| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
EricHsu
Bodhisattva
Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 591
Location: Aragon Consulting Group, Beijing, China
|
 Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 2:22 am Post subject: Practise your Chinese here ;) |
 |
|
From my experience of learning English, the best way to master a language is to practise as much as possible, practices include the following:
- read extensively
- write extensively
When we can read/write smoothly, it's not that hard to speak 
That's why I'm hanging around gentoo forums and keep using my poor English day to day 
For all of you friends who want to learn Chinese, now, here is the free place for you, just post in Chinese! Use all of the Chinese words you've learned! Make a phrase, write a sentence or even a paragraph to tell us your daily stories!
When you feel that you have reached your limit, and you're unable to keep using Chinese to express yourself, it's OK, use English instead!
We'll help you with your phrase, your grammar, and help you to translate the English part of what you've written...
Post now and, remember to "force" yourself to use Chinese as much as possible!
edit: please set your browser's charater encoding to UTF-8 while posting in Chinese 
edit: OK, if you can, please help me with my English here; or, if possible, use your Chinese to help me with my English. I'm serious 
edit: no topic? well, here is one for you:
- 中文: 你为什么选择 gentoo?
- pinyin: ni3 wei4shen2me xuan3ze2 gentoo?
- English: why do you choose gentoo?
_________________
- http://nkbit.com
- http://twitter.com/xuyihua
Last edited by EricHsu on Tue Feb 01, 2005 3:18 am; edited 3 times in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
teknomage1
Veteran
Joined: 05 Aug 2003
Posts: 1239
Location: Los Angeles, CA
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 3:23 am Post subject: |
|
|
Nimen hao. Wo xue2 zhonghua ing wei wo yao shuo1 wode nupengyoude jia1 . De bu se wode shuo1 bu hao3.
I apologize greatly if I have mangled the language. What I'm attempting to say is I'm studying chinese to speak to my girlfriend's family.
Also how do I input characters? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
EricHsu
Bodhisattva
Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 591
Location: Aragon Consulting Group, Beijing, China
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 6:33 am Post subject: |
|
|
| teknomage1 wrote: | Nimen hao. Wo xue2 zhonghua ing wei wo yao shuo1 wode nupengyoude jia1 . De bu se wode shuo1 bu hao3.
I apologize greatly if I have mangled the language. What I'm attempting to say is I'm studying chinese to speak to my girlfriend's family.
Also how do I input characters? |
ni2 hao3! huan1 yin2 (welcome)!
So your girlfriend is a Chinese? Cool!
For you pinyin part, here is my suggestion (with pinyin tones )
| Quote: |
ni3men2 hao3. yin1wei4 (because) wo3 yao4 he2 nv3peng2you3 de jia4ren2 (family) gou1tong1 (communicate), suo2yi3 wo3 xue2 zhong1wen2 (or zhong1guo2hua4). De bu se (? Do you mean: "dui4 bu4 qi3" - "sorry"?) wo3 de zhong1wen2 bu4hao3.
|
A very good start! Keep going 
For your problems - the best font for chinese and inputting chinese charaters, please check this thread, may it be helpful for you
Please feel free to post if you have further questions
_________________
- http://nkbit.com
- http://twitter.com/xuyihua |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
foosh
Apprentice
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 231
Location: STL
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 11:18 pm Post subject: |
|
|
你好！ 我会说一点普通话，可是我说得不好。 
我的女朋友是从大连. "I would like to visit China someday."
How was that? Also, how would I translate that last sentence? (preferably in pinyin+tones so that I'll know how it sounds and also be able to (probably) figure out the characters)
Thanks!!
edit:
EricHsu - UTF-8 encoded now
_________________
http://wustlog.blogspot.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
xilaren
n00b
Joined: 26 Jan 2005
Posts: 4
|
| Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 11:47 pm Post subject: 我也学中文！ |
|
|
我叫苏格拉底。我是希腊的。我也有一个中国女朋友！她是from齐齐哈尔。她是cambridge大学的学生(英国sucks by the way)。 我graduated和工作在cambridge。Last summer我们去(in order)北京，qinghuandao，齐齐哈尔， inner mongolia (I don't remember the name of the place)，北京again，上海，putuo山，苏州，杭州，珠海，澳门。
Just for practice |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
EricHsu
Bodhisattva
Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 591
Location: Aragon Consulting Group, Beijing, China
|
| Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:37 am Post subject: |
|
|
| foosh wrote: | | 你好！ 我会说一点普通话，可是我说得不好。 |
Pure Chinese expression, very good!
