User Comments - zarauztarra
zarauztarra
Posted on: Las Vegas
April 06, 2010, 04:48 PMI have been in Las Vegas a great many times with my family but have never gambled there. It is a great place for the family though it is very "schlocky", i.e. fake reproductions of Rome, Paris, New York, Venice, etc. There are many shows there. I saw David Copperfield with my eldest son a couple of years ago. I really like the Luxor Hotel. I hope to go to Macau this summer and compare the two. I am struck by the huge numbers of gamblers at the slot machines and the free drinks that they receive to impair their better judgement.
Posted on: Bangkok
March 09, 2010, 01:08 AMIt is interesting how the Mandarin name is based on the original Thai บางกอก "Báanggôk" or Báang kôk, depending on transliteration method. It must have entered Chinese a very long time ago as evidenced by the dropping of word final -k, typical of Middle Chinese to Modern Mandarin evolution. In Thai, the pronunciation of กรุงเทพ is Krúng Thêp, the tone in Krúng is like the second tone in Mandarin but the tone in Thêp (the Th pronounced as in Thomas, not as in Thimble) is a tone not present in modern Mandarin, a kind of rising falling tone. Krúng means "Capital City", Thêp is a kind of Buddhist angel, hence "the City of Angels".
Posted on: Language Power Struggle
March 01, 2010, 10:43 AMWhen I travel in Asia, I instinctively switch to Basque, or Portuguese, or whatever, when approached by strangers speaking to me in English. The better the English, the warier I am.
In China, this happened a lot along the Bund. When seeing my laowai (or in Thailand, farang, or in Laos falang or in Cambodia barang) face, they insist on speaking English but I smile at them as I rattle off my feelings in a language I know they don't understand. I found that it is the best way to 1. ward off potential scammers 2. practice my languages. The key is doing it with a smile. They will get the message and they won't lose face.
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 7: A Guy's Advice on Women
February 16, 2010, 01:17 PMThank you for your reply. Thus, I suppose I will have to reinvent the wheel (i.e. do something that has already been done) and make a painstaking study of how the Chinese slur and blur their words in rapid speech. That is a shame as it would be nice of some of the tendencies were already explained and then I would know what I have to look for and would be able to progress much faster.
I explain to my own students of English that English vowels undergo "reduction" when in unaccented syllables. I give many examples of this. I also explain to them what to expect when certain syllables come together (winter is like winner in American English, butter is like buder in the US but David Beckham might say bu'er). Once my students know what to expect, they are less daunted by spoken English and tell me that it really helps them understand natives. Hardly anyone seems to do this here.
In any case, talking about Mandarin, as far as I have been able to discern,
1. hao can become ha'
2. fan becomes fã (nasalized a)
3. words ending in n are either lost or assimilated before syllables or words beginning with a consonant.
This is NOT an impressive list, to say the least, but that is what I have. I will try to share my "discoveries" with others here though I am sure this has already been done in detail, and much better, elsewhere.
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 7: A Guy's Advice on Women
February 16, 2010, 02:11 AMHello,
I have just seen this lesson and have seen that is nearly 3 years ago. I hope it isn't too late to get feedback.
I am interested in how native speakers actually "slur" their words together. Is there anywhere where I could find a guide about how native Mandarin speakers "clip" their words? It is the greatest obstacle to me in understanding spoken Mandarin.
For example, in 被她发现了, the word 现 xiàn seems to have dropped the word final "n" and 现了 sounds like xièle, at least to me. This is maddenly confusing to learners who do not live in the country of the language they are learning.
I know that when (American) English speakers say "whatja gonna do tamaruh (I wish I could write this in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a clearer picture, sorry), it throws English learners for a loop although they might understand "What are you going to do tomorrow? ". This happens in all kinds of languages (in Spanish, más p'alante seems to be said more than "más para adelante", i.e. further ahead). In Basque, native speakers in my town belt out "ze i'te'eu'e?" instead of the standard "zer egiten dute?"(what are they doing?) which perplexes local Basque learners. I could bring up numerous other examples from numerous other languages but I think you get the picture.
In a nutshell, what are some strategies that one could use to figure out what native Mandarin speakers are saying? It might vary from region to region but I am sure there must be some tricks that would work broadly for all native Mandarin speakers everywhere.
Posted on: An Introduction!
April 27, 2010, 12:01 AMI am very much in favour of knowing something about the dialects. It actually helps you understand Mandarin that much better. Two years ago, I was in Shanghai and was in a difficult situation at a bus station. I spoke a bit of Mandarin but everyone offered advice in what I imagine was a mixture of Mandarin and Shanghainese. I simply could not understand what "bae" (ae = the "a" as in bat or man) meant nor could I understand chae. Eventually, I figured out that they were saying bai (hundred) and qian (thousand). Five was "vuh" (uh = schwa) and three was xian.
I got the impression that the Chinese spoken in Jiansu, namely Taizhou and Taixing was something similar. Am I right? Anyway, I wish that I could have know this before my trip over. I am going back this summer and I will be better prepared now.