learn chinese the easy way [Archive]

Sakura

10-08-2005, 09:38 AM

im american born chinese so i know lots of chinese and i can help anyone who wants to learn some cool chinese! just ask me what you wanna know!

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ill start off with some basic stuff:
你好 ni hao - hello
你好吗? ni hao ma - how are you
再见 zai jian - good bye
早上好 zao shang hao - good morning
晚安 wan an - good night
我爱你 wo ai ni - i love you
为什么 wei she me - why

character names in naruto:
鸣人 ming ren - naruto
佐助 zuo zhu - sasuke
小樱 xiao ying - sakura
卡卡西 ka ka shi - kakashi (easy one!)

Sabaku no Ira

10-08-2005, 09:55 AM

You realize that some people with English versions of browsers and English OS can't display Chinese characters, and some computers can't display simplified Chinese, don't you?

Also, you know that intonations are important, don't you?

organizedcrime

10-08-2005, 10:09 AM

Err the easiest way to learn Chinese is to grow up in a family that speaks Chinese, but that's an optionable tihngy, so...

BandanaDan

10-08-2005, 10:17 AM

Gnaw Dar Ney Gaw See Fadt!!!1!!!1

Mizura

10-08-2005, 10:27 AM

*laughs* We might consider that easy, but you do realize that when you put the Chinese characters down, for the non-Chinese speakers here those characters might as well be hieroglyphs, right? :amuse

A Chinese knows the logic behind the lines that form a character. For a non-Chinese though, they're a completely random sequence of ... something. It's like telling someone: "This means hello: twbhreafg" Person: wtf? :S

Sabaku no Ira

10-08-2005, 10:44 AM

Mizura! What happened to your username?

organizedcrime

10-08-2005, 10:51 AM

Well apparently it changed. Yeah, Miz got it right. I think that's how the whole "scribbles=Chinese" stereotype started.

kataimiko

10-08-2005, 10:53 AM

Sabaku no Ira

10-08-2005, 10:58 AM

Well, you should know that there are like around 12,000 Chinese characters in existence (all of the look different, and the most commonly used ones aournd 4000) as well as the fact that different combinations of Chinese characters will end up with a different meaning. On top of that you get the problem of the pronounciation having NOTHING to do with the character itself (most of the time). All this makes Chinese one of the hardest languages to learn in the world (which is one of the reasons why I went to Australia, because I don't want to study CHINESE!!!).

Well apparently it changed.
I know. But why choose a random noise that comes more out of your nose than your mouth as the username? That somehow gave me a shock. :P

Mizura

10-08-2005, 10:59 AM

but for people who want to learn, it is interesting and important to see what the word appears like in the Chinese characters.
No, for people who want to learn, it is best to first get an explanation of what the hell a Chinese character is made up of in the first place.

What's the first thing you do when teaching someone say... English? Tell them the basic sentences?

No, you start with the alphabet. a b c. You'd be moving along blindly if you didn't do that.

Edit: You're aware that name-changing is a trend right now, yes? It's a dare of sorts: mods get to change your username for 40 days.

I'm Meh, because it's my nickname among some of my groups of friends (specifically the ones at the Hyuugacest fanclub actually). We all have funny nicknames there: Meh, Feh, Cheh, Whoa...

Blackvoice

10-08-2005, 11:00 AM

wow you guys are really negative, he was just trying to interest people in a language and you are all shoot him down

Sabaku no Ira

10-08-2005, 11:03 AM

organizedcrime

10-08-2005, 11:08 AM

Because he's doing it in a wrong way. You basically cannot learn Chinese without understanding the structure of Chinese characters, which is something that cannot be done when your computer can't display Chinese characters in the first place.

Yeah, you gotta be really careful with the tones. I would know. Fortunately my name is rarely used, so no one really cares about its tone.

BandanaDan

10-08-2005, 11:08 AM

SEK FAARHN LAAAAA!!!!!111

http://www.newint.org/issue349/Images/ricep1.jpg

When you teach someone a new language, you, um, point at things and phonetically say them. Err in either mandarin or cantonese. But seriously, yeah chinese characters are bloody hard to learn the most. Getting a semi-crash course back on them characters too, as I'm also taking Japanese evenning classes :crying

Mizura

10-08-2005, 11:10 AM

No no, I'm not saying that how his intentions are bad, but it seems to me that he just wasn't aware of how random a Chinese character looks to those unfamiliar with it.