| Quote: |
我的女朋友是从大连. "I would like to visit China someday."
|
"My girlfriend is from Dalian": "is from" should not be directly translated to "是从" The best word for "is from" is "来自 (lai2 zi4)", so, it's "我的女朋友来自大连". More examples:
. I'm from China: 我来自中国
. You're from STL (?): 你来自 STL
| Quote: |
How was that? Also, how would I translate that last sentence? (preferably in pinyin+tones so that I'll know how it sounds and also be able to (probably) figure out the characters)
|
"I would like to visit China someday" - OK, as you required, I just deleted the Chinese characters, and here is the pure pinyin + tones, give it a try
wo3 xi1wang4 you3tian1 neng2 qu4 zhong1guo2 kan4kan4
If you can express in this form (?) to your girlfriend, I promise she will be surprised how good your Chinese is 
_________________
- http://nkbit.com
- http://twitter.com/xuyihua |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
EricHsu
Bodhisattva
Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 591
Location: Aragon Consulting Group, Beijing, China
|
| Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 2:03 am Post subject: Re: 我也学中文！ |
|
|
| xilaren wrote: | 我叫苏格拉底。我是希腊的。我也有一个中国女朋友！她是from齐齐哈尔。她是cambridge大学的学生(英国sucks by the way)。 我graduated和工作在cambridge。Last summer我们去(in order)北京，qinghuandao，齐齐哈尔， inner mongolia (I don't remember the name of the place)，北京again，上海，putuo山，苏州，杭州，珠海，澳门。
Just for practice |
Cool, you all guys have a Chinese girlfriend!
Translated for you:
| Quote: |
我叫苏格拉底。我是希腊的 ("我来自希腊" or "我是希腊人" would be better)。我也有一个中国女朋友！她来自齐齐哈尔。她是cambridge (剑桥) 大学的学生(英国sucks by the way - 另外, 英国这地方真差劲... )。 我graduated和工作在cambridge (我毕业于剑桥, 现在也在剑桥工作)。Last summer (去年夏天) 我们去了(in order - 按先后顺序)北京，qinghuandao (qin huang dao - 秦皇岛)，齐齐哈尔， inner mongolia (内蒙古) (I don't remember the name of the place)，北京again，上海，putuo山 (普陀山?)，苏州，杭州，珠海，澳门。
|
BTW, there is a question I would like to ask...
你们觉得中国女生和自己国家的女生有什么不一样的地方 (What are the differences do you think between Chinese girls and the girls from your country)?
试试用中文回答?
_________________
- http://nkbit.com
- http://twitter.com/xuyihua |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
teknomage1
Veteran
Joined: 05 Aug 2003
Posts: 1239
Location: Los Angeles, CA
|
| Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:35 am Post subject: |
|
|
Wo3 de nu3peng2you3 shi4 Singaporean. Singapore hen tong2 Mei3 Guo2 (Singapore is very similar to America). Ta1 men dou1 yao4 cheng2 gong1. (They all want success. My vocabulary is quite limited. What I'm trying to say is Singapore is a very wealth driven country and people are expected to work very hard to achieve that). Ta1 fan2rao3 shi1bai4 (She always worries she'll fail)
This next part might have been clearer if I had time today to set up the chinese input.
Wo3 de nu3peng2you3 de ming2zi4 shi4 ZhaoRong. (Her name is Zhaorong, but the Zhao is a masculine word, both sort of mean glory but it would make more sense if i could just show the characters, maybe next weekend). Wo3men wu4 le [at] xue2yuan4. (We met at college. I wanted to add three years ago but what is the measure word for year?)
Thank you for your help above Eric. I'm such a begginer at this language it is very frustrating to me (especially because I consider myself eloquent in English), these posts take a very long time for me to read and respond to but I shall persevere because it is great to learn a new language. I suspect my word choice is probably very strange because I am learning the grammar from a book but to write here I am looking up words in a dictionary so maybe they are not correct in context.
EDIT: Arg, when I look back at what took twenty minutes to post there is hardly any chinese in the post. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
foosh
Apprentice
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 231
Location: STL
|
| Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 9:24 am Post subject: |
|
|
Eric, 谢谢你的帮助! I am a true beginner and your input/suggestions/corrections are greatly appreciated.
The only reason I requested pinyin+tones is because I worry that if I get only the characters I'll not be able to easily find their sounds or meanings. However, I have just found an incredibly useful tool at http://dltool.sourceforge.net !!! I highly recommend it for you other learners out there.
