清楚。可能我会早一点儿毕业。你就是高中学生吗？那你的中文已经这么好！太棒了！

繁體字：
在中國住非常便宜。比如說，吃晚飯的時候，只得付大概六，七快（一美元）。可是，如果你用一個公司幫你來的話，非常貴。我給CET的學費是九錢美元一個學期（三個月）。我聽說要是一個外國人想來中國留學，自己申請中國的大學比較便宜。我還不知道甚麼時候會收到一張文憑，可是我的情況不是平常的。明年我回美國的時候，會剛學完了五百班的課。我對我的大學的中文系不太清楚。可能我會早一點兒畢業。你就是高中學生嗎？那你的中文已經這麼好！太棒了！

Spoiler:

Living in China is really cheap. For example, You only have to pay about one US dollar for dinner (or any meal). But going through a company or program is really expensive. My tuition for the CET program is over 9,000 U.S. dollars per quarter (each quarter is three months). I've heard that if a foreigner wants to study abroad in China, applying to a Chinese college by themselves is a lot cheaper. I'm still going to get my diploma, but my situation isn't really a common one. When I go back to America next year, I'll have just finished studying in a 500-level class. I'm not really that familiar with UW's (my college) Chinese department, I might be graduating a little early than I thought (I'm not really sure). Also, you're only a high school student and your Chinese is already this good? That's pretty awesome.

[roflrofldotcom]

hey meteorstorm, it's cool that you think chinese is easy to learn. Myself, I'm a native speaker in mandarin, and as you know written chinese is consistent throughout all dialects. If you want to practice some written chinese (i can give you tips on grammar structure and some word choice), feel free to PM me and i'll give you my MSN info. I'm fluent in both english and chinese and i have had experience in teaching chinese.

[breviloquent]

我也觉得中文又容易又好玩学， 但是我有很多同学们都觉得发音是中文的最难的部。

对不起， 繁体和简体我更会写繁体， 但是我的电脑没有繁体字。

[Joeldi]

I was wondering if someone could compose an anti-Great Firewall of China notice for me. I want to head my blog with it, and encourage other to do the same with their sites, until it's spread throughout the world </delusion of grandeur> I figure it'd have to be something that wouldn't be dismissed immediately as "bah, evil American propoganda"

[Zohar]

A friend of mine has this tattooed on his chest and he won't tell me what it is. He told me it's OK if I try and find out myself. It's a bit small but he told me he wouldn't mind sending me a higher-res pic of it. Anyway, this is it:



Can anyone tell me what it means?

[Kizyr]

Can anyone tell me what it means?

独特

Japanese: dokutoku
unique, peculiar/specific to (neutral implication)

Chinese: du2te4
unique, distinct

Mind you, I still think it's weird to get a tattoo you don't understand. But at least this one's not badly done. (I think... I'd need a higher-res version to see if it was.) KF

[Zohar]

Oh, he understands what it means, he just won't tell other people. That doesn't seem right... I'll ask him and ask for a larger pic if it's not true.

Edit: Yep, that's what it means. Thanks for the help (if you're really interested he sent me a higher res picture already). He says it's supposed to mean "uniqueness" more than "I'm special".

[Razzle Storm]

Right, it's unique more in that it stands apart from other things that are similar, which I guess could also be interpreted as "special", depending on what definition of "special" you wanted to use.

The writing looks right too.

Also, does anyone have links to websites which have "Chinese" tattoos that people don't understand? I've browsed through some, and some are pretty funny, but none have been very big.

[Kizyr]

Also, does anyone have links to websites which have "Chinese" tattoos that people don't understand? I've browsed through some, and some are pretty funny, but none have been very big.

http://www.hanzismatter.com

I check it regularly. Tian (the author) is a pretty funny guy.

If you check through older posts, also, his readers and him have managed to also decipher the "bogus kanji font" that's used in a lot of tattoo parlors. It's not just tattoos either, but the general misuse of Chinese (and occasionally Japanese) in the West.

He also links:
http://www.bmeink.com/kanji001.html

But those are just kanji/hanzi tattoos in general, no mention on which ones are right or wrong. KF

[Chacor]

Chinese is de facto my mother tongue as a Chinese Singaporean, but for all intents and purposes English is the first language here, and I suck at my own mother tongue. Sad, right?

Razzle Storm: 我猜你不是中国人吧。你住在北京, 中国“金盾工程”对你有很大的影响吗？大多数人呢？

Spoiler:

I assume you're not native Chinese, but you live in Beijing, does the Great Firewall of China affect you a lot? And for the majority of the people?

