Hey everybody! I know Chinese can be a difficult language to learn, so I'm here to help (along with other Chinese Soompiers!). Whether you're just learning or need some help here and there, I will try my best to answer your questions. However, please... if you are not fluent in the language, please do not answer full-fledged translation questions, pronunciation questions, etc. Just offer some advice. We don't want to confuse Chinese learners. Also, if you don't live in a Chinese-speaking country, don't offer cultural advice or cultural vocabulary.

Resources:
*Learn Chinese (Basics)
*Useful Dictionary/Romanizer/Simplifier/Traditionalizer
*Writing Chinese Font on XP
*Adding BoPoMoFo on Word (Windows&Mac)
^^ (it's about furigana, japanese, but it automatically becomes BoPoMoFo ㄅㄆㄇㄈ, so following the same instructions)
*Chinese Font on Mac
*Useful Chinese Tools
*Learn Chinese Characters
*Words, phrases, etc.
*Pinyin Pronunciation
*Basic Terms
*Mandarin Tips
*Some interesting services
*Setting Up Chinese on XP; changing input to HanYuPinYin (romanizations)

^^ PLEASE DON'T ASK ABOUT THESE TOPICS ON THE FORUM unless the links are down. Don't create pages and pages of the same questions.

Check those out and ask away!

Please specify which dialect you need help in (if conversational); traditional or simplified Chinese; the tone (conversational, formal, etc.) you want translated; the location the word is from (vocabulary varies between places in China); romanized or not (Jyutping, Pingying, Yale); etc. We may or not be able to help (but with the myriad of Soompiers, it shouldn't be a problem)..

Also, keep conversations to a minimal. We don't want to be wasting Soompi's bandwidth now do we.. so please keep conversations on PMs instead of on this post. Thanks a lot guys and I hope this post will be of use!

歡迎大家! 如果你有問題, 請問吧!
欢迎大家! 如果你有问题, 请问吧!
huan1 ying2 da4 jia1! ru2 guo3 ni3 you3 wen4 ti2, qing3 wen4 ba5!
fun1 jing4 daai6 ga1! jyu4 gwo2 nei5 jau6 man6 tai4, cing2 man6 ba6!
fun1 ying4 daai6 ga1! yu4 gwo2 nei5 yau5 man6 tai4, cheng2 man6 ba1!

edit: side note - As far as demographics go, Mandarin is not a people group; it is a dialect. Cantonese is a people group and a dialect.. people from Guangdong/Canton or the dialect from Guangdong/Canton. PLEASE - to be accurate, never mix that up. Don't ask "Are you Mandarin or Cantonese?" Just ask.. "Do you speak Mandarin or Cantonese?" Most people in China, regardless of the province they live in, can speak Chinese.

I'm going to like this thread.

EDIT: I knew I was going to like this thread. I just learned how to type in traditional with IME inputs

I personally find typing in HanYuPinYin much easier since IME requires a good hand with a mouse.. and I don't have that. :-D My characters aren't proportional when I write with my right hand mouse (I'm a lefty). :-/

www.mandarintools.com

great for pinyin people

Mouse? O_o

I use IME inputs to type in non-romanized languages...

This site is helpful too.
http://www.zhongwen.com

pfft 簡體字和繁體字都要寫嗎? >__>
我台湾生的，但是我一嵗就來到加拿大然後沒有在連我的中文。bleh, 快要什麽都看不懂

上中文學校一點都沒有用．

你們大家怎麽樣練中文？自己看書啊？

^lol i can only read the first 5 words on the last sentence and i went to 8 years of chinese school =/

Interesting...same with some of the cantonese students at our school.
10 years of chinese yet they still can't make conversation. Although the writing is excellent cause the script is all the same. Damn I wish I could read/write like that.

I feel like an outcast cause my vocab sucks.

EDIT: I hit some wrong keys...better go edit that other post
IME gets annoying.

我朋友百分制９９的字都看得懂。　No fair at all

QUOTE(Tetra @ Jan 13 2006, 10:32 PM) [snapback]1340108[/snapback]

IME gets annoying.

it does at times

Don't they have any sites on "improving your existing mandarin skills"?
Google failed me.

Dang, I'm on the computer in my house with no chinese IME. T__T;

But yeah I'll try my best to do pin yin. XD

Tetra, ni ie shi tai wan ren ah?
wo shi tsai mei guo shen de... ke shi wo jue de shang zhong wen tsue xiao you yong.

AWW, that's hardly understandable. HAHA.

I understand 20 sumdin words of what tetra sed =__=.. I'm chinese, and I'm taking mandarin class to learn to write more chinese T0T

I could read like most of it. Actually, now that I think about it, I just realize "tsai" is "zai"
I just couldn't read the last part..."tsue" totally threw me off




That's the main reason why I'm taking mandarin courses. Or else I could be learning korean. God I hate how I brought myself up in the past. Wasted so much time focusing on english when I could be focusing on chinese AND english and still end up with the same english stuffs.

