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Mandarin vs Japanese- Is Mand. harder? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Walshy Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6741 days ago 335 posts - 365 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, German | Message 17 of 21 19 May 2007 at 5:42am | IP Logged | ||
Let me know if you find it. I googled a bit for it but could only pull up the same one I posted above. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6246 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German | Message 18 of 21 19 May 2007 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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leosmith has touched an important point. It depends also on what you personally find harder. That goes both objectively and as a personal challenge, gratification etc. I get more gratification in piercing grammar than trying to get the pronunciation/intonation right. Maybe that's the reason I find grammar less challenging. Politeness levels do not worry me nor am I worried of causing giggles if I speak like a little girl. I find it more troubling not being able to be understood or understand something no matter how hard I try. A little girl (even if she's a 200 pound ogre) can go about her business more easily.
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| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6982 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 19 of 21 21 May 2007 at 3:38am | IP Logged | ||
Hmmm that may be true of textbook mandarin, but I doubt that you will find this very easy to transcribe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=serKoEKBPls 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6269 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 20 of 21 21 May 2007 at 4:44am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not talking of textbook Mandarin. I haven't used textbooks in a while. I mean the kind of Mandarin I hear every day on the bus by Chinese students studying at my university (when chatting among themselves). I would find it much easier to transcribe than say the chatter between Greek students or even French-speaking African students, even though my French is quite advanced.
The video you mentioned is harder, both because of poor recording quality and because the one guy is talking quite fast, dropping syllables. I can still make out most syllables though. In Beijing I mostly had trouble understanding old people, but they were probably speaking Beijing hua. Edited by Sprachprofi on 21 May 2007 at 4:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6501 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 21 of 21 21 May 2007 at 9:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, seriously. The biggest problem with that video is the crappy audio. I mean, he was speaking quickly, but actually pretty clearly. I've heard other people with other Chinese accents who were much harder to understand, including the old woman who worked at a restaurant that I ate at in Macau.
Or my girlfriend's mother, whose Mandarin is laced with a lot of Chaozhou pronunciations. The one that really stuck out was that, instead of saying qu for go, she would always say ki, which is the Chaozhou/Minnan pronunciation. I have to think when she's talking to me. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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