Really, for those of you who are curious, it's not that off:

- all of the most complex characters are actually composed of a number of simpler sub-characters, radicals if you want. There are about 100 of those, ranging in complexity, but with their own meaning. So when a Chinese looks at a character, he sees not a sequence of random squiggles, but a composition of sub-characters. It's like 1 to 4 (or more) letter words.

- after that, a character is basically a puzzle. Some radicals give you an explanation to the nature of the word. If you have the hand radical in front for example, the word refers to an action. If you have the grass radical, a plant. etc. Some refer to sound, so if you have a word with that radical in it then it's read in a way close to how that individual character is read (a character with qing in it for example - I can't type Chinese on this computer so forgive me for that - will be read qing or jing). Finally, some are assemblies of characters with a certain meaning. The character for "good", for example, is composed of the "woman" and "child" radicals, referring to the good relationship between mother and child.

Lingz

10-08-2005, 11:10 AM

That is definitely not a easy way to learn chinese...

Sabaku no Ira

10-08-2005, 11:25 AM

Because that's how complex the Chinese language is.

Furthermore, to complicate the matters a bit...
1) "和尚打傘" which literally mean "A monk holding an umbrella", but it actually means "lawless and absolute evil" because monk has no hair 髮, which sounds exactly the same as the character for law 法, and the umbrella blocks the sky, which is "no heaven", implying ignoring the heavenly rules which is absolutely a no-no for the Chinese.
2) 流 means "flow", but "流星" means "shooting star" and "流動性" means mobility.

@Mizura: Oh, I see... but I'll just keep calling you Mizura since I use "Meh" when I can't be bothered to do something... :P

Lingz

10-08-2005, 11:30 AM

This thread won't work unless people want to learn single phrases, even that would be utterly hard. Chinese is one of the hardest languages I've come across, although I'm 100% chinese.

XxKaexX

10-11-2005, 09:36 AM

GUESS WHAT THE EASIEST WAY OF LEARNING CHINESE? Using pingyin

Sabaku no Ira

10-11-2005, 10:05 AM

But even so that is still hard without intonations. Can you guess what shui jiao is? (It can be "to sleep" or a Chinese food)

XxKaexX

10-11-2005, 10:19 AM

Have you thought about the annotations next to it? I agree though... It does get confusing...

To sleep is something like:- shui` jiao`

blue_duck

10-11-2005, 04:39 PM

What are people talking about? Madarin or Cantonese?

Sakura

10-12-2005, 08:05 AM

i was just putting the characters up just in case some ppl could see them. maybe some of you guys don't think itz that easy but im pretty sure itz not that easy to actually start learning a language, at least u guys could be more positive about the whole thing. i mean, unlike english, there isn't any alphabet. what do u expect? u hav to start with sumthing, and some things in chinese are just not easy to explain...

Sakura

10-12-2005, 08:06 AM

we're talking about mandarin. but then again, cantonese is similar in a way.

Saskue_Naruto

10-12-2005, 10:08 PM

uhhh it's not zhao shang hao....it's zhao an for good morning. just like wan an

~XSinX~

10-12-2005, 10:53 PM

i will give some phrases

Nei HO ma?=how are you doing.

see fawt= butt (lol)

also i dont know how to spell well so just read the best you can i guess..

Sik fawn= eat dinner

jo sun=good morning

ma laow jae= monkey (i think)

mo yeuw= dont need

mo sik= dont wanna eat

fawn=rice

ho dai=real big

ho fae=real fat

muoi muoi= sister

gou gou= brother (hard to spell)

ho seuw=really funny

saak gow= impolite (i think)

fun gow=go to sleep

ho yeet=really spicy or hot

fun= noodles

chasuu bow= pork bun (im pretty sure and the "bow" ir pronounced like "wow" with a b sound)

seat=ice

yeet= hot

chut lae= outside

haaum= cry

nai heim=dangerous

seuw seuw= very little

lae see= (those red envelope u get from chinese new year)

chow mein= fried noodles

chow faan=fried rice

i can go on forever but if u want more words and sentences PM me.

