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Embarrassed by Pinyin
Sep 7, 2006 10:42
  • GRIZ326
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I am so early in my studies of Chinese that perhaps attempting to translate paragraphs of English into Chinese was pure foolishness... But I thought it would be no problem...because the textbook I am using says sentence structure is the same, Chinese is not concerned with tense, blah blah...so you can happily string words together to communicate....

So anyway...

I write a one page letter in Pinyin using a BBK dictionary to translate the English to Pinyin.

Then I get the bright idea to use Pleco to translate the Pinyin back into English.

After one paragraph I was completely embarassed because my attempt at Pinyin was PURE NONSENSE!

I won't give up, but that was so discouraging.
Sep 7, 2006 15:44
#1  
  • GERALDINE
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I admire you for trying my attempts have been very basic and total failures but keep at it, it will happen or so they tell me!!
Sep 7, 2006 20:09
#2  
  • HEIDI
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hi GRIZ,
it is said the Chinese language is the most complicated among all the languages in the world. i do not know how long you have been learning chinese, but please do not loose your heart because of the temporary difficulties. from my experiences, it is the best way to learn a foreign language step by step.
Sep 7, 2006 20:25
#3  
  • LOVEISVERB
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Hey Heidi, don't say that, hehehe~~

I would pass the following information to Griz:
Chinese is the most beautiful and musical language(we have 4 tones - more in dialects) in the world, and it is not hard to learn. Good luck.

Tip: learn structure of words like architecture, learn tones as music, learn the meaning of words thinking of the intelligent Chinese, it helps.
Sep 7, 2006 20:35
#4  
  • CONNY129
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I began to learn English from my mid-school ,Mmm ,how many years past ? Wow ~~~ 12 ,how long have you learn Chinese ,haha~~
So keep trying ^_^
Sep 7, 2006 20:40
#5  
  • CALIFORNIA
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Yes,we studied english more than 10 years,but my oral english was really bad.Why?Because we paid attention to EXAM(writing,grammer and reading......)

I hope you can get a right way to learn chines for listening and speaking:-)
Sep 7, 2006 21:10
#6  
  • PINETREE
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GRIZ - how can u not fall in love with the Chinese boys and gals ? They are so encouraging.
But seriously, it is a very difficult language to master. But it depends on you too - it took me just 5 years to do so.
Hahaha !!
Sep 7, 2006 22:34
#7  
  • TEKNOMED
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You guys are fantastic, I am sure you speak very good Chinese. I am of Chinese origin and yet my Chinese is terrible. Only able to carry on a very simple converstion. When I have to order food in a Chinese restaurant I depand on the photgraphs printed on the menu.
Sep 8, 2006 13:41
#8  
  • GRIZ326
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Thank you for the encouragement...

My Pimsleur courses arrived today for the spoken part of the language...

...and I am using my Pleco Palm TX to learn the characters following the book Reading & Writing Chinese. The book teaches how to write more than 1000 characters but defines more than 2000 characters.

For Pinyin, I am using Yong Ho's beginner book.

Now I'll just put "my nose to the grindstone" - I believe you might say that is an American proverb.
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