Japanese and English Blog
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January 30th, 2011
Dan, our Managing Director, has a blog about his experiences of learning Japanese. Its perfect for Australians who are learning or have learnt Japanese 
Talking about exams in Australia (Mandarin)
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January 26th, 2011
Talking about exams in Australia (Mandarin)
Chinese International Student’s lifestyle in Melbourne
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January 24th, 2011
Talking about a Chinese International Students lifestyle in Melbourne
The Melbourne Korean and English Group
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January 22nd, 2011
The Melbourne Korean and English Group is all about Koreans in Melbourne learning English and Australians learning Korean. We create a space where people from both language groups can come together, speak some of their second language and make new friends
The Undertow
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January 20th, 2011
I can change the words, but if I keep speaking to Chinese people with the same:
- Sense of humour (sarcasm)
- discourse structure (speaking whenever noone is saying anything because I can’t stand silence)
- attitudes and values
- guesture
Its always going to remain wierd. If I want to speak this language I need to get it all on the same page – not just a google translate in real life.
Language Connection April 16 2011
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January 18th, 2011
Dear Global Heart Tours and Language Exchanges community!
Following the success of Language Connection 2010, we have been invited for a second time by the Asia Institute to run the language learners conference again for the second time at the Sidney Myer Asia Center.
Last year we had just over 100 participants and we think that this is a good number, but that we can get up to probably 150 in total. Our goal is to have more learners of Korean and Chinese. We had roughly equal numbers for Japanese, not too bad for Chinese, and we found it really hard to find Australians learning Korean.
What excites me so much about this conference is that so many friendships came out of the first one, and we even had The Melbourne Korean and English Group start. That group now has close to a hundred members and I know from attending the group that so many Koreans living in Melbourne and Australians learning Korean have gotten so much out of it.
Our two dreams, as ever, are for people to improve their language skills, and to make lots of new friends.
Please put these details in your diary
Event: Language Connection 2010
Date: Saturday 16 April 2011
Where: Yasuko Hiraoka Room,
Level 1 Sidney Asia Myer Center, University of Melbourne.
Time: 10am – 4pm
How to get there: Take any tram along Swanston street towards Melbourne University and get off at stop 1. Then walk across the road to the Sydney Asia Myer Center and there will be signs.
Sheng yi – 生意
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January 14th, 2011
生意 – Business (Sheng yi)
生 – life (Sheng)
意 – meaning (Yi)
Does this mean that the meaning of life is business? Material and financial success are important, but it looks like its actually hardwired into the meanings associated with the individual characters.
Ni shuo cuo le – 你说错了
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January 12th, 2011
Miscommunication happen all the time.
- I didn’t hear you clearly
- Please tell me again
- Sorry, what?
Your language exchange partner asks again, and you get a little bit frustrated. So lets assume that you can’t communicate the word 鱼 （yu, fish) . Sorry what, is it English?
We finally find out that I want to say ‘fish’ and my partner can say one of two things:
- 你说错了 You didn’t pronounce it right, or you said it wrong
- 我听不清楚了 I didn’t hear you clearly
How different they are. It really saves face for me if they say the second one, because its obvious enough that I suck. That’s clear given that we were speaking Chinese and there was a communication break down. The ‘wo ting bu qingchu’ lightens the fall.
The question is now, can I remember to say this in English when my language exchange partner has totally fumbled?