User Comments - tvan
tvan
Posted on: Taking the HSK
July 5, 2008 at 12:44 AMHmmm, Henning's fear, guolanusa's recommendations, and Auntie68's "only 3,500 characters" comment are making me nervous. I'm taking the Intermediate level HSK in San Francisco this fall and am self-studying.
Guess I'll have to really crack down. Otherwise, my HSK result will stand for "Horrendous Space Kablooie".
Posted on: SBTG: Sun Yatsen
July 2, 2008 at 1:49 PMchristymel, 谢谢，这个用法很有意思！我觉得台湾人是很奸诈的。共产党的干部都变成变性恋。
More importantly, knowing these little idiosyncracies is very valuable in avoiding an unintentional faux pas.
Posted on: Fortunate Cookies
June 24, 2008 at 2:19 AMwolson, don't see myself going to Ann Arbor any time soon, but its encouraging to hear that genuine mala is appearing in the states, rather than the watered down Canto version.
Posted on: Bangkok
June 22, 2008 at 4:45 PMacorrigan, I believe I can partially answer your question. Some of my in-laws live in Thailand. According to them, it is against Thai law for Chinese to retain their Chinese name. Also, in keeping with schizoid Southeast Asian attitude towards the Chinese (my opinion), their children are prohibited from studying Chinese language at their school. That said, they all speak Chinese (Mandarin and 潮州话), they all write Chinese, and they all make enough donations to the Thai authorities ensuring that their children continue to take Chinese classes at their local (private) school.
On assimilation, I can't say that I'm particularly close with that branch of the family. However, they definitely seem Chinese and, at the same time, definitely assimilated... and they all have jawcracker names! If you're interested, I found this reference at Google Books. I didn't go through it, but it looks interesting.
Posted on: The Old Man Who Moved a Mountain
June 22, 2008 at 4:05 AM很 is usually an adverb meaning very or quite. 太 means something similar only carried to excess. The greatest, the most, excessively, etc. In this lesson, when it says 太傻 it's emphasizing the scorn of the second old man.
I hope that's clear.
Posted on: China Fruit and Pre-Marital Sex
June 22, 2008 at 3:47 AMAuntie68, you're always welcome. I was actually searching YouTube for a video called durian-haters anonymous, but the above seemed much more apropo.
Posted on: China Fruit and Pre-Marital Sex
June 22, 2008 at 3:39 AMBTW, after that somewhat vitrolic post, I thought durian-peace overtures were in order. So, in the spirit of podcasting about asian fruits, this video demonstrates how to charge your iPod using a durian, a lime and, mysteriously, a cordless screwdriver from citirewards.com!
Posted on: China Fruit and Pre-Marital Sex
June 22, 2008 at 3:33 AMDurians? "King of Fruits"? To each their own. I can eat snails, monkeys, ants, grasshoppers, dogs, horse lungs, whatever... but durians? I'd rather get hit on the head with one falling out of an exceptionally tall tree than put one in my mouth. At least that way my misery is fleeting!
Posted on: Regional Accents Part II
June 21, 2008 at 4:20 AMFirst, if any of you are having problems with 土豆 being slow (I was), YouTube also carries this video.
Second, thank you for the video cassielin. I had a non-accent question though. Why did the video use traditional characters (繁体字). Is it from Taiwan or directed at a Taiwanese audience?
Posted on: Taking the HSK
July 5, 2008 at 7:19 PMbenson, to answer your question, "Anyone disagree that writing characters by hand is no longer necessary?"
I passionately disagree. I agree that you can certainly get by with just a computer for writing. In fact, you can get by without knowing characters at all. However, knowing characters brings a deeper understanding of the language. Hand writing each character involves a further mental deconstruction of that character and its individual components. This in turn leads to a deeper understanding of the writing system and a concomitant increase in your depth of knowledge about the language.
As a foreign learner, the "necessity" of a particular skill depends upon your desired level of understanding; and writing, while by no means required, is a quantum step forward in that understanding.