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Wenzhou Dialect | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| standtorise Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5222 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Mandarin, Norwegian, Korean, Finnish | Message 17 of 27 14 September 2010 at 6:47am | IP Logged | ||
I would most certainly be interested in using it if you can find a way to share it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6639 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 18 of 27 14 September 2010 at 7:00am | IP Logged | ||
You should be able to archive the entire audio folder and host it somewhere like megaupload, then post a link to the audio in the description of the deck when you share it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6131 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 19 of 27 19 September 2010 at 6:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I just uploaded a zipped file containing an anki deck and over 100 sentences recorded as
mp3s. Megaupload is not available in Hong Kong so I uploaded it on Google Sites instead. Please tell me if there is any problem and feel free to create mirrors to this link: https://sites.google.com/site/learnanasianlanguage/Home/shar ed-1284871908.zip? attredirects=0&d=1 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SSalvestrini Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4963 days ago 33 posts - 43 votes Speaks: Italian, English* Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 20 of 27 27 September 2010 at 1:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting discussion. I myself was wondering about the Yixing dialect. I spent about 5
weeks in China this summer and the friends I met there all speak Yixing. It was actually quite irritating, because I have trouble with Mandarin as it is, and they were all speaking a dialect I had never heard. I had to ask for them to translate from Yixing to Mandarin for me, which I in turn had to mentally translate :) So, I was just wondering if anyone on this forum can speak Yixing? It's a very uncommon language, so I doubt many westerners, if any, can actually speak it fluently. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6371 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 21 of 27 27 September 2010 at 8:19am | IP Logged | ||
Yeah, a lot of people sort of think that the mother tongue of all Chinese is Mandarin, which is sort of equivalent to thinking that the mother tongue of all Europeans is English. And just as you can't go to France and expect people to speak English with each other, you can't go to for example Canton and expect people to speak Mandarin to each other. Mandarin is a lingua franca in China, much as English is in Europe. If you can't speak their language, they'll speak it to you, but it's not their language. The difference with Europe, however, is that people who move to France will generally learn French, whereas the majority of people who move to Guangdong don't learn Cantonese (this includes both Westerners and Chinese), let alone moving to Wenzhou and learning Wenzhouhua. To me it's a bit disrespectful, but it's easy for me to say, since the language of the place I'm living in at least has materials to learn the language. If you move to Wenzhou, it'll probably be hard to learn even if you wanted to. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| SSalvestrini Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4963 days ago 33 posts - 43 votes Speaks: Italian, English* Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 22 of 27 28 September 2010 at 1:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Well said, Ari. I was certainly surprised that Mandarin is not more commonly spoken in
China. In addition to that, I was under the impression that many people would be fairly fluent in English, but that's really only true in the central districts of big cities, like Shanghai or Beijing. I spoke English on only one occasion the whole five weeks I was there, and that's simply because a friend of mine was in China as well :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6371 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 23 of 27 29 September 2010 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, during my seven months here I've only met a handful of people who can speak English, though most make a valiant attempt when they see a white face (heck, a lot of people shout "Hello!" from the other side of the street when they see a white face). They're usually relieved when you can speak a Chinese language.
Here's the thing with Mandarin: it's not just one language. There's Standard Mandarin and then there's the Mandarin dialects of Chinese. The former is heavily based on the latter, but it's standardized and a lot of local expressions used in the Mandarin dialects are not part of Standard Mandarin. The non-standardized varieties of Chinese (such as Cantonese) usually encompass pretty much the entirety of Standard Mandarin (though with different pronunciation), as most speakers will know it and use it for formal occasions. This means that all the local languages are richer than the standardized, constructed Standard Mandarin. Any idiom you can use in Standard Mandarin you can use in Cantonese, but in addition Cantonese has a wealth of its own idioms you cannot use in Standard Mandarin. I assume it's the same for the other local languages. While in a place like Beijing a Mandarin learner will probably be unable to separate the local expressions from the Standard Mandarin, if you're going to a place where the local language is not a Mandarin variety and you only learn Mandarin, not the local language, you'll be stuck with the standardized, constructed, limited language, which is the lowest common denominator amongst the Chinese languages. This is why I strongly encourage people to learn and support the local languages, as Standard Mandarin, while a good tool for communication and the lingua franca of China, leaves something to be desired when it comes to being a living, breathing bearer of culture. Unfortunately, Standard Mandarin is also pretty much the only written language in China (you'll find some written Cantonese online and in Hong Kong, but not a lot), which makes most Chinese literature pretty dull. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6131 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 24 of 27 05 October 2010 at 7:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with Ari, I believe dialects are a big part of the Chinese cultural heritage and
learning them helped me appreciate many facets of China a lot more. Did you have any luck getting started with Wenzhounese, standtorise? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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