Chinese 1.1

if you want to learn Chinese here is the Place!!!

Spewmuffin will be are teacher!!!

Thanks!!

Okay, I guess I shall be the instructor.



What should I talk about?

First a background and demystify Chinese...

- Chinese has been in continuous use for over 4000 years.
- Its characters were first etched on bones and has evolved multiple times into what it is recognized today.
- There are two styles of writing: Traditional and Simplified. China uses simplified while just about all other Chinese communities around the world continue to use traditional.
- The difference between traditional & simplified Chinese is in the way it is written. Simplified characters resemble more like the cursive style of writing vs the traditional which is print.
- There are literally hundreds of dialects of Chinese, but just one way of writing (different dialects may use synonyms in its place, but the meaning is still understandable by writing).
- Cantonese is used mostly in southern China, Hong Kong, and outside of China. Mandarin is used most in northern China, Taiwan, and Singapore. (I speak Mandarin)
- Chinese uses the same basic sentense structure: SVO (Subject - Verb - Object) that English does (Japanese & Korean uses SOV)
- The one single hard part about speaking Chinese is learning the tones. There are also a few sounds not used in English that may also somehwat complicate the speaker.
- Most Americans can pick up the language in about three to six months of total immersion, should one do a study there.

--
SpewMuffin

Yah!!! now i totally know i can learn Chinese!!!
One thing i want to know is how to prounce things!!

Chinese pronounciation is not very straight forward. There are twenty consonants, six simple vowels, and ten complex vowels. What I mean by complex vowel is like 'ai' or 'ong'. Similar to Korean, you mix a consonant (consonant could be omitted) and a vowel to produce a sound. (I don't know Korean, BTW).

Next, you assign a tone to that sound. For info on how it sounds, check out this website: http://www.newconceptmandarin.com/support/Intro_Pinyin.asp
There are four main tones and one auxiliary tone. They are high, rising, fall then rise, falling, soft. These components make up the pronounciation for each character. Learning characters is WAY beyond the scope of what I can do on a simple tutorial. Thus, just getting pronounciation down will get you a long way ahead in learning Chinese.

A quick example that nearly all textbooks use as examples is 'ma'. The tones placed on this pronounciation turns this sound into these meanings:
high: mother
rising: numbing
fall then rise: horse
falling: to scold
silent: an article used to soften questions and comments/requests.

Of course, not all five tones are used for every combination. For example with using 'ta':
high: him/her/it
rising: (N/A)
fall then rise: tower
falling: step
silent: (N/A)

Also, there are almost always more than one word or meaning associated with a sound. Much like English uses smart to mean intelligent or it could mean sudden and sharp, Chinese also has these overlaping sounds except much more of it. If I can remember correctly, about 0.5% of words in the English language fall under this category. Chiness is approximately 3%. Just for kicks, Japanese is close to 10%. The way to differentiate what you mean is through the characters that it's written or if it's venecular (spoken), the context will point to the answer.

I think I'll stop here for now.

--
SpewMuffin

thank you!!!

I actrally starting to understand it!!!
You teach better than the website i was using!!

Well, I guess I'll get to the basics of speaking.

I'll write the number after each syllable to indicate the tone using this rule:
1 = high
2 = rising
3 = fall then rise
4 = fall
5 = silent

Let's start with some introductions:

Good Morning: zhao3 an1
Good Afternoon: wu3 an1
Good Night: wan3 an1

Hello: ni3 hao3*
Good bye: zai4 jian4
*Note: When two words with both 3rd tones are together, the first of the two words changes to 2nd tone. Thus, this is written as "ni3 hao3" but is spoken as "ni2 hao3".

Introducing yourself: Wo3 jiao4 <insert name> (or) Wo3 de5 ming2 zhi5 shi4 <insert name>


I'll leave it at that for now.

--
SpewMuffin

Yah... but i'm going to have to practice more...