中文?

Snitchcat

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Hi, Tom!

Nice to see you in this thread!
 

Snitchcat

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Nihao, Mermaid!

Welcome to the IDCF!

Which written Chinese system to you prefer -- Traditional or Simplified?
 

chocowrites

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wanted to check in again, 好久不见!

我第二个学期在中国留学快会结束,六月初就回美国。虽然我很喜欢住在中国,可是我很兴奋能回家,很想念我家。毕业以后我想再来中国找工作。

可是虽然我已经学了中文三年了,我的中文水平还不太高。

sorta frustrating haha. sometimes i'm like "why didn't I choose a european language to learn I'd be fluent by now while I still sound like a complete idiot with chinese."

ah well!
 
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Snitchcat

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Heheh, Chocowrites. Chinese is not an easy language to learn. Takes a long while to become truly fluent in the language, but learning to use it is quick.

From what I've read so far, your Chinese is fine.

Good to hear you're heading home, but will return to find work -- perhaps.

:)
 

PandaMan

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Da jia hao.

My mother-in-law, who's from China, is visiting for the summer. She doesn't speak any English, so only Chinese is now being spoken in my household. I haven't really studied or spoken a lot of Chinese in over 20 years so I'm struggling with that.

Also, because I've been speaking a lot of Chinese at home, I'm really struggling to write in English, esp. some intense scenes. It's like, I don't feel as articulate as I used to be.

Anyone else have this problem?
 

chompers

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Da jia hao.

My mother-in-law, who's from China, is visiting for the summer. She doesn't speak any English, so only Chinese is now being spoken in my household. I haven't really studied or spoken a lot of Chinese in over 20 years so I'm struggling with that.

Also, because I've been speaking a lot of Chinese at home, I'm really struggling to write in English, esp. some intense scenes. It's like, I don't feel as articulate as I used to be.

Anyone else have this problem?
No, but I'm pretty fluent in both, so I'm able to switch between the two pretty easily.

I can see how it can happen though. Your brain is really concentrating, so it's hard to shift back. When I was in school I had French and Japanese classes back to back and it was hard to get my brain to change languages. It would stay in one mode. (I once accidentally answered my Japanese teacher with French. Yes, everyone laughed.) But as I got more fluent it became easier to change gears.

I'm sure you'll get over this hurdle once you're more used to it. Good luck!
 

J.Emerson

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My daughter is mixed, Taiwanese on her dad's side (he came here from Taipei when he was 9), Caucasian on my side. I love languages, I was fluent in French and Spanish back when I was in high school. I'm rusty with the French now, though the Spanish is better because I've had to use it for translating with therapy clients.

I've wanted to learn Chinese for a while, I even invested in the 5 levels of Mandarin by Rosetta Stone, but for some reason I'm having a really hard time changing gears from my preset in the romance languages.

I know it would be easier if I had someone to talk with as I learned, but there is little to no Chinese-speaking population here in New Orleans (her dad who speaks Mandarin and Taiwanese still lives in L.A.). When I learned Spanish I had a hard time with the spoken language even when I was fantastic with the reading and writing. It wasn't until my family adopted a teenager from Spain (she spoke Castilian Spanish), and I helped her learn English, that I finally got over the hump and was able to speak it without tripping over my own tongue (albeit now with a Castilian accent).

Not much of a chance for that around here though. All I know are the two or three sentences my ex-husband taught me to say. For that matter, I would be thrilled to send my daughter Scarlett to Chinese school, as my best friend when I was a kid had to do every weekend. Mandarin is so much more nuanced than any romance language I've ever heard. And forget learning to write the language until I know how to speak it!!

Ah well. One day.
 
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Zenning

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Inside my head, ain't that obvious?
True. one has to be immersed and speak the language with natives in order to learn. My French is very rusty now, but once was at an intermediate level!
 

chompers

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My daughter is mixed, Taiwanese on her dad's side (he came here from Taipei when he was 9), Caucasian on my side. I love languages, I was fluent in French and Spanish back when I was in high school. I'm rusty with the French now, though the Spanish is better because I've had to use it for translating with therapy clients.

I've wanted to learn Chinese for a while, I even invested in the 5 levels of Mandarin by Rosetta Stone, but for some reason I'm having a really hard time changing gears from my preset in the romance languages.

I know it would be easier if I had someone to talk with as I learned, but there is little to no Chinese-speaking population here in New Orleans (her dad who speaks Mandarin and Taiwanese still lives in L.A.). When I learned Spanish I had a hard time with the spoken language even when I was fantastic with the reading and writing. It wasn't until my family adopted a teenager from Spain (she spoke Castilian Spanish), and I helped her learn English, that I finally got over the hump and was able to speak it without tripping over my own tongue (albeit now with a Castilian accent).

