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Journey through Asian languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6285 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes  1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 1 of 25 17 January 2008 at 11:36am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I always learned languages on a lark. I study at very irregular intervals whenever I feel like studying. I just came back from Hong Kong where I lived for 3 weeks and my Mandarin was good enough for me to get around without using English but it still needs major improvements. I recently bought a 1 way ticket to Hong Kong flying in July, I am still 17 years old and I hope I can start my life in Hong Kong as I love the city (I plan to study business there).
I started this journal because I really felt I needed something concrete in order to progress in my language learning journey. I bought a lot of books, CDs, mp3s, etc. but I don't use most of them. I do not have specific goals and I only study during my free time or when I 'feel like it', which is probably why my progress in Mandarin is not as good as I would like it to be. Since I would like to spend the rest of my life in Hong Kong, I plan to learn both Cantonese and Mandarin to a native level. The material I plan to use to learn characters is the book "Learning Chinese Characters" by Alison Matthews and Laurence Matthews. I have many other books but I bought this one in Hong Kong and I consider that it is way better than everything else I bought in this field. For Mandarin, I plan to use "Colloquial Chinese 2" as well as "Intermediate Chinese, A Grammar and Workbook". I skimmed through the latter one and it looks excellent so far. As for Cantonese, I will start with "Fun with Cantonese, Sounds and Tones" in order to familiarize myself with the pronunciation and I will then move to Colloquial Cantonese and Pimsleur (I am afraid my pronunciation will suffer if I start with these 2 programs right now). I also own the 3 Assimil books with the CDs and I paid for Mango on the Go from www.mangolanguages.com but I don't know to what extent I will use these yet. I missed 2 weeks of school and I have to catch up so I will not have any time to learn languages in the upcoming days but at least I have some kind of plan. I will try to make this plan more specific and I certainly hope I will start learning more seriously soon. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| furyou_gaijin Senior Member Japan Joined 6329 days ago 540 posts - 631 votes Speaks: Latin* | Message 2 of 25 17 January 2008 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Read this again in 17 years and you might have a good laugh! :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6285 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 3 of 25 18 January 2008 at 10:48am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I am pretty determined: I already applied for university there and I even have my one way ticket ready to leave in July... I have lived there for 3 weeks and these 3 weeks were absolutely fantastic! I love nearly every single aspects of the city, its people and its language. The ambiance of energy constantly present in Hong Kong is just amazing and I also really like the way things are done over there. Out of every cities I visited yet none had the same effect on me. I don't think I have ever been so sure of a decision in my life and I really don't see what could go wrong. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| furyou_gaijin Senior Member Japan Joined 6329 days ago 540 posts - 631 votes Speaks: Latin* | Message 4 of 25 18 January 2008 at 11:12am | IP Logged | ||||||||
It's not a question of things going wrong, rather of people and people's tastes and needs evolving over time... Lifetime is a looooong period (inshallah!). Anyway, I rest my case: read this again in 17 years. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6285 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 5 of 25 18 January 2008 at 1:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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http://futureme.org/index.php
I certainly hope I have the same email address in 17 years. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6285 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 6 of 25 25 January 2008 at 11:59am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Didn't do anything this week but I will study Hanzi this week end. Just finished the first chapter of Learning Chinese Characters and it was all review to me. I will try to do as many chapters as I can this week end. By the way I have an expensive English/Mandarin/Cantonese/Japanese translator that also tells me the stroke order of the characters and have a touch screen, that way I can improve my hand writing.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6285 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 7 of 25 28 January 2008 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Finished chapters 2, 3 and half of chapter 4. Most of the characters up to now were very basic. I already knew the majority of these characters due to exposure but I didn't really knew how to write them (only how to read them). Although I didn't learned many new characters yet I already feel my writing skills are improving faster. I write every characters I see in the book because I believe it is important to know how to write them and I think it helps me memorize them better. More complicated characters are coming in the next chapters and I don't know most of them: I am pretty much done with the "review" and I will now start learning new characters.
I really wish I was not that lazy. I waste considerable amounts of time on the internet doing nothing useful or relevant. I am addicted to the internet and all the time-wasters it can offer. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| WANNABEAFREAK Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong cantonese.hk Joined 6770 days ago 144 posts - 185 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, Cantonese Studies: French | Message 8 of 25 28 January 2008 at 11:55pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I can't understand why you would learn Mandarin first in Hong Kong if you plan to live here your whole life. The environment is obviously Cantonese speaking and since I have immigrated to Hong Kong I think I can give my 2 cents. Get your Cantonese to an awesome level first, and then learn your Mandarin!
1) Your ability to acquire Mandarin in Hong Kong would be next to nil, unless you intentionally look for tourists in Tsim Sha Tsui. Unless you've got a Chinese looking face or Asian somewhat, you'll get spoken to in English. 2) Cantonese is shown all the time on Free-to-Air TV and no Mandarin. 3) In the office place, most people will speak in Cantonese only. If they know you can speak Mandarin, they would switch to English anyway. If you are fluent in Cantonese, they will speak in Cantonese. My boss who is American has excellent Mandarin in which he learnt it for 20 years. Everyone speaks to him in English only! 4) Learning Cantonese requires interaction with people to pick up the slang. You are in the best environment to acquire Cantonese. You would 5+ years to acquire Mandarin in Hong Kong, in which you would be paying expensive school fees, or making long-ended trips to China to find people to talk to you. Learning Cantonese by finding friends who cannot speak good English is the best way, Hong Kong gives you this opportunity. I'll also add. I know heaps of "gwai lou" who come to Hong Kong to learn Mandarin first. Realise that after awhile that its impossible to get people to speak it because they will speak to you in English by making excuses their Mandarin is no good -- which is probably true. For me, since I have learnt enough Cantonese to communicate fluently in the office, people will talk to me in Cantonese all the time! I hope you have the right to live in Hong Kong. There are strict immigration laws here, so if you don't have a HKID card... your dreams of living here forever might go down the drain. 1) companies will not sponsor you, since you have no experience or qualifications. They don't sponsor juniors. 2) Investment visa requires $7million HKD 3) Study visa doesn't let you work, which will mean unless you want to be a long-term student, it won't do much. 4) Perhaps being married to a local helps, but need to provide evidence of a long-term relationship and you need to show your financial abilites too. If you can learn Mandarin in Hong Kong to a "native" level, I would be impressed... but hopefully you'll find a use for it because after talking to my boss, he regrets learning Mandarin and not Cantonese as he has to speak English everyday since Mandarin is a minor language of Hong Kong. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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