As far as commenting on the difference between American and Chinese girls...I'll have to wait until I have more time available to put into a post...
EDIT: I'm just realizing that it seems the dltool I mentioned requires .NET and therefore will probably not compile easily for linux... if I'm wrong please let me know.
_________________
http://wustlog.blogspot.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
hiroki
Guru
Joined: 29 Jul 2003
Posts: 327
Location: @home in germany
|
| Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 9:56 pm Post subject: Re: 我也学中文！ |
|
|
| EricHsu wrote: | | Cool, you all guys have a Chinese girlfriend! |
我没有女朋友啊！但，我有中国的语伴。他们是好人。
我可以写书中文／汉子。但，我不可以说汉语。我得练习！
i need to learn more vocabulary  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
EricHsu
Bodhisattva
Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 591
Location: Aragon Consulting Group, Beijing, China
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 2:51 am Post subject: |
|
|
| teknomage1 wrote: | | Singapore hen tong2 Mei3 Guo2 (Singapore is very similar to America). |
singapore hen3 xiang4 mei3guo2 .
| Quote: |
Ta1 men dou1 yao4 cheng2 gong1. (They all want success. My vocabulary is quite limited. What I'm trying to say is Singapore is a very wealth driven country and people are expected to work very hard to achieve that). |
ta1men dou1 zhui1qiu2 cheng2gong1.
| Quote: |
Ta1 fan2rao3 shi1bai4 (She always worries she'll fail)
|
ta1 zong3 (always) dan1xin1 (worries) zi4ji (herself) hui4 (will) shi1bai4.
| Quote: |
Wo3men wu4 le [at] xue2yuan4. (We met at college. I wanted to add three years ago but what is the measure word for year?)
|
The measure word for year is "nian2". So,
wo3men san3 (three) nian2 (year) qian2 (ago) zai4 (at) xue2yuan4 xiang1yu4 (met)
or, you can say in a more english-like order:
san3 (three) nian2 (year) qian2 (ago), wo3men xiang1yu4 (met) zai4 (at) xue2yuan4.
| Quote: |
Thank you for your help above Eric. I'm such a begginer at this language it is very frustrating to me (especially because I consider myself eloquent in English), these posts take a very long time for me to read and respond to but I shall persevere because it is great to learn a new language.
|
You know, your pinyin is quite good now! That's a GREAT step. As far as know, one of the biggest problems for foreigners to learn chinese is the tones - most of the foreigners have a big headache on this problem, since a same pronunciation with different tones has different meaning
In China, we started learning English when we were at junior high school (now, most of the elementary schools teach children English). So, each one of our generation who graduated from university has spent at least 3 + 3 + 4 = 10 years. However, most of us still can't read/write/speak English well. There is a big problem with the current education problem...
I, myself, didn't feel any progress (advance?) until about a year ago - the moment when I had read/written tons of English during my college life (my major was software engineering which requires reading/writing lots of English docs, codes...).
Like a thunder lighting, suddenly I felt I could put each pieces of English I had learned together and I could use them to express the thoughts inside my mind! I can still recall that night vividly - I had watched an English movie and was taking a shower at home
That's why I think the best way to master a language is to "read extensively" and "write extensively" (That's why I write so much on this post )
| Quote: |
I suspect my word choice is probably very strange because I am learning the grammar from a book but to write here I am looking up words in a dictionary so maybe they are not correct in context.
|
As you can see, most of them are ok. I used to writing English the way you write pinyin - I always keep a English-Chinese dict at hand
| Quote: |
EDIT: Arg, when I look back at what took twenty minutes to post there is hardly any chinese in the post. |
I've spent more than 40 min to finished this post...
_________________
- http://nkbit.com
- http://twitter.com/xuyihua |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
EricHsu
Bodhisattva
Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 591
Location: Aragon Consulting Group, Beijing, China
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 3:10 am Post subject: |
|
|
| foosh wrote: | Eric, 谢谢你的帮助! I am a true beginner and your input/suggestions/corrections are greatly appreciated.
|
很高兴能帮到你
| Quote: |
The only reason I requested pinyin+tones is because I worry that if I get only the characters I'll not be able to easily find their sounds or meanings. However, I have just found an incredibly useful tool at http://dltool.sourceforge.net !!! I highly recommend it for you other learners out there.