[Razzle Storm]

除了wikipedia.org之外，我上网时，没有问题。大多人也应该没有很大的问题。此外，如果你真的想去wikipedia, 你可以用代理上网。

Spoiler:

Besides wikipedia.org, I don't have any problems when I go online. Most people shouldn't have a problem either. Also, if you really want to get onto Wikipedia, you can use a proxy to go online.

那个“代理” 对吗？是那个词吗？

[Razzle Storm]

如果你用的是“苹果” 的拼音办法写字，比较方便，因为你不用写声调，而且它会记住你新写的词。我不知道别的写字程序是什么样的，可是我喜欢苹果的。

Spoiler:

If you use a Mac, using pinyin to write character is pretty convenient. You don't have to write the tone, and it also memorizes any new words that you write (like if I write a two or three character word it didn't know, it'll memorize it for next time). I don't know what other programs are like, but I like the program Macs have.

[jd001982]

Your Chinese is pretty good for someone who's not Chinese!

Some of your sentences don't sound right, but I guess it's the same deal with someone learning how to use English prepositions correctly.

Btw, "pencil" is "鉛筆", and I absolutely support your use of 繁體字, because with the use of 簡體字, you lose the meaning of the original pictographs.

Have fun learning Chinese!

[jackimurphy]

大家好！

我刚回来美国－ 我下个学期住在中国，天津，南开大学。 我学习汉语四年，但是我的美国大学的中文系特别不好，所以我决定去中国。我觉得我有点儿奇怪，因为对我来说，念有点儿难，写汉字更难，我看电视或者跟中国人聊天儿的时候，我有时候不完全听得懂，但是我的口语特别好。 （我觉得我的听力比较好，可是我的老师告诉我这个不对 ）现在我很伤心因为我三个星期以前回来美国，我已经认为我现在的汉语比三个星期以前不好。我需要练习！

Spoiler:

Hello everyone! I just came back from China - I spent last semester at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. I've studied Chinese for four years, but the Chinese department at my American
university is really bad, so I decided to go to China. I feel I'm a little strange, because reading is hard, writing is even harder, when I watch TV or chat with Chinese people I sometimes don't entirely understand, but my spoken Chinese is really pretty good. (I think my listening is alright, but my teacher tells me this is not so). Now I am sad because I came back from China three weeks ago and I already feel that my Chinese is worse than it was then. I need to practice!

[targetpractice]

大家好！我学中文在MSU可是二月我会学在浙江大学在汉周。我就学了中文一年， 所以我觉得我的中文不太好 我就知道简体字，但是在浙江大学我们的老师要授我们繁体。 我知道这个"thread"是中文的练习,可是任何人这里竟学语言学? 我的高大生论文是论的"turn taking"异同在中文比英文,还有我想知道要是你们知道凡的斋屋(study?)论这个论题.谢谢!

Spoiler:

I'm a student at MSU (michigan state) but i'll be going to Zhejiang University in February to study, even though i've only studied for one year so far. I don't think I speak super well, and I only know simplified, but they'll be teaching us traditional at Zhejiang. I know this thread is for chinese practise, but are any of you actually linguistics students? My senior thesis is about turn taking style differences between Mandarin and English, so if any of you know any papers about this subject I'd love to know.

[targetpractice]

我不可以覙 “turn taking" 在中文，所以我说的在英文。
Turn taking is just how conversation works, but I know that's not a very sufficient explanation. It's very easy to understand if we just look at a forum. Every post is a turn. To better explain it, let us say that you are having a discussion over what to eat for dinner with your roommate. You started the conversation, so you are "holding the floor." The "floor" is the topic of conversation, so "what to eat for dinner." You say "I feel like having pasta of some sort, what about you?" you have just taken a turn. He replies "Eh, I dunno, I don't really like pasta" He has just taken a turn. You question "Why?" This is not technically a turn - it doesn't contain any "claim markers" certain words or phrases that are used to control the floor - you are letting him be in command of the new floor of "Why <joe> doesn't like pasta" He mumbles something about having nightmares as a child about being strangled with spaghetti, and leaves it at that, essentially killing the conversation. You revert to the nearest floor, that being "What to eat for dinner" and the discussion continues until you decide to order a pizza or whatever. Simply, because that was a bit complex, every time somebody says something worthwhile in a conversation, that is a turn. Different cultures have different ideas on what is an acceptable turn taking strategy - New Yorkers have fast paced, short turns that trade all around on the floor, very rarely actually letting one single person control the floor for more than a turn, while the Amish have slow, respectful conversations, where turns are long and generally the person holding the floor is allowed to hold the floor until he chooses to relinquish it. It gets a lot more complicated, with things like backchannels, discourse markers, claim signals, stealing the floor and whatnot, but thats basically it.

