Jump to content
Chinese-Forums
  • Sign Up

Why Chinese?


roddy

Recommended Posts

  • 2 weeks later...

Why do I want to study Chinese ??

 

I want to read Chinese books esp. Romance of The Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, books written about Tang era. I have deep interest in Chinese history. The best thing about Chinese History is easy names, I think. 

 

Besides this, I want to visit China, not the popular metropolis like Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou etc.  but less dense parts, to know more about the country. Now for that knowledge of Chinese is must, don't you think. I want to learn more about China, esp. the Pre-CCP era. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

After having spoken Japanese for a brief amount of time, I decided to make the switch to Mandarin. While I still have not learned to speak any, I have looked into which Chinese language to learn (and chose mandarin) and which type of characters (I hope to start with simplified). I think it is very interesting to see how mandarin and Japanese compare.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • New Members
 
Dear friends,
I was in Thailand, I had 2 years of living and working in Shanghai, where I know and love with a Chinese girl. She is very beautiful and charming, we had a beautiful relationship that perhaps this life it will print on my heart strings. Now I have returned to Thailand to live and work, we have split up because she could not follow me about Thailand, because she is the daughter, and the parents have arranged for her to take a college real Estate in Shanghai rich ... To be away from her I was sad.
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Well, it began actually a long time ago (about 40 years from now). I was about 13 years old. The German TV showed a movie series “Kung Fu” with the American actor David Carradine. I was bewitched by the words of wisdom the monks in the series were saying. Shortly after that my journey into Chinese philosophy began. At the age of 18 I dreamed of going to China. I bought some textbooks and tried to learn Chinese by my own. That was quite hopeless. But, instead of going to China, destiny had other plans for me. I joined the military and went to Denmark, where I am still are.

 

In 2009 I met a Chinese lady through the Internet. We have got married and we live together in Denmark now. Occasionally we go to China to visit our family there. But only the younger people speak English and it is quite irritating not to be able to speak with the other members of the family.

 

Therefore I picked up studying Chinese again 2010. However, with a full-time job, a stepson (Chinese) who needs quite some help with Danish lecture and the disadvantage of the age (learning/remembering is not that easy anymore) the progress is slow. I hope that I will be able talk to the family directly in a year or two.

 

Who knows, maybe one day we are going to live in China. For the time being, my wife prefers to stay in Denmark and our Chinese friends are a very thankful and motivating audience to my limited Chinese language skills.

 

I wish you all that you will succeed with your learning of the Chinese language and all the other things you are going to do in live.

 

Best regards,

HaoJun

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

If you want to speak more Hokkien, try finding a Taiwanese community near you. Not all Taiwanese speak Hokkien (or speak it well, or like using it), but many do. If you're in a big city or at university, there are almost certainly some Taiwanese nearby. Good luck and I hope you find the forums useful!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The German TV showed a movie series “Kung Fu” with the American actor David Carradine.

 

 

 

Heh. You have to be about my age. My current kung fu teacher and I grew up on that TV series. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

It's all getting a bit fuzzy for me. The funny thing is it wasn't really that long ago.

 

It all started two years ago. It was the second year of my undergraduate degree in biology. Coming to university really made me wish that I could learn a second language; so many people could natter away in what ever language their parents spoke or just talk normally in a language other than English. Like the petulant child I shall always be I was feeling left out. My friend was learning Japanese so that was already taken. I knew my grandfather was Chinese but he'd left for Canada before I was born. Things are great in my family, we talk about everything and I have such natural curiosity that I never found out why my dad wasn't quite the same colour as my mother and the rest of us until sometime in my late teens. Talk about communication  :shock:

 

Anywho this combination of family history and vague language envy led me to buy a Chinese textbook off Amazon. I must stress that I knew NOTHING about Chinese at this point. All I knew is that they use characters. I remember excitedly telling my mum that they have these "tones" in Chinese and that depending on how you say a word it can have a totally different meaning. I was both awed and intimidated at the same time. For the next year or so I studied on my own. I had a language partner for a bit but we rapidly lost touch due to the usual difficulties and general stress around exam time. I still remember having trouble with so much of the pronunciation, repeating "才" over and over, getting both the initial and the tone wrong in the same breath :D . I feel quite privileged in a way. I think my initial foray into the Chinese language was quite a personal journey, mostly free of naysayers and the like. I think this really helped lay a strong foundation for when I seriously began to study it. A year later I had to take a break from uni for personal reasons. I wouldn't say that I threw myself into Chinese as an escape, but it gradually became my hobby and a serious driving force in my life. I have really fond memories of the spring and summer of 2014 as I hit the language learning scene hard, going to many different meet ups and exchanges across the city, as well as attending the Chinese Visual Festival.