Not much of a chance for that around here though. All I know are the two or three sentences my ex-husband taught me to say. For that matter, I would be thrilled to send my daughter Scarlett to Chinese school, as my best friend when I was a kid had to do every weekend. Mandarin is so much more nuanced than any romance language I've ever heard. And forget learning to write the language until I know how to speak it!!

Ah well. One day.
Let me guess, he's in the 626? haha
 

J.Emerson

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Let me guess, he's in the 626? haha

Ha, no, his family home is in Gardena, in the South Bay/Los Angeles County, the 310 to be exact, formerly the 213 (I'm originally from Redondo, a city or two down). I tell you we spent a lot of time in Alhambra though, great dim sum! I miss it. Not much good dim sum in the South.
 
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FCChen

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Da jia hao!

I'm from the Philippines, but the Philippines has one of the bigger populations of Chinese immigrants, and my father is one, so that makes me half? I studied Mandarin during primary and secondary school, so I can at least read and understand a small bit of it.

Wo de zhongwen hen buhao, haishi wo yao fuxi le. :D
 

Snitchcat

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PandaMan, sometimes it gets that way for me where I have trouble switching languages. My solution is not to bother -- I write in whichever language happens to come to mind and edit later. Heh.

Zenning, J.Emerson, FCChen, 您们好!欢迎到AW的中文家庭!

我是Snitchcat不过大家都叫我Snitch或者Snitchy, 两个名字没有问题。
先说对不起:我很久没有使用书面中文所以现时写不好。

您们近期作了什么呢?很忙吗?你们的写作有也有很大的进步吗?因为近期我非常忙,我自己的写作经已停了一段时间,不太高兴但没有办法,不过很快也再次写作:下个星期四我会度假,非常期待,不想等!

Anyway, time for bed!

Have fun all; talk to you later! :)
 

chompers

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My daughter is mixed, Taiwanese on her dad's side (he came here from Taipei when he was 9), Caucasian on my side. I love languages, I was fluent in French and Spanish back when I was in high school. I'm rusty with the French now, though the Spanish is better because I've had to use it for translating with therapy clients.

I've wanted to learn Chinese for a while, I even invested in the 5 levels of Mandarin by Rosetta Stone, but for some reason I'm having a really hard time changing gears from my preset in the romance languages.

I know it would be easier if I had someone to talk with as I learned, but there is little to no Chinese-speaking population here in New Orleans (her dad who speaks Mandarin and Taiwanese still lives in L.A.). When I learned Spanish I had a hard time with the spoken language even when I was fantastic with the reading and writing. It wasn't until my family adopted a teenager from Spain (she spoke Castilian Spanish), and I helped her learn English, that I finally got over the hump and was able to speak it without tripping over my own tongue (albeit now with a Castilian accent).

Not much of a chance for that around here though. All I know are the two or three sentences my ex-husband taught me to say. For that matter, I would be thrilled to send my daughter Scarlett to Chinese school, as my best friend when I was a kid had to do every weekend. Mandarin is so much more nuanced than any romance language I've ever heard. And forget learning to write the language until I know how to speak it!!

Ah well. One day.
By the way, you might want to consider learning Chinese the Taiwanese way, since your husband is Taiwanese and not from China, since there is a difference (traditional vs. simplified).

Simplified uses pin ying (roman characters) to transition the student. In Taiwan they use Bopomofo to transition the student. It's not roman characters, but it is an alphabet of characters that really helps with the break down of the characters, as well as the intonations.
 

sungkf

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I've been to many areas of the Far East, and I love stories set is Asia, especially Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea and elsewhere. One of my favorite books is by Emily Hahn, "Miss Ann of Shanghai." Anyone one living in Hong Kong? Visit my Blog sometime.

Me!
 

Snitchcat

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Hey, Sungkf,

Welcome to the IFCF!

I speak Canto -- feel free to use Canto or Traditional Chinese.
 

cutecontinent

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Seems like a lot of foreigners are leaving China these days -- I only see tourists and students anymore.
 

Tom Johnson

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Welcome Sungkf, it's great having someone from Hong Kong on Board. There are some great books out there, written by folks familiar with Hong Kong and the Far East. I love reading stories set in Hong Kong and anywhere in the East. I'm still looking for a book published by Jade Orient in Hong Kong by an American living there at the time.
 

Snitchcat

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Hi, Max!

Welcome to the IFCF! How goes?

你学中文学了多久? 我没有学,但是我住在香港所以每问题,吧? 
你平日作什么? 上班? 学习?

我要煮晚饭啦,稍候再谈。
 

maxmordon

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个二月我学中文! 我不很好...

我是记者但我无业。

你呢?

As you can see, I still need quite a bit of practice!
 

Snitchcat

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Practice is always a good thing. :)

I'm a marketer. :)