wizzel
Subregular
Nope, I'm not lost- just directionally challenged!
Posts: 95
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Post by wizzel on Aug 29, 2006 4:31:07 GMT -5
ladyeblack: One semester of German? Depends on how much time you invest/invested... probably enough to get by when shopping. I've heard German compared to Chinese in difficulty (by a Scottish friend of mine) and, to be honest, the grammar is kind of complicated. Most Germans speak English- quite well, too. And there are always all kinds of exchange programs at uni that work with minimal knowledge of German. Heh, just come over! My family's very close-knit, just not geographically. The area we're spread over might not seem that large to most Americans (at least not to my friends- they're always talking about weekend visits and such), but 700km in Germany means a full day of travel by car since it's more... crowded here. Therefore, thankfully, no surprise Mamma-ambushes when you least expect them  @ootoori: Heh, as I write character-based stories I have more of a problem with getting a story in order, establishing a progress of events and matching events to changes in characterisation... I have less of a problem inventing, describing and naming characters. Graphics work? 's not that hard... I made my current avatar with actions in Photoshop in five minutes (only possible, though, because there was such a strong contrast between subject and background...). I have a few ideas, but they depend on me being able to draw accurately around subjects, which I can't do right-handed, meaning they have to wait... It takes a bit of practice with all the different options a graphics program offers, but once you're used to yours it's pretty fun and relaxing to turn screenshots into icons
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ladyeblack
Subregular
Third Shopkeeper on the Right
Posts: 80
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Post by ladyeblack on Aug 29, 2006 17:19:59 GMT -5
Ah...haha, yeah, I could buy all the things I need for a house. I got an 'A' in the course, so I guess I was paying pretty good attention. Heh, unfortunately, I heard we learn the tricky stuff the second semester. I think I'd sound pretty wooden to a native speaker...>.<;;
Surprise visits are a pretty real danger for me, I think, though it hasn't happened yet. The campus I attend is only two hours away. I hope my mom never gets any ideas about visiting me like that.
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Post by Sheenie on Aug 29, 2006 18:07:35 GMT -5
Chinese is pretty easy to learn to speak, but reaidng it and writing it KILLS you. ;~; *is Chinese, and my mom's making me learn how to speak Mandarin and write the characters* Especially if you wanna make it look pretty and readable. xP
I have family all over. xO Most of my family is in America. I have family in Vietnam, Holland, Canada, and my mom's ancestors are Chinese (but they're dead x.x), and probably a couple more places but I don't know them. xP
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wizzel
Subregular
Nope, I'm not lost- just directionally challenged!
Posts: 95
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Post by wizzel on Aug 29, 2006 19:10:49 GMT -5
I think I'd die if my Mom came to visit me unannounced... my room's a perpetual mess, I thrive on chaos and last-minute challenges and I have a distinct dislike of doing the dishes (*g* which my roomie shares, unfortunately). We're always doing spring cleaning whenever there's a danger of some parental unit dropping in ;D Hmmm... if Chinese is similar to Vietnamese in pronunciation I'm a lost cause. A girl I was rooming with last summer (my regular roomie went away on vacation, I was stuck doing an internship  ) tried to teach me to order a simple dish (something about beef dumplings)... and broke down laughing. Apparently, I managed to say "My grandmother lives on a tree" or something like that. Gah. I just don't get the different voice inflections and have trouble with the more guttural sounds. My family are French, British, Hungarian, German, Irish-American, Welsh, Italian and I think a there was something Basque in there too. Typical European multi-national mix. <-- should be asleep since it's 2am here, but can't... too cold! |
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Post by Sheenie on Aug 29, 2006 20:42:56 GMT -5
LOL, no.. Chinese is completely different. There's different accents too.  LOL. It's so hot here. I wish it was colder. xD |
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Post by ootoori255 on Aug 29, 2006 21:37:43 GMT -5
Is it hard to learn Chinese and Japanese? What's the difference? I really want to learn both languages. Also, i tried learning japanesee, it was very hard to understand and write it.
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wizzel
Subregular
Nope, I'm not lost- just directionally challenged!
