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Old 09-23-2016, 07:57 AM
 
14,263 posts, read 11,573,591 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Riley09swb View Post
My child is learning Mandarin. She's 7. She's in an immersion program so she hears it all day.The kids have not had any trouble learning it. In fact, she was able to tell us what was on the back of the jackets on the Chinese Gymnastics team during the Olympics.
I googled but could not find a picture of the back of the gymnastics jackets in particular. Were they the same as this one? Yes, as you might expect, that says "China."
Attached Thumbnails
Don't understand the obsession about wanting to learn Chinese (Mandarin)-543709470.jpg  

Last edited by saibot; 09-23-2016 at 08:37 AM..

 
Old 09-23-2016, 08:18 AM
 
14,263 posts, read 11,573,591 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brito11 View Post
Actually, one noticeable aspect of the Japanese languages is that the subject is assumed and dropped most of the time in a sentence. Which becomes extremely difficult when it comes to translation, but I digress.
In Japanese, you can almost always tell from the verb forms and other words in the sentence, together with the context, whether the subject is I, you, or a third party.

I'm not going to downplay this. It was hands down the most difficult aspect of Japanese for me. But it's not really true that this makes translation difficult, because once you've mastered it, the meaning is usually crystal clear. For example,

"Hon o kudasaimashta" (gave a book) must mean that either you or a third party gave me a book, and implies a level of formality (i.e. the agent was not my husband or younger brother).

This sentence cannot mean that I gave someone else a book, which would be a different word altogether.

Last edited by saibot; 09-23-2016 at 09:48 AM..
 
Old 09-23-2016, 09:43 AM
 
3,437 posts, read 3,272,609 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JustJulia View Post
I took piano lessons and ballet for several years growing up. I do not do them professionally now, nor have I touched a piano in ... oh, probably two decades. Was that a waste of time? Should children not take music lessons unless it's to train them for a job?
is piano lesson given in schools? I thought that's a personal decision by you and your parents.
 
Old 09-23-2016, 10:36 AM
 
Location: Østenfor sol og vestenfor måne
17,916 posts, read 24,265,406 times
Reputation: 39032
Quote:
Originally Posted by saibot View Post
I googled but could not find a picture of the back of the gymnastics jackets in particular. Were they the same as this one? Yes, as you might expect, that says "China."
It doesn't say "China", it says "Zhong Guo" :-)
 
Old 09-23-2016, 10:51 AM
 
1,917 posts, read 2,621,548 times
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Virtually every large company does business in China...learning any language is a smart move that has the potential to increase your earnings.

It's like asking why does anyone learn accounting when in fact most people don't understand it.


Someone who speaks three languages is trilingual
Someone who speaks two languages is bilingual
Someone who speaks one language is American

In this country students are required to take a foreign language

And every other country students are required to learn and speak a foreign language.

There is a big difference between the two
 
Old 09-23-2016, 11:06 AM
 
105 posts, read 90,322 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MartyGras View Post
Virtually every large company does business in China...learning any language is a smart move that has the potential to increase your earnings.

It's like asking why does anyone learn accounting when in fact most people don't understand it.


Someone who speaks three languages is trilingual
Someone who speaks two languages is bilingual
Someone who speaks one language is American

In this country students are required to take a foreign language

And every other country students are required to learn and speak a foreign language.

There is a big difference between the two
Actually accounting probably is easier to learn than Chinese.

I personally wasted too much time trying to learn different languages and finally settled to Spanish.

I tried to learn French, Portuguese, Italian and German. And gave up on all of them.

Speaking from my experience, it's just waste if you give up learning any languages in the process and I have seen everyone around me giving up learning Chinese. I have seen many who succeeded on learning Spanish. French and Japanese.
 
Old 09-23-2016, 11:16 AM
 
4,039 posts, read 4,933,632 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by saibot View Post
I googled but could not find a picture of the back of the gymnastics jackets in particular. Were they the same as this one? Yes, as you might expect, that says "China."
Yes, the English obviously says China not the characters.
 
Old 09-23-2016, 11:21 AM
 
14,263 posts, read 11,573,591 times
Reputation: 39008
Quote:
Originally Posted by ABQConvict View Post
It doesn't say "China", it says "Zhong Guo" :-)
Touche. lol.

I know Japanese, not Chinese, so to me it says "chuugoku."

Ask ten Chinese people who speak ten different dialects and you will get ten different pronunciations for 中国. That's the whole point about Chinese writing--it tells you the meaning, not the pronunciation. 中国 means China.
 
Old 09-23-2016, 11:22 AM
 
14,993 posts, read 23,822,706 times
Reputation: 26513
Quote:
Originally Posted by MartyGras View Post
Virtually every large company does business in China...learning any language is a smart move that has the potential to increase your earnings.
Once again - the language of business is English.
Yes my company does business in China and has operations in China, I work for a European company where the native language is not English . Business communication however is in English. I travel to PRC frequently. We require our Chinese National employees of any management level at our Chinese sites to speak English.

You guys have to understand the reality of global economics if you think Mandarin is your ticket to employment - the people of China are learning English like crazy. If we need someone to speak the local language, we won't chose an employee (from the US for example) that speaks broken Chinese as a second language, we will chose a Chinese national that is just as skilled and educated but works for less, and won't be tied down with expat or travel expenses, that lives in China and speaks English as a second language. You also have to compete with the skilled professionals coming out of Singapore, etc that speak Madarin like a native.

Last edited by Dd714; 09-23-2016 at 11:32 AM..
 
Old 09-23-2016, 11:34 AM
 
105 posts, read 90,322 times
Reputation: 81
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dd714 View Post
Once again - the language of business is English.
Yes my company does business in China and has operations in China, I work for a European company where the native language is not English . Business communication however is in English. I travel to PRC frequently. We require our Chinese National employees of any management level at our Chinese sites to speak English.

You guys have to understand the reality of global economics if you think Mandarin is your ticket to employment - the people of China are learning English like crazy. If we need someone to speak the local language, we won't chose an employee (from the US for example) that speaks broken Chinese as a second language, we will chose a Chinese national that is just as skilled but works for less, and won't be tied down with expat or travel expenses, that lives in China and speaks English as a second language. You also have to compete with the skilled professionals coming out of Singapore, etc that speak Madarin like a native.
Yeah some people really think knowing Chinese is ticket to high salary jobs.

If employers need someone who can speak Chinese, they will hire native Chinese people, not someone who speaks broken Chinese.
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