Best. Revenge. Ever.

[jamie15]

Somehow, this is getting to be my theme song, but instead of doing the sensible thing and studying for my exam on Monday I just spent all morning watching various TV shows - and then I came across One Foot in the Grave :D. I've got to say that THIS has got to be the best revenge ever (just skip to 06:00 if you're interested :D)! I don't think I could be bothered to go to that length to get my own back, but there are a couple of people who've deeply upset me these last few days ... so I'm looking for inspiration ... *cacklesevilly*!

Nah, I'm just kidding. But really, I'm not too happy with some of my professors this semester - especially with one, who made me panic last weekend for no reason at all, when he sent me a message that said 'I wish you all good luck for the test!'. So, cue me getting all panicky about having misread the date and cramming stuff into my head in a studying frenzy - only to discover that he meant good luck for next week on Monday. *grrr* I'm officially annoyed.

Otherwise I am enjoying most of my classes this semester - in particular the literature classes :D. I can now nearly read a story written in Chinese characters for eight-year-olds! Yay, success! :D Can't read anything much more, because, as I discovered when I was browsing through the library a couple of weeks ago almost all of the books are written using traditional Chinese characters -.- nu-uhhh! Whatever am I studying the simplified ones for =(?

Comments

[livrebleu]

I'm finding the traditional ones easier to memorise, but I think the choice of which to learn/teach is often politically, nationally and geographically motivated. A friend of mine who grew up in China never learnt the traditional ones; my teacher says that most communities that aren't mainland China don't much use the simplified ones... But grr! at the library books in only traditional characters, and congrats on your near-eight-year-old reading level! ;)

[jamie15]

So, you're studying Chinese, too? How cool is that :D!

I don't know which of them I'd find easier to memorise becuase I've not really studied any traditional ones yet. One thing I CAN say though is that I think the traditional ones are prettier (even if they do look more complicated ...).

I think so, too - especially with China being the way it is. However our department is making an extra effort to at least teach us how to read the traditional ones, even if we can't write them.

Apparently, except for mainland China, the rest of the Chinese all use the traditional characters - which does seem to be true, because whenever I do spot a sign in Chinese in my city it tends to be written in traditional characters. But, you know, the thing that I think is most annoying about studying Chinese are the different dialects. I'm studying Mandarin, which apparently means that I'd understand absolutely nobody in the southern part of China - even though it's supposed to be the same language -.-!

... this somehow got too long ... sorry ^^

[livrebleu]

My Chinese teacher is sloooow at getting the class moving along, so you're probably way ahead of me.

Sometimes the traditional characters make more sense to me because they preserve bits of semantic symbolism, so a character that you don't understand but that you recognize parts of is more likely to make sense.

Cantonese is supposed to be the same language as Mandarin? Really? I would have said they were different. A lot of the other supposed dialects are better classified as separate languages, too. The cultural and linguistic diversity but ability to communicate and govern is one of the things I find so interesting about Chinese.

[jamie15]

Aaah, that's too bad ... but don't worry, I don't think that you're that far behind - I've only been studying it for a year and I'm a really, really slow learner. Funny thing is I love learning languages - but I mostly am crap at it =). Chinese is like French to me - love the language and love to read it ... but can't speak it to save my life :D.

Yeah, that makes sense ... many of my classmates say that they can remember a particular character better when there's some kind of connection to its meaning. Problem is, I don't really see those :D! Like for example the character for horse: I can sort of make out where the legs and everything are supposed to be ... but I just can't see the horse in it ....

Well, sort of. They ARE very different - but at least according to what I know they're not known as seperate languages, just different dialects (though they really haven't got much in common - except for the characters).

I agree :D! I love that China's so different culturally. Every region does have its own history and traditions ... I think it's fascinating!

[livrebleu]

I like the new layout!

The character for horse is a nice example of why I find the traditional characters easier. Of course, they're highly-stylized representations, not pictures, so the best we're going to get are seeing what and where things are supposed to be, as you said. To my eye, the mane, legs, and shape of the neck are a lot easier to distinguish in the traditional character below, but YMMV. I have a hard time seeing the horse in the simplified character:


Learning languages is awesome. I love those moments where things suddenly begin to make sense, and whole worlds open up. Reading is much easier for me, too. Speaking a language is hard to learn without context and necessity. If your English is any indication, you're actually quite good with foreign languages.

[jamie15]

Thank you! I was getting really tired of the blue ... and I like orange way better anyway :D!

What a nice graphic :D! Thanks for the explanation - I can sort of see it now ...

When I try to remember characters the technique that usually works best for me, is to try and remember the different meanings of the radicals. Like for example with the character for mother I know that it consists of horse and woman :D!

Exactly! I love it when I suddenly realise I can actually communicate with people and read entire books in a different language. For example, I was able to read Harry Potter when I was ... twelve I think and I remember feeling really pleased at that :D!

Thank you! That's so nice of you to say! My accent's really horrible though :P! I do wish that I was as good at other languages, too, but I'm afraid that my French and Chinese are not quite as good - and I get horribly embarrassed about the mistakes I make :D! (But who knows, I might try it out on you soon, so beware!)

Your English is really excellent, too (you do live in France right? ... I hope I'm not putting my foot in my mouth here ...)

[livrebleu]

Hahaha, for some of the characters, I'm still on the "what does the radical mean?" level.

HP's a huge accomplishment in a foreign language at twelve! Wow!

I do live in France! But English is my first language, so, uh... ;)

[jamie15]

Haha! It didn't seem like that at the time, but looking back ... yeah, I guess it is sort of an accomplishment (the fact that I basically knew each line from the German version helped a lot though :D) - but thank you very much indeed *blushes*! I always say that HP taught me my English :P (thank you JKR!) but at the same time I've got to admit that I had some really good teachers - VERY strict, but really good.

Oh, hoops *blushes* I knew I was setting myself up there ... well, then I think that your French is really good *nods*! How long have you been living in France, if you don't mind my asking? Or where you born there?