[targetpractice]

我觉得我的post戮了这个thread。对不起！我希望你们可以告诉我要是我能买一个电子词典。 我觉得那比书词典莫如可是我不知道怎么词典我応买

[Razzle Storm]

你好，我没有买电子词典的建议，不过中文的”要是“只有一个用法，跟英文的”if...then..."一样。很多人常常有这个问题，希望你下次能注意！

Spoiler:

Hi, I don't have any suggestions for buying an electronic dictionary, but Chinese "yaoshi" only has one usage。 It's the same as English's "if...then...". A lot of people make the same mistake, hope next time you can remember it.

[Razzle Storm]

祝大家新年快乐！今年是鼠年。

恭喜发财！

现在，北京真热闹，我想我睡不着，好像每个人都在放鞭炮。

Spoiler:

Hey, here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year (it's the Chinese/Lunar New Year)! This year is the year of the rat.

Congratulations and hope you're prosperous in the coming year!

Right now, Beijing is pretty lively. I don't think I'll be able to sleep. It seems like everyone in the city are all setting off firecrackers.

[steewi]

necro-threading...

还有用中文的人吗？我想开始我自己的题目，而以前找到已经所在的题目。可能是我不一定是都noob的。

[steewi]

在大学学中文，现在读博士研究中国方言。对不起，我用简体字写字。繁体字看得懂，写得了，但是我习惯用简体字，就一直写简体字。 我不是那个“一直什么都人应该写简体字”之一个人。到底我觉得繁体字更美，而我自己有一点lazy。你在大学考那个AP考试呢？不是，AP是一个中学考试，对吗？

[steewi]

［改變：］你是美國人還是中國人？你對中國文化尤甚麼興趣？

我美国人，中国人都不是。我是澳大利亚人。我对中国文化所有的兴趣大部分是语言和方言。对武侠，历史，哲学也有兴趣。

[steewi]

三国演义还没读过。我没有英文，但是有中文（白话）版。用中文读三国难得要命。对我最有意思的中国历史时代是20世五四时代（May 4th）。这个时代的无虐很有意思。因为清代已经下去了，西方文化已经到了中国，所以人人还有古代文化跟现代文化当时存在。那个五四时代文学家也很有意思：巴金，鲁迅，郁达夫，丁玲等等。

[steewi]

去过，但是去年是我第一次去中国。我关于中国文化所知道的是来自我的大学学习。在大学学亚洲研究。亚洲研究的课是关于中国历史，中国文化和文学，中国哲学，等等。如果想知道关羽中文文学的第一有名的文学家，就看鲁迅写的东西。《狂人日记》是很有名的。

我1998年开始学中文，在高中学学。在中学也学日语，就已经能认识100多字。现在觉得我认识1000多字。不过，我还不能看好中文文化。在我的博士研究里，要读很多关于中国方言的东西。很难的。

[steewi]

我覺得我現在看得懂五百漢字左右.我讀,寫的能力比我說,廳的能力好的多,所以我是一個很奇怪的中文學生

这不是。我也是跟你一样。我们上课的时候流了这么多时间复习复习读字，没时间复习说话，做会话。因为我们么复习了说话，所以我到中国的时候到上海中文都忘了。我会看MTR的地图，等等，但是我不会跟服务员说话，订菜，等等。虽然不能容易昨日日会话，但是我能读语言学家做的研究。很奇怪？不是。

[ipsi]

大家好！这个主题还活下来！

虽然我会读了繁体字，我没学了，所以我自己想读简体字容易点儿。

介绍我一下：
我是一位新西兰人，只学了两年半。去了中国一次，但是我只去了青岛。在那儿主了七个星期。

跟steewi同意，每个同学都知道写、读、语法什么的。但是，只有几位会说得不错！

我自己跟你们一样：我写、读都比说、听好多了。

我今年刚毕业了，有BCA和BSC，专业是电脑、会计、商法。今年只学了汉语。我说，这是我在大学的五年啊！:D

也学文言文（古文）－非常有意思。也非常难！你知道吗？文言沒有标点（比如‘。’、‘，’、‘ “” ’、什么的）。但是，我们老师很热情：他给我们已经打标点了的短故事。文言也用繁体字。语法很不同，每个子也有不同的意思。