[snip]
EDIT: I'm just realizing that it seems the dltool I mentioned requires .NET and therefore will probably not compile easily for linux... if I'm wrong please let me know.
|
I see... here are the hanzi version and pinyin version for the sentense you've asked in your previous post:
| Code: |
wo3 xi1wang4 you3tian1 neng2 qu4 zhong1guo2 kan4kan4.
我 希望 有天 能 去 中国 看看.
|
I visited that page of the dltool, it's cool, and should be very useful for learners. Do you know this dict tool - stardict? It grabs words/charaters from the screen and translate them into Chinese/English/Whatever language (if you have that language's dict installed) for you.
I'm thinking about maybe we could build a "pinyin dict" for it? So that you can grab the hanzi/Chinese charaters from the screen and it can show you the pinyin!
I'm going to look into the format of stardict's dictionary to see if I could build one "pinyin dictionary"
update: hooray! Paul Denisowski has already built one! (cedict - dltool also uses it!). And there are cedicts for stardict too, and they're in the portage! just:
| Code: |
emerge stardict stardict-cedict-zh-en-gb stardict-cedict-zh-en-big5
|
| Quote: |
As far as commenting on the difference between American and Chinese girls...I'll have to wait until I have more time available to put into a post...
|
Looking forward to hear from you
_________________
- http://nkbit.com
- http://twitter.com/xuyihua
Last edited by EricHsu on Tue Feb 01, 2005 4:53 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
EricHsu
Bodhisattva
Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 591
Location: Aragon Consulting Group, Beijing, China
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 3:17 am Post subject: Re: 我也学中文！ |
|
|
快找一个! 情人节快到了! (Man, St Valentine's Day is coming, go and find one )
| Quote: |
我可以写书中文／汉子。但，我不可以说汉语。
|
here is my suggestion:
"我会写中文/汉字, 但我还不会说汉语."
wow, very pure Chinese expression!
| Quote: |
i need to learn more vocabulary |
Me too, for my poor poor English
_________________
- http://nkbit.com
- http://twitter.com/xuyihua |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
panyo
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Posts: 86
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
EricHsu,
xie xie ni (thank you) for the zidian (dictionary) link! Wo xiwang (I like) gentoo rugo wo nug (because I can) use jiege (that, such) relatively specialized software gei wo de (with my) Power PC yo (with) the nug li (power) and convenience of package management.
Xilaren: Yiasou Elina! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
hiroki
Guru
Joined: 29 Jul 2003
Posts: 327
Location: @home in germany
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:26 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| panyo wrote: | EricHsu,
xie xie ni (thank you) for the zidian (dictionary) link! Wo xiwang (I like) gentoo rugo wo nug (because I can) use jiege (that, such) relatively specialized software gei wo de (with my) Power PC yo (with) the nug li (power) and convenience of package management.
Xilaren: Yiasou Elina! |
what transcription system are you using  
If I understand correctly I'd say so:
....
wo xihuan gentoo rugo (don't know this word), wo neng use (=[shi]yong) zhege
....
is it that way correct, eric? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
panyo
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Posts: 86
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:43 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| hiroki wrote: |
If I understand correctly I'd say so:
....
wo xihuan gentoo rugo (don't know this word), wo neng use (=[shi]yong) zhege
....
is it that way correct, eric? |
Thank you hiroki! I am afraid I am using a combination of misspelled pinyin, and what I think the spoken words sound like to me! I see I also made a mistake. What I wrote as 'rugo' should be the word for 'if.' But obviously, that is not what I meant to say. I meant to say 'because' which sounds like 'ying wei' to me. And the final part should make sense only to Xilaren. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
EricHsu
Bodhisattva
Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 591
Location: Aragon Consulting Group, Beijing, China
|
| Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 4:54 am Post subject: |
|
|
| panyo wrote: | EricHsu,
xie xie ni (thank you) for the zidian (dictionary) link! Wo xiwang (I like) gentoo rugo wo nug (because I can) use jiege (that, such) relatively specialized software gei wo de (with my) Power PC yo (with) the nug li (power) and convenience of package management.
