- Chinese 101 (Simplified characters)

vesley1987 · Dec 6, 2009

gangleri2001 said:
@vesley & eoc: 我的中文老师告诉我说话的时候中国人用"给"和"用"跟我们一样，譬如你们不说"我给你打电话"但是"我打给你电话"，对吗？

Spoiler :

@vesley & eoc: My teachers told me that chinese people when they speak use "给" and "用" like us, for example you don't say "我给你打电话" but "我打给你电话", right?

Uh? I say 我给你打电话 everyday. In fact, 我打给你电话sounds odd to me, it's also understandable though.

Examples (found from random Chinese websites):

I'll call you tomorrow.
　　我明天给你打电话。

　　A Bye, Neil.

　　A 再见， 尼尔。

　　B Bye, Ping. I'll call you tomorrow.

　　B 再见，平。我明天给你打电话。

　　A Yes, we can plan our meeting.

　　A 好的，我们可以商议会议的安排。

　　B I'll call you in the morning if that's ok.

　　B 如果可以的话，我上午给你打电话。

　　A Yes, the morning is fine.

　　A 好的， 上午行。

　　B Ok. Speak to you tomorrow. Bye

　　B 好， 明天通话。再见。

We use 我打给你 only when 电话 is omited.
Like: 我现在不方便说话，等会我打给你。

eoc · Dec 6, 2009

@vesley & eoc: 我的中文老师告诉我说话的时候中国人用"给"和"用"跟我们一样，譬如你们不说"我给你打电话"但是"我打 给你电话"，对吗？

Vesley is right. Your teacher is wrong.
We always say :"我給你打电话"(I will call you)而不是“我打电话給你”。
“我打电话給你” is English grammer Chinese, but it is understandable.

eoc · Dec 6, 2009

Though I am Chinese, I have never learnt Chinese grammer.

While I can tell some difference between English grammer and Chinese grammer.

English: somebody(the subject) do(the verb) to(here I means -->) somthing/somebody(the object)

Chinese: somebody(The subject) to (here, use Chinese character "对，用，给 etc." preposition ) something/somebody(the object) do(the verb)

I also find an interesting thing. In a question sentence, in English, "When, What, Why, Where, Be, Do, Have" etc words, should be put in the front, while in Chinese, you needn't do that stupid thing^_^

aronnax · Dec 7, 2009

eoc said:
I don't agree with you. "了" is not only an auxiliary word after verbs, but also has meanings. For examples:

了无生趣 (being no interesting or very much dull. 了 here means 完全，彻底 totally, utterly)
了无声息 (has no sound and breathing, also means being silent very much. 了 here means 完全，彻底 totally, utterly)
知了(means cicada, 知 or 了 don't mean cicada with each single character, the 2 characters must be composed.)

above all 3 examples, 了 is pronounced [liao] not [le]

aelf said:
You're late, bro.

Ah! I forgot the (liao) pronunciation.

ParangBoi said:
Knowing aronnax personally, seeing him teach chinese is extremely amusing.

I'll be here to clarify/contribute on this topic as well. Thanks to the OP for starting this up.

And since when did you lurk in MAI forum!

Mirc said:
Sorry for threadjacking, but how can a language possibly function without tenses? I just cannot conceive this idea, it seems so far out of the system I've learned to use... I'm really curious now.

Well, how can a candlestick have a gender? Language development is just weird. Personally, I don't see the abnormality as much as you do. I think there is some Chinese Tenses but I can't really point it out. Specific words to indicate whether or not something has happened.

plarq · Dec 7, 2009

eoc said:
Though I am Chinese, I have never learnt Chinese grammer.

While I can tell some difference between English grammer and Chinese grammer.

English: somebody(the subject) do(the verb) to(here I means -->) somthing/somebody(the object)

Chinese: somebody(The subject) to (here, use Chinese character "对，用，给 etc." preposition ) something/somebody(the object) do(the verb)

I also find an interesting thing. In a question sentence, in English, "When, What, Why, Where, Be, Do, Have" etc words, should be put in the front, while in Chinese, you needn't do that stupid thing^_^

Anyway, non-Indo-European language invokes complete different set of grammar rules than Indo-European ones.

Eretz Yisrael · Dec 12, 2009

To those who have the ability to read this:

Spoiler :

Very interesting article.
The scholars went a little too far on the rhetoric for my taste, but the scholars pointed to the Chinese Constitution to argue that the law violated the Constitution - probably an act unheard of outside China.

plarq · Dec 13, 2009

It is a common practice among Chinese intellectuals, esp. those who have an anti-government tendency, to point out the legislation of this country is self-contradictory, thus not legal or reasonable.

gangleri2001 · Jan 23, 2010

在俄语一零一Ecofarm说英文用因特网要消灭别的语言。看起来他不知道最说的语言是什么。

Spoiler :

aronnax · Jan 23, 2010

那是因为像Ecofarm的美国人只会明白"美国第一"这些子.好可笑!