 

So that's how it started. Why Chinese now, then? I love the sound of it, it can be so poetically rhythmic. I also love the way you can play around with homophones so much (double edged sword there). I think it will open up a whole new perspective on the world, just being able to read and listen to what other people think in a language that's not your own. And so many more reasons besides. As my have friends pointed out, they've seen me study much more Chinese, in just 2 years, than I ever did of biology in the same amount of time. This really opened my eyes and made me realise that it was my passion, and so worth pursuing. I like it so much I've switched career paths! Goodbye Darwin, hello something-to-do-with-Chinese-I'm-not-sure-yet-but-I-hope-it's-AWESOME! :P

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

After my first adventure to China with my three best friends (one of whom used to be a local in 东莞), I fell in love with the Chinese culture and a girl of course... there's always a Chinese girl in these stories! Now I am purchasing an apartment in 东莞 (work purposes) and hope to open a business there as well, with the help of some influential local friends. It can be difficult learning 普通话 in 广东 especially when all my local friends speak 

广东话 but luckily my girlfriend is from 四川 (even though her accent confuses the shit out of me sometimes ah). I have always been intrigued by the Chinese culture since I was a young boy but after going there and experiencing it in person, I knew I would one day call China my new home. I still have yet to venture to many parts of China, but so far my favourite cities have been Chengdu and Hangzhou. Love that spicy Sichuan food!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It funny that read all you guys' stories ( well, not all of them, lol). I was born as a chinese (I am still a chinese now), so I would like to share my story about english.

 

In early 80's, I was born in a techy family, both my parents are researchers. So my english education started when I was like 5 or 6 years old. It is almost 10 years earlier than most chinese children get started.

 

After I finished my high school, I went to Austrailia for better college. And that is the place where I really got my english improved.

4 years later, I completed my bachelor course,  in 2008 I came back to Beijing where I am still living in. 

Well, I don't know why I started to learn english, even almost every chinese students have to learn. But I would say, the language helps me a lot in my career. And the 4-year time in AUS changed me a lot.

So after all, I am glad that I chose english as my second language( or say my parents chose it for me). And I am in Beijing, I am ready for more friends from all around the world.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess my story is rather mundane. I have a large amount of Chinese friends at uni, and I do a lot of extra-circular stuff with them: badminton, travel, but mainly eating/talking shit haha. Everyone speaks English when I'm around, but occasionally they'll slip into Mandarin. Three years ago I thought I'd start learning Chinese so I could try to listen in! In fact I remember my first full Chinese sentence was 我是洋鬼子. I spent hours practicing this phrase with my friends on a road trip to Melbourne. Paid off because it always got a laugh whenever we bumped into some new Chinese people. And that's pretty much it. I find that living in Australia Chinese is just very useful too considering the amount of Mandarin speakers around. Also, this might sound a bit offensive, but I actually find Mandarin an awful sounding language, I find large amounts of Chinese culture repulsive, and I could never imagining living in a Chinese country. For me the language is intimately tied up with my friends.

 

Unfortunately I've made a few a few north Indian friends lately and I've been considering dabbling in Hindustani/Urdu. But that's just too much for me to handle with Chinese. Gotta stay focused!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

even though her accent confuses the shit out of me
but mainly eating/talking shit

 

Just a quick heads up, as per forums T&Cs, can we try to keep unnecessary swearing out of posts.  The forums aims to be family friendly and while sometimes swearing can be on topic (e.g. talking about such words), in general please try to avoid it in regular discussion. Thanks.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had an interest in Chinese language for years. I was able to read Chinese characters in the Japanese way (meaning, with some differences) but never really had the opportunity to follow up. Work had me down and exhausted. 

 

Back in 2011 I left my job and was free to do whatever I wanted to do. One of my friends had been living in China for two years, just learning Chinese and having fun (he has sufficient means to do so without working). During those two years, he often encouraged me to visit him in China. So I decided to go for three months. I packed my bags and arrived in China. The day that I arrived, my friend told me that he was having a crisis with his business back in Australia, and it required him to return to Australia immediately. Thus, I spent the three months in China without my friend.

 

Now all alone, and not being able to speak any Chinese at all, it was a Darwinistic struggle of survival. Being already in my 30s I was struggling with learning Chinese (some of which I wrote about in my brain drugs thread). Ironically a lot of the Chinese that I learned in China really only sank in once I was back in Australia. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Click here to reply. Select text to quote.

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...