Sakura

10-13-2005, 08:23 AM

hey :D that's cantonese!

Sakura

10-13-2005, 08:24 AM

zhao shang hao is like student to teacher usage while zao an is just normal good morning

XxKaexX

10-13-2005, 08:49 AM

zhao shang hao is like student to teacher usage while zao an is just normal good morning
Where are you from??!! I don't know where you got that from but they definately do not say zhao shang hao in Taiwan. Oh well...

I know 1 Cantonese phrase and that's:

Lei Ho (I can't remember how to spell it >.>)

Sakura

10-13-2005, 08:58 AM

taiwan is different from actual mainland china...

~XSinX~

10-13-2005, 11:21 AM

yeah i speak cantonese lol i dont know mandarin...

they all watch on you.... (-(-_-)-)

XxKaexX

10-14-2005, 07:13 PM

yeah i speak cantonese lol i dont know mandarin...

they all watch on you.... (-(-_-)-)
Who what? And yeah, Taiwan is different. I don't want to be part of Mainlad China btw...

Tigerchu

10-17-2005, 12:35 PM

I know like, 3 or 4 words^^
shei shei = thankyou
an'... that's all I remember right now^^

Tigerchu

10-17-2005, 12:36 PM

Anyone know if Naruto's been dubbed in any other languages, other than English? Like French for example?

MegamanXZero

10-17-2005, 05:35 PM

Not that I know, but back to the subject.
People must know that there's a difference between Cantonese and Mandarin.
Taiwanese and a big part of China speak Mandarin, South-East China peepz speak Cantonese.

Sakura

10-18-2005, 08:46 AM

naruto has been dubbed in russian and chinese i think

Sakura

10-18-2005, 08:48 AM

subject: therez still a difference in the chinese language as a whole becuz different places have different dialects. like shanghainese and beijing.

XxKaexX

10-18-2005, 08:48 AM

naruto has been dubbed in russian and chinese i think
Confirmed.

XxKaexX

10-18-2005, 08:50 AM

subject: therez still a difference in the chinese language as a whole becuz different places have different dialects. like shanghainese and beijing.
Yeah... And Taiwanese chinese is different. It's just something to do with the way it's pronounced. It's like London English, American English, Cockney English and Yorkshire English sound different.

Sakura

10-18-2005, 08:51 AM

ya, evry place should have pronounciation differences

Leen

10-18-2005, 10:28 AM

Hai, I am chinese too. See, I am Ting. Can anyone tell me which is the most used surname. Is it Lau or Wong? In my place, I usually get people with Wong. After all, it's Wong Nai Siong who brought 500 foochows to my place long time ago. Anyone know Wong Nai Siong. He's from mainland China.

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created by 399animeshop (http://www.399animeshop.com) & NarutoFever (http://narutofever.com)

XxKaexX

10-19-2005, 10:51 AM

Dunoo... Sorry... Cant tell the difference

Sakura

11-01-2005, 05:45 AM

i think its wong

stryden

11-05-2005, 01:30 AM

This thread won't work unless people want to learn single phrases, even that would be utterly hard. Chinese is one of the hardest languages I've come across, although I'm 100% chinese.

totally agree both with chinese being a very hard language to learn and the bit about only learning single phrases. If you really want to learn chinese, its best to take a course and study hard, cuz its definitely not something you can cram and test for the next day, sure you'll pass but in the long run it does no good, you dont learn anything. Take it from a guy who's taken over 10 yrs of sat. chinese classes. Effort and determination is a pretty big part in it too (can be said bout almost anything). And like most things, if you dont practice every now and again you'll forget, and you forget pretty quickly too, again over 10 yrs of schooling, havent praticed in 2 yrs now i can barely read and write, and my verbal chinese is only descent at best.

But for people who want to learn some chinese, it'll probably be easier to learn to Speak it before getting into the craziness that are the characters. If you like biology then chiense shouldnt be that crazy hard as most of it can be learned via pure memorization.

