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Chinese Odyssey 2024

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zhanglong
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4931 days ago

322 posts - 427 votes 
Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 129 of 169
09 May 2012 at 4:09am | IP Logged 
smallwhite wrote:
zhanglong wrote:

I heard a funny character or word:

I want to hear how a native speaker says this character: 僅 gan2


What's so special about it?

My 僅 rhymes with my English "gun".
When I speak English with a strong HK accent, "gun" and "跟 gan1" are identical...


Ooh, that's very helpful! Without youtube, it's difficult to post audio samples or files, but so far, I know that MySpace (remember them?) is able to be seen in China. When I can work out the details, I'll start posting audio files.
1 person has voted this message useful



zhanglong
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4931 days ago

322 posts - 427 votes 
Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 130 of 169
09 May 2012 at 4:12am | IP Logged 
Cantonese

I'm slowly getting better at my spoken Cantonese. Right now, I'm working on a text of Cantonese phrases. The book is challenging in that, there is no English. There are only simplified Chinese characters and their own method of transcription, so looking up characters and words can be a bit time-consuming if you're not already familiar with how the phrase sounds.

The good thing is that it's a great source of actually usage and not just "textbook" Cantonese.

It's small enough so that I hope to be finished with it before month's end.
1 person has voted this message useful



zhanglong
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4931 days ago

322 posts - 427 votes 
Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 131 of 169
11 May 2012 at 7:26pm | IP Logged 
smallwhite wrote:
zhanglong wrote:

I heard a funny character or word:

I want to hear how a native speaker says this character: 僅 gan2


What's so special about it?

My 僅 rhymes with my English "gun".
When I speak English with a strong HK accent, "gun" and "跟 gan1" are identical...


This is the character that I initially heard and thought it sounded...different.
獨 duk6. The audio clip was really bad, so I couldn't distinguish what it was.





1 person has voted this message useful



zhanglong
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4931 days ago

322 posts - 427 votes 
Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 132 of 169
15 May 2012 at 11:01am | IP Logged 
Cantonese

This week has been a little bittersweet. While I am getting better at listening to and speaking Cantonese, it has been almost entirely at the expense of my Mandarin.

I find that I have to concentrate so hard to do Cantonese, while Mandarin is just...there. I can do it if I have to, but it's not as fun.

More importantly:

A local elementary school's headmaster has banned the use of Cantonese in his school. The school is located in what was once the heart of Cantonese: Guangzhou, China.

Again, it makes me wonder why I am devoting so much of my life to a language that the Chinese, themselves, consider to be a "second-tier" language.



Canton Headmaster Bans Use of Cantonese Language
1 person has voted this message useful



zhanglong
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4931 days ago

322 posts - 427 votes 
Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 133 of 169
15 May 2012 at 11:02am | IP Logged 
Well, I should amend my previous post. Not all Chinese people feel that way. I asked a native speaker of Mandarin, who can't speak a word of Cantonese, what she thought about the ban. She said it was "ridiculous".


1 person has voted this message useful



zhanglong
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4931 days ago

322 posts - 427 votes 
Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 134 of 169
28 May 2012 at 8:48pm | IP Logged 
Time certainly flies.

It seems like yesterday that I started this journal, but it actually began 12 months ago.

I made many bad turns and disturbing detours, but they were all in my process of learning how to learn.

I continue on this journey, a little more sober than I was before, about how difficult my chosen goals happen to be, but also much more hopeful because I can see that I am better now than when I started.

Wait 'till next year!

1 person has voted this message useful



zhanglong
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4931 days ago

322 posts - 427 votes 
Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 135 of 169
30 May 2012 at 4:33am | IP Logged 
Cantonese

An interesting article discussing Cantonese education in Hong Kong:

Challenges of Learning Cantonese

I am focusing on memorizing dialogues first, even if I don't know all of the words, just to get the rhythm of the language, and then going back to see what words I don't know.

It's fun, almost like a mystery novel or spy story where you hear something and must try to parse the meaning from seemingly random sounds you can't yet decipher.
1 person has voted this message useful



zhanglong
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4931 days ago

322 posts - 427 votes 
Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 136 of 169
30 May 2012 at 6:03am | IP Logged 
Mandarin

This week, started reading Confucius's Analects in Mandarin. More on that later.


1 person has voted this message useful



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