Spoiler :

gangleri2001 · Jan 23, 2010

我想问你个问题。新加坡社会怎么对待同性恋者？

Spoiler :

sepamu92 · Jan 23, 2010

你好。我学中文。我上我的第一中文课。我很不好说中文。

Spoiler :

Huayna Capac357 · Jan 23, 2010

你好! 我也不好说中文，sepamu92 （我也学）。

Spoiler :

aronnax · Jan 23, 2010

sepamu92 said:
你好。我学中文。我上我的第一中文课。我很不好说中文。

Spoiler :

Hello. I'm learning Chinese. I'm in my first Chinese class. I speak Chinese very badly.

Corrections!

你好。我在学中文。我已经开始上了第一课。我说中文不太好。

我学中文 - This mean more "I learn Chinese" rather than "I am learning Chinese"

我上我的第一中文课。- Sentence is structurally wrong. You already mentioned Chinese. By stating "I am have already began my first Chinese Class" you need not mention chinese again.

我很不好说中文。- Erh... Just wrong. Looking at the bolded bits.

One more nitpick. 课 is lesson. 班 is class. Both are interchangeable in this situation.

aronnax · Jan 23, 2010

gangleri2001 said:
我想问你个问题。新加坡社会怎么对待同性恋者？

Spoiler :

I want to ask you a question. How does singaporean society treat homosexuals?

Oh. Well it depends really. I'm quite confident when I say Singapore has the most vibrant Gay Community in all of Asia except for maybe Bangkok. Certain areas like Chinatown and Clarke Quay are choked full of gay bars and saunas and so on. The internet has managed to allow gays and lesbians in Singapore to meet up and interact easily. If two men or women were to walk down the streets holding hands, there will be stares but no one will arrest them though. It also depends where you hold hands. In a way, Singapore is like America. Holding hands in Orchard Road or the City Center is to New York City and San Francisco as holding hands in Rural Kansas and the Bible Belt is to the "Heartlands" of Singapore, Kallang, Tampiness, etc etc.

However that said, the government stance is that it is an act against nature and still criminalises the homosexuality. Fortunately, they don't act on it anymore. I personally think that the only reason why the law is still on paper is to charge against possible rival politicians so as to throw them in jail.
Any man who is proven to homosexual or exceptionally feminine will be given "special treatment" during the two year National Service in the Army.
Society is still naturally conservative, especially due to the widespread influence of the Church and Mosques who spread the most vicious fire-brand preaching against us demons sent from hell and so on. Still, due to the naturally introvert nature of Singaporeans, most people don't interfere, even if they want to. Homosexuals, outside of certain areas are still very careful what they do. Even in the streets of Orchard Road.

My parents? They don't know I'm gay. But they mentioned that what gay people do is nothing of their business. I suppose they neither support nor condemn them. They dont care really.

plarq · Jan 23, 2010

As far as I can tell, none of these Chinese character are visible after I installed Debian.

eoc · Jan 24, 2010

sepamu92 said:
你好。我学中文。我上我的第一中文课。我很不好说中文。

Spoiler :

Hello. I'm learning Chinese. I'm in my first Chinese class. I speak Chinese very badly.

正确的说法（corrected）：

嗨。我在学中文。这是我的第一堂中文课。我的中文说得太不好了。

Spoiler :

第一中文课 = the best/No.1 Chinese class that I have ever attended;
第一堂中文课 = the first time to attend Chinese class;
不好说 = hard to tell/say/know; to feel awkward to tell sth.
说不好 = sb. can't find a better/more easy way that how to make clear/explain/describe sth.
中文/英文说得不好 = poor at oral (Chinese/English...other languages)；
说得不好(在北方方言里面，表示自己的发言魅力不足，带有谦虚的意&#24605

＝ somebody's speech is not charming(not only in Madarin, it is also a dialect often used in Northern China, it means somebody's speech is not charming/touched enough, but it is thought of being modest)

不太好 ＝ not good enough; not too bad;
太不好 ＝ very badly/ugly; not good at all;barely good

Note: Now I found that customarily----Singaporean Chinese is a bit different from Mandarin .

gangleri2001 · Jan 24, 2010

aronnax said:
oh. Well it depends really. I'm quite confident when i say singapore has the most vibrant gay community in all of asia except for maybe bangkok. Certain areas like chinatown and clarke quay are choked full of gay bars and saunas and so on. The internet has managed to allow gays and lesbians in singapore to meet up and interact easily. If two men or women were to walk down the streets holding hands, there will be stares but no one will arrest them though. It also depends where you hold hands. In a way, singapore is like america. Holding hands in orchard road or the city center is to new york city and san francisco as holding hands in rural kansas and the bible belt is to the "heartlands" of singapore, kallang, tampiness, etc etc.