XxKaexX

11-08-2005, 05:29 AM

It's hard to learn because if you actually do calligraphy for Chinese but if you're learning Pinyin, it's easy!!! =P

Sakura

11-08-2005, 05:32 AM

it is EASY if you know it. thatz the good way to start learning chinese tho if u have absolutely noe clue of anything to do with chinese

XxKaexX

11-08-2005, 05:48 AM

Exactly... And it's the most populated spoken language. =P

peachyqtz

11-14-2005, 11:17 AM

Chinese is so hard! (mandarin actually) I'm half chinese and I've been studying in a chinese school for 11 years. What the hell, I can't even create a decent paragraph. (too much wrong grammar) Sometimes, I can't even understand what our teachers says. The problem with chinese is there are a lot of words that sound the same. We're also studying pingyin but it's still hard for me. All I know is Fukien, our dialect. Gaah, Chinese is hard to learn.

XxKaexX

11-16-2005, 09:05 AM

Sakura

11-16-2005, 09:08 AM

hmmm min nan yu, i noe it but i dunno translation either. lol. haha

ichinii30

11-16-2005, 09:13 AM

I'm chinese, and I can watch chinese movies and tv ok, but I suck at reading and writing. Usually, after I have learned a bunch of characters, I forget them the next.

Sakura

11-16-2005, 09:17 AM

lol. im actually a pretty good chinese writer and well, i just cant read because some phrases dont make sense to me at all. but sure, i can watch chinese movies and tv too!

peachyqtz

11-16-2005, 11:09 AM

Where are you from? I can speak a bit of it because of Taiwanese. The actual dialect is a mix of Fukien and Min nan yu (Dunno the translation for that! >.<)

I'm in the Philippines right now. My grandparents came from Amoy a.k.a Xiamen. They speak Mandarin and Fukien but I only learned Fukien.

XxKaexX

11-19-2005, 06:36 PM

hmmm min nan yu, i noe it but i dunno translation either. lol. haha
Where are you from?

XxKaexX

11-19-2005, 06:52 PM

I'm in the Philippines right now. My grandparents came from Amoy a.k.a Xiamen. They speak Mandarin and Fukien but I only learned Fukien.
Cool! I only really know how to speak Mandarin. It's probably the easiest and one of the most widely spoken. Nearly everyone in the Chinese speaking areas know how to speak that form.

rie_chan

11-19-2005, 07:06 PM

I'm a chinese too, born in malaysia, but then I moved to china, and lived there for around 5 years. Then I moved to New zealand, where I'm staying now. I can read, write, speak, listen to chinese, but now that I moved to new zealand, i can't remember how to write some of the complicated chinese words :(

happylily

11-20-2005, 05:34 AM

XxKaexX

11-30-2005, 09:28 AM

If you can remember easy chinese then you're still lucky

Knight of Fate

12-09-2005, 08:08 AM

I'm Chinese too. i find mandarin hard also.....since i speak Cantonese.

happylily

12-10-2005, 11:35 AM

I'm Chinese too. i find mandarin hard also.....since i speak Cantonese.

Asia-Macau?Oh...:wink

Demonic_Ice

12-10-2005, 11:57 AM

I'm chinese, or to be more specific taiwanese. lol, yea chinese writing and reading is quite hard ^^'. I can only speak mandarin, or to specific, taiwanese madarin or to be even more specific taipei taiwenese mandarin ^^'

Korey

12-10-2005, 01:59 PM

Cool I'm chinese too but I speak cantonese. Cantonese is easiar to learn but it's better if you learn mandarin since that was the first chinese language.

Nsakura_hatakeU

12-10-2005, 07:02 PM

Lol Chinese is easy huh...

Uh I know both Chinese and English well.. I know some French...

I speak Mandarin but I understands Cantonese... I also know some of another dialect ^^

Wow every1 died... =.=

Scared Link

12-10-2005, 07:04 PM

Eeew, a triple post.

Nsakura_hatakeU

12-10-2005, 07:58 PM

w/e... hakuna... Why would I care about you ...

happylily

12-11-2005, 02:12 AM

Why do so many people want to learn Cantonese?
In China just a small part of people speak Cantonese.
Most Chinese will learn Mandarin in school.
Why is Cantonese such popular?

darkgem499

01-06-2006, 12:11 AM

I sorta don't understand which language it was(I can't tell the diffrence between all the chinese languages,since my mom and dad tried to teach me both at the same time)it is pretty easy I guess.Then what language Sakura's name Ying-Fa in?