Although...chinese class doesn't really get you to read/write more chinese. You probably forget it afterwards.

I'm learning chinese by watching chinese commercials =D

That's the only sentence I could read completely I took four years of mandarin in HS.. and I could only read one sentence.. hahaha.

Bleh, this will be my "list of links".

Words, phrases, etc.

Pinyin for newbs. Some may be inaccurate (e.g.: u as in "fur"...it's more like UH)

Foreigner? Going on vacation? Need mandarin? Probably the most simplest things you need

So-called "tips". I don't like them, but if you want to learn online without going to classes...

Some interesting services

I practice my Chinese by listening to Chinese songs and watching Chinese dramas

omgs .. i can just understand parts of words xD . i went 2 chinese sku since i was in prep .. still going now =.=

．．．你有學到很多嗎？．．．



如果你不努力，你只是在浪費你的時間．

thank you for this thread! =)

I love this thread. I have to study for a Mandarin final exam that is tomorrow.

^Wow everyone around me gets 2 exams while I get only 1

Does this thread actually help for an exam...

I don't know. O_O. I was just stating it.

So was I

你上十二年級啊？

^ lmao.

what, did I make a typo

Lol yay.. a Chinese thread.. I tried reading some of what Tetra typed, but I always read it in my mind in canto.. but I'm learning mando right now in school... I mix my words up a lot.. since I went to chinese school for like.. 4 years but only up to 3rd grade level (canto)..

Gah, I dislike Tradational Chinese they're so hard to read! And probably even harder to write.

I'm from Singapore and starting speaking Chinese since I was young. Well Chinese and English lessons started since kindergarden over here all the way until Junior College. So that means I've 12 official years of studying Chinese in government schools and like 4 years of exposure when I'm young (kindergarden and all).

There're 3 major exams we take over here at the of age 12 (PSLE), 16(O'Levels) and 18 (AO Levels).

Anyway I think watching dramas, listening to the radio, speaking to friends do help in learning any language. It's the exposure.

I learnt how to read + write chinese by... reading newspapers, books and watching TV with subtitles I also used to copy out chinese lyrics. Or maybe it was because I moved to Hong Kong and was forced to learn? Hmm..




Hahah I also read it in Canto.

I'm trying to learn a bit of mandarin (my mum is trying to make me go to chinese school ) I just need to work on my pronounciations >_____<

I just realized.. isn't that kan (in mando)? Except it's supposed to have two lines in the box? Or is it something else..

keke......i am the exact opposite.....i prefer much more to read traditional, simplified is hard for me....so it all depends on what u are used to.....i think ppl in taiwan and hong kong prefers traditional

right now i am learning how to read at a decent speed in simplified. I wish I had a friend who's reallly good at simplified.....too bad i dun

Tsue is Xue2 學..guessing from context.



看

It does have two lines in the box. Hrm..

台灣和香港都用傳統，大陸大陸改道簡體字。日本也用簡體字
我老師沒想到我拼音。。。



哈哈哈哈哈~...........

which link did you click to learn that? i think i click to fast that i missed it

Japanese uses some form of simplified, but it's different. Some of them are different from both traditional and simplified (like the word KURO, or black) and some are traditional (they don't simplify the "yan2" radical, sry - I don't have Chinese on this computer). Some have different meanings (actually, most are).

I'll try to find a site that explains this with examples, but when I have these exams done with.

テニスの王子

Did they have a stroke beside the 王 like in 国?
Cause if they did, then I could understand.

EDIT: guess not.

Here are some examples of Japanese Kanji:

国- Chinese Simplified
誰- Chinese Traditional
遅- Neither
黒- Neither
書- Different Meaning than in Chinese

It isn't possible for Japanese people (who don't know Chinese) to make sentences of pure Kanji. The grammatical parts of sentences like particles and topic/object/subject markers are never written in Kanji. Also, verbs and adjectives 99.9999% of the time are followed by Japanese charcters.

(in regards to my previous post... 言 is not simplified in Kanji when as a radical like in simplified Chinese; 请 vs. 請)

What does this word mean?

苗

Interesting...
I just haven't come across any traditional characters.



Seedling.

But it depends how you use it, cause I'm looking at my dictionary right now and it's got various definitions depending on how you use it in context.

^ No, I meant what does it mean when you call a person that.

haha thanks for the links!! i seriously need some practice with Chinese...i've been going to Chinese school for as long as i remember (ok not exactly ALL my life lol =.='') but i can only say some words..like parts of sentences. my reading and writing's crap..I can only read parts of what Tetra wrote

oh & I actually like Traditional better than Simple Chinese..ionno why =/

hahah...you got insulted I suppose.
I don't know good chinese insults
They don't teach them in chinese school
I should ask the chinese clique.



