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Mandarin to become a lot harder | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5183 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes  Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 9 of 26 25 December 2010 at 8:49pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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In one movie one girl said "她很high" high having drug abuse sense. I looks a little stupid.
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| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5453 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 10 of 26 26 December 2010 at 3:34pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
It may not completely revolutionize the colloquial language, but I think that the Chinese words' official status may give them more prestige over the foreign loanwords, in turn making Chinese words more favorable to use than English or other foreign words. After all, that's what happened in Korean. From about two millenia ago to now, the heads of the Korean society always favored words of Chinese origin rather than native Korean words, and now it's said that about 70% of Korean vocabulary is of Chinese origin. And how is trying to protect their own language and culture so totalitarian? Edited by chucknorrisman on 31 December 2010 at 1:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Nguyen Senior Member Vietnam Joined 5098 days ago 109 posts - 195 votes Speaks: Vietnamese | Message 11 of 26 26 December 2010 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Maybe the Chinese picked that loanword up from the British during the Opium Wars. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| seldnar Senior Member United States Joined 7137 days ago 189 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, French, Greek | Message 12 of 26 27 December 2010 at 1:04am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I really must ask your indulgence because I'm feeling particularly slow (or maybe
clueless). I just don't see how this will make Chinese harder. I lived in Taiwan for six years and just returned from four months at university on the Mainland and I never heard anyone use English words in speech. Occasionally I would see abbreviations and acronyms in the newspapers but,again, never any English words. Reading some of the responses, I first thought: oh, maybe professions such as engineering or medicine rely a lot on English words. But in all my encounters with doctors and pharmacists in the past four months I had to use the Chinese for everything medical related. I didn't talk with any engineers so I wouldn't know. Secondly, if English words are freely used in conversation, I doubt they are used with such frequency as to make conversation difficult to understand if they were no longer used. I don't ever remember studying Chinese and thinking "this is cool, the vocabulary's just like English. Its going to be easier to learn than I thought." Certainly, limiting what few English words appear in print or official speech won't make it harder for native speakers. And there's no way that even a hundred foreign- borrowings would make it easier for non-native speakers to learn Chinese. Its the same with French. French has many loan words but it definitely doesn't make it easier to speak it. (As a native English speaker, it actually makes it harder--I just can't pronounce relooker so that it sounds French :-) ) I'm not trying to be purposefully obtuse here. If someone could explain how this makes things more difficult, I would be very interested to know. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| luhmann Senior Member Brazil Joined 5338 days ago 156 posts - 271 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: Mandarin, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Persian, Arabic (classical) | Message 13 of 26 30 December 2010 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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If the words marketplace be let run wild, Engrish will be the universal language.
Language needs protection, what happened to Japanese is very sad. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6555 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 14 of 26 31 December 2010 at 5:18am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yes, it makes foreign students very sad. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| JimmySeal Diglot Newbie Japan Joined 5082 days ago 2 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Italian, Spanish, Mandarin | Message 15 of 26 31 December 2010 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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What a crock. If they were so concerned with preserving the "purity" of the Chinese language, they wouldn't have replaced their writing system with that silly mess they call "simplified Chinese." The way the Chinese government runs their country really makes me sick.
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| lanni Senior Member China Joined 6268 days ago 102 posts - 156 votes Speaks: Mandarin* Studies: English | Message 16 of 26 31 December 2010 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I heard the sentence of "他/她很high." in Hongkong films/tv series dubbed in Mandarin by Hongkong people. I thought it meant the person was excited or very happy, not necessarily from drug abuse. If my fellow Chinese say it in front of me, I'd lose interest talking with them because I'd think they are either halfwitted or too shallow.
The Chinese engineers I met use foreign terminology in their work. Actually they read technical material in the original instead of the translations. However, for basic terms they would use Chinese translations. Edited by lanni on 31 December 2010 at 4:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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