China:::They Ain't All Bad

[ranskaldan]

Ta bu4 shi4 Zhongguo2 ren2??
Wo3 shi4 Mei3guo2 ren2.
Wo3 you3 liang3 ge nu3 hai2zi.
Tamen shi4 Zhongguo2 ren2.
Xingqi tian wo3men xue2 Zhongguo2 wen2.
Wo3 shuo yi2 dia3nr, xie3 yi2 dia3nr, zhidao2 er2 shi2 Zhongguo2 zi2.

Since I'm Chinese, I get to pick out your errors.
nu3 hai2zi means girl. To say 'daughter', you use nu3 er2.
'Chinese language' is Zhong1 wen2 not zhongguo2 wen2
for the last line, you should say 'wo3 hui4 shuo yi2 dianr3' hui4 means 'able to'.
'twenty chinese characters' is 'er4 shi2 ge han4zi4'. 'ge' is the 'counting word' and 'han4zi4' is 'Chinese characters'.

Back to the topic...

So sprayber... have you been talking to her lately? any pics yet?

[DaShi]

haizi! Of course! That makes sense now.

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by ranskaldan


Since I'm Chinese, I get to pick out your errors.
nu3 hai2zi means girl. To say 'daughter', you use nu3 er2.
'Chinese language' is Zhong1 wen2 not zhongguo2 wen2
for the last line, you should say 'wo3 hui4 shuo yi2 dianr3' hui4 means 'able to'.
'twenty chinese characters' is 'er4 shi2 ge han4zi4'. 'ge' is the 'counting word' and 'han4zi4' is 'Chinese characters'.

Back to the topic...

So sprayber... have you been talking to her lately? any pics yet?

Translate the rest of it for me.

I'm waiting for her to come online now. And yes I have a picture. But I ain't gonna post it.

Hey should I tell her that I am a part of the American imperialist military?

[MORON]

NOOOOOO U ppl's Pinyi is better than mine

dan1 zan2 wo3 shi4 ben4 dan4, shuo3 yi3 ye3 shi4 zhi4 zan2 de

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Adam Smith
Ta bu4 shi4 Zhongguo2 ren2??
Wo3 shi4 Mei3guo2 ren2.
Wo3 you3 liang3 ge nu3 hai2zi.
Tamen shi4 Zhongguo2 ren2.
Xingqi tian wo3men xue2 Zhongguo2 wen2.
Wo3 shuo yi2 dia3nr, xie3 yi2 dia3nr, zhidao2 er2 shi2 Zhongguo2 zi2.

Alright Spray, I'll test my failing memory.

"He is not Chinese.
I am American.
I have 2 daughters.
They are Chinese.
Weekdays(?), we study Chinese.
I speak a little, write a little, and know 20 Chinese characters."

[Adam Smith]

Ewwww...more mistakes than I imagined.
But thanks for nit picks everybody...thats how one learns
BTW, my prior post should have been addressed to Da Shi, not UR.

UR:
Our laoshi is from Beijing. She keeps telling us "if you dont stick an 'r' on the end you will sound like a hick." True, false, or local prejudice?

Da Shi:
I think I said "Sunday we study Chinese."

[mindseye]

Our laoshi is from Beijing. She keeps telling us "if you dont stick an 'r' on the end you will sound like a hick." True, false, or local prejudice?

Hi, Adam!

To answer your question from a Shanghai perspective: Local prejudice. I wonder if your teacher knows that many Shanghainese consider Beijingers themselves to be "hicks" - or "uncouth bumpkins" in the words of a friend of mine. This line of thinking has it that the people of Beijing are largely Hubei peasants who still hawk and spit all the time, speak coarsely, have bad teeth, etc - the exact opposite of the Shanghainese image of themselves as China's sophisticated urban elite.

One of my teachers here in Shanghai said that the "southern version" of Mandarin (without all those r's on the end) is actually spoken by more Chinese, and that the notion of a Beijing accent being so-called "proper" Mandarin was nothing but a bit of lingo-centrism on the part of the ever self-important Beijingers.

- mindseye

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by ranskaldan
[/b] shuo yi2 dianr3' hui4 means 'able to'.
'twenty chinese characters' is 'er4 shi2 ge han4zi4'. 'ge' is the 'counting word' and 'han4zi4' is 'Chinese characters'.

"Two" is er3, not er4.

"Zhongguo2 zi3" is fine for "Chinese characters."

Then again, I am not 100% on what the numbers correspond

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by mindseye

Our laoshi is from Beijing. She keeps telling us "if you dont stick an 'r' on the end you will sound like a hick." True, false, or local prejudice?

Hi, Adam!

To answer your question from a Shanghai perspective: Local prejudice. I wonder if your teacher knows that many Shanghainese consider Beijingers themselves to be "hicks" - or "uncouth bumpkins" in the words of a friend of mine. This line of thinking has it that the people of Beijing are largely Hubei peasants who still hawk and spit all the time, speak coarsely, have bad teeth, etc - the exact opposite of the Shanghainese image of themselves as China's sophisticated urban elite.

One of my teachers here in Shanghai said that the "southern version" of Mandarin (without all those r's on the end) is actually spoken by more Chinese, and that the notion of a Beijing accent being so-called "proper" Mandarin was nothing but a bit of lingo-centrism on the part of the ever self-important Beijingers.

- mindseye

That's not really true since Beijing was and still is considered the cultural capital of the country. Sure, there are a lot of "mobile population" but they don't speak the Beijing dialect

Anyway the standard Poutonga is spoken without the "er" at the end.


Adam,

What he said, mostly

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by monolith94
By the way, does anyone know about the Chinese pyramids?

What about them?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by MORON
NOOOOOO U ppl's Pinyi is better than mine

dan1 zan2 wo3 shi4 ben4 dan4, shuo3 yi3 ye3 shi4 zhi4 zan2 de

Nah, my pinyi is totally bad, have to look up half the characters

I can write in Chinese better



Adam,

You have two adopted daughters?

[Adam Smith]

Yes, ages 4 and 6, both from Changzhou, in Jiangsu Province.

[ranskaldan]

"Two" is er3, not er4.

"Zhongguo2 zi3" is fine for "Chinese characters."

Then again, I am not 100% on what the numbers correspond

it's er4 and zi4
1 - high
2 - rising
3 - dipping
4 - falling

Our laoshi is from Beijing. She keeps telling us "if you dont stick an 'r' on the end you will sound like a hick." True, false, or local prejudice?

That's coz she's from Beijing.
Beijing Chinese, just like American English, is characterized by excessive 'r's. An American would tell you to pronounce the 'r's or you'd sound like a stiff Briton.
Southern variants of Mandarin is characterized by a lack of 'r's, just like British English. A Briton would tell you to not pronounce any 'r's or you'd sound like a Yankee.

Anyway the standard Poutonga is spoken without the "er" at the end.

That depends on what your definition of 'Putonghua' is.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Adam Smith
Yes, ages 4 and 6, both from Changzhou, in Jiangsu Province.

Ah, a beautiful scenic city. Have you been there?

[Sprayber]

Last night I only got to talk to her for awhile. Her internet access wasn't going so great. She had to get off for awhile and try another place or something.

How reliable is the internet access over there. I don't want to imply anything, but just wondering how widespread it is for the people. She is a student so I can understand her having access. Also, how much is restricted over there. She was able to see many of the sites I could including Yahoo.