上有位人想知道一下其他输入法。输入法之一是拼音。还有注音（是台湾的），仓颉（Cangjie）、五笔字形和别的。五笔跟拼音不同，用五笔你只要写IPNU，就到“学习”。Wikipedia.org还有多了。但是，我想只会输入简体字。

如果你不认识，我想对Pleco介绍你们。Ok, can't talk about that in Chinese . Pleco is just a fantastic utility for those of you studying Chinese. Expensive, sure, but well worth it . Multiple dictionaries, flashcards, *good* handwriting recognition, radicals, full support for simplified and traditional, and soon to have 注音 support (in verison 2.0), along with stroke-order diagrams and pronounciation examples, of both words and single syllables. Along with a bunch of other things . I'm just a satisfied customer, but it's one of the best non-free, non-OSS tools around.

再说中文吧！

[steewi]

ipsi, 你好！

欢迎到中文thread.

我的专业是语言学，所以在xkcd论页上我感觉有一点笨。关于电脑等等的东西我不太明白。我在中国的时候只在上海，浙江住。我想去新疆，桂林游览。

关于中文入法说，我用的是拼音，可是手机上我用五笔入法。现在能用，可是开始的时候，我打字打得很慢。

我也学过文言，也觉得很有意思。现在不能读得很流里，而我又一两次用一点的文言语法写现代中文。

Edit: 喂！hairspray! 这里我们能说中文，你是非华人呢？我不是，可是我已经八年学中文。

[Cryopyre]

is there a chance we could do pinyin?

I really want to learn chinese, but pinyin and pronouncing I think should come prior to characters.


Also... any tips for the tones, because I don't know how to say them quickly in a sentence.

[steewi]

Keneng yong hanyupinyin, keshi wo buxiang xie shengdiaodian (tone marks). Zai tiantian liaotian yong shengdiao ne, yinggai ba shengdiao qie (cut) duan yidian, ye ba shengdiaoliandu (reading tones together) shuode hen liuli (fluidly).

Ugh. I don't like writing in pinyin anymore. What helps is to remember that the tones work within the intonation frame of the sentence. So if you're using a declaritive (normal) sentence, the intonation goes down at the end, you have the tones within the sentence more or less within a level frame for most of the sentence, and then in the last bit, the frame gets lower, so a high tone in the last part of the sentence might be technically the same pitch as a low tone at the beginning, but you hear it as a high tone at the end of a sentence, because of the context. Your brain should automatically do it, but if you're thinking about articulating the tones too much, you might forget to include intonation, so it'll sound unnatural. Your best bet is to listen to language tapes/cds/mp3s and copy the intonation on that. You'll get used to it.

[cecikierk]

靠，这里也有说中文的。。。

[sparks]

is there a chance we could do pinyin?

I really want to learn chinese, but pinyin and pronouncing I think should come prior to characters.


Also... any tips for the tones, because I don't know how to say them quickly in a sentence.

In my classes, we're doing both at the same time. We learn the pinyin AND pronouncing AND the characters.
Tips for the tones... you'll just have to practice endlessly. Saying the word in the different tones (or at least the ones it has), then adding other words, and so on, until you can say the sentence quickly, might help.

[armandtanzarian]

妈的, 这里都是白人, 一个华人都没有.

[steewi]

妈的, 这里都是白人, 一个华人都没有.

对不起，我不想做变族外科。

[Morning]

对不起，我不想做变族外科。

請問，变族外科甚麼意思?

呵呵，我猜steewi想说“变族外科手术”

老实说，我觉得你们的中文都很不错，可能多少会有一点语法错误，但并不影响理解和沟通~

[KOSMOSX7]

妈的, 这里都是白人, 一个华人都没有.

真吗？

我是一个华人。 但是我在纽约长大。 我不是ABC。 还是我是香蕉人。 我的家人是香港人。

清问， 你是么麽地方的华人？ （对不起， 我知道我的中文很差。）

Spoiler:

Really?

I am Chinese. But I grew up in New York. I am not an ABC (i.e. American Born Chinese). But I am a banana (i.e. yellow on the outside, white on the inside). My family are Hong Kong people.

If you don't mind my asking, what kind of Chinese are you? (Sorry, I know my Chinese sucks.)

[superdelta]

我也是华人！我来自新加坡，华语一向来是我第二语言，但是我的程度已经开始降低了~~

我真佩服你们那些尽力学华语的洋人（“白人”），因为我知道学华语并不简单！

其实我也是没事做，就来到xkcd打发时间~~