Peliqua

01-06-2006, 12:17 AM

Because he's doing it in a wrong way. You basically cannot learn Chinese without understanding the structure of Chinese characters, which is something that cannot be done when your computer can't display Chinese characters in the first place.

What if I just wanted to knowhow to say Hello? He's done a cool service. And besides, it's not like anybody at this board will remember anything he's written, a way down the line... and if they REALLY have an interest in Chinese, they'll take a class like 99bazillion% of other non-natives that want to learn.

Banzai_Jimi-Hens_Groupie

01-09-2006, 05:49 PM

just a note from a cantonese speaker, now learning mandarin: its bloody difficult. if your not into it your gonna get crushed. even with pingyin its still difficult.who thought it'd be possible to confuse four, ten and yes (si, si and shi) and cause a teacher to nearly die from laughing?

earthgirl7717

01-15-2006, 02:40 AM

THIS DOESN"T MAKE SENSE!!!

HollowDreamer

01-15-2006, 05:09 PM

My bambii-chan can teach me i dont know one bit about speaking chinese :amuse yep yep shes the greatest gf ever.

Kagi

01-15-2006, 07:37 PM

The easiest way to learn Chinese is to come live in Edmonton, Alberta where school is free and offers Chinese from kindergarten till grade 12. K-6 half your classes are taught in Chinese if you please. 7-12 Chinese is taken as an option, but since most of you don't live here, it is best to learn Chinese starting with the basics.

Start with either zhuyin or pinyin, depending on which you prefer, and learn to pronounce each properly. Introduce some very basic characters, with zhuyin/pinyin beside them, and practice until you learn the characters. Aside from learning how to pronounce the characters you also need to learn what the characters mean. It is also best to learn the proper stroke order of the characters. The stroke order generally follows the rule from top to bottom and from left to right. After you learn some basic characters you can move on to some very basic phrases with the same technique used for learning characters. Again, you must know what each phrase mean and not only how to say it. When you eventually learn enough words and phrases, you then move on to grammar and setence structure. Since there are no tense for verbs and plurals for nouns this part of Chinese is easier than English (or I find it easier at least). One day I'll probably do some basic Chinese characters and phrases on Adobe for those computers that can't see Chinese characters.

It is probably best to learn Chinese in the Mandarin dialect since it is the "official dialect". Cantonese is a very popular dialect though, I believe this is mainly because Hong Kong is a major economic spot in Asia, and in the world. What I see is that New York is to North America, as Hong Kong is to Asia. One thing Hong Kong has over New York is that it is pretty much the Hollywood of China as well. A lot of movies are produced by Hong Kong companies and are in Cantonese, so there are some Cantonese movies that eventually make it here to North America. Also a lot of early immagrants that come from China were from the south, where many people spoke Cantonese. Nowadays however a lot more Mandarin speaking Chinese are immigrating to North America and Mandarin is also slowing gaining in popular partly due to this and partly due to China's recent growth.

On a not as related note. There was a time when pretty much every Chinese in my city was Cantonese speaking, but now a lot more people speak Mandarin. I speak both, so meh.

Beren

01-16-2006, 03:33 AM

We all knew some1 would ask it... might as well be me :P What to say to pick up chinese girls?

ni hao ma? wo ai ni! :nuts

Kagi

01-16-2006, 08:03 PM

lol. It would really depend on what kind of girl it is. You usually wouldn't use wo ai ni in a pick up line though. I don't think most Chinese girls would like to throw that phrase around lightly.

Beren

01-16-2006, 09:22 PM

hmmm, icic... lemme rephrase that then: "Hypothetically speaking, if u wanted to pick up chinese girls, what would u say?"