Posts: 95
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Post by wizzel on Aug 30, 2006 6:58:35 GMT -5
I think Japanese is easier... the pronunciation to me is a mix of German, English and French sounds, what little I've seen of the grammar seems manageable and you can get by (as a foreigner) with writing and reading hiragana and katakana (I wanted to take a Japanese course first semester but had to drop it as it brought my courseload to more than 36 uni hours a week [means about 90 altogether- I wasn't sleeping OR eating and my student advisor just flat-out told me to drop "everything not 100% necessary"]). I'm not the best person to ask about difficulties in learning languages since I have a... unique way of doing so. I start associating everything with languages I already know and just... start listening and talking. Hilarious for the native speakers, but it works! Chinese is different, I think. The grammar shouldn't be too bad, either, but you have the problem of deciding on a dialect and of written Chinese (7000 kanji? Kill me now!). At least there's hope you can learn to pronounce it since it's not like Vietnamese  |
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Post by LemonCherry on Aug 30, 2006 18:37:50 GMT -5
Chinese is pretty easy to learn to speak, but reaidng it and writing it KILLS you. ;~; *is Chinese, and my mom's making me learn how to speak Mandarin and write the characters* Especially if you wanna make it look pretty and readable. xP lol, me too. my family speaks Cantonese so my grandma's trying to get me to read chinese books in Mandrin instead. the writing makes me frustrated  welcome wizzle!!! (very late, but a welcome none the less >.<; |
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Post by Sheenie on Aug 30, 2006 19:03:36 GMT -5
Ohh~! My family speaks Cantonese too~!
Japanese should be easier to write than Chinese. ;o; Unless you're writing kanji, then GOOD LUCK~!
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wizzel
Subregular
Nope, I'm not lost- just directionally challenged!
Posts: 95
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Post by wizzel on Aug 30, 2006 20:34:43 GMT -5
Heh, I'm stuffing my head with enough statute and European common law to last me a lifetime... I think I'll chicken out on the kanji learning for now
*g* I still plan on doing it someday... just not now.
I think it's cool that so many members here speak Chinese... to me, that's an awesome accomplishment!
<-- always stuck on Romance languages
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Post by tessa on Aug 30, 2006 20:45:25 GMT -5
I can speak a little French, Italian, and Chinese. My Japanese is good enough to carry on small conversations. Well, actually, I can understand it pretty well. I just can't speak it quite as well. I know a few Russian words and the same goes for Portuguese. Spanish, oh boy, I should hope I know that since I've only spent the past eight years of my life learning it.
My understanding of Polish is pretty good since I live in a predominately Polish community. I know Hungarian since that's what my mother's family is.
I've never really tried to learn German though. A lot of people in my community are Polish Jews who's parents came over around the time of the Holocaust so even though there are a few people who have German backgrounds, it's not widely used.
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Post by ootoori255 on Aug 30, 2006 23:57:15 GMT -5
Wow, it seems like a little hard and a little easy. Im trying it and i KIND OF get the hang of it, but i can't talk like it, it sounds all retarded like i get the words jumbled up, also writing it and reading it super hard, but i'll get the hang of it.
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Post by saro on Aug 31, 2006 6:58:24 GMT -5
o-o;; ...
Saro could never learn a second language. Saro spend three years doing French and the result is: bonjour, le suis une lapine. Which Saro cannot even pronounce.
Saro has tried learning Japanese for quite a while, but finds it hard to keep at it what with school and mental breakdowns.
Saro applauds multi-lingual members. Saro is talking in third person for some reason.
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wizzel
Subregular
Nope, I'm not lost- just directionally challenged!
Posts: 95
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Post by wizzel on Aug 31, 2006 7:19:49 GMT -5
<-- feeds Saro "First person reactivation special Aozu" ;D <-- revives Saro <-- I'm only multilingual because it's a necessity with my family... I'm lazy! *shame on me* tessa: Whoa, that's a LOT of languages! I speak four atm, write in three (my written Italian's rather bad) and manage to find my way around town in... six *counts on fingers*? I'm slacking off most of the time and only really start learning a language when I'm in the country... or when there's a new addition to the family who can't speak English, German, French or Italian well enough to communicate. *g* I went on a concert tour with a pan-European youth orchestra once... we somehow ended up with Latin as the most common language. Sounds really... weird, spoken Latin. Ultimately, we agreed on English, but it was fun trying to speak a dead language |
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Post by Sheenie on Aug 31, 2006 9:55:07 GMT -5
o-o;; ... Saro could never learn a second language. Saro spend three years doing French and the result is: bonjour, le suis une lapine. Which Saro cannot even pronounce. Saro has tried learning Japanese for quite a while, but finds it hard to keep at it what with school and mental breakdowns. Saro applauds multi-lingual members. Saro is talking in third person for some reason. OMG! I started laughing for no reason. LOL! *can't stop* Okay. Well, I didn't think Vietnamese was that hard. When I went to Vietnamese school ('cause my dad's side is Vietnamese), I did extremely well... The only part I didn't do well on was...understanding what I wrote/read. LOL! Well, it's not my fault I understand almost no Vietnamese! xD |
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) tried to teach me to order a simple dish (something about beef dumplings)... and broke down laughing. Apparently, I managed to say "My grandmother lives on a tree" or something like that. Gah. I just don't get the different voice inflections and have trouble with the more guttural sounds. 