However that said, the government stance is that it is an act against nature and still criminalises the homosexuality. Fortunately, they don't act on it anymore. I personally think that the only reason why the law is still on paper is to charge against possible rival politicians so as to throw them in jail.
Any man who is proven to homosexual or exceptionally feminine will be given "special treatment" during the two year national service in the army.
Society is still naturally conservative, especially due to the widespread influence of the church and mosques who spread the most vicious fire-brand preaching against us demons sent from hell and so on. Still, due to the naturally introvert nature of singaporeans, most people don't interfere, even if they want to. Homosexuals, outside of certain areas are still very careful what they do. Even in the streets of orchard road.

My parents? They don't know i'm gay. But they mentioned that what gay people do is nothing of their business. I suppose they neither support nor condemn them. They dont care really.

非常有意思！
你说政治家用同性恋为了抨击他们的竞争对手，但是我没听过有被他们的竞争对手指责的新加坡政治家现在不可能工作因为某人说了他们是同性恋者。有没有个著名的例子你可以给我？有没有个政治党想修改这个法律？多少新加坡人支持这个党？
你也说服兵役的新加坡人不可能是同性恋者。新加坡部队怎么知道它的新兵是不是同性恋者？如果某人在兵役发现你是同性恋者，部队怎么惩你？
新加坡人是跟别的亚洲人差不多一样。他们都很内向和保守。这是个亚洲文化的特点我不能懂。但你也说他们的信教跟圣经地带的美国人差不多一样。为什么宗教是那么重要？
顺便说一下，两个月以前你问我们如果我们可以帮忙你告诉你父母你是同性恋者。为什么你还没告诉他们？

Spoiler :

aronnax · Jan 25, 2010

Very interesting!
You say that politicians use homosexuality to attack ther rivals, but I haven't heard that there're politicians accused by their rivals that now can't work because somebody said they're homosexuals. Is there any famous example you can give me?

Well they haven't actually used it on anyone yet. It is just a theory. I mean, after all they did say they will keep the law but not use it. One speculates. Though something like this did happen in our fair friend Malaysia recently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Ibrahim Charged with Sodomy.

Is there any political party that wants to cahnge the law? How many singaporeans support this party?

Our glorious Leader, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, wants to change it because it's good for business. Specifically, he said that if Singapore wants to be a true cosmopolitan society, it needs to strike down the law and be open. From the last General election, the PAP won about 60%. I suspect that half of them will die in the next 25 years.

You also say that singaporeans that do the military service cannot be gay. How does the singaporean army know if it's recruits are gay? if somebody at the military service finds out that you're gay, how does the army punish you?

If the recruit admits it or they find proof (They don't go on gay purges though). The government doesn't punish homosexuals but rather make them serve alternative versions of National Service, bureaucracy, civil service etc.

Singaporeans are like other asians. They all are introverted and conservative. That's an asian culture's feature I cannot undestand. But you also say that their beliefs are like the americans from the Bible Belt. Why is religion that important in Singapore?

Dont misunderstand. Its only the 14% of Singaporeans that are Christians and only about less than half of them are Bible-Belt insane. Religion to them, like any born-again/new convert Christian is fanatical. My boyfriend's parents think Gandhi is in hell for goodness sake. It varies though.

BTW, two months ago you asked us if we could help you tell your parent that you're gay. Why haven't you told them?

Not my parents. Its my boyfriend. His parents already know. It is just that they agreed to have a conversation about Homosexuality and try to prove each other wrong. Didnt end well. The mother ran out of the room screaming that she didnt want to ever hear about it ever again. The father told him to go suck cock or basically a long sentence for the word "fag". At the end of the discussion, their official position was "It is wrong, because when we were growing up, they told us it was wrong." and "You can turn straight because this guy did and he wrote a book. That's my proof".

Yeah, they are hanging by a thread here.

Huayna Capac357 · Jan 25, 2010

I'm sorry to hear that...

It is my anecdotal experience that many Chinese converts or children of converts to Christianity are evangelical, "born-again" types. I guess that is true in Asia as well?

gangleri2001 · Mar 6, 2010

我想买个象手机的电子词典，但是我不知道最好的词典是什么。而且找到个汉英英汉电子词典在欧洲非常难。
我听过很多中国人用这些电子词典，你们用不用这些词典？如果你用个电子词典，你用几词典？

Spoiler :

- Chinese 101 (Simplified characters)

Prince

Prince

Prince

Let your spirit be free

Crazy forever

Korean Conscript

Crazy forever

Garbage day!!!

Let your spirit be free

Garbage day!!!

Prince

Deity

Let your spirit be free

Let your spirit be free

Crazy forever

Prince

Garbage day!!!

Let your spirit be free

Deity

Garbage day!!!

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