Here at Berkeley, there are tons of azn girls (which is why my quesion is so pertinent and pragmatic) ... but then again, girls always seem to be speaking another language ;)

gaaraholic

01-20-2006, 08:34 PM

try this:
"ni hao,wo xi huan ni de xiao rong.."

this is,"hi,I love ur smile"

Kusajishi

01-20-2006, 09:43 PM

Hmm it would be great with some sentences in chinease, I think thats the easiest way to learn, like:

--:Hello
-:Hi
--: How are you?
-: I'm good and you?
--: I'm fine to thank you

-: What are you going to do tomorow?
--: I'm going to stay home
etc etc...

寫輪眼

02-15-2006, 09:22 PM

I found out that for english people is easier to learn mandarine than Cantonese...
and is hard to get a lazy person like me to actually learn mandarine as good as my cantonese xD

mr_shadow

02-16-2006, 03:23 AM

I found out that for english people is easier to learn mandarine than Cantonese...

hey, it is for swedes too!

寫輪眼

02-16-2006, 07:53 AM

i guess is easier for european people to learn mandarine than cantonese?

mr_shadow

02-16-2006, 08:18 AM

Goodie ^^

Anyway, scentance construction in Mandarin (donno about cantonese) is quite simmilar to european languages, unlike japanese where you speak "backwards". Combine that with a easy grammar and words that you can actually pronounce (i mean... "ngo"?! wtf...), and you got yourself a fairly easy language.

寫輪眼

02-16-2006, 10:18 AM

Actually to me 'ngo' is easy to pronounce lol...it just means me in cantonese but is easier to pronounce is using 'or' instead of 'ngo' but most say 'ngo' is closer

blue_duck

02-16-2006, 06:22 PM

try this:
"ni hao,wo xi huan ni de xiao rong.."

this is,"hi,I love ur smile"
你好,我喜欢你的笑容.. :wink

Anyways, I'm Cantonese, but know some Mandarin...my mum and dad know both.

寫輪眼

02-17-2006, 09:00 AM

識廣東話? same here...my parents know both too but i'm just lazy to learn mandarine xDD

Dattebayo

02-17-2006, 10:18 AM

Cantonese is normally seen as a "harder" language to learn, esp. for two reasons. One, it contains approx. nine tones, as opposed to the approx. four or so tones in Mandarin. Two, Cantonese, like other regional "dialects" are much more of an oral language than anything written - there are attempts to put it in written form, but even then, there are complications in the substitution.

I don't think Chinese is necessarily a harder language - I think it def. depends on what angle you're coming from - if you're from the West, you're obviously coming from alphabet based from Indo-European linguistic systems. Chinese grammar, for example, doesn't use conjugation - imagine a Chinese kid trying to learn all the diff. forms of just one verb (and let's not even get to irregular verbs). And then there's the numerous tenses that also change the form of the word. And that's just in English, when you go into Romance languages or Latin, the conjugation can involve nouns (subjects and objects) as well.

Personally, the hardest language to learn is prob. Japanese. Not only does it use two separate alphabet systems (hiragana and katakana), but also requires the knowledge of kanji (Chinese characters), many of which contain numerous pronunciations. In addition, Japanese grammar tends to be difficult to grasp and is often considered very complex. And finally, to add that final nail to the coffin, true mastering of the Japanese language requires an understanding of the nuances in Japanese culture, in other words, many believe that to really speak Japanese well, you need to be Japanese (or at least spend much time in Japanese culture).

Back to the first post, I don't find those tactics necessarily wrong - it's one thing to learn a few phrases, it's another thing to master a language. If you're just learning to get by for a few days in China or just trying to say a one-liner to a Chinese friend of yours, you prob. don't need to learn the history of Chinese character writing.

寫輪眼

02-17-2006, 12:35 PM

mr_shadow

02-17-2006, 03:46 PM

There're books around with words you need to know if you're going to go on a trip to China/HK/Taiwan anyway but point is more and more people are learning mandarine b/c is a important language in the future for work, 下個世紀就要學俄羅斯文, 因為到時中文就會好次英文甘, 個個都識+ jobs/sources of energy from the country are all found so they'll have to open up areas they havent been yet which is places in Russia

Im intrested in China becouse its the new "hip" country. Japan was the shit back in the 90-s, but now everyone seems to regard Samurai and Pokémon as a perfectly natural part of ones existance, so it isent as cool anymore. But China is kinda like america when people first started moving there on a large scale