Does Anyone Speak Mandarin?

I hear there are some people in China who speak it.

/Couldn’t resist

lol, funny.

seriously, though, anyone on this website?

Nope. I studied it for a year, but realised I prefer Japanese from an aesthetic point of view. Doing that now, but I’m gonna go back and do Mandarin once I have Japanese dialled in a year or two. Why do you ask, anyway?

I took 2 years of Mandarin in college.

So, no.

[quote]G87 wrote:
Nope. I studied it for a year, but realised I prefer Japanese from an aesthetic point of view. Doing that now, but I’m gonna go back and do Mandarin once I have Japanese dialled in a year or two. Why do you ask, anyway? [/quote]

I’m taking Mandarin in college and was just curious. Out of all the people I know who’ve studied mandarin… none work out, lol.

I’ve always had a desire since I’m thinking about studying international business.

But I don’t know if I could commit to learning a language as different from the western world.

Not only are there ?4000+? characters but they have 8 speaking tones you’re supposed to use.

I always liked Japanese though. Plus I’ve heard that although China is extremely rich in culture and history, the place is extremely dirty.

I’ve never been myself, but a friend went and showed me pictures of Shanghai, you literally couldn’t see 15 feet in front of you.

I’m curious on why you want to learn too.

ya I speak it

i learned a bit of japanese too. it really is a great language, ordered and predictable so it is easy to learn, but also gives alot of room for self expression.
i heard chinese was easy to learn too since there is so little grammar in it

I’m chinese but i’m bad with mandarin lol.
I can get by with conversational mandarin.

Its hard to memorize and master the language, its not only the characters but idioms and acronyms etc…

However if you understand chinese, japanese is fairly easier to pick up because a huge chunk of it is borrowed from chinese.

take for example the word " World " - Chinese - Si jie, Japanese - Sei Kai

[quote]kayveeay wrote:
lol, funny.

seriously, though, anyone on this website?
[/quote]

a really good friend of mine lives in hong kong right now.
she speaks it being chinese and all.
I understand her when she speaks but i cant say a lick of it.

I love how people are responding that they speak a little Japanese when asked if they know Mandarin.

These two languages are not even closely related except for the fact that the Japanese borrowed a few characters for their Kanji.

The Chinese family of languages are tonal and analytic. Japanese is not.

i can speak both cantonese and mandarin. i also read and write some.

i swear in three languages - cantonese, mandarin and english. four if you include finger signals.

i must admit though swearing in mandarin is not as colorful as cantonese. wonderful when your boss is being a prick and one can tell him to screw himself with him thinking you are saying g’morning!!!

My daughter loves mandarin oranges. She can only say a few words in English. I wonder if the rest of what she says is Mandarin.

[quote]G87 wrote:
I’m gonna go back and do Mandarin once I have Japanese dialled in a year or two. [/quote]

Haha. Good luck with that. No seriously.

This is coming from someone who is fluent in Japanese. I used to think the same thing. The percentage of people who can get Japanese "dialed in " in a year or two is about as miniscule as that portion of the population that has six toes. And if you don’t live in the country you have yet another obstacle to overcome.

I am an idealist in most things, but I’ve lived through Japanese, and that is one thing that takes a heavy dose of realism.

All that said, if you want any help, PM me and I’ll try and point you in the right direction.

[quote]eremesu wrote:
i learned a bit of japanese too. it really is a great language, ordered and predictable so it is easy to learn, but also gives alot of room for self expression.
i heard chinese was easy to learn too since there is so little grammar in it[/quote]

It is very clear that you have only learned “a bit” of Japanese.

Excuse me stewardess, I speak jive.

Yes, I speak Mandarin. Why?

[quote]Cortes wrote:
G87 wrote:
I’m gonna go back and do Mandarin once I have Japanese dialled in a year or two.

Haha. Good luck with that. No seriously.

This is coming from someone who is fluent in Japanese. I used to think the same thing. The percentage of people who can get Japanese "dialed in " in a year or two is about as miniscule as that portion of the population that has six toes. And if you don’t live in the country you have yet another obstacle to overcome.

I am an idealist in most things, but I’ve lived through Japanese, and that is one thing that takes a heavy dose of realism.

All that said, if you want any help, PM me and I’ll try and point you in the right direction.[/quote]

so so true
I used to ship car parts from japan and traveled there a few times.
mainly had phone convos with owners from there.
its so weird how you can say a word and then you say the same word in a differnet way and it becomes a new owrd.

asian languages in general are really hard to get “dialed” in

Yes.

And I live and work here (China).

Why?

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