你的學校用繁體還是簡體字？
大陸人比較喜歡用簡體 =/

Interesting thread... Love your sarcasm, 'for help with the victims of learning Chinese.'

It's strange how I can read and translate but can't speak Chinese. Fluently anyway. I don't think this language is particularly hard compared to say, French. Some things giving people a hard time are probably different word order and the calligraphy.

Unlike the majority, I don't recommend reading but rather translating; it's what works for me anyhow. It's probably because when I translate I look up words in the dictionary and think on their relation to English, which helps me commit the characters to memory faster.

當然ㄚ.. 他們只用簡體字. 可能比較喜歡繁體字,可是大部分不會看吧.

繁體字叫繁體字因為寫法很繁ㄚ..哈哈



I think when you translate, you are linking the Chinese (or any other language) words to English words. It makes it hard to be completely fluent because you aren't speaking from your mind, your thought process translates the word. What about words that have no English counterpart (can't think of an example at this moment, but Japanese has tons of them like おかげさまで、よろしくお願いします)?

Exactly. My thought process is in English, that's why I take longer pauses when speaking Chinese. Translating things in my mind doesn't come naturally to me and requires thinking. As for the words which have no translations, it would make sense to skip them if they're insignificant to the meaning of the whole. If any words do contain a main idea however, which I haven't come across very often, I usually check their relations to words before and after and smooth them over with a mutual translation for both.

Mostly traditional I guess, but simplified is used by some teachers etc. am i seriously the only one who prefers Traditional ?? =.=

Oh, I also think Chinese is quite easy to learn...easier than french or german for example.

I've been waiting for someone to make a Chinese thread for so long! I'm gonna love this threaad and probably come here everyday lol. I wish I can type in Chinese though, my computer has some kind of defect so I can't type in Chinese. I've been taking Mandarin for about five months but I am Cantonese so I guess it helps a lot when I'm reading the characters. Before taking classes in school, I practice my Chinese by watching Taiwanese dramas and listening to songs! I think they really help a lot

Well, I like traditional more also.. I can't write simplified.

It's interesting to see that you find French harder than Chinese.. maybe it's just me but I was able to pick up French much quicker due to its myriad of words that are in English. It depends on how you were brought up - speaking Chinese or not. If your family is Chinese and spoke Chinese to you and vice versa, chances are that your speaking skills were good with or without Chinese School. However, writing is the hardest for most overseas Chinese and therefore, reading. Comprehension of words isn't as hard because chances are that you've heard that word before. I don't know, just an opinion. :-D

Perhaps, but only being able to understand it and not saying it or writing it...totally kills 1/2 of the reason why you're taking it in the first place.

When you learn a language, wouldn't you want to feel proud by being able to speak it, read it, write it, and translate it? Not just read and translate?

Basing everything on english works, but to me, it's pretty stupid cause then you're not really learning the language, but it's more like you're just learning various ways of looking at the word. To learn a language effectively is to disregard the whole translating concept and go

Like how 1 can be represented as Uno/Un/One/одно/ένας/ein/00110001/etc, except in this case {english word} would be the 1 and {everything else} would be Uno/Un/One/одно/ένας/ein/00110001/etc.

But it's your choice, and I won't go against your methods.


Chinese not much harder than french or whatever, however...it's actually a lot more complicated. There are some "rules" that just can't be used when translating. I'd give examples, but I can't think of any right now. I'll re-edit this post or something later on.



And when you don't have the need to translate and you can think in the other language, your proficiency will increase greatly. Now isn't that useful?

That way you can understand jokes without becoming so analytical.



Post in the tech support forum. They can probably give you a solution. Then you can type in chinese



...哈哈...

It's interesting you should bring that up, I went to a famous linguist's (Elenor Jorden) lecture on East Asian languages while studying at Cornell, and she claimed that if it wasn't for all the characters in Chinese that the language would be ranked around a Tier 2 language or even lower (Tier 3 has moderately-easy languages such as Spanish, Swedish etc, Tier 2 has moderately-difficult languages like German and French in it, Tier 1 has very difficult languages such as Korean, Japanese and Arabic). Why? Because Chinese word order (Subject-Verb-Object) is the same as English, and all Tier 1 languages are Subject-Object-Verb which is much harder for English speakers, and also because Chinese has basically no grammar or conjugations, whereas other Tier 1 languages have an assload of grammar, and it also has no politeness / honorific ways of speech that you find in Japanese and Korean (besides that 'ni' can switch to 'nin' and some other small thing). And as for tones, they're hard but I think people tend to over-exaggerate the difficulty alittle, the factor which puts Chinese in Tier 1 is the necessity to be able to read and write alot of characters.