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?
Some problems with how to use the word “suck”
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January 10th, 2011
That sucks!
Yeah I saw that movie last week, it sucked.
It must really suck to be you.
“Suck” is really common amoung young people, but all of my international student friends really really struggle to pull this one off.
My Engish still suck. Do you think so?
It is very sucks.
I gonna sucks at this
This is too much sucks, I’m going home.
There’s a really limited number of ways you can use this, and there aren’t that many so its better to just memorise them.
That/this/it sucks (not he or she)*
You can put ‘really’ in between – so It really sucks
He/she sucks at …. poker/learning languages/web development*
You can put ‘really’ inbetween – so He really sucks at learning languages
They suck at …. golf/
Ooooo, [insert my mother tongue] is so hard to learn, wow, who could ever learn that!?
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January 8th, 2011
Korean Speaker: Hey I heard you are learning Korean…
Dan: Yes, I’m learning a bit – its not bad
Korean Speaker: I feel bad for you, Korean is the hardest language in the world I think
Dan: Where did you hear that?
Korean Speaker: I don’t know, but trust me, its really hard.
I think almost all languages outside of English consider their language to be the hardest. That Koreans sometimes tell me how hard Korean is is hardly surprising, its not common for non-Koreans to speak Korean, and when almost noone can do something, that would make it hard right?
I think the jury is in on this one though, learning a foreign language is hard, no matter which one.
But can you really take it as far as the ‘omg my language is the hardest to learn in the world bar none’ approach? I think not. Basic Chinese grammar is so remarkably logical and endearing that anyone can learn it within two months. English is spoken everywhere, often by people that aren’t native speakers themselves and also by people that are used to speaking it to non-native speakers. Korean has a 95% of the time spell-out-able written system, and its adjectives and verbs all conjugate in an extremely uniform and comforting way.
All languages have their easy parts, where a little bit of effort goes a long way, and conversely have areas where the amount of effort required to gain even semi-mastery is so off putting that its better to leave it for after you feel confident in your ability to either speak, listen, write or read depending on which part is easiest.
I think there is a certain medical condition called ‘omg my first language must be sooooooooo hard for foreigners to learn’, and all it does is indicate which language groups will be most impressed when you do flash out your paragraph of pretentious Thai, Finnish or Ebonics.
Is it better to be shy or confident?
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January 6th, 2011
There are advantanges to both, usually I feel that my international friends think shyness is generally better, but confidence, to me, is always the most important.
If you are shy…
- People won’t get angry with you
- If you make a mistake noone will notice
- You probalby won’t embarrass yourself
- People might find it harder to remember your name
- You might not be invited to as many events
- In group conversations you won’t get to say as much
If you are confident…
- You can meet more people more quickly
- You won’t get upset if something bad happens
- You get to talk more in group conversations
- People remember you
- You get invited to more things like parties
- If you make a mistake everyone will know
- You can get embarrassed if you make a mistake (but usually it doesn’t matter because you are confident)
- People might make assumptions about you which might hurt you.
I’m really confident – but sometimes people assume that I am a playboy. But I am not.
Speaking Japanese with Global Heart Tours
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January 6th, 2011
The tour is finished, I’m at home watching TV not really thinking about the great day I’ve had, but rather wasting my brain space on Seinfeld. Ba-bing – it’s a text. ‘Dan, thanks so much for today, I spoke more Japanese in the last three hours than I did in the last 3 years (of my degree). See you at the next tour.’
I love it that we are able to support Aussies who really love learning and speaking Japanese, and meeting Japanese people. It’s not easy, but if people are able to feel more confidence and practice their skills then it makes it all worth it.
Good students or interesting student
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January 6th, 2011
I was out with a group of five people, one other Aussie, and three Chinese friends. And we started talking about the silliest thing we have ever done, and the most embarrasing things.
我昨天跟我的朋友们,还一个澳大利亚的朋友和3个中国人. 我们的话题时,你得罪不好意思的问题.
My Aussie friend and I had many stories, but our Chinese friends didn’t want to say, and said things like, “Oh, I already forgot them already”, and “I’m just a good girl, a good student”.
我和我的澳大利亚的朋友说各种各样的话但中国的人不告诉我们说话。就是他们说，我忘掉了，“我就好女生，好学生。“
But if just because you are a good student, doesn’t mean you don’t know some funny stories, and if you just say, I don’t have any stories, then you don’t get to speak. If you don’t speak how will your English improve?
但是如果你是很好的学生，哪不意思你没有有意思的话。 如果你没有花，你不会说。你不会说，怎么提高英语-没门。
Then they started telling us stories about how their neighbours invited them over to see a strange video, and how they found magazines in their cousins room when they were in middle school, and the pranks that they played on other people – but usually I think most Aussies won’t wait for very long – if you don’t have anything to say then we will forget about you and speak to someone else.
蔡他们告诉我和我的澳大利亚朋友他们的话。在小学，他的邻居让他们来看一看很奇怪的绿香，在中学他们在他的cousin的房子找到很奇怪的报纸。我们等他们，但我感觉澳大利亚的人不要等。如果你不要告诉很好笑的说话，澳大利亚人，可能要跟其它的人说。
Sushi Burger!
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January 6th, 2011
Sushi Burger is on 167 Exhibition St Melbourne 3000.
Its pretty random 
锻炼，我还能把？
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January 4th, 2011
我打人，不胖的，但是我是75kilos ,我有时候（两周一次）锻炼，所以我胖了一点儿。没有motivation. 如果我住在日本我减肥吗？他们都很受。
The Melbourne Mandarin and English Group
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January 4th, 2011
The Melbourne Mandarin and English group is a social club set up by GHT for:
- Australians of all ages who want to learn Mandarin and make Chinese friends
- Chinese speakers of all ages who want to learn more English and make local friends
做新的朋友很难的，所以我们常遭一个活动为澳大利亚人和中国人。我们的活动有特别的地方，所以你知道所有的人，都要换语言。是很欢迎的语言交流：）
Its really hard to make new friends just randomly off the street. Even if you hear someone speaking Chinese, its hard to just say ‘Hi, Let’s talk in Chinese and English’. So when you come to the events we make sure it is really friendly and welcoming and we have someone there to make sure that everything is going well.
It’s a really fun club, so please join on our website and get involved 非常好玩-青睐。
http://www.meetup.com/Mandarin-English/
“Open Relationship”怎么行呀？
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January 2nd, 2011
朋友1：Polygamous relationship – partners are allowed to have sexual relationships with others although the both of them are somewhat still committed to each other..I think
朋友2：what is the point of being committed to each other then?
朋友1：That is why, my friend, the idea of an open relationship still baffles me.
他们俩的语法不错，其实他们都很流利。但是他们还不会想起来为什么澳大利亚人可以做open relationship.
我写了：你们很保守啊, Aussie 的约会法和中国的不一样。小澳大利亚人不会想起来结婚的很快。所以我们要经验各种各样的关系。
does it make sense?
我想中国人都想越会的理论式结婚的。I think Chinese think dating is just to get to marriage. 我以前的奴朋友告诉我，他不会告诉他的家庭关于我们的关系。如果我们要结婚，他们都变成开心，但是他的家庭还向他还没有性交了。他已经23岁如果我的23岁的孩子还没性交了，我很伤心，哪个孩子不会结婚，their life is already over.
我们就一个生命，爱和我们的身体非常特别，非常美，非常fun, let’s take out chance.