Xilaren: Yiasou Elina! |
link: lian4 jie1 - 链接
I like: wo3 xi3huan1 - 我喜欢
because: yin1wei4 - 因为
ruguo: ru2guo3 means "if", "assume"
that, such: zhe4ge4 (not "jiege")
relatively: xiang1dang1 - 相当
specialized: te4bie2 - 特别
convenience: fang1bian4 - 方便
package: bao1 - 包
management: guan3li3 - 管理
...
| Quote: |
xie4xie4 ni3 ti2gong1 (provide) de zi4dian3 lian4jie1! wo3 xi3huan1 gentoo, yin1wei4 gentoo wei4 (for) wo3de (my) PowerPC ti2gong1 le fei1chang2 (very) fang1bian4 de ruan3jian4 (software) bao1 (package) guan3li3 gong1neng2 (function).
|
_________________
- http://nkbit.com
- http://twitter.com/xuyihua |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JingBL
n00b
Joined: 06 Nov 2004
Posts: 4
Location: Shanghai, China
|
| Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 5:07 am Post subject: |
|
|
Eric, 你好
我是中国人。来自河南，现在在上海读高中，马上就要高考了。用gentoo几个月了吧。
刚刚看了上面的一些贴子，心中有个想法。
学汉语一定要那么熟练地运用拼音写字吗？
看帖子的时候感觉那样学，拼音和汉字有点脱节。
也许是自己体会不到难处吧。如果感觉在下在胡说八道，就直接删掉吧，没事找个地方放放水。~
_________________
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." --Albert Einstein |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
EricHsu
Bodhisattva
Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 591
Location: Aragon Consulting Group, Beijing, China
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:22 am Post subject: |
|
|
| JingBL wrote: | Eric, 你好
我是中国人。来自河南，现在在上海读高中，马上就要高考了。用gentoo几个月了吧。
刚刚看了上面的一些贴子，心中有个想法。
学汉语一定要那么熟练地运用拼音写字吗？
看帖子的时候感觉那样学，拼音和汉字有点脱节。
也许是自己体会不到难处吧。如果感觉在下在胡说八道，就直接删掉吧，没事找个地方放放水。~ |
呵呵, 用拼音因为要考虑:
1. 不是每个外国朋友的 gentoo 都能显示中文的, 汉字在他们那边很可能只是乱码.
2. 我们学中文不就是从 a, o, e, b, p, m, f 开始练的么? 也许因为我们那个时期已经过去了, 所以感触不深
个人觉得学中文从拼音开始还是很好的, 尤其对于使用类似英语这种以音为主的语言的外国朋友而言, 拼音应该是一个不错的 "桥梁". 而且, 我们谁不是先会说话 (音), 然后才会写字 (字) 的?
个人意见, 仅供参考
我妹下学期也高考了, 都考个好大学吧!
_________________
- http://nkbit.com
- http://twitter.com/xuyihua |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
foosh
Apprentice
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 231
Location: STL
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
xming
Guru
Joined: 02 Jul 2002
Posts: 441
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 7:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Hi all,
I am Chinese (born in Taiwan, lives for ages in Europe) and it's really ironic to see all foreigners trying so hard to speak and wirte in Chinese while I am really trying to avoid that (the witing part, still not crazy enough to speak to my PC) on the PC, it's is really too clumsy to me.
Well keep up the good work
新年快樂 恭喜發財 紅包....
_________________
http://wojia.be |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Hauser
l33t
Joined: 27 Dec 2003
Posts: 650
Location: 4-dimensional hyperplane
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:36 am Post subject: |
|
|
新年快樂 我也要紅包！
_________________
AMD Athlon XP 2600+; 512M RAM;
nVidia FX5700LE; Hitachi 120Gb
2.6.9-nitro4, reiser4, linux26-headers+nptl
Do I like to compile everything?
Positive definite! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
EricHsu
Bodhisattva
Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 591
Location: Aragon Consulting Group, Beijing, China
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
xevix
Apprentice
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Posts: 284
Location: Cali, USA
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 12:31 am Post subject: |
|
|
Hi... I'm new to the Chinese part of the forums, but I thought I'd give out a big "lei hou"/"ni hao" to the Chinese people. I don't know much mandarin, but luckily Cantonese shares the characters with Mandarin, hahahahah, just funny word order to me. I'm happy to see that the Chinese are finally represented on the forums though, hurray!
_________________
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux 2x2.2 ghz
nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320Mb
250 gb SATA hd
2gb pc-3200 DDR |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bpxyz
n00b
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 12
Location: ChongQing China
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 3:05 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I'm Chinese, I lived in ChongQing.
HeHe...
Here's very funny .
I want to study Gentoo and practise english reading ability,
I can reading and understanding almost english , but I can't write them correct, my phrase and grammar .
So....
_________________
Router & BT: PIII550 256M 40G+80G Pro100x3
Workstation1: C 1.7G + 1G + 80G
Workstation1: E8400 + 2G + 500G + GF9500 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
中文 (Chinese)
